The Company She Kept by Marjorie Eccles Page A

the rest of the night.
    â€˜It must be our collective subconscious,’ Sophie put in, trying to harmonize the situation. ‘When we see the obvious beginning to a word, we all start willing it to move to the next letter –’
    â€˜Collective balls!’ Felix gave a bark of unamused laughter. ‘One of us must have been pushing the glass – but it wasn’t me. Tommo was right. I’ve had enough of this voodoo!’
    Sophie, too, by now, felt that enough was enough, and as everyone else began to voice their own opinion, the noise level increased. Somewhere above, a floorboard creaked.
    â€˜I told you you’d waken Kitty!’ Madeleine accused.
    â€˜Well then, go up and see if she wants to join in. She can take my place and welcome,’ Felix answered flippantly.
    â€˜We start again!’ Irena announced with authority. ‘Come, sit!’ She began to rearrange the tiles. ‘Is only a game.’
    Did any of them believe this by now? However, with varying degrees of unwillingness, they were all, even Angie, eventually persuaded to begin once more and after one or two initial skirmishes, the glass again moved. And now it spelled K-I-T-T-Y. ‘You see!’ Sophie said, ‘Madeleine mentioned Kitty’s name and now look –’
    â€˜Sssh!’ hissed Irena.
    The glass had begun to move again. D-E-A-T- it spelled. Before the word was finished, it skidded and stopped.
    â€˜Oooh!’ Angie wailed, white-faced, her eyes enormous and dangerously bright.
    â€˜You do it again, Felix!’ Irena was in a fury, but Felix’s amusement had now vanished totally. He was no longer prepared to laugh, or even make sarcastic comments. He was as angry as she was, his face ugly with temper. He jumped up, pushing himself from the table with his hands and in doing so, rocked it so that the glass slid off the polished surface, followed by a slither of letters, and splintered on to the floor in a thousand shards of light.
    Irena was beside herself. Screaming, she launched herself towards Felix like a wild cat. Sophie, perhaps with some premonition of a horror she could never have envisaged, tried to ward her off, appalled at the way they were acting, like barbarians, at how easily the fragile calm of the hour before had been shattered. Angie began to cry, adding to the hubbub, while Madeleine endeavoured without success to calm everyone down. Footsteps were heard outside: Tommo returning, no doubt ashamed of his boorish departure, perhaps remembering he’d left without even a civil word of farewell to Irena.
    Felix, with an exclamation of distaste, suddenly brushed Irena off as if she were some sort of disgusting fly and with great strides left the room. Unstoppable, she flew after him. Their voices could still be heard when they reached the hall, loud but indistinguishable. In the room above, footsteps shuffled across the floor, a door banged. A moment or two later, there was a crash, and after that there was silence. A silence that went on and on.
    â€˜Stay here, you two,’ Madeleine ordered, walking to the door. Sophie had no desire to do anything else and stayed rooted to the spot but Angie crept after her. Sophie waited alone, trembling, until the waiting became intolerable and then she, too, went into the hall.

CHAPTER 6
    A couple of hours’ sleep after getting the murder inquiry under way wasn’t much, but after breakfast, a sharp shower and a change of clothes you were good for another twelve hours. No wonder, though, that Howard Cherry had opted for promotion that bound him more and more to the desk but at least promised a fair share of good night’s sleep! But Mayo didn’t really envy the Super. Cherry was a good friend and welcome to his promotion. It was where he’d been aiming ever since he and Mayo had been young coppers together, working on the same beat in the north of England. Mayo was a practical policeman while Cherry was a