Read Online Trust Me by Lesley Pearse - Free Book Online Page B

up to something, but he didn’t say so. ‘How were things when Reg came home after the war?’ he asked. ‘Lots of men I know said their kids were scared of them, and it was difficult for a while.’
    Maud chuckled. ‘There was a lot of that round ‘ere too. Specially those who had a new kid which couldn’t ‘ave been the old man’s. But it were all ‘earts and flowers with Reg and Anne. ‘E got that place for them up at ‘Ither Green, did it all up, Dulcie went to the school across the road, they was as ‘appy as sandboys for the first year.’
    ‘But then it changed?’ Hewitt prompted.
    Maud didn’t answer for the moment and turned her back to get some cups and saucers from the dresser. Hewitt thought she was struggling not to cry, but at the same time selecting the best cups.
    ‘I don’t know what got into Anne,’ she said eventually. ‘She ‘ad bleedin’ everything a woman could want. Reg earned good money, ‘e didn’t drink, ‘e made that place like a palace for ‘er. But she just let it go, never washed up, cleaned or anything. Reg used to do it when ‘e got ‘ome. Always spending money on ‘erself, dresses, shoes, having ‘er ‘air done. Never knew where she got the coupons for the clothes, I got a job to scrape together enough for a new skirt.’
    Hewitt weighed this up. ‘Do you think there was another man, Mrs Taylor?’
    ‘That ain’t fer me to say,’ she snapped at him. ‘That’s their private business. But I do know that once she got the job at the pub she got less inclined to do anything for Reg and the kids.’
    Hewitt made a mental note to make inquiries at the pub.
    ‘Could you tell me what Anne was like? I mean her personality, her interests.’
    Maud snorted and banged the cups down on the table. ‘Dancing and clothes was her only interests,’ she said tersely, but suddenly her face softened a little. ‘She was a beauty though. I remember the first time Reg brought ‘er ‘ere, I thought ‘e’d got the fairy off the top of the Christmas tree. Big blue eyes, lovely blonde ‘air, the sort that don’t come out of a bottle. And she talked real nice an’ all. She were nice then, used to bring me a few flowers or chocolate, she’d get me to ‘elp her with ‘er knitting for the baby, ask me stuff about ‘ow it was going to be when ‘er time came. I was ‘urt that her folks ‘ad no time for Reg, but I s’pose they was mad ‘cos he got ‘er up the duff. But anyway I was that pleased for Reg, even if it were a shotgun weddin’. Anne ‘ad class, you know what I mean?’
    Hewitt nodded. Even dead, with a tear-stained face, Anne Taylor looked beautiful. Perhaps she was just too young and beautiful for Reg, maybe she’d got a better offer from a rich man and was about to take off. If the old woman was to be believed she probably led him a dog’s life, maybe she even deserved what she got. But sadly Reg would pay the price for her death – even if murder couldn’t be proved, he was bound to be charged with manslaughter. By the time he got out, his daughters would be grown women, he’d be too old to find himself another woman as lovely as Anne.
    They drank the tea Maud made, while Hewitt asked if the children could stay with her for the time being.
    ‘They ain’t going anywhere else,’ she said sharply. ‘I might be getting on, but I can look after them all right. Don’t you go getting any funny ideas about taking them off me.’
    ‘Of course not,’ Hewitt said with a reassuring smile. He didn’t think the Welfare people would approve of such an old woman taking care of the girls, but she clearly loved them. ‘Anyway, I’ll be back later on today to talk to Dulcie. She might be able to throw a little more light on what happened.’
    Maud took the stairs very slowly after the police were gone. She was shocked to the core that Anne was dead, frightened for her son and for her grand-daughters. All her sons with the exception of Reg were violent men, just