Coffin Underground by Gwendoline Butler

Author:Gwendoline Butler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2013-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Roxie Farmer and Shirley Place, unlikely sisters-in-law, were under one roof for the time being. They were sitting in the kitchen over a cup of tea. There was no pretence of grief on either side for the death of William Egan or the predicament of Terry Place. As far as the women were concerned, they had wiped each other out and that was that.

‘While they needed us, we did what we could,’ said Shirley. ‘As far as we could.’

Their eyes met. Roxie assented: ‘As far as we could.’ They understood each other.

‘You had your Terry here when he got out, and I’m grateful to you because if it hadn’t been you, it would have had to be me, and with Dad the way he was, I was better out of the country. He’d have beat me up as well as Terry if he could. I’m sorry he had to go the way he did, but it was always going to happen, the sort of man he was. Dad, I used to say, you are your own worst enemy and someone’ll kill you for it one day. Of course I didn’t think it would be Terry when I married him. You don’t think of things like that on your wedding day.’

‘No,’ Roxie nodded. She never talked as much as Shirley. ‘Another cup?’

‘If you like, dear.’

The kitchen was bright and newly furnished with the best of domestic equipment. Dishwasher, automatic washing-machine, a luxury freezer, even Rhoda Brocklebank hadn’t got more.

‘You’ve got this place lovely.’ Shirley stirred her tea. A crocodile handbag lay on the table and she had just slipped off her new Italian shoes. ‘You’re the homemaking type. I’m more of a party girl, myself.’

‘Mmm.’

‘But I don’t think it matters what you are, as long as you’ve got the money to do it.’

From where she sat, Shirley could see the street. ‘Oh look, visitors. Now that’s a car full of cops, if ever I saw one.’

Roxie looked and saw Chief Superintendent Coffin and Inspector Lane. ‘I think they’ve come to see you.’ She felt quite calm after her talk with Shirley, who was a good sort, if rough. ‘After they’ve gone, shall we have our little bonfire?’

It was a routine call on the bereaved Mrs Place who had lost her father and who might soon be a widow, who had perhaps shed a few tears, but not very many.

Yet it was Shirley Place who kept the interview firmly null and void. No, she couldn’t help them at all. She had been away on a little holiday in Spain and knew nothing. A total shock. Yes, she was very shocked. Hardly knew how to conduct herself, but Roxie was being so kind.

Yes, it was terrible what her husband had done, and she couldn’t explain it. He had been a violent man and her father had been a man even more violent, it was a pity they had ever met.

‘They met in prison,’ Coffin reminded her sharply, ‘apart from anywhere else.’

A deep breath and a pat with her handkerchief at her eyes.

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