“Did you see him again? Did your girls see him again?”
She shook her head. “And doesn’t that compile tragedy upon tragedy? One child died terribly, but Jon lost all four upon his own choice because he chose the dead over the living. To me, that’s a greater tragedy than the loss of our son.”
“Some people,” Lynley said quietly, “have no other way to react to a sudden, inexplicable loss.”
“I daresay you’re right. But in Jon’s case, I think it was a deliberate choice. In making it, he was living the way he’d always lived, which was to put Jamie first. Here. Let me show you what I mean.”
She rose from the table and, wiping her hands down the front of her apron, she went into the sitting room. Lynley could see her walk over to the crowded bookshelves where she extricated a picture from among the large group on display. She brought it to the kitchen and handed it over, saying, “Sometimes photographs say things that words can’t convey.”
Lynley saw that she’d given him a family portrait. In it, a version of herself perhaps thirty years younger posed with husband and four winsome children. The scene was wintry, deep snow with a lodge and a ski lift in the background. In the foreground, suited up for sport with skis leaning up against their shoulders, the family stood happily ready for action, Niamh with a toddler in her arms and two other laughing daughters hanging on to her and perhaps a yard from them, Jamie and his father. Jonathan Parsons had his arm affectionately slung round Jamie’s neck, and he was pulling his son close to him. They both were grinning.
“That’s how it was,” Niamh said. “It didn’t seem to matter so very much because, after all, the girls had me. I told myself it was a man-man and woman-woman thing, and I ought to be pleased that Jon and Jamie were so close and the girls and I were as thick as thieves. But, of course, when Jamie died Jon saw himself as having lost it all. Three-quarters of his life was standing right in front of him, but he couldn’t see that. That was his tragedy. I didn’t want to make it mine.”
Lynley looked up from his study of the photo. “May I keep this for a time? I’ll return it to you, of course.”
She seemed surprised by the request. “Keep it? Whatever for?”
“I’d like to show it to someone. I’ll return it within a few days. By post. Or in person if you prefer. I’ll keep it quite safe.”
“Take it by all means,” she said. “But…I haven’t asked and I ought to have. Why have you come to talk about Jon?”
“A boy died north of here. Just beyond Casvelyn.”
“In a sea cave? Like Jamie?”
“In a fall from a cliff.”
“And you think this has something to do with Jamie’s death?”
“I’m not sure.” Lynley looked at the picture again. He said, “Where are your daughters now, Mrs. Triglia?”
Chapter Twenty-four
BEA HANNAFORD DIDN’T LIKE THE FACT THAT DAIDRE TRAHAIR had managed to take control of the interrogation several times during their interview. In Bea’s opinion the veterinarian was too clever by half, which made the DI even more determined to pin something on the wily wench. What they ended up with, however, was not what Bea had expected and hoped to get from her.
Once she’d given the piece of potentially useless information about Aldara Pappas and the Cornish Gold, Dr. Trahair had politely informed them that unless they had something to charge her with, she’d be off, thank you very much. The damn woman knew her rights, and the fact that she’d decided to exercise them at that particular moment was maddening, but there was nothing for it but to bid her an extremely less-than-fond farewell.