Read The Last Girl for Free Online Page A

looked across at Godley for permission to speak, and got a nod. ‘She had a serious injury to her neck.’
    ‘Did she suffer?’
    ‘I’m not a pathologist.’
    ‘Don’t treat me like a fool. I’m not a civilian and I don’t need to be lied to. You’ve seen plenty of murders. You know what happened in there.’ He pointed in the direction of the sitting room, his hand shaking very slightly. ‘I’m asking because you’re enough of a bastard to tell me the truth. Did she suffer?’
    ‘It was probably too quick. She wouldn’t have known what was happening until it was over.’
    ‘Did Vita see it?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘I can’t imagine how she must have felt.’ He said it more to himself than to us, muttering it into his chest.
    ‘She tried to fight.’
    ‘She was good at that. Never backed away from an argument.’
    But she had tried to run when she knew she was doomed to lose. And she had certainly suffered, something her husband didn’t seem to care about. It made me slightly uneasy that he didn’t ask about how she had died.
    ‘When will you be finished here?’ He stubbed out his cigarette though there was a good inch of white paper left. ‘We’ll need to get someone in to clear the room out, I suppose, and clear up the mess upstairs. I don’t know where to start. Vita would have sorted all that out.’
    ‘We’re going to need to keep the house as it is for a while, Mr Kennford. In fact, I was just going to ask if you had somewhere else to stay.’
    ‘Oh. Right.’ He looked down at the dog. ‘I’ll make a couple of calls. I rent a flat in town, but animals aren’t allowed. I’ve got a friend with rooms in the Temple, the lucky sod. He’s got a house in France where he goes for the summer. If I can make arrangements to stay in his rooms, Mollie can come with me because tenants’ dogs are allowed. And Lydia would be all right there. I think there’s a sofa she can use.’
    He certainly had his priorities straight, I thought. Poor Lydia was one step down from the dog – maybe two. That wasn’t what was bothering Godley, though.
    ‘Is there anywhere else Lydia can stay? Someone you trust? A friend, or a relative?’
    ‘She won’t mind roughing it for a few days.’
    ‘I’d prefer it if she was somewhere else.’
    ‘Not with me, you mean.’ His eyebrows drew together and his mouth narrowed, his face transforming into something positively unsettling as his anger showed in it. He pointed at Derwent. ‘You’re just like him, aren’t you? You’ve made up your mind already.’
    ‘That’s not true. But two members of your family died in this house, and you were attacked. Lydia is the only one who wasn’t harmed, at least physically. She could be a very important witness. If you’re together, you’ll discuss what’s happened. You won’t be able to help it. When she’s ready to talk to us, I want to hear what she thinks, not what you’ve suggested.’
    ‘I don’t believe you.’
    ‘You should.’ Godley changed tack, his voice softening. ‘Look, I have a daughter around the same age. I know you want to protect her, but the best place for Lydia is a proper home, not a borrowed flat where she doesn’t even have a bed. Is there anyone she could stay with?’
    ‘Vita’s sister lives in Twickenham.’
    ‘Does she get on well with Lydia?’
    ‘I haven’t a clue. Renee is a mystery to me, but she seems perfectly pleasant.’
    ‘You sound as if she’s a stranger,’ I said. ‘Twickenham’s not far from here, is it? Don’t you see her often?’
    ‘I don’t. Vita might have. I don’t really have much to do with the in-laws, I’m afraid.’ He didn’t sound too guilty about it. I paused to marvel at a world where it was possible not to see close relations who lived nearby. My mother kept track of every up and down in the lives of even quite distant members of the family, no matter what part of the globe they had made their home, and I was expected to do the same. Family was