‘We appreciate your telling us,’ Grenville said, looking worried, as well he might. It seemed increasingly likely that someone connected with the production was responsible for Juliette’s murder. With the press already blaming her death on the pressures of reality TV it was hard for Ty to decide if Grenville would tenaciously defend any suspects hauled in for questioning or distance his clients from them with a speed that defied gravity. Ty’s money was on the latter.
‘We’ll be formally interviewing everyone involved with the production who was here yesterday,’ Vickery added. ‘Those interviews will take place at Reading Police Station. We’ve already cleared Mr Gasquet’s two chefs who were working yesterday’s lunch service. They can both account for every second of their time since leaving here and their stories check out.’ Ty nodded, knowing this meant they didn’t have criminal records. Vickery would have made sure of that. ‘We also have people examining all the available film footage to see if we can trace Ms Hammond’s last movements.’
‘I shall be present at all the interviews, inspector,’ Grenville said.
‘I rather thought that might be the case,’ Vickery replied drolly.
‘Do you need my wife and me to come to the station to be interviewed?’ Drew asked.
‘No, sir, that won’t be necessary. Your statements have already been typed up. You just need to sign them. I need to speak with the other three contestants, your chef and the two members of the production team who were here. Oh, and I believe the show’s host was around.’
Patrick and Evan shared a surprised look that didn’t escape Vickery’s notice. ‘What gave you that idea?’ Evan asked.
‘One of the crew mentioned it, sir. We’ll need to talk to him as well. It’s a case of establishing where everyone was and what they saw or didn’t see of Ms Hammond.’
‘Right, well anything we can do to help,’ Drew said.
‘I’m returning to Reading now, ready for the press statement. DC Hogan will stay here and arrange for the interviewees to be brought to the station as and when we’re ready for them.’
‘Can we go into the annexe again?’ Alexi asked. ‘Have your people finished there?’
‘They have and you can. Whether the contestants will feel comfortable sleeping there again so soon after this tragedy is another matter.’
No one spoke for several minutes after the police left the kitchen.
‘Will the show go on?’ Alexi asked, breaking the silence.
Ty wasn’t surprised when the producer nodded. ‘Probably. The station bosses are making a final decision this afternoon but, just so long as no one involved is charged with murder, they have too much time and money invested in it to cancel now. Especially given that there are four other regional contests being shot simultaneously.’
‘And Marcel will stay on?’ Alexi asked.
‘We’re not into trial by television,’ Evan replied. ‘If we dropped him it would imply that we thought he had something to do with the death which, as far as I know, he didn’t.’
‘I know he didn’t do it,’ Cheryl said staunchly.
‘Of course he didn’t, love.’ Drew slid an arm around Cheryl’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze. ‘Why would he?’
‘A lot of the evidence does point to him, albeit circumstantial,’ Alexi point out gloomily.
‘Except for a motive,’ Ty said. ‘He had means and opportunity but no motive. Hard to get a conviction without one. Besides, we don’t know much about where everyone else was. And Juliette was supposedly overheard arguing with someone else after she left Marcel, remember?’
Alexi nodded. ‘You mean with…’
Ty nudged her and she abruptly stopped talking. He didn’t want the TV people to know about Juliette’s supposed argument with Paul Dakin until they absolutely had to. They would protect Marcel if they could but if the only alternative suspect was Dakin—one of their own—then the cynic in Ty didn’t doubt that the production company would feed Marcel to the wolves in order to protect the show’s host.
‘I gather the others are all upstairs in the residents’ lounge,’ Alexi said. ‘I might as well wander up there and see what they have to say for themselves. No one said we couldn’t talk to them before they give their statements. Besides, I’ve got to know them quite well in the short time they’ve been here and they’ll probably open up to me.’
‘Alexi, have you got a moment?’ Patrick grasped her elbow and drew her aside. ‘This probably sounds indelicate,’ he said in a lowered voice that Ty could still hear because he made a point of loitering close enough to eavesdrop, ‘but you know how it works. If we don’t print the truth then someone else will.’
