The Malcontenta

24

Kathy began by going down to the basement to check Laura’s office and the other therapy rooms along the central corridor. All were locked. She finally came to the external door at the end of the west wing and stepped out into the night. She paused and looked around. There were few lights remaining in the windows of the house, and no signs of light ahead through the trees towards the staff cottages. She was struck by how different the night always smelled compared to the day — cool, remote, secretive. An owl hooted from the area of densest darkness, the temple mound, and she turned her eyes towards it and saw a glimmer.

She started to walk without seeming to make a decision, as if her feet had received some external instruction. The sight of the looming grey skeleton of the temple front caused her heart to start thumping. A couple of times she stopped and blinked, trying to decide if the source of the faint glow was really there and not just a reflection of lights from the house in the glass doors of the temple. But when she mounted the steps and came right up to the doors, she saw there was no mistake: through the glass she could make out the far end of the nave and the dim light from the organ recess.

One of the doors was open a couple of inches, but not enough to squeeze through. Remembering the noise it made as it scraped the ground, she gripped the handle and took the weight, trying to ease it silently open. She was almost successful, but she couldn’t prevent the sudden sharp squeak of the old hinges as she released the weight. She froze and held her breath, but could see and hear nothing. Perhaps after all the place was empty, the light and open door overlooked in Geoffrey Parsons’ absence.

She walked silently down the nave, moving cautiously as she approached the brass rail overlooking the lower chamber. At first there was no sign of anyone, and then her attention was caught by the sight of a small bunch of spring flowers lying down below her at the foot of the side wall, on the unmarked marble panel set into the floor. She glanced down through the swastika grille, but not closely enough to see the face staring up at her from the shadows beneath.

She went to the spiral staircase and carefully descended to the foot. The lower chamber appeared deserted too, and it was only when she took a pace forward towards the flowers on the opposite side that her heart jolted. A figure stepped out from the dark recess beside the organ and she recognized Laura, her face haggard and pale.

Something metallic glittered in each hand. At first Kathy thought of a knife, but then she made out the hypodermic needle in one hand and its metal case in the other. It was a powerful-looking instrument, not a disposable plastic type but stainless steel and glass, and Laura was holding it as if she were ready to use it.

‘What do you want?’ she said, her voice barely carrying across the ten feet that separated them.

‘I came to talk to you, Laura.’

‘It’s too late for that. You shouldn’t have come here.’

Her voice was a monotone of despair and exhaustion. Kathy guessed from her red-rimmed eyes that she had had very little sleep since Rose died.

‘I’ve been talking to Stephen. He’s very worried about you.’

Laura sighed. ‘I can’t do anything. I just can’t do any more.’

‘I know. Please talk to me anyway. Just for a little while. Is that where your child is?’ Kathy pointed to the flowers and the little slab of marble.

Laura nodded, not taking her eyes from Kathy.

‘Stephen told us that Alex Petrou taunted you about that. It was unforgivable.’

‘Please don’t come any closer.’ Laura raised the needle. ‘There’s more than enough in this for both of us.’

‘As you wish. I was just trying to understand how the mind of somebody like that works.’

Laura’s mouth turned down in disgust. ‘Don’t try. It poisoned you to go near him. He had an appetite for people’s weaknesses. He was filth.’

‘You want to help your brother, don’t you, Laura?’

Her eyelids fluttered closed in pain. ‘Of course. He only tried to help me. I’ve written a note taking responsibility for everything.’

‘Really? You didn’t try to make him appear guilty, did you? Put the rope in his toolbox?’

Laura looked at her uncomprehendingly.

‘Please,’ Kathy said. ‘Tell me what happened the afternoon that Petrou died.’

Laura shook her head. ‘I just want to sleep,’ she whispered. ‘You shouldn’t have come. I’ve made up my mind what to do.’

‘You saw him that afternoon,’ Kathy insisted. ‘Was it in the gym?’

She nodded indifferently.

‘Did you deliberately seek him out? Please take your mind back to that afternoon.’

‘Stephen had told me that lunch-time that Petrou was going to make trouble for us,’ she said wearily. ‘I could see he was very worried about it, although he wouldn’t give me details. After he left the cottage to go over to his office, I decided to speak to Petrou myself. I came down the corridor to the gym. The handle was locked, but I could hear sounds from inside.’

‘What sort of sounds?’

‘I don’t know. Like someone grunting. I thought it must be Petrou working out on the equipment, so I decided to go to my office and wait. After a while I noticed someone through the rippled glass of my office door walk quickly past, and I thought they might have come from the gym.’

‘You didn’t see who it was?’

She shook her head. ‘By the time I got to the door they had gone. I thought at first it was Petrou going upstairs to his room, but I decided to check the gym anyway. This time the handle turned. I went in and found Petrou there, alone. He was lying on the couch of this body-building apparatus he had us buy — Stephen didn’t want it, but Petrou got Ben Bromley to persuade him, as usual. He said some of the patients had asked for it.

‘Petrou was almost naked. What little he was wearing was so obscene that I turned to leave, but he sat up, as calm as anything, and said he had been expecting me. I was angry and told him to put his tracksuit on and come to my office at once.’

