A Crowded Coffin(42)

‘Hmm? Yes? Who? What’s the matter?’ A glance at her watch showed a quarter to seven; a call at this time of the morning wasn’t going to be good news.

‘It’s Sam Hathaway,’ he said, his voice ragged with anxiety. ‘I had a call from Harriet. She’s in hospital, Winchester. I don’t know the details but she seems to have had an accident last night. She swears she’s all right, apart from slight concussion, but she’ll need a lift home.’

He interrupted Edith’s cries of distress. ‘She sounded okay, honestly, Edith, just shocked and tired. The thing is, my plane is delayed with some technical fault so I’m still stuck in Belfast and won’t get back to Southampton airport till late this morning. Could you pick her up, do you think? You can? Great.’ His relief was audible. ‘She says any time after breakfast. And no matter how much fuss she makes, whatever she says, will you take her back to your place till I can get back? She shouldn’t be left on her own.’

A call to the hospital confirmed Sam’s message. Miss Harriet Quigley would be ready for collection any time after half past nine, so shortly after nine o’clock Edith and Rory set out on their way to Winchester in Rory’s car.

‘You didn’t get any details, then?’ Rory was taking the winding lane steadily, too many tractors in these parts to be complacent. ‘No idea what kind of accident? Or where?’

‘Nothing. Only that she’s okay apart from mild concussion. We’re to take her home with us, which I’d do anyway, even without Sam saying so. She’s family after all.’ The treacherous memory of Lara’s hint slid unbidden into her mind and she shied away from speculating about Rory’s own relationship to the family.

‘How was your evening?’ she asked.

‘Fine,’ he shrugged, looking surprised at the abrupt change of subject. ‘I managed to dodge any suggestion of another date – she’s so not my type.’ He grinned at Edith. ‘I’m not a tight-arse but I’m not made of money either and she’s pretty high maintenance, financially and every other way, I should think. We went back to her place after dinner at the Hotel du Vin,’ he continued. ‘I managed to find out that her father does have interests in oil – North Sea, Middle East, mostly – but he’s also got some connections with a couple of on-shore drilling outfits.’

‘She surely didn’t tell you that, did she?’ Edith looked sceptical. ‘Oops, turn left here, sorry.’

‘Of course she didn’t. There were some papers left on a side table and I sneaked a look while she was getting the drinks. All I got from Lara was a hint that she and Brendan have an on-off thing going, whenever they both happen to be single. Apparently her father thinks highly of him, though whether he’d be quite as acceptable as a third son-in-law is open to question.

‘Anyway, I did find out that when Lara is otherwise engaged Brendan’s been lumbered with looking after their Texan visitor and that they were out on the town last night.’ He surprised her with a sudden laugh. ‘Apparently, both of them have been enthusing about you and are planning to ask you out, which Lara clearly doesn’t find amusing. She doesn’t seem to like Harriet much either, says she’s too inquisitive.’

He concentrated as they turned into the hospital multi-storey and as they parked he asked, ‘How about you and the vicar? Did you find out anything?’

She gave him a brief outline of John’s story, about his wife’s sorry end and about his theories regarding Brendan.

‘Hmm,’ was all he said as he held the door open for her.

‘You’re as bad as Harriet,’ she scolded him. ‘Why can’t you two just believe he’s a decent kind of guy, who has lost his wife and is trying to distract himself by doing his job, reading up on history and so forth? And that that’s all there is to it?’ The trouble was, she admitted to herself, that pretty much everyone was beginning to look suspicious to her, even the vicar.

‘You could be right,’ he surprised her, but there was no time for more discussion. They’d arrived at the hospital. Edith explained who she was and the nurse nodded.

‘Miss Quigley just needs rest,’ she said, checking her notes. ‘She won’t be on her own, will she? Good. There’s just one thing,’ her voice was lowered. ‘When she first came in she kept insisting that someone pushed her car deliberately into the quarry….’

She looked startled at their outcry. ‘Oh, yes, didn’t you know? It’s a miracle that she wasn’t killed. Has to have been a drunk driver, of course, nobody would do such a thing on purpose, but somehow or other she ended up going through the barrier and landing in the trees.’ She dismissed them kindly. ‘You’ll find her in the day room,’ she said.