‘Ever the newsman, Patrick,’ she replied, sounding weary yet resigned. ‘Just let it be for now. When the dust settles, we’ll see where we stand.’
‘Can we have dinner together later?’ he asked, casting a wary glance Ty’s way.
‘I don’t think so.’ She turned away from him. ‘I’ll call you,’ she said in a tone that made it clear the subject wasn’t up for debate.
‘He doesn’t give up,’ Ty said as he followed Alexi, Cosmo and Toby up the stairs.
She sighed. ‘He’s right about one thing though. If I wasn’t so closely involved, I’d be busting my gut to get the inside scoop too.’ She flashed a wry smile. ‘I’m starting not to like the person I used to be.’
‘That’s not what I meant.’
She expelled a long breath. ‘No, I know you didn’t.’
‘Okay with you if I sit in while you talk to the contestants? I don’t know them so might see something you miss.’
‘Sure. If they don’t mind me asking questions or you being there while I do then it’s fine with me.’
Only Greta was in the lounge, engrossed in something on her iPad.
‘Hi, Greta,’ Alexi said. ‘All alone?’
‘John and Anton appeared for breakfast but have been back in their rooms ever since.’ Greta shrugged her wide shoulders as she shot a wary look in Cosmo’s direction. Cosmo stalked across the room, looking for somewhere comfortable to snooze, and ignored Greta. ‘We’re all a bit on edge, which is hardly to be wondered at, I suppose.’
Ty hadn’t seen Greta in the flesh before but recognised her from the programme. She was tall and probably thirty pounds overweight. She had a round face and a button mouth that looked too small for it. Her hair was arguably her best feature. Dark brown, thick and sleek, it bounced on her shoulders when she moved her head, not a split end in sight. She had a habit of twirling the ends around her fingers when she spoke, as though it was one aspect of her appearance she felt she didn’t have to apologise for. She wore a trendy pair of glasses, no makeup and tent-like clothing that disguised the shape of her body.
She wasn’t unattractive but didn’t make the best of herself. Because she didn’t care about appearances or because she was too serious about cooking to worry about how she looked? There again, trying to compete in the looks department with Juliette would have been beyond most women’s capabilities. She was probably intelligent enough to know she’d been selected for the programme partly because she and Juliette were chalk and cheese.
Ty had studied all the notes Alexi held from the studio, supplied to her by Patrick, regarding each competitor’s background. He knew that Greta was twenty six, had a high IQ and worked for an IT company. But, like all the competitors, her passion was cooking and she wanted to make it as a professional chef. Being selected for the programme was her best chance of achieving that ambition. Now it all hung in the balance.
‘Mind if we join you?’ Alexi asked, sitting down before Greta could respond. ‘This is a friend of mine, Tyler Maddox.’
‘Pleased to meet you,’ Ty said, extending his hand. ‘Sorry it has to be under such circumstances.’
Greta shook Ty’s hand and shrugged. ‘Selfish bitch,’ she muttered.
‘I take it you’re referring to Juliette,’ Alexi said. ‘Probably better not to speak about her like tha
t in front of the police. They might think you had a hand in her demise.’
‘They probably already do. All that antagonism between us on screen wasn’t play-acting, you know, and I told them so when we spoke yesterday.’ She lifted her wide shoulders in a belligerent gesture. ‘Didn’t see any reason not to be straight with them. We were all getting sick of the cameras following our every move twenty-four seven, but for once I’m glad they did. I was either in the residents’ lounge in the annexe all evening or elsewhere under the eagle eye of a camera, and the footage will prove it.’ She looked smug. ‘So I’m in the clear, which means I get bragging rights and can say I’m not sorry she’s dead.’ Her head shot up. ‘What? Don’t look at me like that, Alexi. I have many faults but no one’s ever accused me of being a hypocrite.’
Alexi managed a sardonic smile. ‘Obviously not.’
