The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14)(5)

‘How are you, Ruth? I didn’t know you were back in London.’

‘I’m just here for the weekend. Do you live in London?’

‘Yes. In Blackheath. Just around the corner from here.’

Jean would be very impressed. For most people living in Eltham, Blackheath is the promised land. Alison says that she’s living in Clapham after years in the States. She and Daniel chat about New York (‘one of my favourite cities’ says Daniel) and Ruth finishes her lime and soda with an embarrassing sucking noise.

It’s a couple of seconds before Ruth realises that Daniel has left Manhattan and is addressing her. Alison has drifted away to talk to another grey-haired group.

‘Are you married, Ruth?’

‘No, but I’ve got an eleven-year-old daughter.’

‘Lovely age. I’ve got two grown-up daughters and now I’ve got a baby. It’s a nightmare going through all those sleepless nights again.’

The grown-up daughters and the new baby remind Ruth of Nelson but she’s willing to bet that Daniel’s new baby is the result of a new marriage. Sure enough, Daniel says that he met Ruby a few years ago and it was a ‘whirlwind romance’. The name alone tells Ruth that she’s in her twenties. Or her eighties.

‘I met your mum in Waitrose a few years back,’ says Daniel. ‘Actually, it must be six or seven years ago now. She said you were famous. Appearing on TV, writing books.’

Ruth loves the way Daniel name-checks the upmarket supermarket in case she should imagine he shops at Morrisons. But she’s touched to think that Jean stood next to the fresh sushi and the cheese of the week and showed off about her daughter.

‘I’m an archaeologist,’ she says. ‘I teach at a university in Norfolk and I’ve written books about bones. Nothing anyone would actually read.’

‘You always were clever, Ruth. You and Alison and . . .’

‘Fatima. She’s a doctor now. My mum told me that you were very successful too.’

Daniel laughs. ‘Mums, eh? How’s yours? I always liked her.’

‘She died five years ago.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ says Daniel. And he does sound it. He was always very kind, Ruth remembers. He hadn’t been bad-looking in the old days either. She would have slept with him if she hadn’t been terrified of getting pregnant and being trapped in Eltham. As it was, they had done what was euphemistically called ‘everything else’. She thinks of this now and knows that she is blushing. Luckily the upstairs room is very dark.

‘My dad died last year,’ says Daniel. ‘He was in his eighties but it was still a shock. I don’t think you can ever be prepared.’

‘I think that’s right,’ says Ruth. There’s a brief, but not uncomfortable, silence, as if they are both acknowledging the fact that they are older and their parents are dying.

‘That’s why I’m in London, really,’ says Ruth. ‘I’ve been sorting out my mum’s stuff. My dad has married again and they want to redecorate.’

‘That must have been tough,’ says Daniel.

‘It was,’ says Ruth. ‘And mysterious too.’ She starts to tell Daniel about the box marked ‘private’ and the strange photo­graph but suddenly there’s a glitter of gold and someone shouts, ‘Danny! Darling!’

A woman dives between them, kissing Daniel on both cheeks with an Ab-Fab flourish. She has blonde hair, tanned skin and lots of gold jewellery. Ruth has noticed that, as a general rule, the women present tonight look younger than the men. This is partly because the women have tended to go blonde, rather than grey, with age. This woman seems burnished all over and the effect is quite dazzling.

‘Kelly, you remember Ruth. From our year?’

So this is Kelly Sutherland, the Queen of Eltham Park.

‘I remember you, Ruth,’ says Kelly unexpectedly. ‘You used to go out with Danny.’

‘That’s right,’ says Ruth, ‘for a few months in the sixth form.’

‘For a year,’ says Daniel.

‘I got him next,’ says Kelly. ‘Did you know?’

It turns out that Kelly and Daniel dated for two years. ‘But it didn’t work out,’ says Kelly, ‘we were babies really.’ Daniel went on to marry Fiona, by whom he has grown-up daughters, and then the youthful-sounding Ruby. Kelly has been married three times and her current husband is none other than the school-gates-haunting boy on the motorbike.

‘My first love,’ says Kelly, laughing rather loudly. ‘Romantic, eh?’

‘Very,’ says Ruth. She is wondering whether she can make her excuses to Alison and go home.

Daniel offers to buy more drinks. Kelly asks for Prosecco but Ruth says no, thank you. She doesn’t think she could take any more soda water. While Daniel is at the bar, Kelly puts a red-nailed hand on Ruth’s arm. Ruth pulls away slightly, she’s getting a headache from the glare of Kelly’s hair.

‘You know, Ruth, I used to envy you at school.’

‘Really?’ This is the biggest surprise of the night.

‘You always seemed to know what you wanted. You weren’t bothered about clothes and boys and all the rest of it.’

‘I was bothered about them,’ says Ruth. ‘I just wasn’t very good at them.’