Bill met Dan’s eyes and they both remained silent. She would reveal what was on her mind in good time. At least Wolf still didn’t attempt to speak. He kept his heavy lids lowered over rather protruding gray eyes. His blond hair was meticulously slicked down, and his thin lips pursed. Warming to him under any circumstances might have been difficult but given his silent scrutiny, he encouraged antipathy.
‘So’ – Molly cleared her throat – ‘it was the hair – the tail or whatever. With the tissue swollen from being submerged and the knot of hair over it – although it was shaved during the examination – this wasn’t immediately obvious.’
Glossing over anything Wolf might feel it was his duty to point out, Bill hurried to say, ‘Understandable. Any idea what weapon we should be looking for.’
It was Molly’s turn to cross her arms. ‘It could be almost anything, a rock even given the grit in the skin. Werner came up with an interesting idea. A golf club, a driver perhaps. But we haven’t really identified anything that remotely matches the shape of injury.’
Bill was struck again by the closeness between Molly and the crime scene manager. They ribbed each other cruelly but were obviously also respectful friends.
‘There are some pretty strangely shaped clubs these days,’ Dan said. ‘Some of them look as if they shouldn’t be allowed at all.’
‘I know, but I don’t think that’s our answer. If there had been more damage I’d have put in a vote for a hoe, or some garden tool and it could still be that, but we’re going to have to think harder. There is a second, smaller wound quite close, but it didn’t do much damage.’
‘Are you suggesting this blow killed him?’ Bill asked.
‘No, I haven’t changed my mind on a cardiac event. But this is unusual enough it could be a leading clue, Bill. That’s what’s on my mind. It takes me back to the theory that the killer might not have known when his victim was dead and was still trying to finish the job after it was all over.’
‘Doesn’t sound like a seasoned killer,’ Dan said and was greeted by mumbled agreements.
They thanked Molly and Dan followed Bill out of the morgue. Dr Wolf was close behind.
‘Are your observations helping with your project?’ Bill asked him, trying for polite interest.
‘This study will not be soon over,’ Wolf said dismissively. ‘There are some years of unsatisfactory resolutions to examine. At least this one is not a closed case so there’s room to impact the outcome and reach conclusions about connections that haven’t been made between previous cases. I have a meeting but I’ll check the schedule for tomorrow. Let me know if anything changes, will you?’
Not waiting for a response, the man walked away and pushed through swinging doors at the end of the corridor.
‘And what would we bet that he’s on his way to make another report to the chief constable?’ Dan said. ‘Wolf isn’t even pretending we’re on the same side anymore.’
Bill looked at the doors that had closed behind the man. ‘He behaves as if he’s the superior around here. In charge or something. Almost as if he wants to put us on edge. It’s difficult to like him.’
‘If I were a vindictive man, I’d be considering how to sink the puffed-up tosser,’ Dan said.
‘But you aren’t vindictive?’ Bill asked, grinning.
‘I’m working on it. How about you?’
‘Let’s compare progress as we go along. I think we’re likely to be vindictive experts in no time.’ Bill glanced back over his shoulder. ‘I know what the next move has to be in the Quillam case.’
‘Surprise me,’ Dan said. ‘Or are you also thinking that pond they say leads to the middle of the earth must be searched regardless.’
‘Great minds,’ Bill said.
NINETEEN
His choices were narrowing – fast.
Either he found a way to get Perry and Neve out of the Black Dog, or he would have to make an excuse for living elsewhere and coming there to work only. He didn’t want that. He wanted to be rid of the forces messing with his life.
Paperwork threatened to slide from the piles on his desk. Cool, calm and organized Hugh was doing a great imitation of being incompetent.
He threw down his pen and stared from the windows toward the village green. The day was oppressively hot, the sky an eye-watering blue and the sun unyielding in the stillness. Not a branch shifted, not a leaf quivered.
Annie was embroiled in everything. Had to be. Yet she probably didn’t completely know she could be courting danger.
