She left Covent Garden early and was on a Fethering-bound train by eight o’clock.
Footscrow House. She had to make a start at Footscrow House. She remembered Pete the decorator saying he’d be working back there after he’d finished her sitting room. And, sure enough, she recognized his van parked in front of the building.
The front door was open and there were fewer building workers and decorators around than there had been on the day of the handbag’s discovery. She heard movement from upstairs and went up to find Pete once again working in the room, one end of which had been the staff bedroom when Footscrow House was a care home. He was sanding down the window frames, preparing them for repainting.
He turned at the sound of Jude entering the room. Toothy grin once again. ‘You haven’t come to complain, have you? Not happy with the job I done at Woodside Cottage?’
‘No. Very happy with that, Pete. Not so happy with other things.’
‘Oh?’
‘Were you sailing at the weekend?’
‘No, bit too nippy for me. Went into the yacht club Saturday lunchtime for a drink, like I usually do.’
‘Yes. Much talk about old Harry Lasalle, was there?’
‘Not a lot. Only the old members really knew him, and there’s been a whole lot of new people come in. Blokes who’re doing more “working from home”. Adjusting their “work/life balance”, that’s what they keep talking about. Seem to have more time for sailing, anyway.’
‘Lucky them.’
‘Yeah.’
Jude looked round the opened-out room. ‘Pete, can you think back to when you were decorating here, when Harry Lasalle was winding down the care home business?’
‘Oh, right. Time of Anita Garner’s disappearance – back to that, are we?’
‘If you don’t mind …?’
‘No skin off my nose.’
‘And that bit, over by the alcove, that was a separate bedroom? The staff bedroom?’
‘Yes. We’ve been through this before, haven’t we, Jude?’
‘We have, but there are still details I’m trying to work out. I’ve now heard a suggestion that Anita Garner slept in that staff bedroom the night before she disappeared.’
‘I wouldn’t know about that,’ said Pete. ‘Weekend, wasn’t it? I wouldn’t have been here.’
‘It wasn’t the weekend. It was a Tuesday.’
‘Oh?’
‘Do you know if Harry Lasalle was here then?’
‘No idea.’ He sounded defensive now. ‘Could have been, I guess. He was the boss. He owned the place.’
‘Who else might have been around?’
‘I don’t know. Residents, visitors, nursing staff … Usual people you’d get in a care home.’
‘Hm. I just wondered—?’
But, before she could ask her next question, Jude was interrupted.
‘You!’ said a voice from the doorway. ‘I thought I’d told you to stop meddling.’
Roland Lasalle. A very angry-looking Roland Lasalle, short and bustling. He turned to Pete. ‘And you, you lazy bugger! Chatting her up again when you should be working.’
‘Listen, Roland, I—’
‘Shut up! Get out! I need to talk to this bloody mischief-maker.’ Cowed, Pete made for the door. ‘And shut it behind you!’
Jude and Roland Lasalle looked at each other, each assessing their options.
He spoke first. ‘So, I dare say you feel very pleased with yourself.’
‘Why should I?’
‘Well, you’ve solved the mystery, haven’t you?’
She had, of course, but how could he know that? Unless he’d been in touch with the woman who had been Anita Garner in Liverpool.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘My mother went to Fedborough Police Station yesterday evening and confessed to having killed my father.’
‘Oh?’ Jude looked blank.
‘Don’t pretend you don’t know! It was your bloody next-door neighbour spreading rumours in the Crown and Anchor that made her realize the game was up.’
This was news to Jude. Clearly, Carole had been conducting her own investigation, but it was no time to be distracted by the details of that. ‘Roland,’ she went on, ‘this space must be very familiar to you.’
‘What do you mean? Of course I know Footscrow House. I got involved in a lot of my father’s doomed projects here. And now that I’m in sole charge, I’m going to be involved in one that will actually work, will actually make some money. No more Fiasco House. Footscrow House’s holiday flatlets are going to be a little gold mine for me. Not so little, actually.’
‘I wasn’t talking about the building as a whole. I was talking about this specific room.’
‘Oh?’
‘Or, more particularly, that bit of the room over there. Where there used to be a wall which was one side of the care home staff bedroom.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’m talking, Roland, about a night, some thirty years ago, when you broke into that room and raped Anita Garner.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’
‘No, it isn’t. It’s what happened. And, after Anita ran out of the room, you noticed she’d left her handbag. So you prised the covering of that alcove open and hid the handbag there. Where it stayed until a couple of weeks ago.’
‘You have no proof of any of this.’
‘Oh no? Would you believe that yesterday I was talking to Anita Garner?’
‘No, I wouldn’t. And, if she’s still alive – which I very much doubt – she’d never testify against me.’ Jude was rather afraid that might be true. ‘Not, of course, that I did anything wrong. Rape? Do I look like a rapist? Why would I have to resort to rape when I can get any woman I want?’
Jude wasn’t about to argue over the rationale of the rapist. She knew it rarely had much to do with sex. It was all about power.
‘And your parents covered up for you, didn’t they, Roland? Or rather, your mother did. She always protected you. Couldn’t let anything nasty happen to her precious Roly, however badly he behaved. But she didn’t mind suspicion building up against her husband – in fact, she probably encouraged it – so long as no one questioned the integrity of her Mummy’s Boy.’
‘Stop it! This is all nonsense!’ Roland Lasalle was definitely losing his cool.
And Jude was having difficulty controlling her anger. To her mind, rape was one of the most despicable of crimes. And when she thought of the consequences of Roland’s actions on the life of Anita Garner, her fury knew no bounds.
‘I bet your mother’s protecting you again right now. The whole Anita Garner story was being resurrected – that was unfortunate, wasn’t it? If the police got involved, they could soon prove that your father had nothing to do with the girl’s disappearance. But that might lead them to start questioning you.’
‘They’d have no reason to.’
‘No? And, once the police started questioning you about Anita Garner, they might also get interested in how your father died.’
‘What on earth has that to do with anything? The police already have a solution to the crime. They’ve heard my mother’s confession.’
‘But suppose your mother didn’t do it? Suppose you actually—?’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake! I’m not going to listen to any more of this slanderous nonsense! I’ll have you know what you’re saying is actionable, and I command the services of some of the best – and most expensive – lawyers in the country.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Jude gleefully. ‘Do let’s bring in the lawyers. Then the police will really have to investigate more rigorously.’
‘Let them investigate!’ said Roland recklessly. ‘They’ll be wasting their time. There is no proof that I ever did anything wrong.’
‘Oh, but there is.’
‘What do you mean?’