“Hello, Daisy?” the voice at the other end said. “This is Tarquin. We have a new development in your case.”
“‘My case’?” I said. “I didn’t know I was a ‘case.’”
“Well, you’re the prime suspect in a hit-and-run killing, so, yes, I think I should keep your file open.”
I had to sit down. It was quite a shock to hear it put so bluntly. “They don’t really think that, do they? Based purely on something they said my husband said. Which I’m sure he didn’t. Don’t they have to go looking for evidence these days?”
“They have some new evidence. They’ve had Mr. Green’s phone details and his phone was in or around your house on the night he went missing. They’d like you to go down to the station tomorrow morning to speak to them. Would you like me to meet you there?”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Someone’s coming for the Bentley today,” James said as he got dressed the following morning. “To pick it up. I’m selling it. We’ve done the paperwork; you only need to give him the key.”
“Why?”
“How often do I drive it? It’s just sitting there in the garage. It may as well go to someone who’ll appreciate it.”
As with the yacht, that didn’t sound like a James kind of sentiment.
“Alright,” I said. Did that mean he didn’t know I wasn’t going to be in? I had the police interview that morning, and I couldn’t make promises about what time I would be home. “I have to go out this morning.”
“Where?”
“To see my solicitor.”
James half smiled. “OK,” he said, uncharacteristically reasonable. “I’ll put them off until tomorrow. Are you in tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I said. Unless I was banged up. But the next day was a Mrs.Billings day anyway, so there was no need to further delay the removal of the Bentley; she could hand over the keys if necessary.
***
Forewarned is forearmed and I made myself some sandwiches and a flask of coffee for this second outing to the cop shop. I’d been starving by the end of the last interview, and I find it hard to remember the lies I’ve told when I’m hungry. I thought about a few Mr. Kiplings to round them off with, but there weren’t enough in the packet to share around four of us.
My solicitor—or should I call him James’s solicitor?—was already there. He had a file with my name written on it and was using correction fluid to cover up a doodle.
“Kids?” I said.
“They’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” Tarquin replied, with a smile that said they weren’t, although they should be. I felt a pang for children of mine who had never had the chance to make their presence felt through doodles.
DS Khan sat opposite us, tapping her fingers on the table. The whole gang was back, but hopefully this time not for so long.
“Morning, Daisy, thank you for coming, we just have a few more questions,” DS Khan said, and I noticed for the first time how wonky her mouth was. “Shouldn’t take up too much of your time,” she added, trying to lull me into a false sense of security.
I nodded as if I were falling for it and we began. The first things they wanted to ask me were the same questions as last time, all over again. But the story I had told was so ingrained in my memory by then that I told it as before, word for word. Then:
“We’ve had information from Lennie’s mobile provider, and it shows he was in or near your house on the night he went missing.”
Even though I’d known this was coming, I felt flustered. But Tarquin stepped in. “It shows his phone was in the area that night,” he said. “That’s not proof Lennie was. Or that he was in my client’s house or that he had any contact at all with my client.”
That was more like it! I’d been struck in the past by how little he intervened. I thought James might have told him to do that.
“But it’s a very high likelihood,” DS Khan said. “There are only fields for miles around.”
“Lots of public footpaths, though,” I said, although Lennie Green hadn’t looked like a man who walked many miles along country paths. “Are you asking James about this?” I asked them.
“We’re asking you at the moment,” Khan said. “Let us worry about who else we’re asking.”
Parker moved on. “That wallet we found belonged to Lennie Green. We had it tested for fingerprints. Yours were all over it.”
