Death of a Perfect Wife

∨ Death of a Perfect Wife ∧

1

“Will you walk into my parlour?” said a spider to a fly:

Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.

—Mary Howitt.

It was another day like the morning of the world.

Police Constable Hamish Macbeth, his dog at his heels, sauntered along the waterfront of Lochdubh, a most contented man. For two whole weeks the weather had been perfect.

Above was a cerulean sky and before him the bustling little harbour and beyond that the blue of the sea, incredible blue, flashing with diamonds as the sun sparkled on the choppy surface of the water. Around the village rose the towering mountains of Sutherland, the oldest in the world, benign in the lazy light. Across the sea loch was Gray Forest, a cool dark cathedral of tall straight pines. Early roses tumbled over garden fences and sweet peas fluttered their Edwardian beauty in the faintest of breezes. On the flanks of the mountains, bell heather, the early heather that blossoms in June, coloured the green and brown camouflage of the rising moors with splashes of deepest pink. Hairbells, the bluebells of Scotland, trembled at the roadside among the blazing twisted yellow and purple of vetch and the white trumpets of convolvulus.

As Hamish strolled along, he noticed the Currie sisters, Jessie and Nessie, two of Lochdubh’s spinsters, tending their little patch of garden. The garden bore a regimented look. The flowers were in neat rows behind an edging of shells.

“Fine day,” said Hamish, smiling over the hedge. Both sisters straightened up from weeding a flower bed and surveyed the constable with disfavour.

“Nothing to do as usual, I suppose,” said Nessie severely, the sunlight sparkling on her thick glasses.

“And isn’t that the best thing?” said Hamish cheerfully. “No crime, no battered wives, and not even a drunk to lock up.”

“Then the police station should be closed down. The police station should be closed down,” said Jessie, who repeated everything twice over like the brave thrush. “It’s a sin and a shame to see a well-built man lazing about. A sin and a shame.”

“Och, I’ll find a murder jist for you,” said Hamish, “and then you really will have something to complain about.”

“I hear Miss Halburton-Smythe is back,” said Jessie, peering maliciously at the constable. “She’s brought some of her friends from London to stay.”

“Good time to come here,” said Hamish amiably. “Lovely weather.”

He smiled and touched his cap and strolled on, but the smile left his face as soon as he was out of sight. Priscilla Halburton-Smythe was the love of his life. He wondered when she had come back and who was with her. He wondered when he would see her. Anxiety began to cast a cloud over his mind. It seemed amazing that the day was still perfect: the sun still shone and a seal rolled about lazily in the calm waters of the bay.

He tried to recover his spirits. The air smelled of salt and tar and pine. He walked on to the Lochdubh Hotel to see if he could scrounge a cup of coffee.

Mr Johnson, the manager, was in his office when Hamish walked in. “Help yourself,” he said with a jerk of his head towards the coffee machine in the corner. He waited until Hamish was seated over a cup of coffee and said, “The Willets’s place has been sold.”

Hamish raised his eyebrows. “I wouldnae hae thought anyone would have taken that.” The Willets’s house was a Victorian villa set back from the waterfront. It had been up for sale for five years and was in bad repair.

“I gather they got it for a song. Someone said ten thousand pounds was the figure.”

“And who’s they?”

“Name of Thomas. English. Don’t know anything about them. Expected to move in today. Maybe it’ll be work for you.”

Hamish grinned. “A crime, you mean? With weather like this, nothing bad can happen.”

“The glass is falling.”

“I never knew a barometer yet that could tell the weather,” said Hamish. “What’s happening up at Tommel Castle?” Hamish asked the question with a casual air of indifference, but Mr Johnson was not deceived. Tommel Castle, some miles outside Lochdubh, was the home of Priscilla Halburton-Smythe.

“I gather Priscilla’s come back with a party of friends,” said the manager.

Hamish took a sip of coffee. “What kind of friends?”

“Sloane Rangers, I think. Two fellows and two girls.”

Hamish was conscious of a feeling of relief. It sounded like two couples. He dreaded to hear that Priscilla had brought a boyfriend with her.

“Had a look at them yet?” he asked.

“Oh, aye, they were in for dinner here last night.”

Hamish stiffened. “And what has happened to the colonel’s hospitality when his daughter has to entertain her friends at the local hotel?”

