exclaimed Gilmore. ‘That’s impossible. He got one of the letters. He tried to kill himself.’
‘He didn’t try very hard, did he, son? He didn’t try as hard as that poor cow Susan Bicknell.’ He folded the piece of paper into a spill and lit his cigarette from the fire. ‘I reckon Wardley didn’t swallow more than a couple of those tablets.’
‘The bottle was nearly empty,’ said Gilmore.
‘Only because he’d tipped most of the tablets out into the drawer of his bedside cabinet. He sent the poison pen letter to himself, then faked the suicide.’ He puffed smoke towards the woman. ‘I’m right, aren’t I, Ada? You can caress any part of my body if I’m wrong.’
Her lips twisted into a tight, bitter smile then she moved across to the table and started stacking the dirty cups and saucers on a tray. ‘How did you find out?’
‘Guesswork mainly, Ada. But I was bloody suspicious of that unfranked poison pen letter Wardley was supposed to have received. Everyone else’s letter went into juicy detail . . . every thrust, every withdrawal, each nibble of naked ear-hole all lovingly described. But there weren’t any juicy bits at all in his own letter. It was almost polite. “What would the church say if I told them what you did to those boys!” Not a mention of dick anywhere.’ He dragged hard at the cigarette. ‘And then there was the missing suicide note. It didn’t make sense you should destroy it. There was no point.’
Ada crossed the room to the sideboard. ‘I didn’t destroy it. I just didn’t want you to see it.’ From the drawer she took a sheet of blue notepaper. Frost glanced at it, then passed it over to Gilmore. ‘“A”s and “s”s out of line, son. The silly sod used the same machine for the suicide note and the poison pen letters.’
‘He thinks himself so clever, but he’s not all there,’ said Ada. ‘I found out about him last year. I went in to do his cleaning and there he was, bashing away at the typewriter, so engrossed in one of his nasty letters he never heard me.’
‘Then why didn’t you inform the police?’ asked Gilmore.
She dragged a chair to the fire and sat down. ‘He’s lived next door to me for years. I didn’t want to get him into trouble.’
‘So you just let him carry on writing his dirty letters?’
‘I made him promise he’d stop. I thought he had stopped.’ She stared into the fire then picked up the poker and shattered a lump of coal sending sparks shooting up the chimney.
‘What brought things to a head?’ asked Gilmore. ‘Why the letter to himself and the faked suicide attempt?’
She rubbed her hands as if she was cold and held them to the fire to warm them. ‘I was working up at The Mill when the post came. There was a letter addressed to Mr Compton. I recognized the blue envelope and the wonky typing right away, so I hid it in my pocket. I wasn’t going to let him cause trouble with the Comptons.’
‘Did you confront Wardley?’ Frost asked.
‘As soon as I finished work. I charged over to his cottage and told him I was going straight to the police. He said the police would never believe me. It would be his word against mine and he was a churchwarden and I was a charlady. Just then, in comes Dr Maltby with the sleeping tablets. I took the letter from my pocket and said, “Can I talk to you in private, doctor. I’ve got something to show you.” Mr Wardley went as white as a sheet. Of course, when we got outside, I gave the doctor the letter and explained how I’d got hold of it, but I didn’t tell him anything about Mr Wardley writing it. I only meant to frighten him. I can’t tell you how I felt when I went back later and it looked as if he’d killed himself.’
‘Like I said, he faked it to make you out a liar, Ada,’ said Frost, pushing himself out of his chair.
Gilmore gathered up the typewriter and followed Frost out into the cold, damp morning air where the smell of smoke and burning clung to the wind.
The Old Mill was a depressing blackened shell, dripping water which plopped mournfully into soot-filmed, debris-choked pools. The ground squelched under foot as firemen in yellow oilskins and blackened faces rolled up hoses and stowed away equipment while others, helped by members of