‘I suppose the bloke who lives in the house runs his business from here,’ said Lineham. ‘Looks as though he’s doing all right.’
The place had a prosperous air. The parking area was embellished with terracotta pots filled with variegated ivy and there was not a dead leaf or a scrap of litter to be seen. Compu-Tech’s premises were relatively new; paintwork sparkled, windows shone and despite yesterday’s rain the ramp of non-slip tiles leading to the front door was unsullied.
Ramp?
Thanet looked about him with new eyes. There was a handrail alongside it, he noted, and the door was unusually wide. He pointed this out to Lineham. ‘If the chap who runs the firm is handicapped, maybe that’s why his office is here rather than in the town.’
‘Could be,’ said Lineham. ‘In any case, is there any point in knocking here? Perhaps we ought to go over to the house instead.’
‘We’re just assuming the owner lives in the house. We’ll try here first. If there’s no reply, we’ll go across.’
They knocked twice, with no response.
They were just turning away when they heard footsteps approaching along the side of the building and a moment later a young woman rounded the corner.
‘Can I help you?’
She was absolutely beautiful, thought Thanet, tall and slender with abundant black hair and dusky skin almost the colour of a ripe aubergine. She was wearing jeans and a brightly patterned sweater and on her hip she carried an enchanting little girl of about five. Four velvet-brown eyes stared at him as he explained who he was and presented his identification.
‘We wanted to have a word with the owner of Compu-Tech, in connection with a case we’re working on.’
‘Is he in trouble?’
‘No, not at all. We just want some information from him.’
‘He’s out to lunch, but he said he’d be back about a quarter past two. What time is it now?’
A Kentish accent, Thanet noted. Second generation immigrant background, then.
Lineham checked his watch. ‘Five to.’
She hesitated, then said, ‘I’m his housekeeper. You can come into my place and wait, if you like.’
Thanet accepted with alacrity. This was an unexpected bonus.
‘The owner of Compu-Tech doesn’t live in the big house, then?’ he said as they trailed behind her to the far end of the long, low building. ‘We rather wondered if we were knocking at the wrong door.’
She shook her head and flashed a smile at him over her shoulder, her teeth dazzlingly white and even. ‘His parents live there. Giles – Mr Fester – built this place with the compensation money from his accident.’
‘His accident?’
She had left her blue-painted front door standing ajar and they followed her through a tiny hall into a small square sitting room. The overwhelming impression was of colour, but of daring colour harmonies rather than of garishness. The carpet, which was scattered with toys, was neutral but the curtains were a kaleidoscope of pink, purple, and magenta with, here and there, touches of red which should have clashed but somehow didn’t. There was very little furniture: one sturdy low coffee table with a portable television set on it, two armchairs with loose covers, one pink, one purple, and a child’s wicker armchair. On the long blank wall opposite the window hung a sizeable appliqué picture of what Thanet immediately recognised as Sturrenden High Street. Fascinated, he went to look more closely at it. There it was, executed in a wealth of different fabrics – wool and cotton, velvet and taffeta, silk, brocade, and lace – and in a variety of embroidery stitches, down to the last picturesque detail: antique shops, church, pubs, market square and beyond, the silvery sheen of the river Sture, its tiny waves stitched in shiny metallic thread.
She had gone off to fetch a kitchen chair and when she came back he said, ‘Did you do this?’
She nodded, smiling. ‘Yes. It’s my hobby.’
‘It’s amazing. How long did it take?’
‘Several months, working in the evenings. I don’t go out much.’
She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, Thanet noticed as they sat down. A single parent, then, whose life and choice of work would be dictated by the needs of her little girl. But it looked as though she had been lucky here. A council flat, often in a high-rise building, was as much as most young women in her position could hope for.
‘It’s very kind of you to allow us to wait here, Mrs …?’
‘Miss,’ she said, with a wry smile. ‘Miss Patel. But call me Kari. And this’ – she hugged her daughter, who had climbed on to her lap – ‘is Jemima. Jem for short.’
