Authors: Martin Edwards
‘Oh, Hannah, please.’ He was finding it a struggle to remain Mr Nice Guy. Those fingers started drumming again, louder than before.
Tap, tap, tap
. ‘I’m not a total simpleton.’
‘I never thought you were.’ True enough, but she couldn’t yet decide whether he was bewildered and distraught, or had some ulterior motive she was yet to fathom.
‘Well, then. You’re matey with this Larter woman, aren’t you? And she’s in charge of the investigation. I met her five years ago, and she struck me as pretty smart. So why would she free the prime suspect?’
‘You’re right, DCI Larter is a first-rate detective. They don’t come any better. If she’s made a decision, she’ll have her reasons.’
‘So where do we go from here?’
‘You tell me.’ She stifled a yawn. Although the bed at
Tarn Cottage couldn’t be more comfortable, she hadn’t slept properly since the night of Marc’s car crash. ‘Terri’s mobile went missing on Hallowe’en, I hear.’
‘That’s right.’
Tap, tap, tap.
‘I couldn’t get my head round that. Terri was constantly messing with her phone. Calling friends, texting, playing games. She hardly ever let it out of her sight.’
He gave a helpless shrug.
‘Any idea what happened to it?’
‘I don’t have a clue!’ Two pink spots showed on the tanned cheeks, as if she’d accused him of petty larceny. ‘Before she got ready for the party, she mentioned she’d mislaid her phone. She was upset, as you’d expect, but by that time, I was out for the count. Feeling awful, and very sorry for myself.’
‘So you’ve no idea when she lost it, let alone how?’
He shook his head. ‘Might have been when she was with Oz, in Keswick. Or she may have dropped it in her own car. Though the forensic people have gone over that with a fine toothcomb, as well as all the possessions she kept in my cottage. Her handbag, her computer, you name it.’
‘She didn’t mention calling Stefan that night, to arrange a clear-the-air meeting with him?’
‘Do you seriously believe I’d have let her run the risk?’
Hannah folded her arms. ‘Let’s assume for a moment that Stefan didn’t kill Terri.’
‘For God’s sake! Why should we assume that?’
‘Because his guilt hasn’t yet been established. And we do want to get at the truth, don’t we?’
‘Of course.’ He reminded her of a sullen little boy. Or Marc, on occasions when things didn’t go his way.
‘In which case, the murder of Shenagh Moss is bound to come under scrutiny.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Because,’ Hannah said, ‘it’s impossible to believe that two more or less identical killings, committed in the same place five years apart, are not connected.’
‘Everyone knows Shenagh was killed by Craig Meek! He was as bad as Stefan. A mad stalker, with a grudge against a pretty woman who’d made a few bad judgements in her life.’ His voice wavered. ‘But who didn’t deserve to die.’
‘Did she make a bad judgement with you?’ Hannah asked quietly.
‘For God’s sake! Are you suggesting that I slept with Shenagh?’
‘It’s a question that is bound to be asked.’
‘Okay, the answer is simple. Watch my lips.’ He tried to mimic Bill Clinton. ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman.’
She studied his white, distraught face, and decided he was telling the truth.
‘Sorry. I felt I had to ask.’
‘I wanted to meet you,’ he said in a muffled tone, ‘because we had Terri in common. Terri meant the world to me. Okay, we’d only known each other a short time, but that didn’t matter. And before you ask, we never had a cross word. No rows, no tantrums, nothing but love and laughter.’
He stared out through the sliding doors. Had she done him an injustice? It was selfish to assume her suffering was more intense – selfish and almost certainly wrong. He’d been Terri’s lover, the man she’d chosen to spend her life
with. The latest in a long line, admittedly, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t fallen head over heels. The depth of Terri’s passion might explain her reluctance to mention him. Perhaps she’d wanted to see Hannah fixed up with Daniel before boasting about her own new relationship.
‘I’m sure she did, Robin. Is there anything you can tell me about Shenagh? Did anyone in Ravenbank have reason to want her dead?’
‘Dead?’ He shook his head. ‘I’m not saying she was everyone’s cup of tea, but – for someone to want to murder her, and in such a brutal way? It’s incredible. I refuse to believe it.’
‘She’d shacked up with a lord of the manor twice her age. A sexy woman, with lots of money, and time on her hands. It’s a recipe for trouble.’
