Before Max had completed his treatment, Leon learned that his wife and daughters had perished. He told Max the news had come in a letter from a contact in Vienna and had taken several months to reach him. That day he arranged for Max to be discharged from hospital and committed suicide.
Max left the hospital with Leon's last words ringing in his ears. Leon had speculated that thousands of mentally damaged young men would return from the war keeping their fears and the ghosts of their past trapped in a cellar in their minds; while young and strong their feet would be planted firmly on that trapdoor but as they grew older and weaker the demons would push open the trapdoor and force their way out and haunt the old age of their hosts. Determined that this would not happen to him, Max successfully wiped away the past keeping that trapdoor firmly closed with no possibility of the demons escaping and started a new life with his son.
He became friends with Douglas Hood; the policeman who had helped him when he was caught in the air-raid and through him became a special constable until the war's end when he joined the regular police force. He met and married his second wife Sarah who was also widowed with a child and they began their lives again adding two further children to their family.
By the 1960s, Max was a Chief Inspector still living in Oak Hathern with Sarah in a beautiful house on the green and working with the Southampton Police Force. Their children were grown up and had flown the nest and the older generation, Clarissa, Alexander and Charles still lived at Top Cottage. Life was good for all of them, the family was a close-knit unit and there was no hint of the darkness of the past that was about to spring forward to engulf Max.
As Chief Inspector Darrington, Max was high profile policeman often seen in the newspapers on some case or other and occasionally interviewed on the television. All this made him something of a celebrity in Oak Hathern, but he was a man who closely guarded his private life. And private it would have remained, if not for Annie Rudge, the most efficient of the village gossips and also one time cook and housekeeper to the family.
Chapter Three
Annie Rudge, her daughter Ruby and neighbour Jessie sat drinking tea at a small table beneath the window of Annie's tiny cottage, catching the last of the day's sunshine. Poring over the newspaper spread out on the small round table in front of her, Annie, in her slow flat Hampshire tones, read aloud to Ruby and Jessie the article about the still unsolved rape and murder of ten-year-old Sally Wilson. It was a warm June afternoon and they had carried the table and chairs outside to catch the last of the day's sunshine and enjoy their afternoon tea and biscuits.
“It also says here,” Annie went on, screwing up her eyes beneath her thick glasses to read the small print, “after six months of intensive investigations, Detective Inspector Max Darrington and his team in the Southampton CID are no further forward in their efforts to catch the killer of ten-year-old Sally Wilson who went missing on 26
th
December 1966 and whose body was found on Benchley Common five days later on New Year's Eve.”
Annie looked up from the paper and shook her head slowly, “I must say I'm very surprised Max Darrington hasn't caught this filthy beast yet, he's such a good policeman, but it seems he's failed this time.”
Ruby and Jessie nodded their agreement as Annie held up the paper showing a small photograph of the grim-faced chief inspector leaving Southampton police station. Ruby leaned closer to and examined the grainy picture, “I must say he don't look too happy about it all.”
“Well, he won't be, will he?” confirmed Annie, “not good for his career a failure like this, is it?”
At that moment Annie's granddaughter Gloria sauntered across the village green to the tea drinking trio, “Who are you gossiping about now, Grannie?” she laughed as she pinched a biscuit from the plate on the table and sat down on the doorstep.
“You mind your manners girl,” chastised Annie sharply, “and what we're talking about is no laughing matter. We was talking about that young Sally Wilson raped and murdered last year, poor little mite. It's all here in the paper saying as how they can't catch this killer, even Chief Inspector Max Darrington has been stumped by this case, so you'd better watch yourself Gloria Rudge. Don't you go wandering off alone or walking home by yourself from the church hall dance on a Saturday night, 'cos he's still at large.”
Gloria scoffed, “Don't think he'd be interested in the likes of me, he's just a cowardly bugger going after little 'uns. If he came anywhere near me he'd get a good hard kick where he wouldn't like it, I can tell you.”
Ruby cuffed her niece lightly around the ear, “You watch your mouth young Gloria or I'll have a word with your Dad about you. You're getting too big for your boots you are â you're only sixteen not much more 'an a child yourself.”
