A Fatal Flaw: A gripping, twisty murder mystery perfect for all crime fiction fans. Faith Martin
what, exactly, the curly-haired young lady was up to. Because he was pretty sure that she had some sort of agenda that she wasn’t sharing with Trudy Loveday.
‘Poor Grace,’ Trudy said, when her friend had left. ‘She’s got so much on her plate at the moment, with her mother being so unwell, and all this extra workload with the beauty contest. Still, if we can put her mind to rest about Abby, that’ll be one less thing for her to worry about.’
Clement nodded. ‘You two seem close?’
‘Oh yes. Well, we were once, at school, where she sort of looked out for me,’ Trudy felt compelled to add. ‘But you know how important and intense childhood friendships can be. At the time, I felt I would have died if Grace hadn’t been around.’
The coroner understood immediately that Trudy didn’t suspect her friend of anything underhanded. And it certainly hadn’t even crossed her mind that she might be playing some part in what was going on. He wondered, briefly, if he should say something to her about his suspicions, but almost instantly decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea. For one thing, he might just be wrong (although he didn’t think so!) But more importantly, he knew that if he told Trudy, she would begin to act differently around Grace, and as things stood at the moment, the more sanguine Grace Farley felt about things, the better he’d like it. She was far more likely to give herself away if she thought she was in the clear.
But he’d be watching her closely from now on, and one thing was for certain – when Trudy went to the theatre tonight, he’d be going with her.
‘So,’ Trudy said, ‘where do we start?’
‘What about the former boyfriend?’ Clement said. ‘He hardly spoke much at the inquest, and if anybody can tell us what sort of girl the victim was, it’s bound to be him.’
‘Great! Where does he work?’ Trudy enthused.
‘The council offices. He’s a clerk in the roadworks department.’
William Hanson looked surprised to see them but seemed willing enough to answer their questions. To avoid causing a disturbance in the office, however, he’d taken them outside to a nearby bench situated under an old horse chestnut tree, where they’d all sat down to watch some sparrows and starlings fighting over a discarded crust of bread.
‘I thought I’d said all I needed to in court, sir,’ he said diffidently, looking at Trudy in her uniform a shade uneasily and with real alarm in his eyes. ‘I really don’t know anything at all about how she came to be poisoned.’
‘Oh, that’s all right. All we need to know is more about Abby herself,’ Trudy told him with a reassuring smile. It always made her feel rather unsettled to be feared by someone. Whilst she knew that it was her uniform that was instilling the fear in this rather pleasant young man, it still made her feel like squirming inside. So far, the shoplifters and handbag thieves that she’d mostly been dealing with had all treated her with either weary contempt or anger. It wasn’t often that she experienced what it felt like to wield real power – the kind that your average man-in-the-street understood – and feared. And she was not sure she liked it.
‘What was Abby like as a person?’ she asked softly. ‘We thought you could help us to understand her.’ To her relief, William seemed to relax a little.
‘Well, I only stepped out with her for a few months you understand,’ he began cautiously. He was a good-looking young man, Trudy noted absently, with a haircut in the same style as the younger Everly Brother, and was wearing a well-worn but respectable suit. ‘I knew her originally from school, but even when I got older I didn’t dare ask her out. Well, not back then.’
‘Oh, why not?’ Trudy asked casually.
‘Are you kidding?’ William smiled ruefully. ‘She was way too popular and scary. And I was nothing much. I mean, I wasn’t captain of the rugby team or what-have-you. I had the feeling that she’d have withered me on the spot!’ He laughed. ‘Or maybe I was just too shy back then.’
‘Oh, I get it,’ Trudy laughed lightly. ‘She was a bit of the “goddess” sort, was she? I’ll bet she was good at everything. Lessons, sport, and had loads of friends? I wish I’d been that sort of girl.’
William glanced at her uncertainly. ‘Oh I don’t know. You’re so pretty you must have been popular too.’ He suddenly gave an audible gulping sound. ‘I mean, not that I’m saying you’re pretty… No, I mean you are, but I…’ he began to stammer, clearly wondering if you could be arrested for sounding forward with a police officer.
Beside him Clement Ryder hid a grin behind a cough.
Before he could get himself more tongue-tied, Trudy laughed lightly and said casually, ‘Thank you! But I understand Abby must have been really spectacular. I mean, to enter a beauty contest…?’
Clement, watching the by-play, admired her handling of the shy youth. Sitting back, prepared to watch and listen, he reached into his pocket and withdrew a roll of breath mints. He saw Trudy glance at him, at the mints, and then look away.
Trudy tried to concentrate on what William was saying, but in truth, she felt her mind wandering. For some time now, she had begun to wonder if the coroner might have a bit of a drinking problem. Once or twice she’d seen his hands tremble, and one of the older constables at the office had said that secret tipplers often used breath mints to try and hide the smell of alcohol lingering about them.
‘Oh, she was very pretty,’ William said, forcing her to concentrate on the matter in hand. ‘Sometimes, I think she was too pretty for her own good,’ he added a shade darkly.
‘Oh? In what way?’ Trudy asked curiously.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ William said. ‘She could be… a bit bossy, I suppose. As if she thought the world owed her a living because she was so popular. You know what I mean?’
Trudy nodded. ‘I think so. Somebody said she treated her friend Vicky more like a servant,’ she lied smoothly. Nobody had actually said as much, but from reading between the lines, she felt fairly safe in tossing the supposition into the mix.
‘Poor Vicky. Yeah, she hung on Abby’s every word. It was a bit sad really – the way she was so anxious to please her all the time.’
‘Everyone said they were best friends.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed, his voice a little uncertain. Catching her encouraging look, he swept on. ‘The thing is, I often wondered if it was less about devotion and more about fear, with Vicky.’
‘Oh?’ Trudy frowned and wisely kept silent. She had already learned that sometimes keeping silent was the best thing when you wanted someone to talk.
‘Yes. Abby was, well, the queen bee at school in many ways, and she made sure everyone knew it! And Vicky was, well, all right and pretty enough in her own way, and sort of smart. But she was nothing special, you know?’
‘She wanted some of Abby’s reflected glory, you mean?’ Trudy asked.
But already William was shaking his head. ‘No, not that so much. I think she buttered Abby up constantly so that Abby didn’t relegate her. You know, a lot of girls wanted to be friends with Abby since she could be really cutting to the lesser mortals – especially the more plain girls. And the safest way not to be the target of Abby’s scorn was to be in tight with her. You know?’
William paused, then looked at Trudy with a slightly puzzled look. ‘That doesn’t sound very nice, does it?’
‘Oh, I remember school,’ Trudy tried to reassure him. ‘Everything was either black or white, wasn’t it? You were either “in” or you were nobody. And if you were nobody… well, it was like being sent to Coventry. Nobody noticed you or talked to you. Sometimes it