by Ann Granger
Pereira spoke at this point. ‘My impression so far is that you have an extraordinarily active imagination, Fran. Even so, I’ve yet to hear a motive for Lisa Stallard killing the man, let alone how she is supposed to have done it. But I’m sure you’ve got one.’
‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘I’m getting to that. Up to this point I’d believed everything Lisa, Allerton and Vera had told me. Why shouldn’t I? But then I went to Lisa’s flat in London to fetch her passport. The moment I set foot in the place I realised the relationship between Lisa and Allerton was a lot more than just that of a dancer and guy who’d been employing her. You should see that place! You should see the clothes in the dressing room—’
I paused at the memory of Julie and the carving knife. ‘Then Julie Allerton turned up and I learned that Mickey had walked out on a twenty-four-year marriage because of Lisa.
‘I gave that a lot of thought. Allerton had had flings with girls who worked for him before. That he’d ditch his wife for this one and go through a messy divorce actually to marry Lisa, well, that makes things different, doesn’t it? Either the man was totally infatuated, or suffering a midlife crisis, or—’
I paused dramatically. This is partly because of my drama training and partly because I could see I now had Pereira hooked with my story and I wanted to prolong her suspense. She didn’t say anything but she was waiting.
‘Or,’ I went on, ‘Lisa had something Mickey wanted more than anything else in the world. When I looked round the flat, before Julie arrived, I found a bit of card in the waste bin in the bathroom. It was a scrap of packaging from a pregnancy testing kit. Julie told me she and Mickey had no children. They’d wanted kids, but none had come along. Julie said there was nothing wrong with her, so the suggestion was it was down to Mickey. Think about that, DS Pereira, will you? You’ve spoken to the London cops. They told you what sort of man Mickey Allerton is. He moves in a world in which being seen to be successful is everything. It’s a man’s world, full of tough guys. Yet this is a man with a secret he’s kept from his macho mates. He believes he can’t father a baby. Think what that must mean to him! Think how it’s been eating at him during twenty-four years of childless marriage. Suddenly he finds out that his little girlfriend, Lisa, is pregnant. He’s over the moon! He can father a kid, after all. He’ll leave his wife. He’ll marry Lisa. He’ll take her and the infant Allerton off to live in Spain in his splendid villa and open a posh club for the discriminating punter. There’s a marvellous future for all of them and when Lisa runs off - well, the poor guy doesn’t know what’s made her do it, but he does know he wants her back!’
‘I see all that,’ Pereira said. ‘Or I see that it’s feasible. That doesn’t mean it happened. I return to my main question. Why should Lisa kill Ivo Simić when all she had to do was run off and leave him floundering in the river?’
‘Because,’ I said patiently, ‘Mickey isn’t the father of Lisa’s kid. Ivo is.’
That stopped Pereira in her tracks. She blinked at me. ‘I’ve got to give you credit, Fran. Active is hardly the word to describe your imagination. Lurid, is more like it, completely over the top.’
I interrupted her. ‘Of course, Mickey doesn’t know Lisa’s been playing around with a doorman,’ I went on quickly. ‘It wouldn’t occur to him the child isn’t his because he believes no girl in her right mind would two-time Mickey Allerton. But Lisa never expected Mickey to react to the news of a baby the way he did. I don’t believe she ever meant him to know she was pregnant. She’d have got herself a termination and he’d have been none the wiser. But Mickey had taken to turning up at the St John’s Wood flat unexpectedly. I think he did that one day and he found the pregnancy testing kit. Mickey is the sort of man whose questions you answer. “Are you expecting a kid?” he asks Lisa and she has to admit she is. Mickey flings his arms round her crying out “Darling!” or there’s a scene something like that.’
Pereira was opening and shutting her mouth and gazing at me in amazement.
I carried on undaunted. ‘Next thing he’s opening the champagne and discussing clinics. That’s when she panicked and ran.
