Page 30 of A Very Bookish Murder (Ally McKinley Mystery #3)

TWENTY-TWO

The round table beside the window in the Craigmonie dining room was set for six, beautifully laid out with crystal glasses and gleaming silverware.

An elaborate arrangement of white roses had been placed in the centre.

Ally was pleased to see that the elusive Laura had decided to join them, so perhaps the thought of a final cramped evening in Owen’s camper van had lost its appeal.

The dining room was, at the moment, half full. As they seated themselves around the table, Ally found herself between Penelope and Morwenna.

‘First things first!’ said Penelope. ‘Let’s get some wine ordered!’

There was murmured agreement, and the waiter, Sam – who also happened to be Morag and Murdo’s son-in-law – was duly taking a note of their wine requirements when Callum appeared.

‘Welcome, ladies, and I’m sorry this will be the final evening that we’ll have your company.

You’ve been lovely guests throughout this unfortunate time, and I’d like to send out a couple of my finest wines, one red and one white, with my compliments!

’ He gave a little bow, grinned at Ally and then disappeared amid a chorus of thank yous.

Laura, sitting opposite Ally, was wearing a pink-and-white striped shirt and looked almost cheerful for once, probably pleased at the prospect of getting away tomorrow.

The cock-a-leekie soup, one of the starter choices, was discussed in detail and chosen by both Penelope and Morwenna, while the others dithered over what to have. They had finally decided by the time Sam returned with the wine, took their orders and moved away.

‘Here’s to Ally, our lovely landlady for the past couple of weeks, with thanks!’ Penelope shouted, and they all lifted their glasses and took large gulps.

‘George and I will be so sad to leave,’ said Brigitte, ‘because it is so beautiful here, but oh, the weather!’ She rolled her eyes and returned to her seafood cocktail.

‘But we had beautiful weather last weekend,’ Morwenna pointed out. ‘Remember the earl’s lovely picnic?’

‘The day Joyce died,’ Laura reminded them.

There was silence for a moment before Penelope raised her glass again. ‘Here’s to Joyce, wherever she is!’

They all drank to Joyce.

Ally, tackling her smoked salmon, noticed the wine was disappearing rather fast and remembered that they’d all imbibed a fair amount on the night of the pasta supper, when they’d first arrived.

Joyce had been the only one of them who didn’t drink.

She looked round the table, barely able to believe that any one of these women might well have disposed of both Jodi and Joyce.

‘Have you been swimming again, Millie?’ she asked.

Millie nodded. ‘I do like that little loch. I shall miss it.’

‘Isn’t the water very cold?’ Brigitte asked.

‘Yes, but I’m into cold water swimming,’ Millie said. ‘It doesn’t bother me.’

The others gave little shivers and continued with their starters.

‘Here’s to our writing success!’ Millie continued, lifting her glass again. ‘And here’s to poor Jodi!’

There was a mixed reaction to this.

‘The copier of plots,’ said Brigitte, but she drank some wine anyway.

‘Strange woman,’ said Laura.

‘What was so strange about her?’ Millie asked.

Laura looked around the table. ‘My partner, Owen, who’s a mile or so away in his camper van, is still legally her husband.’

There were gasps all round.

‘ What ?’

‘Is that where you disappear to?’

‘ Are you serious ?’

Laura nodded.

‘So you knew her before you came here?’ Penelope asked, pushing back her empty soup bowl.

‘No,’ Laura said, ‘I didn’t. Jodi left Owen years ago, but she wouldn’t divorce him. And do you want to know why?’

The others, except for Ally, who could guess what was coming, nodded mutely.

‘Because she’s so bloody controlling !’

‘Why do you say that?’ Brigitte asked, her eyes wide.

Laura laid down her knife and fork. ‘Owen and I run a commune in Wales. We’re completely off-grid, we’ve paid for our couple of acres of forest, but, as you know, everything’s going up in price and some of our residents are thinking of moving on. The fact is, we need money.’

‘So, what’s Jodi got to do with it?’ Morwenna asked.

‘She told Owen she’d left him money in her will,’ Laura replied, ‘but when Owen asked her if he could have some of it now that we’re going through hard times, she didn’t want to know. She said, “You’ll have to kill me first.”’

‘So you came up here to kill her,’ Penelope stated, ‘to get your money?’

There was a horrified silence as everyone stared at Laura.

‘Correct, actually,’ confirmed Laura, nonchalantly spreading paté on a piece of toast. ‘That is exactly why I came.’ She took a bite before adding, ‘But when it came to it, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Anyway, someone else got in first.’

