Murder... Now and Then (48 page)

Inspector Hill gave her a disbelieving look. ‘The Anna he knew might not have been able to do it,' she said. ‘But that's because he degraded her year after year until she thought she couldn't survive without him. But you did, Anna, before you met him. The Anna I knew could have done it standing on her head.'

Anna thought about that, as the kettle boiled. She would have jumped at it in the old days. Swanning about, organizing parties, chatting up the local bigwigs, putting on exhibitions, selling the company, selling herself.

‘You have to build a new life, Anna,' the inspector called through. ‘Victor Holyoak stole it from you.'

Anna made the tea. ‘But I'm scared,' she said. ‘ I only know one job.' She got two mugs. ‘How do you take your tea?' she asked.

‘Milk, no sugar. Anna – you've been in public relations all your life.'

‘I think that must have been a misprint on the charge sheet' said Anna as she brought the tea through.

The inspector smiled. ‘They're not called charge sheets any more,' she said. ‘And girls like you are regarded as victims, which is what you are.'

‘Hasn't made much difference, though, has it? I mean, there are still girls like me – you haven't changed anything by changing the system.'

‘No,' the inspector conceded. ‘But that's your past, Anna. This is your future. All you have to do is make people feel special,' she said. ‘That's what public relations is all about. How they see you is how they'll see the company. Be yourself. Leave logos and letterheads to people who understand that sort of thing – you're the boss. Delegate. You do what you're best at – deal with the public. Make sure that whoever you're dealing with thinks that he's the most important person in your life. You must be good at that or Holyoak wouldn't have hung on to you this long.'

‘Oh, yes,' said Anna, handing the inspector her tea, and sitting down. ‘I can do that even if I am in my dotage. I had Max fooled.'

‘Max?' Inspector Hill put down her mug, at once interested and alert. ‘Are you saying that Holyoak arranged that?'

Anna smiled. ‘Max didn't know it was arranged,' she said. ‘It's not difficult to trap Max.'

‘But why did he want him trapped?'

‘I don't know. But whatever it was, it worked, I think.'

‘Trap him how?'

‘The bedroom in the penthouse has got a camera in the ceiling,' said Anna, a little reluctantly. ‘I didn't know – I thought Max was getting some sort of payoff for something he'd done for Victor. I'd never have talked to him about Victor's business if I had known – that's why Victor was going to get rid of me, because I'd talked out of turn. He told me on Wednesday. But he said that what I'd done had changed things – that's why I was being kept on after all – I didn't know what he meant.'

Inspector Hill was staring at her. ‘ There's a camera in that room and you didn't tell us?'

Anna realized what she thought. ‘Oh! No, don't get excited. He was expecting someone, and he wasn't about to record that. You don't have the murder on video, if that's what you're hoping.'

‘Where's the recording equipment?' she asked.

Anna shrugged. ‘There's a cupboard in Victor's office that no one else has the key to,' she said. ‘It might be there.'

‘Right,' The inspector abandoned her tea, and stood up.

‘But all you'll find is Max and me,' she said. ‘I don't know if that sort of thing turns you on.'

Inspector Hill smiled. ‘Neither do I,' she said. ‘But you said it had changed things – so I think I'm going to have to find out. Sorry.'

Another shrug. More people than the inspector had watched Anna in action, on video and in the flesh. One more wouldn't hurt any worse than all the others had.

But she still didn't see how it had changed anything.

Jackie was at work; she hadn't wanted to go, but they couldn't afford to lose the money. Normally, he would have the kids on a Saturday, take them to the park maybe, or one of the big shopping areas. Not to buy anything, of course. Just somewhere he could let them run about without worrying about traffic. But their gran had taken them last night so that he and Jackie could have the place to themselves.

Jackie had cried last night. He had very nearly cried; it was so good to be home again after a night on the other side of a cell door. There had been some considerable time when he had thought he was really going to get done for knifing the bastard. The sergeant had said that he wasn't out of the woods yet, but they would never have let him go if they hadn't believed him.

And the good news was that
someone
had knifed him; not before time. But not little Annabel, it seemed. Well, now that he had time to think about it rationally, it wouldn't have been. That little whore had always known which side her bread was buttered.

