Framed in Cornwall - Janie Bolitho Page 0,38

not yet shaved. His hair showed the first signs of thinning in small indentations at each temple.

‘I came to say how sorry I am about your mother.’

‘We meant to telephone. We said we would, didn’t we, Gwen? The police told us you did what you could to help. Martin wouldn’t have been capable of coping on his own. It was a good job you were passing. Thank you.’

Rose saw that Peter was right. Martin was not stupid but, left to his own devices, he might have sat there, rocking Dorothy, for hours. ‘Thank you.’ Gwen had placed three cups of coffee on the table.

‘I’m just glad the children are back at school. It’s better for them. If this had happened during the summer holdiays …’ The sentence trailed off and Gwen shrugged.

‘God, nothing seems to make sense,’ Peter said, ignoring his wife’s comments. ‘First they lead us to believe she had a heart attack, then they tell us it’s suicide, but when that inspector bloke turned up on Monday night we didn’t know what he was getting at.’

So Jack had come here after leaving her place. He had not mentioned that when he rang earlier. And she hadn’t mentioned the threatening call. If they were back to playing those games Rose was determined to win.

‘Who could possibly wish her harm? She was just an old lady. I mean, no one went out there, did they?’ Peter had slumped into a chair.

Rose knew that Dorothy had more friends than he realised. He was, she saw, genuinely upset whereas Gwen almost shrugged it off. Something different was troubling her; she seemed to be under a lot of strain. Women use drugs and poison far more than men. The thought flashed through her mind. Don’t be so stupid, she told herself.

‘It must have been awful for you, walking in on it.’ Gwen decided it was time she made a contribution.

‘It wasn’t very pleasant How’s Martin?’ Rose could have predicted the answer.

‘Martin?’ Gwen glanced briefly at her husband.

‘He prefers to be up at the caravan,’ Peter put in quickly, ashamed that he had only tried once to find him despite his intention to behave decently. But Martin had not contacted them either. ‘I expect you know that,’ he continued with a ready excuse. ‘I heard that he went home with you but didn’t want to stay.’

‘He doesn’t feel things the way most people do.’ This was from Gwen. Rose thought it was the strangest comment she had heard in a long time. Gwen sighed. ‘There’s such an awful lot to do and we can’t start until the police give us the go-ahead. We can’t even put the house on the market yet.’

Rose raised an eyebrow in surprise. Gwen was taking a lot upon herself unless she knew for certain that it had been left to her. And poor Martin, it was as if he did not exist. It was not her place to bring it up but Jack, damn him, had encouraged her. Besides, she liked Dorothy’s younger son and someone had to be on his side. ‘Won’t Martin have some say in the matter?’

Gwen made a sound which Rose could not interpret. ‘Oh, he’s just fine up in that van of his. He won’t be interested in the house. Anyway, Dorothy told me she’d left a will and that she’d done the right thing by us. We’ve got a young family to bring up. After all, Martin’s only got himself to think about.’

‘Mm.’ Rose was non-committal. Dorothy could be cryptic at times and it was extremely doubtful that she would let Martin lose out financially. But perhaps she was wrong.

Peter had clammed up and seemed content to let his wife do all the talking. He blew on his coffee and avoided making eye contact with either of the women. Rose did not know how or whether she should bring up the subject of the Stanhope Forbes. To her surprise Gwen did it for her.

‘She’s got some lovely old pieces up there. And her paintings. There’re some very good ones. We’ll probably keep a couple, I expect, but the rest will have to be sold.’

Peter seemed unperturbed by the mercenary turn in the conversation. He might have been in a world of his own except for what he did next. He got up abruptly, almost knocking over his chair. ‘It’s my mother you’re talking about,’ he hissed at Gwen then left the room, banging the door behind him. Rose had listened carefully, trying to