He picked up the house phone and called Lily. ‘Hello, you,’ he said, grateful she couldn’t see him. ‘We have guest bookings for the Perry and Neve Rhys room. Starting tonight. They weren’t here last night – they’re just using this as a convenience when they feel like it. Not that we care about things like that usually, but I want them out.’ There, he had damn well said it. Let them go to that place they’d rented in Burford, a ‘just in case we need a backup’ place as Neve had told him.
‘Got you,’ Lily responded without particular inflection in her voice. ‘I’ll deal with it, Hugh.’ She didn’t ask any questions and he heard the click at her end.
Did everyone know how contentious his dealings with his cousin and his wife were? He leaned back hard in his antique swivel chair that creaked with the sudden move.
Getting those two out of here might not completely get rid of them but he wouldn’t have to tiptoe around expecting to fall over the pair, or wait for them to get together with Annie and start something.
Annie … if she suddenly went out of control, would he still be able to help her?
In a few minutes he had to see Alex. She’d told him she would come up here when she got back from getting Bogie groomed. Why did she want to talk to him?
If he was honest with himself, he had a good idea. Alex and Tony knew much more than they’d ever mentioned to him or, evidently, the police. That meant they had been holding back to support him, to give him a chance to work his way out. But how long would that last, and could he pull the threads together in time.
Just how much did they know, or think they knew?
A single knock on the door made him jump. He got up and went rapidly to let Alex in. Bogie, looking unnaturally tidy, rushed past to find Katie under the desk.
‘Is this a bad time?’ Alex said.
Will there ever be any other kind of time again? ‘No, of course not. Come in.’
Hugh didn’t say a word, only sat beside her in his Subaru, one elbow on the window rim, staring ahead at the empty road and the woodlands as he drove.
This was on her head, Alex thought. Successful or total disaster, non-event or … she took a deep breath … or an ill-conceived dive into a frightening risk, this was entirely her idea. When Hugh had agreed to come with her for an honest discussion she hoped would help them clear the air and try to mend the rift that was widening, she had been delighted. She had been convinced this would be the answer to their problems and return them to the kind of understanding that had made their working relationship so good until recently.
But so far things were not looking good.
The road from Folly up to the Dimple, that then ran in front of Lime Tree Lodge, Alex’s own house, and then Tony’s place, must have become shorter, or so it felt, certainly since Hugh announced he would like them to go to Green Friday to talk, rather than drive to Naunton and stroll around the quaint village, as she had suggested. They were approaching Trap Lane much too fast.
She hadn’t had the courage to ask him why he wanted to go to his house yet, but she’d better do it, and before they got there.
‘I’m glad we could get away for a while,’ she said. Not a stellar opening. ‘I’ve been wanting a chance for us to clear the air.’
‘Have you? Why is that?’
He could rile her without apparently trying hard. ‘Because we’ve been barking at one another, ignoring one another, and you’ve been a bear throughout what we both know have been difficult day
s. It’s not helping a thing, Hugh. Let’s get past it.’
‘There’s nothing I’d like better,’ he said, still not looking at her. ‘But that would take effort from both of us, not just my saying what you want to hear.’
Alex hit the dash with the heel of a hand. ‘That is so unfair, Hugh, and so unlike you.’
‘What is like me? Attacking women? Beating up a man years older than I am and throwing him in a bottomless pond?’
‘You’re not making sense. Have I accused you of anything or done something to make you think I wasn’t on your side?’
‘If you completely trusted me there wouldn’t be any question.’
‘That’s it. Why bother to try talking? What’s the matter with you? I haven’t done anything to you, have I?’
Hugh glanced sideways at her, one dark brow arched. ‘Temper, temper, Alex. What have you done for me? How have you tried to defend me when you know your cop buddies and just about everyone else thinks I’m guilty of who the hell knows what? Let me ask you a question – and I do believe you’re an honest woman. I know you saw me at Green Friday on the night you went to visit Radhika. I was walking toward the house according to what was said. I’d parked the Nash facing out of the driveway. I didn’t know that was going to be an issue but apparently it is. Was it you who told the police about that?’