Kathy felt the cold seeping into her as she stood motionless listening to Laura. Her voice was becoming firmer and louder as she relived her anger.

‘I was fuming as I waited for him. He sauntered in, so insolent. He just laughed when I asked what he had been doing earlier. He said he had been with a friend, a man, and he told me what they had been doing. He was very graphic. It made me feel sick. I didn’t know how to respond at first. He seemed amused by this and made an obscene suggestion to me. I hit his face, but he only laughed more — it wasn’t a laugh, really, more a sort of snigger. He held my wrists and said that what I needed was to have some babies. I was struggling and would have screamed for help except that then he said — ’ Laura’s voice dropped to a whisper again ‘- he said he knew that I gave birth to dead babies.’

Laura came to a stop. The hand holding the syringe, which had dropped to her side, rose to her face and she pressed it to her cheek. ‘I didn’t understand how he could know about that. And then I realized that only Stephen could have told him. I found the idea quite shattering that my husband had discussed me with this man, told him intimate things. Petrou made me sit down, and he sat on the edge of my desk, leaning over me, and I could smell him. He stank like an animal. He warned me that he knew a great deal. He said he had a bond with my husband because Stephen admired him and wanted to help him — he implied that it was more than that. He said I should be careful I didn’t lose Stephen the way his first wife had.’ She shook her head. ‘He was repulsive. I felt violated by the way he had insinuated himself into our lives without my even knowing it.’

‘Yes,’ Kathy nodded, ‘I can understand that. What did you do?’

‘Do? Nothing. He just walked away, and for a long time I sat there in shock. Then I went upstairs to find Stephen, to talk to him. Only I couldn’t find him. He wasn’t in his office, and so I went back to the cottage to see if he was there. I felt I needed a shower to decontaminate myself, and while I was washing I calmed down a bit and tried to think more clearly.

‘I decided that Petrou was probably really after money, and that the best thing would be to give it to him so he would go away. My mother left me some money, most of which I still had in the bank, and I decided to persuade him to leave us. It was probably a mistake.’

Kathy tended to agree. ‘What did he say?’

Laura stared at her for a moment, then shrugged. ‘Nothing. I went back to the basement with my cheque book and opened the door of the gym. He was lying on the couch again, only this time he didn’t respond when I came in. I thought he was asleep until I saw the cord around his neck, and then I realized someone had done to him what I would have liked to do. I was glad, until it occurred to me who had most likely done it, and then I panicked.

‘I shouldn’t have. I’m trained not to panic in an emergency, but that’s different. That’s where it’s somebody else’s crisis, and you distance yourself and go into this professional mode. But this was my crisis, running out of control. I was terrified that Stephen had done it and that our lives would be destroyed … Well, they have, haven’t they?’

‘What made you believe Stephen was responsible?’

‘I don’t know, but I was so afraid. That morning I’d woken up not even realizing that Petrou meant anything to us, and suddenly it seemed he could ruin everything, alive or dead.’

‘You say there was a cord around his neck?’

‘Yes, like from a dressing gown. It was a silver-grey colour.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘I ran out of the gym and up to Stephen’s office. He was there, and one look was enough. He was breathing hard and trembling, and I could see he was terribly upset. I asked him what Petrou had said to him, and he replied that he thought Petrou wanted to destroy us. That was when I got control of myself. Seeing him going to pieces in front of me, I knew I had to be strong. I told him he mustn’t think about it again. I said I would take care of everything, that Geoffrey would help me.’

‘Did he actually tell you, in so many words, that he had killed Petrou?’

‘I don’t know … I don’t think so.’ Laura shook her head. ‘He didn’t need to.’

‘From what I remember of your husband when I came here the following day, I can’t imagine him going to pieces.’

‘You think he’s so much in control — everyone does. You don’t know how hard it is for him sometimes. He’s put everything into this clinic over the years. Alex Petrou was like a virus, threatening everything.’

A virus. It was the same image that Gabriele had used. Kathy said, ‘Why Rose, Laura?’

With the thought of Rose, the pale figure stiffened. ‘Oh,’ she moaned gently as if a knife had been turned inside her.

‘Did you believe she was pregnant?’

‘Is it true, then? Please God, please tell me it isn’t true. When Trudy, her friend, told me about Rose being sick sometimes before breakfast, I thought … But then, all through February and March she didn’t say a thing and I couldn’t be sure. I said something indirect to Geoffrey about him becoming a father, and it was quite clear that he knew nothing, so I thought no, it wasn’t true. I didn’t want to believe it, you see. It was like seeing myself five years ago.’

Laura was becoming more and more agitated, as if this was the one thing she had been unable to come to terms with.

‘A few days before she died, I spoke to her after I caught that man Brock questioning her. I wanted to know what he had been asking her. She became difficult, secretive, refused to discuss it with me. As we talked I suddenly noticed how her complexion had changed. She looked radiant and I thought, she is pregnant. It obsessed me, blotting everything else out, and I just had to know. If it wasn’t Geoffrey’s, whose was it? I asked her — she was in the middle of saying something about Brock, but I interrupted her and said, “Are you pregnant? Who’s the father?” ‘

Laura paused, and Kathy could see that she was trembling.