‘You’re barking up the wrong tree.’ He was beginning to sound more confident. ‘The femme fatale with the boring old bloke who takes a younger lover? Shades of
Double Indemnity
and
The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Surely that would make Francis Palladino the prime candidate for a murderous attack on a dark night? The poor old boy found her body, after all.’
‘Suppose Shenagh was happy with Francis, and that made someone else jealous?’
He gazed at her in silence. Making, she thought, some kind of calculation.
‘Is this Oz Knight we are talking about? Or Alex Quinlan?’
Jeffrey Burgoyne couldn’t control his temper. Sitting behind the wheel, waiting for a chance to get past a tractor
lumbering along the narrow road, Daniel flinched at the memory of the stinging blow he’d witnessed. An aberration, perhaps – but its casual brutality suggested otherwise. This morning, the imperfectly concealed mark on Quin’s cheek suggested another bust-up. Plenty of apparently respectable men still assaulted their wives because they’d deluded themselves into imagining they had the right. Jeffrey was no different, except that he was gay.
He held the purse strings, and that might be all that kept the couple together. If he had a violent streak, Shenagh’s seduction of his partner might have provoked him into losing control. Quin was stylish and sexy, and twenty years his junior. If he felt insecure … suppose he’d killed Shenagh, and then – somehow – Terri had discovered what had happened five years earlier. He’d have a motive to silence her before she betrayed him.
At last, the tractor turned off down a muddy farm track. Daniel put his foot down. Optimism surged inside him. At last he was making progress. The truth about the Ravenbank murders wouldn’t stay hidden much longer.
Hannah savoured the last of her shortbread. The caramel and chocolate gave her a buzz. It wasn’t only outdoors that the fog was lifting. Links between Terri’s death and Shenagh’s were starting to connect in her brain.
‘Let’s take Knight first. I hear his wife is very attractive. Yet still he strayed?’
‘Leopards don’t change their spots, do they? There are no kids – Melody told Mum that she can’t have them, and presumably they never considered adoption. Oz is a super guy, don’t get me wrong, but he needs to be
the centre of attention. An ego that size needs constant feeding.’
‘And Quinlan? I thought he was gay?’
‘With a civil partnership certificate to prove it. But Quin swings both ways. And he’s not faithful. Not long after he arrived in Ravenbank, he tried flirting with me.’
‘But he didn’t get anywhere?’
He gave her a chilly smile. ‘It’s women who turn me on. Attractive women, like Terri. But I’m sure Quin leads Jeffrey Burgoyne a merry dance.’
‘Are you positive that Shenagh had a … dalliance with Quin?’
‘Hey, I wasn’t lurking in the undergrowth with a long-lens camera like some paparazzo hoping to catch a celebrity with her top off. Ravenbank is such a tiny place, it’s hard to keep secrets, however much you try.’
He sighed, as if he had cause to regret it.
‘How did that particular secret leak out?’
‘Melody Knight overheard a quarrel between Jeffrey and Quin one afternoon when she popped round to their cottage for something.’
‘And Melody told you? You’re good friends, I take it?’
He’d just said how much he liked attractive women. Was it possible that he’d had something going on with Melody? Surely all the residents of Ravenbank couldn’t be shagging each other? The Lakes’ long dark winter nights had a lot to answer for, but there were limits.
‘Hey, don’t get the wrong idea. We get on fine, we even indulge in some mild flirting every now and then, but there’s nothing in it. In fact, it was Mum she told. And Mum mentioned it to me.’
Hannah pictured an elderly crone, outwardly good-natured, inwardly gleeful at any chance to spread a scandal, even if only as far as her own son. Robin seemed to read her mind.
‘You mustn’t get the wrong idea about Mum. She’s no blabbermouth. In her book, people should keep themselves to themselves.’
Hmmmm. Maybe.
‘That’s why she agonised over what Melody told her. Much as she liked Shenagh, she was outraged, on Francis’s behalf. I think she even contemplated grassing Shenagh up, but in the end, she decided there was no point. Shenagh would deny everything, and Francis would take her side. It might even have wrecked her relationship with Francis, and she wouldn’t have wanted that. So she just hoped the affair would blow over.’
‘Perhaps Quinlan took it more seriously?’
‘Not as seriously as his boyfriend, if you ask me.’ Robin grinned nervously. ‘At least it entertained Terri when I told her about all these shenanigans.’
Leopards don’t change their spots.
