Guns in the Gallery

THIRTY-ONE

Jude went back to the same coffee shop from which she’d done her earlier surveillance. If the staff thought her apparent addiction to cappuccinos odd, they gave no sign of it. This time, instead of an almond croissant, she ordered a toasted ham and cheese panini. As soon as she had given her order, she used the Ladies, for which her need had become quite urgent.

Her suspicions about the death of Philomena Willoughby had been quickly dashed by the ungrieving widower. His wife had been suffering from cancer for some time. She had spent her last months in a hospice. That explained why Denzil had been so preoccupied with his iPhone the previous Monday. He had been waiting to hear the worst about his mother.

Jude rang through to High Tor, and was relieved when the phone was answered. Of course, she remembered, Carole didn’t even know that she was in London, so Jude didn’t bother to tell her the events of the morning, instead saying, ‘Look, there’s something I want you to check on the laptop. Could you do that for me?’

Carole conceded that she could, and then of course had to go upstairs. The laptop’s portability continued to be ignored.

‘Very well. I’m there and switched on. What do you want to know?’

‘It’s something about St Martin’s College of Art. I’m sure they must have a website. Can you get on to it?’

Carole did as instructed. ‘Yes. So what do you want to know?’

‘If they have lists of their tutors there, can you check and see if there’s one whose first name is “Ingrid”?’

‘I’ll try. What’s all this in aid of, Jude?’

‘I’ll tell you in a minute. Just see if you can find the name.’

A long-suffering sigh from High Tor preceded the clacking of fingers on keyboard. Then, ‘Oh goodness, there are a lot of them. Every course seems to have its own army of tutors. Can you narrow down the search a bit for this Ingrid? What’s she likely to be tutoring in?’

‘Fine Art, maybe? Painting? Drawing? Watercolours? I don’t know.’

‘This could take some time.’

‘Call me back then.’

‘Where are you?’

‘On the mobile.’ Which, to Carole’s mind, was an inadequate answer.

It was about twenty minutes later, when Jude was wiping the cheese grease off her lips, that her neighbour rang back. ‘There’s only one,’ said Carole.

‘Only one Ingrid?’

‘Right.’

‘She’s a tutor in The Foundation Diploma Art and Design Course, and her surname’s Staunton.’

‘Ingrid Staunton.’

‘That’s right. Well, come on, Jude, who is she?’

‘I’m not absolutely certain, but I think she may be Bonita Green’s daughter.’

‘Really? That’s amazing. How have you got on to her?’

‘Long story. I’ll fill you in on the details later.’

‘Look, I didn’t even know where you’re calling from,’ said Carole plaintively.

‘I’m in a coffee shop in Pimlico.’

‘What?’

‘Ooh, one other thing . . . Could you give me the number for St Martin’s College of Art? It’ll be on the website.’

Grudgingly, Carole did as requested. ‘I wish I knew what this was all about.’

‘I’ll phone you back when I’ve got something definite. Promise.’

And the line went dead.

Jude tried the number of the St Martin’s College of Art, but the girl who answered wouldn’t give contact details for the tutors. Which was very right and proper, but not a little frustrating.

She was trying to think what to do next when her mobile rang. It was Carole again.

‘I’ve just googled “Ingrid Staunton” and found her website. She’s an artist.’

‘What kind of stuff does she do?’

‘It says,’ replied Carole, contempt curdling her words, ‘she “plays with the defamiliarization of everyday objects until they reach a state of figurative reciprocity”.’

Jude giggled. ‘You must get one of hers for your front room.’

‘Very amusing,’ said Carole drily.

‘Is there a photograph of her on the website? Does she look like Bonita Green?’

‘There isn’t a photograph.’

‘Oh.’

‘But there are contact details for her. Including a mobile phone number.’

‘Great,’ said Jude.

‘Now will you please tell me what the hell you’re doing in Pimlico?’

Carole Seddon felt very restless after the end of their call. In terms of their investigation, Jude, it seemed, was having all the fun. It was Jude who, on a whim, had followed Bonita Green up to London and found out what happened on her ‘special Fridays’. It was Jude who had met and interviewed Addison Willoughby. It was Jude who had got the lead to Ingrid Staunton. Carole felt marginalized and useless.