Next door in the kitchen, the ever-present washing-machine churned, and the sound that had got him near to screaming point sounded so good to him now. It was home. It was Jackie. It was the kids, with their football shorts and muddy jeans. It was just a nice, familiar, comforting …

His eyes grew a little wider, and then he smiled, and reached for the phone. Why not? It would be nice to have Judy Russell owing him a favour for once.

She was out, but he left a message with Sergeant Finch.

Lloyd came into Holyoak's office, smiling at Judy as she sat behind Holyoak's huge power desk. ‘It suits you,' he said and sat on the edge of it, immediately cutting it down to size. ‘I got a message from Finch to say that you wanted me to watch a blue video with you,' he said.

‘Very funny.'

‘It'll be better fun than the security videos,' Lloyd said darkly. ‘God knows how many manhours spent apprehending a sneak thief. Not another vehicle came into the plant from then until the cleaners arrived in the morning. Thank God Andrews is away.'

Judy gave him a sympathetic smile, and opened the cupboard behind her head, pressing the play button on the video recorder. ‘This bit isn't very blue,' she said. ‘But listen.' She handed Lloyd the headphones as the unintentionally artistic image from the overhead camera came on the screen. Two people talking; naked, but their closeness rendered them entirely modest from above, as though the scene had been arranged by a clever television director. The fine mesh through which it had been shot gave the whole thing a misty, romantic look.

Lloyd listened, frowning slightly, the way he did when he thought that his time might be being wasted, until he got to the really important part. He took off the headphones. ‘Their marriage is
unconsummated
?' he said.

Judy nodded and switched off the video, shutting and locking the cupboard door, not so much to preserve evidence as to lock in Holyoak's evil. Because she was beginning to feel that that was what they were dealing with, as she told Lloyd what other conversation had passed between Anna and Max Scott.

He got off the desk, and pulled up a chair as he thought about something. Then looked at Judy. ‘Do you remember you once asked me if I'd ever been unfaithful to Barbara?' he said.

Judy was startled; Lloyd broke the rule about leaving their private lives at home all the time, but not usually quite this blatantly. ‘Yes,' she said. ‘You said you had. Just once. She was a foot soldier with the London Philharmonic, or something.'

Lloyd laughed. ‘A rank and file violinist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra,' he said. ‘I met her the day you married Michael.'

Oh God. Why was it Make Judy Feel Guilty week? She'd had enough of that from Linda.

‘I … I had an affair with her because – not to put too fine a point on it – I was frustrated.'

Judy smiled. ‘That is putting too fine a point on it,' she said. ‘Finch would say you weren't getting any, if he was being polite.'

Lloyd looked round the opulent office. ‘I hope Holyoak didn't have this place bugged,' he said. ‘Anyway – yes, that was why. You steadfastly refused to go to bed with me, but Barbara thought you had been doing, so she wasn't over keen on me either.'

Judy looked at him uncertainly. ‘What am I supposed to do?' she asked. ‘Tell you to say three Hail Marys?'

He raised his eyes heavenward. ‘I'm not confessing,' he said, ‘ I'm applying my own solitary experience of marital infidelity to Scott's predicament.'

‘Oh.'

‘Well, if it drove me into another woman's arms – what do you suppose Scott would do? He would find someone to give him some consolation as soon as he could, wouldn't he? He did it all the time anyway.'

‘Well, he did, didn't he? Zelda.'

Lloyd shook his head. ‘Valerie Scott was heard shouting that she would make trouble for this woman,' he said. ‘ That's bothered me all along – how could she make trouble for Catherine? As far as anyone knew, Catherine had no family, she had no husband – what trouble could she make for her? Or Zelda? Zelda was a widow, she was Max's boss – Valerie couldn't make trouble for her either, could she?'

Judy nodded slowly. ‘We're back to the doctor, aren't we?' she said. ‘Having an affair with a patient. She could make trouble for her, all right.'

‘I think so. Max Scott came here to try to forget about Catherine, so I don't think he would hang about. He already knew Geraldine, and Rule said that he couldn't go through all that again, when he thought Geraldine had been having an affair with Holyoak. Because Geraldine had done it before – that's why he jumped to conclusions. I think Geraldine was Max's latest, as far as Valerie was concerned.'

