AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Neil Maddrell came to see her an hour later and she told him her problem.
‘I’ll pick you up and take you to the flat to pack a suitcase and find your passport,’ he offered. ‘Until you go to Greece I suggest you stay at a hotel. I’ll book that for you.’
‘You’re so kind,’ she said, deeply relieved. ‘Do you think it’s a good idea for me to go to Greece?’
‘I do, yes. Just don’t tell people that that is where you’re going. We don’t want anyone flying out to Greece to find you and do you a mischief.’
She shuddered. ‘No. No, we don’t. I’ll only tell my mother.’ Changing the subject hastily, she asked, ‘Why did you come? Is there any news?’
‘I just wanted to ask you a few more questions. Do you know how long Sean has been having flying lessons?’
Blankly she shook her head. ‘I only remember Terry mentioning it once, a month or so ago; he was paying for Sean to train as a pilot.’
‘You know Finnigan senior has a plane?’
‘Yes. I know he flies, too, and I believe he’s quite good, or that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know anything about flying. I’ve never been up in a private plane. He pilots himself about all over the place.’
Neil nodded. ‘Yes, we’ve been to the airfield where he keeps his plane. Tell me, after you fainted in your office that day – you told us you started to drive home, then parked to think, and drove back to ring us and report what you had heard. How long would you say all that took? How long were you away from the office before you actually rang us?’
‘I’m not sure. I wasn’t looking at my watch. Not long. Half an hour, maybe? But then it took the police some time to arrive, it must have been three-quarters of an hour later. Maybe even an hour. I don’t know.’
‘Quite a long time, anyway?’
She nodded.
‘Long enough for Sean to have time to tidy up the bathroom, dry the bath, carry the body down to his car and put it in the boot . . . maybe wrapped in the damp towels he had used? Along with the girl’s clothes?’
‘It would not have taken him longer than half an hour,’ she agreed.
‘And by the time the first police arrived on the scene it must have been an hour since you thought you heard the girl drowning?’
‘I didn’t think I heard that. I did hear it!’ she said fiercely.
Neil nodded. ‘OK, I believe you. So it must have been around an hour later that the police actually got there?’
‘I’d say so.’
‘By which time the bathroom was pristine, no sign of anyone having had a bath in it.’
‘Yes.’ What was he getting at? She watched him doubtfully. ‘Are you hinting that I might have made a mistake? Might have imagined it? Because I know I didn’t.’
‘I’m sure you didn’t. But we have been searching for a body for days without success. So we’re looking for alternative ways of disposing of the corpse.’
She was baffled. What did he mean by that? Did he suspect Sean of having flown the body somewhere before burying it in a remote district far from London?
He got up. ‘Well, thank you for helping. Let me know when you’re being discharged and I’ll come to drive you to your flat.’
He was very thoughtful. She felt better for knowing he would be with her when she went home.
‘And as soon as I know which nights you’ll be in London before you go to Greece, I’ll book a hotel for you. That way, nobody will have a clue where you’re going to be.’
He was as good as his word. Two days later he collected her from the hospital in the morning, drove her to her flat and waited while she packed her case, then took her t
o a quiet hotel in a leafy street in Kensington.
‘There’s only one entrance and exit – nobody can escape being noticed by the staff on duty in the foyer,’ he reassured her.
They took the small lift upstairs to her room, overlooking the back of the hotel. They didn’t pass a soul in the corridor, nor hear a sound from any other room.
