Guns in the Gallery (24 page)

‘Ah,' said Jude. ‘I didn't know there had been a suicide note.'

TWENTY-SIX

A
s soon as she had finished the call to Sam Torino, Jude hurried round to High Tor to bring Carole up to date with the new development. But there was no reply. Of course, Gulliver was being taken to the vet's about his inflamed foot.

Back at Woodside Cottage she didn't hesitate, but straight away rang Ned Whittaker. The phone was answered by a girl whose laid-back manner did not disguise the fact that she was actually a secretary. As ever, the slightly hippyish atmosphere of Butterwyke House masked rigid efficiency.

Ned came on the line immediately on hearing who was asking for him. His ‘Hi, Jude' was spoken with a degree of caution. Presumably Sheena had updated him on their encounter that morning.

As soon as Jude told him that she knew about the suicide note found in the Pimlico flat, he announced that he'd come over to Fethering immediately ‘to explain what happened.'

The Prius in which he arrived outside Woodside Cottage soon after was driven by Kier, who had clearly been told to wait in the car. In spite of his T-shirted dress code, the young man was as much a chauffeur as one in a uniform and a peaked cap.

Ned Whittaker looked more stressed than ever. Refusing offers of tea or coffee, he asked immediately, ‘How did you find out about the suicide note?'

‘Sam Torino.'

He sighed with annoyance. ‘I'd forgotten she knew. I should have warned her to keep quiet about it.'

‘Tell me what happened in the Pimlico flat after the first suicide attempt,' said Jude calmly.

‘You know most of it. The flat's a kind of family bolt-hole in London. There have been times when one or other of the girls were living there full-time . . . you know, when Fennel was at St Martin's . . . or when Chervil was between jobs or houses. We all have keys. Thank God, because otherwise Chervil wouldn't have found Fennel that afternoon and . . . Mind you, Fennel's dead now, which means . . .' Grief threatened to overwhelm him.

‘So Chervil just dropped into the flat that afternoon by chance?' asked Jude.

‘Yes. And she found Fennel unconscious. She realized immediately what had happened. The pill bottles and the whisky left her in no doubt.'

‘Nor did the suicide note,' Jude prompted.

‘No.' Ned sighed again. There was despair in his manner, but also an element of relief. Holding in the information had taken its toll on him. ‘I have, incidentally, called Chervil. Told her that you knew about the note and that I was coming to see you. She may appear here at any moment.'

‘Fine. So go on. Chervil rang you after she'd found Fennel, you got Kier to drive you up to London . . .'

‘How do you know that?'

‘He told me.'

‘Ah.' Wearily he said, ‘Very difficult when you try to keep things quiet, you know. You think you've warned off everyone you should . . . and then you discover there's someone you've forgotten.'

‘So when you got to Pimlico, Chervil showed you the suicide note?'

‘Yes.'

‘Was it straight away that you decided to keep quiet about it?'

‘Pretty much. I was terribly shocked, but it looked as if Fennel was going to pull through. The cuts on her wrists were only surface injuries, most of the painkillers had been flushed out of her system and I was starting to think: no one need actually ever know that this has happened. No one outside the family, that is . . . or close friends.'

‘Like Sam Torino?'

He nodded.

‘So did you take the suicide note with you?'

‘No, I left it with Chervil. Told her to destroy it before the people arrived to clean out the flat.'

‘And do you think she did destroy it?'

‘I assume so.'

‘No, you don't, Ned,' said Jude, with a new strength in her voice. ‘Because you've seen that suicide note since then, haven't you?' He made no attempt to deny the allegation. ‘It was the suicide note that was found near Fennel's body in the yurt at Walden.'

Ned Whittaker looked totally drained. He couldn't summon up the energy to provide any further defence. He just sat slumped in his armchair as Jude went on, ‘Which of course does put a whole new interpretation on the circumstances of her death, doesn't it? There was no way Fennel herself left that note, was there?'

‘No,' Ned agreed wretchedly.

‘Equally, there's no way that Chervil destroyed it, as she said she had.'

