terrace with stone balustrades. Fry would have liked to explore
the bathroom and the kitchen, to examine the whirlpool bath,
the automatic oven, the fitted wardrobes, the self-defrosting
fridge and the digital microwave.
‘Is that the way it was, Mrs Vernon?’
‘Certainly. Oh, only a couple of times, but we both enjoyed
it. He was unsubtle, but enthusiastic. And an excellent body. It’s so good for morale at my age when you can still make the
young men come running.’
‘Did you initiate the relationship?’
The suppose I seduced him, yes. It didn’t take much doing.’ ‘When did your husband find out what was going on?’ Charlotte shrugged. ‘I don’t really know. Does it matter?’
267
‘I would have thought so.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Presumably he objected.’
‘You presume wrong, dear. He gets a turn-on from it, old Graham. That’s convenient for both of us, really. It means I’m free to take what lovers 1 like without any complications. Graham, of course, is quite free to do the same as far as I’m concerned.’
‘But he did object, didn’t he? He sacked Sherratt from his job.’
‘True.’ Charlotte blew a slow smoke ring which hovered in the air between them. ‘But didn’t Graham tell you that was because of Laura.’
‘And was it?’
‘If that’s what Graham says, it must have been, mustn’t it?’
‘Were you aware yourself of Lee Sherratt’s attitude to your daughter? In view of your own relationship with him?’
‘Do I call you Detective Constable?’
‘If you like.’
‘Detective Constable, I don’t know what you imagine I did with Sherratt in the summerhouse, but we certainly didn’t indulge in conversation about my daughter.’
‘But do you think —?’
‘He was more than occupied with me, dear. I can be demanding when I’m aroused.’
‘And why bother with the lamb when you can have the old ewe, eh?’
Charlotte bared her perfect teeth in a snarl, then changed her
r ‘ o
mind and turned the snarl into a mirthless laugh.
o
‘Very good, dear. I wouldn’t have thought you were so good
j O O J O
with the farming metaphors.’
Fry was disappointed that she could not crack the woman’s
facade. If only she could get through the provocative, brittle
exterior, she might expose a soft, vulnerable core that would
yield something to the probing.
‘Did you know about Laura’s boyfriend, Simeon Holmes?’ ‘No, I didn’t.’ Charlotte sighed. ‘Until your people managed
268
to track him down. I suppose there’s no doubt they had a thing together?
‘None at all.’
‘She was obviously a bit of a chip off the old block, wasn’t she? She kept her bit on the side quiet, though. Laura usually told me her secrets, but not that one.’
‘Perhaps she thought you would consider him unsuitable. He’s from one of the council estates in Edendale, rides a motorbike.’
‘Unsuitable? Not me.’
‘Really?’
‘Well, I was shagging the gardener, dear.’
Fry gritted her teeth. Charlotte stubbed out her cigarette and
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