Death at Rainbow Cottage by Jo Allen (book club books txt) 📗

‘He didn’t hit me. No. Not that. But there are so many ways of hurting people.’

‘Is that really what made you do it?’ Ashleigh sat forward as if she were coaxing a child to admit to mischief. ‘Because he upset you? But what about the others?’

‘Shall we start at the beginning?’ Jude repeated, mindful of obtaining some kind of a narrative, but he made sure he learned from Ashleigh and moderated his tone. In any case, his anger wasn’t directed at Natalie but life in general and at himself in particular. ‘Tell us about Len Pierce. What had he done to you that you wanted to kill him?’

‘It’s so complicated. It’s so difficult. I don’t know—’

‘Chief Inspector. My client is clearly distressed and needs medical help.’

She turned on her supporter, like a chameleon snapping up a fly. ‘I told you. I won’t see a doctor. Now I want to explain. I want somebody to listen to me. Let’s get it over with and then we can all go home.’ And then, as if she realised that she was the one of the four of them who wouldn’t go home that night, she finally dabbed at the tears that rolled down her cheeks.

From the depths of her pocket, Ashleigh produced a packet of tissues and handed them over. With blood-red fingernails, Natalie unpicked the packet and drew one of the tissues out. Now it was obvious why she’d polished her nails so vivid a scarlet — to hide any traces of blood that would have lingered there, a lesson she must have learned after the death of Len Pierce. ‘Tell us about Len.’

‘Shall I tell you about Claud, first?’ She dabbed at her cheeks with the first of the tissues, but the tears were already drying. ‘You won’t believe me, but I loved him. I adored everything he did. I met him when he was working with the repertory company I was with. It was before he set up his training workshops, and he was working for another company. They did the same sort of role-play, for different sorts of training. Customer-facing, mainly.’

‘You weren’t an actress for very long, then?’ Ashleigh leaned in towards her.

Jude exchanged glances with the unnamed solicitor. It was going to be easier for everyone to let the two women carry on with a private conversation.

‘Only a couple of years. I loved acting, but I didn’t like the lifestyle, all the things that came with it. I hated the late nights. I hated not knowing what I was going to be doing six months ahead. I didn’t like the people. They were self-centred and unpredictable. I’m like that too, I know that, but they thrived on it and I don’t. I need stability and security. Then I met Claud and I fell in love with him.’

‘He seemed very charismatic.’

‘I know what you really think of him. He was bumptious and determined and he had a prickly side. He liked a fight. But he was never like that with me. He was always so protective, so tender, so loving. We moved here because I didn’t like living in the city. He set up the business so that we could work together and he’d always be there for me. He understood what anxiety was like, and he helped me through it. Always. I adored him. He was my man.’ She reached for a glass of water.

‘And then?’

‘It was the business.’ Her voice quivered. ‘He was obsessed with it. He’d always been championing someone’s rights for something but for some reason this seemed to touch something inside him. He talked about work all the time. Everything he did was about equality, about rights. We went to marches. I had to wear some silly costume and pretend I was enjoying myself. That was bad enough. But I did it because it was the only time I got to see him. He was so lost in his work. He loved people. He thought they were so interesting. Far more interesting than me.’

There was a period of silence.

‘Anxiety’s an awful thing.’ She replaced the glass on the table, in exactly the same place that she’d picked it up from. ‘You always see the worst coming. You always believe the worst and you keep believing the worst is going to happen. It’s only when the time’s passed and it hasn’t happened that you really believe you’re safe, and by then there's something else for you to worry about. Life is such a strain. If I didn’t have Claud with me, I knew I wouldn’t be able to cope, and everywhere I looked I saw reason why he’d leave me.’

The solicitor, Jude noticed, was looking perplexed. Ashleigh helped herself to a tissue and began picking at it. ‘I see how that would happen. But what did Len have to do with all this?’

‘There were always couples in that lane. It didn’t really bother us, because we didn’t have to look at them, but I knew some of them were gay. I came home one day from my run and Claud was chatting to one of the guys in the lane.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ Claud had said he hadn’t met Len, but they couldn't ask him now. Maybe there had been something he was afraid of.

‘I’m quite sure. I asked him about it afterwards. He said he was just chatting to him. And it could have been true. That was so like Claud. He was interested in everybody. But it wasn’t the first time.’

‘You were jealous. Is that it?’

For a moment, Natalie considered. ‘I didn’t think of it like that. He was at work so much, and there were hours at a time when I didn’t see him because I was running. I began to wonder if he was seeing someone, and eventually I became obsessed by the