‘You remember when I used to do House Doctor?’ she asked. She paused and Karlsson mumbled something. She looked at Frieda.
‘Was it a medical programme?’ Frieda asked.
‘You really didn’t …’ Shreeve began. ‘It was some time ago, but it was very important at the time. I was teamed with this famous psychologist called Lenny McMullen. Dr Mac. You must know him.’
There was another pause.
‘Miss, er …’
‘Call me Jasmine.’
‘I don’t think I know him.’
‘He’s very respected in his field,’ said Jasmine. ‘And he was a TV natural. He was famous for his sweaters. So you never saw the programme?’ She looked baffled and thought for a moment. ‘Well, what we used to do was go to someone’s home and, while they were outside, Lenny and I would walk around the house and he would diagnose their psychological problems just by looking at the decorations and the furniture and the pictures on the wall. We would bring the person or the couple or the family back in and Lenny and I would talk to them about their problems and then about how they could solve them.’
‘By redecorating their house?’ said Karlsson.
‘Sometimes,’ said Jasmine. ‘Don’t knock it. The places we live express us. Healing our house is the first step to healing ourselves. That’s what Lenny used to say.’ She looked at Frieda. ‘I know what you’re doing,’ she said.
‘What am I doing?’
‘You’re studying my house. You’re trying to do on me what we used to do on House Doctor.’
‘I don’t think I’d be qualified,’ said Frieda.
‘No need to be modest. I’ll tell you what you’re seeing. Looking around the room, you’re seeing a living room that’s surprisingly tasteful for a presenter of downmarket TV. The colour of the wall is based on something I saw in Pompeii. There are a couple of photographs of me with well-known personalities, but they were taken a suspiciously long time ago. Did you know that when House Doctor went off the air, Channel Four didn’t even have a website? Well, no, of course you didn’t because you hadn’t even heard of it so I’m sure you haven’t seen the shows I’ve done for other companies.’
‘I mainly watch sport,’ said Karlsson. ‘And not much of that.’
‘What you’re seeing,’ said Jasmine, ‘is the house of a fifty-one-year-old female TV presenter in an industry that doesn’t want fifty-one-year-old female TV presenters. You can see the photograph of one ex-husband, because we’re still good friends. You can’t see the photograph of the other because we aren’t. You might have expected this to be the house of someone who’s trying to hold on to the past, someone who is bitter about her fate. Tell me, Dr Klein –’
‘Please, call me Frieda.’
‘Frieda, is this the room of a bitter woman?’
Suddenly Frieda thought of her grandfather. A friend of his had told her about what he’d do at a party if someone discovered he was a doctor and then, as people so often did, asked him about some ache or pain they had. In a concerned voice, he would ask them to close their eyes and stick out their tongue. Then he would walk away and start talking to someone else. She thought for a moment. ‘If this was a consultation,’ she said finally, ‘I’d be asking you what it is that you want me to tell you. It feels like you’re trying to force me to say something about you. But we’re not in a session. Sometimes a room is just a room. I think this is nice. I like the colour from Pompeii.’
‘Do you know what I did at university?’ said Jasmine. ‘I went to Oxford. I got a first in English. In fact, I got a double first. That’s not the kind of thing you expect from a woman who did a TV commercial for incontinence pads. Which, incidentally, paid for about half of this house. But do you know what it means? The double first, not the TV commercial.’
‘It sounds impressive.’
‘It means I would be a difficult person for someone like you to analyse. What people like you do is turn people’s lives into stories, stories with a moral and a meaning. But I learned that when I was at Oxford. I know how to analyse stories and I know how to turn things into stories. When I did House Doctor, and even when I did cut-price documentaries about people behaving badly on holiday, every one of them was a little story. That’s why you can’t just come into my house and fit me into the psychological story you might have about a faded TV presenter.’
There was another pause. Karlsson looked stunned. He glanced at Frieda: it seemed to be up to her.
‘So,’ she said. ‘What was your story with Robert Poole?’
‘He was a friend,’ Jasmine replied. ‘We worked together. In a way.’
‘Can you expand on that?’ said Frieda. ‘How did you meet?’
Jasmine looked wistful. ‘It was a bit like something in a film. I go to the gym a couple of times a week but sometimes I also go for a run. One day, a few months ago, I was in Ruskin Park, behind the hospital. I was doing my stretches and he just struck up a conversation.’
‘What about?’
‘Just about the exercises I was doing. He said what a good thing it was to warm down like that, but then he said that one of the moves I was doing could be straining my back and he suggested other things. We got talking and went for a coffee, and I asked if he could help me with exercise.’
‘Like a personal trainer?’ said Karlsson.
‘That’s right.’
‘Why?’ said Karlsson.
‘What do you mean “why”?’ she said. ‘Why not?’
‘Someone you just met in a park.’
‘How else do you choose people?’ she said. ‘I’ve got an instinct for people. He knew what he was talking about. I got on with him. I felt like it would be a good motivation for me.’
‘How much did you pay him?’
She thought for a moment. ‘Sixty pounds a session. Does that seem unreasonable?’ She looked at Frieda. ‘What do you charge?’
‘It varies,’ said Frieda. ‘Did he talk about his other clients?’
‘No,’ said Jasmine. ‘That was part of what I liked about him. When I was with him, he was completely focused on me, on the job in hand.’
‘Were you emotionally involved?’ asked Karlsson.
Briefly she was flustered. ‘He was just a trainer,’ she said. ‘Well, not just a trainer. The good thing about Robbie was that he was someone I could talk to.’
‘What did you talk about?’ Frieda asked.
‘When you’re on TV, people think you’re different. He didn’t. He was a good listener. That doesn’t sound like much but there aren’t many people like that.’
‘When did you last see him?’ said Karlsson.
‘About a month ago.’
‘How was he?’
‘Same as ever – warm, interested, attentive. Then we had an appointment for the end of January and he didn’t turn up. I called him but he didn’t answer. And then all this … I wish I could say something that made sense of it all. I’ve been thinking and thinking about it ever since I heard. I really didn’t know anything about it.’
‘Did he ever talk about friends or family?’ said Frieda. ‘Or anything about his past or any other part of his life?’
‘No.’ Jasmine shook her head with a curious smile. ‘It was all about me. Maybe that’s why I liked him.’
‘And all you paid him was that sixty pounds a session?’ said Karlsson.
‘That’s right.’
There was a pause. Karlsson gave a slight nod to Frieda, and she thought of the secret signals couples send each other when it’s time to leave a party. They both stood up. Jasmine held out her hand to Frieda, who took it and said, ‘You told me I wouldn’t be able to understand you by looking at your house and that I wouldn’t be able to be your therapist because you’d studied English. What did Robert Poole understand about you?’