Mr Johnson looked uncomfortable. “They’ve been at the castle for over a week,” he said, and then looked at the ceiling so that he should not see the disappointment in Hamish’s eyes.

Hamish put his unfinished coffee slowly down on the desk. “I’d better be getting off on my rounds,” he said. “Come along, Towser.” The big mongrel slouched out after his master, his plume of a tail at half-mast as if he sensed Hamish’s distress.

Hamish stood out in the forecourt of the hotel among the tubs of scarlet geraniums and blinked in the sunlight. It seemed strange that the weather was still as glorious as ever. Over a week! And she had not called.

He went to the police station and then through the garden at the back and up to his small croft to make sure his sheep had enough water. The sun was hot on his back, curlews piped from the heather and overhead a buzzard, like Icarus, sailed straight for the sun.

A large black ewe ambled up and nuzzled his hand. Hamish automatically patted the sheep, his thoughts on what was going on at the castle. Priscilla had said something teasing last time before she had left about his lazy lack of ambition. He was certainly not an ambitious man. He enjoyed his easy-going life and he loved Western Sutherland with its mountains and heather and the broad stretch of the Atlantic beyond the sea loch where the old people said the blue men rode the waves and the dead came back as seals.

He decided it would do no harm just to go up to the castle and have a look.

He had a new white Land Rover, a perk from head office in Strathbane, no doubt with the blessing of Chief Detective Inspector Blair who enjoyed a reputation for solving murders with Hamish’s help, even though Hamish had solved them single-handedly but had let the boorish detective take the credit.

The twisting road up to the castle wound through the hills and his heart lifted as the road bore him higher above the village. There would be some simple explanation as to why Priscilla had not been to see him. Her father, the colonel, strongly disapproved of her friendship with the local bobby. He had probably told her not to have anything to do with him, thought Hamish, deliberately forgetting that her father’s temper and disapproval had not stopped Priscilla from visiting him in the past.

He parked the Land Rover on the verge outside the gates. He wanted to spy out the lie of the land before he was seen.

He walked slowly up the drive. He could hear shouts and laughter, so instead of following round the turn of the drive that would bring him to the lawns in front of the house, he plunged into the pine wood at the side and made his way silently over the pine needles to where he could get a clear view without being seen himself.

They were playing croquet, Priscilla and her friends. At first, he had eyes only for her. She was bent over the mallet, the golden bell of her hair falling about her face. She was wearing a plain white blouse, a short straight scarlet cotton skirt, and low-heeled brown sandals with thin straps. Hamish’s attention turned to the man who had come up to her and put his arms around her to show her how to use the mallet. He was tall, with crisp dark hair, a handsome face, and a blue chin. He was wearing a checked shirt and black curling hairs sprouted at the open neck. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing strong tanned arms covered with black hair.

There were two girls, both with the monkey faces of rich Chelsea, and well-coiffed hair. They were wearing casual clothes. The other man was a rabbity-looking individual with gold-rimmed glasses.

Then as Hamish watched, Priscilla smiled at the dark-haired man, a radiant smile, a happy smile, and Hamish felt cold. A darkness grew inside him. Priscilla Halburton-Smythe was in love with that hairy ape, that Neanderthal. His distress was sharp and acute. Suddenly, the smile left Priscilla’s face and she looked about her and then at the trees.

Hamish crept silently away. He felt numb. Misery dragged at his feet like clay as he walked back to the Land Rover.

He drove very carefully back to Lochdubh, drove like a drunk man trying to sober up.

Then he saw a large dusty removal van outside the Willets’s house. The newcomers had arrived.

Rather than be alone with himself and his thoughts, Hamish drove straight to the house and parked beside the van. A couple, a tall, rather elegant woman and a big shambling man, were unloading bits and pieces.

“Need any help?” he asked. “I’m Hamish Macbeth, the local bobby.”

The woman wiped her hand on her trousers and held it out. “Trixie Thomas,” she said, “and this is my husband, Paul.”

She was almost as tall as Hamish. She had long brown hair which curled naturally on her shoulders and brown eyes, very large with bluish whites. Her mouth was thin and her teeth, rather prominent when she smiled, very white. Hamish judged her to be about forty-five. Her husband, a large bear of a man with a crumpled clown’s face, looked like a fat man who had recently been on a severe diet. His skin looked baggy as if it was meant to stretch across a fatter frame. He had little black eyes and a big mouth and a squashed nose.

