Cambridge Blue - Alison Bruce [58]
The waitress arrived with their tea on a tray, which she balanced on one hand while organizing some space on the table and then unloading its contents with the other. Neither Goodhew nor Alice spoke again until she’d left them.
‘How can I help?’ Alice asked.
‘When I first visited the Excelsior Clinic, both you and your brother carried photographs of Lorna Spence. I realize that she was more than an employee to your brother, but it seems to me that she was more than just an employee to you too?’ It was a statement, but he let it sound like a question.
Alice poured the tea. ‘Sugar?’
‘Just milk, thanks.’
‘I met Lorna after I returned to work at the clinic last year. We hit it off, which surprised me because, on the face of it at least, we had absolutely nothing in common. But she was good company. When she started seeing Richard, she behaved as if she was one of the family, not in an imposing way, she was just comfortable with our way of life. At first it felt like we were just friends, but then she began to feel more like a sister-in-law.’
‘So you were close?’
‘Close?’ She tilted her head a little so that her gaze wandered over to the bright rectangle of the window at the front. Almost a minute ticked by before she spoke again. ‘I’d never considered that before, but I suppose we were.’ She looked down at her hands, resting in her lap, using them as a distraction whilst she reined in her thoughts.
When she looked back up at him, Goodhew noticed that uncertainty had replaced her usual assuredness.
Her voice was now virtually inaudible. ‘That’s so strange. I’ve always thought of really close friendships as the ones you read about: best friends since childhood, or the living-in-each-other’s-pockets kind; but that’s not me. Lorna was probably the closest friend I had, but I never saw it in those terms. She was more gregarious than me, and I’m sure she had plenty of other friends. In fact, for a while, Lorna was very close to another girl working at the clinic. She was called Victoria.’
‘But?’
‘They fell out.’
Goodhew waited for her to expand on the comment. She didn’t. ‘Do you know why?’
‘It would be best for you to ask Victoria herself, but I think it was over a boyfriend. Apparently, Lorna briefly saw Victoria’s ex after Victoria had broken off their relationship. Lorna told me that she was surprised that it bothered Victoria so much, but that’s all she said.’
‘And this was before Lorna started her relationship with your brother?’
‘Of course. As far as I’m aware, Richard began seeing her just before last Christmas.’
‘And did that concern you?’
‘In what way?’
‘In any way.’
‘In terms of careers, they were in totally different places, but often that’s no bad thing as too much close competition isn’t always healthy. And there was an age gap, fourteen or fifteen years, but it didn’t affect them, as far as I could tell.’
‘But you didn’t really approve?’
‘You asked me if I had any concerns, and I was only concerned that the gap might cause them some problems because it’s the sort of thing that eventually starts to worry Richard.’
‘Because?’
She raised her palms towards the ceiling. ‘Just because.’
Goodhew had a guess. ‘Because he’d worry what other people thought?’
‘No.’ She sighed. ‘Because his glass is always half empty.’
‘Ah.’ Goodhew got it then. ‘Because he might think that the age gap was ultimately going to put her off.’
‘It was a possibility, but I myself didn’t agree. For example, I would guess that you’re the same age as Lorna, or marginally older, and I’m just a couple of years older than Richard. No one that walks in here will know why we’re talking, and some may even assume that we’re together. We know that’s not the case, but I don’t think we look ridiculous together,