‘Rubbish!’ Penelope blustered. ‘Who else would have a motive like that?’

‘Maybe you should ask around,’ said Laura quietly.

It was Morwenna who broke the shocked silence. ‘OK, we may not know if Laura’s telling the truth or not, but I think we four should all give our real reasons, our motives or whatever, for coming on this trip. Let’s have some honesty here.’

Ally was now on the alert, wondering if anything new might emerge now they’d had so much alcohol. In vino veritas and all that.

‘Why don’t you start, Penelope?’ Morwenna asked. ‘After all, you are the organiser of this group.’

Penelope sniffed loudly and took a large gulp of wine.

‘The fact is I didn’t care for Jodi much.

In the past, I’ve sent manuscripts to her for editing and critiques which, I might tell you, cost me a bloody fortune because the woman certainly knew how to charge.

I thought she might give me some sort of discount because we were actually in university at the same time.

’ Here she paused for a further intake of wine.

‘I did get a couple of things published in magazines, but they didn’t make me nearly enough money to cover the costs of her editing. ’

‘You didn’t like her, but you still came on this retreat? Why?’ Brigitte asked.

‘I hadn’t seen her in forty years and I fancied seeing her again. And this retreat wasn’t much more expensive than having her do a critique, and I could have a holiday at the same time.’

‘So you weren’t planning to kill her then?’

‘No, I wasn’t.’

‘In which case, why have the police been questioning you more than the rest of us?’ Millie asked, narrowing her eyes.

‘The police have their reasons,’ Penelope snapped, draining her glass.

‘Which are…?’ Morwenna asked.

‘Because I have a police record,’ Penelope boomed, reaching for the nearest wine bottle to refill her glass.

Predictably, this caused a few gasps, and Ally wondered if she’d tell them her story. She didn’t have to wait long.

‘I was once accused, and arrested, for killing my husband,’ Penelope informed them, her voice beginning to slur ever so slightly.

‘ What ?’ The others were now staring at her in disbelief.

‘I was not found guilty,’ Penelope snapped. ‘I didn’t kill the old fool; he killed himself, with pills.’

‘Do you know why?’ Millie asked, her eyes wide.

‘Yes, of course I do. He had a mistress for years, of which I was well aware, but she threw him over at almost exactly the same time as I was about to leave him for my lover.’ Penelope paused to let this sink in.

‘We’d led separate lives for years, and I have to say that it saved me from a long, messy divorce. ’

Sam now appeared with the main courses, which silenced everyone for the moment.

Ally noticed with some amusement that the elderly couple sitting at the nearby table had been listening in avidly to the conversation.

They’d been chatting when they’d all first arrived, but as the confessions were taking place and the conversation had increased in volume, Ally could see that they were listening intently and cocking their heads to hear better when someone spoke in a quieter voice.

‘For some reason,’ Penelope continued as she cut into her steak, ‘Detective Inspector Kandahar has managed to find out about this, although it has no relevance whatsoever to this case.’ She speared a piece of steak and popped it into her mouth.

Everyone was now concentrating on eating, but Ally could sense the atmosphere was becoming more and more uncomfortable.

She wondered what was coming next, apart from entertaining the couple at the next table and possibly others in the dining room.

Ally concentrated on her lamb curry, ensuring she didn’t drop any on her expensive cream blouse.

It was Laura who broke the awkward silence at the table.

‘If you’ve all finished sneaking looks at me,’ she said as she laid down her knife and fork and dabbed her mouth daintily with the starched white napkin, ‘let me just satisfy your curiosity and assure you, on my life, that I did not kill Jodi Jones.’

Nobody spoke for a few minutes while they finished their main courses.

Finally, Morwenna said, ‘OK, what about you then, Millie? Have you any dark secrets you’d like to confess? Why did you come on this retreat?’

Millie sat back in her chair and smiled.

‘I’m sorry to be so damn boring, but I honestly came here because I really admired Jodi.

I liked her books, and she did a very thorough critique on one of my stories.

Also, I’d read up about the Western Highlands of Scotland and how beautiful it was, and I fancied a holiday.

’ She paused. ‘I promise you that I had no ulterior motive.’ She turned to Morwenna.

‘What about you, Morwenna? Why are you here?’

At this point, Sam reappeared to remove their plates and hand out dessert menus.

‘I think we’re going to need more wine,’ Penelope bellowed at him, making him jump and causing Sam’s laden tray to rattle as he headed towards the door.