‘She’d met someone else. Or rather re-met someone else. She never gave me any name for him, but she insisted this was the real thing and she had to take her only possible chance of happiness.’
‘Did she say where she’d met him?’ asked Carole.
‘Not where she’d met him originally, no. But when he came back into her life, it was at some yacht club on the south coast where a friend of hers was having a fiftieth birthday bash. It was a Saturday night, twelve, thirteen years ago. I wasn’t there, off on some assignment abroad, can’t remember where.’
‘This yacht club wouldn’t have been in Fethering, would it?’
‘Could have been.’ Hudson Vale shook his long white hair. ‘I honestly can’t remember. I was in a pretty emotional state at the time – and very busy with my work. Career just taking off in a big way – I’d got my first major magazine contract which was going to involve lots of foreign travel – so I was kind of preoccupied.’
‘And was that why Josie got custody of Rosalie in the divorce settlement? Because you’d be travelling so much?’
‘Yes, and the thinking was that I’d still see lots of her; you know, there was a very civilized timetable arranged for my having access to Rosalie, but Josie managed to screw that up – and to poison Rosalie’s mind against me.’
‘One thing that seems odd,’ said Jude, ‘is that, as far as we can tell, since she came to Fethering and opened Polly’s Cake Shop, Josie’s been on her own.’
‘I really wouldn’t know about that. I closed my mind to it.’
‘So you’d have no idea what happened to the man for whom your wife left you?’
‘None at all. On the occasions when I went to the Fethering flat to pick Rosalie up for my access days, I never saw any evidence of a man living there.’
‘And you don’t know any more about the man who Josie thought was “the real thing”?’
‘Nope. As I said, I didn’t want to find out about him. All I know was that he was married and that he travelled a lot.’ He looked at his watch. He had been very co-operative so far, but maybe his patience was wearing a bit thin. ‘I’m going to have to chuck you out soon,’ he said. ‘I promised my girls that I’d play with them. I tend to be very busy all week, so at weekends …’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Jude. ‘We very much appreciate your having given up your time for us.’
‘No problem. And if you see Rosalie …’
‘Yes?’
‘Give her my love, won’t you?’
‘Of course.’
‘One thing …’ said Carole.
‘Mm?’
‘Would you by any chance have a contact number for Josie’s friend, the one whose fiftieth she attended?’
‘I might well,’ said Hudson Vale, switching on his tablet. ‘I did the photographs for her wedding way back and I always keep all my clients’ contact details. Yes, here it is – Becky Granger.’ He read out the digits. ‘That was her mobile. Whether she’s still kept the same number, I’ve no idea.’
‘Well, thank you, anyway.’
Hudson Vale rose from his chair and gestured towards the door. Carole and Jude also stood up. ‘Just one more thing …’ asked Jude.
‘Yes? This is getting horribly Columbo, you know.’ His tone was sharper. It was time they should be on their way.
‘When I talked to Josie, she seemed very bitter.’
‘I think that’s not uncommon with divorcées.’
‘But she was particularly bitter about anti-Semitism.’
‘What?’ Clearly that was the last thing Hudson Vale had been expecting.
‘She said she’d experienced prejudice all her life and it was at its worst in “nice middle-class areas” like Fethering … or possibly Esher …’
‘Well, I don’t know where she got that from. It’s certainly something I’d never been aware of during our marriage … and Josie never mentioned to me that she felt like that.’
‘She also suggested that anti-Semitism was one of the causes of your breaking up.’
He looked genuinely amazed. ‘I’ve no idea where she got that from. Right from the start, when I first met her I thought her being Jewish was wonderfully exotic. I felt so boringly blond and British. In fact, Josie’s Jewishness was a big part of her attraction to me.’
TWENTY-FIVE
In the Renault on the A3, Carole looked disapproving as she heard her neighbour blithely lying in her conversation to Becky Granger. ‘I know it’s ages ago, but I was at your fiftieth …’
‘Not that many ages ago,’ Becky Granger reproved her mildly from the other end of the phone. ‘I’m not quite ready for the scrapheap yet.’
‘Sorry. I was there with a boyfriend. You and I hadn’t met before.’
‘And I probably didn’t meet you then. There were a lot of people there I didn’t know. My then boyfriend was a member of the Fethering Yacht Club and I think he issued invitations to every other member. Extravagant bastard … one of the many reasons why we’re no longer an item.’ She sighed. ‘Oh, it all seems a long time ago. That party was such a scrum.’
‘Anyway, Becky, I got your number through Josie Achter.’
‘Oh my God, I haven’t heard that name for ages. How is the old boot? Still in Fethering? Still got the café?’
‘No, she’s sold up and moved to Hove.’
‘Has she? I haven’t heard a squeak from her for ages – probably not since that party.’
‘And it was at the Fethering Yacht Club, wasn’t it?’
‘Blimey, how much did you have to drink that night? Yes, of course it was.’
Carole’s lips were tight. To be able to hear Jude’s blatant lies and not to be able to hear the other end of the conversation was doubly frustrating for her.
‘Well, Becky, Josie and I were trying to remember the name of someone she met that night, someone she hadn’t seen for a long time …?’
‘Are we talking about the guy she spent the whole of the evening dancing with? They were all over each other. Which was so unlike Josie. Normally at parties she was all buttoned up, never wanted to draw attention to herself. But that evening … I’d have been embarrassed if I hadn’t been in such a state that I was incapable of embarrassment.’
‘It probably would be that guy she was talking about. Josie was saying she’d lost touch with him.’
‘Well, she’d certainly found touch with him at the party.’
‘So what was his name?’
‘Oh my God, you’re really testing me now. We are talking over ten years ago.’
‘Please try and remember.’
‘I am trying. Oh, it was one of those unusual man’s names. Sounding old-fashioned. Ending with “us”.’
‘Amos?’ asked Jude excitedly.
‘No, not Amos. It was …’ There was a silence. ‘Quintus! That’s right. His name was Quintus.’
TWENTY-SIX
‘Good God!’ The Renault almost swerved dangerously when Carole had the conversation reported back to her. ‘Josie Achter and Quintus Braithwaite! I can’t believe it.’
‘It does sound unlikely, I agree. But she had no reason to make it up. And it fits the minimal description Hudson gave us. “Married and travelled a lot.” Quintus Braithwaite had many foreign postings and was often away at sea.’
‘Yes, but … to think of him as the great love of Josie Achter’s life, the reason why she got divorced … it doesn’t sit very comfortably with me.’
‘Nor me. But it must be true. There’s also the fact that Quintus Braithwaite’s dinghy was stolen and used on the night of October the third.’
‘Are you suggesting he took it himself?’
‘Yes.’