A Share in Death

Kincaid refilled her drink and took it back to the table. Angry as she might be, Marta Rennie was sly with a drunk’s cleverness. She hadn’t lost sight of the side on which her political bread was buttered.

 

Kincaid wandered back into the sitting room, half-drunk, beer in hand, in search of more sober prospects. Enjoyment, it seemed, was contagious. The guests had gathered around Hannah and Patrick as if hoping some of the spontaneous pleasure would rub off. Eddie and Janet Lyle, Maureen Hunsinger and Graham Frazer. And Penny. Penny sipped her sweet sherry, her face flushed with excitement. Only Emma, John Hunsinger, and the children were missing.

 

Kincaid joined the fringe of the group. Hannah smiled at him and he returned her smile, infected by her apparent delight in spite of himself.

“What’s the joke?” Kincaid asked Hannah. “Have I missed something?” 76 deborah crombie

“Patrick’s just been telling the most amusing story about one of his constituents—”

 

Rennie demurred. “Oh, it’s nothing really. My most loyal campaigner, but she can’t remember my name. She’s an old dear, active on every committee in the county, raises oodles of money. I wouldn’t dare suggest she let someone else introduce me. But I’ve got a very important by-election coming up, and I imagine she’ll stand up to introduce me at the final rally, open her mouth and stop, utterly without a clue.”

Rennie told his anecdote with charm and practiced ease, and Kincaid could imagine the ladies “of a certain age” cooing over him, and fighting for his attention with the ferocity of ferrets.

“I forget things, too, sometimes,” said Penny, into the pause that followed. “Just the other night I couldn’t find my bag. I looked everywhere for it, and then I came downstairs and I’d left it right here on the table!”

“Those things happen to me all the time, too,” Maureen put in goodnaturedly. “Sometimes I think I’d forget my children if they didn’t remind me.”

“Eddie’s mother forgot things.” Janet Lyle spoke quietly, with a diffident glance at her husband. “We were desperately concerned about her. We didn’t think it safe for her to live alone, but she wouldn’t agree to go in a home.”

“Very proud. Very independent to the last,” Eddie agreed.

Maureen responded with ready sympathy. “Oh, dear. What happened?”