“Are you managing?” asked Hamish.

“We’re doing our best,” sighed Trixie. “But it is hot. We rented this removal van. Couldn’t afford the professionals so I suppose we’ll have to manage…somehow.” Her eyes grew wider and her mouth drooped and her hands fluttered in a helpless gesture.

“I’ll give you a hand,” said Hamish. He removed his peaked cap and rolled up the sleeves of his blue regulation shirt.

“Oh, would you?” breathed Trixie. “Poor Paul is so helpless.” She had a breathless sort of voice, marred by a faint Cockney whine.

Hamish glanced at Paul to see how he liked being described as helpless but the big man was smiling amiably.

Glad of something to take his mind off his troubles, Hamish worked steadily. He and Paul loaded in the furniture and the bric-a-brac and books while Trixie walked about the house showing them where to put things. “We’ll need more furniture,” she said. “We’re both on the dole and we decided to turn this into a bed and breakfast.”

“Aye, well, if you’re quick about it, you might get the tourists for July and August,” said Hamish. “And if you want any secondhand stuff, there’s a good place over at Alness. It’s a bit of a drive…”

Trixie’s mouth drooped again. “We haven’t a penny left for furniture,” she said. “I was hoping some of the locals might have some bits and pieces they don’t want.”

“Maybe I’ve got something I can let you have.” said Hamish. “When we’ve finished, come over to the station and I’ll make you something to eat.”

He regretted the invitation as soon as it was out of his mouth. Although by no means a vain man, he had a feeling Trixie was making a pass at him. She was emanating a sort of come-hither sexiness, occasionally bumping into him as if by accident, and giving him a slow smile.

He regretted his invitation even more when the couple arrived at the police station. While he was cooking in the kitchen, Trixie wandered off into the other rooms without asking permission and was soon back, her face a little flushed and her eyes wider than ever. “I notice you don’t use the fire,” she said, “and there’s that old coal scuttle. We don’t have a coal scuttle.” She smiled ruefully. “Couldn’t afford one.”

The coal scuttle had been given to Hamish by an aunt. It was an old eighteenth-century one with enamelled panels and he was very fond of it. Her eyes seemed to be swallowing him up and he was surprised at the effort it took to shake his head and say, “No, I use that the whole time in the winter. You cannae expect me to light fires in a heat wave.”

Trixie was now examining the contents of the kitchen shelves. She lifted down a pot of homemade jam and examined the label. “Strawberry! Just look, Paul. And home made. I love homemade jam.”

“Take it with you when you go,” said Hamish. She threw her arms around him. “Isn’t he delightful?” she said.

Hamish extricated himself and served the meal on the kitchen table.

He was beginning to dislike Trixie but he did not yet know why that dislike should be so intense. He turned his attention to Paul. The big man said they had decided to get out of the rat race and come north to the Highlands and maybe earn their living taking in paying guests. “There’s a lot to be done to the house,” he said, “but it shouldn’t take too long to fix, and then I thought I might start a market garden. There’s a good bit of garden there.”

“The trouble is,” said Hamish, moving his long legs to one side to avoid Trixie’s, which had been pressing against his own, “that the summers haven’t been very good and people have been taking holidays abroad. Mind you, with all the jams at the airports, they were saying on the news that people are starting to holiday in Britain again so you might be lucky.”

“We put advertisements already in the Glasgow Herald and The Scotsman, advertising accommodation for July and August,” said Trixie.

Hamish thought that for a pair with little money it was odd that they had found enough to advertise. And it was nearly the end of June. They would need to work very hard to get the rooms ready in time.

When they stood up to go, Trixie said, “I don’t want to be a pest, but if you’ve any little thing in the way of furniture…? I mean, it’s all paid for by the government anyway.”

“Only the desk and chair, filing cabinet, and phone in the office are supplied by the police force,” said Hamish. “The living quarters are all furnished by me. I haven’t time to look at the rooms at the moment, but if I find anything, I’ll let you know.”