He braked, drove onto the verge of the road, applied the brakes again and idled. Careful to keep herself steady, Alex said, ‘No.’ At some point she was likely to be forced to tell the police a lot more.
‘Why didn’t you?’
Alex leaned until he was all but forced to meet her eyes. ‘That kind of remark is what I’m talking about. You’re making things impossible. You know why I didn’t tell the police – not that I haven’t wondered if I should. Is that straight enough for you?’
He gave a short, mirthless laugh. ‘Someone did, so if it wasn’t you, you needn’t bother now. Conspiracy theories are things I’ve tried to avoid but I’d be a fool not to think there’s an attempt to frame me. For Percy’s death, and for whatever’s happened to Sonia.’
‘Why do you want to go to Green Friday today?’
‘I don’t even know if I’ll be allowed there but I’d like to look around. And I want to know for myself just what you can see from the windows at the back of the house. According to Sam, there was a car parked there when the three of us went up that morning. Then it was gone – or so the police say. Did you see it?’
Alex stared ahead and thought. ‘No,’ she said finally. ‘No, I didn’t. Did Sam say he saw it when we were all there together?’
‘I don’t know now.’ Hugh leaned against the headrest. ‘How do I ask him? It’ll sound as if I either don’t believe him or I’m giving him the third degree.’
‘Why would it? It seems simple to me. Either the car was still there when we were and we just didn’t notice, or it was driven away between Sam’s first visit and when we got there with him – and the police got there. Sam could have just assumed it was still parked at the back.’
‘Yeah, maybe. What I need to know most is where someone would have to be to see me – or anyone – coming or going from the house. They could have been in the trees or beside the house, but I didn’t see anyone. Maybe I’ve missed the obvious and I want to find out if that’s possible.’
Her stomach made an unpleasant revolution. He wouldn’t need to be a surveyor to figure out there was a good line of sight from the tower at Radhika’s house. But she, Alex thought, would not be revealing anything she knew about what had been said on that.
‘When I drove past that evening, you were walking toward the front of Green Friday. That’s all I know. As you said, what difference would any of that make now?’
‘It’s for my own information,’ Hugh said. ‘I’ll drive you to the Black Dog and come back on my own later, if you like.’
‘That would be senseless. We’re almost there. We’re going to Green Friday now, Hugh. Come on. We can be civil, can’t we?’
He didn’t reply, but drove back onto the street and she was conscious of him keeping his speed down.
At Trap Lane they had to pause and allow a police car and what looked like a SOCO vehicle to turn uphill before them.
‘Looks as if I’m likely to be told to bugger off,’ Hugh said. ‘But not without finding out what they’re up to now – if I can.’
He gave the official vehicles a few seconds’ head start before following.
‘What do we do if they turn in at Green Friday?’ Alex asked.
‘They will. We follow, and I try to ask some questions. It is my property. You can wait in the car – if you’re sure you don’t mind going with me, that is.’
Alex didn’t answer him, just gritted her teeth when they carried on up the lane. He turned in at the driveway, toward Green Friday. Crime scene tape blocked off the front door but there was no police presence to be seen. Alex opened her mouth to say as much.
‘Would you look at that,’ Hugh said, leaning forward. ‘Isn’t that the Mini Annie’s driving now? What the hell is she doing here?’
The little red-and-white car turned Alex’s stomach. She hated seeing it in the car park lot at the Black Dog because it reminded her of Elyan and the horrible way that whole affair had ended.
‘Yep,’ she said. ‘Elyan’s Mini – Annie’s now. She must be wandering around up here making herself feel even worse than she already did.’ The dirty car was parked at the far left of the turnaround in front of the house.
