Fatal Slip

  'I wonder if she'll keep the baby?' she asked.

  'Baby? Oh, yes. I hadn't thought of that, I'm only just beginning to take it in,' Valerie said. 'It will be your grandchild, Dodie.'

  Dodie blinked. How could she have overlooked that fact? 'And he'll never know his father, any more than Jake did. Let's hope he turns out better.'

  Bill coughed. 'Dodie,' he began hesitantly, and coughed again. 'I hadn't intended telling you this, but you ought to know. It's quite possible Jake had told someone else and they might tell the police.'

  He stopped and the two women looked at him curiously. His face was redder than normal and he was blinking rapidly.

  'Well,' Dodie demanded, 'spit it out.'

  'It's damned embarrassing. Jake came up to me one day, and he, well, he accused me of being his father.'

  Dodie stared at him incredulously, then burst into laughter. 'Bill! What on earth did you say?'

  Bill grinned, a little shamefaced. 'I told him I was thankful there could be no chance of that. I meant, I didn't mean that in other circumstances, you know, if we hadn't already been married, that is, I mean Valerie and I, that you and I – oh hell, I can't say what I mean!'

  Dodie was still chuckling. 'I know what you mean. You might have fancied me, if there'd been no Valerie, but the very thought of a closer connection with Jake was too terrible to contemplate.'

  'Yes,' he said gratefully.

  'He'd been asking me who his father was when I first came out here. He's never bothered before. I wonder why?'

  Valerie was chuckling. 'You and Bill and all the other army chaps used to know one another around the right time. It's OK, Dodie, I'm neither jealous nor probing, and I know you've never told anyone the truth. Did he ask you for money?' she asked Bill.

  He nodded, unhappily. 'I was disgusted. I gave him very short shrift, but it occurs to me Howard was around at the same time. We ought to ask him if Jake approached him too.'

  'And that makes all three of us suspects.'

  'Valerie! I wouldn't suspect any of you for a second,' Dodie protested.

  'The police might.'

  'Then they're even greater idiots than I thought. Do they think I'd be staying here, open to all sorts of attempts at poison or being smothered during the night, if I had the slightest doubts?'

  At that moment Jylli was announced. She'd just popped up to give Dodie a couple of messages, requests for interviews, she said. When Libby stuck her head in at the door to say she was off now, Dodie called her in, introduced them, and admired Jylli's aplomb when she said she must be going back, and if Libby was going her way could they walk together.

  *

  Dodie was sitting on the terrace an hour later when Bruce Jellicoe arrived. He stopped and asked how she was feeling.

  'Puzzled,' she said briskly. 'Did you want to see Bill? I'm afraid he's out and Valerie has popped along to see how Gloria is.'

  'It wasn't important. I just happened to be passing, and wondered how the police were getting on. I gather they've been interviewing the Macleans.'

  'Have they?' How rapidly news spread. Dodie hoped Isabella's secret hadn't become common knowledge, or the girl would be in even greater distress.

  'I suppose they wanted gossip about the party. No doubt they'll be wanting to see everyone else, and probing why we all wanted to thump the man. Oh, sorry, Dodie, I keep forgetting he was your son. You just don't look old enough to have had a son my age.'

  'I was very young,' she said quietly.

  Bruce sighed, and looked morosely at the view of the harbour down the hill from them. 'Are you staying on for long? I wish it could all be over, I have interviews set up in London, for my last book when it's published there.'

  'You don't like being away from the big city? I hope you've completely recovered from that mugging. It must have been a tremendous wallop. Did you see anyone?'

  Bruce shook his head. 'No. It was dusk when I came back to the car. I'd left it in the lane which goes along the backs of these houses, while I collected some photos.'

  'Were you unconscious?'

  'Shaken, and I think I blacked out for a few seconds. I came to sitting on the ground, and saw someone running away round the corner.'

  'Did they steal your wallet?'

  'No. That's the odd thing. They stole nothing.'

  'And you have no idea who it could have been.'

  Bruce hesitated. 'There was something, I don't know what. Just an impression of red hair, but that may have been blurred vision! I had a faint feeling that the chap was familiar, but I may have been dreaming. I can't be at all sure.'

