Thursday Murder Club, #1
The Thursday Murder Club
by Richard Osman
Contents
Chapter 88
Overview
Joyce reads Bernard’s suicide note to Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim, and the letter reveals that Bernard’s secret was not Ian Ventham’s murder but the hidden burial of Asima’s ashes under the hilltop bench. Bernard’s grief led Bernard to deceive Asima’s daughter and later left Bernard trapped by shame when a concrete foundation made the ashes unreachable.
The revelation reframes Bernard’s suspicious behavior and the spade as products of bereavement rather than murder. Joyce’s breakdown at the end makes Bernard’s death a personal loss and deepens the chapter’s meditation on grief, loyalty and the burdens people hide.
Summary
Joyce stays in her flat with Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim, grateful that the others have come to her rather than making her face Bernard’s flat again. She opens Bernard’s handwritten letter and explains that it answers some of the questions they had, including suspicions about whether Bernard might have been connected to Ian Ventham’s death.
Bernard’s letter begins by confirming that Bernard has killed himself. Bernard says he has bolted the door, taken pills with whisky, and left the ambulance staff to decide whether Joyce should see Bernard’s body. Joyce pauses to note, with a fragile attempt at humor, that the ambulance staff did not let Joyce see Bernard and that they were women, not men.
Joyce continues reading as Bernard explains the grief that followed the death of Bernard’s wife, Asima. Bernard often climbed the hill to sit on the bench where Bernard and Asima had once sat together, but Bernard now reveals that the visits had another purpose rooted in shame.
Bernard confesses that although Asima’s daughter Sudhi and son-in-law Majid believed they had taken Asima’s ashes to Varanasi and scattered them on the Ganges, Bernard had secretly swapped the ashes. Unable to bear losing Asima so soon after her death, Bernard poured the real ashes into a tiger-shaped tea caddy that had sentimental meaning to the couple, filled the urn with sawdust and bonemeal, and let Sudhi and Majid take the false remains to India.
Afterward, Bernard took a spade from the allotment shed, buried the tea caddy beneath the turf under the hilltop bench, and visited it daily to speak to Asima. Bernard later understood the selfishness of betraying Sudhi and planned to recover the ashes and scatter some at Fairhaven, but workmen laid a concrete foundation for the bench before Bernard could retrieve the caddy. Bernard remained trapped by grief, guilt and the impossibility of making things right.
The letter ends with Bernard admitting that he has run out of the strength needed to go on. Joyce finishes reading, touches the ink, and tries to smile, but the effort collapses into sobs. Ron kneels in front of Joyce and holds her while Joyce weeps for Gerry, Bernard, Asima and the lost companionship of earlier, happier days.
Who Appears
- JoyceReads Bernard’s final letter aloud and breaks down over accumulated grief.
- BernardDeceased letter-writer whose suicide note reveals hidden grief, guilt and Asima’s buried ashes.
- RonSupports Joyce gently, first with reassurance and then by physically comforting her.
- ElizabethListens silently as Joyce reads Bernard’s confession and final explanation.
- IbrahimListens to the letter and reflects on unequal forms of family love.
- AsimaBernard’s late wife, whose ashes Bernard secretly kept and buried beneath the bench.
- SudhiAsima and Bernard’s daughter, unknowingly deceived about the ashes taken to the Ganges.
- MajidSudhi’s husband, who accompanied Sudhi to Varanasi with the false ashes.