‘Ivo doesn’t know about the baby yet. But he follows Lisa to Oxford because he wants to help Jasna. He contacts Lisa and suggests they meet. Lisa is worried but can’t see a way of getting out of it. She’s already arranged to meet me the following morning, but Ivo is insistent, so she suggests he comes earlier to the same spot. Her big fear is that she doesn’t know what he’ll do if she won’t go back to London with him. Ivo’s not bright but he is vain and the way she dumped him for the big boss must have rankled with him. He’s got scores to settle and doesn’t think things through. He’s dangerous.’
I paused here and waited to see if Pereira would raise any more objections to any of this. But I’d defeated her. She just gave a nod which I interpreted as a signal to continue.
‘But Ivo has a weakness: he’s scared of snakes. It’s called ophidophobia,’ I added, ‘I looked it up on the Internet. Lisa knows all about this and it so happens that in the garden of the Stallards’ house there’s a grass snake, a sort of pet of Lisa’s dad’s. A grass snake is harmless but, as far as Ivo is concerned, if it’s a snake that’s enough to send him completely out of his skull. So Lisa pops the snake in a bag and sets off to meet Ivo. He won’t touch her while she’s holding a snake.’
Pereira stirred in her chair and spoke, sounding a lot less confident and sarcastic. ‘Lisa has admitted this much.’
‘She had to admit it,’ I said. ‘Ned blurted it out in front of me and Ganesh Patel.’
Pereira nodded. ‘She also admits she may have jabbed it towards Simić to make him back off. She had no idea, when he fell in the river, she was leaving the man to drown.’
‘She made sure he drowned,’ I said. ‘This is all about snakes, really. How do people trap a snake?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Pereira slowly. ‘They use forked sticks, don’t they, to pin them down?’
‘Exactly, and there just happened to be a convenient little item like that to hand, a long, thin forked branch which had fallen from one of the trees along the riverside path. I fell over the thing myself but I didn’t then know what it meant or how important it was. Lisa saw Ivo threshing in the water and an opportunity to get him out of her life permanently. She dropped the snake and grabbed the branch. She reached out, held the forked end round his neck and pushed his head under. Like you said yourself, she’s an athlete, a strong girl. Ivo was face-down in the water and didn’t know what was happening. He was already in a panic at the sight of a snake, poor harmless old Arthur, that’s the snake’s name.’
Pereira’s eyebrow twitched again.
‘So he drowned,’ I said. ‘How long would it have taken? Only a few minutes, I’d have thought. You’re the expert. You should know. Unfortunately, the snake slid off into the undergrowth while all this was going on and was lost. Paul Stallard has been missing his pet and Lisa wanted to find it, if she could. She loves her father and she knows what the pet meant to him. Also, she doesn’t want anyone guessing what she did. She took Ned with her to hunt for it. She had to tell him how she came to lose the creature down there by the river, but Ned will do anything she asks.’
‘I’m not an expert,’ Pereira said. Her hand wandered to the folder on her desk; it hovered there a moment and then she removed it. ‘I’ll have a word with the pathologist. As it happens, there are unexplained scratch marks on the deceased’s neck, to either side, below the ears. But that still doesn’t mean your explanation is correct, Fran. It’s not enough.’
‘If you’re lucky and go back to the scene you might find the forked branch. But it’s probably not there now,’ I added despondently.
‘Is this the forked stick I saw you examining when I came on you down by the river?’ Pereira asked. ‘Because, if so, that one is upstairs now in my office, wrapped in plastic.’
‘What?’ I gasped.
‘Contrary to what you seem to think,’ Pe
reira went on with an allowable touch of triumph in her voice, ‘I am not totally unobservant and unable to work out anything for myself. I noticed how you examined the branch. After we parted company I went back and took a look at it myself. I couldn’t see how it had anything to do with what had happened, I admit. But on the off chance I brought it back here and kept it. I haven’t done anything with it and I was on the point of throwing it out. I had no excuse for sending it over to forensics but now I will.’
