“Have we any means of checking up on this aunt, Jude? Whether she’s still alive, even?”
“Well, I doubt if we’d get anything out of Flora. The person who definitely would know is Ricky himself. But he’s in London. I heard that when I was over at Fedingham Court House yesterday. Not back till tomorrow. I suppose that Lola might know, but…” She snapped her fingers. “Oh, just a minute, of course! Kath! She would have known about his aunt.”
Jude rang through to Ayland’s. Again it was Kath who answered the phone, and again she seemed unsurprised by being questioned about Ricky. She remembered instantly. “His Auntie Vi. That’s what she was called – Auntie Vi.”
“And is she still here in Fethering?”
“Oh no. She’s long dead now. Even when she came to our wedding, she was quite doddery. She went into a home soon after, and I don’t think she lasted there very long.”
A new thought came to Jude. “Was Flora Le Bonnier at your wedding? Surely she would have been there to see her son married?”
“No, she couldn’t come. Making a film somewhere, I think she was. But she sent us a very generous present. A silver tea set. I’ve still got that at home.”
“Going back to Auntie Vi…you knew her, didn’t you?”
“Oh yes. I often used to go back to her place after school. With Ricky. For tea.”
“And do you know what relation she was to him? Was she Flora Le Bonnier’s sister?”
“I don’t think she was a relation.”
“But he called her Auntie Vi.”
“That’s what she liked to be called. By all the kids. She looked after other kids, you see, as well as Ricky.”
“What, she was a kind of paid child minder?”
“More a foster parent, I think you’d call it. All the kids loved her.”
Jude’s mind was having difficulty keeping track of the new information, and the new thoughts that led from it. “Did Ricky talk much about his mother when you knew him?”
“No. Very little.”
“Or his father?”
“He never mentioned a father.”
“But people…other children at school, they must have asked if he was related to Flora Le Bonnier?”
“Why should they have done?”
“Well, it’s not a very usual surname, is it?”
“Le Bonnier?”
“Yes.”
“But Ricky wasn’t called Le Bonnier at school.”
“What was he called?”
“He was just ‘Ricky Brown’ then.”
“So when did he start calling himself Le Bonnier?”
“When he went up to London. When he pretended he wasn’t married to me. When he came under the influence of the first Devil Woman.”
Oh, thought Jude, here we go again.
Gulliver finally got his walk, with his mistress and her neighbour. Because she didn’t want him chewing unsavoury things on the beach with his injured gums, Carole kept him on the lead. He took a very dim view of that.
Carole and Jude had agreed that they had to pay a visit to Old Garge. He was the only one who had potentially new information, which might untangle some of the confusions that were building up around their investigation.
The padlock was in place on the hut’s door, locking the hasp on to its ring. Knocking produced no reaction. No classical music wafted from the interior. The place was empty and, though Carole had only been there a few hours before, it felt as though it had been empty for a long time. And that it might stay that way for a long time, too.
As the two women walked back up the beach, they were aware of the scrutiny of two uniformed officers sitting in a Panda car by the Promenade. The men had clearly been watching their approach to the hut. Carole and Jude were not the only people interested in the whereabouts of Old Garge.
Twenty-Six
If it hadn’t been for Gulliver, they would have had a drink at the Crown and Anchor. But he wasn’t allowed in the pub, and leaving him tied up outside on a winter’s day would have been sheer cruelty. So they returned to High Tor and while the dog settled down in front of the Aga, Carole opened another of the Chilean Chardonnays. “Most people still think it’s Christmas, after all,” she said.
The Aga’s heat was cosy, so they stayed in the kitchen.
“I’ve just realized,” Carole announced, “that we’ve been very stupid.”
“In what way?”
“Well, there’s one question we should have asked ourselves much earlier, as soon as we met Ricky Le Bonnier.”
“And what is that question?”
“Why he’s called Le Bonnier.”
Jude caught on immediately. “Yes, of course. Le Bonnier is Flora’s maiden name, and the way she went on about her family history, it’s one she’s very proud of.”
“And it’s common, I believe, for actresses to retain their maiden names for professional purposes.”
“Particularly if they don’t marry.”
“True. Though we’ve no idea whether Flora ever did marry.”
“No mention of any weddings in her autobiography. Which, of course, takes us straight back to the question of who Ricky’s father was.”
“Yes.” Carole felt acutely frustrated. If only she’d realized the importance of the information at the time, she might have pressed Old Garge on the subject of possible paternity. But then Piers had interrupted their discussions. And, come to that, why had Piers suddenly arrived at that moment? What was his connection with the former Rupert Sonning?
“Well,” said Jude, “we know that at school Ricky was known as Ricky Brown. So the logical answer might be that he was the son of Flora Le Bonnier and a ‘Mr Brown’.”
“Do you think Kath’d know more about that?”
“I doubt it. She said Ricky never mentioned his father. What she did talk about, though, which might be relevant, was the time when Ricky left her to go and work in the music business in London, when he was seduced away by the first of his ‘Devil Women’.” Carole’s eyes looked up to the ceiling in exasperation. “I was wondering if that was when he changed his name. Realizing, perhaps, that Le Bonnier was a name that might carry some weight in the world of show business?”
“It’s possible,” Carole conceded. “and clearly at some point there was a big change in Ricky’s relationship with his mother. During his childhood she appears almost to have denied his existence, but when she was here at your party she seemed close to hero-worshipping him.”
“Yes.” It was Jude’s turn to look frustrated now. “If only I’d thought to ask these questions when I went to sort out Flora’s back.”
“Maybe she’ll have a relapse and summon you again.”
“Maybe…” A new thought came to Jude, spreading a beam across her rounded face. “But of course we will be seeing both Ricky and Flora on tomorrow evening.” Carole looked puzzled. “Their New Year’s Eve Party at Fedingham Court House.”
“Oh yes.” Puzzlement gave way to anxiety on Carole’s face. “Are you sure I’m invited to that? I mean, I haven’t received an invitation.”
“Of course you’re invited. I asked specially. And, given the number of questions to which we need answers, it’ll be a good thing to have us both there.”
“Yes, it will.” Carole drummed her fingers impatiently on the kitchen table. “So what can we do till then? In terms of investigation?”
“Well, I suppose tomorrow morning you can have another attempt to talk to the Devil Woman who Kath saw in Ricky’s car on the evening of the fire.”
“Anna. Yes, I’ll try that. And at least tomorrow morning I’ll have Gulliver with me, so I won’t look such an idiot.”