Bad Blood Read Online Free Page B

them. She immediately added, in a sharp tone, as if worried they might think she did so in order to fill her own empty existence, ‘I don't keep a guard on the door to watch all the comings and goings, so the names I gave you are the only ones I know for certain.’
    ‘That's fine. You've been very helpful,’ Rafferty assured her. He consulted his hastily scribbled notes. ‘I understand a Miss Amelia Frobisher found the body?’
    For some reason this comment caused Rita Atkins's lips to purse. She gave a stiff nod.
    ‘Miss Frobisher's in Apartment 2B?’ Rafferty questioned.
    Rita Atkins nodded again. ‘It's across the corridor from Mrs Mortimer's apartment, though I doubt Amelia Frobisher will be able to tell you much about Clara's life. They didn't speak. Not lately, anyway.’
    ‘Really? Do you know why that was?’
    As he had intended, the question acted as a spur for Rita to show off her knowledge.
    ‘Several things spring to mind.’ She smiled and displayed small, pointed teeth. They were as stained and dingy as her dressing gown. ‘For one thing, Amelia Frobisher accused Mrs Mortimer of stealing Freddie Talbot, her gentleman friend. She hadn't, of course, as Clara Mortimer made clear. It was quite a longstanding relationship until Mrs Mortimer moved here. Then, Amelia's gentleman friend cooled and switched his attentions to Mrs Mortimer with what Amelia must have felt was an insulting alacrity. To add insult to injury, Mrs Mortimer not only made plain that she wasn't interested in Fancy Freddie as I call him, she rejected him publicly in the entrance foyer. It must have been about a month ago. I was dusting the pictures in the entrance lobby. I can still remember her exact words. She said, ‘For goodness’ sake, you sad man. Go back to Amelia Frobisher. She might be grateful for your attentions, I'm not.’
    Humiliating for Talbot, thought Rafferty, especially when the put down had obviously been witnessed by the warden.
    ‘Amelia Frobisher, as the longest resident, has always taken it upon herself to act the grand dame hostess to new residents.’ With another sniff, Rita Atkins went on. ‘She's always organising outings and pushing the other residents to sign up for them. I suspect she must get a discount on the tickets and pocket the difference. She even organises birthday teas for the other residents in her apartment as if she and they were proper family. Clara Mortimer would have none of it. She had rebuffed her several times. Amelia resented her for it. I heard her call Clara standoffish to her face once. Clara just cut her dead. Clara received no more invitations after Freddie Talbot, Amelia's beau, transferred his affections, particularly as he failed to do what Clara had suggested and go back to Amelia. Not that she would have taken him back. Amelia's too full of pride and vanity to so humiliate herself.’
    ‘I see.’ Whether Clara Mortimer had had good reason to have a down on Amelia Frobisher, it was clear, from the relish with which she related the gossip, that Rita Atkins felt she owed Amelia Frobisher a spiteful thrust or three.
    Beside him, Llewellyn asked, ‘Did you go on these outings, Mrs Atkins?’
    ‘Me? No.’ Her lips turned down. ‘I'm only the warden of the block. I was never invited. I didn't get a birthday tea, either. Not that I wanted them any more than Mrs Mortimer. But, as I said, Amelia Frobisher likes to give herself airs. And Grand Dames don't socialise below their own pecking order.’
    Nice to get on with the neighbours, Rafferty thought, as he digested the apartments’ tittle-tattle. And for all Amelia Frobisher's attempts to play happy families with the other residents – attempts that struck Rafferty as more indicative of Miss Frobisher's own loneliness than Grand Dame tendencies – she seemed to have conjured up more resentment than true family feeling.
    ‘Tell me,’ he said. ‘As warden, you must spend more time in the entrance lobby than the other