‘I really didn’t like her but I did want the show to go on so I could beat her fair and square. I would have done it, too. She might have waggled her dainty little backside at all the men who mattered, but I’m a better chef than she would ever have been.’ Greta sighed. ‘Still, I guess they’ll cancel the series now as a sign of respect, or some such garbage, and it’ll have all been for nothing.’
‘Actually,’ Alexi said, sharing a raised eyebrow look with Ty, ‘I think they plan to carry on.’
‘Really?’ Greta brightened considerably. ‘Cool.’
‘Murder is good for ratings, apparently,’ Ty said but his sarcasm was clearly lost on Greta.
‘Why didn’t the two of you get on?’ Alexi asked. ‘I get it that you resented her using her feminine wiles on the men. That would have annoyed me too, but I think you’re bright enough to realise she was put on the show with that purpose in mind. That the suits encouraged it because they always have one eye on the ratings.’
Greta sighed in a considering way that Ty had seen many times before during interviews with suspects. She knew something and was trying to decide how much more to say to them.
‘It’s not common knowledge,’ she said, ‘but I expect it will come out now that she’s dead so you might as well hear it from me. The thing is, we’d met before.’
‘What!’ Ty and Alexi said together.
‘When?’ Ty asked alone. ‘Did the producers know?’
‘At school. I left eight years ago when I was eighteen. And yes, they did know but I didn’t tell the police. I’d been waiting for that sleaze ball Dakin to throw our acrimonious past up in the questions they set us in recreation,’ Greta said. ‘Bet they regret not getting that one in earlier. Anyway, Juliette and I both went to Eversham.’
‘That posh fee-paying place near Arborfield?’ Ty asked.
‘No need to look so shocked,’ Greta replied huffily. ‘Juliette went there because her old man stumped up the fees. I got offered a scholarship place. She was a year behind me but I remember that she was a right little madam even then. Her dad expected her to excel at everything, which was daft because nobody can. Anyway, she wasn’t going to disappoint him so used anyone and everyone she could to do her work for her. You know, giving her all the right facts to put in essays, pointing out the most likely areas to swot for in exams by going through past papers, stuff like that.’
‘You helped her?’
Greta nodded. ‘She paid well and I needed the money.’
‘Isn’t a lot of that stuff available online nowadays?’ Ty asked.
‘Yeah, if you know where to look, or can be arsed to do the looking. But the teachers were on to that. They could spot stuff cribbed from the net at twenty paces with the wind in the wrong direction. They’d seen it all before so you needed to be inventive to get it past them, and Juliette simply wasn’t that clever.’
‘So why did you fall out?’ Ty asked. ‘You had a business arrangement. Doesn’t mean you had to like one another. But it’s obvious you despised Juliette.’
‘It was over a boy,’ Greta said after a significant pause. ‘I was a slim inverted pear-shape in those days, with assets that got me noticed. And I had great hair and was passably pretty.’ Another twist of the hair in question. ‘My appearance wasn’t in Juliette’s league, of course, but no one’s was. Anyway, ours was an all-girls school but there was a kid of about twenty who came once a week and worked in the grounds with the gardeners. He and I got along and…well, we did more than just tinker in the potting shed, if you get my drift.’
Alexi and Ty nodded.
‘There’s not much more to tell. Juliette found out about it and took him from me. Not because she wanted him but because she was a spiteful bitch and because she could.’
‘Ouch!’ Alexi touched her hand. ‘That must have hurt. I assume she could get any guy she wanted, even then, so why do that to you?’
‘Because she was the wild one, always doing outrageous things to impress her friends. But even she had never had sex on the school grounds.’ Greta scowled. ‘I’d eclipsed her, you see, and I realised only when it was too late to change things that it had seriously pissed her off.’
‘How did she know? Did you go around telling people what you’d done?’ Ty asked. ‘Wasn’t that taking a bit of a risk? Presumably you’d have been expelled if the headmistress found out.’
‘Yeah well, I did boast to one or two people I thought I could trust. Stupid! Stupid! I should have known better. I never really fitted in with all those rich little misses and I thought it might gain me some street cred if they knew what I’d done. Like I say, it was stupid but when you’re that young and find your first love, you think the whole world will be glad for you and that it will last forever.’ She shook her head. ‘Ha, much I knew!’