She vented some of her spleen by cleaning the bathroom. It didn’t really need cleaning, but the task made her feel a little more virtuous. Only a little, though. There was still a deep dissatisfaction within her.

Then she wandered back to the laptop, incarcerated in the spare room. Idly, she once again googled ‘Ingrid Staunton’, hoping to find out more about the mysterious artist. But she drew a blank. There were other references to the woman, but only names of galleries where she had exhibited and that kind of listing. Nothing that would come under the heading ‘revelatory’.

Carole’s frustration grew. She had finished The Times crossword at breakfast. An easy one, as it usually was on a Friday, demonstrating some psychological ploy on behalf of the newspaper to cheer people up for the weekend. But that afternoon she wished the puzzle had been a stinker, something into which she could channel her anger.

It was then that she had the idea of having another look at Denzil Willoughby’s website. Once again she tutted inwardly at the number of four-letter words the home page contained. Then she clicked on the ‘Artist at Work’ link.

After a moment she found herself looking at the webcam’s view of the converted warehouse. The artist didn’t seem to be doing much work, because there was no sign of the two assistants to whom he delegated most of it. But there were two people in animated discussion at the far end of the space. Denzil was one, and the other Carole recognized from his photographs as Addison Willoughby. Their hairstyles seemed to symbolize the contrast between them, the father’s expensively shaped white coiffure and the son’s pale stringy dreadlocks.

The webcam was a long way away from them and its inbuilt microphone was not very good quality, so Carole could not at first hear very well. But after boosting the sound level on her laptop up to its maximum and attuning her ears to the sound, she managed to pick up most of what they were saying. It would have helped if the two men were near enough for her to lip-read, but they were not, and anyway they kept moving about.

‘. . . and when I told you I was doing the exhibition at the Cornelian Gallery,’ Denzil was protesting, ‘you still didn’t say anything.’

‘Why should I have said anything then?’ asked his father. ‘It wasn’t as if you didn’t know Bonita. You’d seen her lots of times when you were with Giles.’

‘That’s not the point, Dad! None of those times did I know that she was screwing my father.’

‘Look, there’s no way I could have told you earlier, Denzil. Not while Philomena was still alive.’

‘Oh, you think now Mum’s dead, that changes everything, do you?’

‘Of course it does. She can no longer be hurt.’

‘But you were hurting every time you screwed Bonita.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Philomena didn’t know that was it was happening.’

‘And you think that makes it better? It was still deceit on a massive scale.’

‘I think it’s pretty rich, you criticizing my morals. Your own track record with women hasn’t been particularly distinguished, has it?’

‘Maybe not, but I’ve never married any of them, have I?’

‘What difference does that make?’

‘If you don’t know the answer to that, then there’s no bloody hope for you. Mum said you were still a Catholic.’

‘Well, I am a kind of Catholic.’

‘Then you should know about the sanctity of marriage. Has it ever occurred to you, Dad –’ Denzil Willoughby managed to put a lot of sneer into the monosyllable – ‘that the reason why I haven’t got married is that I still have some respect for marriage. I wouldn’t go into it with the firm intention of screwing someone else.’

‘That is not how it happened.’

‘Oh, no? You were deceiving Mum, that’s all I know.’

‘But I did it discreetly. I didn’t hurt her. Would you rather I’d gone public and put your mother through the humiliation of a divorce?’

‘Yes, I think I would. In many ways that would have been less deceitful.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake!’ Addison Willoughby was by now almost beside himself with fury. Throughout his marriage, at great personal cost, he had done everything he could to avoid divorce and now, instead of being praised as a good Catholic, he was being condemned for his behaviour. By his son!

‘All you need to know, Denzil,’ he thundered, trying without success to control his anger, ‘is that I am now free to marry Bonita. And that is exactly what I’m going to do.’

‘Fine! By all means go ahead. Marry the woman who killed my mother!’

‘Bonita did not kill Philomena.’

‘Oh no? I’d be a bit more sure of my facts before I made a statement like that, Dad.’

‘Bonita would not dream of killing Philomena. She would not commit murder.’

‘Oh no?’ Denzil Willoughby’s mouth curled into even more of a sneer as he spat out the words, ‘It wouldn’t be the first time.’