Dying to Meet You by Patricia Scott

not going to sanction what you’re doing. You must be crazy. You should leave it to us. If we needed anyone to do it we’d ask a policewoman. You’re obviously not thinking straight. Forget it.’ His voice was harsh. He really meant it.
    ‘That’s your opinion, not mine. I just thought I’d give you fair warning, that’s all. You can tell the rest of your officers if you wish what I intend to do. Perhaps you should tell Peterson too.’
    He leaned forward their faces almost met. ‘I think you’re mad, Mel Goring. Bloody foolish if you like. Those are my last words on it.’
    ‘You’ve already heard mine, Nick Farmer.’
    She walked out of the station, head held high, angry tears stinging her eyes. She could have done with his assistance but if he was going to take it like this she could do without it. He wasn’t going to stop what she was about to do.

     
    Thirty-Two
     
    ‘You’ve got someone waiting to see you, Mel,’ the young office temp Sylvie said as she came into the Newspaper office. ‘It’s a Mrs Temple.’
    Mrs Angela Temple. Mel recognised her at once. She had last seen her at the inquest for Geraldine Temple ten days before when she had covered it for the Observer . She was Geraldine’s sister in law.
    ‘Mrs Temple - what can I do for you?’
    ‘I hope you don’t mind me coming to see you. I came on behalf of myself and my husband. He’s the local vicar here for St Holy Trinity Church and his sister’s death could have received a great deal more publicity than it did, thanks to you, Ms Goring. You were kind to Geraldine and us in your article.’
    ‘I had a feeling that your sister in law enjoyed quite a bit of publicity over the years. Some good when she was working in the theatre and some not so good later on.’ Mel smiled reassuringly. ‘Your husband must have had ample cause to be worried about his sister.’
    ‘Yes, very…worried.’ She fidgeted with the clasp of the purse in her lap.
    ‘He knew of course about her connection with the Kaufmans?’
    ‘From the beginning.’ Mel saw the anxious look come back in her thin face.
    ‘Look - if I guarantee that I will never use what you say to me here I really would appreciate it if you can tell me how Geraldine came to know them?’
    Angela Temple fidgeted with her purse some more for a moment or so. ‘She was Erik Kaufman’s girlfriend up to ten years ago. She met him with her stage work. She was in a musical. I gather that he had put some considerable money into the theatre. He was what they call an angel I believe.’
    Mel smiled - she couldn’t picture Erik Kaufman wearing a halo or wings.
    ‘Geraldine was an actress. And a good one. She was getting roles on television. That was before she was involved in a bad car crash with Erik Kaufman.’
    ‘It was a car accident that injured her?’
    ‘Yes - a really bad one. It put him into a wheelchair and it took her a long time to recover with a scarred face. She had some good plastic surgery but it damaged her mentally. She had counselling for years afterwards but never really recovered. It was so tragic. Geraldine was such a beautiful girl. And very talented.
    ‘She took to taking drugs after that. At first it was for the pain she suffered. She managed with her brother’s help to stop taking them. But as you know she drank far more than was good for her and confessed to me that she was sure his brother Freddie had engineered the crash. You see he was crazy over her too, and I think he was always jealous of his brother.
    ‘Erik paid for her private hospital treatment. He blamed himself afterwards entirely. He helped her generally to recover but she was afraid to have anything more to do with him romantically. She told me because she was afraid of Freddie. She said she was quite sure he was mentally unbalanced. He certainly has more than a streak of cruelty in him.’
    ‘Erik must have been very much in love with her at one time then.’
    ‘He was. He paid the rent for her