Jonathan Creek- The Problems at Gallows Gate

Chapter 6

  “Have another cup, Clare,” said Madeline, passing Clare the newly-filled teacup. The reasonably shaken lady was seated in a plush armchair at the coffee table, where she was trying to soothe her nerves with sips of reviving tea.

  “You all right now?” asked Madeline, sitting down beside her in a large rocking chair.

  “Better, thanks,” replied Clare, setting down the pretty china teacup. “I’m sorry- what with Fliss’- murder-” the words died on her lips as she tried to say them, but she soldiered on. “Then this thing with the answering machine. Honestly, I can’t feel safe in my own home anymore,” she said with a shudder. She flipped her still-wet hair over her shoulder.

  “So- was Felicity your girlfriend?” asked Madeline, topping up Clare’s empty cup.

  “Oh, no, nothing like that,” smile Clare, taking another sip of the tea. “In fact, she was recently involved with a man, Neville, if you will remember. I mentioned him in the police interview?”

  “Ah, yes,” replied Madeline, recalling Clare’s words that night. “Well, where is he now? Shouldn’t he be grieving over his girlfriend or something? Moping around the place?”

  “Oh, he and Fliss broke up some time ago,” said Clare, dismissing the question with a wave of her hands. She reached for the teapot. “It was over some other girl he’d been seeing,” she added, as an afterthought.

  “Asian girl?” asked Madeline, recalling that comically gruesome sketch of the samurai and the girl with the odd hairstyle.

  “Yes,” affirmed Clare, though she looked a little surprised as to how Madeline knew this. “She actually had the nerve to come over and gloat over her triumph with Neville… got what she deserved, anyhow. Felicity just went mad and chopped off half her hair,” she recalled, with a chuckle.

  That explains the hair, thought Madeline, taking possession of a biscuit.

  “Well, the long and short of it is, Felicity thought he loved her, but after Duncan’s suicide Neville  just completely avoided her. She went over to his house, demanded an explanation, but… he just came up with some lame excuse about not having ever been serious about her, and how he thought she saw him as a friend. Men,” she sighed, shaking her head at Madeline, who smiled in total agreement.

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 Flashback- Felicity and Neville 

“Don’t shut me off, Neville!” cried Felicity, the moment he opened the door in response to her repeated knocks. “You- you can’t just ignore me and think I’ll go away!”

  Stunned momentarily by the sight of this fuming  female avenger at his doorstep, he could make no reply to her furious rant. “I need to talk!” she exclaimed, forest-green eyes looking earnestly into his own. “I need help,” she whispered, looking downwards again.

  “I think the entire street can see that,” said Neville angrily, the moment he found his voice. He tried to stop the determined Felicity from entering his home, but she pushed past him into his hallway. “Was there any need to cause a scene?”

  “Neville, I-”

  “We all have to learn to deal with rejection,” said Neville abruptly, looking up at Felicity with hard, cold brown eyes. “Wasn’t it you who said that?” Said that, he accused silently, and killed Duncan. Said that, and caused his death.

  Felicity stepped back. “But…you always said fate had put us together! We can’t give that up now!” her lips trembled as she said the next sentence. “Just because of Duncan…”