Close to Death

The next morning, Hawthorne arrives at Riverview Close. DS Khan is surprised at his “diminutive” stature and unassuming appearance. Hawthorne introduces them to his partner, John Dudley.

Khan tells them that Giles Kenworthy answered his front door and was shot in the throat with a crossbow at about 11 o’clock on Monday night. Lynda Kenworthy was at dinner with a friend and found him when she got home. As they enter the Kenworthy home, Dudley begins voice recording on his phone and takes photographs. Khan theorizes that Giles was home alone, working late, when he answered the door and the killer shot him. He shows them crime-scene photos and is surprised by Hawthorne’s intense focus.

Upstairs, Hawthorne and Dudley interview Lynda. She tells them that the neighbors hated them, specifically mentioning the conflict between Giles and Tom Beresford. In a confrontation the previous week, Tom had threatened to kill Giles. She also mentions that Giles found the Close’s gardener, Sarah Baines, in his study the previous week. His company had been hacked several weeks ago, and he fired Sarah. Dudley interrupts her story to ask who she had dinner with on the night Giles died. She tells them that it was Jean-François, her French teacher.

Khan isn’t impressed with Hawthorne—his interview with Lynda didn’t reveal anything new. He leaves with Goodwin, and Hawthorne and Dudley decide to interview Roderick Browne.

Roderick takes them through to the kitchen for the interview. Hawthorne notices a suitcase and a woman’s coat by the front door. Roderick asks what the other neighbors have said, which Hawthorne finds odd. He is angry and defensive, pointing out how “respectable” everyone is. He also points out how much their lives, in particular, would change with the addition of the swimming pool and tells them about Felicity’s ME.

Roderick goes over every incident that the Kenworthys have instigated since they moved in. Each one is small, but they have increased the tension in the Close. He also tells them that after the meeting six weeks earlier that Giles and Lynda didn’t attend, things got worse: May and Phyllis’s dog died (and they suspect that Giles killed it), Adam’s prize chess set was destroyed, and Andrew’s garden was ruined by the Kenworthy children. In addition, one of Tom’s patients died because he couldn’t get to his practice—Giles had blocked his car in.

Dudley changes the subject and asks about the crossbow. Roderick tells them that he’s had it since college but hasn’t used it in years. He keeps it in the garage, which is always locked—he has one key, Felicity has one, and May has one in case of an emergency. He also admits that he might not have even noticed if it was missing. Hawthorne changes the subject and asks about the suitcase near the front door. Roderick tells them that Felicity is going to stay with her sister—the current chaos isn’t good for her condition. While they are talking, Roderick’s phone rings. He tilts the screen away from them and glances at the screen before silencing it. Dudley sees that the call is from Sarah.

After Hawthorne and Dudley leave Roderick’s house, Hawthorne lights a cigarette and goes around the corner into Roderick’s garden. He and Dudley discuss the fact that although the man described Sarah as industrious and accommodating, both his garden and May and Phyllis’s garden are a mess. While they are in the garden, Roderick watches them from inside and then pulls his phone out.

At The Tea Cosy, May tells Phyllis that they will have to be careful what they tell the police—they don’t want to reveal their pasts. Phyllis thinks that they should tell the police about the night before Giles’s murder, when Roderick “told [them] what he was going to do” (130). May disagrees, saying that they are all part of a conspiracy and agreed to stay silent. She also points out that they don’t actually know that Roderick killed Giles.

They look at Ellery’s empty dog bed, wishing they had taken Lynda’s threat more seriously. When Ellery disappeared, they asked Andrew to help them look for the dog. Eventually, they found Ellery in the old well behind Andrew’s house—the dog was alive but badly injured and died before they could get him out. May and Phyllis are convinced that Giles was responsible and had hired Sarah to do the dirty work. Sarah had been the one to pull Ellery’s body from the well the next day, and when she did so, they saw that her arms were covered with scratches.

Outside Roderick’s house, Hawthorne smokes a cigarette, and he and Dudley talk about the nature of the neighborhood. When Gemma Beresford comes out of her house, they walk toward her. She is attractive, but as they get closer, they can see the strain on her face. She agrees to talk for 10 minutes. Inside, her home is a bit messy, and she explains that their nanny, Kylie, is away. Kylie is staying with an older woman, Marsha Clarke, a friend who was attacked. Gemma doesn’t know much about the case but believes that it was racially motivated because Marsha is Black and a UK Independence Party flyer was left in her mailbox.

