Last Post (26 page)

“And May told everyone I was dead.”

“Okay—that was silly of her. I don't understand that. In fact, that's one of a thousand things I'd like to talk over with you—not on the phone, but with you here, beside me, chewing things over. I've got so many questions. Why did Mum not want you and me to have even a normal absentee parent and child relationship? Why was she happy in the relationship with Jean Mannering, when she had no history of lesbian interests? Why was your marriage falling apart when you'd at last had a child? Why had you married so early, I mean when May was so young? Why did you just give in when you were faced with Jean's demands? That's the oddest one to me. I don't see you as a quitter. You must have known your fingerprints couldn't have been on that pedophile pornography. Why did you go along with her demands so readily? Was it just because you and May were finished?”

There was silence at the other end. Then John McNabb, a crack in his voice, said:

“I think if I answer the last question, you'll be able to answer the others yourself. I may have held out hopes for our marriage, May's and mine, but at heart I knew it was over, and why. I didn't stand any chance of victory over Jean. You see, I knew that if the police were led to the porn in the Crossley house they'd want to look further, go to my other place of residence in Scotland. And when
they went to my Glasgow flat, they'd have found more of the same. And it would have had my fingerprints on it.”

Eve's heart sank and her eyes clouded with tears. She tried to say something, but nothing came. As she cleared her throat to try again, she heard the sound of the handset being replaced at the other end.

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School for Murder

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SCRIBNER
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2008 by Robert Barnard

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First Scribner hardcover edition May 2008

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Text set in Fairfield

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barnard, Robert.

Last post / by Robert Barnard.—1st Scribner hardcover ed.

p. cm.

1. Mothers—Death—Fiction. 2. Letters—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6052.A665L37 2008

823'.914—dc22

2007037885

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5940-5

ISBN-10: 1-4165-5940-X

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-6047-0 (eBook)