The Paying Guests(155)

Lilian was chewing her lip again. She answered unwillingly. ‘He said the boy will have to appear at the police court on Thursday morning, for the prosecution to start making their case. If it looks strong enough to the magistrate, it’ll go to trial at the Old Bailey.’

‘The Old Bailey! Oh, this is dreadful. But, then, he isn’t on trial just yet? It could all still come to nothing?’

‘I – I don’t know. Yes, I think so. The police have to put their side of it together. And the inquest’s got to be re-opened. But that won’t happen straight away. The whole thing might take weeks, the sergeant said.’

‘Weeks! And meanwhile the boy will be – what? Kept in a prison cell?’

‘I think so.’

‘Oh, Lilian. It’s unbelievable! After everything we’ve been through. You know what we ought to do, don’t you? We ought to go straight to the police. We ought to walk into Camberwell police station and tell them everything. Suppose it does go to a trial? There wouldn’t be the evidence to convict him; a few stupid hairs won’t hang anyone. But we oughtn’t to let it go on for even another hour. We ought to speak to Inspector Kemp. But, then, if we were to do that – Oh, God!’ Her mind was leaping ahead, just as it had on the night of Leonard’s death: she was seeing the newspapers, the neighbours, her mother’s stricken face. She had to lean against the bed. ‘What would happen? They’d keep us at the police station. We’d have to think about lawyers; Mrs Playfair might help with that. But where on earth would the money come from?’

They paused, taking in the enormity of it all. Lilian blinked her red-rimmed eyes. She said, ‘You – You don’t really want us to go?’

Frances wiped her mouth. ‘No, of course I don’t want to. I’m just thinking of this boy. Aren’t you thinking of him?’

‘It’s just, I’m frightened.’

‘I know, Lily. I’m frightened, too.’

‘I’m frightened for you. I’m frightened for him. But most of all – I can’t help it – I’m frightened for myself. If we were to tell them the truth now, I don’t know what they’d do to me. Everybody hates me as it is. This would make it all a hundred times worse. They’d say I murdered him —’

Frances leaned across the bed towards her. ‘They wouldn’t say that. I promise you, I swear to you! I’d never let them say that.’

‘Then they’d just say that you helped me do it. How could we ever prove that you didn’t? They’d put us on trial for it, Frances. If we could just – just wait a bit. Until we know what’s going to happen next. I know it’s dreadful of me. But when Sergeant Heath came today, I thought he’d come to arrest me; and then, when he told me they’d arrested someone else, I felt sick. I felt sick with relief. It was just such a relief to think that now no one would be looking at me and hating me… If we could just let it be like that, just for a little while. I wouldn’t say it if it was any other sort of boy. But he’s been in trouble with the police before. It won’t be as bad for him as it would be for – for us.’

Frances was still leaning across the bed; the springs were creaking beneath her hands. She dropped her head in a sort of agony. ‘I don’t know, Lilian. I don’t know what we ought to do. It’s been clear up till now, but – Won’t it go against us, if it ever comes out? If they find out, I mean, that we waited? It was one thing when it was just the two of us, but if someone else has been dragged in… Won’t it look better if we go forward at once? Last week you were talking about going to the police yourself. Maybe you were right. I don’t know any more.’

‘But it’s different now,’ said Lilian. ‘They might have believed it was an accident if I’d told them about it then. Now they’ll think I did it on purpose, won’t they, because of Len and this girl?’

‘But you didn’t know anything about Len and the girl.’

‘I think – I think she might say that I did.’

Her hand was back at her mouth; she had spoken indistinctly. And perhaps because of that, or because of something in her pose or expression, Frances suddenly grew wary. She said, ‘Well, why would she say that?’ And then, when Lilian didn’t answer: ‘Did you know about them?’

Lilian was silent for a moment. Then she dropped her hand. ‘Yes.’

Frances straightened up. ‘What?’

‘At least – A few weeks ago I found something in one of Len’s pockets. The tickets from a show. They were from a night he said he’d been at his parents’; I knew he must have taken some girl. We had an awful row about it. In the end he told me the people at his office had set it all up, as a joke. I didn’t know whether or not to believe him. I never thought it was like this! I never thought there was just the one girl he was seeing over and over!’

Frances’s heart had grown oddly heavy. ‘But why didn’t you tell me?’

Lilian wouldn’t meet her eye. ‘I don’t know. I didn’t want to think about it.’

‘But I wish you’d told me. I thought – I thought that was the point. That we were honest with each other, about everything, right from the start.’

‘It doesn’t matter, does it?’