He got up. ‘Come on,' he said. ‘Let's call on Zelda. She might be a bit more forthcoming now that Geraldine is beyond scandal.'

Zelda, pressing elevenses on them, was more forthcoming.

‘Well, Valerie was upset. She said he'd got someone, and he was in love with her, and she didn't know how to cope with that because he'd never done that to her before, he had always just had women on the side who didn't mean anything … but he'd actually moved to Stansfield to be with this one.' She shrugged. ‘I didn't know what to say. I knew Max had been going to see Geraldine at the surgery on Valerie's evening-class nights, but he wasn't in love with her. Anyway – it only lasted a couple of months before Geraldine came to her senses. It was over by the time Valerie cottoned on.'

Judy took a tiny sandwich. They did look particularly good. Lloyd, however, was not eating, and his face held a dark look. Judy knew the look well, but for once she wasn't the one who had made him angry.

‘Have you any more to tell us, Zelda?' he asked, sounding very, very Welsh.

‘She was threatening to tell Charles, the BMA, anyone and everyone. She was fighting for Max. Anyway, that day she told Max that she would report Geraldine. He told her that the affair was over, but she didn't believe him. Because of course he wasn't in love with Geraldine at all – it was Catherine. And that affair wasn't over, was it? So, in a way, Valerie was right.'

Make Judy Feel Guilty time again. She took another sandwich. All right, her existence had broken up Lloyd's marriage, but she hadn't done it deliberately, and she hadn't done it for fun, and she hadn't even
had
an affair with him. And Catherine certainly hadn't had one with Max. She thought about that, as she ate. And she wondered again.

‘Are you seriously telling me that you knew that the dead woman had uttered threats? That she had been intending very seriously damaging the career of a local doctor, and had actually informed her husband of this intention?'

‘Max didn't kill her.'

‘I know Max didn't kill her,' said Lloyd, his voice low and dangerous. ‘Max, in all probability, was where he said he was. Max thought until about two hours ago that Catherine had killed her – but you and I, Zelda, we know differently, don't we?'

Zelda looked at him, totally puzzled. Then her face cleared. ‘ Oh – no! No. Of course I wouldn't have kept quiet if there had been the slightest chance of Geraldine's having done it!'

Sure, thought Judy. But there wasn't the slightest chance of Geraldine's having done it, as Zelda went on to prove.

‘Geraldine was doing all the evening surgeries,' Zelda said. ‘Charles was campaigning for his friend Mark, so Geraldine had to work. From five to seven. Every weekday evening. Geraldine had about twenty witnesses as to where she was for the whole two hours – what was the point in making a scandal for her? But poor Max left the office at five thirty and as far as the police were concerned he went home and killed his wife. I wasn't going to make that worse for him by telling them about Geraldine.'

Lloyd took a sandwich and ate it whole. ‘Bloody hell, Zelda,' he said, when he had swallowed it. ‘Do you know how much trouble you would be in if he
had
killed his wife?'

‘Zelda,' said Judy, hardly aware of what Lloyd was saying, so keen was she to ask the question. ‘You said Max Scott lied to you about Catherine?'

‘He swore to me that he hadn't had an affair with her – he knew I'd have nothing more to do with him if he'd seduced a little girl and then just left her when it suited him. I believed him.'

‘What makes you think he was lying?' she asked, not wanting to hear the answer, not really.

Zelda looked at her, and sighed. ‘ I suppose you really ought to know,' she said. ‘Since you seem to have stopped suspecting Max at last. Catherine was pregnant when she came here,' she said. ‘Max didn't know – he wouldn't ever have known, but I thought Charles knew, and Charles thought Max knew, and … he found out on Wednesday,' she said. And gave a Zelda shrug.

Lloyd and Judy looked at one another. Zelda wasn't slow to notice.

‘What? It's the truth – ask Charles. Ask Catherine – I don't suppose she wants it kept secret now. But she thought at the time that it would make things look so bad for Max that the police would never leave him alone, so she had an abortion. I knew about it at the time,' she said defiantly to Lloyd. ‘ So you charge me with whatever you like. Yes – I was withholding evidence. Because Max Scott didn't kill Valerie, and I was quite prepared to cover up for the fact that he'd got Catherine pregnant before he left. I just wasn't prepared to forgive it.'