Elizabeth walks back to her husband. She takes his hand in hers and kisses him on the lips. “I think it might be time to cut down on the coffee, Stephen. All that caffeine. It can’t be good for you.”
“Quite so,” says Stephen. “Whatever you think is for the best.”
Stephen and Bogdan begin another game. Elizabeth turns back to the kitchen and neither man sees her tears.
115.
Joyce
Sorry I haven’t written for a while; it’s been very busy around here. But I have a gooseberry crumble on the go, and I thought there might be a few things you’d want to know.
They buried Penny and John the Tuesday before last. It was quite a quiet one, and it rained, which seemed about right. There were a few old colleagues of Penny’s there. In fact, more than you would think, considering. It had been in the papers, Penny and John. They hadn’t got the whole story straight, but they were near enough. The news had got wind that Penny was a friend of Ron’s too. He was interviewed onKent Today, and they even showed it on the normal news later. Someone came down fromTheSunto talk to him, but Ron was having none of that. He told them to park outside Larkin Court and then had them clamped.
Elizabeth wasn’t at the funeral. We haven’t discussed it, so that’s that, I’m afraid. I wonder if she had already said her good-bye. She must have, mustn’t she?
I don’t even know if Elizabeth has forgiven Penny. I’m afraid I take the Old Testament view that what Penny did was right. That’s just me, and it’s not something I would say out loud, but I’m glad she did what she did. I hope Peter Mercer was alive long enough to know what was happening to him.
Elizabeth is a good deal cleverer than me, and will have thought about it more. But I can’t see that she could really blame Penny for what she did.Would Elizabeth have done the same? I think so. I think Elizabeth would have got away with it, though.
But I do think Elizabeth must be sad at the secret. There were the two girls, Elizabeth and Penny, and their mysteries, and all the while Penny was the biggest mystery of all. That must hurt Elizabeth. Perhaps one day we’ll talk about it.
Penny killed Peter Mercer, and she kept it from John all her life. Until dementia broke her. And once John knew, he had to protect her. That’s love, isn’t it? That’s what Gerry would have done for me. Because Peter Mercer murdered Annie Madeley, Penny murdered Peter Mercer. Because Penny murdered Peter Mercer, John murdered Ian Ventham. So it goes, I suppose. And at least now it’s done. I wish peace on Penny and John, and I wish peace on poor Annie Madeley. For Peter Mercer, and for everything he caused, I wish nothing but torment.
The police have yet to find Turkish Johnny, by the way, but they’re looking. Chris and Donna have popped over here a couple of times. Chris has a new lady friend, but is being coy about it for now, and we can’t get Donna to talk. Chris says they’ll catch up with Johnny eventually, but Bogdan was round to fix my power shower the other day, and he says Johnny is too smart for that.
If you really want my view, Johnny is far too convenient. He came over and killed Tony for informing on him all those years ago? Why would Tony have informed on him? For his part in cleaning up a murder that Tony committed? That makes no sense to me.
No, the only person too smart to be caught around here is Bogdan.
Don’t you think he killed Tony Curran? I do. I’m sure he had a good reason, and I look forward to asking him. But not until he’s fitted my new replacement window, because what if he takes offense? I wonder if Elizabeth suspects him too. She certainly hasn’t mentioned chasing down Johnny recently, so perhaps she does.
I will have to check the crumble in a bit. Shall we get on to more pleasant tidings?
Hillcrest is already up and running; there are cranes and diggers up on the hill. They say Gordon Playfair got £4.2 million for his land, and by “they” I mean Elizabeth, so you can take it as gospel. He said good-bye to the house he’d lived in for seventy years and packed his belongings into a Land Rover and trailer. Then he drove the four hundred–odd yards down the hill and unpacked it all at a nice two-bedroom in Larkin Court.
Bramley Holdings gave him the flat as part of the deal, which brings us on to another bit of news.
Bramley Holdings? It wasn’t about apples after all. I told you, though, that the name had rung a bell. Well, here’s why.
When she was very young, Joanna had a little toy elephant, pink with white ears, and she would never let me wash it. I can’t imagine the germs it carried, but I think that’s not necessarily a bad thing with children. And the name of that elephant? Bramley. I had quite forgotten. She had so many toys, and I’m a terrible mother.
Perhaps you see where this is going, though.
You remember we had taken Ventham’s accounts to Joanna, of course, back when Elizabeth wondered if Ian Ventham had murdered Tony Curran?
Anyway, Joanna and Cornelius had looked through the accounts for us, and they’d reported back, and that was the end of the matter.
But for Joanna it hadn’t been the end of the matter at all. Not a bit of it.
Joanna and Cornelius had liked what they saw in the accounts. And they had liked what they read about Hillcrest. So Joanna had made a presentation to the other board members—this scene, in my head, is around the airplane wing table—and then they bought the company. She was planning to buy it from Ian Ventham but, of course, ended up buying it from his widow, Gemma. So isn’t that a turn up?
Joanna owns the whole place. Or Joanna’s company, but that’s the same thing, isn’t it?
Now, this leads me on to Bernard, and you’ll see why.
Joanna and I had never talked about Bernard, but she came down to be with me at the funeral, so had Elizabeth told her, perhaps? Or did she just know? I think she just knew. So she came down and she held my hand, and in a weaker moment I put my head on her shoulder, and that was nice. After the funeral she told me about Bramley Holdings. I pretended I had known all along, because I felt guilty about forgetting the elephant, but Joanna sees straight through me.
We talked, and I told her I didn’t think this was the sort of business they bought, and she agreed, but she said it was “a sector we have been keen to get into.” I see straight through her too, though, and she admitted that was a lie. She did say there was plenty of money to be made, but she told me she had another reason too. Which I’ll tell you now.
