Dalgliesh asked, “Did you take any action—see Rhoda Gradwyn, write to protest either to her or to the Paternoster Review?”

“I saw Gradwyn. We met briefly in her agent’s office, at her request. It was a mistake. She was, of course, totally unrepentant. I prefer not to discuss the details of that encounter. I didn’t know at the time that Annabel was already dead. She hanged herself three days after the Paternoster Review appeared.”

“So you didn’t have an opportunity to see her, ask for an explanation? I’m sorry if this is painful for you.”

“Surely not too sorry, Commander. Let there be honesty between us. Like Rhoda Gradwyn, you’re merely doing your distasteful job. I tried to get in touch but Annabel wouldn’t see me, the door locked, the phone unplugged. I’d wasted time with Gradwyn when I might have succeeded in seeing her. The day after her death I received a postcard.

There were only eight words and no signature. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I love you.” There was a silence; then she said, “The plagiarism was the least important part of a novel which showed extraordinary promise. But I think Annabel realised that she would never write another and for her that was death. And there was the humiliation. That, too, was more than she could bear.”

“Did you hold Rhoda Gradwyn responsible?”

“She was responsible. She murdered my friend. As I suppose that wasn’t her intention, there would be no hope of legal redress. But I didn’t take private revenge after five years. Hatred doesn’t die, but it loses some of its power. It’s like an infection in the blood, never completely lost, liable to flare up unexpectedly but its fever becoming less debilitating, less acutely painful with the passing years. I’m left with regret and a lasting sadness. I didn’t kill Rhoda Gradwyn, but I can’t feel even a minute’s regret that she’s dead. Does that satisfy the question you were about to ask, Commander?”

“You say, Miss Westhall, that you didn’t kill Rhoda Gradwyn. Do you know who did?”

“I do not. And if I did, Commander, I think it unlikely that I would tell you.”

She rose from the table to go. Neither Dalgliesh nor Kate made a move to stop her.

Chapter 7

7