He checked his watch. ‘I promised not to be late home this evening. The parents-in-law are coming round for a meal and I’ll be in big trouble if I don’t lend a hand.’
‘Call me when you’re ready.’
Les Bryant strode around the corner. He was in shirtsleeves and it was the first time Hannah had seen him without a tie.
‘How did you get on?’
Early on after his arrival in the team, he’d made a point of calling her ma’am, in sardonic acknowledgement of his unaccustomed position as a subordinate. At least he’d relaxed since then. One of these days he’d so far forget himself as to use her first name.
‘If you have ten minutes, I’ll update you.’
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Nick said. ‘I need to be getting off.’
Les filled his paper cup to the brim as Nick walked away. He lapped at the drink like a grizzled old cat and then said,
‘Is he all right?’
‘What do you mean?’
Les raised his eyebrows to indicate that he recognised a disingenuous reply when he heard one. ‘He’s not the man he was. Seems hassled about something.’
‘Could be the weather.’
‘Gets blamed for a lot of things, does the weather. Convenient scapegoat, if you ask me. Any road, Nick Lowther’s problems are none of my business. I had enough years worrying about my flock, believe me.’
Despite her other preoccupations, she couldn’t help savouring the notion of Les as a caring shepherd. They went back to her office and she switched her new fan to maximum. The whirring set her teeth on edge, and the room seemed hotter than ever. As she summarised her interviews with Warren Howe’s family and business partner, Les didn’t utter a word. Slumped in his chair, eyes half closed, he seemed to be dozing off despite the racket from the fan. But Hannah knew better. She’d come to admire his quality of stillness, his ability to focus all his attention on the matter in hand when not playing up to his reputation as a cantankerous Yorkshireman. As a listener, he was up in the Ben Kind class.
‘Are they all fibbing?’
She made an exasperated noise. ‘It wouldn’t surprise me. There are plenty of leads in this case, but none of them seem to go anywhere.’
‘You think she did it?’
‘Tina?’ Hannah considered. ‘She would be capable of killing him. And of covering her tracks.’
He plucked a blank sheet of A4 from her desk and waved it in front of his face in the vain hope of creating a current of air. ‘Just because a tip-off is anonymous, doesn’t mean it’s untrue.’
‘I’d have more faith if we’d been given some ammunition to fire at Tina. A clear motive, for a start.’
‘She was married to the man, for God’s sake. What more of a motive do you want?’
‘They’d been married a long time. If she snapped all of a sudden, there must have been a reason.’
‘The affair with Gail?’
‘It was supposed to be over, remember? Anyway, why choose that particular moment to kill him? There’s no rhyme or reason. Even so, she has to be the favourite. Which suggests that the alibi her kids gave her is false.’
‘Unless she hired someone to do the dirty deed.’
‘I can’t imagine Tina wanting to put herself at someone else’s mercy. I’d say she’s a control freak. Besides, there aren’t any likely candidates for the role of hit man, are there? The Sawreys aren’t exactly awash with contract killers. Poaching rabbits is as wicked as it gets in that neck of the woods.’
‘How about Oliver Cox? A young man, newly arrived in the area. A chancer, probably unscrupulous.’
‘More rewarding to make a play for Bel Jenner, surely? And a lot easier than carrying out a hit for a woman he hardly knew. Even if he did see Bel as a meal ticket, he’s put down roots now. For all the age gap, the two of them are like peas in a pod.’
‘Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? Besides, they’ve never married. Never had kids.’
‘You can be happy together even if you’re not married, even if you don’t have kids,’ she murmured.
Realising he’d touched a nerve, Les grunted. An acknowledgement, if far less than an apology. After a pause, Hannah carried on.
‘No, if Tina killed Warren, my guess is that she took the scythe to him herself.’
‘If you want to break her alibi, sounds like young Kirsty’s the weak link.’
‘Yes, she’s not as hard-faced as her mum or her brother. I felt sorry for her, even though I was sure she was holding out on me.’
‘I’ve never felt sorry for a suspect.’
She could believe him. ‘I can’t see Kirsty slashing her dad to pieces.’
‘I’m not saying she wouldn’t feel bad about it afterwards.’
‘If she has a guilty conscience, I don’t think it’s because she’s a murderer. Frankly, if she’d killed Warren, I think even Charlie would have caught her. Kirsty’s the sort who would want to get it off her chest. Covering up for her mother might be different. If she was protecting someone else, she might force herself to be strong for their sake.’
‘Ask Linz to talk to her. They may have things in common. Pop music, fashion, lads, whatever. She’s a similar age to Kirsty, it may give us a way in.’
‘So I’m too old to bond with her? Thanks a lot.’
‘Horses for courses,’ he said, deadpan. ‘We’re none of us as young as we were. How about brother Sam?’
‘I’m certainly past it as far as he’s concerned. Talk about a chip off the old block. I bet that every woman he meets, he undresses them with his eyes.’
‘That obvious, eh?’
‘As a matter of fact, yes. I’m sure he’s not as stupid as he likes to make out, but subtlety isn’t his strong point. I’m afraid that what he saw when he looked me over mustn’t have met his high standards.’
‘Can’t believe that.’
She grinned. It was the closest she’d ever heard him come to gallantry. Possibly the closest he’d come in years.
‘Trust me, the bloke didn’t make the slightest effort to make friends or influence me. Even Tina seemed embarrassed by his rudeness.’
‘Suppose you prove the alibi is fake. Even if one of them admits that Tina wasn’t up on the Pass that day, we’d still be a mile off having a strong enough case to put to the CPS. You know what most prosecutors are like. If you can’t give them a video of the mad sniper as he guns down his victims, the file goes straight into the “too difficult” cupboard.’
Hannah sighed. ‘For all we know, she and Peter took the opportunity to have a quick shag while Warren was working at Keepsake Cottage.’
‘Or maybe Tina persuaded Peter to kill him.’
‘I can believe he would be putty in her hands. But if that’s what happened, it was an own goal. The business struggled and Peter and Gail didn’t split up for years.’
‘What if they were playing it long term?’
‘Peter might be capable of that,’ she admitted. ‘But Tina? If she wanted Peter for herself, I can’t see her letting him stay with his wife for so long afterwards. Even if they were having it off together on the quiet in the meantime.’
Les glared at the clattering fan. ‘Some choice, eh? Either fry or be deafened. All right. We’ve spoken about Cox. Other candidates?’
‘Gail Flint must be worth another look. Bel Jenner — I don’t think so. She’d not long since lost her husband and was in the process of seducing Cox. Or being seduced by him, same difference. I’m not sure she’s bright enough to get away with murder so successfully. But even if I’m wrong, her relationship with Warren was ancient history.’
‘Would he take no for an answer?’
‘Depends on what his options were.’
