Page 58 of Murder Most Haunted


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That’s a very good question, thought Midge.Find the letter opener, find the murderer.

Chapter35

‘Can you stay with me for a bit, Midge?’

One by one, the others had all gradually left the room. Harold to find the deck of cards, Noah to record his podcast while the experience was still fresh in his mind and the doctor to check on Gloria.

‘I’ve never liked being on my own,’ said Rona, quietly.

Midge settled into the armchair closest to the fire, recently vacated by Harold. The soporific heat and pungent smell of garlic were making her an infuriatingly heady mix of sleepy and hungry.

‘Mummy said I was very needy even as a child,’ Rona continued, gazing out of the window. ‘Always had to be surrounded by a crowd. In fact, come to think of it, that’s probably why I became a singer.’

Midge nodded, unsure of what to say.

‘Did you know my mother was a famous daytime soap actress?’

Midge, who had once tried an episode ofEastEndersonly to give up when the subtitles failed, shook her head and shifted her thigh away from the heat of the flames.

‘Marlene Rogers. Now, there’s a person who doesn’t need any emotional connections. She’s never needed anything or anyone. Certainly not a man.’ Rona paused, turning her face round to stare at Midge. ‘Even when it came to having children. She just reached out to some of her gay friends – a little music, a few recreational relaxants, a Tupperware cocktail of semen and Bob’s your uncle, and quite possibly your father too.’

‘Goodness.’

‘Do you know what she calls me?’ Rona looked back to the window.

Midge shook her head.

‘The Thanksgiving Baby,’ said Rona. ‘Not because she was grateful to have me, you understand.’

‘No?’

There was a pause.

‘No. It’s because of the turkey baster.’

‘Oh,’ said Midge, crossing her legs.

‘I think I’d have liked a daddy, though,’ said Rona, leaning back and briefly shutting her eyes. ‘Do you like your daddy, Midge?’

‘My father hanged himself when I was twelve,’ replied Midge. ‘I found him, in the attic. Mother was away for the weekend and so I had to cut him down.’

Rona’s eyes flew open. ‘Jesus, that’s awful, I’m so sorry!’

‘Why should you be sorry?’ asked Midge, smoothing the crease in her trousers. ‘It’s not your fault. He left a note with instructions. And a knife for the rope. He was very organized like that and didn’t want a mess.’

‘I thought I liked you because you’re so normal, Midge.’ Rona stared at her with bright eyes. ‘But you’re anything but, aren’t you?’

After that, there didn’t seem too much to say, so Rona and Midge sat in silence broken only by the crackle of the fire. Within a few minutes, Midge dozed off. She dreamed of the baby again. Once more, she was back in her younger body, running across the moors, cradling the infant in her arms against the sound of the gunfire around them. The snow crunched underneath her feet as she slid, panting while she struggled. She needed to keep moving and get them to safety, anywhere that she could hide the child. Suddenly the night sky erupted with the sound of dogs barking behind her, released from Atherton Hall. The snarling reached an abrupt frenzy as they caught the scent in the air.

Midge slipped in the wet snow and fell, the ground openingup below her as they tumbled deeper and deeper down into the depths of the earth.

She woke with a jolt, her face pressed against the wing headrest of the velvet chair, grooves lining her cheek. Rona was staring at her from the bed. Midge’s cheeks flushed at being caught in so intimate a position and she rubbed her hand across her face.

‘I had better go and see where the others are,’ she said, pulling on her cane to stand up. ‘I’m sorry if I dribbled.’

‘I was thinking,’ said Rona, suddenly, ‘if someone did murder Rendell, odd that he should die so soon after that argument, isn’t it?’

Midge frowned. ‘Argument?’