Blood Ties (14 page)

‘You mean, wherever we go I'm going to be tripping over corpses? Nice thought. Thank you for that.'

Naomi gripped his hand. ‘What else do you want to do with your life, Alec?'

‘Oh, I thought you'd decided on it all. House, kids, market garden. Sounds good to me.'

‘Does it? Alec, do you actually have any idea what you'd want to do if you gave up being a policeman? You know, it's not good to just be running
away
. You need to be running
to
.'

‘Oh, words of wisdom. OK, we're at the stile, let Dog go and I'll help you over. Bit higher with the left foot. Actually, I do know what I want to do but you'll probably laugh.'

‘I will not. Is Napoleon through?'

‘Oh, he went under the fence. The wind's dropped a bit. That probably means we're in for more rain. No, what I really want to do is go back to school. University, I mean. Though don't ask me what I want to do. I've got a shortlist of five options so far.'

‘Seriously?'

‘Seriously. To be honest, it's something that's been on my mind for a while, and there's the money to do it now and to move if we sell the Pinsent house as well and—'

‘So, do it. You know I'll back you, whatever.' The ground seemed firmer here and she guessed they were now in the car park. She giggled. ‘My husband, the mature student.'

‘I knew you'd laugh,' Alec said, but she could hear how relieved he sounded and wondered just how long this idea had been festering really, nagging at the back of his brain.

‘Do it,' she said again. ‘Fresh start, new direction.' And she, too, felt a sense of profound relief. One thing she had realized these past days – and that was that she really wasn't ready to become a parent. A doting aunt, yes, maybe even later on a besotted mother, but not right now. Somehow, she felt that Alec ‘going back to school' was a way she, too, could be let off the hook without hurting his feelings. She took a deep breath. ‘So we put the kids on hold,' she said.

‘You want to?'

‘I want to.' She laughed then. ‘I wouldn't mind the market garden though.'

FIFTEEN

B
ack at the car, Alec phoned Kevin's newly appointed solicitor. They'd taken the required break but now the interview was about to continue.

‘I've told him to keep his statements short and simple,' Ben Tolliver told Alec. ‘He's very upset but that's no bad thing. Blezzard seems to like that.'

‘Tell him I'm heading back. What are the chances of getting him home tonight?'

‘Good, I think, but I'm guessing Blezzard will keep the pressure on for a bit longer.'

‘Um, I don't mean to be indelicate,' Alec said. ‘But I'm guessing your fees won't be paid by legal aid, so . . .?'

‘Mrs Susan Rawlins will be covering the costs, I believe. I'm prepared to wait until Mr Edward Thame's estate has gone through probate.'

‘So,' Alec mused when he got off the phone. ‘Susan's picking up the tab.'

‘And that bothers you, why?'

‘I didn't say it did.'

Alec started the engine and switched on the headlights. Rain beat down upon the roof of the car and the windscreen wipers were hard pressed to clear the screen even for seconds. It was going to be a careful drive back. ‘Forget Eddy's tonight,' he said. ‘We won't be able to see a damn thing. We'll go and find out what's happening to Kevin, shall we?'

‘I thought you had just found out?'

‘Well, yes, but . . . You don't mind, do you?'

‘No, I don't mind, but remember we neither of us had lunch and Napoleon will want feeding too, so . . .'

‘Right, well, we'll go and see if I can get a word with Blezzard, see if we can liberate Kevin. If not, then back to The Lamb, fill Susan in on what's going on and feed Dog, then take it from there.'

Naomi felt the car jerk over the two speed bumps at the bottom of the hill that led back up into the village. Alec was taking it slow; the road was narrow, single track for the most part, and unpleasant in the dark and the rain. She could feel his impatience though, and it didn't seem just connected to half a mile of slightly awkward track. ‘What's bothering you now?' she asked.

‘I don't know,' he admitted. ‘I want to get back and look at those copies we made,' he said at last. ‘I can't help feeling that we've just been wasting time this afternoon when I should have been reading what Eddy left with Kevin.'

