The Grafton Girls - Annie Groves [130]
‘You know perfectly well who I mean, Myra. That GI Nick beat up has died.’
Myra sat up, stubbing out her cigarette. ‘You’re lying!’
‘I wish it wasn’t true but it is. He died at Burtonwood – after you and Nick had left for London, having told the police that it was Glen who had been fighting with him.’ She paused deliberately. ‘But that wasn’t true.’
‘Is that what she told you? Ruthie? Because if it was—’
‘Yes, Ruthie did tell me and I believe her.’ Diane stopped her firmly. ‘I saw the way Nick was behaving towards Walter at the Grafton, just in case you’ve forgotten. He’s got a dreadful temper, Myra, and you can see just from looking at him that he’s the kind who’d carry a grudge. Glen and Walter were friends, everyone knew that, and by lying about what happened you could end up in an awful lot of trouble.’
What she was doing was rather underhand, Diane knew, but she soothed her conscience by telling herself that her not letting Myra know that Nick had somehow persuaded others to lie for him as well was in a good cause.
‘If you ask me, him dying had nothing to do with Nick hitting him. I reckon that it was hitting his head on the pavement that must have done it, not him having a bit of a scrap with Nick.’ Myra gave a small shrug. ‘And that makes it just a bit of an accident. It could have happened to anyone.’
Diane breathed out slowly. ‘Well, if that’s the case then you need to tell the police about it, don’t you?’ she told her firmly. ‘There’s no sense in someone being blamed – wrongly – for Walter’s death if it was an accident.’
‘I’m not saying that was wot killed him, I’m just saying that it could have been,’ Myra backtracked immediately. ‘And besides, I’ve already given the police a statement. I can’t go telling them that I want to change my mind now.’
‘You could say that you got mixed up a bit,’ Diane told her, refusing to give up. ‘After all, with all that was going on, no one would be surprised by that.’
Myra looked at her speculatively. ‘Why should you be so keen for me to do anything? After all, it’s no skin off your nose what happens, is it?’
‘No skin off my nose? I should have thought it would be a heavy weight on your conscience, Myra, if a man got accused wrongly of killing another man because you hadn’t told the truth.’ Diane knew immediately that she had said the wrong thing.
‘What do you mean, “accused of killing”? If you think I’m going to go saying something to the police that would get Nick into trouble—’
‘You’re the one who’s going to be in trouble if you lie about what happened, Myra,’ Diane warned her. ‘After all, Ruthie was there as well, and she saw what happened too.’
‘Much good that will do her.’
Diane looked at her. There was nothing for it, she was going to have to do something she had no desire to do at all, but she had no other option.
‘Have you told Nick yet about Jim?’
The effect of her question was every bit as dramatic as she had guessed it would be. Myra leaped off the bed and reached for her cigarettes, her hand trembling as she lit one.
‘If you’re trying to threaten me—’ she began.
‘I was simply asking you a question,’ Diane told her. ‘You’ve talked non-stop about Nick and that rock he’s given you,’ she nodded in the direction of the ring Myra was wearing, ‘so naturally I wondered if you’ve told him yet that by rights you should be wearing another man’s wedding ring on that finger. That’s what happens when you tell lies, Myra. They have a habit of coming back to haunt you when you don’t want them to.’
For a moment Diane thought she had won and that Myra would give in and agree to tell the police what had really happened, but then to Diane’s disappointment she burst out angrily, ‘Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing but it won’t work. If you’re that keen to get someone else blamed for that Walter’s death it must mean that Glen is in a lot of trouble. Anyway, it’s like Nick said to the police, we were just coming round the corner, minding our own business…And as for Jim, you go ahead and tell Nick if you want. It won’t make