‘But this is great!’ I exclaimed. ‘Perhaps they’ll be able to get skin scrapings from it, either Ivo’s from the forked end or Lisa’s from the end she held it.’
Pereira shook her head. ‘The public has a lot of faith in DNA these days. Don’t get your hopes up, Fran. I’ll send it off to forensics. But like I say, don’t count on it. And before you leave here I’ll have to ask you to give a sample for DNA testing for process of elimination. After all, you did handle the branch. I saw you do so myself.’
‘Oh, wonderful,’ I said, deflated. ‘So, ten to one, the only DNA on it will be mine!’
Pereira gave a wry smile. ‘I still don’t see what gave you the idea Lisa might have been playing around with Ivo.’
‘Oh, that,’ I said. ‘That really came into my head after talking to Cheryl, the woman who was looking after my dog and lost her. I suppose it’s all about falling for unsuitable people. Allerton fell for Lisa like a ton of bricks. But you always want what you can’t have. On the other hand, because something’s being offered to you on a plate you don’t necessarily take it. Take loyal old Ned here in Oxford. He and Lisa have obviously got some past history and Ned is still smitten, poor dope. So what would have attracted Lisa to Ned for a while? He’s young, tall, well built, puts in lots of weight-training I’d guess. Then I realised I could be describing Ivo.
‘As for Mickey Allerton,’ I went on, remembering the scene at the club, ‘if he ever had a physique it’s just a memory now. I mean, he’s looked after himself but he’s no he-man. When I last saw him in person he was putting sugar substitute in his coffee and he told me he’d tried the Atkins Diet.’
‘He’d do better to attend a gym,’ said Pereira.
‘He’d probably have a heart attack,’ I said. ‘You know, Lisa said something to me once which sort of explains things. She said that when you work “with people like that”, it’s a great mistake to “let them into your life”. She was talking about Jasna at the time, but I think she meant everyone connected with the club. Lisa is devoted to her parents. But emotionally the Stallards are a needy pair. They urged her to leave home and make a dancing career but she only left them physically, if you like to think of it that way, never in her heart. She’s always known how much she means to them and tried to return their devotion. It hasn’t left room for anyone else in her life, not emotionally.
‘Sex without involvement is different. She enjoyed sex with someone like Ivo, who only wanted his vanity flattered, or in the old Oxford days with Ned who could be fobbed off with friendship. But the other thing Lisa likes, besides hunks, is money. Believe me, that girl could spend for Britain. You should have seen the clothes and shoes in her closet before Julie got at them all with a carving knife.
‘She wanted a sugar daddy to pay for her expensive tastes and she found one in Allerton. But he wasn’t content with that role. Unlike Ivo or Ned, he started to talk commitment, mutual commitment. She discovered she was becoming less his pampered mistress than his possession and, if they ever went to Spain, she’d virtually be his prisoner there. And there was still disgruntled old Ivo. He could prove difficult. No wonder she cut and ran.’
There was a long silence. The wasp huddled in a corner of a pane, just quivering its wings. Pereira spoke. ‘It’s a good story. But it will be a difficult one to prove. In the meantime, Fran, if I charge anyone, I ought to charge you with obstruction.’
‘Great,’ I muttered. ‘Lisa walks away from murder. I’m done for obstruction.’
‘No, not yet, anyway.’ Pereira’s voice and look warned me. ‘I’ve been talking to Inspector Janice Morgan on your home patch in London. She’s been telling me all about you.’
‘Oh, right,’ I mumbled. Was this good or bad?
‘In the circumstances, I’ll let any charge of obstruction lie on file. I won’t be taking any action. That might change if you start playing detective in Oxford again. Consider yourself very lucky. When you’ve made your statement you can go back to London. I suggest you don’t play detective there, either. Leave it to the professionals. It’s not for amateurs.’
Not for amateurs? Would they have worked it out as I had done?
