Simon Brett - The Corpse on the Court

As she put the phone down, Carole felt a warm glow. She did get a charge out of conducting an investigation independently of Jude. Yes, they worked very well together, but Carole didn’t really need Jude. With her Home Office background, it was Carole Seddon who supplied the intellectual rigour in their investigations. Her neighbour’s method had always been based more on intuition and outrageous good luck. Not that she was jealous, of course, but Jude did just swan through life so easily.

Little did Carole suspect that next door at Woodside Cottage her neighbour was still crying.

Jude’s mobile rang on the Sunday evening. The number calling was Piers Targett’s. She answered it instantly, but it wasn’t Piers at the other end.

‘Hello. I’m calling on Piers’ mobile. It’s Jonquil. We met earlier.’

‘I remember.’ What on earth did the woman want? To pour out more poison about her husband? To hurt Jude even more?

‘I gather you were with Piers when he found Reggie Playfair’s body at the tennis court. .’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you see him take the poor old bugger’s mobile phone?’

‘What? No, I didn’t.’

But the scene came back very vividly. Finding Reggie lying on the court. . Then Piers sending her off to fetch his iPhone from the car. . because he wanted a moment alone with the corpse of his old friend. . If he planned to purloin the dead man’s mobile, he’d created the perfect opportunity.

‘Well, Piers has got it. I saw it in his jacket pocket, recognized it straight away — Reggie had this case specially made for it in purple and green stripes — the Lockleigh House club colours.’

And Jonquil Targett echoed Jude’s thoughts exactly as she went on, ‘Now, why on earth would Piers want to take Reggie’s mobile?’

Brighton is a big city and Carole Seddon only really knew the centre of it. The sea front, the Pier, the Royal Pavilion, the intricate trendy thoroughfares of The Lanes, the Marina, all of those were familiar to her. But she’d never been to Moulsecoomb before.

She was characteristically early for her meeting with Donna Grodsky, drawing the Renault neatly into the pub car park just before eleven forty-five. The George’s Head did not look at all Carole Seddon’s sort of pub. It was painted white, but every outside feature — window frames and surrounds, doorways, mock-Tudor beams and guttering were picked out in a garish red. An array of colourfully chalked blackboard signs stood outside, offering happy hours, meal deals, senior specials, karaoke nights and the inevitable Sky Sports.

Carole, whose attitudes had changed since she became a regular at Fethering’s Crown and Anchor, went instantly back to her default position of not being ‘a pub person’. Still, she was at the George’s Head in Moulsecoomb in the cause of investigation, so she swallowed her prejudices and entered.

She was surprised by how noisy it was at that time of day. Part of the sound came from the massive screens at each end of the bar, one of them apparently tuned to sport and the other to a pop-music channel. But there were also a lot of customers in there, all talking loudly and none paying any attention to either of the televisions.

Elderly couples sat at tables, consulting menus with great concentration as they tried to decide which senior special to opt for when orders started to be taken at twelve. Standing at the bar were quite a few of what Carole thought of as ‘workmen’ (in other words men with faded tattoos in sleeveless T-shirts), but also around the tables a good few of what she thought of as ‘single mothers’ (with buggies and rather newer tattoos). It was this demographic that Carole expected shortly to be joined by Donna Grodsky.

She advanced awkwardly to the bar, feeling every eye in the place was on her (though actually nobody showed any interest). Agonizing over whether a pub like the George’s Head in Moulsecoomb would stock Chilean Chardonnay, and indeed whether she should have an alcoholic drink when she was not only driving but also investigating, her thoughts were interrupted by a shout of ‘Hi! Are you Carole?’

She turned to face what had to be Donna Grodsky. The girl, as she had said she would be on the phone, was dressed in a gold hoodie and jeans with a lot of diamante on them. Her hair with blonde highlights was scraped back into a scrunchy so tight that it was flat against her head. The face was heavily made up with eyelashes too long to be real, and a silver stud pierced her lower lip.

In the buggy beside her, in immaculately clean blankets and Babygro, with a tiny blue baseball cap on his head, lay her baby, angelically sleeping. Carole wouldn’t in the past have been much good at estimating infant’s ages, but up to speed thanks to Lily’s appearance in her life, she would have estimated he was about four months old.

‘Hello, you must be Donna.’

‘Dead right.’

‘How did you know it was me?’

Donna Grodsky looked around the pub and grinned. No one else was wearing a Burberry raincoat. Or such sensible shoes. ‘I just knew.’

‘Now, can I get you a drink?’

‘I’ve got one.’ The girl indicated what looked like a Coke in front of her.

‘Oh, you shouldn’t have-’

‘Don’t worry. I’ve started a tab for you with Vin at the bar.’

‘Oh?’

The girl took a long swig from her drink. ‘And actually I’m ready for another.’

‘Coke, is it?’

‘With a large voddy in, yes.’

Vin, the girl at the bar, knew about ‘Donna’s tab’ and knew she’d want a ‘large voddy and Coke’. Carole wondered idly what ‘Vin’ might stand for. The girl didn’t look like her idea of a ‘Lavinia’, but she couldn’t think of anything else.

Carole had by now decided that she was definitely going to need a drink. To her surprise the George’s Head turned out to have an extensive wine list and she got her Chilean Chardonnay.

Back at the table she found Donna Grodsky studying the huge A3-size menu. ‘Better order quick. Hell trying to eat once the little bugger wakes up.’

‘What’s his name?’ asked Carole.

‘Kyle.’ The girl looked at her defiantly. ‘And I love him to bits.’ She put down the menu. ‘I’ll get the sirloin steak, medium rare, with everything and extra onion rings.’

It was the most expensive item on the menu. Carole wondered briefly if she was being taken for a ride. On the other hand, all of the prices at the George’s Head were extraordinarily cheap. And if Donna Grodsky did have any useful information. . She gave in the order at the bar, adding a tuna and cucumber baguette for herself.

Carole was disarmed when she returned to the table by Donna saying, ‘Thanks for picking up the tab and that. I used to be quite a girl for the clubs and the pubs, but since I’ve had Kyle. .’ She raised her unfinished first glass, said ‘Cheers’ and gulped down what was left. ‘Real treat for me these days, this is,’ she went on. ‘Getting out of the flat, seeing people who aren’t Kyle or my mum.’

‘His father. .?’ asked Carole tentatively.

The girl let out a bitter chuckle. ‘What do you think? He scarpered soon as he knew I was up the duff. Not that I mind. I wasn’t in love or anything like that. He was quite fit but, anyway, he served his purpose.’

‘You mean you wanted to get pregnant?’

‘Too right I did. Always wanted to have something I could really call my own. Now I’ve got Kyle. Anyway, council wouldn’t have given me the flat if I hadn’t got the baby.’

Carole bit back various Daily Mail responses that were rising up towards her lips. ‘If we could talk about Marina. .’

‘Sure. I liked her. That’s why I hope nothing bad’s happened to her.’