Wrongful Death (62 page)

Although it disgusted Anna she knew that Gloria was trying to intimidate her. ‘Satisfied?’ she asked, allowing the double meaning to hang in the air.

Gloria sat down in an armchair, casually crossed her legs, and took a sip of her drink.

‘Let’s not beat about the bush,’ she began. ‘You despise me because you lost and I won, but what really eats away at your pitiful existence is a desire to know whether you were right or wrong about me.’

Gloria was partially right, but Anna was not going to satisfy her gloating. ‘You may believe your lies, Lady Lynne, but what angers you is that I don’t, and never will. I seek the truth as evidence. You seek it so that you can manipulate it for your own gain.’

‘Then in some ways we are similar, Detective Travis.’

‘No, we are not. Unlike you, I don’t have a heart that is incapable of feeling the pain of others. I will be given another case, you will be forgotten and I will move on,’ Anna said firmly.

Gloria gave a condescending laugh and said it was a valiant but pointless effort to try and defend her own shattered dignity. She paused, sipped her drink again and stared Anna menacingly in the eye.

‘Only I can tell you if you were right, Travis, but for that to happen I would need to know exactly what you
think
I did.’

Anna knew Gloria was playing with her and there was always the risk that the woman might admit to nothing if she revealed what she suspected was the truth behind a catalogue of murders. Still, it was now or never, so Anna decided to give Gloria a synopsis of what she believed happened, but not the evidence that had led to her conclusions.

‘Samuel Peters discovered that Donna was your daughter. He ordered copies of the birth and marriage certificates to blackmail you about your bigamous past, and your daughter Donna’s incestuous relationship with Arum. You paid him fifty thousand, thinking that would be the end of it, but Samuel wanted more and you refused, probably because you had already decided to kill him.’ Anna paused to see if Gloria had anything to say but she just waved her hand for Anna to continue.

‘To spite you, Samuel told Josh, who now knowing you were his real mother drove out here and confronted you. You wanted your past buried, but Josh, like his father Samuel, was now a threat. You gave him a drink laced with atropine, hoping he would have a fatal car crash on his way home, a method you had used previously to ensure Lord Henry’s son and wife died in a helicopter crash.’ Anna again paused to watch Gloria’s reaction to what she had said so far.

‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like a gin and tonic?’ Gloria scoffed, as she finished hers and poured another. ‘Please do continue, I am so enjoying this, it’s like listening to a detective story on the radio.’ She settled herself back down in the armchair.

‘You messed up, the dosage was wrong and Josh made it home, but the atropine meant his brain was not functioning properly and he became suicidal. Josh called Aisa and she went to the flat, tried to stop Josh shooting himself but failed. Wearing a bloodstained dress she ran from the flat and was seen by Samuel—’

Gloria interrupted, standing up and giving a slow handclap. Anna insisted she hadn’t finished.

‘You don’t need to, Travis. I think I know the rest of the story,’ Gloria said arrogantly.

‘Then I must assume I was right,’ Anna said.

Gloria shook her head and sighed. ‘Very well, if you really feel the need to unburden yourself.’ She wafted her hand dismissively.

‘Samuel discovered Josh’s body and tried to blackmail you again, this time about Aisa being there. You told Aisa to say nothing; you met with Samuel to pay him off but poisoned him with atropine.’

‘And the rest, as they say, is history,’ Gloria said patronizingly. She then came closer to Anna, smiling all while as she unpinned a piece of jewellery from her white gown.

‘This is a very special brooch, very old, very precious and it’s gold and pale blue enamel.’ She looked directly into Anna’s eyes. ‘It’s the deadly nightshade flower, and it’s a gift from me to you.’

Anna gritted her teeth as Gloria pinned the brooch to her jacket, patting it with her hand, inclining her head to one side.

‘So pretty yet so deadly, it suits you.’

Anna responded by saying that she also suspected Xavier and Lord Lynne might have been poisoned with atropine. Gloria, unconcerned, asked why she had not said so earlier.

Anna smiled and deliberately made light of their deaths. ‘Didn’t happen over here so not my problem.’

‘But it angers you to think I killed them,’ Gloria scoffed.

‘That depends on how close I was to the truth,’ Anna replied casually.

‘If it’s any consolation you didn’t miss anyone out and the ingredients were pretty much all there.’

