A Willing Victim by Laura Wilson

about forming himself into that. Oh, look, I’m probably talking rubbish. Take no notice. What is interesting, though, is that he knew Colonel Forbes-James. Worked for the Secret Service during the war.’
    ‘Surely he shouldn’t have told you that?’
    ‘He didn’t.’ Diana’s cheeks, which had returned to their usual colour, went pink again. ‘Claude Ventriss told me.’
    ‘Oh, yes?’ Stratton tried to quell the surge of aggression that welled, unbidden, inside him. Ventriss had been Diana’s lover during the war, when she’d been married to her first husband. Stratton had hated him on sight, a feeling which had intensified after the way he’d treated her later on, when she was all but destitute after her second husband had deserted her. ‘What did he say?’
    ‘Only that Tynan wrote papers about defence and things likethat. I remember Claude saying that he’d never seen one, but if they were anything like his conversation they must be quite mad. Claude said he was always talking to F-J about mind control and astral projection and things like that.’
    Stratton wanted to ask Diana if she thought that Colonel Forbes-James, the section head to whom he’d been seconded during the war to work on a sensitive murder case, believed in such things, but he didn’t fancy hearing ‘Claude said this’ and ‘Claude said that’ again and again. In any case, Forbes-James wasn’t an easy topic of conversation. Stratton was fairly certain that he’d committed suicide, and pretty sure that Diana knew far more about the circumstances than he did, but as she’d never alluded to it he’d judged it best not to ask. One way or another, he reflected, there were a hell of a lot of things between them that were off-limits. Not just the stuff about Forbes-James and that bastard Ventriss, but the fact that, three years before, he’d seen Diana at her lowest ebb, distressed, dishevelled and homeless, and he was careful never to say anything that would remind her of it. It wasn’t only that he hated to think she went on seeing him because she felt indebted, but he also knew that someone seeing you like that made you vulnerable, which could lead to your resenting them, and—
    ‘What is it, Edward?’ Diana had put down her knife and fork and was looking at him in consternation.
    ‘What is what?’
    ‘You’ve been glaring at me for the last two minutes.’
    ‘I’m sorry. It’s not you, it’s just this case . . . I’ve got a horrible feeling it isn’t going to be at all straightforward.’
    ‘I suppose you’ll have to interview Tynan, will you?’
    ‘’Fraid so. Still, it means a change of scenery – he lives in Suffolk.’
    ‘In quite a . . .’ Diana laughed, ‘
grand
house, I believe. I remember his telling me about it. He collects all sorts of art. Quite a wine cellar, too, judging by what he said.’
    ‘Got to be better than this stuff.’ Stratton grimaced at his glass. ‘Still, I shan’t be offered any. Or asked my opinion of his collection.’
    Diana, looking anxious, said, ‘Oh, I didn’t tell you. I saw Monica today. She’s working on the stage next to the alligator film.’
    It was an obvious change of subject, but Stratton, who adored his daughter, was quite happy to be drawn. ‘A comedy, she said.’
    Diana nodded. ‘
The Cabbage Patch
. It’s set on a farm. They’re doing the interiors at the moment – barns and what not. At least,’ she added, ‘our alligator hasn’t scoffed any of the props.’
    Stratton laughed. ‘Monica’d like that – the animals, I mean. She and Pete were evacuated to a place with a farm, and they loved helping out. That was in Suffolk, come to think of it.’
    ‘I don’t suppose she has that much to do with the animals – I mean, they don’t need make-up – but she certainly looked happy.’
    ‘Oh, she is. At work, anyway.’
    As if guessing what was in his mind, Diana said, ‘You needn’t worry, you know. She’s doing fine.’
    They finished their