  Dodie nodded sympathetically. 'It would be difficult to be sure if you'd been knocked out. Did you see a doctor?'

  'Emma insisted I had a check at the hospital. It wasn't necessary. I hate being the centre of a fuss. Well, if Bill's out I'd better go.'

  He left, and Dodie watched him. Was he telling the truth, or had he known his attacker? It had happened near Jake's studio. Did he suspect, or know, that it had been Jake? Had he taken his revenge on the boat? The insults to Emma might have pushed him over the edge, or he might just have wanted to give Jake a ducking. He needn't have intended him to die. In fact, she realized, no one need have intended that, and if Jake had hit his head it was a joke gone horribly wrong.

  *

  Dodie sat pondering the facts she already knew for so long, in a sun which was hotter than she'd expected, that she felt the onset of another migraine as soon as she stood up. She retreated to bed and when Jylli came that evening, eager to report on her investigations, Valerie sent her away saying that Dodie wouldn't be fit to talk until the following day. It was afternoon before Dodie's migraine attack subsided and she felt well enough to get up.

  'Jylli's coming later on,' Valerie said. 'Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?'

  'I'll live on my fat for the rest of today, thanks,' Dodie said, shuddering at the thought of food. 'Plenty of that to spare. Did she say whether she'd discovered anything?'

  'She was excited, but she didn't give me any details. She's enjoying playing sleuth. To her I'm just as likely a suspect as anyone else. But don't you want to rest before the bridge party, not start puzzling about it again for a few more hours?'

  Dodie shook her head. 'I need to sort out what we discovered yesterday. Bruce was mugged, and it might have been Jake. I'm sure that's what Bruce thinks, whatever he says.'

  'So that gives Bruce a motive – retaliation. Emma too, I suppose.'

  Dodie shook her head. 'I'm not happy about that couple. They seem very edgy. I've seen the symptoms before. A marriage that's not as smooth as it seems. I must try and talk to Emma on her own.'

  'But it doesn't account for Jake, unless perhaps Emma was seeing him, and there's been no hint of that. I don't think either of them knew him.'

  Dodie's shoulders slumped. 'No. But it's turned out that Jake wasn't just talking off the top of his head when he mentioned Isabella, so perhaps he knows something about Emma too.'

  When Jylli came back Valerie said she had some sewing to do and left them alone. Jylli looked relieved.

  'I don't think I wanted to tell Libby's grandmother what she told me,' she said candidly.

  'Did you ask her the questions I gave you?'

  'Of course I did, Mrs Fanshaw. And I had my tape running, so you can listen to what she said,' Jylli replied.

  'You're sure she didn't suspect?'

  'She knows I'm a journalist, but I made it seem casual. I asked if Alex Ross was her father, and she seemed flattered and wanted to talk about him and the stage, so we went to have a coffee, and within five minutes she was pouring it all out. Did you know she'd been seeing a lot of Jake?'

  Dodie sat up sharply. 'What? Libby too?

  'She met him in the lane, one day when she was mad about something, and of course she knew who he was. She went out to a disco with him. She saw him several times after that. Apparently she said she was seeing some boy her grandmother thought suitable, and
that must have been David. I managed to see him afterwards – you know he was away somewhere before, and I hadn't managed to contact him? – and he confirmed it. He was peeved. I think he's smitten.'

  'Libby's an enterprising young lady. No wonder her grandmother's worried about her.'

  'The interesting part is that she went to the Casino with him. Then she clammed up, wouldn't tell me any more. Began to talk about wanting to go to drama school. But she let slip something about a ransom to pay the fees.'

  'The Casino? And a ransom? Jylli, I feel faint.' Jylli giggled. 'That's the first I've heard about that. Is that it?'

  'Yes, but she agreed to meet me again, tomorrow. I laid it on thick about having decent publicity photos, and said Tod wanted to practise portraits instead of news shots, so she's coming into Funchal tomorrow.'

  'I must have a long talk with that girl.'

  Jylli hesitated. 'Perhaps, but, well, it may be too early. She's very young, doesn't trust grown ups. Let me see her again first.'

