‘Hello, Imogen,’ he says as I walk into the room. He’ssitting on a floral sofa nursing a hot drink. With his expensive clothes and his coiffed hair, he looks out of place in this old-fashioned living room. ‘Please sit. I’ve been expecting you.’
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ says Irene, quietly closing the door behind me.
‘So. You’re the lucky one who has inherited all of Dot’s wealth,’ he says with a grin. ‘I was hoping to meet you at some point.’
‘It was you I saw walking the fields that day, wasn’t it? Have you been following me?’ I perch on a matching chair opposite him and next to the fireplace. Sun streams through the leaded windows, glinting off a photo frame on the hearth. It’s a black and white picture of Irene and Bobby when they were kids.
‘We grew up in Tooting Bec,’ he says, indicating the photograph. ‘Our parents died young. Reney basically brought me up. And, in answer to your question, no, I haven’t been following you. I was just keeping an eye on the place.’ He flashes me a charming smile. Even though he must be getting on for eighty, he’s still handsome. He has an elegant gold Rolex on his wrist. I can see why Dorothy would have been so enraptured with him all those years ago. He has this way of making you feel at ease. His body is angled towards me, and his voice is husky with a faint trace of cockney.
And then I remember. This is the man who abused Dorothea. This is the man who almost choked her to death.
‘Dorothea thought she’d killed you,’ I say in amazement. ‘Why did you let her think that?’
‘Annette paid me off. She was once a very wealthy woman. Unfortunately, not any more, much to my disappointment.’
‘But … I don’t understand. Why would she let Dorothea think she’d killed you?’
He shakes his head as though disappointed in me. ‘Annette is a conniving woman. She’ll do whatever it takes to make things as she wants them. She wanted me to disappear so that she could have Dot all to herself, to mould her and manipulate her, and, ultimately, to have a hold over her, and that’s what she did.’
All this time Dorothea had been trying to escape an abusive man, only to end up with a controlling woman.
I stare at him blankly. ‘Do you know that Annette has been arrested for, amongst other things, the murder of Dorothea?’
‘Ah, well, I’m not surprised about that.’ He waves a hand in the air. ‘Poor Dot. She didn’t deserve that, but then … that’s what you get when you trust people like Annette.’
I want to wipe the smug smile from his face. ‘Can you start from the beginning?’
He leans over to put his mug down. ‘What’s in it for me?’
I glare at him.
‘I’m only joking. I’ve got enough money, thanks to Annette.’ He chuckles. ‘Okay. Well. Short version. Dot hit me over the head with an ashtray after we argued.Left me for dead. Annette and her sidekick Rosemary whatshername apparently carried me to the car, although I was unconscious at that point so I only have their word for it. I woke up in the middle of Magpie Hill with the two of them looking down at me. Their faces when they saw that I was alive. It was hilarious. Anyway, Annette offered me a lot of money to disappear. She said it would be better for Dorothea to think I was dead. I didn’t care why. I just wanted the money. I was never going to make much at the factory.’ He crosses his ankles. ‘So I went along with it. She paid me to go to Australia and set up home. And then she made sure I had a monthly income. Every now and again the payments would lapse so I’d send a little reminder to her, or Rosemary …’
‘Like a Christmas card?’
‘Yes. Exactly.’
‘But why Rosemary?’
‘She was a rich old bird too and she didn’t want a scandal. Can you imagine if the world knew that Lady Rosemary Farrington was willing to clean up after her friend? She didn’t want the truth coming out any more than Annette did. I must have bled Annette dry, because about eighteen months ago she told me she had no more money left. I threatened to tell Dot the truth if she didn’t come up with more cash.’
Revulsion towards this man rips through me.
‘But they didn’t seem bothered. It was like something had shifted. Maybe they thought, hoped, that all these years later I wouldn’t be believed.’ He shrugs.
They were probably more concerned about the truth coming out surrounding my mum, but I don’t say this to Bobby.
‘I had no choice but to pay Dot a visit.’ He leans back against the sofa, smiling at the memory.
‘It was you who left the postcard?’
‘Yes. And my lighter too. I’d like that back, actually, if you have it. And then, after I left the items for her to find, I decided to drop in on Dot. Oh, you should have seen her face when she first saw me looming out of the mist. She really thought she was seeing a ghost. After the shock had worn off I told her everything. About Annette and Rosemary, and what they’d done. How, for all those years, they’d let her believe she’d killed me. She’d already begun to suspect the truth, though, thanks to the lighter and the postcard. Some friends, huh? We actually had a nice chat, in the end. Parted as … not exactly friends, but not enemies either.’
‘Did Dorothea talk about going to the police and telling them the truth about Annette?’
‘She never mentioned the police. But I doubt that crossed her mind. She’d get into trouble either way because she’d helped cover it up.’
‘You were in Dorothea’s woods on Saturday, weren’t you? Why?’
