Claire McNab - Quokka Question

"So Jack Yarrow said he knew nothing about this plan that he himself was supposed to have hatched."

"It's not his fault," said Erin, loyal to the last. "Georgia was lying when she said Jack was involved. He knew nothing about it, I'm sure. He's not that kind of man. Why, he-"

She broke off as Winona Worsack glided into the room wearing her usual long medieval dress, her dark hair loose on her shoulders. "You!" she exclaimed, pointing a long, imperious forefinger at Erin. "How dare you besmirch the name of Jack Yarrow! How dare you!"

"But, I-"

"Don't speak. I know what's been going on. You imagine yourself in love with my husband. Deluded wretch. Poor, sick creature. You are to stop pestering him immediately."

"He pestered me first!" shouted Erin, showing some spirit at last.

"That's why I fell in love with him."

"That's quite enough, you stupid little ninny."

I was admiring Winona's vocabulary, having never heard anyone use 'besmirch' in conversation before, and 'ninny' only rarely, when she turned her attention in my direction. Crooking her finger, she commanded, "Kylie Kendall, come with me."

"Are you all right?" I said to Erin, not wanting to leave her distressed.

Anger had stiffened her spine. "I'll cope," she said. She shot Winona Worsack a mutinous look. "You don't understand him. You never have. Jack told me so."

Winona snorted. I felt like snorting, myself. Could Jack Yarrow actually trotted out that ancient cliche and said his wife didn't understand him?

Winona, of course, had to have the last word. "Idiot," she said and swept out of the room before Erin could respond.

"See you later," I said to Erin as I hastened to the door. I didn't want Winona to give me the slip.

"Jack can't leave her," Erin said. "He told me she swore she'll kill herself if he does. That's why he stays with her."

Blimey! This sheila had turned naive into an art form.

"And then," I said to Ariana, "I galloped down the hall after Winona Worsack, who gets a fair speed up on the wheels she seems to have instead of feet, since she glides so smoothly."

It was early evening. We were in Ariana's office, everyone else had gone home, and I was giving her a rundown of my day.

Ariana laughed. "A beguiling picture. What happened next?"

"Winona takes me to Yarrow's office. There he is with Georgia Tapp, both long-faced. 'We have a problem,' he says to me, 'and you appear to be friendly with Erin Fogarty, so you can be of assistance, I believe.'

"And I say, 'Anything I can do to help.' Yarrow looks at Georgia, and she says on cue, 'Erin came to me this morning with the most outlandish story. She accused me of being involved in Dr. Oscar Braithwaite's death. Even more outrageous, she also claimed that Professor Yarrow was the mastermind behind the scheme. I can only think the poor girl is unbalanced.'

"At this point, there's a fair bit of grave head-shaking all round, then Yarrow asks, 'Did Erin say anything to you while you were with her this morning?'

" 'Well, yes, she did,' I say, and I outline the major points of the story, a lot more straightforwardly than Erin managed to give it to me.

"Everyone looks grim. Jack Yarrow says, superindignant, 'I can't imagine why she wants to attack me.' His wife sends a nasty smile his way. 'Because you seduced the silly little fool, Jack. And now you're trying to get out from under. I can understand her motivation-she wants revenge.'"

"Nice and direct," said Ariana, "but is it true?"

"Erin never mentioned being given the heave-ho by Yarrow, but she's not the most worldly graduate student on the block, so it's on the cards she hasn't noticed yet."

Ariana looked thoughtful. "Why do you think they bought you in?"

"To back up their theory that Erin's lost it. She sobbed most of the time I was with her, and it was hard work getting a coherent story out of her, but I didn't think for one moment she was bonkers."

"Consider this " said Ariana. "Maybe Erin is stringing you along. She set up the rendezvous with Oscar and was there when he fell, either by accident or because she pushed him. Now she comes up with this conspiracy narrative, killing two birds with one stone. She punishes Yarrow for ending their affair, and she implicates a rival, namely Georgia Tapp."

"Could be," I said, "but the tears she shed were real. She couldn't act that well."

"They could be genuine tears because she's lost the man she's hopelessly in love with."

I loved doing this brainstorming with Ariana. I beamed at her across the desk. "But if Erin is telling the absolute truth, we then have two possibilities. The first, that Georgia's cooked this up all on her own, and is lying through her teeth when she says Jack Yarrow instigated it. The second is that Yarrow came up with the plan and co-opted Georgia to help him out so that there'd be no direct link between him and Oscar's death."

"Where does Winona Worsack fit in?" Ariana inquired.

"She's worried about Jack Yarrow's rep, I reckon. Otherwise, I can't see why she'd care one way or the other about what Oscar might do at the symposium."

"You've studied the science of detecting liars," said Ariana. "So who's lying and who's telling the truth?"

"You're having a dig at me," I said.

My Complete Handbook contained several chapters on lying, and I'd made a goal to master lie detection techniques. My mistake had been to let anyone know what I was doing. Fran, in particular, had made life hard for a few days.

Ariana laughed. "Only a gentle dig. And I really want to know what you think."

"Right-oh. Erin is pretty well telling the truth, although, of course, she has no idea how much of what she's been told is accurate. Georgia? She's crooked as a dog's hind leg, but some of what she said must be true. The problem is, which bit? And I don't like Jack Yarrow, so I'm biased. It's possible he isn't involved. There's only Georgia's word that he is, and now she denies she even said it to Erin."

Picking up the phone, Ariana said, "I'm going to run this past Ted Lark. He'll certainly want to interview Erin Fogarty. And I'll mention you saw Wally Easton, and think he might be a possibility for Pen's stalker. I'd say, however, at least for the moment, Ted will want to concentrate on Erin Fogarty."

I thought with a pang how upset she'd been that morning. "Erin's pretty upset at the moment. She won't take tough questioning well."

"I'll tell him to be kind," said Ariana.

I left her dialing, and went into the kitchen to feed Julia Roberts. About time, her expression said. "Salmon tonight, Jules. Gourmet stuff."

Watching her eat-she was not a particularly refined as a diner-I began to brood. I was having myself on, thinking I could learn to be a P.I. Hey, I couldn't even tell who was lying to me. I wasn't a private detective's bootlace.

I forced myself to be honest. It was Ariana gently mocking me that had started this downward trend in my mood. It was Ariana having a secret she wouldn't tell me. It was me loving Ariana and her not loving me…

"I'm going to have it out with her," I said to Jules. "Right now."

Jules kept on eating.

She looked up when I opened her office door. Without ceremony, I said, "Do you still want to buy my fifty-one percent of Kendall & Creeling?"

Clearly surprised, Ariana said, "You've changed your mind? It's for sale?"

"Not really. I was wondering if you even now had hopes of buying me out."

Ariana sat back in her chair, her expression unreadable. She knew from experience I was unlikely to let a silence stretch very long without breaking it. This time would be different, I told myself.

I felt a flicker of sour triumph when she spoke first. "I haven't mentioned the subject lately, so why are you bringing it up now?"