fact, double jackpot.’
‘Why double?’ I asked.
‘I tested all the hairs in the bag separately,’ she said. ‘They’re from two different people. Most of them are from the woman who licked the envelope the other night.’
‘And?’ I said.
‘One of them is from the man who attacked Marina last week.’
CHAPTER 18
‘You’re a bastard,’ said Chris Beecher. ‘You used me.’
He was right, on both counts.
It was Saturday afternoon and I had telephoned him while I watched the racing from Kempton on the television.
‘You didn’t have to run the piece,’ I said.
‘Wish now we hadn’t. Wasn’t so much of a scoop after all, was it?’
‘How do you know?’ I said.
‘Worked it out, didn’t I?’ He was a bright chap. ‘No bloody police reaction, was there? Bloody Paddy O’Fitch. Why do I ever listen to him?’
‘Can I come and see you?’ I asked.
‘What do you want me to write for you this time, you bastard?’
‘You can write what you like,’ I said. ‘However, I may have a real scoop for you after all.’
I despised the creep but he was the best man for what I had in mind.
‘On the level?’ he said.
‘On the level. But I might need your help to get it.’
‘OK, so fire away.’
‘Not on the telephone. And not until tomorrow.’
‘It may have disappeared by then or some other bloody paper may have it.’
‘Rest easy,’ I said. ‘This will be your exclusive, but all in good time.’
‘I don’t work on Sundays,’ he said.
I laughed. ‘Liar.’
In the end we agreed to meet in the Ebury Street Wine Bar at seven the following evening. I needed to do some thinking before I talked to him, and also I wanted to have the day free to bring Marina home.
I went to St Thomas’s about four. I could sense that all was not well in Marina’s world. I stood by the window looking out across the Thames.
‘At least you’ve got a nice view,’ I said, trying to lighten the mood.
‘I can’t see it,’ said Marina. ‘The bed is too low. All I can see is the sky. And the nurses won’t let me get up. Not even to go to the loo. I have to use a bedpan. It’s disgusting.’
‘Calm down, my darling,’ I said. ‘You shouldn’t be pushing your blood pressure up at the moment. Give the artery in your leg a chance to heal.’
The sooner I got her home, the better. I was also sure that her security would be better there, too.
‘OK, OK, I’m calm,’ she said. She took a few deep breaths and laid her head back on the pillow. ‘And what have you been up to that has kept you from me until four in the afternoon.’
Ah, the real reason for the fluster.
‘I’ve been with another woman,’ I said.
‘Oh,’ she said pausing for a moment. ‘That’s all right then. I thought you might have been working.’
We giggled.
‘I went to Lambourn this morning,’ I said.
‘What, to ride?’
‘No, I went to Juliet Burns’s cottage.’
‘What on earth for?’ she asked.
I pulled out the pictures of Juliet’s wardrobe. ‘Look at these,’ I said.
She studied the six photographs. It wasn’t easy to tell what they were of unless you had seen it live, as it were.
‘So?’
‘They’re pictures of Juliet Burns’s wardrobe, in her bedroom.’
‘So you were in her bedroom, were you?’
‘She wasn’t there at the time.’
‘So what’s so special about Juliet Burns’s wardrobe?’ she asked.
‘It contains at least thirty thousand pounds’ worth of designer dresses, Jimmy Choo shoes and Fendi handbags.’
‘Wow!’ she said. She took another look at the pictures. ‘I take it you don’t think she obtained them through hard work and careful saving.’
‘I do not.’
‘But how did you know they were there?’ Marina asked.
‘I saw them when I took Juliet home the morning she found Bill dead.’ I suddenly wondered whether she had, in fact, ‘found’ him dead.
‘How come?’
‘I hung her jacket up in that wardrobe. But I didn’t realise what I was looking at until Jenny told me yesterday how much designer clothes cost.’
‘It doesn’t make her a murderer,’ said Marina.
‘There’s more.’ I told her about the hairbrush and the hairs and about Rosie having done a DNA test on them. And I told her about the card that had been waiting at Ebury Street for me and also about its hand-written message.
She went very quiet.
‘Well, whoever licked the envelope on Thursday is the same person that left the hairs on the hairbrush, and that has to be Juliet Burns herself.’
‘I take it that she didn’t actually invite you into her bedroom this morning,’ Marina said.
‘No,’ I said. ‘She was at work.’
‘So what now?’ she asked. ‘Shouldn’t you tell the police about the clothes and the hairs and all that?’
‘The police are too busy with other things,’ I said. ‘As far as I can see, they aren’t even investigating your shooting. I was told they don’t have the resources. The Gloucestershire police are spending their time trying to find a child killer and Thames Valley believe that Bill killed himself anyway.’
‘Another policeman came to see me this morning,’ said Marina.
‘What did he want?’ I asked.
‘Just to know if I had remembered anything else,’ she said.
‘And have you?’ I asked.
‘Not really,’ she said. ‘I told him about the flashes on the motorbike fuel tank and gave him the drawings. He didn’t think it helps much. Apparently masses of bikes have flashes on their fuel tanks.’
And lots of riders have flashes on their trousers, I thought.
‘Oh, yes,’ she said, ‘and another thing.’
‘What?’
‘The policeman told me that you had told him that I was your fiancee.’
‘Never!’
‘Yes, you did. I asked the surgeon and he said, yes, definitely, Mr Halley told everyone he was my fiance. Everyone but me, it seems.’
‘It was the only way they would let me in to see you.’
