As Rose returned to the lodge with Sam along the winding path, she watched Commissioner Akida pacing up and down.
As soon as he spotted them, he rushed forward and asked, “So? Can we arrest Robert Scott Watson? Have you worked out how he killed his wife?”
Rose hesitated. “Not exactly, but I fear that by the time I have every piece of the puzzle he will realise we suspect him and abscond. I’ll have to see if he implicates himself, or if Vivian does.”
“So you think they were both responsible?” The commissioner clasped his hands together.
“Someone had to help Robert, as I don’t see how he could have done it on his own. And Vivian is the most likely candidate. I would like to hear back from the Philippines, but as you said, it is night there, so we won’t get a response until at least the morning.”
Sam stepped forward and asked, “Where are Robert and Vivian at the moment?”
The commissioner looked at him and replied, “Marina told me they are together at the pool.”
Sam seemed to consider his answer before stating, “Then I’ll take the constable you brought with you, and station him behind the changing room to prevent our suspects escaping in that direction.”
Sam turned and strode back to the commissioner’s police vehicle.
“Shall we?” the commissioner asked Rose as he gestured towards the lodge entrance with his arm.
Rose took a deep breath and stepped inside.
Thabiti and Constable Wachira must have been watching out for them. They emerged from the drawing room and followed Rose and the commissioner.
The group bumped into Marina outside the dining room. “Are you going …?”
“Yes,” interrupted Thabiti, and Marina joined Rose’s entourage. They followed a path between the two main lodge buildings and entered the swimming pool area through a gap in the surrounding stone wall.
Vivian was lying on a sun lounger. She lifted her head, shielding her eyes with the magazine she had been reading, and exclaimed, “Are you all coming for a swim?”
Robert strode towards the bar and declared, “I think it’s time for a drink. But I’ll fix it myself as you’re not much of a barman, Thabiti. You see, the secret of a perfect gin and tonic is to start with stemless wine glasses like these.”
Robert picked up two rounded-bottom glasses and poured ice into them. “Half-fill them with ice and squeeze the juice from half a lime over the ice in each glass.” Robert looked earnestly at Thabiti as he instructed, “The key is lime and not lemon juice.” He walked behind the bar and started examining bottles of gin.
Constable Wachira tugged at Marina’s arm and the two of them sat at the table, with shade provided by a large canvas umbrella, just beyond the entrance to the pool area. Thabiti sat on the wall by the entrance, but Rose and Commissioner Akida remained standing.
Robert picked up a bottle of Tanqueray gin and as he poured out measures, he continued, “Use a good quality gin and pour sixty millilitres into each glass. Unfortunately, you don’t have any decent tonic, but never mind, I’ll just add a splash of your sweet local tonic and fill the glass up with soda water. There we are, just a slice of lime to garnish.”
He lifted the two full glasses in triumph and walked towards Vivian. He handed her a glass as he sat on the second sun lounger.
“Cheers,” he said, clinking glasses with Vivian. He took an appreciative sip and then looked up at Rose and Commissioner Akida.
Constable Wachira brought a chair for Rose, but the Commissioner remained standing.
Rose actually felt strengthened by Robert’s discourteous behaviour. Irritated by his arrogance, she remarked in a frosty tone, “I suppose you’ve shared many gin and tonics together. In glamorous locations. And since you arrived in Nanyuki, Robert.”
She turned to face Vivian. “You’ve always been close by, haven’t you Vivian? Or should I say Mrs Scott? You are Mrs Scott, aren’t you? Robert’s first and only legal wife.”
Robert leaned forward and whispered to Vivian, “You don’t need to say anything, darling.”
Vivian smiled at him. A large smile like that of the famed Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. “Oh, I think you’ve rather given the game away. It’s been fun, but it was bound to end sooner or later. And I did tell you to leave poor little Nina alone, but you insisted on marrying the stupid girl.”
This was going better than Rose had expected. She decided to throw an imaginary dart into the dark and stated, with more confidence than she felt, “You were married in the Philippines all those years ago. So what happened?”
Vivian sat up and sighed. “I was young and naive, and he swept me off my feet. We had some fun times together, but it didn’t take me long to realise the kind of man Robert is. He would never stay faithful to just one woman.”
“Darling,” Robert drawled.
Vivian ignored him.
Bullseye, thought Rose. She was right, they had been married in the Philippines, and she remembered the crossword clue Chris had read out to Craig in the hospital. “But divorce is illegal in the Philippines.”
“Yes, there and the Vatican City,” Vivian agreed. “One of only two places in the whole world, so I was tied to Robert.”
She looked back at him, as a mother might with a wayward child. “So my father suggested I go away for a while, and he found me a job on a yacht sailing around the Mediterranean. By the time I returned home, he had packed Robert off back to London.”
She swirled the remaining ice in her glass, and continued, “I learnt later that Robert hadn’t been keen on finding another job, and without a reference from my father, I doubt anyone would have employed him. So instead he found and charmed a wealthy middle-aged widow. But there was one condition on his marrying her, that Robert took her name, which he did by adding it to his own. Very clever really, and I would have been none the wiser if I hadn’t bumped into them a couple of years later in Venice.”
Vivian stood and moved across to sit next to Robert. She laid her free hand on his leg and with a lopsided smile remarked, “But you didn’t like being treated like a lackey, did you? Or a gigolo for her friends to fawn over?”
Robert met Vivian’s gaze and shook his head. “She really was an awful woman. And she treated me like her lap dog, always commanding me to ‘Fetch this’ or ‘Get that.’ And then there was her constant social climbing with its relentless instruction. ‘If you want to mix with Dukes and Countesses, you have to learn the right words. Always say “loo” or “lavatory” but never “toilet” or “bathroom”, and it’s a “sofa” not a “settee”. She even made me change the way I laughed as she said I brayed like a donkey. She quite drove me to distraction.”
Vivian patted his leg, “But she did refine your social skills, and she taught you how to make these wonderful gin and tonics.”
They both raised and clinked their glasses together again as Rose wondered if they were recalling past events.