Call It Pretending (#3 - D.I. Paolo Storey Crime Series)
Page 25
Paolo nodded. From looking through Bradley Simmonds’s notebooks, he already knew the answer to the next question he intended to ask, but wanted to get it on record.
“So why was Jon Miller not on your list of victims?”
“I planned to make it appear he’d killed them. I wanted him to go to prison for murder, because that’s where he should have gone when he killed Grace. I killed them all at a time when I knew he’d have trouble proving his alibi.”
“Was it you who called the hospital in Leicester and changed the time of his interview?”
Bradley nodded. “I took the job in the pub because I knew he used to go in there at least three or four times a week. I thought it was the easiest way of finding out what was going on in his life. It wasn’t hard to get him to confide in me about wanting to move away from his brother. When he told me he had an interview on a Friday, it felt like fate was on my side.”
“I take it you ordered the insulin on his card to incriminate him?”
Bradley nodded. “I thought that would convince a jury.”
“How did you get his credit card details?”
“I copied them down when he paid for meals in the pub. Once I had the three digits on the back of the card, I knew I could use it online.”
“I can understand your motives for the professor and Conrad Stormont. At a stretch I can see why you’d blame Jon Miller’s legal team and Dr Carter, but Edwin Fulbright did all he could to save your wife.”
Bradley looked across the table and Paolo was stunned by his bleak expression of loss and loneliness.
“But he didn’t save her, did he? He saved Jon’s miserable brother, but not my lovely Grace.”
“Did you kill Andrew Miller?”
Bradley smiled and nodded. “Beat him to a pulp first and then killed him.”
“But why?” Paolo asked. “He wasn’t on your list.”
“I told you, Jon Miller used to come in and whine about his brother. One day last week, he told me Andy had been able to walk for over a year, but had kept it quiet so that he could keep claiming the benefits. Jon thought it was also so that Andy could continue to play the guilt card.” Bradley’s eyes flashed with rage. “All the time I thought he was a victim of his brother’s crime, I felt sympathy for him. When I discovered what he was doing, I decided to go round there and wipe him out. He was no use to society, and I thought Jon would probably get the blame.”
“How did you get into the flat?” Paolo asked.
“I used a key. Jon had dropped one in the bar some time ago. I pretended to look for it, but stuck it in my pocket instead. I told him I’d given it to his upstairs neighbour.”
Paolo checked his list of questions, but was already pretty sure he’d covered everything. He glanced at his watch. Barbara would be coming out of the operating theatre soon. It was time to keep his promise to her.
“Do you have anything you would like to add?”
Bradley shook his head. “Just that I’m sorry I didn’t manage to get justice for Grace. If you’d arrived ten minutes later, I would have succeeded.”
Paolo shuddered at the thought of what would have happened to Jessica if he hadn’t arrived when he did. He looked again at his watch and read out the time.
“This interview is terminated,” he said.
***
Paolo sat next to the bed waiting for Barbara to wake up again. She’d opened her eyes briefly when she’d been wheeled in from the recovery room, but then had fallen back into a deep sleep. His gaze wandered around the room, taking in the fact that there were no cards or gifts. How she’d managed to keep her illness and this operation a secret was beyond him. One thing he had expected was for her friend, the giver of the special coffee machine, to be here for her. He wondered if that little romance had died a natural death and hoped for Barbara’s sake that it hadn’t. She deserved someone good in her life.
He heard a murmur and looked back towards the bed. Barbara’s eyes were open. He stood up and walked the three paces separating the visitor’s chair from the side of the bed.
“Hey,” he said. “How’re you feeling?”
“Okay,” she whispered. “Funny. Groggy. Thank you for being here.”
He held her hand, taking care not to disturb the needle connecting her to the various liquids being fed into her system from the drip support.
“The nurse who was here earlier said for you to press this buzzer if you have any pain.”
“Okay.”
Paolo smiled. “She also made it quite clear that I should only stay for a few minutes after you wake up.”
Barbara nodded. “Did you catch the killer?”
He smiled. “I did, but I’m not going to tell you about it now, except to say Jessica was his next target. Fortunately, Dave and I got there in time.”
She laughed, but the spasm that followed showed it must have hurt.
“Got there in the nick of time, like a superhero. We’ll have to set you up with a phone box to keep your superhero outfit in. Jessica is lucky to have you.”
Paolo thought about the way Jessica had looked before he took Bradley to the station.
“She’s pretty shaken up at the moment,” he said.
Barbara’s eyes closed. Paolo decided to go and turned towards the door.
The merest hint of a whisper reached him as he put his hand out for the handle, but surely he must have misheard? He looked back at the bed. Barbara was in a deep sleep.
As he moved along the corridor towards the lift, he tried to convince himself he hadn’t heard her say anything at all, but deep inside he knew he had. Walking from the lift to the hospital’s front entrance, he told himself he should go directly to Jessica’s, but Barbara’s whisper had left him feeling unsettled. He needed to sort out his thoughts before he went to Jessica’s flat.
He’d never tell another living soul, not even Barbara herself, but he was certain he’d heard her say, “I love you.”
He opened the door and walked out into the chill of a September evening. It seemed autumn had finally arrived to take away the warmth of summer.
THE END
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