‘She needs to get her life together,’ Hugh said. ‘She’s got too much to offer to throw it all away. She can’t stop longing for Elyan, but it’s doubtful he’s probably ever getting out of that place again.’
It would be so easy to lead into a conversation about his feelings for the girl but the idea terrified Alex. That could easily lead to the end of any hope for mending things with Hugh.
She took a breath and expelled it slowly – and remembered what she couldn’t see. ‘Hugh’ – she put a hand on his arm – ‘what happened to that SOCO van and the police car?’
Hugh shrugged. ‘Huh … Must have been going somewhere else.’
‘There’s only Radhika’s and I don’t see anything going on there.’
‘Don’t forget there’s a back route to Derwinter’s up the lane, and a way to cut across to the other side of the hill. Let’s not buy problems. Come on.’
He got out of the Subaru and looked around. Alex joined him. At first she thought he was trying to locate Annie, but his attention was on checking the surrounding trees and hedges. ‘I hadn’t realized the tower next door had such a bird’s-eye view over here,’ he said at last, the corners of his mouth turned down. ‘Not really close, but good enough and perfect with a pair of binoculars. Workers have been all over the place for months. They seem to be working entirely on the inside now.’
‘They are not there on Sundays,’ Alex said, turning away in the hope that Hugh would change subjects.
No luck. ‘That top room would have an unobstructed view of the front of this house. I’ll need to walk around to the back to see what would be visible from there.’
Alex swallowed. At least he hadn’t mentioned Radhika but he must be thinking about her.
‘Annie should be somewhere back there,’ Hugh said, after a brief look into the empty Mini. ‘I don’t see how she could get inside but she spent a lot of time around the pool house with Elyan. She could be there.’
Side by side, they set off along the gravel path surrounding Green Friday. Alex kept glancing this way and that for Annie but there was no sign of her, not there or near outbuildings farther away.
In the area outside the kitchen windows, Hugh stopped. ‘I assume Sam was talking about a car being right here, but the extra parking is up there.’ He pointed toward the pool house on the far side of the pool – currently covered. ‘I’ve never stayed here but I would expect that area to be used when there are people in residence.’
‘I kno
w it was when the Quillams were here,’ Alex told him. ‘But the car they must think Sonia used would have been down here – outside the kitchen, I would think.’
‘That’s what I gather.’ He glanced toward Radhika’s house. ‘Otherwise Sam wouldn’t have seen it. That tower would have views over the back of the house, too. Before, when it had been empty for years, I don’t think anyone thought of the overlook. Radhika owns it now. Has she mentioned being able to see down here?’
Whatever she said was not going to satisfy Hugh but she steeled herself, then said, ‘I would ask the police about that. I’m sure they’ve questioned her – and the people working on the renovation. Why does it matter?’
Hugh gave a short laugh. ‘Isn’t that obvious? Someone said they saw me leaving on the night I met Sonia here. They had to be looking from up there.’
‘You couldn’t see farther down the driveway from up there, could you?’ Why hadn’t she thought of this before. ‘You were parked out in the driveway, not by the house. I don’t think you could have been seen from that tower.’
Hugh frowned. ‘The police talked about my car being parked facing out from the property. You could be right about the line of sight from up there, but I’d have to take a look myself to be certain. Still, I think someone could have been watching from that tower and feeding assumptions to the police. They took the Nash yesterday, you know.’
‘The police will figure out what they should take seriously, Hugh.’
‘I hope you’re right. Let’s find Annie. I wonder if she has a key to the house.’
‘Has Sam managed to change the locks now?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Hugh strode away to the kitchen door, also decorated with crime scene tape, pulled keys from his pocket and tried one. The door opened. ‘That answers our question.’ He leaned past the tape and shouted Annie’s name. No response.
‘Depending on where she is, she might not hear,’ Alex said.
‘True, but we’re not breaking the tape and I don’t know how easy it would be for her to get in without messing it up, either. She might also have locked the door behind her. That’s a bit odd to think about if she was planning on getting out quickly if she had to.’
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