Gloria was Annie's son's daughter but an exact replica of her Aunt Ruby; they were plain, tall and statuesque and as Annie watched them angrily facing up to one another, she thought it would indeed be a brave man who would take on either one of them.
The moment passed and a car travelling towards the village green swept along the road in front of them. “Oh, look!” said Jessie pointing at the car, “That's him isn't it, the Chief Inspector?”
Annie leaned out of her chair and waved franticly at the disappearing car, “Oh, yes that's him and his wife, Sarah,” she said excitedly as Ruby caught hold of her arm to prevent her tipping from her chair, “I'd know him anywhere, 'cos I worked for them for years, right from when the family moved to Oak Hathern just before the war.”
“We all know that mother,” Ruby rebuked, “and I still work for 'em now and again but that's no reason for you to break your neck just to wave to him. Anyway, he wouldn't see you he was driving too fast, as usual.” She stood up and brushed biscuit crumbs from her skirt, “I've got to go to the shops now mother. Don't you stay out here if it turns cold.” She glared at Gloria, “And you behave yourself.” Gloria pulled a face when her Aunt turned to Jessie and nodded in Annie's direction, “You'll see she gets in all right will you Jessie, if it gets cold before I get back.”
Jessie smiled, “'Course I will Ruby. You get off and do your shopping.”
“I'm not a complete invalid our Ruby,” growled Annie angrily as Ruby walked away.
Jessie moved closer to Annie. She was glad Ruby had gone now she and Annie could have a proper chat without interruptions. Annie knew everything about Oak Hathern and its people. Her family had lived there for generations, whereas Jessie herself was a relative newcomer having inherited the cottage next to Annie's when her sister passed away some two years before. “Where'd they come from, the Darringtons?” she asked.
“London,” replied Annie. “They all moved into Top Cottage, young Max and his mother and uncles. Well, I say Max lived there, he came home from Oxford now and again and when the war started he went into the navy â he had a very bad time of it at sea, spent weeks in hospital he did and I think it affected his mind because he went missing at one time and ended up in the mental hospital near Southampton.”
Annie's neighbour looked askance, “Well, there can't be much wrong with him or they wouldn't have allowed him to join the police force now would they?”
Annie reddened, “I never said there was anything wrong with him now, but he was certainly in the mental hospital for a few weeks during the war and I know that for a fact 'cos me and Ruby were working at Top Cottage at the time and they was all in a right state about it, worried to death his mother was.” Jessie let the matter pass and Annie went on, “Alexander Darrington and Charles Petersen, that's Max's uncles, bought a haulage company in Southampton â neither of them were short of a bob or two, of course, but during the war they did their bit. Mr Petersen was in the Home Guard, and Mr Darrington was an air-raid warden, and even Mrs Darrington joined the Women's Voluntary Service. There were those around here who were doubtful that the âfolks from London,' who had bought Top cottage, would fit into village life, but they did, of course, like yourself Jessie, they'll always be âoutsiders' or âcomer-ins' as some call them but they did their best to fit into the community and as I said, they did their bit during the war years.”
Jessie was put out at being called a âcomer-in,' her sister had lived in Oak Hathern for over forty years and now she owned the cottage, not like Annie who only rented hers. “So how did you get to know them?” she asked.
Annie drank the last of her tea and went on with her gossip, “The first New Year of the war 1939, they had a dinner party, it was young Max's twenty-second birthday and, Mrs Darrington asked me and Ruby to cook the dinner for her, apparently Dr Scott, who used to live in the village, recommended us, he was a friend of theirs.” Annie held her head up proudly, “Ruby and me did such a good job that Mrs Darrington gave us a bonus and asked us to work for her on a regular basis cooking and cleaning for a few hours each day. She paid well, as I said earlier, they weren't short of a bob or two, but she were a lovely lady to work for. We never had no complaints, but then we did a good job Ruby and I did. Her brother, Mr Petersen, he was a real gentleman, but I have to say her brother-in-law, that's Mr Darrington, he was a bit different to the other two, nice enough most of the time but called a spade a spade if you know what I mean.”
