‘Listen,’ Henry went on, ‘this may be news to you, Carole, but I’ve known for a long time that Barney and Jude once had an affair.’
‘No, it’s not news to me,’ said Carole pointedly. ‘Though I only heard about it last night.’
Jude avoided her friend’s eye, focusing on Henry as she said, ‘It was a very long time ago. I’m not going to say we didn’t have fun at the time, but it’s really nothing you should be worrying about.’
‘No, I wasn’t worried about it when Barney and I first got together. You know, at that stage of a relationship – or certainly once we’d got married – you do all that going through your past emotional entanglements, and everything’s fine. Water under the bridge. You feel confident that the relationship you’re in now is the one that’s going to work, so you can forget about all the baggage from the past. Anyway, the sex was so good, we could even laugh about our previous lovers.’
Some women might have been offended by that, but Jude wasn’t. She found it comforting, proof that Barney had no longer been thinking of any ongoing relationship with her.
Henry went on, ‘Barney was quite funny about the things he and Nita used to get up to. And I realized that with her it was just sex, there was no real emotional engagement. And they had sex in some fairly bizarre places. Sometimes they’d even link up when she was guiding tour groups to some of the archaeological sites. She’d abandon her punters in an amphitheatre or something while she and Barney nipped off for a quickie.’
Carole and Jude exchanged looks. That fitted in with the scenario for the day of Nita’s death.
‘I didn’t mind hearing about stuff like that,’ Henry went on. ‘It was funny. And the fact that he made no secret of it, the fact that he didn’t hide it from me, that seemed to strengthen our relationship. I just felt so secure with him.
‘And that’s how it was with Barney and me. It really worked. Different backgrounds and all that, but that seemed to increase the attraction rather than diminish it. We were fine—’ she lowered her voice – ‘until quite recently.’
‘So what happened?’ asked Carole flatly.
‘Well, the fact is …’ Henry was once again having difficulty getting the words out. ‘The fact is … that sex has always been very important to Barney …’
Jude didn’t think it was the moment to say anything; the subject could all too easily move to the top of a Number twenty-seven bus.
‘Very important to me too, as it happens; very important to our relationship. And, anyway, just in the last few months … well, not to put too fine a point on it … Barney’s lost it.’
‘Lost what?’ asked Carole.
But Jude felt pretty sure that she knew the answer, so she asked bluntly, ‘You mean Barney can’t get it up any more?’
‘Yes. Exactly that. And I don’t know what the reason is. Maybe he’s under stress with the business, but then he’s always been under stress with the business and actually seemed to thrive on it. Or perhaps it’s the booze. He’s always drunk a lot, though. Mind you, with worrying about his performance in bed, he’s drinking even more, which I’m sure doesn’t help the situation.’
‘No, it wouldn’t.’
‘And it’s having a terrible effect on our marriage. Because he’s, like, blaming me for it. I’m not sufficiently stimulating for him in bed. And it’s putting terrible stress on me.’
‘Was that why you came to see me for the healing?’
Henry Willingdon nodded.
‘I thought, with those symptoms, there must be something else you weren’t telling me.’
‘Well, now you know what it was.’
‘And look,’ said Jude diffidently, ‘now we’re on to the subject, you say Barney blames you for what’s happening – or not happening?’
‘Yes.’
‘And has his frustration taken any physical form?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Has Barney hit you?’
Henry couldn’t put her answer into words, but she nodded slowly, and tears glinted in her eyes.
The same image was going through both Carole and Jude’s eyes. In a Lycian tomb at Pinara … Barney trying to recapture the wonderful sex he used to have with Nita … finding himself unable to deliver … blaming her … lashing out at her … grabbing hold of the lanyard round her neck … and twisting and pulling it.
‘A little while back you told us,’ said Carole, ‘that you’d come out here to save your marriage.’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t see exactly how you were proposing to do that.’
‘Well, the worse the … all right, I’ll use the word – impotence – got, the more Barney blamed me, and the more he also talked about earlier relationships where everything had worked perfectly.’
‘Like the one he had with Nita?’ Jude suggested.
‘Yes. And the one he had with you.’
The scrutiny from Henry’s blue eyes was so intense that Jude had to look away.
‘Look, I know Barney suggested that you might pick up again, have sex again.’
She couldn’t deny it. ‘Yes, he did. But I can assure you I made it perfectly clear that there was nothing doing.’
‘Barney can be very persistent.’
‘I know he can. So can I, though. And when I say “nothing doing”, it means “nothing doing”.’
Henry Willingdon did seem partially reassured by that. And with relief came a few tears. ‘I’m sorry, I just do love Barney so much. And I’m sure I can make our marriage work again.’
‘I would think so,’ said Carole sniffily. ‘Virtually every other advertisement you see in the paper promises to cure “erectile dysfunction”.’
‘Yes.’ Jude’s manner was more soothing. ‘There’s a lot of help to be got out there.’
‘I know, but Barney’s got that terrible masculine pride. He’d hate going to a doctor and admitting there was anything wrong … in that department.’
‘I’m sure you could persuade him, Henry.’
‘Maybe.’ And she did look a little more hopeful.
‘In the meantime,’ said Carole, ‘do you know where Barney is?’
‘No. I assume he’s staying at Tulip Cottage. But you must realize I haven’t been trying to find him. I don’t want him to know I’m here.’
‘Well, we went to Tulip Cottage and it was all locked up.’
‘Ah. It is quite easy to get in there if you want to try again.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yes, we always leave a key in the amphora to the right of the front gates.’
‘We might try that,’ said Carole. ‘We certainly do get the impression that Barney’s lying low. Jude’s tried phoning him a few times, and he hasn’t answered.’
‘Good.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t want Barney talking to Jude … for reasons which I’ve just explained.’
‘Fine.’ Jude paused. ‘You know we talked to Fergus yesterday.’
‘Yes.’
‘And to Kemal. You know who Kemal is?’
‘I know who he is. I’ve never met him.’
‘Well, both of them were talking about what happened to Barney’s first wife.’
‘The rather insignificant Zoë.’
‘I don’t know whether she was insignificant or not.’
‘You’d have to think so if you heard what Barney said about her.’
‘Kemal seemed convinced that the accident that happened to her was … “arranged”.’
‘I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.’
Carole thought it was time for the straight question. ‘And was it Barney who “arranged” it?’
Henry looked genuinely shocked. ‘Of course not. He didn’t go out to Sariyerler that day. He wasn’t even in the boat.’
‘Then who did arrange it?’
‘Nita, obviously. She was Zoë’s diving buddy that day. She had the opportunity. She unclasped the weight belt.’