Nemesis of the Dead (22 page)

‘Nuts,’ finished Diana. She was very flushed and her eyes were unnaturally bright. ‘He isn’t a genius, he’s a fruit-cake – a total basket case. But I was even nuttier. D’you wanna know why? I’d decided to tell him I was going to give him the money for his dumb scholarships. I’d even have played the part of a respectable master’s wife – some of the time. He was my husband and I believed, deep down, that he loved me even if he didn’t fancy me any more. But then Jack told me he’d killed his own sister in cold blood.’ Her voice wavered. ‘She was such a great old lady, I was real fond of her …’ She stopped and blew her nose. ‘When I realized he was also responsible for Maria, Ellie and your husband, Marjorie, I knew it was the end of the line – he had to be stopped.’ Her voice broke altogether and instinctively Sid made as if to put his arm around her but hesitated and drew very slightly away. Corrie noticed and was sorry. It was a shame. No wonder Professor Gordon hadn’t cared about his wife carrying on with Sid – you wouldn’t if you were planning to murder her anyway.

‘I’m sorry I had to put you through such an ordeal, Diana, it isn’t normal practice in the murder squad to use civilians as bait but I had to force Gordon’s hand. Time was running out and I needed evidence and, with a bit of luck, a confession, before you both left Katastrophos. By then, it would have been too late and we couldn’t have protected you.’

‘You guys certainly cut it pretty fine!’ Diana blew her nose. ‘I was expecting you to grab him as soon as I hit the deck. I was terrified he’d check my pulse – guess I was shamming.’

Sid was full of apologies. ‘We couldn’t help it, Di. The wind dropped and it took us longer than we planned to sail back to shore. Believe me, when Jack and I first found that filthy jollop where the prof had hidden it, I didn’t want to let him anywhere near you. I was so angry I wanted to wring the bastard’s neck, but Jack said that wouldn’t get a confession out of him and I’d just finish up behind bars instead of him.’

‘Right,’ agreed Jack. ‘And we had to let Gordon see us actually go out on the boat because he was checking that everybody had left the hotel to make sure he had the place to himself. He took a huge risk but as he saw it, he’d run out of options. The university was threatening to give the job to another botanist so he had to find the cash, fast. You did a great acting job, Diana. Very convincing.’

She laughed mirthlessly. ‘Didn’t I tell you? I flunked botany soon after Cuthbert took over my class. I switched subjects and majored in performing arts.’

Corrie looked difficult. She had been listening to the explanations and gradually things were becoming clearer.

‘Let me get this straight, Jack. You set up a high-risk operation to catch a man you knew was a ruthless murderer and you didn’t think to mention it to me?’

‘Sorry, Corrie, but you weren’t even supposed to be there. I told you to stay in town.’

‘And you were in on it, too, Sidney?’

‘Sorry, Corrie.’

‘And you, Diana. You let me think you’d been poisoned – that we’d both been poisoned?’

‘Sorry, Corrie.’

‘Will you all please stop saying that!’ She glared angrily at them, control ebbing away. ‘Have you any idea what I went through today? I was tied to that chair having what I believed was deadly poison poured down my throat and I really believed Diana and I were done for. It was terrifying. I’ll probably need counselling – therapy, even. I’ll be surprised if I don’t get post-traumatic stress … thingummy. Why on earth didn’t you tell me what was going on, Jack?’

He looked contrite. ‘You know what you’re like, dumpling. If I’d given you the slightest hint about the operation, you’d have been hopping about like Miss Marple with a bat up her nightgown – desperate to interfere. You’re hopeless at keeping secrets and you’re a lousy liar. Gordon would have guessed straight off that it was a set-up and we’d never have got a confession.’ He put a cautious arm around her. ‘Diana said you were amazing – really feisty and brave, and you wouldn’t leave her even though she kept telling you to go. I’m so proud of you – but you shouldn’t have put yourself at risk, sweetheart.’ He tried to kiss her on the cheek but she shoved him away. A sudden unpleasant thought struck her.

‘I assume you snatched the bottle of ouzo he’d poisoned and switched it for a safe one?’

Jack shook his head. ‘We couldn’t, there wasn’t time. The boat was so slow sailing back, by the time we got there, Gordon had already poured his toxin into the bottle and fed it to you and Diana.’

‘It was OK, though,’ assured Sid, cheerfully. ‘Before we left to go fishing, we got Maria to keep Ariadne out of the way and we replaced the poison in her bottles with something else, double quick, before the prof arrived to collect it. You were quite safe.’

‘Oh, were we?’ said Corrie, nastily. ‘Were we, really? And what if he’d had extra supplies hidden in other places – such as his sample case, or Yanni’s cellar, or his anorak pocket, for example? What would have happened if he’d used some of that instead of the stash in Ariadne’s kitchen?’

