It was too late to see Alex that night. She trusted that Libby would be her normal self and stay late in bed in the morning before she could reveal what Dodie knew.
With Alex, Dodie found the first person she was unable to persuade, bully, or trick into revelations. He stonewalled all her questions, with perfect politeness but a slight sneer on his face which, she told Valerie afterwards, came close to making her lose her temper.
'He denied everything, even things other people had told me!' she raged to Valerie. 'Everything apart from slugging Jake on the boat, and he looked pleased to admit that.'
'He didn't even confirm Libby's account about the Casino episode?'
'No, claimed he knew nothing about it, and when I said Libby had told me he had the confounded cheek to say I must have bullied her into saying whatever she thought I'd believe.'
Bill chuckled. 'He clearly knows your third degree methods.'
Dodie, never for long in a bad mood, laughed.
'So what have we now?' Valerie asked. 'Are there any more suspects?'
Dodie groaned. 'They're sprouting like dandelions.' She began to count on her fingers. 'Isabella, Theo, Maria, the brothers, all with the same motive, Isabella's baby. That's five to start with! I'll count you two and Howard to make the number as large as possible. Then there's Gloria, who's my favourite apart from her size. Then Alex, for a mixture of reasons, jealousy, and the way he treated Libby, and he could have known about the ransom. Libby might not have been telling the truth about that. And Libby herself, for revenge, though she's young and slight, so I don't think it's likely. There, that's almost a dozen, and I've more than run out of fingers. But I'm not supple enough these days to begin on my toes.'
'Have a double gin,' Bill recommended.
'Darling man. You always knew what a girl needed. I'll knock you off my list.' Dodie took a long drink of her gin and tonic. 'Lovely!'
'Is it everyone?'
'Everyone else who was on the boat, including Bruce and Emma, David Holmes, and any of Libby's new friends she might have confided in. I can't think of anyone else unless there's someone we don't know about. It's quite likely Jake made several more enemies while he was here.'
'Let's forget it. I was going to suggest we went out for dinner tonight. Would you like that?' Valerie suggested.
'I'm past sorting out anything except food. I make all kinds of good intentions about skipping meals to lose weight, but when I do it just makes me hungrier in the end, and I eat more than I would have done!' Dodie complained.
*
Dodie decided she wasn't going to discover anything else about what had happened on the boat. Indeed, she had found very little more than she had observed herself. And she had found up to a dozen suspects – or if she were to be realistic, for she could not include her hosts, or Howard or even Libby – half that number. The Macleans had a motive, probably the most powerful one. But so did Gloria, though she'd almost certainly have had to push him off the quay, and she could find no one who'd seen Jake leave the boat. Bill, Howard and Valerie had, between them, by now questioned all the other guests and acquired no extra snippet of information. Jylli and Tod had managed to see many of the younger people. That left Alex, and Dodie didn't want to think he was her son's murderer, despite his curt refusal to admit to things she already knew. Call it instinct, but she was sure she hadn't yet suspected the right person. Perhaps it all stemmed from something else, some feud which had nothing to do with the circle of people she knew about. It could have been one of the other guests, who was lying, but there had been so many of them she'd never be able to sort out what was what. It might be a job for Howard's computer, but her heart sank at the idea of pestering all these people and digging into their petty little secrets. She'd try once more, asking about Jake's connections before the party, perhaps before she arrived in Madeira.
She was on the verge of setting out to call on Gloria when Jylli arrived. 'Is there anything else I can do, Mrs Fanshaw?' the girl asked.
'Are you bored? Want to go home?'
'No, of course not. But we don't seem to be getting anywhere, do we?'
'Go and talk to David Holmes again. He's the only one I don't know very well. I'll try to talk to Isabella myself. Have you received the press cuttings yet?'
'The agency promised to send them out on today's plane. Tod's going to pick them up. I'll bring them up tonight, if you like.'
Dodie nodded. 'Thanks.'
