wrong I don’t want shit all over my face.’
Horton watched Uckfield cross to his office before turning to leave. He didn’t expect thanks, but a grunt of gratitude might have been nice. His eyes swivelled to Dennings. All he was likely to get from him, judging by his expression, was boiling fury.
Dennings followed Horton into the corridor. ‘If you think you can get me kicked off this team by showing me up then you can think again.’
‘Can I help it if you’re not up the job?’ Horton made to leave but Dennings grabbed his arm. Horton stiffened and felt his fists clench, but Dennings would love that. He held Dennings’ hot, angry eyes.
‘We’ll see who’s up to their job,’ he hissed.
Horton stared at the hand on his arm and back into Dennings’ face. Evenly he said, ‘Then you’d better do it.
As Horton turned he could feel Dennings’ hate-filled eyes boring into his back. He headed for Kempton’s where he hoped he’d find Edward Shawford, otherwise he’d have to track him down at his boat or his apartment. And he still had Luke Felton to find.
TWENTY-THREE
Shawford’s red BMW was in Kempton’s car park. Good. And so were Catherine’s and her father’s cars. Not so good. Horton hoped he wasn’t going to have to interview Shawford in front of his father-in-law and estranged wife, but as he drew to a halt the stout figure he was seeking burst through the doors. There was a thunderous expression on his flabby face and a large briefcase and cardboard box in his hands. Horton climbed off the Harley and waited for Shawford by his car.
‘What do you want now?’ Shawford rounded on him. ‘Isn’t it enough you’ve got me fired and broken up my relationship with Catherine?’
Horton could have crowed with delight. And he didn’t care if he showed it. Mission accomplished. He’d got this warped bastard out of Emma’s life. Clearly the cardboard box contained Shawford’s personal desk paraphernalia. He wondered how Catherine had managed to get rid of Shawford without revealing the reason why she wanted him out and risking an unfair dismissal claim. Perhaps Shawford had volunteered to go; he wouldn’t have wanted his sex life paraded in the newspapers.
He said, ‘You got yourself sacked.’
‘I was made redundant because of the recession,’ Shawford sneered. ‘Catherine’s taking over my role but we both know that’s a load of bollocks. You told her about those magazines.’
Horton stifled his concern at the thought of Catherine being away from Emma on business trips abroad. Who would look after his daughter? He wished it could have been him, but he knew how impractical that was, unless he gave up his job. But then she’d be at Northover boarding school. Catherine seemed to have it all worked out. Time to think of that on Saturday, when he’d be with Emma and Catherine at the school.
He said, ‘And I’ll tell others, including the vice squad, if you don’t stop pissing me about and tell me the real reason why you gave Luke a lift to Portchester Castle.’
Shawford could see that he wasn’t bluffing. Horton knew that Catherine wasn’t featured in any homemade porno videos, so the threat of the vice squad was real this time.
Shawford shifted the box in his arms and ran his tongue over his lips. Nervously he said, ‘I gave Luke a lift because he started to remember things about the murder of Natalie Raymonds.’
Horton swiftly hid his surprise. Although he had considered Shawford might be involved in Natalie’s murder he’d not really believed it. ‘You knew her?’ he asked, watching Shawford closely.
‘We had an affair.’
God! Horton wished he’d cautioned him and had him in that interview room. Shawford could retract this, and probably would. He thought over what Julian Raymonds had said about his wife enjoying power and control. Maybe Natalie Raymonds was the dominant partner, indulging Shawford’s sadomasochistic perversions.
‘When?’ Horton asked sharply.
Shawford shifted, and not because of the load he was carrying. His roving eyes avoided contact with Horton’s. ‘June 1997,’ he mumbled. Then his head came up and he added earnestly, ‘It only lasted a couple of weeks. It was over long before she was killed.’
‘Why didn’t you come forward with this information?’ demanded Horton angrily.
‘Why should I?’ Shawford answered in surprise, seeming to recover some of his composure. ‘It was just a fling, a bit of fun. We met on a corporate hospitality sailing event.’
‘And where was her husband while you were having this bit of fun?’ Horton snarled, pushing away with anger the thought that Shawford might also have been having ‘fun’ with Catherine behind his back before the Lucy Richardson debacle had caused their marital break-up.
Shawford sniffed and studied the ground. Horton wondered if Shawford had been married in June 1997. He could ask and check records. Perhaps Natalie had threatened to tell Mrs Shawford about it, which would have given Edward Shawford a motive for killing Natalie. But that didn’t explain why he would want to frame Luke Felton.
Harshly Horton said, ‘Why did Natalie chuck you over?’
Shawford didn’t even bite at the assumption that it was she who had given the stud of century the push.
‘She found someone else. I don’t know who though,’ he added quickly.
‘Luke Felton?’ suggested Horton.
Shawford eyed him incredulously. ‘Not Natalie’s type. Not enough money. She liked a good time. And she liked power. Some women do.’
‘Can’t see why she bothered with you then,’ quipped Horton, but again Shawford had corroborated what Raymonds had told him. If Natalie had blatantly thrown herself at other men in front of her husband then jealousy was a powerful motive for killing.
Shawford bristled. ‘I don’t have to put up with-’
A glare from Horton silenced him. ‘So you saw Luke waiting beside the road on Tuesday evening, and grabbed your chance to ask him what he remembered of the day Natalie was killed without anyone at work listening in.’
Shawford nodded. ‘He told me he hadn’t killed her and said that it was only a matter of days before he cleared his name. I told him he’d never get the case reopened. I didn’t want him to, because I thought it might come out that I knew Natalie, but I didn’t kidnap or kill him to shut him up,’ he added hastily. ‘Luke said there was someone who believed him who was influential and was keen to help him see justice done.’
That certainly wasn’t Peter Bailey, unless he had lied to Luke, which was possible. And if it had been Ashley Felton, then why hadn’t Luke said something like ‘my brother is determined to help me clear my name’? The same for Neil Danbury.
‘Who was he meeting at Portchester Castle?’
‘I don’t know. It’s the truth,’ Shawford insisted quickly, as Horton looked doubtful. ‘That’s all he said, apart from the fact that it was where it all began, and he remembered water and the bailey.’
Horton seized the last two words eagerly. ‘
‘I assumed he meant the moat and the outer bailey of Portchester Castle. Though what that has to do with Natalie’s death I’ve no idea, and he didn’t elaborate. He knew nothing about my affair with Natalie, or at least he didn’t mention it. He told me he didn’t even know her.’
‘Did he say how he ended up on the coastal path at Hayling?’
Shawford shook his head. ‘We didn’t discuss it in detail, and I wasn’t interested. I’d got all I needed. I dropped him off in the car park and went home.’
Horton eyed Shawford closely. It sounded like the truth. He turned on his heel and climbed on his Harley, not bothering to look back at Shawford. He hoped it was the last he’d see of him.
He headed for Portchester Castle. Luke had told Shawford that was where it had all begun, and he had come here on Tuesday evening to meet the person he thought was going to help him clear his name, the one who had in fact killed Natalie Raymonds and framed him for her murder. By coincidence, it just happened to be near the site where a woman had been brutally murdered in her garden two days later. The castle, then, Horton thought, pulling