‘So how did you find out that your boyfriend had cheated on you with Juliette?’ Alexi asked.
‘She deliberately fixed it so I’d catch them together. I’ve never forgotten her smirk when I did, the vicious little cow! Anyway, she had to find someone else to do her homework after that. All the money in the world wouldn’t have persuaded me to help her and I never spoke to her again until this programme started. And only then under sufferance.’
‘How did you feel when you knew you’d be competing against her?’ Ty asked.
‘Pleased,’ Greta said succinctly. ‘The only time I’d ever lost to her was over that boy. That wasn’t cerebral but cooking is, believe it or not, and I could out-think her any day of the week.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Ty said.
‘It’s really not complicated. We can all cook, otherwise we wouldn’t have survived the selection process. The competition for the final places was brutal. And I’ll give Juliette her due, she’d always liked to cook, even back at school. But it’s more than just that. There’s planning involved, timings, allowances for nerves and, of course, having the balls to be innovative enough to stand out.’ Greta screwed up her nose. ‘Juliette was going about it a different way by trying to get Marcel, Paul and who the hell knows who else to favour her by…well, returning the favours she was willing to dish out. In other words, history was repeating itself.’
‘You think she was sleeping with them both?’
Greta shrugged. ‘Wouldn’t put it past her but I don’t see how that would help her with the other stuff.’
‘What stuff?’ Ty asked.
‘Well, I know how to schedule my menus, how to make them ground-breaking, if you like, and how to ensure I have enough time to complete them.’ Greta grinned. ‘Juliette didn’t and had no one to do it for her. Unless, of course, she cozied up with Marcel, although I’m not sure he would fall for that one. He might take advantage of her if she offered to put out but he’s a dedicated chef and wouldn’t countenance cheating.’
Before Ty could ask more questions, Anton and John came into the room.
‘The police are just about to…oh, hi, Alexi,’ Anton said.
Alexi introduced them both to Ty. ‘What are the police about to do?’ she asked after the men had shaken hands.
‘Give a statement to the press,’ John r
eplied, switching on the television.
A high-ranking uniform stood in front of a bank of microphones, Vickery at his side, and said more or less what Vickery had told them to expect. There was a barrage of questions, all of which were fielded without giving anything away. Then it was over, having taken no more than three minutes. A number flashed up on the screen for people to ring with any information pertinent to the enquiry. Ty knew it would be flooded with time wasters but anything they said would still have to be followed up.
‘So she wasn’t killed in her room,’ John said pensively.
‘Course she wasn’t,’ Greta replied. ‘I was in the lounge. I’d have heard something.’
‘So, what happens now?’ Anton asked in his soft, lilting Caribbean accent. ‘What are we supposed to do? Will the show go on?’
‘Alexi seems to think so.’
‘Good,’ John and Anton said in unison.
The door opened and DC Hogan stood there. ‘Time for the three of you to come down to the station,’ she said. ‘Shouldn’t take long. We just need to go over what you told us about your whereabouts yesterday and get you to sign your statements.’
Alexi and Ty watched them gather up their coats and head off with the DC.
‘What did you make of Greta?’ Alexi asked.
‘She didn’t tell us the complete truth.’
‘What, about her prior relationship with Juliette?’ Ty nodded. ‘Doesn’t matter, does it, if she can prove where she was when Juliette was murdered?’
‘Precisely. So why lie?’
‘I don’t think she did. She just left a few things out. Things that probably didn’t show her in a good light. People have selective memories, you know.’
‘Hmm.’ Tyler’s phone pinged. ‘Good old Cass,’ he said, checking the message. ‘She’s got some stuff for us already. Look, there’s not much more I can do here until all the suspects have been formally interviewed. So, I’m going to head back to Newbury. I need to stop off at the office, clear up a few things, see what Cassie has for me and pick up some clothes. Then I’ll be back.’
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