Child's Play (12 page)

‘
How old were you when you married?’

‘
Seventeen. As my husband said, like mother, like daughter. He was eighteen.’

‘
Sukie wasn’t pregnant.’

‘
No?’ Hester frowned. ‘How do you know?’ Then her mouth fell open and as she clawed at her cheeks, her rings flashed and gleamed.

‘
Nor had she been raped,’ he added.

She
shuddered from head to foot.

For
a while he let her mourn quietly for the second chance that was now forever beyond human reach, then asked, ‘What does your husband do for a living?’

‘
This and that,’ she replied dully. ‘Investment, a stab at merchant banking, a stab at stockbroking.’

‘
You look relatively prosperous.’

‘
“Relatively” is very apt. Our finances are bound by the law of diminishing returns. Over the years, John’s thrown thousands at various good-looking deals and received hundreds back.’

‘
Something else for you to row about,’ he commented.

‘
Indeed, yes.’ When she looked up, he saw the glaze of panic in her eyes. ‘Can I go back now? I promise I won’t hit him again.’ She gnawed her lower lip. ‘He’s quite a terrifying person, isn’t he?’

‘
Terrifying?’ Jack echoed. ‘Your husband?’

‘
Of course not! I meant Superintendent McKenna. I’ve always found Dr Scott very intimidating, but Superintendent McKenna makes one feel quite panic-stricken.’

‘
Why is Dr Scott intimidating?’

‘
She knows exactly what to do, even in the most difficult situations. She has this tremendous confidence, d’you see? But I suppose that’s because she’s never wrong.’ Hester sighed. ‘It must be wonderful to be so
sure
.’

‘
She seems pretty sure at the moment that Sukie killed herself,’ Jack said, ‘although she can’t say why. Have you had any reason to worry about Sukie’s state of mind recently?’

‘
We haven’t heard from her since the beginning of term.’

‘
Weren’t you anxious?’

‘
She didn’t get in touch from beginning to end of last term, either.’ Hester met his eyes again and he saw how dreadfully tired she was. ‘It’s like that when your child goes away to school. You rely on the school to look after them. It cuts both ways, you know. When I boarded, my teachers and school friends were far more important to me than my own family.’

‘
That doesn’t explain what I see as a degree of estrangement between you and Sukie.’ Jack clasped his hands, leaning forward slightly. ‘Lady Melville, I know you’re exhausted and distraught, but I think you’re hiding something that might be important. Won’t you tell me? Please?’

‘B
ut why? Dr Scott believes there’s nothing to be gained by dwelling on the past and she’s right. We must move on and away—’ Her voice faltered.

‘
Always easier said than done,’ Jack commented softly. ‘Especially when the past won’t let you.’

‘
Dr Scott said it was simply adolescent rebellion that went awry. It wasn’t anyone’s
fault
. She told us she could contain it and help them both to get through it.’ Hester stared at him. ‘And she kept her word. She’s been marvellous.’

Even
though he had no idea what Hester was talking about, Jack saw all too clearly the power the charismatic Freya Scott exercised over both pupils and parents. And if ever a parent were ripe for exploitation, he thought, it was this sad young aristocrat still in hock to the consequences of her own prosaic rebellion. ‘Was your husband happy to go along with her plans?’ he asked.

‘
If Dr Scott told my husband to put a loaded gun into his mouth and pull the trigger, he’d do it. He snatches gratefully at any positive suggestion.’

‘
And what was the problem she said she could “contain”?’

‘
If she hasn’t told you herself, she must think it’s unimportant,’ Hester replied, with all the firmness she could muster.

‘
We’ve hardly had time for more than a brief chat,’ Jack lied.

‘
I still think we should ask her first.’ Turning awkwardly in her seat, she glanced distractedly about the room. ‘I expected her to be here. Why isn’t she?’

‘
We felt she ought to be at the school.’

‘
I see.’ Hester nodded to herself. ‘Yes, you’re right. She should be there.’

‘
So?’ he coaxed.

‘
I don’t know—’ Again she hesitated. ‘It seems disloyal to tell you without her knowing.’

He
waited patiently, hoping that the dilemma being worked out behind her gaunt features would resolve itself in his favour.

Hester
frowned at him. ‘Perhaps you
were
right about her never being wrong. She said Sukie had learned her lesson, but if that were true she would have no reason to kill herself.’ While she wrestled with the shackles of obedience, she fiddled with her rings, turning them this way and that. A diamond suddenly caught the light, throwing out tongues of fire. ‘We only bought Sukie a horse because Dr Scott told us it would be a “positive reinforcement”. We could barely afford her school fees, let alone a horse and its livery. My parents had to chip in yet again.’ She paused once more. ‘Sukie had wanted a horse ever since Torrance Fuseli brought hers to school.’ Suddenly she smiled. ‘She adored Torrance. She idolised her. When Dr Scott suggested she have a horse, I wasn’t in the least interested in positive reinforcement. I simply thought that if Sukie could only learn to be a little like Torrance, her life needn’t turn into one long, miserable, destructive tragedy.’ She covered her face with her hands, her fingers hooked like claws into her hair. ‘Why?’ she moaned, beating her forehead with the heels of her palms. ‘Why couldn’t she have been with Torrance instead of that other bloody girl?’

‘
Which other girl?’ asked Jack.

‘
Imogen Oliver.’

‘
What happened between them?’