Jack and Sid looked at each other uncomfortably. Sid shuffled his feet nervously and swore under his breath – something deeply obscene.

‘I heard that, Sidney Foskett! And as for you …’ Corrie shot her husband a look far worse than anything Medusa might have conjured up. But she was denied the satisfaction of telling him exactly what she thought of him because her stomach gave another ferocious growl and she knew she needed to leave the table urgently. A glance at Diana confirmed that she, too, was not without discomfort. Ignoring Jack, Corrie fixed Sidney with a terrible eye, considering him the more vulnerable of the two.

‘What exactly did you replace the poison with, Sidney?’

‘Yeah, what was in that bottle besides ouzo?’ gasped Diana, between cramps.

Sid hesitated, glancing helplessly at Jack. ‘You have to believe me, ladies, we didn’t have much time and—’

‘What was it?’

‘… we had to find something that looked and smelled more or less the same so he wouldn’t spot the switch—’

‘Sidney!’

‘It was squirty cucumber juice.’

‘Not at all poisonous, my darling, they use it on the island to make medicine,’ reassured Jack. ‘It’s just that it’s a bit … well, I suppose it’s a lot, really …’ He swallowed hard. ‘It’s a very … potent … purgative.’ But Corrie had already left with Diana hard on her heels. A turbulent end to a turbulent day.

S
aturday morning, the day of departure, was even bleaker than the previous evening. Everyone had run out of things to say. They huddled around the now depressing olive-wood table for the last time, deep in their own thoughts and willing the Greek police launch to arrive and return them to normality although it would be a long time before anything felt normal again. The dramatic events of the last fortnight – a lifetime ago – now seemed unreal – impossible for even the most resilient of them to absorb. Mostly, people seemed to have turned in on themselves, searching their battered senses for some sort of understanding.

Sidney, in an unusually sombre mood, was bracing himself for the inevitable parting from his lovely, unattainable Diana and trying to work out why fate had brought them together, given him a brief taste of joy and then kicked him hard in the balls. Unable to endure the oppressive silence, he broke it, sharing his confused thoughts.

‘Wasn’t it a strange coincidence the way we all arrived on Katastrophos at the same time?’

They looked up, puzzled, waiting for further clarification.

‘What I mean is, this island doesn’t have ten visitors in a year, never mind in a fortnight. The odds against us all choosing it for the same two weeks must be astronomical.’

It remained quiet for a long time while they considered this, then Corrie put a hand on his arm. ‘Maybe the hypnotic atmosphere has befuddled my brain like the professor told us it would, but I don’t think it was coincidence that brought us all to Katastrophos.’

Sid frowned. ‘Sorry, Corrie. I don’t understand, love. What else could it have been?’

‘This island is tiny, remote and isolated – not even on the tourist map. You’re right, Sid, under normal circumstances, none of us would have even found it, let alone chosen it as a holiday destination. But something powerful and compelling – something outside the boundaries of logic – drew us all here. I don’t believe it was an accident. I believe it was for a reason.’

‘Sweetheart …’ ventured Jack, ‘you’ve had a very traumatic experience. We all have. You mustn’t let it put strange ideas into your—’

‘I thought that, too, Corrie,’ Marjorie broke in, ‘but I couldn’t make any sense of it. The ten of us couldn’t be more diverse. Different age groups, professions and backgrounds – a real hotchpotch of personalities. What do we have in common that has pulled us together like this?’ Corrie wasn’t the only one who had fallen under the sinister spell of the place – sensed its control over them. Marjorie felt it intensely and was curious to grasp its significance.

Corrie didn’t answer for some moments. It was a toss-up whether to keep quiet and simply let them go on thinking she was a bit odd or share her theory and confirm their suspicions that she was totally unhinged.

‘I think Lavinia Braithwaite is the reason we’re on Katastrophos,’ she replied eventually.

‘Corrie, I really don’t think it’s healthy to start imagining …’ Jack began, helplessly.

She continued, undaunted, as he knew she would. ‘I’ve been aware of it for some time. It’s strange we haven’t discussed our connections to Lavinia before now. But then, I suppose you don’t talk about dead people, do you? Not on holiday.’

‘Corrie, we don’t all have connections to Lavinia Braithwaite,’ said Jack, still trying to bring her back down to earth.

‘Don’t we? I wonder.’ Corrie was resolute. ‘Your connection, Jack, was that you were the copper tasked with arresting her murderer, which you’ve done. My connection was that I did the catering for all her charity luncheons. I liked her a lot and I was concerned that I might unintentionally have had some kind of responsibility for her death. Diana, you were her sister-in-law and also very fond of her, never suspecting for a moment that she had been murdered by your husband – her own brother. Marjorie, you helped to raise funds for her charities, didn’t you? Lavinia was kind and generous and gave you something worthwhile to cling to, knowing that your life with Ambrose was increasingly intolerable. It was her legacy that enabled you to come to Katastrophos where …’ she hesitated, unsure how to put it, ‘… the cause of your unhappiness was removed.’

