The Killer in the Choir by Simon Brett

Author:Simon Brett [Simon Brett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2019-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Jude nodded thoughtfully. ‘I think I get it now.’

‘Get what?’

‘What happened after your husband’s funeral.’

‘Ah.’

‘You were worried about suspicion focusing on Alice. So, you ensured that suspicion was focused on you instead.’ Heather was silent. She looked very tired. ‘You chose a rather histrionic way of doing it, but I can see why you did. Alice is an actress, after all. It wasn’t difficult for her to act out the accusations against you.’

Heather smiled wryly. ‘Well done. I can see why you’re good at your job. You understand how people work.’

‘Thank you.’

‘And if ever I was in need of healing services – or if Alice was – we might well …’ She stopped, apparently regretting having embarked on the sentence.

‘You’d be more than welcome. I don’t actually specialize in your kind of problem, but I’d—’

‘Who said I’ve got a problem?’ Heather snapped.

‘You’ve said it. This morning. What you’ve told me. Unless you don’t regard being the victim of sexual abuse as a problem …’

‘Hm.’ Heather nodded, taking that on board. ‘At the moment I’m so confused. There’s a lot of stuff in my head that I’ve got to sort out. But I’m not going to even think about it until I’ve got Alice safely married.’

‘Afterwards, though …?’

‘We’ll see.’

‘There are people who can help you. You don’t want to – and you don’t have to – live the rest of your life in the shadow of what you went through during your marriage.’

‘As I said, we’ll see.’

Silence again. Heather looked out, as if for comfort, towards the sea. The water was steel-grey and unresponsive.

‘You took a big risk,’ said Jude.

‘In what way?’

‘Setting up Alice to accuse you in the church hall. Why did you do it?’

‘So that no one would suspect that she’d killed her father.’

‘Had anyone voiced suspicions that she was responsible?’

‘No. But KK told me he heard people in the Crown & Anchor suggesting that I might have had something to do with it. In other words, there were suspicions that Leonard didn’t die of natural causes. I was worried that, if the rumours led to a police investigation, it might get too close to Alice.’

‘So, you publicly turned the suspicions against yourself …’

‘Yes.’

‘… in the secure knowledge that KK could provide you with an alibi for the time of Leonard’s death?’

‘Exactly.’

‘And you knew that Alice didn’t have an alibi, so you got Roddy to provide a false one for her?’ Heather nodded. ‘That was another big risk you took.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, if the police investigation had been a bit more thorough …’

‘I was banking on the fact that it wouldn’t be.’ There was now a note of pride in the woman’s voice. ‘I needed to stop the rumours going round Fethering. As you know, in a village like this, rumours can grow and fester and get bundled up with other rumours. So, I reckoned, if there was a police investigation which found that there was nothing to investigate, that would be a pretty good way of stopping them once and for all.

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