Before Jude could pursue this argument to its logical conclusion, she was interrupted by a ring on the doorbell. With no great surprise, she found Chervil Whittaker standing outside.

Ned had followed her to the front door. ‘I'd better go,' he said.

‘But, Daddy—'

‘I'd better go,' he repeated, pushing past his daughter without making any eye contact. And as Ned Whittaker walked along Jude's garden path towards the waiting Prius, his body language reflected deep pain and a sense of betrayal.

TWENTY-SEVEN

C
hervil Whittaker walked through into the sitting room of Woodside Cottage in silence and sat herself down in one of the armchairs. She was, as ever, perfectly groomed in designer jeans and polo shirt, but her face had lost its animated sparkle.

Jude took a seat opposite her. ‘So . . .?' she said.

‘Daddy told me you'd found out about the suicide note.'

‘Yes. You didn't destroy it after Fennel's first attempt?'

‘No.'

‘Can I ask why?'

‘You can ask. I'm not sure how coherent an answer I can give you.'

‘Oh?'

‘Have you got a sister?' Jude shook her head. ‘Well then, you'll just have to take my word for it that relationships between sisters can be quite complex.'

‘I know that from my work as a therapist.'

‘Yes, of course you would. I'm sure there are all kinds of psychological terms applied to the situation – “sibling rivalry”, that kind of thing – but I don't know that they quite cover it. The fact is, within our family I've always felt that I was kind of playing second fiddle to Fennel.'

‘Because she was your father's favourite?'

‘It's not as simple as that. Daddy loves both of us, in his way, but if there ever was a direct competition for his attention, Fennel would win it.'

‘Because she was needy?'

‘I guess, yes. You might imagine that someone with power over other people has to be pushy and upfront . . .'

‘I wouldn't imagine that, actually. I know how potent vulnerability can be.'

‘I'm sorry, of course you'd understand. Presumably you deal with that kind of stuff every day. Anyway, that's how it worked with Fennel. She was always fragile emotionally, and you could tell Daddy was almost literally afraid she might break if he didn't rush to look after her. To be fair, I don't think Fennel actually played on that. It's just how she was.'

‘But your mother didn't respond to her in the same way as your father?'

‘It was different with Mummy. She'd act tougher about it, say, “Don't worry about Fennel – she's just having one of her prima donna moments.” She'd
say
that, but in many ways she was as much in thrall to Fennel as Daddy was.'

‘But she's not been as affected by her death as Ned is. She's even referred to it as being a relief.'

‘Yes, but you can't always believe what Mummy says. She can be quite devious at times. With her there's a lot going on that you don't see on the surface.'

Jude nodded, having received confirmation of the impression that she had of Sheena Whittaker.

‘So what I'm saying is,' Chervil went on, ‘I've always felt inferior to Fennel. In spite of the fact that, by any kind of public criterion, I've always been much more successful than she has. I did better than her at school, and in my business career. And my relationships with men were always better. I didn't end up with the kind of no-hopers Fennel did.'

Jude was struck, not for the first time, by how deeply ingrained childhood perceptions could prove to be in adult personalities. Family designations, like ‘the pretty one' or ‘the clever one' could cast long shadows into the future.

But she did pick up on one thing Chervil had just said. ‘You're not describing Giles as a “no-hoper”, are you?'

‘How do you mean?'

‘I know that Fennel had a relationship with him too.'

Chervil looked annoyed. ‘Who did you hear that from?'

‘Denzil Willoughby.'

‘I might have guessed. There's a streak of vindictive gossip in Denzil. Anyway, Giles is far from being a no-hoper. He was a rare exception in Fennel's catalogue of masculine disaster areas. They weren't together very long, and they were always bound to split up sooner or later –' she smiled smugly – ‘which was of course very good news for me.'

There was a silence. Jude asked if Chervil would like a drink, but the offer was refused. ‘Maybe we could get back to the suicide note . . .?' Jude suggested.

