‘Never? Why would she lie about it, Mr Milner?’
The don’t know.’
‘But you had been to one of the Vernons’ parties yourself, hadn’t you?’
‘Well, yes. But I wouldn’t take part in … anything like that.’
Tailby was silent for a few moments. Andrew Milner hung his head, waiting for the next question with the air of a man expecting the inevitable.
‘Where were you on Saturday night, Mr Milner?’
333
Andrew looked puzzled. ‘I gave a statement days ago,” he said defensively.
‘Ah yes.’ Tailby consulted his notes. ‘You had been to a meeting with some clients in Leeds. A bit unusual on a Saturday?’
‘Not at all. We’ve been very busy. If the clients work on a Saturday, then we do too.’
‘And you state that you were tired and stopped for a rest on the way home.’
‘At Woolley Services on the Ml. I’d had a long day. I dozed for the best part of an hour, I think. It’s not safe to drive when
you’re tired.’
j
‘Of course. And you state that you were then held up in traffic on the Ml.’
‘And getting through Sheffield from the motorway, yes. There had been an accident somewhere, I think. And the usual roadworks, you know.’
Tailby slapped the file with his hand. ‘Of course there were roadworks. There always are roadworks. The rest of it is quite impossible to substantiate.’
The can’t help that.’
‘So,’ said the DCI, ‘let’s go back to your relationship with Mr Vernon, then. You can’t afford to resign, and you can’t afford to upset the boss too much. Is that it? So you just grin and bear it when the man assaults your daughter. You accept the humiliation.’
‘I’m afraid that’s what I did.’
Tailby stood up. He towered over Andrew Milner, and Andrew cringed as the detective’s expression changed to anger.
‘No, I don’t think so, Mr Milner. I don’t think you did just accept it, did you?’
‘What do you mean?’
The think that the humiliation rankled. I think it ate away inside you — the anger and the humiliation, the self- disgust. The shame that you hadn’t been man enough to respond in the way that so many fathers would. You already hated Graham Vernon for his condescension, for the way he treated you like a servant. But now your hatred festered and you wanted to strike back. I think you saw a way of doing that in what must have seemed the
334
most appropriate manner — through his own daughter. Revenge — wasn’t that it, Mr Milner? Vengeance for your humiliation, for Helen’s ordeal and your own impotence. Tit for tat. Laura Vernon was an obvious target of your anger.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘I think you do. Where did you really go on Saturday night, Mr Milner?’
The silence grew, with Tailby leaning down towards Andrew, glaring at him as he waited for an answer. The tapes whirred uninterrupted, waiting for the next person to speak. Andrew Milner did nothing for a long time. Then his face seemed to convulse and collapse. His hands clutched at each other, and tears began to ooze down his cheeks.
335
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