Anna had deliberately said nothing about Marisha and suddenly realized that Gloria had never asked about her at the station. She thought it strange that Gloria had not taken the chance to gloat, and wondered why that might be, even as she allowed the woman to carry on with her melodramatic performance. Her raised voice took on an increasingly theatrical tone, her words enunciated carefully, as she enjoyed showing off to an imaginary audience.

‘If I were on a jury I’d believe you and want to convict the defendant for such heinous crimes. The only problem is, you’ve not one shred of evidence.’ She giggled.

‘You think not?’ Anna replied, stone-faced.

‘I don’t think, I
know
. You have failed in your efforts to implicate me or my beloved daughters in any wrongdoing and I will continue to be respected as a good mother and a pillar of society, whereas your superiors and colleagues will long remember you as a worthless failure,’ Gloria mocked, raising her glass in a victory salute before taking a long drink, then licking her lips.

‘Don’t flatter yourself, Lady Lynne, you’re not that special from where I’m standing. A good liar, yes, but as a mother, you’ve failed miserably,’ Anna said, emphasizing the last three words.

Gloria’s facial expression gave nothing away, but Anna knew she had touched a nerve. It was time to try and confuse her.

‘It’s true, isn’t it? Your girls let you down terribly and disgraced your good name. You’ve given them everything they ever wanted, but what happened?’ Anna paused. Gloria opened her mouth to speak but Anna held up her hand, indicating she hadn’t finished.

‘Aisa steals money from right under your nose, and you didn’t even know it was happening – how you could let her make such a fool of you is beyond belief!’ Anna noticed Gloria now seemed to need the drink whereas so far it had been a theatrical prop.

‘As for Donna, well she betrays you by cavorting naked in front of leering, salivating men with hard-ons. Then she marries Joshua, the very man who hired her and let her display her naked body for his own gain.’

Gloria gulped down her gin and tonic in one, stood up and marched over to the cabinet to pour a third. Her expression had changed, it was as if she was in another world, confused and angry, trying to make sense of it all. Picking up the ice with her hand she dropped it into her glass as she poured a substantial amount of gin, topping it up with just a fraction of tonic. This time she didn’t bother with a slice of lemon but took a long swig and then rattled the ice cubes round the glass.

‘How very intuitive of you, and, yes, that silly bitch Donna started all this, she’s to blame. If she hadn’t walked into that filthy, stinking club she’d never have met Joshua. Because of her Samuel came back into my life. If she’d gone to prison it would have been no more than she deserved for what she’s done to me.’

Anna was amazed at the sudden change in Gloria’s attitude; it was as if her need to blame revealed her true feelings. She also wondered how many gins Gloria had been through before her arrival as her speech was now beginning to slur.

‘How right you are, Lady Lynne – Donna meeting Joshua was a disaster, but at least when Samuel came back into your life it was amicable,’ Anna suggested.

A look of disgust appeared on Gloria’s face. ‘Amicable? He’s an absolute pig of man; you think I’d willingly let him anywhere near me?’

‘So I guess Samuel and Marisha’s, sorry I mean Samuel and Arum’s deaths are really a blessing in disguise?’ Anna asked, hoping a confused Gloria would react to the mention of Marisha’s name.

Gloria said nothing at first, but Anna could see she was questioning herself about what she thought she had just heard.

‘Why did you say Marisha?’

Anna deliberately looked nervous. ‘Just a slip of the tongue, that’s all.’

‘You’re lying, I can tell. What has Marisha got to do with any of this?’

It was now clear that Gloria had never suspected Marisha might be involved, let alone that she was dead. Gloria was evidently worried as Marisha had never been part of her script of lies and now posed a threat. She needed answers to be able to manipulate the information, but Anna was not going to provide them and decided to turn the heat up slowly.

‘Deputy Commissioner Walters told you Samuel Peters died of a heart attack, but you said that can’t be right because he’d gone back to Jamaica. So thinking about it . . .’

‘I demand to know where Marisha is, she’s my sister-in-law and I will offer to pay for Samuel’s funeral and look after her.’

Gloria was becoming noticeably more agitated, and still Anna avoided answering her.

‘Why didn’t you ask us at the station if it was true?’

‘Ask what, what should I have asked? Has Marisha said anything?’

Anna suspected Gloria wasn’t fully aware of what she was saying, or asking, as her brain was working at such a pace to process the new situation.