With a feeling of relief, he ushered them out. It was only when he was watching them make their way back to their own house that he realized with something of a shock that the weather had changed. The air felt damp and there was a thin veil of cloud covering the sun. He walked slowly round the front of the police station and stared down the loch.

Rain clouds were heading in from the sea on a damp wind. They were trailing long fingers over the water that had a black oily swell.

And then the midges came down, those Scottish mosquitoes, the plague of the Highlands. All during the long, dry spell, they had been mercifully absent. Now they descended in clouds, getting in his eyes and up his nose. He ran back into the kitchen, cursing, and shut the door.

The idyll was over. The weather had broken, Priscilla had returned with a man, and that couple had moved into Lochdubh, bringing with them an atmosphere of unease and trouble to come.

That evening, Dr Brodie settled down to a large dinner of steak and chips. He and his wife ate at the round kitchen table. He had long ago given up any hope of ever finding it clear. His plate was surrounded by books and magazines and tapes and unanswered letters. The fruit bowl in front of him contained paper clips, hairpins, two screwdrivers, a tube of glue, and a withered orange.

His wife was sitting opposite him, a book propped up against the wine bottle. Dr Brodie surveyed her with affection. She had a thin intelligent face and large grey eyes. Wispy fair hair as fine as a baby’s fell across her face and she put up a coal-smeared hand to brush it away. Dr Brodie was a contented man. He enjoyed his small practice in the village and although he sometimes wished his wife, Angela, were a better housekeeper, he had become accustomed to his messy, cluttered home. Angela’s two spaniels snored under the table and the cat promenaded on top.

“The cat’s just walked across your plate,” commented the doctor.

“Oh, did it? Shoot” said Angela, absent-mindedly, waving a hand and then turning another page of her book.

“There are new people at the Willets’s place,” said the doctor, pouring brown sauce over his steak and ketchup over his chips. He pulled away the wine bottle and poured himself a glass. Angela’s book fell over.

“I said there are new people at the Willets’s place,” repeated her husband.

His wife’s dreamy eyes focussed on him. “I suppose I had better go and welcome them tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll bake them a cake.”

“You’ll what? When could you ever bake a cake?”

Angela sighed. “I’m not a very good housekeeper, am I? But on this occasion, I am I going to be good. I bought a packet of cake mix. I can simply follow the instructions.”

“Suit yourself. Priscilla Halburton-Smythe called down at the surgery to pick up a prescription for I her father. She drove straight off afterwards.”

“And?”

“Well, she’s been back over a week and she hasn’t called at the police station once.”

“Poor Hamish. Why does he bother? He’s an attractive man.”

“Priscilla’s a very beautiful girl.”

“Yes, isn’t she,” said Angela in a voice which held no trace of envy. “Maybe I’ll bake a cake for Hamish, too.”

“The fire extinguisher’s above the stove, remember,” cautioned her husband. “The time you tried to make jam, everything went up in flames.”

“It won’t happen again,” said Angela. “I must have been thinking about something else.”

She rose to her feet and opened the fridge door and took out two glass dishes of trifle which she had bought that day at the bakery. The trifle consisted of rubbery custard, thin red jam, and ersatz cream. The doctor ate it with enjoyment and washed it down with Chianti and then lit a cigarette.

He was in his fifties, a slim, dapper little man with a balding head, light blue eyes, a freckled face, and dressed in shabby tweeds that he wore winter and summer.

After dinner, the couple moved through to the living-room while the cat roamed over the kitchen table, sniffing at the dirty plates.

The fire had gone out. Angela never raked out the ashes until the fireplace became so full of them that the fire would not light. She knelt down in front of the hearth and began to shovel out piles of grey ash into a bucket.

“Why bother?” said the doctor. “Light the electric fire.”

“Good idea,” said Angela. She rose to her feet, leaving ash all over the hearth and plugged in the fire and switched it on. Despite the warm weather, their house was always cold. It was an old cottage with thick walls and stone floors. Angela then went back to the table, absent-mindedly patted the cat, picked up her book, returned to the living-room, and began to read again.

The doctor had learned to live with his wife’s messy housekeeping. He would have been very surprised could he have known that Angela often felt she could not bear it any longer.

Often she thought of getting down to it and giving the place a thoroughly good clean, but a grey depression would settle on her. For relaxation she had once enjoyed reading women’s magazines but now she could not even bear to look at one, the glossy pictures of perfect kitchens and fresh net curtains making her feel desperately inadequate.

