A Finer End

’I’m sure it will come back to you in time. You do know that someone struck you with a car and knocked you off your bike?’ She nodded. ‘Jack thought it was odd that the person didn’t stop to help you, and the circumstances of the accident were a bit strange as well. So he rang and asked me to come down, just in case there was something dodgy going on.’
    ‘And is there?’ asked Winnie, frowning.
    ‘We think it’s possible. Your accident was on Wednesday night, just round the corner from Ms Todd’s house. On Thursday, when Faith heard what had happened to you, she was afraid that Ms Todd might have been responsible.’
    ‘Garnet?’ Winnie looked utterly astonished. ‘That’s impossible! Why on earth would Faith think such an absurd thing?’
    ‘Faith said you stopped at the café,’ explained Jack. ‘When Garnet ran her home a few minutes later, they saw you pushing your bike up the hill. Then Garnet went out alone, and when she came back, Faith said she seemed terribly upset. This would have been just about the time you were struck.’
    ‘Well, I’m sure she must have had a perfectly good reason that had nothing to do with me. What did she say when you asked her?’ In the silence that followed her question, Winnie’s expression of mild exasperation swiftly changed to alarm. ‘What aren’t you telling me?’
    ‘Darling.’ Jack took her hand. ‘I’m afraid Garnet’s dead.’
    ‘Dead?’
    ’I’m sorry,’ Kincaid said gently. ‘Ms Todd was murdered the evening after your accident.’
    ‘Oh, no...’ She sank back into the pillow, as if that blow had used up her fragile reserves. Tears leaked from beneath her closed eyelids.
    ‘Surely that’s enough for now,’ protested Jack. ‘Let her—’
    Winnie’s eyes flew open. ‘Faith! What about Faith?
    Is she—’
    ‘She’s fine,’ Jack reassured her. ‘She’s tucked up in the spare room at my house.’
    ‘And have you any idea who could have done such a thing to Garnet?’
    ‘The police have been questioning Nick,’ Jack answered reluctantly.
    ‘Nick! Nick wouldn’t hurt a fly! I don’t believe that for a minute!’
    ’It’s all routine,’ Kincaid said hastily. ‘The police have to ask these things. But Carlisle did go to the farmhouse the afternoon before Ms Todd was killed. He may have seen someone, or something, that will prove helpful.’
    ‘Winnie,’ said Gemma, ‘when I went to pick up Faith’s things yesterday, I ran across your brother at the farmhouse. Do you know of any connection your brother might have had with Garnet?’
    ‘Andrew?’ Under the sheet, Winnie’s chest rose with the sharp intake of her breath. ‘No. No, none at all.’
    ‘Has Andrew mentioned anything to you about having his kitchen redone?’
    ‘Andrew?’ Winnie said again, this time with a snort. ‘It would never occur to him — the poor man can hardly boil water.’
    ‘And was Andrew aware that you knew Ms Todd?’
    ‘I — I don’t know.’ Winnie seemed suddenly uncomfortable. ‘I might have mentioned her at some time. Why?’
    ‘Just more routine,’ Kincaid reassured her. ‘I know this is hard for you. Just one more question, then we’ll let you rest. Jack’s told us that you visited Faith’s parents. It’s occurred to me that they had very good reason to be angry with Garnet—’
    ‘But I never told them where Faith was!’
    ‘No, of course not. But it’s possible they found out some other way. We should talk to them, if only to eliminate the possibility. If you could just give us Faith’s surname and address—’
    ’I’m sorry.’ Winnie’s voice was bitingly firm. ‘Those are things Faith told me in confidence, and I simply can’t reveal them without her permission. You’ll have to find some other way.’
     

Chapter Fourteen
     
Prove all things, and hold fast that which is true.
Frederick Bligh Bond, from
The Gate of Remembrance
     
    Faith insisted she didn’t mind staying on her own. Jack had offered to take her with him to visit Winnie, but there were too many things she couldn’t face talking about just yet. Not with Winnie, when she still didn’t know how much Winnie knew, or if Garnet were responsible for her accident. And now Garnet was dead.
    Dead. Alone in Jack’s house, Faith repeated the word to herself, desperate to make sense of it. Garnet had been alive — she had sung to the cats in the morning when she thought no one could hear; she had put courgettes in everything she