CHAPTER 65
‘OK, shoot,’ Meredith said. ‘Tell me what happened.’ Hal put his elbows on the table. ‘Bottom line, they don’t see any grounds for opening things up. They are satisfied with the verdict.’
‘Which is?’ she gently pushed him.
‘Accidental death. That Dad was drunk,’ he said bluntly. ‘That he lost control of the car, went over the bridge into the River Salz. Three times over the limit, that’s what the tox report claims.’
They were sitting in one of the window alcoves. The restaurant was quiet this early so they could talk without being overheard. Across the white linen tablecloth, in the light of the candle flickering on the table, Meredith reached out and covered his hands with her own.
‘There was a witness, apparently. An English woman, a Dr Shelagh O’Donnell, who lives locally.’
‘That’s helpful, isn’t it? Did she see the accident?’
Hal shook his head. ‘That’s the problem. According to the file, she heard brakes, the sound of tyres. She didn’t actually see anything.’
‘Did she report it?’
‘Not straight away. According to the commissaire, lots of people take the road too fast on the bend coming into Rennes-les-Bains. It was only the following morning when she saw the ambulance and the police recovering the car from the river that she put two and two together.’ He paused. ‘I thought I might talk to her. See if there’s anything that’s come back to her.’
‘Wouldn’t she have told the police already?’
‘I didn’t get the impression they thought her a reliable witness.’
‘In what way?’
‘They didn’t say it in so many words, but they implied that she was drunk. Also, there were no tyre marks on the road, so it’s unlikely she could have heard anything. According to the police, that is.’ He paused. ‘They wouldn’t give me her address, but I managed to copy down her number from the file. In fact . . .’ He hesitated. ‘I invited her up here tomorrow.’
‘Is that such a great idea?’ said Meredith. ‘If the police think you’re interfering, won’t that make them less rather than more likely to help?’
‘They’re already pissed off with me,’ he said fiercely, ‘but to tell you the truth, I feel like I’m hitting my head against a brick wall. I don’t care any more. For weeks I’ve been trying to get the police to take me seriously, sitting around here, being patient, but it’s got me nowhere.’ He stopped, his cheeks flushed. ‘Sorry. This can’t be much fun for you.’
‘It’s OK,’ she said, thinking how similar Hal and his uncle were in some ways – both quick to flare up – then felt guilty, knowing just how much Hal would hate such a comparison being made.
‘I appreciate there’s no reason for you to take what I say at face value, but I just don’t believe the official version of events. I’m not saying my dad was perfect – to be honest, we didn’t have much in common. He was distant and quiet, not the sort of man to make a fuss – but there’s just no way he would drink and drive. Even in France. No way.’
‘It’s easy to misjudge that sort of thing, Hal,’ she said gently. ‘We’ve all done it,’ she added, although she never had. ‘Had one too many. Played the odds.’
‘I’m telling you, not Dad,’ he said. ‘He liked his wine, but he was fanatical about not getting behind the wheel if he’d been drinking. Not even one glass.’ He dropped his shoulders. ‘My mother was killed by a drunk driver,’ he continued in a quieter voice. ‘On her way to pick me up from school in the village we lived in, half past three in the afternoon. An idiot in a BMW, on his way back from the pub, tanked up on champagne and driving too fast.’
Now Meredith totally understood why Hal couldn’t bring himself to accept the verdict. But wishing things were different didn’t make them so. She had been there herself. If wishes were promises, her birth mother would have gotten healthy. All the scenes and fights would never have happened.
Hal raised his eyes and stared at her. ‘Dad wouldn’t drive if he was drunk.’
Meredith gave a non-committal smile. ‘But if the tox screen came back positive for alcohol . . .’ She left the question floating. ‘What did the police say when you raised that?’
Hal shrugged. ‘It was obvious they thought I was just too fucked up by the whole situation to think straight.’
‘OK. Let’s come at it from other directions. Could the tests be wrong?’
‘The police say no.’
‘Did they search for anything else?’
‘Like what?’
‘Drugs?’
Hal shook his head. ‘Didn’t think there was any need.’
Meredith thought. ‘Well, could he have been driving too fast? Just lost control on the bend?’
‘Back to the lack of skid marks on the road and, in any case, that doesn’t account for the alcohol in his bloodstream. ’
Meredith fixed him with her gaze. ‘Then what, Hal? What are you saying?’
‘That either the tests are fake, or someone spiked his drink.’
Her face gave her away.
‘You don’t believe me,’ he said.
‘I’m not saying that,’ she said quickly. ‘But think about it, Hal. Even supposing it was possible, who would do such a thing? Why would they?’
Hal held her gaze, until Meredith realised what he was getting at.
‘Your uncle?’
He nodded. ‘Got to be.’
