‘And Fiona?’
‘Less than two. At first I was sorry for her, a lone parent, young kid to bring up. We got quite friendly. I’ve had it tough, too, but not in the way she had. She was telling me Mr Cartwright was coming onto her and she didn’t know how to give him the old heave-ho. I believed her. Then she started appearing in these ridiculous low-cut dresses and I sussed her out. She’d been trying to pull him from the word go, and wanted to find out if I was a threat.’
‘Weren’t you?’
She frowned. ‘I don’t confuse business with pleasure. Besides, he’s not my type.’
‘So what do you think happened to him?’
‘He hasn’t absconded with the funds, I’m glad to say. He left here with Fiona looking as if they were off for a quickie, or maybe even the whole weekend. I was really surprised when she was found in the Mill Pond. He’s a waste of space and a pain to work for, but in my wildest dreams I’ve never thought of him as a killer. It says in the papers she was murdered. Are you sure it wasn’t some kind of accident?’
‘There’s no doubt about it,’ Hen said. ‘She was held down in the water.’
‘Horrible.’
‘We can agree on that.’ She turned to Gary. ‘Feel like a trip to the nature reserve?’
Jake seemed in no hurry to return to dry land. He told Jo the harbour had once been so deep that it was navigable by Tudor galleons all the way up to Sidlesham. Centuries of silting had encouraged Victorian landowners to block off the narrow entrance and reclaim hundreds of acres for farming, and they managed it for about forty years, but a great storm in 1910 broke through the defences. ‘What the sea wants, it gets,’ he said. The nature reserve had been created and now the land grabbers had to look elsewhere.
Here in his own workplace, he had no difficulty stringing sentences together. He pointed to a formation of birds flying overhead and talked with relish of the latest arrivals, a flock of curlews driven south by the onset of the Arctic winter. ‘We see them best at low tide, digging for the lugworm and gilly-crab. Right now the tide’s in, so they’re resting up. The wildfowl at this time of year are marvellous. Godwits, redshank. We’re blessed.’
She knew he was taking her mind off the gruesome stuff she’d grappled with all night, and she was thankful. The panorama from out here in the middle helped get her thoughts in proportion again. He could be right about Rick making it all up to impress Gemma.
A large, dark bird swooped and splashed into the sea close to them. ‘What’s that one?’ she asked.
‘Isle of Wight parson.’
‘Get away.’
‘Cormorant. You have to see him perched on the cliff, like a reverend in his pulpit.’ He watched her with such intensity that she became uncomfortable. ‘You’re very trusting.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Obvious.’
She frowned. ‘Not to me.’
‘The drownings. I’m the main suspect.’
‘That’s pants, Jake.’
‘The police don’t think so.’ He gave her another long look with his brown eyes. ‘You’re taking a risk in a boat with me.’
She tried laughing it off, but he was obviously serious. ‘Bit late to warn me, isn’t it?’
‘Aren’t you even slightly worried?’
She dipped her hand in the sea and splashed him. ‘Quit teasing me, or I might jump over the side.’
‘I meant what I said just now. They’re out to get me.’
‘Who, the screaming heebie-jeebies?
‘The police.’
She couldn’t continue treating it lightly. ‘I don’t think so, Jake. I understand how you feel after all you’ve been through, but they’d need proper evidence. They can’t charge you just because of something in your past.’
‘I met Meredith more than once in London at the museum,’ he said, refusing to be persuaded. ‘She was a fossil expert. I met the other woman, too. They don’t know about that.’
She realised that the roles had switched. He needed reassurance from her. ‘That’s pure chance, isn’t it? Just meeting them is hardly enough to convict you of killing them.’
‘I wish… ’ he began.
‘Go on.’
‘… I hadn’t met them.’
‘Put it all behind you, Jake. You’re a good man. You’re innocent.’
He gave a nod. ‘Are you getting cold?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘Want to steer?’
‘I’m not much of a sailor.’
‘Come and sit beside me.’ A sailor’s chat-up line. She was amused. He made room and helped her move. He pulled the starter rope and the engine spluttered into life. ‘Now try.’
It was easy to steer without getting splashed in this placid sea. She took the inflatable in several directions. ‘I’m keeping you from your duties.’
‘You’re not.’
A faint sound began chiming in with the engine note. Not a natural sound.
‘D’you mind?’ He switched off the engine. ‘My mobile.’ He delved into an inner pocket and put the phone to his ear.
Jo didn’t say so, but wondered if Jake’s boss had spotted him out here in the Conservancy boat with a woman aboard.
His expression wasn’t relaxed any more. He went back to monosyllabic mode. ‘Yes… Ah… Right… Thanks.’ He pocketed the mobile again and there was desperation, if not panic, in his eyes.
‘What is it?’ Jo asked.
‘That was Gemma.’
‘Gem? What did she want?’
‘She’s had the police there, at the printworks. They found out I met Fiona and now they’re coming here. They’ll arrest me again.’
SIXTEEN
‘This time we’ve got him,’ Gary said in the car on the way to Pagham.
Hen gave him a look. ‘There’s an old saying, Gary. Don’t sell the skin till you’ve caught the bear.’
‘New to me.’
‘I dare say. But worth remembering.’
‘Like don’t count your chickens?’
‘This one is more bear than chicken.’
She’d visited this part of the coast a few times before without taking in the existence of the nature reserve. All she’d taken in were drunk and disorderlies from the Crab and Lobster at the north end-and that was way back, before it became an upmarket restaurant. Walking and birdwatching were not pursuits of choice for Hen. She studied the map while Gary did the driving. ‘Bigger than I thought,’ she said after a long silence.
‘That bear?’
‘The place where he hangs out.’
‘His den.’ Gary seemed to be enjoying himself.
‘The main acreage of the reserve is inland, to the north of us, farmland put to grass by the look of it. Before we look there I want to be certain he isn’t on view around the edges of the harbour. The footpath goes right around.’