Thanet smiled at the child. ‘Hullo, Jem.’
‘You were saying your employer – Mr Fester, was it?’ said Lineham.
‘Mr Fester, yes.’
‘You were saying he’d had an accident.’
Her smile faded. ‘Yes. A bad one. I didn’t know him then, of course, this was seven or eight years ago, I believe, but he was in a car crash and he’s been in a wheelchair ever since. He’s paralysed from the waist down. He’s an amazing man, when you think what he’s achieved in spite of his handicap.’
The warmth with which she spoke of him made Thanet wonder if she felt more than admiration for her employer. ‘Yes. The clients we talked to spoke very highly of his firm.’
‘It has a very good reputation in the area. But then, he’s got a real talent for his work, or so I’m told. I don’t understand much about computers myself.’
‘What does he do, exactly?’
Apparently deciding that the two strangers offered no threat Jem slipped off her mother’s lap and knelt on the floor by a weird and wonderful creation in Lego bricks. She scooped up some more bricks and automatically her mother held out cupped hands to receive them, then began to hand them one by one to her daughter as she used them. It was obviously a well-worn routine.
‘Anything to do with computers,’ said Kari, watching Jem. ‘He’s an agent for some of the well-known makes and he’s written a couple of very successful word-processing programmes. But the thing he enjoys most is inventing computer programmes to suit clients’ special needs. And then he dabbles in computer games as well.’
‘Wow,’ said Lineham, obviously impressed. ‘He must be a genius!’
She laughed. ‘Not far off it, I imagine.’
‘And you presumably look after this place for him and cook his meals?’
‘Yes. I clean, tidy, wash, cook. He can do most of those things for himself but he prefers to spend his time on other things. Like basketball, for instance.’ She smiled at their surprise. ‘Before his accident he was a great sportsman and it’s lucky he found a sport he can still play. He’s in the Kent team and spends a lot of time practising and working out in the gym in Sturrenden.’
‘He certainly does sound pretty amazing,’ said Thanet.
She smiled. ‘I told you. He is. I was very lucky to get this job.’ She dropped a caressing hand on to Jem’s curls. ‘It suits us down to the ground.’
‘Is it a very big firm?’ said Lineham.
‘No. There’s just Giles, a girl called Elaine, who’s also qualified in computers, and a receptionist-cum-secretary.’
The way she said ‘a girl called Elaine’ gave her away. Thanet was sure now that he’d been right about her feelings for her employer. She was definitely jealous of Elaine, or at least resented her for some reason. Perhaps Fester was the man in Elaine’s life?
Probing further he learned that Elaine lived in Sturrenden and had worked for Giles Fester for two years – and that it was Elaine he had taken out to lunch. She would be coming back here with him afterwards and would probably spend the afternoon with him. He glanced at Lineham. Take over, Mike. He wanted to think.
The reason why they had pursued this particular line of inquiry was because they had wondered if Randish’s current mistress could lead them to a jealous husband or boyfriend lurking in the background, and it had obviously also occurred to Thanet that Elaine’s employer co
uld be the man they were seeking. When he had learnt that Giles Fester was confined to a wheelchair he had dismissed this idea but Kari’s reaction, coupled with the fact that the relationship between Elaine and Fester was obviously more than a working one, had made him think again. Fester seemed an unlikely candidate, true, but was he as unlikely as all that?
Lineham was asking if Fester and Elaine spent much of their time off together.
‘A fair amount,’ said Kari.
It was obvious that she did not like the turn the conversation had taken. Now she cocked her head in relief. ‘I think that’s them now.’
‘Just one more question, Miss Patel,’ said Lineham quickly as she jumped up, taking Jem by the hand.
‘What?’
Already at the door she half turned, poised for flight.
He stood up. ‘Was Mr Fester out on Friday night?’
Her expression hardened. ‘I’ve no idea. I spent the evening with a girlfriend. Jem came with me.’