Jylli departed and Dodie watched her youthful step, admiring her undiminished enthusiasm. She supposed she'd have to take an interest. She didn't care what the world's press said. The only reason for enlisting their interest had been to push the local police into taking more trouble over their own investigation, but like hers it seemed to have ground to a halt. She'd had no contact with the police for several days. They were trusting, no doubt, that she'd get tired and go home, and then they could declare it an accident. They'd be thankful to see the back of her.
She straightened her back. She'd be damned if she'd give in. With a more determined step she went along to Gloria Neville's house and rapped firmly on the door.
An elderly maid admitted her.
'Senora Neville is resting, but I will ask if she will see you,' she said in heavily accented English when Dodie explained that it was urgent for her to see Gloria.
Gloria was sitting in an enormous sofa, her feet up, almost lost amidst the deep cushions. A half-empty bottle of Malmsey, uncorked, stood on the table beside her. If she'd drunk all that, the heaviest of the local wines, she'd be squiffy, Dodie thought in dismay. Gloria, however, was still alert enough to recognize her visitor although her speech was slow and her enunciation ultra-precise.
'Dodie, dear. Have you come to commiserate with a poor foolish old woman?' she asked, and waved the bottle. 'Take some comfort?' she added, and just in time Dodie realized she was being offered a drink.
'Thank you, I will,' she said. 'Let me pour.'
Gloria surrendered the bottle, Dodie found another glass on a well-stocked bar in the corner, and poured herself a small amount. It wasn't ten in the morning yet, and here she was swigging a heavy, fruity wine which was more like an after-dinner drink than a morning aperitif, with her son's mistress. She bit her lip. She mustn't let herself think of them in bed together. She really mustn't.
'I came to ask you if you knew of any people Jake knew while he lived here,' she asked hurriedly.
Gloria was too deeply sunk in her woes to care about tact or subtlety. 'Women?' she asked. 'Dodie, I'm a crazy old fool! I ought to have learned after that slimy Alfredo ran away with my credit cards, and ran up a couple of thousand pounds before I knew it. Why don't I learn?'
'Jake could be charming when he wanted to,' Dodie said sympathetically. Suddenly she saw Gloria, not as a figure of fun, someone to mock and sneer at for her desperate attempts to pretend she was still young, but a sad, lonely old woman, who thought she could buy attention if she failed to acquire love.
'There were other women,' Gloria said suddenly. 'Even while I was here. I saw him, when he was supposed to be doing an errand for me one evening, talking to a blonde. She was at the party.'
A blonde? Could that have been Emma? Suddenly all Dodie's senses were alert. Maybe, just maybe, this was a link. 'Where did you see them?' she asked.
'Behind the house. I went to his cottage, you know the one in my garden. I knew he ought to have been back, but there wasn't a light on, and I went out into the lane. He was further along.' She paused. 'But he wasn't, for just at that minute he came up behind me and put his arms round me.'
Dodie let out her breath in a whoosh. She'd really thought this was important. But if Gloria had been mistaken about Jake the blonde couldn't have been Emma.
She tried to jog Gloria's memory, but to no avail. Vague mentions of other women were, she decided, no more than pitiful ramblings. One or two of the names Dodie thought belonged to women Jake had known in other parts of the world. No men were mentioned, apart fro
m Alex Ross. Gloria didn't think she'd ever heard Jake talk about any other men, but he'd been full of his triumph over Alex at the audition. Rather to Dodie's surprise Gloria seemed to have no knowledge of Isabella. Perhaps the girl had been cautious for her own sake, and Jake would have had the sense not to have boasted of that conquest, for fear of Gloria's revenge, even if he'd told her of previous amours.
Refusing another glass of Malmsey she left. That visit had got her precisely nowhere.
*
By now Jylli knew the likely places to find Libby. When she tried to talk to David, and discovered he was spending the day going round the island visiting vineyards to see the pruning process, she went to the cafés near the Cathedral where tourists sat outside, and where Libby had told her she had met a few other young people. She smiled in satisfaction when she saw Libby, rather disconsolate, alone at one of the tables.
Libby seemed glad of company. Jylli didn't want to scare her away, so she chatted about the theatre, and later suggested they wandered down to the Marina, to have lunch at one of the many small restaurants in the area. Libby wanted to visit the tourist shop on the way.