But on the following morning after she had served up her husband’s breakfast – fried black pudding, haggis, bacon, sausages, fried bread, and two eggs – she felt a lifting of her heart. She had a Purpose. She would behave as a good wife should and bake a cake and take it over to the new neighbours.

When she settled down to read the instructions on the back of the packet of Joseph’s Ready Mix, she experienced a strong feeling of resentment. If it was indeed a ‘ready mix’ then why did she have to add eggs and milk and salt and all these fiddly things that should have been in the packet already?

She searched around for the cake tin and then remembered the dogs were using it as a drinking bowl. She threw out the water and put the dogs’ water in a soup bowl instead, wiped out the cake tin with a paper towel, greased it, and started to work.

That afternoon, she set out for the Willets’s place – no, Thomas’s place, she reminded herself – feeling very proud of herself. She held in front of her, like a crown on a cushion, a sponge cake filled with cream.

There seemed to be a lot of activity around the old Victorian villa. Archie Maclean, one of the local fishermen, was carrying in a small table, Mrs Wellington, the minister’s wife, was cleaning the windows, and Bert Hook, a crofter, was up on the roof, clearing out the gutters.

The front door was open, and Angela walked inside. A tall woman approached her. “My name’s Trixie Thomas,” she said. “Oh, what a beautiful cake. We adore cake, but what with us being unemployed and living on government handouts, we’ve had to cut out luxuries like this.”

Angela introduced herself and felt a rush of pride when Trixie said, “In fact, we’re ready for a coffee break. We’ll have it now.”

She led the way into the kitchen. Her husband, Paul, was washing down the walls. “All the poor dear’s fit for,” said Trixie in a rueful aside. She raised her voice, “Darling, here’s the doctor’s wife with a delicious cake. We’ll take a break and have some coffee. Sit down, Angela.”

Angela sat down at a table covered with a bright red-and-white checked gingham cloth. Bluebottles buzzed against the window. “You should get a spray,” said Angela. “The flies are dreadful today.”

“I think there’s been enough damage to the ozone layer already,” said Trixie. “What I need are some old–fashioned fly papers.”

She was making coffee in what looked like a brand-new machine. “I grind my own beans,” she said over her shoulder. Paul was already seated at the table, looking at the cake like a greedy child. “Now, just a small piece, mind,” cautioned his wife. “You’re on a diet.”

Angela watched Trixie with admiration. Trixie was wearing a sort of white linen smock with large pockets over blue jeans and sneakers. Her sneakers were snow white without even a grass stain on them. Angela tugged miserably at her crumpled blouse, which had ridden up over the waistband of her baggy skirt, and felt messy and grubby.

“Now, for the cake,” said Trixie, bringing out a knife. Paul hunched over the table, waiting eagerly.

The knife sank into the cake. Trixie tried to lift out a slice. It was uncooked in the middle. A yellowy sludge oozed out.

“Oh, dear,” said Angela. “You can’t eat that. I don’t know how that could have happened. I followed the instructions on the packet so carefully.”

“It’s all right,” said Paul quickly. “I’ll eat it.”

“No, you won’t,” said Trixie, giving Angela a conspiratorial ‘men!’ sort of smile.

“I’m hopeless,” mourned Angela.

“Don’t worry. I’ll show you how to make one. It’s just as easy to make a cake from scratch as it is with one of these packets. And it was a lovely thought.” Trixie moved the cake out of her husband’s reach. He gave a sigh and lumbered to his feet and went back to work.

“I can’t do anything right,” said Angela. “I am utterly useless about the house. It’s like a rubbish bin.”

“You’ve probably let it go too far,” said Trixie with quick sympathy. “Why don’t you get someone in to clean?”

“Oh, I couldn’t. You see, it’s so awful, I’d need to make a start on it myself before any cleaning woman could see what she was doing.”

“I’ll help you.” Trixie smiled at Angela. “I feel we are going to be friends.”

Angela coloured up and turned briefly away to hide the look of embarrassed gratification on her face. She had never fitted in very well with the women of the village. In fact, she had never talked to anyone before about how she felt about her dirty house. “I really couldn’t expect you to help me, Trixie,” said Angela, feeling quite modern and bold because people in the village called each other by their surnames, Mr or Mrs This and That, until they had known each other for years.

