Chapter 48

 

“That’s strong.” Edith put the coffee cup on the table.

“Sorry,” Julia said.

“No, I need it. Look outside, the mist, it’ll soon be autumn.” Edith laid her head back for a moment against the blue-checked cushion. They were in the Etherington’s sunroom and Julia had poured the coffee. Neither of them was interested in the biscuits.

“This Michael?” Julia’s tone was tentative and Edith knew she both did and didn’t want to find out. She would tell her, of course. Honesty, from now on.

“He went out to France with the other local lads; a group of them, Davey Bishop was one and that other lad…”

“The one who was shot.”

“The one who was shot…Jack Peters. That tormented Davey, who as you could see has suffered his own problems anyway. It especially tormented him, when it seemed that Giles was going into politics; might even be elected. I think, it was, I suppose rubbing their faces in it; doing what he did and coming home and it seemed, or it must have seemed, even being rewarded..”

“Stupid,” Julia said. “Stupid, stupid, stupid that party, what he was claiming to believe in; a bunch of throwbacks, oh Giles.”

She sighed and Edith let a moment elapse.

“Michael Benson was different, from what I can gather and from what I saw myself too…a nasty, cold-hearted thug. He preyed on Davey Bishop; the others, the others who had been friends, the little group. Saw his opportunity; encouraged Davey to get himself wound up, talk about what they would do to Giles, egged him on…I think Davey became so confused at one point that he thought he was responsible, that he’d shot Giles. When it came to Daisy though, when there was an obvious connection between her disappearance and Giles’s death something clicked and he knew that he couldn’t have done that and neither had he shot Giles. Thank God that something did click and thank God he came to Solomon’s Parks with me.”

“Giles was…he was…” Julia put a hand to her forehead and looked lost. “I suppose his strengths were his weaknesses too.

Edith nodded. That was it; the bravery and the carelessness of his own safety had a flip side. Maybe he lacked the ability to imagine the impact of some of his decisions. Davey had been bitter and fragile and at times obsessed by what had happened to Jack Peters.

The punishment meted out by Giles on Michael Benson had a deeper and more devastating effect. He had been hauled over the coals, publicly humiliated, confined to barracks. From what Edith read and heard, it could have been worse, some miscreants had been treated even more harshly. One thing to imagine the effects of that on a character like Davey, something else again on what it would do to someone who was already what Davey had called, “a nasty piece of work.”

Now wasn’t the time to talk to Julia about court martial and punishment.

“Daphne Sheridan?” Julia’s tone was steady; mention of the woman no longer made her angry.

“Elsie Bishop was Benson’s dupe and his spy in Daphne’s house, gave him information on Giles and her, their affair.” Edith paused.

“I think when he found out what Giles was…that he was involved with that woman, he felt things were going his way. He had even more ammunition. He will have tried something on Daphne; blackmail, extortion, nobody is sure and there’s no-one left to ask.” She paused.

“But, why kill her?” Julia asked.

“I think Daphne’s character; what you and I saw…that utter self-belief, her selfishness was her downfall.”

“So, you saw it too, that selfishness?”

“Oh, Julia, of course I did. I don’t know this for sure; it is guessing, but perhaps she thought she could work her charm…or whatever it was on Michael Benson.”

Julia shivered.

“It didn’t work.”

“No, she underestimated him by a mile.”

They sat in silence.

A sound reached them, growing louder as Bea and Daisy approached the house.

“She’s hardly stopped talking since Daisy came home,” Julia said.