Preface to Murder by M Morris (best books to read for success .txt) 📗

I murdered her because of jealousy.’ He was grinning at her now. ‘The thing is, all this is ancient history. First of all, I’ve suspected for a long time that John was Daniel’s father. Secondly, Diane never cheated on me. Daniel was conceived while she and John were still a couple. And thirdly, I split up with her almost ten years ago. So your theory really doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.’

‘Then what about Annabel?’ asked Bridget. ‘Might she have deduced that Daniel was really John’s son?’

‘I’m sure she has. In fact, I suspect that she’s known it just as long as I have. Remember that she witnessed the onset of Huntington’s disease first-hand with John. If anyone could spot the same symptoms in Daniel, it’s surely her. But Annabel always treated Daniel as if he were her own child. Perhaps it was because she knew he was John’s. Perhaps because she and John didn’t have any children of their own.’

‘But it seems like Annabel drew the short straw with this partner swap arrangement. She could have married you, but instead she ended up with John who died from a terrible wasting disease.’

Ian shook his head. ‘You’re barking up the wrong tree. Annabel was devoted to John. You should have seen the way she cared for him when he was dying. She nursed him tenderly right until the very end.’

Bridget stared glumly across the desk. She had come here convinced that she had finally uncovered the dark secret that lay at the heart of this mystery. Now that secret had been brought out into the light and held up for scrutiny, yet once again her hopes of solving the case had been dashed.

‘If anyone has grounds for complaint,’ said Ian, ‘it’s Louise. I’ve treated her badly.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said Bridget. ‘How is Louise involved in this?’

Ian looked ashamed. ‘I said before that one of the reasons I left Diane was that I wanted to have more children.’

Bridget nodded. ‘Daniel mentioned it too.’

‘Did he? Okay. Well, when I married Louise, I really hoped – we both hoped – to start a family of our own. But it wasn’t meant to be.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that.’

‘We tried several rounds of fertility treatment, but none of it came to anything. In the end we gave up. It was all too upsetting for Louise. Believing that Daniel was my son, she blamed herself for her failure to conceive.’ He put his head in his hands. ‘I should have been honest with her.’

‘Well, perhaps it’s time to set the record straight,’ said Bridget. ‘Have you considered getting a paternity test?’

‘It’s crossed my mind. But sometimes we prefer not to know the truth. Isn’t that so?’

‘Maybe,’ said Bridget, ‘but Daniel has a right to know who his biological father is, especially given the possible implications for his health.’

Ian nodded his head slowly. ‘You’re right, Inspector. You’re absolutely right. It’s time for me to have some difficult conversations. I’ve put this off for far too long.’

33

Bridget left the hospital deep in thought. She had gone there believing Ian Dunn to be a murderer, but on her way out he had shaken her hand and thanked her. Her intervention had been the catalyst he needed to start talking openly about what had happened, and to begin to repair the damage that had been done so many years ago.

Good news, but where did that leave Bridget? She turned over the facts of the case as she walked back to the Mini.

She remained convinced that whoever had killed Diane had possessed a set of keys to her house. Who could that be? The most obvious candidate was still Daniel Dunn. Daniel had freely admitted to having a set of keys to the house, and perhaps that made him less likely to be the true killer. But on the other hand, Daniel was a highly intelligent individual, who must have known that owning up to the fact would help to deflect suspicion away from him. The fact that he had no alibi for the night of the murder, and that he knew his way around the house and garden, including the gate at the back of the property, definitely counted against him. Plus, as the sole beneficiary of Diane’s will, he was the only member of the family with an obvious motive to want her dead. A multi-million-pound motive.

Who else had a key? The only other person Bridget knew for certain was Annabel. But if Ian Dunn could be believed, Annabel had no feelings of jealousy towards her sister, and from what Bridget had observed, Annabel had been very fond of Diane. The regular messages and meetings that Ffion had uncovered on Diane’s phone confirmed that. Annabel didn’t benefit at all from Diane’s death, and besides, the set of keys she owned had gone missing. Had someone taken them?

A family member seemed the most obvious candidate for the theft. Daniel already had his own keys. Might Ian Dunn have taken them in order to kill his ex-wife? As Harry had remarked, as a hospital consultant, Ian would have easy access to a hypodermic syringe and the toxins that had been used to stop Diane’s heart. If so, he was a very cool customer, having just sat through a tough interview with Bridget. He had an alibi for the time of the murder, but it wasn’t watertight. Perhaps he could have driven back to Oxford from the party he had been attending in time to kill Diane. But the timings didn’t allow much room for that possibility.

Another obvious candidate was Professor Mansour Ali Al-Mutairi, Dean of the Blavatnik School. He had openly confessed to the personal animosity between himself and Diane and their bitter professional rivalry. Their political views were diametrically opposed, and it was quite possible that the publication of her book had been the last straw.