'No.'
''A point of contact', you said.'
'I'm a writer. I'm treating what happened as a project.'
'Writing about it?'
'A murder inquiry from the inside. I went to the house to get a sense of the place, and the man.'
'Don't give me that horseshit, Naomi. I think you went there to clean up.'
'What?'
This thought had just come warm and unintended to Hen. 'You returned to the scene to remove evidence that might incriminate you.'
An impact at last. A look of panic. You think I'm the arsonist?'
'The more I listen to you, the more likely it becomes.'
'You're wrong. Listen, you couldn't be more wrong. I went out of curiosity. The picture was hanging there, so I took it.'
This chimed in with what Zach had said. 'Okay,' Hen said, with a deliberate shift from blame to consultation. 'Let's have your views. What did you learn from the photo?'
'It's guesswork,' Naomi said, but she was deeply serious. The threats had shaken her. She knew her best chance was to make herself useful.
'Carry on.'
'If he kept it on his bedroom wall, the other man in the picture must have been important to him. They had their arms around each other.'
'Buddies?'
'Possibly. I don't recognise the man. He isn't one of the circle.'
'Agreed.'
'And something was written on the back.'
''Innocents, Christmas 1982'.'
'Yes, I didn't know what to make of that. My first thought was that Blacker and the other man had got into something shady at a later date, and the comment was written later.'
'Something shady?'
'A relationship, maybe. Twenty years ago we were less open about gays. It can't have been too much of a disaster or he wouldn't have kept the picture on his wall.'
'You said that was your first thought. Was there a second?'
'That they later got involved in some criminal act.'
'Do you have any evidence of this?'
Naomi shook her head. 'It's only a guess, but it would account for the 'innocents' comment. A scam they both got into.'
Hen said, 'If they did, we have no record of it. Blacker was clean.'
'I've got another theory, then. Suppose they both fell for some confidence trick. A third person duped them. That would give another meaning to 'innocents', wouldn't it?'
'Sure would. Any idea who this third person might be?'
'The killer,' Naomi said. 'The arsonist.'
'Covering up old crimes? You've obviously given this a lot of thought. Who do you suspect?'
'Is this in confidence?'
'Of course.'
'That pain in the arse, Tudor.'
20
All these courts must be lit, and our detectives improved. They are not what they should be.
After that, I need a bevvy. How about you?' Bob said. Thomasine smiled. 'Mind-reader.'
It was just after ten. Neither of them said so, but one good reason for choosing the Ship, the hotel at the top of North Street, was that no one else from the circle was likely to be in there. They had enough in common not to need other company now.
Thomasine asked for a gin and tonic. 'Don't worry,' she added. 'You won't have to put me to bed. The other evening wasn't typical. Dagmar and I had almost two hours to fill while you were visiting Fran. .'
'I'd forgotten,' he said with tact.
'… and there was all the stress of Maurice being arrested.' Then, catching up, she said on a sharper note, 'What do you mean — forgotten? You visit a lady's bedroom and forget about it? That's not very gendemanly.'
'I'm such a perfect gent I wiped it from my memory.'
'Oh yeah?'
When he returned with the drinks, she said, 'I don't know if you heard the buzz back there in the nick about Zach and Sharon. He took her to Harrogate last weekend. Some fantasy convention.'
'Zach and Sharon? Strewth.'
'So they're off the list of suspects now.'
'Nice work if you can get it. Another one in the clear is Anton,' he said. 'He proved he was at home and online at the time Miss Snow was killed. The sad bastard sits up every night at the computer.'
There was a moment while each absorbed what the other had said.
'So who's left?' Thomasine asked. 'You, me and who else?'
'Tudor.'
'Basil and Naomi.'
'Jessie.'
'And Dagmar. That's it.'
'How many's that? Seven?'
'Five really,' Thomasine said. 'I'm in the clear and so are you, or I wouldn't be sitting here with you. You weren't around when Blacker was killed.'
'That doesn't wash with the police,' Bob said. 'They reckon I had a run-in with Blacker at some time in the past.'
'In that case, why are you supposed to have joined the circle?'
'To muddy the waters. You lot are the obvious suspects. I can stir up more trouble as an insider.'
'That's stretching it a bit. If it was a game of chess I might believe a theory like that, but you're not going to draw attention to yourself when you don't need to.'
'That's not what they think.'
'High risk if you're the arsonist.'
'Which I'm not.'
'And as you're not, it's no picnic to be one of the circle. Two people have died. Someone else could cop it.'
'Scared?'
She hesitated and took a deep sip. 'Who wouldn't be?'
'Have you worked out why Miss Snow was killed?'
'Because of something she knew?'
Bob said, 'I think it was because of what she had in her possession. That video of Blacker's visit'
She frowned. 'But we all know what's on the video. We were there, all except you, and you've watched it'
He nodded.
She added, 'There's nothing except some cringe-making footage of people hoping to be told they are geniuses