‘OK, so what about Sid?’ Jack was sceptical as ever. ‘He didn’t have any connection to Lavinia Braithwaite at all.’

‘Actually, I think I did,’ said Sidney. ‘If she was the same Mrs Braithwaite who lived near Richmond Park in a posh, mock Tudor mansion with a pond and lime trees down her drive, then it was me who put in her new luxury bathroom. Top of the range pastel suite in Byzantine Twilight, “the elegant charm of a bygone era”, with a set of gold basin mixers with little dolphins on the taps. A real nice lady, she was. Passed on my business card to her friends and I made a lot of good contacts, got some big orders. Terrible to think the poor soul’s dead – murdered in the middle of her lunch. I’m just glad I was able to help catch the bugger who did it.’

‘And before you ask,’ said Tina, ‘I had a connection too. I nursed Mrs Braithwaite after she was rushed to hospital for an emergency gall bladder operation. She was so kind. She had only ever had private treatment before but she wrote a letter to the hospital saying that my care had speeded up her recovery.’

‘Blimey,’ breathed Sid. ‘Spooky, innit? Like the Twilight Zone.’

‘That just leaves Ellie and me,’ said Tim, ‘and I’m afraid we blow your theory out of the water, Corrie. Neither of us has ever heard of Lavinia Braithwaite and we’ve never even been to Richmond Park. We’re the exceptions to your hypothesis – no connections to the lady at all. Sorry.’

Jack was wrestling with a quandary. Common sense and good police practice told him he should keep quiet – say nothing. Nobody else knew and if he stayed silent, this ridiculous conversation would just fizzle out and Corrie’s theory would slink back to where it belonged – in her shadowy, intermittent world of gods and demons. But for some reason, it wasn’t that easy. Something kept niggling at the back of his mind in a fanciful, rarely used brain cell lurking behind the logical, coherent mass that served him so well as a hard-nosed copper. The niggle wouldn’t leave him alone, nagged at him to tell the truth. But if he spoke now, it would open up not one can of worms but a whole truck load. Eventually he made a decision, or rather, the decision was somehow made for him. He was far from sure it was the right one but he felt compelled to carry it through.

‘Actually, Tim, you probably have a stronger connection than any of us – or at least, Ellie does.’

‘But that’s impossible. Ellie has never mentioned any Lavinia Braithwaite, not all the time I’ve known her. If she’d been a close friend she’d have been invited to our wedding. You’re wrong, DI Dawes. You must be.’

Still driven by his indefinable niggle, Jack looked across the table at Diana. ‘Last night, when you said your husband was Lavinia’s only living relative, that wasn’t entirely accurate, was it? Lavinia had a niece.’

Diana’s face was pained. ‘I didn’t know the baby was a girl. Did Cuthbert know?’

‘Yes. Her mother wrote and told him when the baby was born. She didn’t want any trouble or money from him but she did follow his career, kept up with where he was living and working, in case her daughter asked about her father one day. He never replied to her letters, not even the one inviting him to the wedding.’

‘That figures,’ said Diana. ‘He didn’t mention any of it to me. I’d never have known he had a kid at all if Daddy’s private eye hadn’t found out.’

Corrie had been struggling to make sense of this exchange. Now the fog was gradually starting to lift. She recalled that ghastly moment when Diana had purposely goaded Cuthbert, the taunts about how he had made one of his students pregnant many years ago, then abandoned her with a baby. But surely that baby couldn’t be …

‘Just a minute,’ Tim stood up, flushed. ‘What are you saying? What has all this got to do with Ellie? I don’t understand. Will someone please explain?’

Jack looked at Diana but she was clearly reluctant to speak. He took a deep breath.

‘Tim, I’m not sure I’m the one who should be telling you this. In fact, I’m not sure I should be discussing it at all. But having got this far, I can see that only the truth will do, now. Police investigations into Professor Gordon’s past revealed that he had a brief association with one of his students some twenty years ago. The result was that she became pregnant and had a baby – a little girl. Tim, that little girl was Ellie.’

There were sharp intakes of breath. Just when everyone believed there was nothing left that could shock them, there was this unbelievable revelation with all its terrible implications. Tim paled and sank back into his chair.

‘My God. Are you sure?’

‘Positive.’

‘Ellie never knew who her father was – never wanted to know. She loves her mum very much and would never ask her. How am I going to tell her that her own father nearly poisoned her to death?’ He gulped. ‘Did Professor Gordon know Ellie was his daughter?’

