“He could plant it.”
“He couldn’t just plant any old knife. It’d have to be the one that fitted the wound. They have scientists working for them. You can’t put things across on that lot so easily, you know.”
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“I suppose not.” Mara bit her lip and decided to take the plunge. “Seth? Have you noticed that the knife’s missing? That old flick-knife from the mantelpiece.”
Seth looked at her in silence for a while. His brown eyes were sad, and the bags under them indicated lack of sleep. “Yes,” he said, “I have. But I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to cause any alarm. It’ll probably turn up.”
“But what if… what if that was the knife?”
“Oh come on, Mara, surely you can’t believe that. There are plenty of flick-knives in the country. Why should it be that one? Somebody’s probably borrowed it. It’ll turn up.”
“Yes. But what if? I mean, Paul could have taken it, couldn’t he?”
Seth drummed his fingers on the chair arm. “You know how many people were around on Friday afternoon,” he said. “Any one of them could have taken it. When did you last notice it, for example?”
“I don’t remember.”
“See? And it still doesn’t mean it was the knife that was used. Someone might just have borrowed it and forgot to say anything.”
“I suppose so.” But Mara wasn’t convinced. It seemed too much of a coincidence that a flick-knife had been used to kill the policeman and the flick-knife from the mantelpiece was missing. She thought Seth was grasping for straws in trying to explain it away as he was, but she wanted to believe him.
“There you are, then,” he said. “Why assume it’s Paul just because he has a violent past? He’s changed. You’re thinking like the police.”
Mara wanted to, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell Seth about the blood.
Somehow, along with everything else, that information seemed so final, so damning.
She had decided to get in touch with that friend of Dennis Osmond’s, Jenny. Mara liked her, though she wasn’t too sure about Osmond himself. And Jenny was a professional psychologist. Mara could put her a theoretical case, using Paul’s background, and ask if such a person was likely to be dangerous. She could say it was a part of some research she
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was doing for a story or something. Jenny would believe her.
“Maybe he should go away,” Seth said after a while.
“Paul? But why?”
“It might be best for him. For all of us. Till it’s over. You can see how all this is getting to him.”
“It’s getting to all of us,” Mara said. “You, too.”
“Yes, but-“
“Where would he go? You know he hasn’t got anybody else to turn to.” Despite her fears, Mara couldn’t help but want to protect Paul. She didn’t understand her feelings, but as much as she suspected him, she couldn’t just give up and send him away.
Seth stared at the floor.
“It could look bad, too,” Mara argued. “The police would think he was running away because he was guilty.”
“Let him stay, then. Just make up your mind.”
“Don’t you care about him?”
“Of course I care about him. That’s why I suggested he get away. Come on, Mara, which way do you want it? If I suggest he goes, I’m being cruel, and if he stays he might have to put up with a hell of a lot more from that fascist bastard we had around this afternoon. What do you want? Do you think he can take it? Look how he reacted to today’s little chat. That was a picnic compared to what’ll happen if they decide to take him in for questioning. And we can’t protect him.
Well? How much do you think he can take?”
“I don’t know.” Things had suddenly got even more complicated for Mara, “I want what’s best for Paul.”
“Let’s ask him, then. We can’t make his decisions for him.”
“No! We’ve got to stand by him. If we approach him, he might think we believe he’s guilty and want him out of the way.”
“But we’d have to approach him to ask if he’d like to go away for a while, until things settle down.”
“So we do nothing. If he wants to stay, he stays, and we stand by him, whatever.
If he goes, then it’s his decision. We don’t force him out. He’s not stupid, Seth, I’m sure he knows he’s in for a lot of police harassment. The last thing he needs is to feel that we’re against him, too.”
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“Okay.” Seth nodded and stood up. “We’ll leave it at that. I’ve got to go and do some work on that old sideboard now. I’m already late. You all right?”
