“If you’d prefer, I can come back another day. I realize this is a terrible time for you – ”
“Frankly, I’m grateful anybody talks to me at all. Everyone around here is carefully avoiding the subject of the baby, as if I’ll start screaming if they mention his name. I’m sorry – this really isn’t like me. I feel outside of myself somehow. I guess that’s the Valium I’ve been taking. What do you need from me?”
“I thought we’d get to know each other a little. Girl talk.”
“We’re neither of us girls. Besides, I don’t think it’s very advisable. My husband wouldn’t like it.”
“If you prefer, I can just listen. Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?”
“I’m not used to talking about myself. I’m better at listening, too. God knows I get enough practice in this house.”
“Try it, just this once,” said Longbright. “I think you need a lighter lipstick. Here, use this.” She handed Judith a gold tube of Jungle Amazon Coral Dew that had been discontinued in 1970.
“All right.” Judith pursed her lips, applied the still-fresh lipstick and turned to face the detective sergeant. “I come from a nice Hampshire family. If you don’t like horses or yachting, we feed you then politely wait for you to leave the county. That’s what I did. I came to London with a degree in media studies, which is the equivalent of a proficiency badge in knitting, and ended up taking a job in a telecommunications company, working for one of the directors who played golf with Robert. Robert was still getting over Stella, his first wife. She hadn’t been dead for very long – ”
“How did she die?”
“Pills and booze, nothing very original. She’d always been highly strung, had two modes of operation by all accounts, hysterical laughter and sobbing – very high maintenance. I think Robert disappointed her as well. Everyone said he was very cut up about her death, although I never saw much evidence of that. They lived in this palatial house in Smith Square. Robert had made his fortune in property and I hear she was a bit of a gold digger. Anyway, it was all about keeping up appearances, and they had a very grand lifestyle, but Stella couldn’t handle it. After she died, Robert removed every trace of her from his life. He took down the photographs and burned them, threw away her letters, wiped the slate clean. That’s how he copes. He can’t be seen to lose at anything.”
“How did you meet? Just at work?”
“No. It was Boat Race Day and we were at a very grand party in Henley-upon-Thames, and we kept bumping into each other after that. We always seemed to be surrounded by crowds of people, and I thought, one day I’ll get him alone, but I didn’t. I never did, not even after we were married. Ridiculous how women think they can change men, and of course we don’t. We simply become more and more prescriptive until they finally go away from us.”
“It sounds like you’re being rather hard on yourself.”
“Am I? I honestly don’t know what I brought to the party. He certainly didn’t need me. All my friends thought he was a good catch. I have no idea what he saw in me then, and I still don’t. Which is what makes it all so much worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“Please dignify me with a little intelligence. I’m not stupid, I’m just not very interested in the theatre. I know that you know. I’ve seen who you’ve been talking to. It was me who continued the affair, not Marcus. I needed someone to talk to, and it was obvious Robert would never be my friend. But by then the wedding preparations were already under way and I couldn’t back out. I suppose it suited my purposes, but if a woman says that, everyone thinks she’s a bitch. Strange how it’s fine for a wealthy man to keep a mistress.”
“You think your husband has a mistress?”
“Of course he has. Why else would he slip off after the theatre shuts and come home at four in the morning? He doesn’t even bother to wash the perfume off. I suppose it’s the lack of effort he puts into deceiving me that makes it so galling.”
“Do you think he’s in love?”
“I very much doubt it, if his track record is anything to go by. He’s spending more nights with this one than anyone else he’s seen, but I think that’s simply because he doesn’t want to come home to a wife and a crying baby. Well, he won’t have to worry about that now. The affair will come to an end eventually, he’ll be in a bad mood for a few weeks and then he’ll come creeping back to me with a new pair of diamond earrings, something obvious like that, and I’ll still have Marcus. I’m sure you know all this anyway. Actors are such gossips, and you did take statements from them.”
“We heard plenty of unsubstantiated rumours.”
“I assume one of them concerns the paternity of my son.”
“Yes. You don’t have to tell me any more, unless you think it has a bearing on the case.”
“For all I know it might. I assume you’re like a priest? You can’t repeat what’s said outside this room?”
“I can if it incriminates you in the case under investigation.”
“I imagine it incriminates me for stupidity, if nothing else. Marcus is – was – Noah’s father. The baby wasn’t planned, but Robert was desperate for a son, so I thought it would all work out – until now.”
“You think someone did this to get back at you?”
“Well, what do you think, Detective Sergeant? Let’s see now, who would be the most upset to find out that Noah was not his son after all, but the product of his unfaithful wife and her lover?”
“That’s a very serious accusation, Mrs Kramer.”
“Everything I’ve ever done has been about survival. I suppose I thought that having a child with Marcus would help me to survive a loveless marriage. I hadn’t counted on my husband finding out the truth.”
“You can’t be sure that he has.”
“It certainly looks that way, doesn’t it? You should see him this morning. He looks like he’s just met his own ghost.”
“You mean because he’s upset about Mr Baine.”
“They used to be best friends until Robert started thinking that Gregory was cheating him. Gregory was always getting them into financial scrapes. I imagine Robert is very upset, because he won’t have his money man to bail him out this time. Even if he finds another producer, it’ll be a nightmare trying to put everything right. I heard there’s no question of cancelling the play. They’re going on.”
“My boss thinks your husband really believes in the Punch legend,” Longbright observed. “Do you think he does?”
Judith Kramer paused to think, qualifying her words. “He certainly believes in good and bad fortune. That’s why there’s a puppet in the play that comes to life. It appealed to Robert. He was raised in a very odd family. His mother filled his head with all kinds of nonsense. You’d be surprised how superstitious successful men often are. For all I know, he honestly believes Mr Punch stepped down from his hook and murdered his child. I assume that was the desired effect, and it has been achieved.”
Longbright studied the sallow face before her and could see that Judith Kramer was still suffering from the effects of over-medication. “How is your husband coping?”
“You’ve spoken to him, you should know. I’m not sure anything really touches him. His main goal in life has always been to make something of himself. Now that he’s achieved that, I can’t imagine anything else matters.”
“I’ve read his statements. The only thing that puzzles me is his move from property into the theatre.”