Poisoning in the Pub, The. Simon Brett

I have no wish to add my “as it were, signature” to your petition.’

      ‘Nor do I,’ said Jude. ‘We strongly support Ted Crisp’s initiative to use the Crown and Anchor for such purposes, and in fact we have both bought tickets to see Dan Poke’s appearance on Sunday.’

      A discomfited Greville Tilbrook realized he wasn’t going to get anywhere with this particular visit and beat a wordy retreat. When Carole came back from seeing him out of the front door, she asked Jude, ‘Have you really booked tickets for the show?’

      ‘No. But I think we should.’

      Carole recharged their wine glasses and the two women looked at each other. ‘You can see why Ted’s paranoid, though,’ Jude observed. ‘He seems to be being attacked on all sides, doesn’t he?’

      SEVEN

      On the Friday morning Jude rang one of her friends in the social services, a woman called Sally Monks, who owed her a favour. Jude had once used her healing skills to help out a couple of Sally’s more difficult teenage clients, and so the social worker was more than happy to return the favour. She readily supplied an address for the Ray who sometimes worked at the Crown and Anchor. ‘But I happen to know that he’s not there today,’ said Sally.

      ‘Oh?’

      ‘He tends to go back to his mother’s from time to time. She’s quite old and infirm, so she can’t look after him full-time, but she can manage for a few days.’

      ‘You don’t know where she lives, do you?’

      ‘Yes. Worthing. Do you want me to give you her address? I will if it’s something really important, but Ray’s mother’s an old lady and …’

      Sally Monks sounded reluctant, and Jude was forced to ask herself how important her quest actually was. Yes, she wanted to help Ted Crisp, but not to presume too far on the social worker’s goodwill. Anyway, Ted himself had tried to cover up Ray’s involvement in what had happened in the Crown and Anchor. He might not welcome her investigating.

      As it happened, what Sally Monks said next simplified things. ‘If you really do want to contact Ray, I know he’ll be at the flat tomorrow.’

      ‘Oh?’

      ‘Saturday. Football. He loves his football. His mother doesn’t have Sky, but they have it in the communal sitting room at the flats.’

      ‘Oh, thank you for telling me. Maybe I’ll try and contact him tomorrow.’

      ‘That’d be better.’ The social worker sounded relieved. ‘I don’t want to put any more pressure on his mother.’

      ‘More pressure? What do you mean?’

      ‘Well, it’s just that Ray only goes to see her when he’s upset. She has quite a problem calming him down sometimes.’

      ‘You’ve no idea why he might be upset at the moment, do you?’ asked Jude, keen to advance her investigation.

      ‘Jude,’ said Sally patiently, ‘I haven’t seen Ray for months. I’ve no idea what’s upset him this time. It’s could be anything. He gets hurt very easily, always worries that people are against him. He’s one of those people who seems to have been born with too few layers of skin.’

      As she thanked Sally and rang off, Jude realized that any approach she made to Ray would require all of her considerable tact and gentleness.

      Because it was so hot that Friday, Carole delayed taking Gulliver for his afternoon walk until the evening. She felt sorry for him. A Labrador’s coat wasn’t designed for this kind of weather. He was still full of enthusiasm to tackle the invisible monsters of the beach, but he tired quickly and his long tongue lolled from panting mouth.

      He looked so hot and pitiful in the fading light that she thought she would find him a drink before they got back to High Tor. There was always a dog bowl of water outside the Crown and Anchor, so she walked back from the beach that way. The route would also give her a chance to see whether Ted’s trade had picked up at all since his enforced closure.

      The noise as she approached the pub answered her question. A lot of customers – and not just the smokers – were drinking outside, and all the windows and doors were open. The crowd seemed much bigger than it would have been for an ordinary Friday night; the atmosphere was positively rowdy. Her destination, the dogs’ water bowl, was just outside the main doors, but the density of the crowd deterred her. Also the nature of the crowd. Despite the evening heat, there were a lot of black leather jackets with gratuitous chains attached. Carole decided Gulliver could wait for his drink till they got back to High Tor.

      As she walked through the car park back to the High Street, she noticed a surprising number of motorbikes. She also saw someone who looked vaguely familiar leaving the pub and approaching a sleek pale blue metallic BMW.

      He was a tall man, probably in his early forties. The immaculate cut of his suit could not completely hide the fact that he was spreading to fat. Though his face was chubby, its features were small, thin lips, slightly beaky nose. He wore glasses with thick black rims. His hair, longish and swept back, was too black to be natural.

      Carole felt sure she had seen him somewhere before, but the context wouldn’t come. She racked her brains as she walked back home, but her memory didn’t oblige. Finally, with a mental shrug, she gave up trying to place the man. He probably just looked like someone she had once met.

      After eleven, as Carole Seddon prepared for bed, she heard the screeching, whining and revving up of motorbikes departing. Rather than following the coast road, where there was little residential property, they had chosen to drive up Fethering High Street. Through the open windows of the bedroom of High Tor, the noise was very loud.

      If that kind of thing continued, Carole Seddon reckoned that Greville Tilbrook might find his petition filling up rather quickly.

      EIGHT

      Jude’s relationship with Carole was easy, but it required effort on Jude’s part to keep it that way. She had to avoid many areas of spikiness in Carole’s personality. Most of these were predictable, but there was always the danger of inadvertently touching on some new, unpredictable one. So Jude anticipated a potential problem in their approach to Ted Crisp’s occasional helper, Ray.

      Basically, she knew it was the kind of interview that would work better if she did it on her own. From all accounts, Ray was a highly strung individual, and Jude’s work as a therapist had given her plentiful experience of dealing with such people. But she knew how sensitive Carole could be about the idea of being excluded from any part of an investigation.

      On this occasion, however, her neighbour seemed to recognize her own limitations. After Jude’s call to Sally Monks, they had agreed that an attempt should be made to see Ray the next day. But when Jude called at High Tor on the Saturday morning, Carole seemed preoccupied. She said she needed to do a big shop, and would Jude mind visiting Ray on her own?

      Jude recognized the excuse for what it was. Carole was very organized about her shopping, paying a monthly visit to Sainsbury’s for non-perishable essentials. And always mid-week. She would never willingly expose herself to the bigger crowds of weekend shoppers.

      But the talk of a ‘big shop’ was her graceful way of backing off. Carole too knew in her heart of hearts that Jude would be better with someone like Ray than she would. She just couldn’t bring herself to say that in so many words.

      Jude was grateful for her friend’s uncharacteristic moment of self-knowledge, and immediately set off for the address that Sally Monks had given her.

      Everything in Fethering was within walking distance, but because the village sprawled almost enough to be called a town, some destinations involved a longer walk than others. So it was with Copsedown Hall, the sheltered accommodation where Ray lived, set on the northern fringe furthest from the sea