Hannah remembered wondering if Terri had become romantically entangled with her new boss. ‘I don’t mean to be tactless – but there’s no chance that Terri and Oz Knight might …’
‘What are you implying?’ His colour rose. ‘That Oz was shagging her behind my back?’
‘He’s a leopard, isn’t he? You said so yourself.’
‘You don’t get it, Hannah, do you? Terri and I had something very special. Over the years, we’d both gone down enough blind alleys to recognise the real thing when we saw it. There’s no way she’d have messed about with Oz. Anyway, she worked for him, it would have been unprofessional.’
Unprofessional working relationships, oh dear. Hannah didn’t want to go there.
‘Were you planning to get married?’
For once, he seemed unsure how to answer. ‘Mum was keen for that to happen. I hear she said something at the party about us getting hitched. But we had no need to jump the gun. She was only just settling herself into the Ravenbank community. Everything in good time.’
Now for it.
Hannah leant forward. ‘In the course of settling into Ravenbank, did Terri stumble onto something which identified Shenagh’s killer?’
He opened his eyes very wide, and she saw the thought had never crossed his mind until now. He blinked hard, as if calculating odds in his head.
‘You think that’s what happened? That she came across some sort of clue, and she was murdered by someone desperate to keep their guilt secret?’
‘It’s possible.’
‘I suppose … but Terri never said anything to me.’
‘Perhaps she only found out on the day of the party, perhaps after you were taken ill.’ Hannah took a breath. ‘How about you, is there any gossip in Ravenbank about your secrets? Or don’t you have any?’
‘Me?’ He sat bolt upright. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You were a young man, roughly the same age as Shenagh Moss. Not bad looking, and unattached. A musician, presumably with a relaxed lifestyle. Didn’t the two of you …?’
He mustered a grin. ‘Thanks for the kind words. At least – I
think
I’m flattered. And if that’s a dig about my lifestyle, I can promise I’m no dope fiend. Weed gives me a headache. Though …’
‘Yes?’
‘Terri smoked the occasional joint. That surprises you? It was one of her darkest secrets, given your job. She said you were a puritan when it came to drugs.’
Hannah gritted her teeth. ‘You haven’t answered my question.’
‘I liked Shenagh, and she liked me. That’s as far as it went, you’ll have to take my word for it. I’m different from Oz. I was lucky enough to grow up with two parents who were happily married. Mum and Dad were polar opposites in personality, but they were a couple who believed in till death do us part. I don’t believe in breaking up other people’s relationships, and I wasn’t interested in muscling in on Francis Palladino’s territory.’
Quite a speech. Hannah couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
‘Very commendable.’
He didn’t seem offended, even allowing himself a sliver of a grin. ‘Besides, she wasn’t my type.’
‘Okay, what is your type? An extrovert like Terri?’
‘She was nothing like my previous girlfriends. Apart from anything else, she’d been married three times before. Until now, I’ve steered clear of women who want long-term commitment. Most of her predecessors have been in their early twenties. I guess I was just looking for the right person to settle down with.’
She wanted to keep pressing him, see if he faltered. ‘And Terri was that person?’
He hesitated, as if searching for the right form of words. ‘I hoped so. She was easy-going, someone who believed in live and let live. I can’t bear neurotic, frigid women, or
predatory types. I don’t wish to be unkind, but women like Melody and Shenagh scare the pants off me. But not literally.’
In the last few minutes, despite her intrusive questions, he’d seemed calmer, and more candid. No more table-tapping; for whatever reason, he’d relaxed. As if he’d accomplished his purpose in arranging this get together. Had he simply been curious to meet her? He leant back in his chair, curiously pleased with himself. Hannah decided to risk wiping the smile off his face.
‘Your mother received a legacy when Francis Palladino died. Such a generous bequest that she could afford to buy you a cottage.’
Robin’s face darkened. ‘Hannah, please. I’m really disappointed. You are seriously implying that the money gave either my mother or me a motive to get Shenagh out of the way?’
‘Only flagging up a question that you’re bound to be asked.’ She gave him a shamelessly disingenuous smile. ‘Giving you advance warning, if you like.’
‘Excuse me for not prostrating myself with gratitude. Better do your research more carefully before you start flinging accusations around. It’s verging on slander. I don’t care about myself, but I won’t have you slagging off my mum. You haven’t the faintest idea about the terms of Francis Palladino’s will, have you?’