The Cat Next Door Read Free Page B

assumed …’

    â€˜Assumptions are dangerous things. There’s nothing physically wrong with Lynette. But the shock completely traumatised her.’
    â€˜Then she can walk.’
    â€˜Of course she can. She did, in the beginning. Except that she wouldn’t go out into the garden.’ Henry restored her cup of coffee to her and sank down in the opposite armchair. ‘Then she didn’t want to come downstairs. Well, there was so much commotion going on for so long, you couldn’t blame her for that. Everyone was just as glad to have her tucked up safely out of the way, to be frank. Only …’
    â€˜Only …?’
    â€˜Only … they’ve let it go on for too long. She’s too well dug in now and she doesn’t want to leave that room any more. It’s a shame they moved her in there to begin with. It’s too convenient with the bathroom en-suite, she doesn’t even have to walk down the hallway to the family bathroom. It’s been weeks now since she left that room at all.’
    â€˜I thought Uncle Wilfred was looking a trifle strained when I went upstairs with Emmeline. I’m surprised he allowed her to take it over like that.’
    â€˜At the time, it seemed the best thing to do. Her own room overlooked the … the salient part of the garden. The police were swarming out there, with electric lights set up around the taped-off area and all their equipment. We couldn’t let her look out and see that. She’d seen enough.’ He set down his coffee cup abruptly and looked around for something stronger. ‘What about a cognac or a liqueur?’
    â€˜She found them, didn’t she?’ The twin sisters, Claudia and Chloe, Lynette’s mother and aunt. Claudia, stretched out upon the ground; Chloe, stooping over her with the bloodied knife in her hand. ‘I … I just know what I read in the newspaper clippings you sent me. I thought someone else might write to me about it, but
they didn’t. Oh, they wrote, but they never mentioned … what happened.’
    â€˜No, they wouldn’t.’ Henry poured cognac into two balloon-shaped glasses and brought one to her. ‘We’re all still trying to come to terms with it ourselves.’
    â€˜Yes.’ It must have been unbearable, still was. ‘But Milly and Wilfred seem to be coping fairly well, considering …’
    â€˜Is that the way it looks to you?’ Henry gave a sharp bark which could have been a cough or a bitter laugh.
    â€˜Well, from what I’ve heard, they’re coping a lot better than …’ She found she did not want to utter the name. Someone else she hardly dared enquire about.
    â€˜Kingsley?’ Henry nodded. ‘He came as close to a breakdown as one could possibly get without going completely over the edge. Or perhaps he did. He was devastated, he adored Claudia.’
    â€˜And she him.’ Margot could attest to that. Despite fluttering every female heart in the neighbourhood – yes, hers included – the rising young politician had had eyes for no one but Claudia from the moment they first met. He could even tell her apart from Chloe – something even Aunt Milly was not always able to do in those days – and that, in turn, had helped to win her heart. A man who could not be fooled by their games was someone special indeed – someone to be held tight.
    â€˜They were so utterly devoted to each other. It was a tragedy …’ Henry paused and seemed to consider what he had just said. ‘A tragedy for all of us,’ he amended. ‘I don’t know how we got through it. In a way, Kingsley had it easy – he disappeared into The Priory for six weeks, even though the election was looming. And he got re-elected, when so many others weren’t. No one dared mention the words “sympathy vote”, but that was what it was.’
    â€˜Not necessarily,’ Margot defended.