'Are you buying souvenirs?' Jylli asked.
'No, but I want to see the embroidery. Dad took me out the other day, he hired a car and we drove to the other side of the island to see the houses in Santana. They're thatched, so small. Like doll's houses. But we began to talk to an old lady sitting outside one of them and she was doing some embroidery. She said girls here often spend a year or more embroidering their wedding dresses.'
'Doesn't Isabella's grandmother live there?' Jylli asked, carefully keeping her voice neutral. She'd make a respectable actress herself, she thought with an inward thrill. She supposed detectives, and investigative journalists, had to have some acting talent.
Libby nodded, but didn't speak again until they'd been through the shop, and were going down the steps to the harbour. 'How on earth could Isabella have loved Jake?' she demanded.
'I found him very attractive,' Jylli said. 'Until I knew the awful things he did, of course. Will this place do? I had a wonderful fried tunny the other day.'
'Well, he was good looking, and he had a nice smile, I suppose,' Libby said judiciously. 'He was much too old for me, though. And Isabella's only two years older than me. Wasn't he too old for you?'
'I'm not that ancient,' Jylli laughed. 'But I agree it's odd she would throw over a young Madeiran for him. Her brother said she seemed quite content with her engagement before Jake appeared. Love's an odd thing.'
Libby frowned. 'I don't think it was love. I think it was his glamour. And surely a girl brought up by nuns, who'd never left the island, would be bowled over by meeting a celebrity? She wouldn't know he was only a very unimportant actor, really, when she'd seen him on tele even here.'
'True. It must have been exciting. Perhaps she's tired of celebrities by now.'
'What do you mean?'
'Well, the island is rather full of them, and all somehow involved with Jake. There's his mother, your father, and Bruce Jellicoe. Though he's a writer, not an actor.'
'I used to think Emma was great, when she was married to my father. But she and Bruce must be very much in love, even if they don't seem to be always.'
'Why do you say that? Surely all couples have rows occasionally?'
Libby looked ferociously at the fish which had just been placed before her. She waited until the waiter was out of earshot, and then leaned across to hiss into Jylli's ear.
'I went up there one day. Quite early one morning. She'd told me where they were staying, and it was quite easy to find. Never mind why, I just wanted to see Emma. I caught a bus. They have a patio, outside the kitchen window, and I thought I heard voices so I went round that way. It was like one of those bodice rippers.'
'What? You mean – those books where the heroine's always getting her clothes ripped off her?'
'That's exactly it! I was so embarrassed, but surely it means they have to be madly in love, unable to wait, doesn't it?'
'I can't wait to hear,' Jylli said truthfully. 'Come on, Libby, you can't say that much and leave me in suspense,' she added after a minute of silence.
Libby filled her mouth again and chewed slowly. Jylli told herself to be patient, not to blow it. Her restraint was rewarded when Libby put down her fork and leant across again. 'He was using a big carving knife,' she said.
'What?' Jylli yelped.
'He was cutting her clothes from her. Then he put down the knife and they – she – began to unzip his trousers. He had on a suit, and there was an airline bag and some duty free bags on the floor. It was the day he came back from New York, I think. He must have just arrived, and they couldn't wait to get into bed.'
Jylli was staring at her in consternation. Libby had a dreamy smile on her lips. 'What did you do?' she asked, but Libby didn't hear.
'It's like those soldiers in history, coming home from battle, and not even being able to wait until they took their boots off. I read about it somewhere, that they "pleasured their ladies" before doing anything else. I wonder if they used their swords to tear off the chastity belts?' she giggled.
'What did you do?' Jylli asked again, in a stronger voice.
Libby grinned. 'Actually I was so embarrassed I ran away. There were clothes all over the floor. In the kitchen! I just saw him carry her out. Do you think every husband feels like that when he's been separated from his wife?'
'A bit expensive in clothes,' Jylli chuckled.
'I was a lot younger then, of course, but I can't remember my father doing that to her,' Libby said thoughtfully. 'And he was often away. I think that was why she got fed up with him.'
