Lynda La Plante: Wrongful Death

As Anna turned to leave, Gloria gave a howling scream and flung her glass across the room, where it hit the Mazzoni painting and splintered into hundreds of pieces. She was rigid with a crazed fury and totally out of control. As Anna opened the library door she came face to face with Donna and Aisa standing together, holding hands and both crying. She hurriedly closed the door behind her, as Gloria’s drunken ranting continued unabated.

‘Did you just hear everything your mother said?’ Anna asked and both girls nodded.

Aisa looked forlornly at Anna. ‘I’ve told Donna everything about mine and Josh’s affair and what my mother made me do. She knows we are real sisters.’

It was clear to Anna that Donna had forgiven Aisa and the two of them needed each other more than anything in the world right now.

‘You need to get away from here while your mother’s in such a disturbed and unstable state.

‘She will destroy you – listen to her, she’s deranged and very dangerous and has no love for either of you. Think of your husband, Donna, your lover, Aisa, her son, her own son Joshua blew his brains out, his mind distorted by the poison she’d fed him. You heard her gloating how she had manipulated both of you, and would have let Donna go to prison for her crimes. For your own self-preservation get out tonight and never look back.’

The security lights blazed on once more, illuminating Anna’s car as she sat inside, shaking, waiting for the automatic gates to open so she could leave Lynne House. As she glanced in the rear-view mirror, the dog began its frantic barking. The big iron gates slowly opened and she reached for her ignition key, just as a movement caught her eye. She turned and looked over her shoulder to see Donna running from the house.

Anna parked just outside the gates and got out of her car to peer through the railings to where Donna was opening the boot of her Mini. Aisa sped out of the house carrying a suitcase, her arms full of clothes which she stuffed into the boot. The girls had obviously taken her advice, but no sooner had Donna got into the driving seat and started up the engine than Gloria flew out from the house, her white robe billowing as she waved her arms and screamed at full volume. The girls shouted in panic and the sound of their voices made the dog even more frenzied and drag at her chains. Anna wished she had waited or taken the daughters in her car as she saw Gloria throw herself at Aisa in an attempt to stop her getting into the Mini, grabbing a handful of the young woman’s hair, shouting and clawing as she tried to pull Aisa away, but Donna got out from the car and roughly pushed her mother. Gloria fell backwards onto the gravel then drunkenly tried to get to her feet as both girls jumped into the car. Donna started the engine and the gravel churned up as she reversed at speed, and then made a sliding turn and headed down the driveway.

Gloria, crawling on all fours like the still-frenzied dog, was screaming, ‘How dare you leave me! YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME!’

Anna didn’t even make it back to her car as the Mini drove past her, very fast, heading down the lane. Whether they saw Anna or not, they made no attempt to stop as she stared at the disappearing rear lights. She could not resist returning to look through the railings, to where the front door remained open wide, but there was no sign of Gloria. The security lights went out, leaving only the lamps from inside to give the house a yellowish glow, foreboding and medieval. The dog had finally fallen silent.

Anna drove back to London still very shaken by the whole encounter. Although she had the satisfaction of knowing she was right, and had managed to warn Aisa and Donna to get away, she was still left frustrated that Lady Lynne was free from any punishment. For now, though, she just had to be content with the fact she had confronted Gloria and that her instincts were correct.

The following day, Anna was back at her desk, eager to get on and put the Reynolds case behind her, despite the fact that a few of the team had severe hangovers. Late in the afternoon, she got a call from Langton asking if she’d seen the Evening Standard front page about Lady Lynne being found dead at her mansion house.

‘What? You are joking?’

‘I’m not, darlin’. I phoned the local DCI in Surrey and he gave me the details.’

With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, Anna asked herself: did anyone know she had been to Lynne House? Was he calling to warn her?

Langton continued: ‘She was found in her greenhouse by the housekeeper. Apparently, went in there drunk, fell and knocked over a large canister of pesticide. The contents spilled out and gassed her, she didn’t even have a face mask on and her dog was found dead beside her.’

‘Bloody hell,’ Anna said.

‘Well, she paid the ultimate price in the end, and her daughters were not even at home. I guess it’ll be accidental death.’

Anna agreed and vividly recalled her first ever meeting with Lady Lynne where she explained how dangerous the pesticides were and that she always had to wear protective clothing and a face mask.

‘They think she tried to reach for a mask, but the dog was in there with her, so who knows.’

‘Yes, who knows? Pity about the dog!’ Anna said as she replaced the receiver and sat back in her chair.

The papers were full of the tragic death of Lady Lynne. Donna and Aisa spoke movingly at the funeral and promised the Lynne Foundation would continue the charitable work of Lord Henry and their mother. They never contacted Anna. The toxicology report had stated that Gloria had a very high level of alcohol in her blood, which would have accelerated the effect of the pesticide, and so her death was reported by the Coroner as non-suspicious and accidental.

The files and reports were completed as the team led by Anna prepared for the next case. It had been a huge learning curve and one Anna hoped she would never have to be subjected to again. In her drawer, placed in a small box, as she would never wear it, was the one reminder of Gloria Lynne. It was the gold-and-enamel brooch in the shape of the deadly nightshade flower, so pretty, yet so dangerous, and as toxic as the woman who had given it.

I am very appreciative to my loyal fans, both for buying my novels and watching the television series derived from the books. Due to necessity, I have sometimes had to alter sections of the plot, to enable the series to translate to television. I have done my upmost to keep them both exciting and not lose the characters’ backgrounds.

In the new novel Wrongful Death , I refer back to a previous Anna Travis novel that brought in the character of a notorious and dangerous drug dealer, Anthony Fitzpatrick. He became the nemesis for Detective Chief Superintendent James Langton as he was the ‘one that got away’. At his first appearance, he is described as fathering two very young daughters. For the Above Suspicion series it was decided that to use very young children and to have them escape in a boat was possibly too much of a risk. I therefore changed the daughters to Fitzpatrick escaping with a teenage son. As this was a very big on-screen stunt, I also made the decision that Anna Travis would show her inexperience by not reporting the moment she saw a photograph of the plane used by Fitzpatrick to escape arrest.

I sincerely hope that my readers will appreciate how very difficult it is sometimes to incorporate every detail from the novels. There are very few crime writers who also adapt their own crime novels into television series; it is quite an arduous task to decide what is imperative to be kept in focus for the plot to run smoothly. I hope that Wrongful Death will prove to be as successful using the television adaptation references from Deadly Intent , and bring to a conclusion the capture of the dangerous drug dealer Anthony Fitzpatrick, who had become one of the FBI’s most-wanted criminals.