Thieving Fear

'That's entirely news to us,' Jack Cremorne said. 'Isn't it, dear?'

The lawyer held up his skinny hands between the couple and inclined his balding but unruly head towards the chairman. 'In any case the people mentioned aren't the subject of this enquiry.'

'I see that, Mr Bentley. Have you any further questions, Miss Lomax?'

'Would you say I neglected the residents, Muriel?'

'I would not,' Muriel said and squinted at the tribunal. 'She cared so much about us she lost her job reporting the place to the authorities when this pair wouldn't listen.'

'Thanks, Muriel. No further questions.'

Muriel was gripping the edge of the table as an aid to standing up when the lawyer said 'I won't detain you long, Miss Stiles.'

As her wrists continued to tremble once she'd subsided onto the chair he said 'You've told us a number of things you didn't see Miss Lomax do. Can you tell us anything you actually saw besides her enjoying a glass of wine at the party Mr and Mrs Cremorne were kind enough to have the home put on for you?'

'I said how she dealt with that animal in Doris's room.'

'I understood you to say you only overheard what may have happened. I think the incident proves my clients were quite willing to take action whenever there was the need. Was there anything you saw with your own eyes?'

'There was plenty. I saw what was his name, the one with the face like a bloodhound, Billy kicking Anna's legs because she wouldn't go to bed and saying she'd hurt herself falling. And I saw –'

'May I ask you to confine yourself to Miss Lomax? This hearing is about her.'

'I'll say everything I said all over again if you like. And I'll tell you this, she was the only one we trusted out of the lot of them. Even the ones who never did anything to us wouldn't speak up for us.'

'Very well, if that's all. Thank you, Miss Stiles. I can see it's been a strain.'

Muriel seemed as confused by his ending the interrogation as the Cremornes were pretending not to feel. The nurse was helping her up when she leaned towards Ellen. 'Can I wait and see how we did?'

'If you wouldn't mind waiting outside,' the chairman said.

Muriel stared as if she wondered what it had to do with him. 'I will,' she told the nurse.

As the lawyer held the door open for them he called 'We're ready for you, Mrs Nash.'

So Peggy had shown up. A nurse wheeled her forwards as Muriel hobbled out of the room. Did she mean to make a point of not recognising Peggy, or was she taken aback by the wheelchair? Peggy greeted the Cremornes and then peered with her magnified eyes through her glasses at the tribunal. 'Where do you want me sitting?' she said.

'It looks as if you already are, Peggy,' Ellen remarked with a gentle laugh.

'I'm not speaking to you.'

'That could pose a problem,' the chairman said. 'Please sit wherever you're comfortable.'

'I was at the Seabreeze,' Peggy said and stared at Ellen before telling the nurse 'Put me here.'

As she settled at the end of the table facing the tribunal, the lawyer said 'Mrs Nash, can I just establish you're here of your own free will?'

'Don't insult me. My body may have let me down but there's nothing wrong upstairs.'

He handed her the oath to take and followed it by asking 'Is it the case that you're still living at the Seabreeze Home?'

'You know I am.'

'I have to ask you these things for the record. Could you tell us how you came to take up residence there?'

'I met my husband Gerald when he was posted to Nairobi in the fifties. He wasn't like most of them. Most of his troop, they looked down on us and let us know it. The sergeant, he was the worst of the lot. He –'

'Forgive my interrupting,' the chairman said, 'but may we move this forwards? There's another hearing scheduled for this afternoon.'

Peggy's mouth drooped open with outrage or because she'd lost her verbal grasp. 'Can I ask what happened after Mr Nash's death?' the lawyer prompted. 'When you decided to seek residential accommodation, and I appreciate that was years later, did you encounter any problems?'

'Half a dozen of them, and that was just here in Southport. Homes that didn't have a vacancy after all when I turned up.'

'And you feel that was because . . .'

'Have you really got to ask that too? Because of what I am.'

'To put it delicately, an ethnic lady.'

'That's not what I see when I look in the mirror. I just see me.'

Having opened her mouth at the hint of an unwelcome memory, Ellen had to find something to say. 'Everybody's ethnic,' she murmured. 'You shouldn't hijack words.'

'Perhaps some people have more of a reason to care about them,' the lawyer said. 'And how were you made to feel at the Seabreeze Home, Mrs Nash?'

'They treated me like anybody else.'

'Which I take it you're saying was excellently.' When Peggy gave several vigorous nods the lawyer said 'But you'll be aware there have been problems recently with the running of the home.'

'Some of the staff weren't up to standard all the time. The night manager should have kept more of an eye on them. You were right to boot her out,' Peggy told the Cremornes. 'Except the worst of the lot was the one that snitched on her workmates. She only did it so people wouldn't notice how bad she was herself.'

'To be clear, the person you have in mind –'

'She knows who I mean. She's trying to bully me now, looking at me how she does.' Peggy fixed Ellen with a gaze she seemed to think was reciprocal. 'I wouldn't be surprised if she's tried to disguise herself,' she said. 'I don't remember her that size.'

Ellen felt as if her face had swollen up with fever, clamping her lips shut, as the lawyer said 'For the record, you're referring to Miss Lomax.'

Peggy's gaze flickered, only to intensify. 'Is that what she's calling herself?'

'And you believe Mr and Mrs Cremorne had reason to fire her.'

'That's opinion, Mr Bentley,' the chairman said. 'Please concern yourself with evidence.'

'What's the basis of your views, Mrs Nash? What are you saying Miss Lomax did?'

'Stole, for a start. When all the money went from Veronica's purse I saw how guilty that one looked. And one night I saw her with a little whisky bottle when she thought I wasn't looking.'

This was enough to activate Ellen's unwieldy face. 'I found it,' she said. 'I was taking it to the night manager.'

'You'll have your chance, Miss Lomax. Any further observations, Mrs Nash?'

'You've seen how she bullies people. She's doing it now.'

'Please don't feel intimidated. You're among friends.' As Ellen looked away from her, only to wonder why she should have, the lawyer said 'Your witness, Miss Lomax.'

Ellen's lips felt thick and not entirely stable as she said 'First of all, Peggy –'

'I've told you, I'm not speaking to you,' Peggy said and stared at the tribunal.

'Excuse me, but you just did, and I have to point out –'

'She's trying to confuse her,' Virginia Cremorne protested. 'She'll have her not knowing what she's saying.'

Ellen turned her awkward face towards the chairman. 'How am I supposed to question her like this?'

'You should have thought of that before,' Jack Cremorne said. 'If you believed you were in the right you'd have bet some money on a lawyer.'

'This is most irregular,' the chairman said. 'If Miss Lomax poses the questions, Mrs Nash, will you give me your answers?'

'We'll see what she has the cheek to ask.'

'Peggy, you said I was trying to divert attention away from some behaviour of my own. What kind? You surely aren't accusing me of sexual abuse.'

'Mrs Nash, you said –'