***
Chapter 10
Dodie returned home to find Jylli had left her a sealed envelope. Inside was a message that she had to see her at once, it might be important, but she didn't want to risk Libby seeing her at the house. Dodie telephoned Jylli and suggested they met for tea at Reids. 'That's the last place Libby would want to go, she thinks it's stuffy,' she said, wondering what on earth Jylli could have discovered.
Wearily she ordered another taxi, and set off again. When she reached the hotel she went through the lounge and out onto a narrow terrace overlooking the bay. Jylli was already there, looking both apprehensive and fascinated. She jumped up in relief to greet Dodie. 'I thought I'd made a mistake. Isn't this just fab?' she demanded. 'It's got such a wonderful view, and the gardens, all down this cliff, are fantastic. The hotel seems to be built into the side of the cliff, there's acres of it stretching down from here.'
'Sit down. You're nervous,' Dodie said. 'Is it the surroundings, or what you've discovered?'
'Both, I think. And this menu, look. I've never even heard of some of these.'
Dodie grinned. There was a whole page of different teas.
'Never mind.' She turned to order from the head waiter, then dropped a lacy stole over her feet and eased off her shoes. 'Whew, that's better. I've been on my feet so much the past week.'
'David was out for the day, but I saw Libby. We had coffee, and then lunch together.'
'And? Come on, lass, you're full of it. Don't keep me in suspense.'
Jylli took a deep breath and then had to pause as the waiter handed round a dainty plate of sandwiches. She took one and crammed it into her mouth. When she could speak again she looked round nervously before bending close to Dodie.
'Libby saw Bruce and Emma making love.'
Dodie, after a startled look, let out a loud laugh, and the waiter, who had approached with more sandwiches, looked disapprovingly at her, then smiled ingratiatingly.
'They are married,' Dodie said, smiling.
'No, it wasn't like that. I don't think Libby knew any better, she's been reading these bodice-rippers. She thought it was romantic passion. But I'd bet it wasn't,' Jylli added darkly.
'Go on.'
'She'd gone to visit, and happened to look through the kitchen window. Do you know the house?'
'Yes. The kitchen overlooks a patio.'
'What Libby thought she saw was Bruce cutting off Emma's clothes with a carving knife, but – '
'What?' Dodie was staring at her in amazement.
'People don't do that in real life, do they, Mrs Fanshaw?' Jylli asked.
'None of my husbands did, at any rate. Damned expensive in clothes.'
'That was what I said,' Jylli nodded. 'I tried to get as many details as I could, but she thought I was just being – you know. Apparently he put the knife down and she started undressing him. He carried her out of the room. I suspect they'd been arguing, Libby said she heard voices, but she wouldn't say if they'd been shouting. She just clammed up on me, and I thought I'd better let you know straight away.'
Dodie considered this information, and absentmindedly took several cakes from the plate the waiter held before her. 'I'll have to ask Libby,' she decided. 'I'm sorry, Jylli, but she'll have to know you told me.'
'I don't mind. She knows I'm helping you, anyway.'
'She won't tell you any more, but I'll threaten her with recommending a dreadful school to her father if she holds out on me. Now, more of this tea? I can't go yet, it'll take ages before I can get my shoes back on.'
Dodie didn't have to employ strong arm tactics with Libby. After a brief spurt of defiance, Libby crumbled.
'I can't stand it any more,' she said, swallowing a sob. 'I used to like Emma, but she's two-faced. It seemed as though she was crazy about Bruce, and yet – '
'Yet what?'
Libby pondered. 'When Dad knocked Jake down, outside the Casino, he was threatening all sorts of things, sending me to some prison, at the least, and I told him that if he did I'd tell about him and Emma.'
Dodie was puzzled. 'What about him and Emma?'
'I think they were having an affair. I saw them both at some potty little hotel, where neither of them would be seen dead normally, and that had to be the reason, didn't it?'
'Not necessarily,' Dodie said slowly. 'There could have been all sorts of reasons.'
'I can't think of any. But can you have an affair with a divorced husband? I wondered – '
'You wondered what?'
'Well, why they ever got divorced if they were still in love. But then I saw Bruce and Emma, and she can't be in love with both of them, can she? I don't understand.'