Death at Rainbow Cottage by Jo Allen (book club books txt) 📗

‘How the hell did she not know where you’d gone when you came up from Cheshire? Surely when you left she would have heard something?’

‘I doubt it. And even if she had known, she might not have realised I was here. I was known as Ash Kirby when I was in Cheshire. When I left I took up the Sunday version of my Christian name and went back to my maiden name.’

‘I guessed, of course.’

‘Of course you did,’ she said, her voice bubbling with relief, and she gave up all pretence at resistance and turned willingly into his arms.

Chapter 20

‘I’ll admit to being a cad. I’ll admit to being an adulterer. I’ll admit to being a coward.’ With his back to the wall Giles Butler had finally unearthed enough spirit to come out fighting. His perfect life was already fatally snagged and he couldn’t stop it unravelling, but he’d do his best to limit the damage. ‘But I won’t admit to being a murderer. Because I’m not.’

‘Okay. Persuade me.’ Jude Satterthwaite, a man whom Giles had down as smart but possibly overzealous, was looking at him as if he believed he was the killer. Under his gaze Giles’s gut shrivelled. That was how it went. If you lied often enough, people wouldn’t believe the truth. ‘Give me a good reason not to have you charged with two counts of murder.’

Colleen Murphy, Giles’s solicitor, crossed and uncrossed her ankles and cleared her throat, as if to remind them she was there. Giles had never had the need for a solicitor before, except for making his will, and so had no idea of the procedures, but he trusted Colleen. She struck him as meticulous, and she’d assured him she wouldn’t let the police away with the tiniest transgression with regard to his interests, but she’d also advised him, as strongly as possible, that if he was innocent telling the truth was the best way to get the matter cleared up. ‘Perhaps you want to help my client by asking him some specific questions, Chief Inspector.’

He accepted the reproof with a wave of the hand. ‘I’ll begin with the background. Then we’ll get on to the questions.’ As before he’d brought Sergeant O’Halloran with him and Giles had turned to her with relief, but now they were playing hardball she was respectfully silent. Giles had seen enough TV shows to recognise the good-cop-bad-cop combination and was only faintly surprised that it appeared to be real. ‘I’m not going to accuse you of murder, Dr Butler, or not just yet, but I think you ought to know that the evidence that we have doesn’t look good as far as you’re concerned. Let’s begin with the circumstantial evidence. Two people with whom you have an association have been violently murdered. You were on the site of at least one of the crimes.’

At least one. Giles shivered. That didn’t sound good. It sounded as if they’d dug deeper, uncovered another secret. ‘I understand.’

‘I want to go over your previous evidence and ask you some more questions.’

‘I understand.’ The room was hot and stuffy, and his mouth was dry.

‘I have here the statement you gave when you turned yourself in to the police station in Hunter Lane last week.’ Jude tapped the printed sheet. ‘You initialled it as accurate. I want you to read it through and tell me if there’s anything in it that isn’t true.’

Giles wasn’t a vain man, but he knew his worth. He’d been justifiably proud of that statement because every single word of it had been true. He felt that peculiar pride again, as he read it over. It hadn’t been the whole truth, and that was the risk he’d taken, but if he’d told the police everything he would have compromised himself and had no chance of emerging from that little scrape with his reputation intact. Now the pride gave way to a sick feeling in his stomach. At the time he’d known it was a gamble and it had seemed worth it. He’d even thought he was being brave, getting his story in first and establishing himself as an innocent, offering them something that damned him in the hope that they wouldn’t see the rest.

The question had been how far he dared gamble on withholding what he knew from the police. It was still the same. The stakes were higher and he had to give them more, and appear to do so willingly. But did he have to give them everything?

He put the statement down on the table. His hand, he observed as if from a distance, was shaking. The sergeant noticed it, too, and pushed a glass of water across the table towards him. The good cop. He wasn’t fooled.

‘I stand by every word in that statement,’ he declared, picked up the glass and sipped.

‘Good,’ said the woman, with an encouraging smile. ‘But perhaps in the light of what’s happened since there might something you want to add to that? Something you’ve remembered?’

What was he to do? What did they know? The must know something. The woman so obviously felt sorry for him and he didn’t know why. He sneaked a look at Colleen and was heartened by her encouraging nod. Even if the truth damages you, she’d said to him, it won’t damage you as much as lies. But she’d also reminded him that he didn’t have to say anything at all and the way she lifted a warning finger to her lips reminded him of that. ‘I stand by my statement.’

Silence. Jude Satterthwaite narrowed his eyes at him. Ashleigh O’Halloran looked reproachful. He might as well already be in prison. He broke, too easily. ‘Lenny wanted us to be together. He wanted me to leave my wife.’

‘And you didn’t want to?’

But he had wanted to. He’d just been incapable