‘Several.’

‘But you wouldn’t have captioned them with the names of the diggers?’

He looked pained by this suggestion. ‘These are professional journals. The finds are significant, not the finders.’

Hen couldn’t resist commenting, ‘But I dare say your name appeared.’

‘Well, it was my project.’

‘You see why I’m so interested?’ she said, still trying for cooperation. ‘Selsey was where the mammoth was found and where your wife was murdered. We don’t know why she came back twenty years later. What time of year was the dig?’

‘End of September.’

‘Exactly twenty years on.’

‘Not significant, in my opinion.’

‘I beg to differ,’ Hen said. ‘A connection is possible, and it’s my job to examine it.’

Sentinel was unimpressed. ‘Strictly speaking, the anniversary may have been September, but scarcely anybody in a university is up then. The session begins in October, and we’re so busy then that a special lecture would be out of the question, I can assure you. And another thing: Merry was only eighteen in nineteen-eighty- seven. I’m damned sure she wasn’t having affairs at that age.’

‘I’m not suggesting that. But if one of the team from way back resurfaced and got in touch, mightn’t Meredith have thought it fun to revisit the place?’

‘She had the opportunity in June when I gave the lecture.’

‘That was Brighton. Selsey was where it happened.’

‘She said nothing to me about going back there.’

‘You must have talked about the dig from time to time.’

‘It came up sometimes.’

‘Are you sure she didn’t keep up with any of your team?’

‘She kept up with me.’ He gave a faint smile. ‘Touche.’

‘Nobody else?’

‘I wouldn’t know unless she told me, and she didn’t.’

‘Someone must have remembered her. I expect the dig was memorable for the people who took part.’

‘Oh, you can be sure of that,’ he said with another rush of hubris. ‘Not many undergraduates get such an opportunity.’

‘You must have been quite young yourself.’

‘To be leading such a dig? Twenty-five.’

‘Admired by all those little girls in bikinis? I’m sure you were.’

Too obvious. He put up the shutters. ‘You’re straying into fantasy here, I think.’ He drew the chair back from the table. ‘I need to go now.’

‘When we first discussed this, you said Meredith was one of your team, a fresher. You were very clear about what happened.’

‘Nothing happened.’

‘Right. You said you noticed her, but that wasn’t the start of your romance. That came later. Is that still your position on this?’

‘Of course. I’d have been a total idiot to risk my career going to bed with a student. It was a no-no. Didn’t I make it clear that we linked up later, after she graduated?’

‘I believe you did.’ And Hen was forced to admit to herself that his claim rang true. This calculating man was too ambitious to have risked a scandal

In this particular contest, he’d taken some hard knocks and survived them, but Hen, too, had gone through a shaky period. Towards the end, Sentinel had recovered some punching power. Even so, he wasn’t behaving with total openness. Hen suspected strongly that he was still holding something back. She’d run out of steam and he was about to escape.

It was infuriating.

‘Gary will show you to the station.’

Jo needed to prove beyond doubt that somebody other than Jake had carried out the drownings. After a light salad lunch she made herself a strong espresso. Then she planned the rest of her day. First, she faced facts. Jake was the prime suspect for the murder on the beach. The police had got onto him almost from the start, influenced by his previous offence. They’d stacked up plenty of circumstantial evidence against him.

But this wasn’t an isolated killing. Fiona had been drowned in a similar way. The police had made it their job to find some link between Jake and Fiona and now they’d got it. He’d almost certainly met her at the print works. But unless they knew something that hadn’t yet come out, they were still some way from proving he’d murdered her.

Jo had an alternative theory. If you took the killing of Fiona in isolation there was an obvious suspect in Cartwright, her boss and the man she was last seen with. Fiona had set out to seduce him and succeeded, but only up to a point. Obviously she’d told Cartwright her terms: a top job and maybe even a seat on the board. He’d seen that he’d been set up and must have got angry. She’d died and he’d disappeared. Surely the police must have deduced this much?

The next, more difficult, step was to see if Cartwright could have murdered Meredith as well. Was he one of those unassuming men who live quiet, ordered lives and turn out to be sociopaths? Was the drowning on Selsey beach a trial run for Fiona’s murder? Or was there a connection with Meredith that no one had yet discovered?

She needed to know more about Cartwright and it was obvious who to ask.

Time to mend fences.

She called the print works and got through to Gemma. The first contact was terse and untypical, but was bound to be after the hard words they’d exchanged the evening before. ‘Thanks for that message you left about Jake. I’m sorry to say he got arrested again.’

‘Poor old darling,’ Gemma said, trying her best and not quite getting there. ‘I saw it coming. We had the plod here on the case at the crack of dawn. They took a copy of the list of clients and it was as certain as death and taxes they’d discover Jake had been here in August and must have met Fiona. Sweetie, you must be gutted.’

‘I’m sure he’s innocent.’

‘Goes without saying,’

‘I’ve got to help him, Gem.’

‘I’m with you on that-but what can anyone do if the police have got him?’

‘I’ve got some ideas. Will you help me?’

‘How?’

‘I’d like to come out and see you?’

‘Aren’t you at work?’

‘I took the day off.’

‘Shoot right over, then. You’re not interrupting much. I’ve been doing my toenails.’

The last time she’d come to Kleentext, it was at Gemma’s request. This was so different.

They embraced in a token way.

‘I was still in shock last night,’ Jo said. ‘I’m sorry about some of the things I said.’

‘And I was out of order, forcing my way in like that,’ Gemma told her. ‘Pax? Put it there.’ She held up her hand for a high five that Jo was pleased to complete. ‘So what are we going to do to help Jake?’

‘Basically, find out who really did the drownings.’

‘Okay.’

‘And your boss is the main contender.’

‘Wow! Tell me more.’ Gemma gestured to Jo to sit down while she perched herself on her desk not a yard away.

After Jo had laid out her theory she added, ‘So you see, I’ve got to find a link to the drowning on the beach. There’s no question that this was a double killing. This is where I need your help.’

Вы читаете The Headhunters
Добавить отзыв
ВСЕ ОТЗЫВЫ О КНИГЕ В ИЗБРАННОЕ

0

Вы можете отметить интересные вам фрагменты текста, которые будут доступны по уникальной ссылке в адресной строке браузера.

Отметить Добавить цитату