Page 68 of A Curious Ending

Lara could only catch some of what she was saying, but she gathered by Abby’s rapt expression that she was taking it all in.

‘I loved the racehorses you were painting,’ Lara declared in an attempt to save Abby more graphic descriptions of Pinky’s love life.

‘You do? You do?!’ Pinky declared drunkenly. She turned to Kate and then leant forward to Sarah. ‘That’s amazing, Lara likes the same painting as me.’ Kate hauled Pinky further up in the seat as she was now in danger of slipping on to the floor of the taxi. This made Pinky laugh, and doing a pretty good impression of her husband she announced, ‘I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like. And I don’t like that. Messy and rubbishy. You mark my words, Pinky, stick to the classics, you can’t go wrong with the classics.’ Pinky hiccoughed. She then relapsed into semi-silence, just occasionally muttering, ‘Bloody dogs.’

They drew up in the Market Square and Lara ushered them into her cottage. She flicked the kettle on and led them into the sitting room, turning on the lamps as she went. She put a match to the fire and revelled in the pleasure of having these women in her home. She was enormously grateful that she had cleared up for her mum’s visit.

‘This is beautiful,’ Sarah declared, looking around.

Kate managed to support Pinky and guide her to the sofa before exploring the room. ‘I love the wallpaper. I think I might copy that,’ she said, before unzipping her boots and kicking them off. She then curled up on the sofa next to Pinky.

The next few minutes were taken up with making coffee and pouring wine – everyone wanted both. Lara just handed Pinky some coffee. She thought she’d probably had enough wine for the time being. All the time she was thinking; how was she ever going to tell Sarah and Kate about Mrs M?

Lara caught Pinky watching her. ‘He’s not a good man, Lara, not a good man. Used to be. Don’t know what happened. Used to laugh a lot. Not anymore.’ She stared off into the distance. Lara, Kate and Sarah looked at each other. Abby who was sitting on the arm of the sofa nearest to Pinky looked down compassionately at her.

‘Didn’t want her to make a new will,’ Pinky said suddenly. ‘Liked Lizzie, always kind to me. She left me her jewellery, did you know that? Liked Lizzie,’ she repeated. The women watched her for a while and Lara began to think she had fallen asleep. ‘Shouldn’t have done it,’ Pinky suddenly declared loudly, rousing herself.

‘Done what?’ Lara asked.

‘Fucking Julian.’

Kate managed to catch Pinky’s cup of coffee just as she dropped it and fell fast asleep on the arm of the sofa. All four of the women in the room stared at Pinky. Was Pinky Porter simply saying she shouldn’t have slept with Julian Armstrong? Or was the mention of Julian linked to her earlier statement that someone, ‘shouldn’t have done it’? What had Julian done?

The only sound in the room was Pinky’s gentle snoring and the crackle of the fire in the wood burner.

Chapter 35

Lara thought that now was the time to tell the truth. She glanced at Abby – well, almost all of the truth. She turned to Sarah and Kate. ‘There’s something I need to tell you. Well, a few things.’

She told them about what had actually happened at the theatre and what had almost happened at the top of the stairs. She explained about her trip to London to see her friend Fiona, plus Dr Patil’s strange behaviour in Jason Honeybourne’s shop and about him selling his inheritance. And finally, drawing a deep breath, she related what Richard Porter had revealed about Mrs M. Or rather, Maggie Linton.

After she had finished speaking the room was silent for a long moment and then Sarah and Kate started talking at once. Most of their attention was focused on Mrs M, and Kate pulled out her phone to search for articles about the trial. There were several reports online, even though the trial had been many years ago. At the time it seemed that this had been a big event at Winchester Crown Court. She read these out to the other two, Abby sitting on the sofa arm beside her, reading over her shoulder.

‘Wow, it seems like she was initially sentenced to life for murder,’ Kate whispered, her face pale.

‘What happened?’ Sarah asked. ‘Surely she should still be in prison?’

Kate searched some more. ‘Ah, here it is.’ She was silent for some moments reading what had come up on her phone. ‘Yeah, that makes sense…’

‘What?’ Lara and Sarah asked.

After a while, Kate grunted and spoke, ‘There was a retrial. A women’s group campaigned on her behalf as there was clear evidence of long-term domestic abuse. In the original trial it was the plank of wood with a nail in it that the prosecution had focused on, saying she had made a deadly weapon and planned it all. But in the retrial it was argued that she had simply drugged his tea to stop the beatings. Then when he found out what she was doing he attacked her and she grabbed the nearest thing to hand, which happened to be a bit of wood that was lying around.’ Kate was nodding. ‘The retrial got the charge changed to manslaughter.’

The room was silent once more, apart from Pinky’s snoring.

‘It sounds like it was self-defence to me,’ Sarah concluded, echoing Kate and Lara’s thoughts.

‘How long did she serve?’ Lara asked.

‘It looks like twelve years,’ Kate said bleakly.

‘Poor Mrs M,’ Sarah said softly. ‘Do you think…’ she continued tentatively.

‘Not for a second,’ Kate burst out. ‘Mrs M is not a murderer and the last person she would kill would be someone who’s been so kind to her.’

Sarah shook her head. ‘No, I wasn’t going to say that,’ she said slowly. ‘I was just thinking back to our conversations about blackmail. I can’t see Lady Porter giving in to someone blackmailing her, but if they threatened to expose Mrs M…’ She left this hanging.

The three women looked at each other. Abby studied them carefully.