Anna remained calm, determined to confuse Gloria further. ‘I think I’ve made a terrible mistake. I just assumed . . .’

‘What, what mistake have you made, what did you assume?’ Gloria asked angrily.

‘That it was Samuel’s body in the mortuary, but it can’t be as he’s back in Jamaica, just like you told Walters and like Marisha said. I’m sorry that I wrongly accused you, Lady Lynne, and I realize now that you have just been playing silly games to teach me a lesson.’

Anna was enjoying watching her lies bewilder and anger Gloria, who then raised her voice.

‘I don’t play games! I controlled when, where and how Samuel would die. I alone determined his and everyone else’s fate.’

‘It’s okay, you don’t have to try and fool me any longer,’ Anna said, smiling, which infuriated Gloria even more.

‘I decided how and when Joshua would die . . .’

‘That is ridiculous, everyone knows Josh shot himself,’ Anna said, dismissing Gloria’s admission as a joke.

‘I poisoned him, just like Samuel, and there’s nothing you can do about it! Now where is Marisha!’ The pupils of her eyes dilated from her anger and increased blood pressure.

‘Well if you insist that you really are a murderer then I can’t possibly tell you where she is,’ Anna said and folded her arms.

‘She’ll lie like her brother, she doesn’t know anything and wasn’t even there when I went to see Samuel,’ Gloria said, inadvertently revealing Anna had been right about that as well.

‘She’s dead, Gloria, she never posed a threat to you, but I just made you believe she did. By your own admission, you’ve proved that I was right all along. I will leave now and you can fester in the knowledge that I beat you at your own game. You will spend the rest of your life thinking about me, constantly looking over your shoulder, scared that I will come for you,’ Anna said, coming closer, so close she could smell the gin mixed with the woman’s heavy perfume. ‘I will never let this go, you can count on that.’

As Anna turned to leave, Gloria gave a howling scream and flung her glass across the room, where it hit the Mazzoni painting and splintered into hundreds of pieces. She was rigid with a crazed fury and totally out of control. As Anna opened the library door she came face to face with Donna and Aisa standing together, holding hands and both crying. She hurriedly closed the door behind her, as Gloria’s drunken ranting continued unabated.

‘Did you just hear everything your mother said?’ Anna asked and both girls nodded.

Aisa looked forlornly at Anna. ‘I’ve told Donna everything about mine and Josh’s affair and what my mother made me do. She knows we are real sisters.’

It was clear to Anna that Donna had forgiven Aisa and the two of them needed each other more than anything in the world right now.

‘You need to get away from here while your mother’s in such a disturbed and unstable state.

‘She will destroy you – listen to her, she’s deranged and very dangerous and has no love for either of you. Think of your husband, Donna, your lover, Aisa, her son, her own son Joshua blew his brains out, his mind distorted by the poison she’d fed him. You heard her gloating how she had manipulated both of you, and would have let Donna go to prison for
her
crimes. For your own self-preservation get out tonight and never look back.’

The security lights blazed on once more, illuminating Anna’s car as she sat inside, shaking, waiting for the automatic gates to open so she could leave Lynne House. As she glanced in the rear-view mirror, the dog began its frantic barking. The big iron gates slowly opened and she reached for her ignition key, just as a movement caught her eye. She turned and looked over her shoulder to see Donna running from the house.

Anna parked just outside the gates and got out of her car to peer through the railings to where Donna was opening the boot of her Mini. Aisa sped out of the house carrying a suitcase, her arms full of clothes which she stuffed into the boot. The girls had obviously taken her advice, but no sooner had Donna got into the driving seat and started up the engine than Gloria flew out from the house, her white robe billowing as she waved her arms and screamed at full volume. The girls shouted in panic and the sound of their voices made the dog even more frenzied and drag at her chains. Anna wished she had waited or taken the daughters in her car as she saw Gloria throw herself at Aisa in an attempt to stop her getting into the Mini, grabbing a handful of the young woman’s hair, shouting and clawing as she tried to pull Aisa away, but Donna got out from the car and roughly pushed her mother. Gloria fell backwards onto the gravel then drunkenly tried to get to her feet as both girls jumped into the car. Donna started the engine and the gravel churned up as she reversed at speed, and then made a sliding turn and headed down the driveway.