“You don’t sell even your own things?” Gemma asked, her curiosity at least providing her with a sensible comment.
“Oh, Morgan and I don’t actually use the studios,” explained Francesca. “We’re basically just caretakers for the foundation, and we have our own work spaces here in the house. Morgan’s studio and darkroom are upstairs, and I prefer it in here by the fire,” she added, smiling. “Would you like to see the available studio again?”
“Oh, no, I’d better not,” said Gemma, taking her cue. She glanced at her watch. “I’ve an appointment, in fact, and I’m late as it is.” Placing her coffee mug carefully on the table, she stood up. “You’ve been too kind, giving me so much of your time. Is it all right if I let you know when I’ve had a chance to think it over?”
“Of course.” Francesca gave her husband’s hand a squeeze as she rose.
“Don’t leave it too long, now,” said Morgan as he came with them to the door, and Gemma noticed for the first time the faintest Welsh lilt in his accent. “You’d hate to miss out on an opportunity like this.”
Husband and wife stood shoulder to shoulder on the step, the picture of harmony. But as Gemma turned away, some trick of the afternoon light threw a faint shadow between them, and she wondered if Francesca Ashby were truly prepared to live without Lydia’s ghost.
Kincaid angled the Midget into one of the pay-and-display spaces across the street from the University English Faculty and jerked up the lever on the parking brake. He hadn’t realized how much his lack of official status would handicap him, and he’d driven back to Cambridge still seething with frustration over his aborted visit to Morgan Ashby. The man must be a certifiable lunatic, shouting and waving a bloody shotgun about like a toy. And if Vic had received the same sort of reception, it didn’t surprise him that she’d made no further effort to contact Lydia Brooke’s ex-husband.
He’d have to suggest that Alec Byrne pay the man a visit-suitably accompanied by brawny constables-but in the meantime he hoped to find more accommodating sources of information here, where his nonofficial status might prove more help then hindrance.
After a glance at the clouds massing in the northern sky, he pulled up the Midget’s top and snapped it closed, then crossed the street to the building where he assumed Vic had spent her last day.
Laura Miller, the department secretary, sat at her desk in the reception area, pressing the phone to her ear with one hand and scribbling with the other. She glanced up at the sound of the door, and her lips parted in soundless distress as she recognized him.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, dragging her attention back to the phone. “Listen, could I ring you back? Ta.”
She replaced the phone in its cradle, still staring at Kincaid, and he was dismayed to see her eyes fill with tears. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “You have no idea… We all are. I don’t know what to say.”
He slid into the chair opposite her desk without being asked, smiling to ease the sudden tightness in his throat. “You don’t have to say anything. It must be pretty dreadful for you.”
“I’ve just been ringing everyone I can think of about the memorial service, but it’s still such a shock. I’ll ring off, thinking, “I’ll have to tell Vic the absurd thing so-and-so said,’ and then it hits me.”
“I know.” He cleared his throat, searching for a less painful topic. “I only learned about the service this morning, from the police.” At the last word Laura’s normally rosy face paled even further, and he cursed himself for an idiot. That was one he’d meant to ease into.
“They were here again before lunch, and now they say they’re treating it as a murder inquiry!” Her dark eyes looked enormous behind her thick spectacles. “I simply can’t believe it. Why would anyone want to kill Vic? There must be some mistake.”
“I’m afraid there’s no doubt,” he said, wishing he had some comfort to offer her. “I’m sorry.”
“But…” Laura seemed to realize the futility of arguing, and made an effort to smile. “I’m sorry for being difficult about it all,” she said, pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and swiping at a tear that had trickled onto her cheek. “It’s just that I can’t seem to stop crying. Vic and I didn’t just work together-we were friends. My son Colin goes to the same school as Kit, they’re even in the same form. The poor bloody kid.”
Kincaid didn’t want to talk about Kit-just thinking of the boy threatened to breach the wall he’d built round his own emotions-but Laura plowed on without waiting for a response.
“You’d think he’d been through enough, wouldn’t you?” She jabbed at her glasses again as a pink flush of anger crept into her cheeks. “And that anybody with an ounce of feeling would know he needs to go on with his life as normally as possible-anyone but his grandmother. I rang them and suggested that Kit come stay with us after the service tomorrow. He could go back to school, keep up with his sport and his friends, and he’d at least have something to think about until things are sorted out with his dad.”
“No go, I take it?”
“You’d have thought we meant to sell him into slavery. And cause Eugenia Potts a personal injury.” Laura closed her eyes for a moment, shaking her head in disgust, then blinked and gave a startled exclamation. “But you know them, of course,” she said, staring at Kincaid in consternation. “Vic’s parents. Well, I’m sorry if I was out of line, but I’m that furious.”
“You’re not out of line. And I don’t mind at all.” He added, smiling, “Eugenia can be a bit… There’s no diplomatic way to put it, is there?”
Laura smiled back. “How did Vic come from such a family?”
“I used to tell her they must have found her under a cabbage plant,” he said. He’d forgotten that.
“Have you any influence with them?” asked Laura. “The father doesn’t seem unreasonable. I’m sure he’d see that it would be better for Kit to be in a familiar environment with children his own age.”
Kincaid shook his head. “I agree with you, but I’m afraid any intervention on my part would only prejudice them against your idea. Eugenia doesn’t care for me, to put it mildly.”
“I’d call that a sterling recommendation of your character,” said Laura, and this time the smile reached her eyes.
“Good,” he said, taking advantage of the opening. “Because I want to ask a favor of you.” He hesitated, not sure how far he should commit himself. In the end, he compromised, telling her what he wanted but not why. “It would help me to know how Vic spent her day on Tuesday. I’d like to talk to anyone in the department who saw her.”
“Those are the same questions the police asked.” Laura looked steadily at him.
“Yes.”
“You’re a detective, too. Vic told me. Are you helping the local police?”
“Not exactly.” He met her eyes. “This is personal.”
Laura held his gaze a moment longer, then nodded once, a signal of understanding. “I’ve got to run somethings to the printer”-she glanced at her watch-“now, as a matter of fact. But I’ll be back in a tic, and in the meantime, you could have a word with Iris-that’s Professor Winslow, if you remember, our Head of Department. And I think Dr. Eliot has a supervision finishing in about a quarter of an hour. You might catch him after that. The others are out for afternoon lectures, but then, they had heavy schedules on Tuesday afternoon as well, and probably wouldn’t be much use to you.” A model of efficiency now that he’d given her a direction, Laura pushed her chair back and stood up, then paused and plucked at the fabric of her plain, gray, long-sleeved dress. “I bought this yesterday,” she said. “I know mourning went out of fashion with the Victorians, but it felt right, somehow.”