look at the blonde bimbo.'
'Young Sharon?'
'What did Blacker say to her?'
'Nothing. She didn't submit any work.'
'The least likely, then?'
He frowned. He'd missed the point.
She said, 'In my job, they're the ones you're supposed to suspect the most. What brought Sharon to the circle in the first place?'
'She just turned up one week. She does day release at the local tech, I think. Maybe the tutor sent her to us. She wants to be a fashion writer, she says. She's quite a good artist, going by what she does in her notepad.'
'Does she join in the discussions?'
'Hardly at all. I do my best as chair to draw her in. It's early days. It's good to see young people joining, so we don't want to put her off.'
'I wonder what she gets out of it,' Hen said. 'When she first came, had you already programmed Edgar Blacker to give you a talk?'
He thought for a moment. 'We must have. We publish our programme in January. Sharon joined in the spring.'
'So she could have heard about it?'
He shrugged. 'It's no secret. The programme is on the notice board at the New Park Centre and in the library. That's how a lot of our members find out about us.' He looked across the vegetable patch towards the man with the hose, who was built like a gorilla. 'I ought to get back to the watering. It's not a good idea to impose on the other inmates.'
'I won't keep you much longer. There's a lady you haven't told me about.'
'I thought we'd been through them all.'
'Your partner.'
'Fran?' He looked away again and passed a hand through his hair. 'She isn't in the circle.'
'I know, but she's in
He frowned as her meaning got home to him. 'You don't have to worry about Fran. She's incorruptible. Please leave her alone.'
'She has as much reason as you to have been angry with Blacker.'
'She didn't know him at all.'
Not knowing him could have made killing him easier, but Hen chose not to point this out. 'You don't mind me saying, I hope: there's quite an age gap between you.'
'So?'
'I wondered how it came about.'
'I was unhappily married for years. We separated and things went from bad to worse. That business with my neighbour, and the spell inside. The divorce was. . horrible. When I met Fran her gentle personality, her honesty, was like a revelation. She understood what I'd been through. She helped me put my life together again.'
'We know about Fran's first marriage, Mr McDade.'
'Oh God, spare us that! She made a mistake and got hitched to a criminal when she was just eighteen. He was put away with the rest of the gang almost forty years ago. You've got nothing on Fran.'
'True,' Hen said. 'Nothing at all.'
'She could have said I was at home on the evening of the fire, but she didn't. You get the truth from her. If she'd gone out that night and started the fire herself she'd tell you. You wouldn't even have to ask. She'd be round at the police station and telling you all about it the same night.'
'Remarkable,' Hen said. 'I wish there were more like her.'
'She's unique.'
She dropped the butt of her cigar and flattened it with her shoe. 'Better get back to your hosing.'
His face creased in disappointment. 'Aren't you going to let me go?'
'Not so simple,' Hen said. 'There are formalities. You were sent here by a magistrate. I'll have to explain what the hell the police were up to, and I'm not sure I know. I only started in the job this morning.'
15
I never came across a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn't make it worse.
Pressganged into being spokesman for the circle, Bob had no chance to prepare. He spent the rest of that day and next morning fielding questions from national and local papers, as well as radio and TV people. It was jaw- dropping what some of these journos asked. Did Miss Snow have children? Affairs with clients? Was she gay?
The hardest part was giving the impression that he knew all about the poor woman. By the third or fourth interview he'd worked up a routine that seemed to satisfy them. Yes, she was a quiet, conscientious lady who doubled up as secretary and treasurer of the circle, and would be hugely missed. She was a chartered accountant. Even after retirement she'd continued to audit the books of several Chichester businesses. She was very committed to helping the women's refuge, serving in the charity shop and helping out at the house the refuge used. Any spare time was devoted to the book she was writing about famous Snows.
He didn't mention that call inviting her to the boat house. Up to now the press hadn't fully grasped the link between all three fires, and he was damned if he wanted to be put through the grinder about his own adventure.
Just when he was thinking of taking no more calls, Thomasine phoned.
'You're a star,' she said. 'No one else could have done it. I heard you on the car radio when I was driving out to Zach's. Writers' circle ten, nosy interviewer nil.'
'More like one all and playing extra time,' he said. 'What's the dope on Zach?'
'He was uncomfortable about leaving the meeting halfway through. I've got my suspicions. Anton was probably right. Those two are up to something.'
'Zach and Naomi? It's an odd pairing.'
'I know, but if she wants to use Zach, he's putty in her hands. She terrifies most men. Terrifies me sometimes.'
'Use him for what?'
'What Anton was on about. Recycling all this drama as the raw material for storylines.'
'I didn't think Naomi wrote stories. She does facts, doesn't she, the truth about witchcraft and such?'
'Yes, but Zach is the storyteller. He can wrap anything up in words and make it sound exciting.'
'Do you think so? When he read out bits of his novel I was turned right off.'
'He's the best we've got.'
'Do Zach and Naomi know anything we don't?'
'I get the feeling they do. There's something going on, Bob.'
'So what next? Do we tackle Naomi?'
'She's next, yes.'
He gave an insincere sigh. 'What a pity I'm so busy with all these press interviews.'
DI Cherry was a foot taller than Hen and showing resentment that she'd taken over this investigation, but in her philosophy the bigger they came, the easier they were to shoot down. 'What do you mean, 'it's missing', Johnny? It was on the video.'
