Alice left Jack to sort out the waiting group of holiday horse riders and took the bridleway down the hill that led to Hangman’s Tree and then walked onwards down to Danny’s boathouse to collect her clothes left there after their rowing boat had capsized.
She rang the bell several times. Nobody was around. Her clothes were hanging over the side of Danny’s veranda on the river side of the house. Since the river was tidal, by picking her way carefully across the mud and stones, she could reach the clothes without getting soaked.
Standing on the veranda, she shaded her eyes trying to see inside his house through the glass. She noticed the door was slightly ajar and pushed it a bit wider.
“Hello, are you there Danny?” She advanced into the room. It was as untidy as she remembered.
Absentmindedly, Alice riffled through a few papers on the writing desk and then picked up the book by D H Lawrence that Danny had been so keen to take back from her the previous day. She opened the front of the book and found an inscription.
‘To my dearest Danny, who has helped me decide to do the right thing! Estelle’
It was then that Danny came in. He saw Alice standing there holding the book and strode across and took it from her.
“If you were a man, I’d punch you,” he said angrily.
“I just came back to collect my things and the door was open and …”
“You thought you’d have a snoop,” finished Danny.
“Not really,” said Alice, lamely. “I like DH Lawrence and opened the book for a little read while I was waiting for you. It’s hardly as if I was going to steal anything.”
Danny looked as if he didn’t believe her.
“Well you’ve got your clothes, now you can go!”
“I couldn’t help noticing the inscription. Why don’t we help each other? You tell me what the inscription meant and I’ll tell you why I want to know.
“I always thought it was a bit convenient you turning up here on so called holiday and wanting to live in that ram-shackled holiday cottage.”
“Well you can find out all about it if you tell me about the inscription.”
Danny paused, seeming to struggle with himself.
“OK, it’s a deal. She had some sort of a business relationship with Jack and Fred. That’s all I know. She inherited the holiday cottage where you are staying from her husband but she was very different from him. She was a decent person who wanted to do the decent thing. She wouldn’t tell me what it was all about but just gave me hints that she had a moral dilemma. I helped her decide. I said it didn’t matter what the consequences were, she had to do the right thing but I don’t know what the moral dilemma was. And look at how my advice worked out. She ended up murdered.”
Danny slumped down and buried his head in his hands. Alice put a hand on his shoulder.
“The right thing is always the right thing,” she said quietly. “You shouldn’t blame yourself for encouraging her to do the right thing. The Estelle I knew would always have done the right thing, whatever the cost to herself.”
“You knew her?”
“She was a beautiful person in every way and my best friend,” said Alice. “If there was something that she wanted to do that was right, she would have made sure it was done. Clearly, she was prevented from doing what was right when she was murdered at the holiday cottage so we will have to do what is right for her and I think I now know how – if you will let me use your telephone.”
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