She turned and hurried on ahead, Jem running to keep up with her. Behind her back Thanet and Lineham exchanged rueful glances.
‘Sorry,’ Lineham murmured. ‘Mucked that up, didn’t I?’
Thanet shook his head. ‘Don’t worry about it. She wouldn’t have told you anyway.’
‘Perhaps not. Pretty keen on him, isn’t she?’
They caught up with her at the parking area. With Jem settled on her hip again she was talking through the car window to the man in the driver’s seat of a BMW with a disabled sticker in the back. He turned his head to watch them as they approached.
Kari turned away – reluctantly, Thanet thought, and went off down the side path again.
‘Sorry to disturb you on a Sunday afternoon, sir,’ said Thanet. He introduced himself and Lineham and smiled at the girl who was getting out of the passenger seat.
She smiled back at him. ‘Elaine Wood.’
She looked familiar. Thanet had probably seen her around the town. It wasn’t surprising that Wakeham had noticed her, he thought. She was eye-catching enough to attract any man’s attention, though her regular, Barbie-doll features, fashionably tousled shoulder-length dark hair and immaculate make-up were too magazine-coverish for his own taste. But she was certainly Randish’s type – small, slender and exuding femininity. She was wearing tight jeans and an expensive soft suede jacket in a pale mint green. And, no doubt about it, that smile had been tinged with nervousness. She knew why they had come.
‘Have I done something I shouldn’t?’ said Fester with a grin.
Without waiting for an answer he swung open the car door, revealing the fact that he was sitting not in a conventional car seat but in a wheelchair.
Thanet’s doubts over the safety of this arrangement were quickly dispelled. Fester leaned first to one side then the other and with a series of sharp tugs revealed that the wheelchair had been securely bolted to the floor. Thanet and Lineham watched fascinated as Fester then pressed a switch which caused a small platform to slide out beside the driver’s door. In no time at all he had manoeuvred his electric wheelchair out on to the platform, activated concealed hydraulics which lowered the platform to the ground, wheeled himself off it and returned it to its original position.
‘That’s an ingenious arrangement you’ve got there, sir,’ said Lineham in obvious admiration.
Fester laughed. ‘We had some teething troubles, but I think we’ve got them cracked.’
He was a handsome young man of about thirty with a mop of curly hair and a luxuriant beard. He was wearing chestnut-coloured corduroy trousers and a thick white Aran sweater. His shoulders were broad and his arms powerful. His parents must have been heartbroken when an accident had put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, thought Thanet.
‘Did you design it yourself?’ said Lineham.
Fester was enjoying the sergeant’s interest. ‘Yes, I did, as a matter of fact.’
‘You ought to patent it. You’d make a fortune.’
‘I’m afraid you’d need a small fortune, to buy one! I don’t think the DHSS would be too keen on it as a standard modification.’
Swinging around, Fester set off up the ramp to the front door, followed by Elaine. Inside they passed through a reception area and along a short corridor with two office doors opening off to the left. At the far end was another door and Fester took a plastic key-card from his pocket and inserted it into a slit beside it. The door clicked open. ‘Extra security,’ he said with a smile.
They followed him in and found themselves in an open-plan hall/living room/kitchen with a wide door at the far side leading probably to a bedroom and en suite bathroom, Thanet thought. The kitchen area had been designed with low work-surfaces and the living area was comfortable, attractive and obstacle-free, with colourful floor-length curtains in a masculine, geometric design of black, red and grey, and black leather settee and armchairs on an off-white carpet. One wall was covered in bookshelves from floor to ceiling and there was an expensive CD system with racks of CDs alongside.
Fester waved a hand. ‘Do sit down, Inspector, Sergeant. I’m most intrigued by your visit. Would you like some tea or coffee?’
Thanet refused and he and Lineham sat down. Elaine remained standing.
‘I expect you want to talk to Mr Fester privately,’ she said.
Thanet smiled at her. ‘Oh no, not at all. In fact, the only reason why we came here was to try to find out where you lived. We thought that as your employer Mr Fester would know.’