‘
What happened?’ Hester let her hands drop to her lap. ‘If only to God we actually knew! But how can we, when Sukie didn’t know herself?’ She looked close to collapse. ‘Imogen passed her driving test a couple of weeks before last Christmas, and in anticipation her parents had already ordered her car. She’d wanted a Porsche, so she had one, because they’ve never been able to say no to her. I watched her grow up, d’you see, getting what she wanted every inch of the way.’ Pausing to gather her breath and her thoughts, she continued, ‘Imogen and Sukie had always been best friends, so of course, they were out in Imogen’s new car all the time and I was worried sick, because Imogen drove like a bloody lunatic. When I asked her parents to pull her up, they told me to stop being neurotic.’ She laughed joylessly. ‘I imagine they’ve changed their tune now.’

‘
There was an accident,’ Jack said.

‘
There was an accident.’ Hester nodded. ‘A horrible,
horrible
accident.’ She glanced at him, her face webbed with downward-drawn lines. ‘The day after Boxing Day, they went to see my parents and, once they were inside the estate, Sukie took over the driving. She hadn’t passed her test, but that doesn’t matter on a private road, d’you see? We expected them back for dinner. When they didn’t arrive, I rang my parents. They said the girls had left an hour before.’ She fell silent and began to crack her knuckles. Wincing, Jack opened his mouth to ask her to finish the story, but she forestalled him. ‘We called the police, of course, but nothing had been reported. Anyway, my parents organised a search party. Two of the gamekeepers found them. The car had ploughed through a fence and ended upside down in a thicket and the girls were lying some way away in the grass. God alone knows how they got out of the wreck. I suppose it was sheer instinct in case the car exploded. Sukie had a massive concussion that kept her unconscious for over a week and Imogen’s left leg was so badly shattered it had to be amputated above the knee.’

As
ever, Jack imagined one or both of his own daughters hostage to a similarly errant fortune and, feeling both sickened and saddened, he said quietly, ‘It was indeed a horrible accident and they were extremely lucky to survive. But accidents happen, so I don’t understand why Dr Scott regarded it as a problem and talked of containment.’

‘
Sukie had
insisted
on driving even though Imogen tried to stop her,’ Hester said dully. ‘The roads were very icy, d’you see? It was all her fault.’

‘
But
how
was it her fault?’ Jack persisted. ‘Was she speeding? Was she driving recklessly?’

‘
I don’t know! She couldn’t remember. She was so dreadfully concussed she didn’t even recall getting up that morning.’

‘
So you’ve only got Imogen’s word for everything, haven’t you?’

‘
Don’t say that!’ Hester shivered. ‘She lost her
leg
, for God’s sake!’ Her mouth worked convulsively. ‘But the police took the car to pieces. They
must
have known who was driving.’

‘
Not necessarily, as neither of them was in the car when it was found. The worst of the injuries to Imogen’s leg could have been caused as she struggled out.’ He watched guilt and doubt and remorse criss-cross her face. ‘But rather than argue with a girl who’s just lost her leg, you let Sukie take the blame.’

‘
Imogen had no reason to lie,’ she replied tonelessly, as if the same argument had churned up her own mind countless times and always rolled round to the same simple conclusion.

‘
No? I can think of several off the top of my head and I don’t even know her.’ He frowned at her. ‘How did
she
explain the crash?’

‘
My parents keep deer on the estate and Imogen thought one of them might have dashed suddenly in front of the car. Deer have a habit of erupting out of nowhere, you know.’

‘
She only
thought
?’ Jack asked. ‘Why couldn’t she remember?’

‘
She was confused!’ There was a hint of hysteria in Hester’s voice. ‘She was utterly distraught!’

‘
Has she remembered since?’

‘
I’ve no idea.’ Hester looked past him. ‘Our families haven’t spoken since the day of the accident. Exactly a week later we had a letter from their solicitor saying they intended to sue.’

‘
And?’

‘
We didn’t argue. We paid up and shut up. John says it’s always the best policy when you’re on shaky ground.’

‘
How much?’

‘
Six hundred and twenty thousand. It was all we could raise. We had to remortgage the house, but we can’t afford the repayments. The bank’s threatening repossession.’

‘
And Imogen doubtless received another payout from her own insurance.’

She
shrugged. ‘I expect she did.’

She
looked totally defeated, beaten into the ground by a hail of body blows. She seemed to believe her miserable life was the proof of a self-fulfilling prophecy, yet he wondered if, beset by guilt, she had simply had her capacity for judgement destroyed and let guilt beggar her, metaphorically and literally. ‘If you hadn’t caved in at the Olivers’ first assault, a few more facts might have come to light,’ he pointed out. ‘Tell me,’ he went on, ‘what exactly did Dr Scott mean when she talked of containing the situation?’

‘
Oh, what does it matter?
Nothing
matters now Sukie’s dead. I
did
love her, whatever my husband thinks. I loved her so much it
hurt
! All I ever wanted was to bring her up myself, but we don’t do things like that. She had to be sent away to school.’ Again she fell silent, clasping her hands in her lap. Then, bitterness stalking every word, she said, ‘In my family, d’you see, your life isn’t your own. It belongs to the family and their history. They make all the rules and your children are nothing more than fodder for that great family history.’

‘
We were talking about Dr Scott,’ he reminded her gently.

‘
Dr Scott.’ She nodded her head mechanically. ‘Yes, well,’ she went on, unknotting her fingers, ‘Sukie missed the beginning of spring term because she was still in hospital. I wanted to keep her at home for good, but Dr Scott thought that would be disastrous. She said Sukie needed the security of familiar faces and surroundings after such a traumatic experience, so we took her back. Imogen was already there, bravely hopping around on one leg. We were expected to applaud her “fantastic recovery”, but I simply wanted to grab Sukie and run.’

‘
What did Dr Scott hope to achieve by throwing them together?’

‘
Oh, she talked of confrontation and reconciliation but most of it went over me. I could only think of two young girls with their lives in ruins being forced to look on the cause of that destruction every minute of every day.’