wouldn’t be sitting here with you drinking coffee if Cartwright’s body had been found.’
‘Don’t joke about it.’
‘You’re so wound up this morning.’
‘I’ve reason to be.’
‘Why?’
She felt so isolated that telling Rick-even Rick-might be a crumb of comfort. ‘You heard about the dead woman I found on Selsey beach? The police gave me a really hard time over that, like I was holding back information.’
‘That woman was murdered, wasn’t she? You don’t want to take it personally because they fired some questions at you. They’ve got their job to do.’
‘I know, but if it gets back to them that I found another body, they’ll give me the third degree. I’m worried sick what Gemma might be saying to them.’
‘If they come knocking at your door, you just have to tell the truth. Stuff happens, as the man said about the war.’
She nodded. She wasn’t going to tell Rick about the print order she and Gemma had sabotaged to try and get Fiona into trouble. He might have had heard about that already, but he hadn’t mentioned anything yet, so maybe Gemma had for once had the sense to keep something to herself. ‘I’m hoping they treat Fiona’s death as an accident.’
‘Dream on.’ He couldn’t resist another twist of the knife.
‘You don’t think they will?’
‘What you have to hope is that she had no marks. The woman on the beach was marked, wasn’t she?’
‘So they told me. Bruises on the neck that showed she was held under the water. But the two cases aren’t similar. The woman I found was nude except for her knickers. Fiona was fully dressed.’
‘They both ended up in water. That’s one thing they had in common. And they were both discovered by you. That’s the other.’
‘Pure chance.’
‘Sure.’ He gave that evil grin again.
‘I didn’t even know Fiona,’ Jo said, goaded by him. ‘And nobody knows who the other woman is. They’re appealing for help.’
‘They should show her face on TV. Someone would know her. The face wasn’t damaged, was it?’
‘I don’t think so, but I didn’t look. I saw the back of her head, and that was more than I wanted to see.’
He leaned forward on his elbows, his face a foot away from hers. ‘So you can’t be certain if you knew her?’
‘Come on, Rick. There’s no reason I should have known her. It was a chance discovery.’
‘Be strange, wouldn’t it, if that corpse was someone you knew?’
‘Highly unlikely.’
He pointed to her mug. ‘Care for a top-up?’
‘No. When are you seeing Gem again?’
‘Tonight, supposedly, if she’s still in the mood to go clubbing.’ He drew back from the table, trying to appear less confrontational. ‘How about you? I heard you were getting friendly with the big, silent guy.’
‘Jake? I had a drink with him the other evening.’
He smiled. ‘A drink and two words. Or did he manage three?’
‘He’s okay. Not everyone has your gift of gab, Rick.’
‘Ouch.’
‘Life hasn’t been easy for Jake.’
‘So we make allowances, is that it?’
‘No, but you don’t have to pick on him at every opportunity. When we meet again as a foursome, as I hope we will, it would be good if we could all be more relaxed with each other.’
He tilted his head and ran his fingers down the stubble on his cheek. ‘“Life hasn’t been easy.” The big guy’s got to you, hasn’t he? I missed a trick here. Should have told you how my wicked stepmother threw out my teddy bear and made me join the boy scouts. I might have got my leg over.’
‘A knee in your groin.’
‘Charming.’
‘And your ouch would have been heard in Australia.’
‘I’m outta here. I only came to pass on the message.’
Hen compared the jpeg of Mrs Sentinel with the photo they had of the woman in the mortuary. ‘No question,’ she announced to everyone in the incident room. ‘It’s our mystery woman. Nice work, everyone. Let’s treat ourselves to a lunchtime drink.’
‘Don’t know about that, boss,’ Stella said. ‘The husband, Dr Sentinel, is on his way. Should be here in another hour.’
‘The rest of you can get a drink, then. Stella and I will be offering condolences.’ She lowered her voice for Stella alone. ‘We celebrate later. You gave him the bad news?’
‘I said there was a resemblance.’
‘So now he knows we have a dead woman here. Does he also know she was murdered?’
Stella took this as criticism. ‘There was no point in being mysterious about it. The rest of Britain knows it’s a murder.’
‘He didn’t?’
‘He’s been abroad, hasn’t he? Someone was going to tell him.’
‘Was he shocked?’
‘Disbelieving.’
‘Kept his cool, then. What’s he like?’
‘Toffee-nosed, if I’m any judge, but I suppose he would sound like that to one of the plod, with all his education,’ Stella said. ‘He seemed to think it was a bit off, his wife being killed down here.’
‘He’d have preferred the stockbroker belt?’
The remark was meant to ease the stiffness between them. Stella took it for what it was, smiled and shrugged. ‘Quite possibly.’
‘Does he have any explanation?’
‘For her death? No. They haven’t spoken on the phone since he flew to St Petersburg three weeks ago. He’s often away at conferences, he said, and he doesn’t call her, phoning from hotels being such a rip-off.’
‘Were those his exact words?’
‘I was giving the sense of them. He said “exorbitant.”’
‘He must have a mobile.’
‘“The price of using one from Russia is iniquitous.” His words.’
Hen shaped her lips into a silent whistle. ‘Has the romance gone out of this marriage, by any chance?’
‘His wife wasn’t wearing a ring.’
‘I wouldn’t read too much into that, Stell. A lot of wives don’t.’
‘You’re giving him the benefit of the doubt, are you, guv?’
‘Well, he cared enough to make enquiries. And he’s wasting no time in coming here.’
‘To make a good impression, maybe?’
‘He doesn’t seem to be succeeding with you. What’s wrong with the guy?’
‘You know what voices are like on the phone. You can tell a lot.’
‘Are you suggesting he might have a guilty conscience? I can’t think why, when he has a cast-iron alibi.’
‘It’s not unknown for a spouse to hire a hitman.’
This earned a chuckle from Hen. ‘So we have a theory already, and we haven’t even met the poor sod. Give him a chance, Stell.’
‘The main thing is, we know who our victim is.’
‘Yes,’ Hen said, ‘I knew our luck would change when we got out of that lousy caravan.’
