get a respray and sell it on.’
‘You’re talking bollocks.’
She ignored that. ‘When the tests results are in, we’ll charge you. Then we move to the next stage, proving you murdered her by drowning.’
He sneered. ‘Lady, you couldn’t be more bloody wrong. Some other person killed her.’
‘You had the motive,’ Hen said. ‘You wanted that car. You live at the scene of the crime, where the body was found. You’re a professional, licensed bullyboy. No problem for a man of your strength drowning a woman. You thought it would be taken for an accident, but it wasn’t. We found the marks on her neck. You’re in deep shit, my friend.’
Francisco altered his posture, sitting forward, elbows on the table. At last he seemed to understand how serious this was. ‘Look, I helped you guys. I called the police when that bird came knocking at my door.’
‘You reported she was missing, yes, playing the part of the good neighbour. It’s amazing how often the person who reports the crime turns out to be the perpetrator.’
He frowned.
‘Killer,’ Hen said.
‘This is so wrong.’
Hen glanced towards Gary as if in two minds. ‘Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves.’
Gary shrugged. ‘You said you’d spell it out, ma’am.’
‘So I did.’
Gary was making up for earlier failings. He added, ‘You believe in telling it like it is.’
‘So right, but we’ll take it in stages. Step one: We need to prove Francisco nicked the car.’
‘Everything follows from that,’ Gary said.
‘Hang about,’ Francisco said. ‘Just because I took the car doesn’t mean I killed Fiona.’
‘You admit to the car theft?’ Hen said, saw his reaction and said for the tape, ‘The witness nods. We’re getting somewhere, then. You took it why?’
‘She didn’t need it no more.’
‘You decided it was up for grabs?’
‘Something like that.’
‘You thought no one would notice if her car disappeared? That takes some believing.’
He opened his hands as if he didn’t care what they believed.
Hen said, ‘All right. Let’s run with that for a moment, unlikely as it seems. You took the paperwork for the car as well? You had the key and let yourself into the house and raided the filing cabinet?’
He gave an exaggerated yawn.
She spoke to Gary again. ‘It does suggest he thought he’d get away with car theft.’
Gary had heard the cautious note and gave only a slight nod.
‘On the other hand,’ Hen went on, ‘he may have wanted to throw suspicion on someone else for the murder of Fiona.’
‘How would he do that?’ Gary asked as Francisco looked from one to the other.
‘Well, his first line of defence was that she drowned accidentally. But just in case that wasn’t believed and we discovered she was murdered, he thought if he removed the car from the scene we would mistakenly assume her killer drove off in it, thus deflecting suspicion from himself, the man living next door.’
‘Wicked,’ Gary said.
‘You say I killed her? No way.’ Francisco flapped his hand as if swatting a fly.
‘Somebody did,’ Hen said. ‘Did you fancy her, Francisco?’
‘Per-lease.’
‘You disliked her, then? A bad neighbour? Was she giving you trouble?’
‘No.’
‘It’s easy to see how disputes arise. Loud music late at night getting on your nerves. Well, I guess it couldn’t be that because you’re used to loud music late at night. It’s your job. You’re not around most nights. Perhaps it was the reverse. She objected to you coming home in the small hours, banging doors and waking her up. She kept complaining. Drove you round the twist. Is that the truth of it?’
‘Are you trying to say I’m mental?’
‘Not at all. Angry. Violent. But for a reason.’
‘Fuck off, will you?’
‘We’re about to,’ Hen said smoothly. A delay would be useful. This had gone as far as it could for the present. If Francisco was the killer, there would be more to throw at him after his house was searched.
Hen stood. ‘I’m keeping you under arrest. When we brought you in for questioning it was in connection with the theft of a vehicle. You’re now under suspicion of murder.’
THIRTEEN
‘ Do you reckon Francisco slept with Fiona?’ Hen asked Gary.
Gary weighed the question for a moment before shaking his head.
‘Or wanted to?’
He answered with a smile and a shrug that said he wasn’t a mind-reader.
‘They were on close terms,’ Hen pointed out. ‘Must have been if she gave him a key.’
‘With respect, guv, that doesn’t mean a lot these days. They were neighbours,’ Gary said, making Hen feel about ninety.
‘You see where I’m heading with this?’ she said. ‘I know he’s not Mastermind, but he’d be an idiot to kill her for the bloody car. What other motive is there?’
‘Maybe she kept a load of money lying around the house.’
‘Maybe she didn’t. She was an accountant. They keep it in interest-bearing accounts.’
‘She had something on him, then?’
‘Blackmail, you mean? I suppose he may have had secrets she got to know about. But he doesn’t have a record. We checked.’
‘All that means is that he’s not been caught.’
‘Okay, but I can’t see Fiona as a blackmailer.’
‘She knew how to get what she wanted.’
‘You mean what we heard from the people who worked with her? Cosying up to the boss? Yes, they made her sound like the office whore. But she was up to something smarter, known to us women as maximising your assets.’
‘This wasn’t the office,’ Gary said. ‘This was the bloke next door.’
‘How did it work, then?’
Gary hesitated. He was new in the job, but he already knew he’d better not look smarter than the boss. ‘I’m guessing, but let’s say he was into something dodgy.’
‘Such as?’
‘Nicking cars and doing them up. Fiona watches the comings and goings, follows him one day, finds out, and sees a way of turning a profit.’
‘By threatening to tell all? She’d be taking a mega risk demanding money from a hard man like Francisco.’
‘She did. We know the result,’ he said.
‘Not bad, Gary,’ Hen said, ‘not bad at all. I’ve only got one problem with it. We’re investigating two drownings. If he killed Fiona because she was blackmailing him, how do we explain the killing of Meredith Sentinel?’
Gary actually looked relieved, like a driver who has wound down the window and been told he was speeding and had better improve his driving next time. ‘You’ve got me there, guv.’
Hen said, ‘It’s back to the sexual motive.’
