Winding Up the Serpent (25 page)

On impulse she stopped and walked up the path to the bungalow.

Evelyn Shiers opened the door. ‘They got the person, then,' she said.

Joanna nodded. ‘I came to talk to you,' she said. ‘I came to warn you. We won't give up on your husband. He'll remain on our files until you tell me where he is. You do know, don't you?'

Evelyn scratched her chin. ‘I don't see it's any of your business,' she said. ‘He's my husband. If I don't report him missing what business is it of yours?'

‘It's our business,' Joanna assured her. ‘And you know what a nuisance we can be. Be reasonable. Why don't you tell me?' she urged. ‘What was Marilyn blackmailing you about? Whose was the coat?'

Evelyn seemed to crumple at mention of the coat. ‘If Jock found out,' she said. ‘If he found out, Inspector, I think he'd kill me.'

‘He probably won't need to find out.'

She looked sulky. ‘I won't have him back,' she said.

‘Nobody expects you to.' Joanna was getting exasperated. She wanted to get home to a long soak in the bath. She was tired, and flat, in the way that she always was after an intensive and exhausting case. She wanted to wind it up, finish the paperwork – and forget it.

‘He took off on his boat,' Evelyn said. ‘Told me he wanted to go round the world. That was four years ago. Left me no money.' Her eyes opened wide. ‘He wanted me to go with him.'

Joanna smothered a giggle. The picture of Evelyn Shiers a round-the-world yachtswoman, tied to a ship's wheel, was too much after all the ugly visual conjurings of the last week or so. She laughed out loud and watched the bristling fox look offended. ‘I'm sorry.' She quickly apologized, then added, ‘So whose was the coat?'

Evelyn looked down at the floor. ‘I was lonely,' she said. ‘I went to the pub one night.' She looked up. ‘No harm in that,' she said. ‘I'm not used to drinking. He brought me home. Left his coat. I didn't know his name. Marilyn must have seen. I was worried Jock might come home and find it. And she was threatening to say all sorts of things.' Her eyes were bloodshot. ‘Jock is a jealous man,' she said. ‘He would have believed her – all the lies. He would have swallowed them all. I didn't know what to do,' she said. ‘There was no one ... no one I could talk to. So I buried the coat.'

Joanna sighed. How often had she heard that same phrase, ‘There was no one I could talk to.'

‘Would you like us to try and find Jock?'

Evelyn pressed her lips together and gave a sudden confused look. ‘I don't know, Inspector,' she said. ‘I really don't know. It's been a very long time.'

Joanna lay in the bath, luxuriating in scented oils, listening to the answerphone switch itself on ... She heard Matthew's voice. ‘Jo ...' then silence, and peace.

She stayed in the bath until the water grew cold.