‘You felt all right about it earlier. Besides, we both needed a break. It helps with the thought processes. Besides, again, you've finally let me in on your plans – and, might I say, it's about time. I'm only your wife, after all.'

‘Sorry,' he said. ‘I really don't think it had crystallized properly before. No, it just suddenly washed over me. Not the wanting to go back to uni; just the feeling that I was getting left behind, that we should be chasing harder. I don't know, you know that feeling you get sometimes, when things start to fall into place at the back of your mind and you know there's something there but you can't quite pull it into focus.'

‘I remember that,' Naomi said. ‘OK, so we go and see if Kevin's fine, we see to Dog – and Susan – and then we see what Eddy felt was so important he had to hide it from everyone. You know what's a bit odd though? The way he hid the key, like it was going to stop anyone who found the diary from looking inside.'

‘Well, it might have stopped the casual snooper.'

‘But he, presumably, didn't keep it where the casual snooper would have seen it. No, what I mean is, you can open those little locks with anything. Kevin's mother used a hair pin but anything would do. The lock was there because it made the diary feel a bit special but I don't think anyone really took the secret bit seriously. No, it's almost like it was symbolic. The key with the article and the photo.'

‘Unless we're completely wrong and the key was for something else? Your first thought was a suitcase or a briefcase. Maybe we got it wrong.'

‘Well, Blezzard has the diary now. We can hardly go and ask him if the key fits, can we? Not being as you've failed to mention taking possible evidence from the house. Incidentally, why haven't you told anyone about the key and clipping and photo?'

‘I told you.'

‘
I
don't count.
I'm
now an accessory. But seriously, why?'

Alec sighed. ‘Seriously? I don't know. I don't know why I didn't mention it to Susan on the day or why I've stayed quiet about it since. Just something, instinct maybe, telling me it's important, but I don't know why. Look, maybe I'm losing it here. I'm so used to seeing deceit and conspiracy and evil intent that I can't believe a sad and lonely old man might not have had his own agenda. Maybe she always kept that key in her dressing gown pocket, and maybe the photo was the newest one he had of her, and so maybe it seemed appropriate for him to wrap all three items into a little bundle and hide them in his daughter's room.'

‘OK, well as long as we've got that clear in our heads. Actually, what keeps bothering me is that Eddy and his wife broke all contact with their families. Why would that be? What was he running away from?'

‘Oh, now who's overreaching?' Alec said. ‘Lots of people lose touch with family. I quite like mine, but I don't see them much. If I didn't like them and I'd moved away, I probably wouldn't bother.'

‘Not even when your wife and child died? Wouldn't you even think that they might have a right to know about it? The right to mourn?'

‘I don't know. If they hadn't got involved when my wife and child were still alive. If they'd maybe not approved of my choices, then I guess not. I might decide they'd forfeited that. Anyway, we're assuming it was Eddy that made that choice. Martha was ill for two years; if she'd wanted to get in touch with her family and make her peace there was plenty of time for her to do that. Wouldn't that have been the natural thing to do?'

‘Maybe she did,' Naomi objected. ‘Maybe they rejected her.'

‘Well, unless someone turns up claiming to be a long-lost distant cousin, we may never know. The way I see it, Susan looked after him so she deserves what Eddy left to her. But that's not what you meant, is it?'

Naomi shook her head. The car had stopped now, Alec waiting to check for traffic before making the sharp turn out of the narrow lane and back on to the main road. ‘What I meant, I suppose, is: what if someone from Eddy's past finally caught up with him?'

‘Surely they'd have found him long before now. When Karen died it made the television news, apparently, and the papers. Four teens dead in a mysterious car accident? That would have been quite a splash. Which actually begs another question. Why did Eddy choose to keep that clipping and not others? What was it about that particular report? Anyway, surely if anyone was looking for him they'd have found him then. Edward Thame isn't exactly a common name. Karen Thame would have made people wonder.'

‘Unless he changed his name.'

‘No. People trying to disappear call themselves Smith or Jones or Pritchard, not Thame.'