‘What did she answer?’

‘She told me to mind my own business. I can see her now. Her face was flushed, her chin up — she was angry with me. She said something about me …’

‘What?’

Laura Beamish-Newell’s eyes dropped to the floor. She shuddered and forced the words out. ‘That I must leave her and Geoffrey alone now, because I only destroyed things. She said she wouldn’t be destroyed as Alex Petrou had been.’

‘She accused you of killing him?’

‘I wasn’t sure if that was what she was saying. I didn’t understand. I tried to tell her he had been an evil man, and that for Geoffrey’s sake she must say no more about him. She burst into tears and ran out of my office.’

She stared wildly at Kathy. ‘I never told Stephen! When he killed her, he had no idea that she might be carrying a child. You must believe that!’

‘Laura,’ Kathy spoke intently, ‘listen to me. Stephen believes it was you who killed Petrou and Rose, and you believe it was him. You have each been trying to protect the other, just as Geoffrey has been trying to protect you both.’

Laura looked blankly at her. ‘No,’ she protested, ‘that’s not true. I don’t want to hear any more. I’m so tired. You must leave now. I beg you, give me ten minutes before you come back.’ She pulled back the sleeve of her cardigan and placed the needle against the inside of her forearm.

‘It’s true, Laura. Chief Inspector Brock and I interviewed Stephen just now. Brock is still with him. There’s no doubt in our minds that he genuinely believes you were responsible for both deaths.’

Laura frowned, confused. ‘That isn’t possible … Who …?’

Kathy hesitated. ‘We need your help. Please, you must put that away and come back to the house with me.’

‘I think you’re just saying this,’ Laura said, but she was either too tired or too stubborn to think it all through again. Her protest was half-hearted, and when she saw the look on Kathy’s face her determination crumpled and her arms fell to her sides. Kathy stepped forward and took the syringe and its box from her fingers and packed them safely away.

‘Come on,’ she said. She reached out, took Laura’s arm and in guided her towards the stairs. They made their way slowly back up through the temple.

As they reached the doors Laura stopped and said to Kathy, ‘Was it Stephen who was with Petrou that afternoon when I first tried the door to the gym?’

‘What’s his blood group, Laura?’ Kathy asked.

Laura looked puzzled. ‘It’s O.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Yes, of course.’

‘Well, it wasn’t him. Whoever it was, was AB.’

They didn’t speak as they picked their way in the pitch darkness towards the house. Someone had switched off the basement corridor light and locked the entry door, so Laura used her master key. They reached the Director’s office and opened the door. Beamish-Newell looked up and panic crossed his face as he saw his wife. ‘Oh God!’ he whispered, and tears welled up in his eyes. ‘My dear, I’m so sorry … so sorry.’

‘It’s all right, Stephen. It really is,’ she said, and went round the desk and put an arm round his shoulders. ‘I think it’s going to be all right.’

After composing herself, Laura told them all how she had found her brother the evening Petrou died and had persuaded him to help her. They had lifted Petrou from the exercise machine and hidden him temporarily in a corner of the gym under a pile of mats. Later, in the early hours of the morning, they had returned to the basement and carried him out to a wheelbarrow which Geoffrey used to move him to the temple. They took with them the hood and whip which they had found in the gym, as well as some rope which Geoffrey had brought. At the temple they took off Petrou’s tracksuit and shoes before hanging his body as best they could.

‘Why the temple, Laura?’ Kathy asked.

She shrugged. ‘I wanted to hide the time and the place where he died to confuse things. Also, I wanted to make it look like suicide or some kind of bizarre accident. Afterwards, when you wouldn’t believe that, I wished we’d just driven his body miles away and dumped it somewhere.’

Kathy thought of the small white marble slab in the temple, and how odd Laura’s choice had been, as if she had been gathering together her husband’s sacrifices.

‘Well, you certainly did confuse things. And again the next morning.’

‘Yes, we hadn’t anticipated Stephen wanting to change Petrou’s clothing. Geoffrey put it down to his sense of guilt. So did I.’

‘Didn’t Geoffrey discuss it with you?’ Kathy asked Beamish-Newell. ‘Talk about what had happened?’

He shook his head. ‘It was as if we were acting out parts, trying to do and say what an innocent person would do and say. After that, Geoffrey seemed to avoid any contact with me.’

‘He was frightened of you,’ Laura said. ‘He was terrified by what he thought you had done.’

‘What about the rope, Laura? Did Geoffrey have some left over after he’d strung Petrou up?’

‘I don’t know, I don’t remember that. I carried the torch and tried to do what I could to help. It was dreadful, so cold, and the body was so awkward. Rigor had set in while it had been lying on the floor of the gym, and when we eventually got it into place it looked so twisted and wrong. I just hoped that its weight would straighten it by morning.’

She fell silent, head bowed.

Kathy looked across at Brock and murmured, ‘I could do with some of Ben Bromley’s strong black Italian coffee.’

Brock nodded. ‘Good idea. In fact, I think we could do with Mr Bromley in person.’