Free Others by James Herbert Page B

dying on top of her is enough to send the relevant muscles into spasms.’
    I needed a cigarette, but Etta wasn’t a smoker and I’d chosen the non-smoking area of the restaurant in deference to her. Instead, I drained my second brandy.
    ‘Surely the Ripstones would have been aware that the strain might be too much for Gerald,’ I said.
    ‘You’d have thought so, wouldn’t you? Perhaps Shelly wanted her husband even more than he wanted her that night’
    ‘And he couldn’t resist.’
    ‘Or she made it impossible for him to resist’
    ‘She wouldn’t have -‘ I began to protest.
    ‘Shelly wanted his child too. She had a special reason to.’
    ‘If she thought she might lose her husband at any time, I suppose it’s understandable. A child might compensate -‘
    Again, Etta interrupted. ‘Without an heir, she stood to lose half Gerald’s fortune.’
    I pulled back a little, one good eye staring at my companion. ‘You want to explain that for me?’
    When the Ripstones were first married, Gerald made a will through our firm leaving everything - his wealth, the business - to his wife and any children they subsequently might have.’
    ‘Only they didn’t get to have any kids.’
    ‘Correct. And they were never likely to. Not together, at any rate.’
    I looked askance.
    ‘Gerald Ripstone was sterile. He consulted a specialist after a few years of marriage and no offspring, and discovered he was incapable of siring an heir. He kept it to himself, never told his wife.’
    Wait. How d’you know all this?’
    ‘Eventually, Gerald confided in his lawyer, the senior partner of my firm, who’d become a good personal friend over the years. Howard Benson, my boss, gave me the information when I queried a specific clause in Gerald Rip-stone’s will, the part dealing with inheritance.’
    ‘But why wouldn’t he tell his own wife? From the way she blubbered in my office she must have thought the world of him. Surely the fact that he was firing blanks wouldn’t have mattered to her?’
    Etta shrugged. Who knows why? Pride? Embarrassment? The way you’ve just expressed it shows how the male of the species views that kind of thing. You know what men are like, Dis.’
    Well no, I didn’t, not in that respect, anyway. Sexual prowess or high fertility having never been an area of contemplation for me.
    The point is,’ Etta went on, ‘Shelly was never aware that she couldn’t have a child by her husband. But here’s the weird thing: Gerald loved her so much and cared about the continuance of his business enough for him not to worry by whom she had a child so long as there was someone around to take care of both after he was gone. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough confidence in his wife’s business acumen or her ability to survive without him.’
    ‘I can’t decide if the guy was eccentric or admirable.’
    ‘Probably a bit of both. If you ask me it was his way of dealing with his own guilt and self-imposed shame.’
    People are complex, right? Lord knows, I’ve dealt with enough oddballs, both professionally and personally, to be aware of how complicated we mortals are.
    ‘Okay,’ I admitted. ‘Curious, but it makes some kind of psychological sense. It was his way of compensating for something he deemed his fault. What I don’t understand though, is why they didn’t adopt?’
    ‘I think it was because he wanted the child to be part of one of them. If it couldn’t come from his loins, then at least it would be from Shelly’s womb. However, I do know they were finally looking into the matter of adoption - Gerald dearly wanted a boy - just before he died. They left it too late.’
    Her coffee was almost gone and I asked if she’d like another. She declined and twirled the brandy glass around by its stem. She took a sip before placing it back on the table.
    ‘In his will,’ Etta said, ‘Gerald gave his blessing to any new partner that Shelly might find. All part of his guilt trip, I suppose, and