“Was that the party when the doctor swept you off your feet and danced you around the room in your hat and coat and woolly gloves, Grannie?” Annie blushed, she had quite forgotten about Gloria sitting quietly on the doorstep crunching yet another biscuit.
Jessie's mouth dropped open, “He did what Annie? Danced you round the room in your hat and coat!”
“And her woolly gloves,” Gloria added gleefully, “don't forget the gloves!”
Annie glared at her, “Isn't it time you were on your way home?” she asked pointedly but Gloria shook her head.
“No. I'm not in any hurry. Did you make these biscuits yourself Grannie? They're really scrumptious, but I must say I think I like your chocolate cake better.”
Annie turned back to Jessie and spoke softly, “It's something I'd rather forget, but folks 'round here like nothing more than a bit of gossip and they keep bringing it up even after all these years.” She took a deep breath, “I suppose it was nothing at all really, but there were thirteen people for dinner. I said to Ruby at the time, no good would come of it, it was bad luck and with a war on an' all. Anyway, they all got a bit merry and started dancing but because of the odd number Dr Scott didn't have a partner. As I went in to tell Mrs Darrington that Ruby and I were leaving, I knew no more until he swept me off my feet and danced me around the room. Round and round we went and me in my coat, hat and gloves. I mean I even had my winter boots on. I tell you Jessie, I've never been so embarrassed in my entire life, everyone laughed of course, but I felt as if I been ⦔ Annie hesitated and glanced at Gloria, who seemed to be distracted and not listening. In a whisper she said, “As if I'd been sort of violated; interfered with, if you really want to know and I never went to see him medically ever again, I went to old Dr Sefton who was in the same practice.”
Jessie sat back in her chair, “That's a bit much isn't it Annie, I mean it was only a dance around the room wasn't it?”
“Well, yes it might well have been,” said Annie defensively, “but I had no choice, I mean he didn't even ask. Anyway, I don't want to talk about it. It brings back too many unpleasant memories.”
Not wanting to lose her source of information Jessie asked quickly “and was young Max still at Oxford then?”
“No. He'd gone and joined the navy; came home for Christmas in uniform. I think they all got a bit of a shock but, of course, they were proud of him and he brought a lovely French girl to his birthday party on New Year's Eve, Claudine was her name, a real beauty she was, and then just as Ruby and I was getting ahead in the kitchen, Mrs Darrington tells us there's two more for dinner and that made thirteen. No âcan you manage that Annie?' Oh no, she just popped her head around the kitchen door and said âby the way there are two more for dinner and I've set the places at the table'. Good job I always over cater.”
“And who were they?” Jessie asked.
“It was a woman called Mrs Barbara Longfield and her young son Clive, he's the vicar here in the village now, Reverend Longfield I mean, but he was only a nipper when he first came here.” Annie shifted in her seat to get comfortable as she went on with the story and Jessie leaned forward to listen intently. “I didn't know it at the time, but that Mrs Longfield, she was an old flame of Mr Petersen's and he'd met up with her again that very day and invited her to the party. I must say they all seemed to enjoy themselves, young Max had some of those jazz records from America, and Mr Alexander was playing the piano at one time and Mrs Longfield and Max was doing the Charleston if you please. Me and Ruby were watching from the kitchen door, we could hardly believe our eyes.”
Annie tilted her head back and narrowed her eyes as if trying to remember more details. “We didn't see any more of Mrs Longfield for quite a while after the party but Max he married the French girl in London quite soon after and came home and surprised the family again. He had a habit of doing that. I used to feel sorry for his poor mother, but it's to be hoped they did marry because she had a baby later that year, that's Jules Darrington, Max Darrington's eldest boy, lives in London with his wife and family now. There were those in the village counting up the months when that babe was born I can tell you, but not me, of course.”
“Of course not, Grannie â you wouldn't be gossiping about anyone would you!” Gloria laughed. Annie ignored her.