‘So did you come to Serena just by elimination?’ He turned from the window, searching my face.
‘No,’ I said slowly, i thought of them all together, all their troubles and heart-aches. To begin with, when Moira died, I thought, ike everyone else did, that she was killed to stop her taking half your noney. I thought the attacks on you were for money, too. It was the obvious thing. And then, when I’d seen them all, when I understood all the turmoils going on under apparently normal exteriors, I began to wonder whether the money really mattered at all… And when I was in New York, I was thinking of them all again but taking the money out… and with Serena… everything fitted.’
He stirred restlessly and went to sit down.
It wouldn’t have convinced the police,’ he said.
‘Nor you either,’ I agreed. ‘You had to see for yourself.’ We fell silent, thinking what in fact he had seen, his daughter come to blast out the kitchen rather than search it for a notepad.
‘But didn’t you have any proof?’ he said eventually, i mean, any real reason to think it was her? Something you could put your finger on.’
‘Not really. Nothing that would stand up in court. Except that I think it was Serena who got Norman West to find you in Cambridge, not Alicia, as West himself thought.’
He stared. ‘Why do you think that?’
‘Alicia said she hadn’t done it. Both West and I thought she was lying, but I think now she was telling the truth. Do you remember the tape from my telephone answering machine? Do you remember Serena’s voice? “Mummy wants to know where Daddy is. I told her you wouldn’t know, but she insisted I ask.” That’s what she said. Alicia told me positively that she herself hadn’t wanted to know where you were. If Alicia’s telling the truth, it was Serena who wanted to know, and she wanted to know because she’d lost us after failing to run you over. Lost us because of us scooting up to London in the Rolls.’
‘My God,’ he said. ‘What happened to the tape? I suppose it got lost in the rubble.’
‘No, it’s in a box in the garage at Quantum. A few things were saved. Several of your gold-and-silver brushes are there too.’
He waved the thought away, although he was pleased enough, i suppose Serena did sound like Alicia on the telephone. I sometimes thought it was Alicia, when she phoned. Breathless and girlish. You know. Norman West just got it wrong.’
‘She did call herself Mrs Pembroke,’ I pointed out. ‘Just to confuse matters. Or maybe she said Ms and he didn’t hear dearly.’
‘It doesn’t much matter.’ He was quiet for a while. ‘Although it was terrible yesterday, it was the best thing, really. We’ll grieve and get over this. She couldn’t have borne to be locked up, could she, not with all that energy… not in drab clothes.’
On that Sunday morning also, we began telephoning to the family to tell them what had happened. I expected to find that Joyce had already told them, but she hadn’t. She’d talked to them all the day before, they said, but that was all.
We left a lot of stunned silences behind us. A lot of unstoppable tears.
Malcolm told Alicia first, and asked if she’d like him to come to see her, to comfort her. When she could speak, she said no. She said Serena didn’t kill Moira, Ian did. Everything was Ian’s fault. Malcolm put the receiver down slowly, rubbed his hand over his face, and told me what she’d said.
It’s very hard,’ he said, excusing her, ‘to face that you’ve given birth to a murderer.’
‘She helped to make her a murderer,’ I said.
I spoke to my four brothers and to Lucy. Malcolm told Vivien last.
They all asked where we were: Joyce had told them we were in Australia. In London, we said, but didn’t add where. Malcolm said he couldn’t face having them all descend on him before he was ready. By the end, I was dropping with fatigue and Malcolm had finished off half a bottle. Long before bedtime, we were asleep.
We went back to Quantum on Monday, as we’d promised the police, and found Mr Smith poking around like old times.
All physical signs of Serena had mercifully been taken away, and all that remained were the torn flaps of black plastic that hadn’t been near her.
Mr Smith shook hands with us dustily and after a few