bell rang again.
‘I’m going to answer it.’
‘Look out of the window first.’
Didi said: ‘Oh, it’s that man.’ She moved fast. ‘I’ll open the door.’
‘Who?’
‘Tash.’
Tom Ashworth.
‘What does he want so late?’
‘Like I said: it’s not so late if your life is like that.’
Didi let him in, she had been looking forward to meeting him ever since Annie had told her that she had employed a private detective. She thought it was a waste of money but it certainly gave them status. No one else in her set had their own detective. Makes me up there with the Princess of Wales. Not that she’d boasted about it, of course, but she had certainly let the news creep out.
Tom Ashworth was a tall, easy-mannered young man who must have used the gentleness to advantage in his work. Not quite as young as he looked, he was genuinely polite and did genuinely like people.
‘Saw your light on so I thought I’d pop in. I have something to report.’
‘Oh, good. I mean it is good, is it?’
‘I think it’s good news. Or most of it. You always get a mixture, don’t you? It’s how life is.’ He smiled at Didi who smiled back. Annie watched nervously, wondering if she ought to offer him a drink. Detectives drank, didn’t they? There was some gin and a bottle of aged sherry if it hadn’t dried up. Caroline liked gin, so she always kept gin and tonic in case Caroline came down here.
‘Would you like some coffee? Or something stronger?’
‘Coffee would be lovely.’
‘I’ll get it,’ said Didi. She went out to the kitchen, using her special stage walk.
‘So what’s the news?’ asked Annie. After the news would come the bill and she wondered if she would be able to pay it.
‘What do you want first… The good news or the bad?’
Didi was listening at the kitchen door as she heated the coffee. She liked him.
‘Well, I’ve checked out the Creeleys, the young ones, and they seem clear. Eddie anyway. No debts, credit is good, no record. And there is no reason to believe the boy is hanging around you to no good purpose.’
‘He knows me,’ said Annie grimly.
‘Yes, he knows you, but I think you can stop worrying about him.’
‘Here is the coffee,’ said Didi, swivelling in, hand on hip, mug of coffee in the other.
‘I don’t know why they’ve come back,’ said Annie, continuing with her grievance.
‘Eddie couldn’t settle in New Zealand, that’s the story. And he had the house, owned it, so he came back. You can’t blame him for that.’
‘It was let to perfectly decent people.’
‘You didn’t know them,’ said Didi in surprise.
‘That was what was decent about them,’ said Annie with feeling. ‘I didn’t have to know them. I have to know the Creeleys, they live inside me.’
Ashworth and Didi exchanged looks and Didi gave a little shrug.
Tom Ashworth took his coffee from Didi before she spilt it. ‘Houses are important.’
Annie had seen the glance and resented it. She decided to give Didi a slap. ‘You ought not to bite your fingernails if you want to succeed on the stage.’
Tom looked at Didi appreciatively. You’re the sort of girl I’m looking for, his glance said. Both the sisters were pretty, with thick dark hair and blue eyes, but Didi did not have Annie’s perpetually apprehensive expression. She would not have frown lines on her forehead so soon.
‘Actress, are you?’
‘No, not yet. No Equity card or anything.’
‘She’s only just left school.’ Annie’s voice was sharper than she meant it to be: Didi’s chosen career was a source of friction between them. ‘She could be at a university, she got very good A-level results.’
‘I will be at the university, in the drama department, and that will be working with the St Luke’s Theatre School when it’s set up.’
‘Which it isn’t yet.’ This was the real rub.
‘Miss Pinero says it will be. Soon.’
‘Pinero, Pinero, that’s all we here now.’ Annie turned to Tom. ‘And meanwhile she’s working in a Delicatessen shop selling brioches.’
‘And coffee,’ said Didi, who knew how to needle her sister.
‘Not acting at all?’ Tom looked at Didi.
‘I’m auditioning for a part in an amateur production. It’s a kind of pre-run for getting a place at the drama school. Annie doesn’t realize how competitive it is. I’ve got to fight for a place.’ Didi shook her head. ‘Do anything.’
Tom looked at her admiringly. ‘Good for you.’ It was the sort of thing he might have said himself. ‘I seem to know the name Pinero … Isn’t she married to the chief of police here?’ The vagueness was professional discretion, he knew Stella Pinero, had acted for her but one did not mention one client to another.
‘Yes. Do you know him?’
‘Not to say know. But in my business you run across the police so you have to know names at least.’
‘Is that how you started out yourself … in the police?’
Tom did not like answering personal questions; it was the wrong way round. He asked, others answered. So he skipped answering automatically.
‘And the bad news—’ he turned to Annie—‘since you didn’t ask, is that Will Creeley has had a stroke and is being given parole, so Lizzie gets the same. She’ll be out. Probably out now.’
Annie had heard a rumour of this but had chosen not to believe it.
‘Going home? Back to Wellington Street?’
‘Reckon she’ll have to. She isn’t going to live long, Annie, she’s no danger to you.’
‘Yes, she is, you’ll see.’ Annie’s voice was a wail. ‘And what about him? Will?’
Now for the bad bad news. ‘He’s tucked away in hospital, can’t walk or talk, he’s in a worse state than she is. So they are both out. Natural justice, I suppose that’s the reasoning.’
‘He’ll kill me,’ said Annie, white-faced.
‘He’s an old man now, Annie. I don’t think he’s a threat.’
Annie stood up, she could be as dramatic as Didi when she liked, and swept to the window. ‘There’s a murderer out there. A killer. Marianna Manners lived not far from here. It could be young Creeley. Family business. You say he’s not been hanging around. I think he has.’
Tom took a deep breath. ‘Well, maybe I haven’t been quite straight with you there. I think he’s looked around, seen the house. Even rung the doorbell.’
Annie stared at him.
Tom turned to Didi. ‘Come on, Didi, you know the boy, don’t you? It’s you he’s after. And not to kill.’
Annie turned on her sister. ‘Is this true?’
‘I told you I liked Eddie, he’s decent. He wants to act too. We rehearse together.’
‘Good for you,’ said Tom.
‘I trust him,’ said Didi.