  'Give me that tape and I'll phone you before tomorrow morning, when I've listened to it, and suggest what else you can ask her. Thanks, Jylli, you've done a great job.'

  Jylli smiled. 'I'd like to be an investigative journalist.'

  *

  Valerie had frequent bridge parties, and when it was explained to the guests that Dodie preferred to sit quietly and just watch they nodded in quiet sympathy. Valerie had arranged for three tables, so that Dodie and the three dummies could pair off quite naturally, and Dodie could choose who to talk to. She'd also arranged the tables to have one or two of Dodie's quarries at each.

  Once they had expressed their condolences to Dodie, the players quietly got on with their games, and the ploy worked admirably. Gloria was the first dummy, and although she eyed Dodie warily, she soon began to talk.

  'Yes, I threw him out,' she confirmed when Dodie had humbly apologized for her son's theft of the diamonds. 'I suspect he planned it, because when we were getting ready to come here that night, he suddenly said I'd look better in my sapphires. He hustled me, and I forgot to lock the diamonds away. I know I'm a foolish old woman,' she said bitterly, and Dodie patted her hand in sympathy, 'but he could be charming.'

  'I know. His father was just the same. It was his undoing. When did you find out?'

  'It was chilly. I went home to get a wrap, and remembered the diamonds. I was going to lock them away but they'd gone. I don't know whether Jake took them before we left or went back for them. Anyway, I stormed up to the studio where he was living and he was there. He denied it, of course, but I told him to go.'

  'He didn't have any luggage when he came to the boat.'

  'No. He just laughed at me, and walked out. I – well, I was so mad I just tossed all his clothes out of the window. There was a lipstick on the dressing table. Even when – well, you know how it was – he was having some other woman there.' She laughed unsteadily. 'The police had quite a job picking them up the next day.'

  So it seemed Isabella had been there, Dodie noted. When she had a chance to talk to the girl she'd have to ask about that.

  'Do the police know whose lipstick it was?'

  'It could have belonged to half the women on the island, I imagine.'

  'But you still came to the party on the boat. Didn't you think to tell the police about the diamonds straight away? Jake might have left Madeira at once.'

  'On New Year's Eve? I doubt if there'd have been anyone there. And he wouldn't have been able to get a plane seat, flights are booked solid at this time of year. I meant to report him to the police on the following day but I overslept, and by the time I got up his body had been found, and Howard had identified him.'

  Dodie sympathized, but she discovered nothing more.

  The next dummy, one of Gloria's neighbours, spoke heavily accented English but that did not reduce her volubility.

  'I heard the row, terrible, it was, I think everyone for many houses around heard it,' she said, her eyes gleaming. 'He stormed out of the studio, and I heard him shouting as he went through to the front of the house. I saw him driving off in a taxi.'

  'What time was this?'

  'About eleven in the evening. We were just getting ready to go to our own party.'

  'Did he have a case?'

  'No, he had no luggage. So naturally I thought it was a, how do you say, a storm in a coffee cup, and he would be returning. You can imagine how odd a sensation it gave me when I heard that his body had been found the next day. Such a handsome young man too, and so pleasant when we happened to meet.'

  'Quite curious, the neighbours,' Dodie said with a grin after the guests had all left. 'One of them told me he saw Jake and you having a row, Bill.'

  'When he tried to blackmail me? Did they hear what it was about?'

  'She said not.'

  'Thank goodness.'

  'I don't know why he had this sudden fixation with discovering who his father was,' Dodie said. 'He's never asked before.'

  'He saw an opportunity, that's all,' Bill said easily.

  'Yes, he could snap up opportunities. But he never used his talents except to make mischief.' She wiped away a tear. 'Look, I'm getting maudlin.'

  'Don't worry, we understand. It's natural you should grieve, even if he was a disappointment. It's such a shame it had to happen just as he got this new part. That could have changed his life,' Valerie said.

  Dodie snorted. 'Don't believe it. It wouldn't have changed him, any more than the love of a good woman, as Ma believes.' She told them of her mother's comparison of Jake with Romeo, and laughter mingled with the tears.

