Hush Now, Don't You Cry(90)

“But he ran the family like a dictator, didn’t he? He expected you to live up to his standards from what I’ve noticed.”

“Well, yes,” she agreed.

“So if someone was not behaving in a way he thought fit, might he have threatened to cut off that person?”

“I suppose so,” she said, frowning now. “It’s hard to say because money has never meant much to me. But Terrence needs a good deal of it. So does my father. And Irene and Archie. But none of them would have poisoned him. It’s too grotesque to think about.”

“And you didn’t see anyone leaving the house around seven-thirty the night Mr. Hannan was killed?”

“We were all together, waiting for dinner. Irene went up to check on the children at one stage, I believe. Terrence went to find a bottle of wine. But that was all.” She shook her head again. “I can’t believe it. There must be another explanation. Somebody knew the poison was there. Somebody sneaked in. But not one of us.”

She bent to pat the earth down firmly.

“Tell me what happened the afternoon that Colleen died,” I said.

She almost lost her balance as she stood up, stepping away from me as if to defend herself. “Who on earth told you about that? I thought it was a family secret. We never mention her anymore.”

“But you were there. You can recount the events.”

“Why would you want to know?”

“Because it might have some connection to your uncle’s death.”

She shook her head vehemently. “That’s absurd. It’s just not possible.”

“Nevertheless, humor me,” I said.

She frowned. “Who are you, exactly? Why are you snooping into our family affairs? Why did my uncle invite you here with us? Do you know something we don’t?” Her face was flushed with anger suddenly.

“Look, I just want to help, that’s all. Don’t you want to know who killed your uncle? My husband is a detective and he always says there are no coincidences in life. If two people were found in the same place at the bottom of a cliff, then maybe the two deaths are linked.”

Eliza shook her head. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. Uncle made us all promise … but Colleen was pushed over the cliff by her twin sister, in a fit of jealousy. Horrible but true. We witnessed it.”

“Did you?” I asked. “Did you actually see one twin push the other over the cliff?”

“I didn’t, but we were all sitting together at tea and other people saw it.”

“Tell me about it,” I said. “You were all sitting on the lawn, in the same area where we had tea yesterday?”

“Not far from there.”

“So you all had a view of the cliffs?”

“I didn’t,” she said. “We were sitting in a circle. I had my back to the ocean.”

“So who exactly saw the deed being done?”

She frowned. “I’m not sure. The first thing we heard was this awful, awful scream. We jumped up and somebody shouted, ‘She pushed her. She pushed Colleen.’

“And we all rushed to the cliff edge. Kathleen was standing there, staring down at her sister’s lifeless body. People grabbed her. ‘What happened? Did you do that to your sister?’ someone demanded. But she just kept staring down as if she didn’t hear them. And I gather she never spoke another word. Her mind must have gone, poor little thing. I like to think her mind went before she did the deed, so that she wasn’t responsible for her actions, because until then she’d been a nice enough little thing.”

“Tell me about her before that.”

“I always felt a little sorry for her,” she said. “Colleen was so pretty and so lovable and so outgoing. Just because Kathleen was shy and hung back, they thought she was stupid. But I always felt she was deep. She observed. She thought things through. And she seemed content to let Colleen have the limelight. That’s why I was so surprised that she deliberately pushed her sister, because one thing seemed certain to me and that was that the twins adored each other. They were more like a unit than like two people. They even spoke in their own funny language, you know. It sounded ridiculous but it made sense to them.”

“Can you remember who saw Kathleen push her sister?”

She frowned, thinking. “All I remember is the scream, then a man’s voice saying, ‘She pushed her,’ and then tables were overturned, there was chaos, and we were all running to the cliff edge.”

“Was the whole family together at tea?”

“I believe so. We usually gathered for tea on warm afternoons. Uncle Brian, Aunt Mary, my mother, Archie. I think my father arrived later. Yes, because he asked, ‘Is the tea still hot?’ I don’t remember Terrence, and I’m not sure about Uncle Pat—but yes, he must have been there because he was first to the cliff after the scream. I believe he was the one who said ‘she pushed her.’ Then Irene came running up from somewhere when we heard the scream.”