Free Ann Granger by That Way Murder Lies

work just fine.’
    ‘All right. If you want to know, my real worry about Toby falling for Fiona is that Fiona might turn out to be the writer with the poison pen!’
    ‘Aha! Despite all that back there?’ Markby jerked his head backwards to indicate the scene they’d left behind them.
    ‘Partly because of all that back there. I think she stopped us for a private quiz session not so much because she’s fed up with the family being upset, but because she’s worried, now you’ve turned up. She didn’t bank on you. Toby sprang quite a surprise when he said he had a contact in the police force, a senior copper who was local and engaged to marry an old friend of his, me. Her father leapt at it, she says. You can bet she didn’t.’

    He hunched his shoulders. ‘It’s a possibility. But if she has been writing the letters, would she let us see that Alison isn’t her favourite person? Wouldn’t that be rather stupid?’
    ‘Or she’s smart enough to be upfront and honest about it because that would put you off the scent.’
    ‘You have a suspicious mind,’ he said with a chuckle. ‘You should have been a copper.’
    They were passing the cottage they had noticed on their way to Overvale House. Meredith took a closer look at it. It was surrounded by a well-tended garden. Beds were dug over ready for spring planting. There was a row of what looked like gooseberry or blackcurrant bushes in new leaf. A woman was pegging clothes to a line. She stopped what she was doing to stare inquisitively at the car and its occupants. Just then, a familiar figure rounded the rear corner of the building. Meredith had fleeting sight of Stebbings, the gardener, before Markby had swept them past and beyond the cottage.
    ‘That was Stebbings,’ she said. ‘That must be where he lives. Do you think Jeremy owns that cottage, too?’
    ‘Very likely. There are probably estate workers’ cottages like that scattered all over the place. If so, I expect it’ll be tied to Stebbings’ job.’
    ‘Difficult,’ Meredith mused. ‘To have your home linked with your job like that. Anything could happen. Stebbings could lose his job or retire or just die. Where would that leave Mrs Stebbings? Homeless? It’s not very satisfactory.’
    ‘On the other hand,’ Markby pointed out, ‘I doubt he pays any rent. Incidentally, he struck me as an odd fish. He looks like the Ancient Mariner.’
    ‘Long grey beard, glittering eye and all, I agree.’ Meredith laughed.
    Markby picked up the previous thread of conversation. ‘What are your grounds for suspecting Fiona? Other than dislike?’
    ‘I didn’t say I disliked her!’ Meredith protested. ‘I didn’t warm to her, I admit. To be brutally honest, I thought she had all the
hallmarks of a spoilt brat. But perhaps that isn’t all her fault. It’s fairly clear there have been some tremendous family rows in the past. I’d like to know about her mother. Is she still alive? Married to someone else? Did she leave Jenner or did he dump her? Did they part by mutual agreement? How old was Fiona at the time and how did she feel about the divorce? Is that why she doesn’t like Alison?’
    ‘And then there is the money,’ said Markby thoughtfully.
    ‘You’re picking up on that remark of Jeremy’s about youngsters always wanting something and it being natural to lend them money. Despite that crack she made about having to put in any request in triplicate, I imagine the money’s been given outright to Fiona pretty well when she’s wanted it. All that trendy gear costs a packet. I wonder if she works at all? Any kind of job, even a voluntary one, something charitable.’
    ‘I can’t imagine Fiona in a soup kitchen or handing out clean clothing to down and outs,’ he told her. ‘Like you, I’m thinking not so much about the present time as the future. I wonder how the two women, Alison and Fiona, stand to benefit from Jeremy Jenner’s will.’
    ‘Hold on, let’s see what we’ve got.’