“Oh, my apologies; I’m Richard Digby-Rice, Eve Watkins’s next-door neighbor. I hope you don’t mind me gate-crashing your wedding, but Phyllis invited me.”
As he said this, Nova glanced at Phyllis, whose face had gone uncharacteristically flushed.
“Phyllis, you were amazing in there,” Ash said. “I can’t believe you worked out that Lauren was in love with Craig.”
“I saw it in her eyes when she arrived at the church,” Phyllis said. “She was standing talking to me, but the only person she was looking at was Craig.”
“It turns out being a busybody is useful after all,” Arthur said, winking at her.
“Well, I suppose I can’t takeallthe credit. You were the one who gave me the idea that love could be the motive.”
“Didn’t I say that romance novels would have the answer?” Arthur chuckled. “In the end, everything always comes down to love.”
“But still, we have to give Miss Marple here credit for solving the mystery,” Ash said.
The older lady gave an embarrassed cough and turned to Nova. “I’m sorry for disrupting your wedding like that, only I thought you should know what was going on.”
“It’s okay, Phyllis. That whole thing was horrible, but I do feel…I don’t know: relief, maybe? And thanks to you, I’m no longer a police suspect.”
“Well, I’m very glad I could help clear your name,” Phyllis said, and then she frowned as she looked at Michael. “I’m just sorry we’re no closer to clearing yours.”
“I do wonder if Michael’s right and Eve tragically tripped and fell of her own accord,” Richard said. “With no other suspects, surely the police will decide it was an accident?”
“So perhaps her death was never a murder mystery after all,” Phyllis said. “Nor a romance.”
“Now will you and Arthur admit that not everything can be answered by Miss Marple or a romance novel?” Ash said, smiling at the pair. “Not everything comes down to greed and love.”
The others all laughed at this, and despite her life having spectacularly imploded moments earlier, Nova found herself laughing too. And then she saw Phyllis stop and frown.
“Greedandlove,” the woman muttered to herself.
“Is everything okay?” Nova asked her.
Phyllis ignored her and turned to Michael. “Who knew about your father’s financial affairs, apart from you and Cynthia?”
“Phyllis, is now really the time for this?” Arthur said, glancing back toward the church doors, through which the wedding guests were starting to exit.
“We can leave in a moment, but I want to hear what Michael has to say first.”
Michael was looking confused, but he shrugged. “Eh, well apart from the bank, credit card companies and our family solicitor, I don’t think anyone knew. We were careful to keep Dad’s gambling debts a secret so Mum wouldn’t find out.”
Richard opened his mouth to say something, but Ash got there first.
“Cynthia might have told her lover! Is that what you’re thinking, Phyllis? That Cynthia’s lover might have killed Eve?”
“That’s an interesting theory,” Phyllis said, nodding approvingly at the teenager. “But I don’t think it was him; he doesn’t have a strong enough motive. Yet there is someone else with a strong motive; someone who had no idea about the debts and still thought Eve was a wealthy woman sitting on a decent inheritance.”
“Hang on, I’m the sole beneficiary of Mum’s will,” Michael said. “So I’m the only person who’d have a motive to kill her for the inheritance, and as previously discussed, I definitely didn’t do it.”
“Hypothetically speaking, there are other ways someone could have got their hands on your mum’s money. Someone could have convinced her to sell her house, for example, and give them the money?”
“Why on earth would Mum have done that?”
Phyllis smiled at Michael sadly. “As Arthur so frequently reminds us, people will do all sorts of crazy things for love.”
“Hang on, are you saying my mum was inlove?” Michael’s voice had risen with incredulity. “I’m sorry but that’s ridiculous. She adored my dad and was devastated when he died.”
“I know this must be hard to hear, Michael. But if it’s any consolation, I know what it’s like to be heartbroken and lonely, and then for someone to come along who makes you feel special. Someone who smiles at you with kind eyes and makes you feel like a teenager again.”