‘You can’t be serious?’ she objected. ‘I mean, I know you don’t see eye to eye, but even so … to accuse him of …’
‘I know it sounds ridiculous, but think about it, Meredith. Who else?’
Meredith was shaking her head. ‘Did you make this accusation to the police?’
‘Not in so many words, but I did request that the gendarmerie nationale were shown the file.’
‘Which means?’
‘The gendarmerie nationale investigate crimes. At the moment, the crash is being treated as a traffic accident. But if I can find some sort of evidence linking it to Julian, then I could make them reconsider.’ He looked at her. ‘If you would talk to Dr O’Donnell, I’m sure she’d be more likely to open up.’
Meredith sat back in her chair. The whole scenario was crazy. She could see Hal had talked himself into believing it one hundred per cent. She really felt for him, but she was sure he was wrong. He needed someone to blame, needed to do something with his anger and his sense of loss. And she knew from her own experience that however bad the truth turned out to be, not knowing was worse. It made it impossible to put the past behind and move on.
‘Meredith?’
She realised Hal was staring at her. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Just thinking.’
‘Would you be able to be there when Dr O’Donnell comes tomorrow?’
She hesitated.
‘I’d really appreciate it.’
‘I guess,’ she said in the end. ‘Sure.’
Hal gave a sigh of relief. ‘Thank you.’
The waiter came over and straight away the mood changed, became less intense, more like a regular date. They both ordered steak and Hal chose a bottle of local red to go with it. For a moment, they sat half looking at one another, catching each other’s eye, smiling awkwardly, not sure what to say.
Hal broke the silence. ‘Anyway,’ he said. ‘Enough of my problems. Are you going to tell me now why you’re really here?’
Meredith went still. ‘Excuse me?’
‘It’s obviously not for the Debussy book, is it? Or, at least, not only for that.’
‘Why do you say that?’ It came out snappier than she’d intended.
He flushed. ‘Well, for a start, the stuff you were interested in today didn’t seem to have much to do with Lilly Debussy. You seem more into the history of this place, Rennes-les-Bains, and the people here.’ He grinned. ‘Also, I noticed that the photograph hanging above the piano has disappeared. Someone’s borrowed it.’
‘You think I took it?’
‘You were looking at it this morning, so . . .’ he said, pulling an apologetic smile. ‘And, well, with my uncle . . . I don’t know, probably my mistake, but I got the idea you might be here checking up on him . . . You certainly didn’t seem to like each other.’
He stumbled to a standstill.
‘You think I’m here to check up on your uncle? You’re kidding, right?’
‘Well, possibly, maybe.’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t know, no.’
She took a sip of her wine.
‘I didn’t mean to offend—’
Meredith held up her hand. ‘Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Because you don’t believe your father’s accident was, in fact, an accident, and because you think the results might have been tampered with or his drink was spiked and the car forced from the road—’
‘Yes, although—’
‘Bottom line, you suspect your uncle was involved in your father’s death. Right?’
‘Well, put like that, it sounds—’
Meredith kept right on talking, her voice rising. ‘And so because of all this, for some crazy reason, when I turn up you jump to the conclusion that I’m somehow involved? Is that what you think, Hal? That I’m some kind of, what, Nancy Drew?’
She sat back in her chair and stared at him.
He had the grace to blush. ‘I didn’t mean to offend you,’ he said. ‘But, well, it was something Dad said in April – after that conversation I was telling you about earlier – that gave me the impression that he was unhappy with the way Julian was running things out here and was going to do something. ’
‘If that was the case, wouldn’t your father have just come right out and told you? If there was a problem, it would have affected you too.’
Hal shook his head. ‘Dad wasn’t like that. He hated gossip, rumour. He’d never say anything, even to me, until he was completely certain of his facts. Innocent until proved guilty.’
Meredith thought about it. ‘OK, I can see that. But you still picked up on the feeling something was wrong between them?’
‘It might have been something trivial, but I got the impression it was serious. Something to do with the Domaine de la Cade and its history, not just money.’ He shrugged. ‘Sorry, Meredith, I’m not being clear.’
‘He didn’t leave you anything? A file? Notes?’
‘Believe me, I’ve looked everywhere. There’s nothing.’
‘And when you put all this together, you started to think he might have employed someone to dig around your uncle. See if anything turned up.’ She stopped, looked at him across the table. ‘Why didn’t you just ask me?’ she said, eyes flashing angrily, although she could see perfectly well why not.
‘Well, because I only started to think you might be here for . . . because of my dad when I was thinking about it this afternoon.’
Meredith folded her arms. ‘So it’s not why you started talking to me in the bar last night?’
‘No, of course not!’ he said, looking genuinely appalled.
‘Then why?’ she demanded.
Hal turned red. ‘Christ, Meredith, you know why. It’s obvious enough.’
This time, it was Meredith’s turn to blush.
