Page 77 of A Curious Ending

Lara looked around at the stunned faces and she knew they were all thinking about the police swoop on Honeybourne Antiques the previous day.

It was at this point that the door to the hall opened, and Kate stepped back into the room. She was followed by a second person, their form hidden for a moment by the doorframe. A moment later, a distinctive figure stepped into the kitchen. Dr Patil gazed around at them uncertainly.

His appearance was met with total silence. Nobody seemed to know what to say. Nobody that is, except Abby, who instructed Lara to pull up a chair for their guest. ‘The poor man has been through enough after all.’

However, Mrs M got there before her, placing a seat at the head of the kitchen table. ‘Mo, sit yourself here and I’ll get you a drink. Glad you could make it.’ Lara’s ears pricked up at the use of ‘Mo’ – so Mrs M was a close friend of the doctor.

Mrs M then turned to Lara, ‘I know the doctor wasn’t on your list, Lara, but I don’t for one moment believe this man here,’ she nodded at the doctor, ‘would have done anything to harm her. And he has as much right as anyone to understand how she died.’

The room that had been so silent a few minutes earlier was now filled with voices. Lara could make out Sarah’s voice exclaiming, ‘So, it was Honeybourne then?’ And Richard bellowing, ‘It was suicide I tell you. What are you on about, woman?’

This did not stop Lara hearing Abby whispering into her ear, ‘I would direct your attention to the doctor, Lara.’

Dr Patil was sitting as if turned to stone, his face stricken.

Abby loudly and abruptly clapped her hands making Lara (but nobody else) jump. ‘The time has come, Lara. May I ask that you invite the assembly to be seated.’

Lara did as she was told, helped by Sarah and Kate, who had been warned beforehand that they might be needed to get the guests seated. Julian was the last one standing – or rather, edging to the door. Kate blocked his passage and said one word: ‘Sit!’ He did as he was told, stumbling over his feet in his haste to get away from her.

‘Now,’ Abby breathed. ‘When I speak Lara, you are to speak.’

Lara could feel her heart hammering against her ribs, but she was prepared for this and ready to follow where her Kindred Spirit led her.

And that is how for next hour Lara McGregor and Abigail Rossmore (deceased) became as one. Lara’s voice was a heartbeat behind Abby’s cool, calm intonation but Lara felt Abigail’s presence supporting her at her shoulder as if she were a living, breathing woman of flesh and blood.

‘Dr Patil, would you mind telling everyone why Jason Honeybourne was arrested yesterday?’

Dr Patil looked around at them all. The Porters, Joe and Mrs M were sat further down the kitchen table from him, Julian was perched on the edge of an armchair by the French windows and Kate and Sarah occupied the stools by the kitchen island. Lara (and Abby) were standing to the side of the kitchen island facing them all.

‘I believe that the police are charging Jason with numerous counts of theft, fraud and of obtaining money under false pretences.’

‘Not murder?’ Kate blurted.

Before Dr Patil could answer, Richard Porter boomed, ‘I knew he was up to no good! And the money that was missing. I knew he had something to do with it.’

‘Up to no good!’ Mrs M shot at him. ‘And who was it who was so greedy that he didn’t want people to receive the small bits and pieces that her Ladyship had left them?’ She nodded significantly towards Dr Patil and Lara. ‘You were the one who invited him in! And you wonder that Jason Honeybourne helped himself to a bit more? I knew he was ferreting around, but I could never catch him at it. You think I wanted to stay here all this time, or that I would have done that for you?’ She glared at Richard Porter. ‘I did it for her. I would have done anything for her. I didn’t want her belongings carted off by the likes of him.’

‘That is a completely false accusation. How dare y—’

‘Oh, do shut up, Richard.’ It was the first time Pinky Porter had spoken.

Richard Porter’s words trailed away.

‘So how were you involved?’ Sarah asked Dr Patil, and her quiet reasonable question brought calm to the room.

Dr Patil turned gratefully towards her. ‘I had suspected Jason Honeybourne for some time. Even before Elizabeth died I worried she might be selling too much. I wondered at first if she might need money…’

Lara thought fleetingly of blackmail and she also remembered the gaps in the artwork around Gillmore House.

‘…but whatever was going on I became worried that he might be taking advantage of her.’

‘I’d like to see that!’ Julian Armstrong muttered, with the air of one who had come off worse from encounters with her Ladyship.

Joe smothered a laugh, and Lara looked at him in surprise.

‘Sorry,’ he murmured.

Sarah was leaning forward on her stool, looking intently at the doctor. ‘You thought she wasn’t always herself, didn’t you?’