A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [107]
There was sudden silence. Fifi decided she wasn’t going to be the one to break it.
She looked objectively at her mother. She was a very pretty woman, with a good figure and smooth, clear skin. She had tied her blonde hair back loosely at the nape of her neck with a pink ribbon to match her two-piece. She really didn’t look old enough to have a daughter of Fifi’s age. She had a good life, with a husband who adored her. So why was she so confrontational about everything?
‘What will you do if you can’t find another flat?’ Clara broke the silence first.
‘We’ll stay here until we’ve got enough for a deposit to buy a house,’ Fifi said. ‘That won’t take long once I get back to work.’
‘There are some nice new little houses in Horfield,’ Clara said.
Fifi wondered if that was a suggestion they come back to Bristol. ‘I expect they are the ones Dan was working on,’ she said. ‘It would be lovely to come back and live in Bristol but he couldn’t be sure of getting work there, not like here where they are crying out for skilled bricklayers.’
‘I wish you would come back,’ Clara said unexpectedly. ‘Patty and your father miss you.’
‘What about you?’ Fifi asked hesitantly.
‘Of course I do. It’s not right to have one of my children so far away.’
‘And Dan? Would you be prepared to see him as part of our family?’
‘I’d try,’ Clara said. ‘I can’t say fairer than that.’
Fifi’s heart leaped for it seemed as if at last her mother wanted to build bridges. ‘It’s a start,’ she said, and her smile was a joyous one. ‘I’ve missed all of you, and I’ve hated the way it’s been between us. Maybe when the trial is over and we’ve got on our feet again, we can come down to Bristol and give moving back some thought.’
Clara looked at her reflectively, perhaps surprised her daughter had met her halfway. ‘Now will you tell me about this murder?’ she asked, clearly anxious to move on to safer ground. ‘Maybe if I understood about it all I wouldn’t be so frightened by it. No one I know has ever been a witness to anything like this.’
It seemed quite ironic to Fifi that she’d been unable to get any of the people she classed as friends around here to discuss the ins and outs of the case, yet her mother was desperately eager to hear it all.
She could be a good listener when she chose, and Fifi found herself pouring out all the detail, how it had affected her, and the aspects which were still baffling.
Every now and then Clara would stop her to question something. She winced from time to time at the more graphic descriptions, but she didn’t interrupt with any opinions or snobby remarks.
‘It’s been good to talk it over with you,’ Fifi finished up. ‘I really struggled just after it happened. Dan didn’t want to talk about it, and I’d sort of got everything stuck in my head.’
It was in fact the first heart-to-heart talk she’d ever had with her mother, and it felt good, as though they’d taken a huge leap forward.
‘Your father never wants to discuss things either. I think it’s a male thing. Maybe by refusing to talk they think it will go away. But what an ordeal for you, darling! It must have been appalling.’
‘I’m well over the worst of it now,’ Fifi said. ‘I just hope to God it really was Alfie and the police can prove it.’
As Fifi said this, she realized that in fact it was this slim possibility that Alfie was innocent which was causing most of her anxiety. Once she knew for absolute certain that it was him, she felt she’d be able to put it all aside. She admitted as much to her mother.
‘It must have been him,’ Clara said firmly. ‘If it was one of those other men at the card game, or one of your neighbours, the police would have found out by now. I bet he’s only trying to muddy the waters by not admitting who was there with him that night. Look at it logically, Fifi, why would anyone else kill her? And how can the couple claim they loved the child if they were prepared to leave her alone in the house while they swanned off to the seaside? They are evil people and they deserve to be hung, drawn