‘A lot of them don’t. But I’m afraid I’m a bit of a Luddite when it comes to digital cameras. I prefer old-fashioned rolls of film. For me a lot of the most creative work happens in the processing. I can achieve a subtlety of tone then that I just can’t get with the digital equipment.’
Carole looked round at the photos on display. ‘Well, the effect is certainly wonderful.’
Jude too looked around. ‘I can’t help noticing—’
He was ahead of her. ‘Yes, they all are of Rosalie. She has an amazingly expressive face.’
‘But I gather you don’t see much of her these days,’ said Carole rather clumsily. Jude would have been more subtle.
Hudson Vale shrugged. ‘No, I’m afraid I don’t. I tried to see as much of her as possible after the divorce, but Josie didn’t make it easy for me. Then, as she got into her teens, Rosalie seemed to turn against me, didn’t want to see me. Which I suppose was fair enough. I’d been painted as “the man who done her mother wrong”, so why should she want to spend time with me?’
‘You’re saying that’s how Josie painted you?’ asked Jude.
‘Probably. Maybe not. It doesn’t really matter what the reason was. Rosalie ceased to want to see me.’ The memory was still painful to him. ‘Then she went to college in Brighton and got in with a bad lot, and then I would only hear if she got in trouble with the police. Which was why I asked if you were the police last night. I had a horrible vision of the whole thing starting up again.’
‘If you were estranged from Rosalie, why did the police get in touch with you rather than Josie?’
‘Usually they’d tried Josie first. And she’d given them my number, saying our daughter was as much my responsibility as hers.’
There was a silence. ‘What kind of trouble did Rosalie get into in Brighton?’ asked Jude gently.
‘Oh, mixing with the wrong set, drugs, you know. She actually had some boyfriends who were dealers, got very close to the gangs who were running the operation there. She mixed with some pretty nasty people, the kind who got involved with gunfights and …’ He sighed. ‘I know, she was the classic example of the nicely brought-up middle-class girl reacting against her nice middle-class upbringing. And in her case it was probably worse because of the divorce. I think a lot of her behaviour was just punishing me and her mother for having got divorced, having broken up the happy family … though I think she knew long before that that it wasn’t really a happy family.’
‘We saw Rosalie yesterday evening,’ Jude announced suddenly.
‘Oh, how was she?’ The question was instinctively solicitous. However little he had seen of his daughter in recent years, there was no doubt that Hudson Vale still loved her.
‘Well …’ Carole looked across to Jude, checking how much information she should give. Granted permission, she said, ‘It was actually at a party. She was pretty drunk.’
Hudson looked puzzled. ‘I’m sorry to sound rude, but I can’t quite imagine why you two would have been at the same kind of party as Rosalie.’
‘I take your point. It was an engagement party for someone she worked with at Polly’s Cake Shop.’
‘That would make sense.’
‘But,’ said Jude deliberately, ‘the man her friend was getting engaged to was a former lover of Rosalie’s.’
‘Ah.’ He made no further comment.
‘An older man,’ Jude continued.
Hudson Vale shrugged. He had clearly given up trying to keep tabs on his estranged daughter’s love life.
‘I gather you’ve remarried,’ said Carole, again more direct than Jude would have been.
‘Yes. It’s wonderful to be given a second chance in life.’ But he didn’t sound totally convinced by his own words.
‘And has Rosalie met her half-sisters?’
He shook his head firmly. ‘No. They belong to different chapters of my life.’ Echoing the words of Janice Green. For a moment Carole wondered whether her own life was divided into chapters. And she came to the conclusion that it was. Childhood, the Home Office, David, Stephen, divorce, post-divorce, Fethering. And she wasn’t really expecting any further chapters beyond Fethering. Yes, it was a way of looking at one’s life, no worse and no better than any other.
Maybe Hudson’s talk of ‘chapters’ had also reminded Jude of Janice Green, because her next question was: ‘Does the name Amos Green mean anything to you?’
He shook his head. ‘No. And it’s a fairly unusual name, so I’d probably remember if I had heard it.’
‘You might have seen something in the news about him,’ said Carole. ‘His body was found on Fethering Beach back in October.’
‘Doesn’t ring a bell. Why are you interested in him?’
‘We actually had the misfortune to find his body on the beach,’ said Jude. ‘And we are pretty sure that he was murdered.’
‘I see,’ said Hudson. ‘So, in answer to my question of last night, you are not the official police but a pair of intrepid amateur sleuths.’
Carole and Jude looked at each other rather shiftily. It was an accusation neither of them could deny.
‘Look,’ he went on, ‘I agreed to see you this morning because I thought you might have some news of Rosalie. I’m not sure that I was planning to get involved in a murder investigation.’
‘We fully understand that,’ said Jude, ‘but we’re desperately trying to find some connection between Amos Green and Fethering.’
‘Then I’m not quite sure why you’re asking me. I haven’t been to Fethering for years. And recently the only conversations I’ve had with Josie have been rather tight-lipped affairs over financial issues that didn’t get properly sorted out in the divorce.’
‘Do you mind if we ask you about the divorce?’ asked Carole.
‘Well, I can’t really see what business it is of yours …’
‘It isn’t any of our business,’ said Jude in a manner which was on the edge of flirtatious, ‘but …’
It worked. He relented. Spreading his arms wide in a gesture of submission, he said, ‘All right, ask me about the divorce. It’s so long ago now that I’m not about to start weeping at the recollection.’
‘Josie described your divorce to me as “sticky”.’
‘Show me the divorce that isn’t sticky. When two people have invested a large chunk of their lives into something which turns out to be a complete disaster … well, it’s not exactly a recipe for ecstasy, is it?’
There was a heartfelt ‘No’ from Carole, as Jude went on, ‘Josie also said she got a very bad financial deal from you and your lawyer.’
‘I’m sure she didn’t just say “lawyer”.’
‘No. “Bastard lawyer” was her exact expression.’
‘And no doubt “bastard ex-husband” came into the conversation as well.’ Jude could not deny it. ‘And no doubt she also complained about her having to live in a poky little flat in Fethering, while I …’ His gesture around the lavish studio meant he didn’t need any more words.
‘Yes, I did get a bit of that too.’
‘And presumably you also got lots of detail about my “unreasonable behaviour” being the reason for the divorce?’
‘She did use those words, yes.’
‘That would figure. Strange how, over the years, people create their own versions of history. I’m sure Josie’s narrative of the divorce is very imaginative.’
‘Well …’
‘I never wanted a divorce. I’m not suggesting my relationship with Josie was particularly good, but we managed to rub along. My only reason for wanting to stay together was Rosalie. I was afraid a split would do her irreparable damage …’ He shook his head gloomily. ‘And it seems that I was right.’
‘So it was Josie who asked for the divorce?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you say the marriage had jogged along all right for over ten years. What was it that suddenly made her want to end it?’