‘All right, I suppose it’s possible. But who might have done that, Sara? Another member of Polly’s Cake Shop staff? And, if they did do it, why didn’t they tell anyone? Why didn’t they raise the alarm? Why didn’t they call the police?’
‘They may have had their reasons. Like I did. I didn’t call the police.’
‘No, you didn’t. But don’t you think you should get in touch with them now?
‘Why?’ Sara Courtney sounded really frightened of the idea.
‘Because you have evidence that is material to the police investigation. I don’t know how much they know about Amos Green’s movements before he died, but if he could be placed in Polly’s Cake Shop’s store room on the Saturday afternoon four weeks ago … well, I would imagine that would be of considerable help to their inquiries. What is more, presumably you still have the handkerchief with his blood on it. Now the police have a body, they could check the DNA on that.’
‘Jude, you’re not being very sympathetic.’
It was true. Jude realized she was behaving more like Carole might have done in the same circumstances. She was a healer. Her primary concern should be for her client rather than for some obscure ideal of justice.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I was just thinking you might feel better if you were to go to the police. Then you could put the whole business behind you.’
‘I doubt that. It’d just get me more involved. I’m sure there’d be endless questioning. And I’d probably become a suspect for having murdered the poor bastard.’
‘You’d soon be able to prove you had nothing to do with it.’
‘Maybe. But I just don’t feel strong enough for the stress of it all. Even though things seem finally to be going better for me, I’m still very fragile.’
‘I know. But I’d be here to support you.’
‘Yes, Jude. You’d be here. But you wouldn’t be in the interview room when the police started grilling me about my entire life history, would you?’
Jude was forced to admit that was true. There was a silence. Then she asked, ‘What did you mean by “things finally going better for you”?’
Sara blushed. ‘Oh, nothing really. Just, you know, thanks to you and thanks to other factors, I do feel I’m finally emerging from the state I’ve been in since … well, since things went wrong. I feel continuing life is now a possibility.’
‘And might one of the “other factors” be Kent Warboys?’
The blush deepened. ‘I have seen him a few times. But we’re taking things slowly. We’re being discreet.’
Jude wondered how being seen by Ted Crisp ‘all over each other’ in the Crown & Anchor came under the heading of ‘discreet’, but all she said was, ‘And it’s going well?’
‘I was beginning to dare to think so … but now I feel everything’s been shattered again.’ She looked pleadingly at Jude. ‘I’m just terrified of going back down to where I was.’
‘You won’t go back there,’ came the reassuring reply. ‘Yes, you’ll have setbacks, and each time you’ll fear the whole cycle is starting again, but it won’t. You’ll bounce back more quickly every time it happens.’
Sara Courtney grunted dissent, not willing to believe this was true.
‘Tell me about Kent. How did you meet him?’
‘At Polly’s. He came in a few times for coffee. He kept asking me questions. At first I thought he might be interested in me, but then I realized he was assessing the place, working out its development potential.’
‘Was this after Quintus Braithwaite had asked him to become involved in the project?’
‘Oh no, way before then. Kent had had his eyes on the development potential of Polly’s and other properties on Fethering Parade for ages. The way he told it, he heard Quintus going on about the SPCS Action Committee in the yacht club and thought they might have mutual interests.’
Which wasn’t exactly the way the Commodore had presented their connection, thought Jude without surprise.
‘And, Sara, when you discovered that it was the property Kent was interested in, were you disappointed?’
Sara nodded. ‘Yes. I felt stupid for having dared to hope that a man might even notice me. I went right back down to my lowest again. No confidence … thoughts of self-harming … you know, you’ve heard it all before.’
‘Yes. But Kent came back?’
‘Yes.’
‘And no longer asking questions about development potential?’
‘No. He asked me out for a drink. I thought he just wanted to pick my brains about Polly’s, but he didn’t mention the place. It was me he wanted to see.’ She sounded bewildered by the idea.
‘And why shouldn’t he? You’re gorgeous, Sara.’
‘Huh. Anyway, we got together and then it seemed to cool off, and I got all paranoid again. But he got back in touch and the last few weeks … We even went away together for a couple of nights earlier in the week … Actually to Paris.’
‘Very nice too.’
‘Yes, it was. And I felt really good. And now I’ve come back to this. The photo on the front of the Fethering Observer. And I just don’t need any more complications in my life.’
‘I can see that. So you’re not going to go to the police?’
‘No,’ said Sara Courtney firmly.
‘Seeing the photo should have cheered you up, you know.’
‘How do you work that out, Jude?’
‘Because, at the most basic level, it proves you’re not mad. When you saw the body, when you came to tell me about it, you didn’t know whether you’d seen it or not. You thought you might be hallucinating. At least what you saw in the paper this morning proves that what you saw was real.’
‘Yes. At the moment, though, I’m not sure whether that does make things better.’
‘Of course it does,’ said Jude briskly. Though the most empathetic person on God’s earth, she knew there were times when people needed a little nudging along. ‘So listen, Sara, you are faced with a dilemma. And I can’t tell you what you should do about it. It’s entirely your decision. Either you contact the police about what you saw in the store room at Polly’s, or you don’t. Over to you.’
Sara Courtney grimaced. ‘I can’t face it.’
‘All right,’ said Jude, being very careful to keep her voice unjudgemental. ‘Then what you saw in the store room at Polly’s is a secret between the two of us.’
She felt bad about lying. But she didn’t feel bad about having told Carole. Then something she saw in Sara’s face made her ask, ‘What, is there someone else who knows?’
The woman nodded. ‘I did mention it to Kent.’
FOURTEEN
Having already compromised her principle of client confidentiality, Jude could see no reason to keep from Carole what she had just heard from Sara. The woman had not, after all, been talking in the context of a healing session.
Carole, predictably given her Home Office background, had disapproved of Sara’s decision not to go to the police. ‘It’s the duty of every citizen to reveal any information they have that might be relevant to a police inquiry.’
‘So you’ve always done that, have you, Carole?’ asked Jude mischievously.
Her neighbour moved quickly on. There had been occasions during their previous investigations when Carole might have been accused of the same shortcoming as Sara. ‘So, including Kent, there are now four people who know about what Sara saw in the store room.’
‘Four we know of. There could be any number more. The police may be fighting off hundreds of witness statements from other people who saw the body. As is their custom, they’re keeping the progress of their inquiries irritatingly quiet.’
‘Yes.’ Carole looked thoughtful. It was the Friday morning. They were in the spotless kitchen of High Tor. Gulliver snuffled by the Aga in another pleasant dream of chasing something. ‘What we really need to find out is whether there is any connection between the deceased, Amos Green, and anyone else in Fethering.’