Simone broke off here, took a sip of water and sat quietly for a moment before continuing. Barnaby understood the pause which he was sure would be the first of many, for although there had been plenty of time to work out both the plot and emotional subtext, the telling of the story was bound to be extremely complex.
“On the way home Sarah turned off into a little lane near Hellions Wychwood. I got quite twitchy—I was sure she was going to make a grab at me—but she was really calm. She just said she loved me more than anything in the world and wanted me to leave Alan and come and live with her. I was knocked sideways. She promised she would never make any demands on me. Well,” Simone gave a coarse chuckle, “we’ve all heard that one.
“She said she’d sell the cottage and buy a house wherever I liked. I said I liked the Smoke and she’d be lucky to get a one-bedroom flat in Walthamstow in exchange for that old Bay Tree dump. She told me she had a bit of money put by and some things of her parents she could sell. It was all a bit pathetic, to tell you the truth.”
That’ll be the day, thought Barnaby.
“So was that the last time you went to the class?” asked Sergeant Beryl.
Simone hesitated, frowning.
Barnaby said, “It must be difficult, Mrs. Hollingsworth.”
“What?”
“Trying to remember what comes next.”
“I don’t know why you’re being so sarcastic.” Her soft rosy bottom lip started to tremble.
“Perhaps I can jog your memory.”
“Please don’t put words in my client’s mouth.” Jill Gamble spoke with some annoyance. “Perhaps you have forgotten that she is doing her very best to cooperate with you in every way.”
Sergeant Beryl bridged the following chilly pause by repeating his question.
Eventually Simone said, “That’s right. Alan discovered I’d been going. He was very jealous and could be violent. So I had to give up.”
“And he was so grateful,” said Barnaby, “that he bought you a diamond necklace worth nearly a quarter of a million.”
“Alan loved giving presents. It was almost the first thing that attracted me to him.” She looked puzzled when both detectives laughed and murmured something to her solicitor.
Jill Gamble shook her head. “It’s all right. You’re doing fine.”
“You know what he did to raise the money?” Barnaby said.
“Vaguely. But, me and business ...” Simone lifted her slender shoulders and sighed. Her pretty brow wrinkled with incomprehension. Plainly she was as a child in these matters.
“Why do you think he took such desperate measures?”
“Heavens, I don’t know.”
“I suggest that, far from your husband being the forceful and domineering partner, all the power in that marriage lay in your hands, Mrs. Hollingsworth. And that you told Alan, not for the first time, that if he didn’t buy you exactly what you wanted you would leave.”
Simone shrank slightly at this and looked more waifish then ever. She remained silent but her response was written clearly in those ravishing eyes. Prove it.
And, of course, he couldn’t.
“It was after this painful episode that the plan for your escape was conceived?”
“That’s right. Sarah didn’t give up. She came round to Nightingales several times and got that worked up at Alan’s brutality she threatened to have a go at him.”
“Awkward,” commented Sergeant Beryl.
“Anyway, one day she turned up with the kidnap plan. She knew I’d worked in television; I’d told her all about making up actors as road accident victims and corpses and that. Her idea sounded really simple. I’d disappear, we’d mock up some piccies, collect the money and Bob’s your uncle.”
“And afterwards?” asked Barnaby.
“Pardon me?”
“Did you lead her to understand that you would then be on the brink of a glorious new future together?”
“I suggested we just took it a step at a time.”
“How wise.”
“And I told her I couldn’t possibly leave without my darling Nelson. So we arranged that I put him in a box on the patio and she would pick him up. I put one of the tranquillisers Dr. Jennings gave me into his breakfast so he’d stay nice and quiet. Poor sweetie.”
“You told me on Tuesday the box held Kilner jars.”
“But Inspector, on Tuesday I was still very confused.”
“So. On disappearance day you took the bus and Sarah took the cat.”
“She drove over with him at tea time to that absolutely foul flea pit she’d rented. She brought the stuff for my face—I’d given her a list earlier—food for me and Nelson, some magazines and a litter tray. Then she went back to Fawcett Green to make sure she was seen around the place. Sort of an alibi during the time I was banged up. She just came back here to collect the letters and take them to the post.”
“Your timing’s a bit cockeyed on that one, isn’t it, Mrs. Hollingsworth?” suggested Barnaby. Aware of having caught her out, he felt the first glimmer of satisfaction since the interview began. “We know from talking to Penstemon that you rang your husband at five fifteen the day you disappeared. How could you do that if you were already incarcerated at Flavell Street?”
She didn’t even hesitate. “Sarah bought me a sweet little mobile. We needed a phone, you see, to give instructions about the ransom though that first call to Alan was entirely my own idea. I thought it would get us off to a good start.”
Barnaby remembered the drunken anguish of Simone’s husband as described by Constable Perrot. “It certainly did that.”
“In fact the whole thing went like a house on fire. Sarah made all the other calls, disguising her voice, naturally, while I cried and kept shouting. ‘Don’t hurt me’ in the background.” She made it sound like a jolly jape. When no one responded in kind, let alone gave any sign of admiration for such resourcefulness, Simone frowned again, this time somewhat peevishly.
It occurred to Barnaby then that a way through that impregnable composure might be found by the application of flattery.
“I must say the whole plan seems to have been very cunningly worked out.”
“I thought so.” The shadow of guileless petulance lifted.
“Especially the set-up at Heathrow.”
“Oh, that was fabulous.” For a moment he thought she was going to clap her hands. “Sarah came over around four o’clock on Monday, bringing some shabby clothes she’d picked up in a jumble sale. I made her up to look like an old woman—quite brilliantly if I might say so—and around half past six, off she went.”
“We know all about what happened when she got there.”
“Do you really?” Simone looked both genuinely impressed and slightly alarmed.
“I presume she changed back into her own clothes before collecting your husband’s briefcase?”
“That’s right. She took them with her in a string bag plus a pot of removal cream.”
It was so obvious once you knew the trick. Barnaby felt he was being led around backstage by a magician. Shown the false fronts and distorting mirrors and concealed trap doors. And still to come was the grand finale.
“And what were you doing while all this was going on?”
“This is going to sound really awful,” began Simone.
“Come to a bad bit, have we, Mrs. Hollingsworth?” asked Sergeant Beryl.
Barnaby couldn’t help laughing again and Jill Gamble gave an irritated little cough.
“Sarah’s a very dominant personality,” continued Simone. “This was her plan, she was running everything and I was just a pawn in the game. I thought what if, once she’d got the money, she never came back? There wouldn’t be nothing I could do about it.”