‘Me?’ she said nervously. She glanced apprehensively at Fester.
She’s been two-timing him, Thanet thought. The question was, had Fester known?
‘So please, Miss Wood, sit down, won’t you?’
FOURTEEN
Elaine sat down in one of the armchairs, the black leather accentuating the darkness of her hair and eyes, the soft luxurious paleness of her suede jacket. She had recovered her composure and looked relaxed, knees folded sideways, one hand in her lap, the other lying carelessly along the arm of the chair. It was a studied pose – too studied to be natural, Thanet thought. In his experience even the most innocent members of the public were tense and nervous when interviewed by the police for the first time. What did she have to hide? he wondered. If she had concealed her relationship with Randish from Fester, perhaps she was still hoping that she could bluff her way out of this.
Thanet reminded himself not to fall into the familiar trap of equating glamour with lack of intellect. Elaine Wood was a trained computer expert, an intelligent woman. It would be best to establish at the outset that they were aware of her connection with Randish.
‘As you, Miss Wood, have no doubt realised, we are investigating the murder of Mr Randish, the owner of Sturrenden Vineyard.’
‘A terrible business,’ said Fester. ‘We were talking about it over lunch. But …’
Thanet acknowledged the comment with a nod before going on. ‘Miss Wood, I must confess I was somewhat taken aback by your reaction just now, when I said we’d come here to try and trace you through your employer. A number of witnesses have confirmed that you were going out with Mr Randish and it seems that you didn’t exactly try to hide the fact. You must surely have been expecting us to interview you.’
She flicked a glance at Fester, who raised his eyebrows at her. But Thanet was sure that his surprise was feigned, not genuine.
She gave a resigned sigh. ‘Half expecting it, I suppose you might say.’
‘You seem surprised, Mr Fester.’
‘Why shouldn’t I be?’
‘You didn’t know about this relationship?’
‘I resent that word, Inspector,’ said Elaine. ‘You make it sound much more serious than it was.’
‘Did you know about it, Mr Fester?’ Thanet persisted.
‘No. Miss Wood’s private life is her own affair.’
‘Except that it does seem to overlap with yours.’
‘Why should that concern you?’
‘I should have
thought it was fairly obvious.’
‘Not in the least.’
‘Then think about it, sir.’ Thanet turned back to Elaine. ‘When did you last see Mr Randish, Miss Wood?’
‘On Tuesday.’
‘Where did you go?’
‘We went out for a pub lunch, at the Barley Mow on the Cranbrook Road.’
‘I suppose it must have been difficult for you to meet in the evenings lately, it was the busiest time of year for him. Did you see anyone you know?’ Thanet was thinking of Landers. If Landers had seen them having lunch together on Tuesday that would account for his having had a row with Zak about it on Wednesday.
‘No.’
‘Anyone Mr Randish knew?’
‘Not to my knowledge. But I really haven’t the faintest idea whether we did or not. He must have known loads of people I didn’t. He grew up in the area.’
‘And you didn’t?’
‘No. I was brought up in Sussex.’
‘So you never met Mr Randish until you went out to the vineyard to work with him on the new computer system?’
‘No.’
‘You knew he was married?’
‘Naturally. I could hardly fail to know, considering his wife and family live on the premises.’
Thanet wasn’t here to question her morals. ‘You don’t seem exactly heartbroken that he’s dead.’
‘Why should I be? I was upset when I heard the news, of course I was, I’d be upset if I heard anyone I knew had been murdered – wouldn’t you? But don’t get it wrong, Inspector. It wasn’t exactly the love affair of a lifetime. Zak was attractive, yes, fun to be with, and he gave me a good time. But that’s all.’
‘That may be true. But it might not have looked that way to other people … to Mr Fester here, for instance.’
‘What do you mean?’ she said.
‘Well, as I was pointing out a moment ago, you do go out with him as well.’
‘So?’ said Fester.
No Laughing Matter Page 14