Joe could only let her talk on while his blood froze.
‘It was because he… oh, it was all my fault… Joe, he was going to commit suicide. He’d planned it. We’d had another terrible row and I’d told him I was going to run away with Dickie – go away with him when he left. I didn’t mean it! But I think he couldn’t bear it. He’d lost my mother and now he was to lose me. I don’t think he had anything left to live for. I killed him, Joe, didn’t I?’
‘Now listen, Midge,’ said Joe softly, stroking her hair, ‘listen to an experienced London bobby, will you – the finest Scotland Yard has to offer. We know about the drugs and yes, Nancy did invent the story of the food poisoning, though now I think perhaps we should have told you the truth there and then. Giles thought you really might try to run away and to stop you jumping out of a window at midnight into Dickie’s arms, he gave you a sleeping draught. Not a very strong one, according to Nancy. We think he tried to stay awake reading his book, on watch, until almost dawn. He must have nodded off at the last and knocked his lamp over. In fact, Nancy thinks he could well have had a heart attack and overturned the lamp when he died. Otherwise, of course, the flames and the heat would have wakened him. Lucky for you, Midge, that Naurung Singh was passing on his way to work and managed to pull you out. He went back for Giles but it was too late.’
Midge looked at him with large eyes, eagerly reading his face. ‘Joe! Is this true? Is this really the truth you’re telling me?’
Joe considered for a moment. ‘Well, I might conceivably lie to you – though I can’t imagine the circumstances. Dickie I know would lie if he thought he was protecting you from something but – Naurung Singh? He will tell you that Giles was in bed with an overturned lamp on the floor when he died. If your father had been intending to commit suicide he’d have simply gone into the garden and shot himself. You know your father! An old warrior like Giles wouldn’t have put his pyjamas on and gone to bed with a good book!’
Midge, smiling and weeping at the same time, stood on tiptoe and kissed him.
‘May I be forgiven!’ said Joe but he didn’t say it out loud.
Barbara Cleverly
Barbara Cleverly is very familiar with the east of England. The Latin Hall of "An Old Magic" was inspired by the medieval Suffolk house she used to live in.
A crime novelist, her first three books have been enthusiastically received and The Last Kashmiri Rose, was named one of the best crime thrillers of 2002 by the New York Times.
