Wexford 6 - No More Dying Then by Ruth Rendell

a baby and he’s out of work and now this.”
       “Out of work? What sort of work does he do?”
       She sat down opposite him and crossed the best pair of legs Burden thought he had ever seen. He stared at a patch of floor some inches from her feet.
       “He’s a television actor, or he is when he can get work. He so terribly wants to be a household word. The trouble is his face is wrong. Oh, I don’t mean he isn’t good-looking. He was born too late. He looks just like Valentino and that won’t do these days. John’s going to be just like him. He’s very like him now.”
       Matthew Lawrence . . . it rang some sort of bell. “I think I may have seen his picture in the papers,” said Burden.
       She nodded earnestly. “Escorting Leonie West about, I expect. She used to be photographed wherever she went.”
       “I know her. She’s a ballet dancer. My daughter’s crazy about ballet. As a matter of fact, I think that’s where I’ve seen your ex-husband, in pictures with Leonie West.”
       “Matthew and Leonie were lovers for years. Then he met me. I was a drama student and I had a small part in a television series he was in. When we got married he said he wouldn’t see Leonie any more, but he really only married me because he wanted a child. Leonie couldn’t have children, otherwise he’d have married her.”
       She had been speaking in a very cool practical voice, but now she sighed and fell silent. Burden waited, no longer tired, even more interested than usual in other people’s life stories, although this one perturbed him strangely.
       After a while she went on. “I tried to keep our marriage going and when John was born I thought we had a chance. Then I found out Matthew was still seeing Leonie. At last he asked me to divorce him and I did. The judge expedited the decree because there was a child on the way.”
       “But you said Leonie West couldn’t . . .”
       “Oh, not Leonie. He didn’t marry her. She was years older than he was. She must be well into her forties by now. He married a girl of nineteen he met at a party.”
       “Good God,” said Burden.
       “She had the baby, but it only lived two days. That’s why I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them now. This one just must be all right.”
       Burden couldn’t keep his feelings to himself any longer. “Don’t you bear any malice?” he said. “I should have thought you’d hate him and his wife and that West woman.”
       She shrugged. “Poor Leonie. She’s too pathetic now to hate, Besides, I always rather liked her. I don’t hate Matthew or his wife. They couldn’t help themselves. They did what they had to do. You couldn’t expect them all to spoil their lives for me.”
       “I’m afraid I’m rather old-fashioned in these things,” said Burden. “I believe in self-discipline. They spoiled your life, didn’t they?”
       “Oh, no! I’ve got John and he makes me very very happy.”
       “Mrs. Lawrence . . .”
       “Gemma!”
       “Gemma,” he said awkwardly. “I must warn you not to bank too much on Monday. I don’t think you should bank on it at all. My chief - Chief Inspector Wexford - has absolutely no faith in the veracity of this letter. He’s sure it’s a hoax.”
       She paled a little and clasped her hands. “No one would write a letter like that,” she said innocently, “if it wasn’t true. Nobody could be so cruel.”
       “But people are cruel. Surely you must know that?”
       “I won’t believe it. I know John is going to be there on Monday. Please - please don’t spoil it for me. Fm holding on to it, it’s made me so happy.”
       He shook his head helplessly. Her eyes were beseeching, imploring him to give her one word of encouragement. And then, to his horror, she fell on her knees in front of him, seizing both his hands in hers.
       "Please, Mike, tell me you think it’ll be all right. Just say there’s a chance, There