“I’m his only wife. We were married in Fethering Church,” she repeated.
“But, I mean, you did get divorced. Ricky has been married three times since that.”
The Dippy Hippy smiled patiently at Jude. “Marriage is real. A divorce is only a piece of paper. A piece of paper can’t stop two people loving each other.”
“It can stop one side of a partnership loving the other,” Jude pointed out. “In fact, such a piece of paper is frequently issued because one side of a partnership has stopped loving the other.”
“It’s not like that with Ricky and me,” said the woman firmly. “Our relationship is for ever.”
“Are you Catholic?” asked Jude.
“I don’t have a religion, not like that. I have faith, which is much better. Faith that things are being organized in such a way that everything will turn out all right.”
The woman spoke with such certainty that Jude had to remind herself that the logic of her thesis was highly dubious.
“So are you saying that you and Ricky Le Bonnier will end up together?”
“Oh yes.” There wasn’t the smallest nuance of doubt in her voice. “We met here in Fethering, and we’ll end up here in Fethering. We were at the village school together here. Ricky was looked after by his aunt, because his mother was always off acting all over the world. He was lonely at school. I was his friend. So we got married. And we still are married.”
“In whose eyes?”
“In the eyes of the Power which arranges such things.”
“Ah,” said Jude, slowly nodding her head. “I understand. By the way, I don’t know your name…?”
“Kath.”
“Right, Kath. So how long were you and Ricky married?”
“We still are married.”
“‘In the eyes of the Power which…’ Yes, I understand that. But how long after you got married did he move out, did you stop living together?”
“Only three years. But we are still together, you know, spiritually…on an astral plane. We’ll always be together in a cosmic sense.”
Jude found this talk was getting her closer than she had ever anticipated to Carole’s views on ‘New Age mumbo-jumbo’. Time perhaps to move from the astral plane to a bit of detective work. “I actually saw you with Ricky this morning. Outside my house. He had just come to see me.”
“Oh, I didn’t know who he had been visiting. I just knew the car would be there.”
“Sorry? You knew it would be there?”
“I had a sense when I woke up yesterday morning that Ricky was going to come to Fethering. He has a very strong aura. I can always sense when his aura is close to mine. So I drove out in the camper, knowing I would see his car. And of course I did.” She smiled beatifically. “It was outside your house.”
“He didn’t seem to have a lot to say when he saw you.”
“No, often he doesn’t. He isn’t ready to be back with me yet. He’s still under the influence.”
“The influence of what?”
“Of the Devil Women.”
Jude nearly spilled her Chilean Chardonnay. “I beg your pardon?”
“Devil Women took Ricky away from me. But Devil Women cannot win in the long run. The Power is always stronger than the Devil Women.” Jude was beginning to think she’d drifted into some science fiction B-movie, as Kath went on, “I only have to wait, then Ricky will come back to me.”
“So are you saying that all of the other women with whom Ricky’s spent time with are Devil Women?”
“Oh yes.” No flicker of hesitation.
“And when they are finally defeated, he’ll come back to you?”
“Oh yes.” With exactly the same certainty.
“Kath,” asked Jude gently, “did you know Polly?”
“Polly?”
“Ricky’s daughter. The one who died in the fire at the shop.”
“She’s not my daughter.”
“I know that. Sorry, I should have said ‘Ricky’s stepdaughter’. But did you know her?”
Ignoring the question, Kath went on, “Ricky and I didn’t have children. I was on the Pill.” She spoke this with some pride, as if it were an unusual concept, which, Jude reflected, to women of Kath’s generation, it probably was. “Ricky and I were going to have children later. But then the Devil Women got in the way.”
“Have you ever met any of the Devil Women?” It was not a question that Jude had ever in her life anticipated she might have to ask.
“I’ve seen one or two.”
“Including Lola?”
“I’m not interested in their names.”
“Lola is Ricky’s current wife.” Jude hadn’t wanted to use such a dismissive adjective, but she couldn’t think of another, more appropriate one.
“The one he calls his wife. I am his real wife.”
“And, so far as you’re concerned, she’s just his latest Devil Woman?”
“If you like, yes. But she’s not real.”
“Right.” Jude decided not to take the conversation back into the realms of ‘the Power which arranges such things’, instead asking, “So you have met Lola?”
“I’ve seen her in the shop.”
“But do you feel any resentment towards her?”
Kath gave her a curious look. “Why should I feel resentment?”
“Well, Ricky is married to her.”
“Says he’s married to her. I told you – he’s really married to me.”
“Either way, you could regard Lola as someone who’s taken your man from you. And women in that situation have frequently been known to feel considerable resentment.”
“Well, I don’t feel it.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not the Devil Women’s fault that they’re Devil Women. There’s an Evil Power that gets into them. They can’t help it. To blame someone for being a Devil Woman is like blaming someone for being born with red hair.”
“Right,” said Jude. “I understand.” Which was not strictly true, but probably a more prudent course than asking for further explanations. “One thing you said interested me, Kath – well, a lot of things you said interested me, but there’s one I’d like to ask about.”
A smile spread across the wrinkled face. “Ask away. It’s a free country.”
“You said you have an instinct for when Ricky is close, when he comes to Fethering…”
“Yes. That’s what I had yesterday morning.”
“And when did you last have it?”
“Last Sunday I knew he was in Fethering.”
“Yes, he was. He actually came to a party at my house.”
Kath smiled again and opened her hands wide, as if to say that her point was proved.
“And did you see him that day?” Kath shook her head. “And there wasn’t another time, between last Sunday and yesterday, when you sensed that Ricky was near you?”
“His car was there on the Sunday,” Kath said slyly.
“Yes, we’ve just established that.”
“But it was also here later on the Sunday.”
“Could you sense that?” The Dippy Hippy looked her curiously. “I mean, did you have an instinct that the car was here?”
“No,” came the prosaic reply. “I saw it. Parked down by the Yacht Club.”
“What time of day was this?”
“Evening. Eightish, probably.”
“Yes. And did you see Ricky in the car?” Kath nodded vigorously. “Did you talk to him?”
“No. I wouldn’t talk to him under those circumstances.”
“Under what circumstances?”
“He wasn’t alone. He had his latest Devil Woman with him.”
“Lola?”
“I told you, I’m not interested in their names. She’s the latest Devil Woman to seduce Ricky away from me.”
So it had been Lola. In spite of their denials of the fact, Jude now knew that Ricky Le Bonnier and his young wife had been in Fethering in his Mercedes 4×4 on the evening that Gallimaufry had been set on fire.