Jack shook his head. ‘He knew he had a daughter, knew she was getting married. Ellie’s mum wrote and told him, thinking he might at last want to acknowledge her, come to her wedding. But as we know, he was only interested in his own self-importance, getting his hands on the money to fund his research. He never replied to the letter, probably binned it without even reading it. I’d been keeping a close eye on Ellie – we thought she might be at risk – so when she was poisoned, I was stunned. I really thought Gordon had traced her identity through her mum’s letter and tried to kill her.’

‘I can just about see why he mightn’t want to meet his daughter after all these years, but I don’t understand why he would want to harm her.’

‘The position of master, as well as requiring academic excellence, carried with it a responsibility for personal integrity and honourable behaviour. Gordon was not above getting rid of Ellie if he believed for one moment that the existence of a daughter born as the result of an illicit liaison with one of his students might jeopardize his future position at the Swiss university. It was all he cared about and he would have been quite ruthless in dispatching her if he deemed it necessary. You have to remember, we’re not dealing with a sane man here. Gordon had no conscience. Nothing was to get in the way of the world recognizing his genius. But in the event, he didn’t know who Ellie was, had never bothered to trace her, and she was poisoned only because she drank wine intended for Diana.’

‘Sane or not, the man’s a monster,’ said Marjorie quietly. ‘I hope you throw the book at him, Jack.’

‘How on earth am I going to tell Ellie?’ Tim moaned again.

‘Do you have to tell her, son?’ asked Sidney. ‘What has she got to gain by finding out her dad’s a murdering psycho? At the moment, she doesn’t know him and he doesn’t know her. Why don’t you just leave it like that?’

‘I want to, believe me. We were so happy before we came to this horrible island and this awful nightmare happened to us. But what if she asks about her father in the future?’

‘Then you just get her mum to explain that she once fell in love with a very clever teacher and Ellie was born. Tell her that’s probably why she’s so good at teaching kiddies herself. Then her mum and the teacher sensibly decided to move on and not interfere in each other’s lives. They were poles apart and it would never have worked if they’d got together. Something like that.’ He glanced obliquely at Diana. ‘After all, just because someone is way out of your reach, almost on a different planet, it doesn’t stop you falling in love with them.’

Diana leant forward suddenly and took his hands. Her face was flushed, her emerald eyes brilliant. Loose blonde curls spilled over her shoulders and firm, tanned breasts swelled up from her low-cut dress. He could smell her, feel her warmth. It was too much. He stood up abruptly and strode to the other end of the table on the pretence of pouring himself more coffee.

Tim turned anxiously to Jack. ‘But won’t the police have to tell Ellie? Won’t everything come out at the professor’s trial?’

‘I don’t see why it should. Ellie’s relationship to Gordon is completely irrelevant to the case as neither of them knew about the other. Their names are different, he isn’t on her birth certificate, and there’s no reason why anyone should make the connection. Except Ellie’s mum, of course. She’ll know. But I can’t see her wanting to upset Ellie by telling her, can you?’

‘No. I’m sure she won’t.’ He relaxed slightly. ‘Thank you. I’m grateful.’

‘So that’s the final piece of our jigsaw,’ said Corrie, still relentlessly pursuing her theory. ‘Ellie was Cuthbert’s daughter – which makes her Lavinia’s niece. That’s her connection.’

‘But assuming you’re right and we’re all here because of Mrs Braithwaite, what was the point of it all?’ asked Sidney.

‘Nemesis.’

They looked in surprise at Tina, who had, until this moment, remained distant and withdrawn. In England she was a model nurse, methodical and down to earth, tending the sick with competence and compassion, her skills based on sound scientific knowledge. But here on Katastrophos, the place of her birth, she had absorbed mystery and superstition from the womb and now the deep convictions of her childhood resurfaced, strong and unshakable.

‘Do you remember what I told you that first morning after we arrived?’

Nobody answered, recalling that a fortnight ago they had simply dismissed her as weird.

‘I could feel the powerful synergy of vengeance and reprisal all around us.’ Once more, she was almost whispering, her eyes half-closed. Her soft accent with the Greek lisp made her words even more compelling. ‘St Sophia does not rule Katastrophos. Sophia is a superficial saint, a frivolous collector of trinkets and candles. It is Nemesis, winged balancer of life, dark-faced goddess and daughter of justice who holds deadly court here. She is the spirit of divine retribution from whom there is no escape – the true avenger of crime and hubris. At first I believed she was urging me to seek revenge for my own resentment. I was wrong, and Nemesis ensured I did not succeed.’ She glanced briefly at the cut on Jack’s head, now virtually healed. ‘It was then that I realized that the injustice for which Nemesis had beckoned me was much greater than a personal grudge, it was something for which more than one person must atone. I had no understanding of it until now but I knew Nemesis would show us when she was ready.’