Page 45 of A Curious Ending

‘You are quite right,’ Abby said approvingly, ‘that is just the colour for you. You should wear it with emeralds. In fact you should only ever wear emeralds.’

Lara was pleased that her ghost sounded more like herself, less like the wistful Abby who had talked about her husband.

‘Did you need some flowers, Kate?’ Lara asked, getting up from her stool.

‘No, you’re grand. I just popped in with a message from Sarah about tomorrow night. We need to be at the theatre by six and she says just wear something black and she’ll give us the white aprons.’ After this she paused and twisted one long curl around her finger, repeating the movement several times. Eventually she said, ‘Look, about last night and Julian. Sarah said I put my foot in it. Kinda up to my neck. Are you still really keen on him?’

‘No, not at all,’ Lara assured her, blushing.

‘Liar, liar pants on fire.’ Abby rather liked the chant that Doris, the waitress from Betty’s tearoom, had once taught her.

‘No! I’m not!’ Lara blurted.

‘Okay,’ Kate responded, looking puzzled, ‘I believe you.’

‘She doesn’t you know,’ Abby commented.

Lara started talking rapidly about local town news and turned her back on Abby as she walked with Kate to the shop door. As they said goodnight, Lara pressed a bunch of scarlet anemones on her.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ she insisted when Kate protested about having them for free.

Abby commented thoughtfully, ‘There is a young woman who is very proud but I suspect is worried about money.’

For once Lara agreed with her. She thought about Kate’s mum, living with MS, and she wondered how much financial support Kate had to give her. For some reason Mrs M also came to mind. Another proud woman.

Later that evening, curled up in the armchair by the wood burner, Lara started revisiting all they had discovered and wondered aloud who ‘M’ was if it wasn’t Maggie Mopping – plus what ‘M’ might need forgiveness for. Killing Lady Porter? It hardly seemed likely they would leave a note… but then if they thought they had got away with it…? She started to verbalise her speculation and her meandering ramble eventually took in funny tasting gin; old sleeping pills; Jason, and what was hidden at the back of his shop; Dr Patil and his relationship with Lady Porter and Jason Honeybourne; the implications of a fraudulent power of attorney; and Joe and the prospect of another family. She had just moved on to Julian’s interest in this when she noticed that Abby was unusually quiet. Lara continued, but more slowly, all the while watching Abby. She was just considering why large amounts had been drawn from Lady Porter’s account when Abby cut her short with a long audible sigh.

‘What?’ Lara enquired.

Abby turned her eyes away from the clutter she had been studying that was still inhabiting the room. She had taken to sitting with her back to it, but this evening it was in her direct line of sight. Well, that would have to wait, for now there were more important things to think about.

‘I think to untangle this we need to look at it another way,’ she declared.

Lara was more than happy for her to do so, as she felt she had been going around in circles for hours and was getting nowhere.

‘I believe we need to consider why someone would wish to kill Lady Porter.’

Lara thought that was exactly what she had been doing, but said nothing.

‘I have dwelt upon this,’ Abby continued, ‘and based upon my not inconsiderable experience, I believe there are three main motives that we should revisit.

‘Firstly, there is avarice, a particularly dangerous sin I have found.’ Abby paused thoughtfully. ‘Now, this could be to gain an inheritance – either the ones we saw in the will, or the ones we believe Lady Porter was thinking about. Then there is the china that we believe may be very valuable. Someone may have been trying to get their hands on this and felt it would be easier with Lady Porter out of the way. Of course, there is also the artwork that appears to be missing from around Gillmore House and the artwork Dr Patil is to inherit.’

Lara nodded, waiting for Abby to continue.

‘Secondly, there is love. A love that gets twisted in the fire of bitter experience can emerge as a piteous mangled thing much closer to hate than to its former incarnation. Yes, love can be a very dangerous thing,’ Abby said sadly. ‘There are three things I think we need to know more about, as it appears to me that these resonate with some sort of love; the secret room, the flowers being placed on Lady Porter’s grave and the spectre of another family.’ Abby stroked her nose as she spoke, ‘Which brings us to the third reason that someone might have wanted Lady Porter dead. Fear. We cannot rule out the possibility that her family were frightened about a new will being drawn up or the fraudulent power of attorney being discovered. We also have to consider the fear a blackmailer preys upon. Was Lady Porter being blackmailed because of something in her past, either in Nottingham or in India? Or had she in turn found out something about somebody else?’

Abby sat back and looked at Lara. Lara hoped that she wasn’t expected to answer this. She had managed to follow Abby’s thought process but she was no closer to providing any solutions. Instead, she posed a question of her own, ‘We’re going to see most of the people we’re interested in at the theatre tomorrow. Can we tackle any of them there?’

Abby sat up straighter in her chair. ‘Yes, indeed we can,’ she said with alacrity. ‘I think it would be a good opportunity to investigate who “M” is. After all as a florist it would be very natural for you to talk to people about flowers. You can enquire as to who has been leaving flowers on her grave – even possibly about the message. Also I wonder if we might be able to find out who else knows about the room at the top of Lady Porter’s house. The most obvious person to tell us of course is Mrs Mopping, but I cannot imagine for one moment she would be forthcoming.’

‘No,’ Lara smiled, ‘she’s still very protective of her Ladyship. She’d throw me out if I dared ask about that. Even though I am pretty certain she must know about it. Even if she didn’t go in there when Lady Porter was alive, at least by now she must have had a look.’

‘Just so,’ Abby agreed. She continued, ‘On consideration I do not think the evening will give us much opportunity to discover more about the will or china,’ she hesitated before saying, ‘but I think you might try and encourage the doctor to talk about Lady Porter and I can’t help feeling that Dr Patil may be the person to ask about blackmail.’

Lara nodded, but a thought came to her, ‘What about Kate calling him, “Dr Death”. You don’t think he could be dangerous?’

Abby ruminated on this for a moment. ‘I do not sense that the doctor is essentially a dangerous man. Although of course, once cornered, people change. You will just have to be careful not to provoke him.’