‘Yes. I'm trying to explain why I kept it. I don't know, it seemed logical at the time. Fennel had just staged another of her dramas. As usual, Daddy had dropped everything and come rushing to her aid. And once again I knew he'd smooth the whole thing over, keep it quiet, see that news of what had happened didn't spread beyond the family and close friends. And no one would believe the kind of panic and aggravation Fennel had caused us. So I kept the suicide note as kind of, I don't know . . . evidence against her, if I ever needed it.'

‘And did you ever need it?'

‘I don't know what you mean.'

Jude left that line of questioning for a moment and moved on in another direction. ‘You realize there are certain logical consequences from your admission that you kept the suicide note . . . and even more from the fact that it was found by Fennel's dead body.'

Again Chervil said, ‘I don't know what you mean.' Jude couldn't decide whether the girl was playing for time or whether she genuinely hadn't followed the logic through.

‘Well, to put it bluntly, it means that your sister didn't commit suicide.'

‘Not necessarily.'

‘Oh, come on, Chervil . . .' There was a rare note of exasperation in Jude's voice. ‘Your father's told me that the note left by Fennel's body in the yurt was definitely the one he saw in the flat in Pimlico, the one he told you to destroy. That means it wasn't left there by Fennel herself, because even if she had wished to go down the bizarre route of leaving the note she'd written before, it wasn't in her possession, so she couldn't have. You had it, Chervil, and I'd need a pretty convincing argument to persuade me it wasn't you who left it there.'

‘Well, it wasn't.'

‘No?'

‘No.'

‘When did you last see the note, Chervil?'

‘A few weeks ago. There's a file I keep in a drawer in my bedroom. It's personal stuff, things I don't want to lose.'

‘Are you talking about your bedroom in your London flat?'

‘No, down here at Butterwyke House.'

‘And why did you look at the note a few weeks ago?'

‘Er, I can't remember.' The girl's hesitation showed she was lying.

‘That's not good enough, Chervil. We're talking about a murder here. The suicide note was in your possession, then it appeared beside your sister's body. The most likely explanation remains that you put it there.'

‘I didn't!' came the passionate response. ‘It was already there when I . . .'

The words trickled away as she realized what she had said. Jude let the silence stretch long enough for Chervil Whittaker to take in the full impact of her giveaway, then observed, ‘I think you've come rather close to an admission there.'

‘Admission of what?' Chervil demanded defiantly.

‘Admission that you did go to the treatment yurt at Walden the night Fennel died.'

‘And what if I did? I didn't murder her. She was already dead when I got there.'

‘With the suicide note lying beside her?'

‘Yes.'

‘So what did you do? On the previous occasion when you found Fennel like that you immediately contacted your father. Is that what you did this time?'

‘No.'

‘Why not?'

‘I didn't want him involved. I didn't want anyone involved. I didn't want anyone to know what'd happened.'

‘Or rather you didn't want anyone to know that you'd been in the yurt.'

‘All right, that was part of it. Look, I was in shock. At first I thought Fennel must've killed herself. She'd threatened to enough times. I thought she'd finally succeeded.'

‘But then you saw the note.'

‘Yes.'

‘And its presence told you that she must have been murdered.'

‘Well, it told me that was a possibility. As I say, I wasn't thinking straight.'

‘Mm. I think the presence of the note brought another thought into your mind, the thought of who might have put it there.' The girl didn't respond, she remained stubbornly silent, so Jude changed tack. ‘Who else knew you had the suicide note, Chervil?'

‘No one.'

‘I don't think that's true. And if it is true, then you are the only person who could have planted it by the body. So either you admit someone else knew you had it, or you are effectively identifying yourself as your sister's murderer. I do still have the number of Detective Inspector Hodgkinson, the police officer who questioned me after Fennel died . . .'

It was not the kind of threat that Jude liked using, but it did have the required effect. Chervil said, ‘Yes, all right, I did show it to someone else.'

‘Who? I can't think there are that many candidates.'

‘Well, I . . .'

Jude was distracted by another thought. ‘When you found Fennel's body, did you also find her mobile phone?'