Finally she caught on to what he was saying and, with difficulty avoiding giggling, replied, ‘No, we don’t get any hassle at all.’
From previous experience, Jude knew that there was a small element in the Fethering community who, because the two women were seen around so much together, assumed that Carole and Jude were a lesbian couple. Jude always found references to this hysterically funny. Carole was less amused.
The thought of her friend took Jude’s mind to the children’s ward of a hospital in Fulham. She framed a silent, nondenominational prayer for the health of Chloe Seddon.
‘Mental illness is scary, though,’ Kent went on. ‘I mean, have you seen those scars on Sara’s arms?’ Jude nodded. ‘How much do you have to hate yourself to start doing that? And there are other awful symptoms she’s told me about. At her worst Sara claims to have seen whole scenarios that just didn’t exist.’ Another silence, another swig of beer. ‘She told me she’d once seen a dead body.’
‘Oh.’
‘In Polly’s – back in the day when it was still Polly’s Cake Shop, not Polly’s Community Café. She told me she’d seen this body of a man who’d been shot, there in the store room.’
‘Did you believe her?’
‘Well, no. I mean, I believed her when she told me that she’d had the hallucination. But I don’t believe she’d actually seen the body, no.’ He looked at Jude shrewdly. ‘I suppose it wouldn’t be … proper for me to ask if she’d ever mentioned that hallucination to you?’
She was quite relieved to be able to say, ‘No, it wouldn’t be proper.’
‘I thought not.’
‘Has she mentioned it recently … you know, seeing the body?’
‘No. She only talked about it once. When she was trying to explain to me how low she felt at times. It was just when we were starting to get to know each other … you know, that stage when you tell your new partner the worst things about yourself, to see if it’ll put them off.’
‘And what Sara told you didn’t put you off?’
‘No, it’s her I love … and I guess the mental fragility just comes along as part of the package.’
‘Hm. And what did you tell her?’
‘Sorry?’
‘What were the worst things about you?’
He chuckled. ‘Nothing, I’m glad to say … or at least nothing that put her off.’ And Jude realized that was all the answer she was going to get.
So, cautiously, she moved on to another subject. ‘Sara never said to you, did she, whether she recognized the body she claimed to have seen? Whether it looked like someone she knew?’
‘No,’ said Kent. But was Jude being hypersensitive to detect a new carefulness in his reply? Was he really unaware of the connection between the body seen in Polly’s store room and the one found on Fethering Beach?
‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘you reckon I should encourage Sara to apply for managerial jobs? You think she’s up to it?’
‘I think Sara has a very shrewd estimation of her own abilities. If she reckons she’s up to anything, then I’m sure she is.’
‘Thank you, that’s really helpful. I’m sorry to have bothered you, but I didn’t really know who else to ask. There aren’t that many people around who know Sara really well. She was so locked up in that relationship with the bastard restaurateur that she doesn’t seem to have many friends.
‘Which is actually another thing that we have in common,’ Kent added.
Jude looked at him in some surprise.
‘Oh, I’ve got any number of acquaintances, I see a lot of people in the course of my work, but I wouldn’t say I have many close friends.’
‘So, when you’re in a relationship with someone, it tends to be very closed-in and exclusive, does it?’
‘I suppose it does, really, yes.’
‘Which must make things painful if it breaks up.’
‘Yes, the closer a couple are, the more pain when it does end.’ Kent looked at Jude as if he felt he had to defend himself. ‘Look, I know you’re a friend of hers, but I swear I have no intention to hurt Sara. I’m not denying I’ve had other relationships since the divorce where we’ve got very close, but it didn’t work … you know, different priorities, age difference, women wanting children when I’ve already got some; all the usual reasons. But I do sincerely believe that in Sara I have finally found the right one.’
‘Good.’
‘And well, it’s been strange, this extended Christmas break. It’s a long time to spend together when a relationship’s fairly new. I just hope I haven’t crowded Sara, haven’t been too full-on for her.’ He looked a little anxious. ‘And maybe that’s why she insisted on going up to London to do some shopping today. Perhaps I was making her feel a bit claustrophobic. Perhaps she needed a bit of space.’
‘Maybe. Mind you, I should point out that some of the January sales have started early. Even the Sunday after Christmas is quite a popular day for shopping.’
He chuckled. ‘Yes, I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about a thing, Kent. I’m sure the pair of you’ll be fine.’
‘I hope so. I sincerely hope so.’
‘Well, Gulliver and I must be on our way.’ Jude stood up and moved closer to the window. She looked down at the garden. It was neatly laid out and well looked after, though there wasn’t much growing at that time of year.
Kent followed her eye-line. ‘As you can imagine, only very hardy stuff survives down there. All the salt spray and the wind.’
‘I’m sure.’ She noticed there was a locked gate in the wall that led down to the beach. And, just inside it, on a light trailer, was a silver-coloured rubber dinghy.
‘Do you use that much?’ she asked.
‘Oh, just for pottering around. My real boat’s in the Fethering Yacht Club marina – or moored to the few pontoons they have the nerve to call a marina.’
‘Hm.’ Jude looked across the river mouth to the main expanse of Fethering Beach. ‘It was over there, of course, that my friend Carole and I found the body of Amos Green,’ she said casually.
‘Yes, I heard about that.’
She turned to face him. Her brown eyes, though gentle and compassionate, could also be compelling, not to say transfixing. ‘Sara told me that you knew Amos Green.’
‘She told me she’d mentioned that to you. But I should say that “knew” is rather overstating the situation. I had dealings with Amos Green many years ago when I was doing some development in the Kingston area. He was on the local council there, involved in planning applications. I never knew him socially.’
‘And you haven’t seen him since?’
‘God, no.’
‘And you don’t know of any connections he had with Fethering?’
‘None at all,’ said Kent Warboys.
TWENTY-ONE
As Jude walked Gulliver back through the afternoon chill to Woodside Cottage, her mind was full. The main question she kept asking herself was why Kent had wanted to see her. He clearly was interested in Sara’s mental strength and whether she could cope with a managerial job, but at the same time that seemed to be almost a distraction. Jude got the feeling that his real purpose had been to get some other information out of her. But she couldn’t for the life of her think what that information was. Or indeed whether he’d got what he wanted from her.
He’d also been extremely uncommunicative about Amos Green. Or perhaps, to put a less cynical slant on his behaviour, he had simply told her all he knew about Amos Green, and it wasn’t very much. They had met professionally over some planning issue when Kent Warboys was working in the Kingston area – end of story.
But he did know that Sara had mentioned the connection to Jude. For a moment, as Gulliver pulled her resolutely homeward in expectation of his supper, she wondered if that was why Kent had wanted to see her: to check out whether she knew any more about his dealings with Amos Green. But the idea seemed tenuous.