‘Pritchard? Why Pritchard?'

‘I don't know; it just came to mind. Look, maybe we're getting too complicated here. Back to bare facts as we know them. Eddy let Kevin into the house at about half past ten. He left just over an hour later, called to get petrol, so there'll be a record of that. He was home by twelve thirty. In all likelihood,
if
we take notice of the unwashed mugs and teapot, Eddy was killed just after Kevin left, which seems to imply that the killer was either in the house or very close by. Either way, he would probably have been aware of Kevin and maybe even delayed his approach because Kevin was there. I mean, Eddy wouldn't have stood much chance against an attacker, not being on his own, but with Eddy and Kevin together, things could have been very different.'

‘I thought we were tracing facts, not speculating,' Naomi reminded him.

‘True. OK, so, it's likely that Eddy died just after midnight. Next day, when he fails to occupy his usual seat at The Lamb, Susan gets worried and goes to check on him. She says that was about eleven forty-five, after The Lamb closed for the night. She finds him dead, calls the police. Rigor mortis was already well established, according to Sergeant Dean, and the time of death, according to the preliminary report, is anything between midnight and five, largely based on how advanced the rigor was and the absence of any body temperature data. No doubt they'll be able to hone that a bit, but it still leaves plenty of time for Kevin to have gone back or even for Susan to have visited and hit him over the head.'

‘Why would she?' Naomi said. ‘Oh, if she knew what was in the will, I suppose. So, we're back to those damned mugs. Look, maybe he got tired, thought sod it, I'm leaving things tonight, went off to bed.'

‘He still had his dressing gown on; his bed hadn't been slept in,' Alec said.

‘True, which supports the idea that he was killed just after Kevin left.'

‘Which leaves us with a mysterious stranger either knocking at the door or breaking in and surprising him.'

‘What if he thought Kevin had come back for something?' Naomi suggested. ‘He closes the door, goes upstairs, someone knocks on the door again, he thinks Kevin forgot something and he opens the door to his killer.'

‘Who then has to go upstairs, with Eddy, in order to push him against the wall and then have him fall?'

He had a point. Naomi thought about it. ‘OK, so the visitor asked to use the toilet. Logical.'

‘Which implies it was someone Eddy was happy to let into the house. Yes, that would work, except, why would Eddy go up with him? The other option, which we will check out once it's light, is that the killer got in through an upstairs window and Eddy heard them moving about.'

‘Or that Kevin did go back. Straight back,' Naomi said.

‘I don't believe that.'

‘Neither do I, but other people will. Other people would have no difficulty with that.'

‘People like Blezzard and Sergeant Dean.'

The reception at the police station was blindingly light after the dirty, sodden darkness outside. Alec had run in, splashing through the puddles that had collected in the dips and hollows of the car park. He had left Naomi in the car, listening to the radio. Napoleon was snoring gently on the back seat. Alec had promised to go back for them if it looked as though he'd be a long time.

Alec blinked, willing his eyes to adjust. The stark light from the fluorescent tubes threw sharp shadows across the grey tiled floor, illuminating the scuffs from years of feet and the mud everyone that day had trailed in with them. The rubber-backed mat just inside the door was sodden and no longer even attempting to do its job.

The desk sergeant recognized him. ‘Inspector Blezzard came through a few minutes ago,' he said. ‘Shall I let him know you're here?'

Alec thanked him and stood impatiently in the centre of the reception area as the desk sergeant stuck his head around a half glazed door behind him and spoke at some length to someone.

‘He'll not be long,' he said finally and dropped his gaze back to his paperwork.

Alec studied the posters on the long pinboard hanging on the wall of the reception area. Official directives rubbed shoulders with adverts for lost cats and Christmas fairs, tourist brochures and even a bus timetable. Here, it seemed, the police station was certainly the hub of the local community. Assorted chairs stood in regimented lines against the walls, and a small table had been piled high with magazines and the odd newspaper. Alec was put in mind of a rather downmarket dentist's waiting room.