Hawthorne asks about the recent confrontation between Tom and Giles. She tells them that one of Tom’s patients died because Tom’s car was blocked in by Giles’s. Hawthorne asks her who she suspects killed Giles. She says that they “won’t turn [her] against [her] neighbours” and ends the meeting (147).

Outside, Hawthorne and Dudley discuss the fact that they can both tell that Gemma is lying about something. The neighborhood is deserted now—the police have left with the evidence. At one time, both Hawthorne and Dudley would have been a part of the official investigation, but they have both found themselves on the fringes for different reasons.

DS Khan approaches Adam Strauss and introduces him to Hawthorne and Dudley. Adam is limping and using a walking stick. Hawthorne asks to interview him, and they go to his house, The Stables. His wife, Teri, joins them in the living room. When Adam gets a call and leaves the room, Dudley asks how long they’ve been married. Teri tells them that they have been together for four years—she is actually his first wife Wendy’s cousin. Like Wendy, Teri is from Hong Kong. While Teri loves England, Wendy never took to it and returned to Hong Kong after the divorce.

When Adam returns, he explains his injury: A few days earlier, he was pushed on the stairs at the Richmond train station and sprained his ankle. Like Roderick, he tells them that everything in the Close got worse after Giles failed to come to the neighborhood meeting. His prize chess set, with figures based on Lord of the Rings characters, was destroyed when the Kenworthy children’s cricket ball went through his window. He denies that he would’ve killed Giles for a child’s accident.

Hawthorne asks Adam who he thinks killed Giles, and Adam theorizes that the killer isn’t a resident of the Close. When Hawthorne brings up Roderick, Adam tells them that Roderick is extremely upset because Khan took him to the police station to interview him the day before. He then ends the interview.

Outside, Hawthorne and Dudley discuss the coincidence of the attacks on Marsha Clark and Adam happening so close together. They decide to access CCTV footage from the Richmond station to confirm Adam’s story.

Hawthorne and Dudley agree that everyone is lying: Roderick either is the killer or knows who is, Gemma has at least considered killing Giles, and Adam and Teri seem to know everything that happens in the Close and therefore are most likely to know more than they are saying.

Hawthorne asks if Dudley is still seeing Suzmann, his therapist. Dudley is but doesn’t want to talk about it. He thanks Hawthorne for helping him rebuild his life over the past year, after “Bristol courthouse and all the rest of it” (164), but doesn’t want to talk about the rest with anyone but Suzmann. Hawthorne drops the subject.

Hawthorne and Dudley go to Andrew Pennington’s house. He invites them in, telling them that Adam called and told him to expect them. Andrew’s house is tidy, and it is clear that he lives alone, but his walls are covered with pictures of his wife, Iris.

They ask him about the meeting six weeks earlier, and he explains that he had come up with the idea while talking to Adam; it seemed to be a good way to avoid confrontation. After Giles didn’t show up, everything got worse with Ellery’s death, Adam’s chess set, and his own tragedy: The Kenworthy children skateboarded through the garden he’d planted in Iris’s honor—coincidentally, on the fifth anniversary of her death. Adam doesn’t believe that Giles or Sarah killed Ellery, and although he is clearly upset about his garden, he believes that it was an accident. However, he brings up Giles’s racist behavior and microaggressions, including his display of the UK Independence Party flyer and the Union Jack. Hawthorne and Dudley both realize that there might be a connection to Marsha Clark’s attack: She is a Black woman, and a UK Independence Party flyer was left in her mailbox. They see Sarah Baines walk by the window and take their leave of Andrew.

Sarah is a tall, powerful woman, attractive in a “formidable” way. Her sleeveless shirt reveals tattoos on both biceps: “a pair of dice on the left and a spider’s web on the right” (175). She is in Andrew’s garden, and Hawthorne and Dudley can see how Ellery got from May and Phyllis’s garden to the well in his garden.

Sarah is openly hostile but denies having killed Ellery. Prompted by her tattoos, Hawthorne asks her how long she was in prison. She admits that she was in prison twice: once for burglary and once for hurting a man in a pub. She also tells them that Khan already knows.

Dudley asks her about the text she sent Roderick that morning while he was talking to them. She claims that she was talking about watering his flowers. Faced with her silence, Hawthorne and Dudley decide to wrap up for the day.