guessed he'd keep me informed.'
He eyed her keenly. There were still some questions he needed answers to before calling Uckfield. He couldn't bring himself to tell DCI Birch about Thea.
'Why did Owen kill his parents?'
Laura rose and crossed to the patio doors. Ramming her hands in her pockets she turned back to face him. 'I only have Thea's version of it but this is what she says Owen told her. His father heard about the girl's hit-and-run accident and accused Owen of killing her. They were very principled people and he said he was handing Owen over to the police, just what Owen didn't want. Owen smashed up their house and fixed their car to make it look as though they'd had an accident I'm not sure how he did it and neither is Thea. Maybe he didn't really mean to kill them, just to warn them, but…' She shuddered and drew her coat tighter around her.
Horton thought the summer house felt a few degrees colder. The wind howled around them, searching for gaps to squeeze through and chill them further. He recalled that cheerful voice he'd heard on the answer machine message, and found it hard to believe Owen Carlsson had ruthlessly killed a girl and his parents, though sadly as a police officer he knew those things happened.
Laura continued. 'Owen then had the girl off his back and his parents' money to help him through university. But poor little Thea was scarred for life by her parents' tragic death. After Jonathan had told Thea that Owen had paid him to kill Arina, Thea confronted her brother who, distraught over Arina's death even though he'd caused it, and guilt-ridden, told Thea everything, including how he'd killed their parents. Thea flipped, understandably so after the traumatic child hood she'd had. Filled with anger and hatred, she arranged for Jonathan to kill her brother, promising him half her inheritance. She said that Jonathan jumped at the chance.'
Horton knew the gardener had had financial difficulties.
'Then she killed Jonathan.' Laura shook her head sadly. 'Poor Thea is as mixed up as her brother clearly was. It's a mess and a tragedy.'
'What about her apartment? It was ransacked.'
'She did that to throw the scent off her.'
Horton rose and crossed to the window. Where was Thea now? Where had she been these last six days before showing up here? Had she returned there? Did Laura Rosewood know?
He turned back, his foot crunching on something as he did. Flicking his eyes down to see what it was, he heard Laura say, 'I thought I heard a noise outside. Thea must be trying to get away on the RIB. She's mad. She'll drown.'
She pushed past him, wrenching open the door, but Horton didn't follow.
'Why did Owen visit Dr Nelson?' he asked.
'Who? I don't know. Did he? I'm sure Thea is there.' And before Horton could stop her she was hurrying down the jetty.
Horton quickly moved after her. The sea was crashing on to the shore, spraying them both as it splashed over the jetty. He could hear it sucking up the stones underneath them as it retreated. The light from the summer house showed the waves breaking over the RIB. He could see no sign of Thea.
'Thea's not here,' he shouted above the roar of the sea and wind. 'She's never been here. Everything you said was a lie. It was convincing, Laura, I'll give you that. And I nearly fell for it. It will probably be enough to convince DCI Birch and maybe others, but not me.'
She halted and turned. He could see her wary expression.
'You killed Owen Carlsson,' he said. 'You shot him through the summer house window. There's glass on the floor, probably left from when you or Jonathan Anmore mended it. I take it Anmore helped you move the body. I can't see you managing that yourself. How did you get Owen to the Duver, Laura? Was it in Anmore's van or
did you use your RIB?'
She stared at him amazed and bewildered but he knew it was an act. With the rain and sea lashing at them he held her gaze. Then her expression cleared. A cold gleam came into her eyes as her mouth tightened and her body stiffened. Evenly she said, 'You're right, of course, which means I'll have to kill you.' And before he could blink he found himself staring at a revolver aimed steadily and directly at his chest.
TWENTY-SIX
It was a different make to the one which had killed Owen Carlsson, but it was no less deadly, and Laura Rosewood knew how to handle it. He considered rushing her before discarding the idea; he'd only end up with a bullet in his chest. She had killed three people; she wouldn't hesitate to kill him. She had tried to throw him off the scent with her lies about Owen Carlsson. For a while he had believed her, but even before he'd seen the fragment of glass certain things had troubled him. One of them was his refusal to believe Thea had killed her brother.
Horton stared at Laura Rosewood's cool and determined expression and said, 'Helen Carlsson took photographs of you, Cawley and Noel Halliwell at Whitefields, didn't she?'
Laura said nothing. It didn't matter. He knew most of it anyway.
'The land wasn't contaminated,' he shouted above the crashing waves. 'You, Cawley, and Noel Halliwell concocted that tale between you in order to profit by the sale. What was it you told me and Steve at our first meeting? That you'd been a surveyor. You surveyed Whitefields and said it was contaminated. Did Noel Halliwell, the planning director of the NHS, kill himself because he couldn't live with the guilt of what he'd done?'
'I never promised him undying love.'
Horton saw at once how she must have seduced and sexually blackmailed Halliwell into defrauding the NHS. He wouldn't mind betting the whole scheme had been Laura's idea.
Tautly he said, 'Which of you killed Helen and Lars Carlsson?'
'Jack,' she replied coolly.
His jaw tightened in anger. 'And was that because you asked him to?'
'No. I had no idea what he'd done.'
Horton didn't believe her. She was a heartless, scheming bitch.
She said, 'Jack said he'd get the film and scare her into keeping her mouth shut. Then I heard they were dead.'
'Oh, yeah,' Horton said sarcastically. Laura Rosewood was poisonous.
She said, 'Whitefields was a prime site. There was a lot of money at stake. Noel Halliwell steered other potential buyers away from purchasing it by telling them it was contaminated and showed them my report. Phoney, of course. They thought it would cost thousands of pounds to clean up before any kind of building work could commence and no one wanted to take that on. Jack bought the land for a song and Halliwell and I got a generous pay off. I eventually married Jack, and inherited his estate when he died of a heart attack two years later.'
Horton wondered if Jack Cawley's death had been down to natural causes after all. This explained a great deal, but there were still elements that were puzzling him.
'Owen found out, so you killed him?'
'Yes.'
And there it was: a confession, and one she thought no one would ever hear. Perhaps they wouldn't. Not if she killed him, and she had every intention of doing so. He didn't doubt that.
'How are you going to explain my death?' He kept his gaze on her but at the same time his mind was working overtime to find a way out.
'I won't have to. The tide is on the turn; it will take your body miles away from here. There will be nothing to connect your death with me.'
Clever. Which was why she had wanted him out here on the jetty. And what about Julie, the hired help, was she in on this too? Was that why she had called Laura and told her he was on his way and that he'd been asking questions about Cawley and Whitefields, to give Laura time to concoct or put the finishing touches to a story she'd already worked out?
He said, 'Steve Uckfield will never believe that.'
'Why not? He doesn't know you're here. You could have slipped and fallen anywhere along a coastal path, or even killed yourself, depressed over your divorce and not being allowed access to your daughter.'
