‘Maybe she got there late,’ said Pat.
Thelma nodded. ‘That is possible, but when you look at the fact this row was in the Snuggery, you have to at least consider the possibility it might have been someone else.’
‘Who?’ asked Liz.
Thelma shrugged. ‘That,’ she said, ‘is the million-dollar question.’
‘Maybe a burglar?’ suggested Liz. ‘Nev saw something wrong, maybe the door open, went in and confronted him?’
Thelma shook her head. ‘Her. Judy assumed the voice belonged to his wife, remember.’
‘Her then,’ said Pat. ‘You can get female burglars.’
‘But remember the phone call Neville got at Rotary,’ said Thelma. ‘Calling him back to the house. You wouldn’t get a burglar doing that – and you’re less likely to have a total stranger screaming the odds at you.’
At that moment there was another burst of sound, this time a tinny version of the theme fromFlashdance. Pat rolled her eyes, retrieved her phone and pointedly turned it off.
‘Thank you and goodnight, Ms Shally,’ she said. ‘So where were we?’
‘If it wasn’t Ffion, who was Neville arguing with?’ said Liz. ‘And why?’
Thelma patted the green mark book. ‘The only clues we’ve got are what was said—’
‘And that’s all second hand.’ Pat gloomily gave herself another fan with the sun hat. In response, Thelma turned the battered green tome towards her friends, who both smiled faintly at this remnant from their former life, conjuring benign ghosts of spelling scores, dinner registers, lists of readers. On an empty page of the squared paper, Thelma had neatly drawn two columns.
‘What Judy Bestall heard, and repeated to others, falls into two parts,’ she said, pointing to the page. Her neat, clear-varnished nail indicated a sentence written at the top of the first column in her neat, rounded teacher-script.That’ll teach you. The nail moved to the second column where was written:Have pity on me.‘That’s what Jean and Donald said Judy heard,’ she said.
‘But how can that help?’ said Pat. ‘They were just repeating what this Judy Doody told them.’
‘No, they weren’t repeating,’ said Thelma. ‘That’s the whole nature of hearsay. The mind of the listener picks up on the detail that seems important to them.’ Her friends looked at her blankly. ‘Remember Margo Benson’s chimney?’
Light slowly dawned.
‘Everyone was up in arms,’ said Liz slowly, ‘because someone thought they’d heard Margo say she was walking around with the flu.’
‘When all along,’ said Thelma, ‘it was her chimney flue that was blocked.’
‘I don’t see how that helps us there though,’ said Pat.
Thelma turned to Liz. ‘What did Sidrah tell you Judy heard?’
Liz frowned. ‘“You should go to a charm school”and“For pity’s sake”,’ said Liz.
Thelma nodded, writing furiously.
Thelma turned the book round again and the three friends looked at the neat handwriting. In the first column was written:That’ll teach youandYou should go to a charm school; in the second:Have pity on meandFor pity’s sake.
‘I think we can guess the first part,’ said Thelma. ‘If you take the wordsteachandschool.’
‘Education!’ Liz’s triumphant cry made people on adjoining tables look round in surprise. ‘She was saying something to do with education!’
‘Nev worked for Lodestone Trust,’ said Pat slowly.
Thelma nodded. ‘And before that he was a head teacher – and an Ofsted inspector.’
‘So, this person – whoever they were – was shouting something about education,’ said Pat. ‘But what about the other part?Have pity on me – for pity’s sake?’
Thelma frowned. ‘That’s the bit I’m struggling with,’ she admitted.