  'Does your mother know it was Isabella? Might she tell anyone?' Valerie suddenly asked.

  'No, thank God! I just pray she doesn't take it into her head to come out here and try to help me!'

  *

  Two days later Dodie was no further on in her detection. She decided she needed a break and strolled into the town. She was watching the flower-sellers by the Cathedral, admiring the skirts, stripes of red and orange and black, with embroidered blouses and coloured waistcoats, and the small black cap with its rigid stalk, and recalled the dolls on the brinquinho. Dolls in this costume filled the windows of some souvenir shops, and Dodie determined to buy one. She'd heard that it wasn't a genuine national costume, just something imposed by a tourist-minded government in the thirties, based on the skirts peasant women once wore, but it was attractive, something good to take home from Madeira, something to dispel her memories of the bad things.

  Impulsively she turned into a narrow street behind the Cathedral, searching for the biggest doll available. Soon she found a shop and was looking at the window when she heard her name called softly. Dodie turned round.

  'Isabella! I thought – ' she stopped, embarrassed.

  'You thought I was locked in,' Isabella said tonelessly. 'I was, but now – my father insisted I was released.'

  At least Theo was beginning to assert some authority, Dodie thought, but her satisfaction was tempered by the misery in Isabella's eyes. 'You look dreadful,' she said with concern. 'Come and have a coffee with me? One of the open-air cafés down here.'

  She took Isabella's arm and led her, unresisting, to find a table screened by large rubber plants where they could be relatively private. Isabella tried to smile, but the effort made her lips tremble, and Dodie hastily patted her hand.

  'It's all right, love, don't talk. Not yet. We'll have coffee first.'

  As they sipped their coffees Isabella seemed to relax. She took a deep breath and began to speak, so quietly that Dodie had to lean forward and strain to hear her.

  'The doctor has given me tablets, to calm me, they said,' she explained, her voice expressionless. They seemed to have done the job effectively in one sense, Dodie thought. 'I'm so worried. I need to talk to someone.'

  The girl looked terrible, hollow-eyed and desperately thin and gaunt. She'll never withstand questions by the police, Dodie thought as she ordered more coffee and urged the girl to drink
. If they even saw Isabella in this state and knew she had been with Jake they would be merciless.

  'What is it, child?' she asked gently when Isabella made no attempt to speak. Isabella looked at her, straightened her shoulders, and sighed. 'I'm afraid,' she said quietly.

  'Tell me why. Is it having the baby?'

  'No! I want Jake's child. It's not that. I'm just afraid, about who killed him,' she added in a whisper. 'You see, it could have been my father or my brothers.'

  'They were mad at him, of course,' Dodie said quickly, 'but so were other people. My son got up a lot of people's noses.'

  To her dismay Isabella's unnatural restraint collapsed, and the girl burst into floods of tears. Dodie moved swiftly to sit beside her, trying to offer comfort while she shielded her from the curious gaze of the tourists walking past. When the storm of weeping showed no signs of abating she looked round and saw an elderly waiter hovering anxiously.

  'She's ill. Bring the bill, and find me a taxi, please,' she said, and the bill was slipped discreetly under her hand.

  'There's a taxi just setting down some people by the Cathedral, I'll ask him to wait. Can you manage?' the man asked. 'Wait, I will return when I've spoken to the taxi driver.'

  She soon had Isabella in the taxi, but she knew it wouldn't do to take her to Valerie's, since Bill had a business colleague with him that morning, and it was unthinkable to take her home to face Maria while she was in such a state. The girl needed a quiet place where she could recover gradually. Funchal, though, was so tightly packed that although it had many gardens they were small and always full of people. There were no quiet and secluded spots. Even the extensive Botanical Gardens, high up on the hills, were not provided with many hidden nooks. Then she recalled the Quinta do Palheiro, one of the places she'd been to before Christmas, when she had nothing more on her mind than sightseeing.

  She directed the taxi there, thankful it was morning and there was still some time before the gardens closed. In the sprawling acres of what was one of the biggest gardens in Madeira there were many private places where they could sit undisturbed. Or they could walk, and the peaceful beauty, she hoped, would calm Isabella's spirit.