“I’ll strike a bargain with you,” said Trixie. “I’ll nip back to your house with you and if you can let me have any old sticks of furniture you were thinking of throwing out, I’ll take that as payment.”

“Lovely,” said Angela with a comfortable feeling she had not experienced since a child of being taken in hand.

But as they walked to the doctor’s house, Angela began to wish she had not let Trixie come. She thought of the ash still spilling over the hearth on to the carpet and of all the sinister grease lurking in the kitchen.

Angela strode in, rolling up her sleeves. She walked from room to room downstairs and then said briskly, “Now, the best thing to do is just get started and don’t think about anything else.”

And Trixie worked. Her hands flew here and there. She was amazingly competent. Grease disappeared, surfaces began to gleam, books flew back up on the shelves. It was all magic to Angela, who felt she was watching a sort of Mary Poppins at work. She blundered around after her fiew mentor, cheerfully doing everything she was instructed to do as if the house were Trixie’s and not her own.

“Well, we’ve made a start,” said Trixie at last.

“A start!” Angela was amazed. “It’s never been so clean. I just don’t know how to thank you.”

“Perhaps you’ve got an old piece of furniture you don’t want?”

“Of course.” Angela looked about her helplessly. “There must be something somewhere.”

“What about that old chair in the corner of your living room?”

“You mean that thing?” The chair was armless with a bead-and-needlework cover.

Angela hesitated only a moment. It had been her grandmother’s but no-one ever sat on it and her gratitude for this new goddess of the household was immense. “Yes, I’ll get John to put it in the station wagon and run it over to you this evening.”

“No need for that.” Trixie lifted it in strong arms. “I’ll carry it.”

Despite Angela’s protests that it was too heavy for her, Trixie headed off. Angela followed her to the garden gate. She wanted to say, “When will I see you again?” and felt as shy as a lover. Dr Brodie was often away on calls and she spent much of her life alone. She had never worked since the day of her marriage to the young medical student, John Brodie, thirty years ago. They had been unable to have children. Angela’s parents were dead. She felt she had somehow only managed to muddle through the years of her marriage with books as her only consolation.

Trixie turned at the gate. “See you tomorrow,” she said.

Angela grinned, her thin face youthful and happy.

“See you tomorrow,” she echoed.

Constable Hamish Macbeth was leaning on his garden gate as Trixie went past, carrying the chair.

“Need any help?” he called.

“No, thanks,” said Trixie, hurrying past.

Hamish looked at her retreating figure. Where had he seen that chair? His mind ranged over the interiors of the houses in Lochdubh. The doctor’s! That was it.

He ambled along the road to the doctor’s house and went around to the side, no-one in the Highlands except the Thomases bothering to use the front door.

“Come in, Hamish,” called Angela, seeing the lanky figure of the red-haired policeman lurking in the doorway. “Like a cup of coffee?”

“Yes, please.” Hamish eased himself into the kitchen, and then blinked in surprise. He had never seen the Brodies’ kitchen look so clean. Angela bubbled over with enthusiasm as she told him of Trixie’s help.

“Was that your chair she was carrying?” asked Hamish.

“Yes, the poor things have very little furniture. They want to start a bed-and-breakfast place. It was just a tatty old thing of my grandmother’s.”

Hamish thought quickly. Someone setting up a bed-and-breakfast establishment usually wanted old serviceable stuff. He wondered uneasily whether the chair was valuable. But he did not know anything about antiques.

Flies buzzed about the kitchen.

“I should have kept the door shut,” said Angela. “Wretched flies.”

“You’ve got a spray there,” pointed out Hamish.

“These sprays make holes in the ozone layer,” said Angela.

“I suppose so. But it’s hard to think of the environment when you haff the kitchen full of the beasties,” said Hamish whose Highland voice became more sibilant when he was upset, and somehow he felt that that remark about the ozone layer originally came from Trixie. And yet Trixie was right, so why should he feel so resentful?

After some gossip, Hamish got up and left. A thin drizzle was falling. The sky was weeping over the loch, but the air was warm and clammy.

And then he saw a Volvo parked at the side of the police station and Priscilla just getting out of it. He broke into a run.