forty-nine

With my hood up and my coat wrapped around me, I inhaled a deep lungful of ozone and trudged across the shingled mile-long beach. The sea boiled and roiled, grey as granite, a spiteful wind ravaging the water, whipping up dozens of white-crested waves.

The end house, and former Vellender holiday home, was one half of a semi. Cream pebbledash. White-painted sash windows. Palm tree in a front garden composed of lawn. There were two upstairs rooms that I could see. Hoping to find someone in, I opened the gate of the low wicket fence, walked up the path, and rang the bell. About to try again, the front door of the next-door house slid open. A woman dressed in a waterproof jacket emerged with two terriers, bundles of fighting fur, yapping and barking and straining against their leads.

“Not down until the season,” she said in a flat tone that intimated that she didn’t approve of folk with two homes. If I had theft in mind, she’d handed me a gift.

“I don’t suppose you knew the previous owners?”

“Only moved in last year. Divorced,” she sniffed.

I nodded sympathy.

“See you,” she said, the two dogs yanking her in the direction of the beach.

I trailed along at a distance, battling against the breeze, a strong storm brewing. When my phone went, I snatched it out of my bag, unthinking. “Yep?”

“Did you get my calls?”

“Erm …” A boisterous gust flapped underneath my jacket, practically knocking me off my feet. Light rain morphed into downpour. Less wind, more gale.

“How’s Devon?”

“Lively, Otto.”

“Lively is good. I was hoping for an action replay when you get back.”

I pulled a face. Is that how he thought of me, a cheap readily available lay? “Can’t hear you. How are things with the restaurant?”

Otto let out a groan. “You’ll never believe it but the inspectors found the food chain contaminated with human faeces.”

“Oh my God.” I wasn’t thinking about the consequences for Otto, but what the human health implications were for me.

“Could be some time before we open. We’ve all got to go on a Hygiene Retraining course. I blame Gabriella.”

You usually do, I thought.

“Where are you? You sound as if you’re standing in the middle of a hurricane.”

“I am. I have to go.” I didn’t apologise. I didn’t say that I’d talk to him later.

Returning to the car, I loitered. How long would Colin be? Was he a two-course or three-course man? Neither, as it turned out.

He stepped outside the entrance, rolled up the collar of his jacket, and looked both ways as if searching for someone, his eye-line falling on the parked row of cars. I flashed my lights and his face broke into a smile. Seconds later, he was standing next to the bonnet. I pressed down the window.

“Hello, again,” he said.

“Hello, Colin. Look, I was gobsmacked after what you said about my mother. I don’t suppose we could talk?”

He seemed reluctant. “I’m not sure what light I can shed. It was a very long time ago.”

“I’d really appreciate it. Please.”

“All right,” he said slowly.

“Jump in. You must be freezing out there.”

I opened the passenger door while he walked around to the other side. “Roll in,” I laughed in response to his worried expression.

“You’ll have to winch me out.”

Good-natured, open and honest, I instantly liked him. I was also astute enough to know, that from the way he talked about my mother, he had warm feelings towards her. After the universal bad press she’d received, it made a refreshing change.

“I don’t know quite where to begin,” I said, which was true.

“In that case, let me start by asking you a question. How is Monica?”

What could I say? I reacted in the way most would. “She’s fine.”

“I’m glad. When you see her tell her that Colin Mortimer sends his regards.”

“That’s so nice to know. You must have thought a lot of her.”

“One of the few who did.”

“That’s really what I want to talk about.”

“I thought as much,” he said with a sage expression. “I had a lot of time for your mother, but it didn’t prevent me from telling her she was wrong.”

Exactly how wrong? To what degree? Wrong enough in the head to kill someone? “To leave us?”

“Yes,” he said. “I thought there might be another way.”

“A civilised divorce, after which she could lead a life that included her children?” That was never going to happen.

He shook his head. “Unlikely, I agree, not with your dad on the scene. He’d have killed her.”

I flinched. So it was true.

“I’m sorry,” he said, brown eyes flashing misgiving. “I’m speaking out of turn.”

“No, please. I have to know. It’s really, really important.”

He touched the door handle, a giveaway clue, mentally preparing for a fast getaway.

“It’s important to her too,” I said, need in my voice.

He looked straight ahead, seemed to weigh something up in his mind, and then twisted his body towards me. The leather seat complained.

“Your mother was extremely unhappy with your father. Anyone could see that they weren’t well suited.” There was a delicate pause. “Your mother had what one would describe as a febrile nature.”

“Unstable.”

“Crude but well put.”

“How well put? I’m a psychologist,” I added hastily.

He exhaled, as though he hadn’t seen that one coming. “She could be dangerous.” I gulped in consternation. “To herself, I mean.”

“Self-destructive?” I had to be absolutely clear.

He paused. “I blamed it on her loveless marriage.”

“Were you her confidant?”

“I was.”

“You were in love with her?”

He flashed a fond smile. “I loved her. There is a difference. My sexual preferences lie elsewhere.” I nodded that I understood.

“One day, she left you children with a babysitter and came to see me. At the time I had an office in Salcombe. I’m an accountant,” he explained. “Not to put too fine a point on it, she was in agony.”

“Over the affair?”

“Yes.”

“Did you ever meet Steven?”

“A few times.”

“Did you approve?”

“Of him? He was a nice enough chap but, however much in love two people might be, it’s hard to give one’s blessing when you know there will be at least another two people and numerous children whose lives will be destroyed as a consequence.” He stretched across and squeezed my hand. “I never condoned your mother’s actions, Kim, but I understood them.”

I looked into his kind eyes and wished my dad had been more like him.

“By that time, your father had found out that she was seeing someone else. Consequently, her life became intolerable.”

“He made threats?”

“Yes.”

“You know for a fact?”

“Unfortunately, I do.” He grimaced as if he’d remembered a nasty event in his life, one he’d prefer to forget. He paused for a second time.

“A few days after her visit, I was locking up the office. It was dark and cold. Not many people about. Your father was waiting for me outside in the car-parking bay. I knew who he was, but he didn’t know me. He asked my name. I told him and he beat me half senseless.”

“God, he thought you were the other man, her lover?”

“Preposterous, but yes.”

“What happened, Colin?”

“When he’d got his message across, he said that if I had any big ideas about taking his children, he’d kill the pair of us.”

“You believed him?”

“He broke my arm in two places. He had a shotgun in his hand. I believed him.”