‘I know she did it,’ I said.
‘We often believe we know who’s responsible for a crime. Proving it is another matter.’ She gave a smile which was almost wistful.
I looked up at the window. ‘Do you mind if I let that wasp out before I go?’ Why should Lisa be the only one to go free?
Unexpectedly, Pereira spoke again. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you this, but word has just come through that Paul Stallard collapsed after Lisa left with me to come here. He’s in hospital, in intensive care. It’s his heart. His chances don’t look good. Jennifer Stallard is apparently in a dreadful state. So Lisa isn’t avoiding all the fall-out from her behaviour.’
‘She isn’t the one in intensive care,’ I snapped.
I signed my statement and came out of the police station into the afternoon sun. There she was, right there, walking across the car park towards the gate ahead of me.
I called, ‘Lisa!’
She turned and waited for me to catch up with her. She didn’t look pleased to see me.
‘So,’ I said. ‘They’ve let you out.’
‘Compassionate grounds,’ she said coldly. ‘My dad’s in hospital. My mum needs me. I’ve made a statement, anyway.’
‘I heard about your dad,’ I admitted. ‘I’m sorry for your parents.’
She scowled furiously at me. ‘But for you, they wouldn’t have found out anything about this! This wouldn’t have happened!’
‘Hey,’ I said. ‘Don’t blame me. You should have told them the truth from the beginning. And your parents don’t know the half of it, do they?’
‘Get lost,’ she advised me. ‘I don’t have to talk to you. I don’t have to talk to anyone, not even the police any more, until my lawyer gets here.’
‘What lawyer?’ I asked.
‘Mickey’s sending him down from London. I just phoned.’ She gave me a little smile of triumph. ‘He said I shouldn’t have made any statement but phoned for a lawyer first. Anyway, now he says sit tight with the statement I’ve made and wait for my legal adviser.’
‘We’re not talking about Filigrew, are we?’ I gasped.
She looked surprised. ‘Filigrew? That funny little man who does odd legal work for Mickey? No, of course not. Mickey’s engaged a real top-notch man.’
She swung on her heel and walked off towards the gate.
Flabbergasted isn’t too strong a word for how I felt. I stood where I was until I heard my name called and saw Ganesh signalling to me.
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked absently, my mind still with Lisa.
‘I had to make a statement, too,’ he said huffily, ‘about what I saw down by the river and the fracas in Ned’s flat.’ He peered at me. ‘You’ve got a black eye coming there.’
‘Are you surprised? You didn’t pull her off me!’
He looked offended. ‘Was it my fault? I was stuck in a beanbag with a body-builder sitting on top of me.’
I grinned. ‘You looked like an upturned tortoise, feet waving in the air, unable to right yourself.’
‘Thank you. Who designed beanbags? Stupid things.’ He pointed after Lisa. ‘What about her?’
‘Mickey’s hired a good lawyer for her. That’s not his baby, Ganesh. I’m sure of it. I think it’s Ivo’s.’
‘Oh yes?’ said Ganesh dourly. ‘If it turns out you’re right about that and Alle
rton finds out, it won’t be a lawyer he’ll be hiring to take care of Lisa, but a hit man.’
‘How’s he going to find out? Lisa and the lawyer will put up a cast-iron defence to any accusation of murder and the police will buy it. She’s clever, Ganesh. I hate to admit it, but she’s one very smart person.’ I turned to look at him. ‘That girl’s a murderer, Ganesh. I know she is. But Mickey’s wizard lawyer will get her off, Mickey will marry her and they’ll go off and live in a luxury Spanish villa with a kidney-shaped pool.’
‘How do you know the shape of the pool?’ he asked, smiling down at me. He was growing his hair long again, much to his uncle’s annoyance. Strands of it rippled in the warm summer air.
‘Julie told me. Anyway, those places always have kidney-shaped pools. I’ve seen pictures. There’s no justice, Ganesh.’