Murder in the Park by Veronica Heley

Author:Veronica Heley [Heley, Veronica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-26T22:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Ellie found the wedding photo of herself and her husband—how young they looked and how dated her wedding dress!—and took it back upstairs. Diana was sitting in the chair by the bedside, and for a wonder she was actually holding the old woman’s hand. The nurse was flicking through a magazine, but keeping a wary eye on her charge.

Ellie placed the photo on the bedside table and went down to the kitchen. Rose was cleaning the cooker, which she had no need to do as Miss Quicke paid for someone to do all the cleaning in the house. Rose was keeping herself occupied, singing along with a cracked voice to the radio. The sky had clouded over and a breeze rattled some bamboo in a pot outside the kitchen window. Ellie took a seat at the table, Rose turned the radio down and made a pot of tea.

They sat on opposite sides of the breakfast table, two women who had been through much together, and who realized that their lives were going to change. Ellie reflected how pleasant it was to sit in silence with an old friend. Well, not in silence, actually, because Rose was burbling on about this and that, the nice plaice fillets she’d got from the fishmonger, a newly-planted rose that had unaccountably died, and ... and ...

Ellie didn’t have to listen, or do more than nod occasionally. She wondered how Thomas had got on at his meeting, and what she should wear to go out with him that night. There was such a lot she had to tell him. Her thoughts wandered up to the bedroom in which her aunt lay, gradually withdrawing from life. Had it been wise to allow Diana to sit with her great-aunt? Visions of pillows being thrust over faces would keep intruding into Ellie s mind. But no. Diana wouldn’t do that.

Diana didn’t lie. If she said she would do a thing, she did it. If she said she wasn’t going to do a thing, then she wouldn’t do it.

Rose was looking at her, expecting an answer to some question she’d asked, which Ellie had not heard. ‘Sorry, Rose. What was that again?’

‘It’s best to think about something else,’ said Rose. ‘I can tell you’re worried about Diana sitting with Miss Quicke, but the nurse promised me faithfully she’d not leave the room even for a second, or I wouldn’t have let Diana go up there, and if there’s a soft spot your daughter has for anyone, it’s for her great-aunt, who’s her role model in life, if that’s the right word. They do have such odd ways of putting things nowadays, don’t they?’

Ellie smiled. Yes, they did.

‘What I was saying was—’ Rose clattered the teacups into the dishwasher—‘do you think I could borrow Midge for a night or two? I don’t hold with traps for mice, nasty sadistic things, traps, and poison I will not put down, not with so many birds coming into the garden, although it’s not

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