‘There wasn’t a regular time then?’
‘Not really. It depended on the weather and what she was doing that day.’
That didn’t necessarily mean Bailey hadn’t selected her as his victim. He could have seen her on several occasions on the path. But if he hadn’t, as he claimed, then who else had wanted Natalie dead, and why? And who wanted Luke Felton to pay for it? Julian Raymonds?
Eyeing Raymonds closely, Horton said, ‘Is there anyone who would have wanted Natalie dead?’
Raymonds bristled. ‘I know what you’re driving at but I can tell you I didn’t kill her. I had only just married her, for God’s sake.’
‘Maybe you made a mistake. It
‘I loved Natalie,’ Raymonds insisted, but his statement rang false. Horton kept his gaze on the thin, stooping man, not allowing his excitement to show. He knew he was on the edge of learning some new and vital piece of information that could turn this case around. After a moment Raymonds sighed. Horton wondered if he was about to hear a confession.
‘Oh, what does it matter now? You might as well know the truth. I thought Natalie loved me, but she only loved my money, which will soon be gone along with this house. I’m bankrupt, cleaned out. Not that that’s Natalie’s fault. The recession finished me off. I didn’t realize until I married her what really turned her on: money and power. I had both then, and connections with some influential people. Natalie loved that.’ He ran a hand over his face. Horton could hear the soft rumble of voices coming from the kitchen.
After a moment Raymonds continued in a flat weary tone, ‘Natalie had affairs. She was having one when she was killed, but I’ve no idea who with.’
Horton’s pulse quickened. At last the truth. So much for Chawley’s investigation. ‘How do you know that?’ he asked keenly.
‘Because she was different. She always was when it was going on. Brighter, happier and more passionate. I thought like the other affairs it would pass. I turned a blind eye because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. When she was killed I was devastated. I thought that maybe a jealous wife or partner had killed her, but when Luke Felton was arrested, I was surprised. He wasn’t her type. For a start he didn’t have money or power. And Natalie would never have had an affair with someone so scruffy, or a drug addict.’
And that ruled Bailey out too, certainly of being Natalie’s lover. But he did have that motive for wanting to destroy Luke Felton, and Raymonds had one too. As though reading Horton’s mind, Raymonds added, ‘And if you think that gives me a reason for killing Natalie, then I can tell you there were several witnesses who can swear I was at the boat show when Natalie was murdered.’
Mrs Raymonds burst into the room, with Cantelli, sipping at a mug, in tow.
‘If you’re going to accuse my husband of such a vile act then you can charge him, and we want a solicitor present,’ she cried.
‘Leave it, Sharon,’ Raymonds said, waving away his wife’s protests. To Horton he said, ‘I’ve kept silent about Natalie’s affairs because no one asked me about them. Superintendent Chawley had Luke Felton for her murder, the evidence seemed overwhelming and he confessed to it.’
‘Can you tell me anything about her lover, anything at all?’ Horton hoped he didn’t sound as desperate as he felt.
But Raymonds shook his head.
‘What about previous lovers?’ asked Cantelli, quickly picking up on Horton’s conversation with Raymonds.
‘I’ve no idea who they were. I didn’t want to know.’
Angrily, Sharon Raymonds interjected. ‘It all happened a long time ago. My husband is ill, we don’t want it raked up for the newspapers to splash all over their front pages again. Natalie is dead and good riddance, I say. Whoever killed her did us all a favour.’
‘Sharon!’
‘It’s true,’ she declared. ‘All right, so I shouldn’t have said that about wishing her dead, but she used you, Julian, and made your life hell.’
Horton said, ‘Did Natalie take drugs?’
‘No,’ Raymonds answered without hesitation. ‘She valued control too much, which was why she enjoyed using men, she had emotional and sexual control over them. And she wouldn’t do anything to destroy her body or looks.’
‘Did she ever deal in drugs?’
‘Not that I know of.’ He looked genuinely shocked.
There didn’t seem anything more Raymonds could tell them, and he was, Horton had to admit, looking very ill. He told Raymonds they’d need a statement at some stage and that there was a strong possibility the case would be reopened in light of new evidence. That made Raymonds look even worse. In the car he asked Cantelli what he’d got from Sharon Raymonds.
‘Julian Raymonds has cancer, is broke and she loves him.’
‘If this lover story is true, Barney, then Bailey certainly doesn’t fit the bill, and it’s as he claims, he saw an opportunity to put Luke in the frame for her murder after Superintendent Chawley had given his press conference asking for any sightings of a man in his twenties on the coastal path that day. He only half expected to be believed, not knowing that Chawley already had DNA and fingerprints. Luke was there, and with Natalie’s killer. Whoever killed her hadn’t counted on a false witness coming forward but wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth when it did. It wasn’t a spur of the moment murder, it was meticulously planned and premeditated, it had to be to implicate Luke. So Natalie must already have told this lover the affair was over but agreed to see him one last time. He brought a drugged Luke Felton with him in his car or on his boat on the high tide, which is why Luke kept mentioning water and bailing. It must have been a small boat to get up on to the shore and perhaps the water got in. Bailey said the tide was up when he was bird watching, and he’s correct, high water was at two twenty-nine p.m. on the nineteenth of September 1997. Which means the killer could have access to the shore between twelve thirty and four thirty. Let’s say he came in the boat at three thirty or even four o’clock, killed Natalie and left a drugged Luke there to take the blame.’
Cantelli took it up. ‘He becomes aware of his surroundings after it grows dark, stumbles over the body and gets his DNA all over Natalie and blood on his clothes, and staggers on to the coastal path-’
‘Sees the gate, which is directly opposite-’
‘And then somehow makes his way back to Portsmouth.’
‘He wasn’t picked up until the Monday in Southsea and it was clear he’d been sleeping rough. He didn’t catch the ferry so perhaps he hitched a lift. Or. .’ Horton paused before voicing the thought that had occurred to him earlier. ‘Perhaps Natalie’s killer took Felton back to the Portsmouth shore in his boat and dumped him there. But who was her lover, Barney? It has to be someone with money or power, or both according to Raymonds, and someone who knew Luke Felton.’
‘Ashley Felton had money and power.’
‘But he was working in Germany.’
‘I haven’t had time to check that yet. He could be lying. Though I can’t see him wanting to frame his brother and destroy his parents. What about Neil Danbury? I haven’t met him, but I’ve seen his house and there’s a lot of money there.’
‘Not in 1997 there wouldn’t have been.’
‘But he inherited Neville Felton’s practice. He could have had a fling with Natalie, who threatened to tell all before the big day. Perhaps she was going to waltz into the church at that moment when the priest says “Does any man know any just cause or impediment why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony?” That would have put the kibosh on his future career. He kills Natalie, frames Luke because he’s already got a criminal sentence, and then inherits the business from his father-in-law.’
‘I’d warm to that version,’ Horton said, recalling his interview with Danbury at the police station. ‘And I haven’t forgotten Edward Shawford. He could have been Natalie’s lover, though I don’t see him having the brains to plan her death and frame Luke Felton for it, or having money and power.’
‘That’s because you’re prejudiced.’
Horton grunted acquiescence. He wondered though how Shawford would have known Luke in 1997. But then what the devil did he know about Shawford’s past anyway? He only knew of his present sexual tastes:
