‘How did you find out?’
‘One of the other girls who worked at Benny’s told me she’d seen the two of them kissing and cuddling down in Mathew Street the previous evening. She was a spiteful cow and I didn’t want to believe her, but she was so jubilant I knew she was sure of her facts — and in my heart of hearts, I realised it made sense. I’d been off sick the previous day with a stomach bug. Ray and Carole had had the chance to get together and knowing them both as I did, I couldn’t imagine either of them resisting temptation. They were well suited, that pair — they took their pleasures whenever they could.’
‘What did you do about it?’
‘I confronted her. I couldn’t face Ray, he was too special to me. And besides, I knew he would deny it. He was like that, he would swear black was white rather than admit being in the wrong. Carole was secretive, always had been, but she was no fool. I knew that if I forced the issue, she’d tell me the truth.’
‘And did she?’
‘Yes, I can still picture the scene now. I spoke to her after work and she said straight away that she realised she’d done something very wrong, but she’d not been able to help herself. Apparently, Ray had called in the previous day, when I’d been down with the bug. He and Ian had a gig at the Cavern and he’d asked her to go with him. She said she’d done it simply to keep him company, but even I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that. One thing had led to another and they’d finished up in bed together.’
‘And how did you take that?’
Her strong features yielded a glimmer of an ironic smile. ‘Oh, I wanted to scream and scratch her eyes out, but I never did any such thing. Carole could always charm the birds off the trees. She said she thought she was in love with him, but she swore she would give him up if I said she must. I didn’t say a word, just went home and wept all night. Ray didn’t call me and I stayed in all weekend. When I went back to work on the Monday, I knew Ray wouldn’t phone me again. There was no point in fighting fate. I let her have him. We didn’t talk about it: she could always read my mind, she knew I’d lost all hope. So she got her own way — as usual.’
‘You must have hated her,’ said Harry softly.
She shrugged. ‘Perhaps I did, deep down. The pair of them had betrayed me — but there was nothing I could do, so I accepted it. Carole wasn’t a fool, she didn’t rub it in. She was kind to me in many ways. I sulked for a while but before long I began telling myself there were plenty more fish in the sea.’
‘And did Carole talk about her relationship with Ray?’
‘She did her best to make me think life with him was no bed of roses. He was sex mad, though she wasn’t exactly prim and proper herself. But soon she was saying he certainly wasn’t the love of her life. I wondered if she was trying to make me feel better about it all, but I guess the great romance was cooling off. If she hadn’t been murdered, I doubt they would have stayed together much longer.’
‘What about the day she died? She came to see you in the shop, didn’t she?’
She closed her eyes. ‘Yes, it was the last time I saw her. Ray came in and the two of them had a blazing row, then he headed off to London with Ian. She’d worked herself up into a state but then she had a private chat with Benny and that seemed to calm her down.’
‘What did they talk about?’
‘No idea. You’d have to ask Benny, he was always good with Carole. As I say, he liked her a lot.’
‘And how did you feel when you heard the news about her death?’
She bowed her head. ‘Strange. I felt strange, that’s the honest answer. Yes, I was shocked, of course, but I couldn’t help feeling other things.’
He waited, willing to take his time while she dug deep into her memory and tried to recapture her inner thoughts of thirty years before. Finally she lifted her chin and looked him in the eye.
‘It sounds terrible to say, but it was the most exciting time I’d ever had. I became the centre of attention. I made out that I was heartbroken and everyone offered comfort and support.’ She paused and added, ‘The truth is, I felt she’d got her just deserts. She’d always lived dangerously and now Ray Brill had lost forever the girl he left me for.’
Harry said nothing and after another momentary pause she bit her lip and told him, ‘I’ve never said that before to another living soul, but it’s true. She fascinated me when she was alive and after all this time she still fascinates me. She hurt me badly, but I’ve never been able to get her out of my mind. So what do you make of my true confession, Mr Harry Devlin? I suppose you think I was depraved to feel that revenge was sweet when my friend had been so brutally strangled?’
‘I don’t think you’d be human if you’d experienced nothing but grief.’
She grunted and gave him a hard glance. ‘You talk as if you know about these things.’
‘My own wife was killed,’ he heard himself saying. ‘She’d left me two years earlier but I still loved her, I mourn her to this day. All the same, I can’t pretend I’ve forgotten the way she behaved.’
With a nod of understanding, she said quietly, ‘I suppose I’d kept telling myself that it wouldn’t last, the relationship Carole had with Ray.’
‘Did you think Carole would finish with him?’
‘Maybe I did.’ Her dark eyes glinted. ‘After all, she was seeing another man, you know.’
Startled, he said, ‘No, I didn’t have any idea of that.’
‘Oh, it had been going on for a while. Though she kept very quiet about him — like I said before, she was secretive. I had the impression he was an older man. Married, I assumed, though she never said as much.’
‘Could you guess who it was?’
‘Ah, she was too cagey to give the game away, although she liked hinting that she’d been taught as much as she’d ever need to know by this other fellow.’
‘Could it have been Benny?’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘You said he liked girls as well as boys — and he was fond of Carole.’
She spread her arms. ‘If it was him, they both deserve Oscars for their acting day after day in the shop.’
‘Any other candidates?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine.’
‘What about Clive Doxey?’
‘Sir Clive? What about him?’
‘He was a friend of Guy Jeffries, handsome and sophisticated. Any young girl might have found him attractive. And he was an up-and-coming man with a reputation to protect.’
‘God alone knows. In those days, I wasn’t much interested in politics or writers. Can’t say I’ve changed even now. Guy Jeffries I liked. He thought the sun shone out of Carole’s arse and he was always giving her treats. Mrs Jeffries didn’t approve at all, but she didn’t get much chance to lay down the law. But although I can remember meeting Doxey once at the Jeffries’ house, he never meant much to me. I could see he was smooth and successful, but he was over thirty. To me, he might as well have been eligible for a bus pass. I only had eyes for younger men. Like Ray.’
‘Do you ever see Ray Brill these days?’
‘God, no. The last time we spoke was a mumbled hello at Carole’s funeral. After that, the Brill Brothers started finding it harder to make the charts. Ian gave up pop music and Ray was never much use on his own. He’d lost his way and I can’t say I shed any tears for him.’
‘What about Benny? Do your paths ever cross?’
‘Now and then. I worked for him for another couple of years after Carole died, but then I got married and found a job that paid better in an advertising agency. That was where I met Bob, years later. He was a bookie in a small way of business then, but by the time he died he had this whole chain of shops and was worth the thick end of two million.’ She gave him a grim smile. ‘So maybe it all turned out for the best as far as I was concerned.’