‘Being close to Annie, she knew how much her friend cared for him,’ said Thelma. ‘How Annie worried about how Davey would cope when the report came out, when the whole world would read what Neville Hilton had written. I believe she felt she almost had a duty to protect him.’
‘When Davey had that crash, he was on his way to see Bun,’ said Pat.
Donna frowned. ‘How do you work that out?’
‘He crashed on the A171,’ said Liz. ‘Which if you look at it on the map, you’ll see it leads almost directly to Robin Hood’s Bay.’
‘Son told me they had a friend who was an adviser,’ said Pat. ‘And that was Bun. Davey probably rang her up the day before the report was due out, and she’d have told him to come over. So, despite the bad weather he set off.’
‘I could tell Annie knew where he’d been going,’ said Thelma.
There was brief, sad silence.
‘That poor lad,’ said Ffion.
‘When Neville heard about the crash,’ said Liz, ‘he must have felt very bad himself.’
‘Only, Nev being Nev,’ said Pat, ‘he just carried out a letter-writing campaign complaining about driving conditions of the A171.’
Ffion nodded. ‘That sounds exactly like Nev,’ she said sadly.
Liz flushed slightly, hoping Ffion wouldn’t ask exactly howthey knew about Neville’s letter-writing campaign.
‘So, what’ll happen to this crazy woman?’ said Ffion. ‘I mean, is she going to be charged with anything?’
‘Like what?’ said Donna. ‘Painting a wall? Loading a dishwasher inappropriately? I mean we could look at charging her with not reporting a death – but it’s all circumstantial. She spoke to Ian, my colleague.’ She shrugged. ‘But as I keep saying, no crime was committed.’
‘But one was planned,’ said Liz.
Donna nodded. ‘But they’re very different things,’ she said. ‘And – as we keep coming back to – we haven’t got much evidence.’
‘So, she’ll just get away with it, I suppose,’ said Liz, lips thinning.
‘In her own eyes she’s done nothing wrong,’ said Thelma. ‘Especially as she hasn’t actually killed anyone.’ She shook herhead. ‘I’d imagine she feels totally vindicated. That’s the trouble with committed, passionate people – they often have very strong self-belief, which can dull their sense of what’s right and wrong.’ She sighed. ‘And particularly in this day and age, I’m afraid there’s many such people in positions of power in our society.’
‘But then,’ said Pat, ‘her best friend is dead, remember, the friend she loved and was inspired by, plus the lad she was looking out for.’
Hey, Mrs Kohl Panda, what can you see from your lonely house on a cliff?
A shrill peep disturbed the still of the room. Donna Dolby clapped her hands to her knees again and stood up. ‘I must be away,’ she said. ‘And remember, I wasn’t here.’ She looked at Thelma, Pat and Liz. ‘Which means,’ she said, ‘I haven’t heard any of this, so course I can’t saywell done, that’s amazing work.’
After she’d gone, Pat, Thelma and Liz looked in concern at Ffion.
‘And you,’ said Liz, her voice warm. ‘How are you?’
‘Oh, you know,’ said Ffion and shrugged. ‘Getting there.’
‘Will you be all right?’ asked Pat.
Ffion nodded. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she said. ‘There’s Sidrah and Zippy coming round in a bit. They want to talk about some idea for reopening the village playing field. Though who’s going to play on it, God only knows.’
‘Won’t that be a bit noisy for you?’ asked Pat.
Again, that shrug. ‘I dunno,’ said Ffion. ‘Be nice to hear a bit of life going on. This village can be like a bloomin’ morgue sometimes.’
At the front door as the three were taking their leave, Thelma said, ‘I imagine that was all quite hard to hear.’
‘It was,’ admitted Ffion. ‘I mean typical Nev, Mr Pedantic and all that. It was always the same – his way or the highway. What he did to that school—’ She looked at the three of them. ‘But hearing how he died. I mean, I make no secret of the fact that he wasn’tthe love of my life, but even so. Talking of lack of love, I’m going to give Jax some money.’
