Free Some Lie and Some Die by Ruth Rendell Page B

her and yelling at her. Knock one devil out and two in, that’s what I say.’
    Wexford cleared his throat. ‘We don’t seem to be getting very far. I can’t believe Dawn never mentioned any man she was friendly with.’
    ‘I never said she didn’t. You’ll get your stomach trouble again, Mother, if you don’t leave them acid drops alone. Thefact is, it was all lies with Dawn. I got so I let what she said go in one ear and out the other. I do know she had this man Wickford on account of her bringing him down here for the day last year. They didn’t stop long. Dawn could see what I thought about
him
. A divorced man, running a garage! That was the best she could do for herself.’
    ‘There was no one else?’ Burden asked coldly.
    ‘I said I
don’t know
. You’re not going to tell me she got herself done in by some boy she was at school with, are you? That’s all the local boys she knew.’
    Mrs Peckham, having incompletely unwrapped her latest sweet, was removing shreds of paper from her mouth. ‘There was Harold Goodbody,’ she said.
    ‘Don’t be so stupid, Mother. As if Harold’d have anything to do with a girl like Dawn. Harold climbed too high for the likes of her.’
    ‘Who is this man?’ asked Wexford.
    The sweet lodged in a wizened cheek pouch, the noisy sucking abated, Mrs Peckham heaved a heavy but not unhappy sigh. ‘He was a lovely boy, was Harold. Him and his mum and dad used to live round here in the next street. I wasn’t here then, I had my own cottage, but I used to see Harold when I had my job serving dinners at the school. Oh, he was a lad! Always one for a joke was Harold, April Fools all the year round for him. Him and Dawnie was pals from their first day at school. Then I come here to live with Phyllis and George and Dawnie’d bring him back to tea.’
    ‘I never knew that,’ said Mrs Stonor, bristling. ‘George wouldn’t have had that.’
    ‘George wasn’t here, was he? And you was working at that shop. I didn’t see no harm in Dawnie bringing her friend home.’ Mrs Peckham turned her back on her daughter and faced Wexford. ‘Harold was a real freak to look at, all bones and his hair nearly as white as mine. I’d have boiled eggs all ready for the three of us, but when Dawnie and me started cracking ours we’d find just the empty shells. Harold’dbrought a couple of empty shells to fool us. Ooh, he was funny! He had a joke ink blot and a rubber spider. Made us scream, that spider did. One day I caught him playing with the phone. He’d rung this number and when the woman answered he said he was the engineers. He said to her there was an emergency. She was to pour boiling water down the receiver, leave it for ten minutes and then cut the lead with scissors. She was going to too, she believed him, but I put a stop to that, though I was laughing fit to die. Harold was a real scream.’
    ‘Yes, I’m sure,’ said Wexford. ‘How old was he when all this fun and games was going on?’
    ‘About fifteen.’
    ‘And he still lives round here?’
    ‘No, of course he don’t. That Mr Silk from Sundays took him up and he left home and went to London when he was seventeen and got famous, didn’t he?’
    Wexford blinked. ‘Famous? Harold Goodbody?’
    Mrs Peckham wagged her gnarled hands impatiently. ‘He changed his name when he got to be a singer. What did he call himself? Now I’m getting on I seem to forget everything. John Lennon, that was it.’
    ‘I hardly think …’ Wexford began.
    Mrs Stonor, who had remained silent and scornful, opened her mouth and snapped, ‘Zeno Vedast. He calls himself Zeno Vedast.’
    ‘Dawn was at school with Zeno Vedast?’ Wexford said blankly. So it hadn’t been all boasting, vain name-dropping? Or some of it hadn’t. ‘They were friends?’
    ‘You don’t want to listen to Mother,’ said Mrs Stonor. ‘I daresay Dawn saw a bit of him when they were at school. She never saw him in London.’
    ‘Oh, yes, she did, Phyllis. She