Disordered Minds

this-' she drew a small circle-''was Grace's house. If I'm right, then there was a narrow cul-de-sac at the back which was reached from Bladen Street.' She ran her pencil up a road at right angles. 'The alleyway doesn't exist anymore, because these two houses adjacent to Bladen Street appear to have extended their gardens, and the flats have garages along the boundary ... but it was obviously there in 1970.'

Jonathan gave a nod of approval. 'Good stuff.'

George pulled a face. 'It doesn't prove anything. What about fingerprints? The police would have found some if Cill had been there for any length of time. Children's fingers are smaller than adults' so, if juvenile prints had been there, the police couldn't have missed them. Particularly Louise's. Miss Brett said she was a skinny little thing. Even if she didn't go inside, she'll have touched the windows when she looked in. It's the natural thing to do.'

'Did Lovatt have any ideas?'

'He said eyebrows would have been raised by children's prints. He also thinks there would have been a comparison set on file as Cill's would have been lifted from her bedroom in case a body was found.'

'So Louise is lying?'

'That's his view.'

Jonathan linked his hands and stretched them toward the sky, cracking the joints at the back of his neck. 'Louise told Andrew he'd have to explain it himself,' he murmured, 'which was very clever of her, because he's a competitive little man and he loves winning.'

George tut-tutted. 'You shouldn't keep drawing attention to his height. You'll give him a complex.'

'Fat chance!'

'He thinks that's why his wife left him.'

Jonathan relaxed again, dropping his arms to the table-top and favoring George with a grin. 'I did what you told me to do and went to see her a couple of days ago. She's bored with the parasitic stud, stressed to the eyeballs with work and kept asking me if Andrew had a girlfriend.'

'What did you say?'

'That she didn't deserve a second chance because she was a two-timing bitch.'

'You didn't!'

'Bloody did.'

'No, you didn't.'

He laughed. 'OK! I may not have used those exact words, but I did say Andrew was a prince among men and if she had a blind bit of sense she'd recognize the fact. I also said he'd never had a bad word for her and was eating his heart out because she and the children were the best thing that ever happened to him.'

George's eyes sparkled with delight. 'What did she say?'

'That both girls had told her he'd had a woman in the house on Saturday, and the place stank of smoke on Sunday morning.' He smiled at her deflated expression. 'What's wrong with that? It means he's desirable.'

'I hope you explained.'

He shook his head. 'I said the ladies were queuing up for him so she'd better get a move on.'

'Do you think it'll work?' she asked, her soft heart visible in the pleasure that showed in her face.

'Should do, assuming he hasn't been seduced by Louise.'

'Don't be silly!'

Jonathan tapped the bullet points. 'He's very keen to believe her. His theory is that the house was cleaned either after Cill left it or after Grace was murdered.'

'Who by?'

'Anyone you like. If it was after Cill left, then it might have been Grace herself. If it was after Grace died, then it was her murderer.'

George pondered for a moment. 'Why weren't Howard's prints wiped away at the same time?'

'They would have been, but he left enough on the Wednesday to satisfy the police. There's a clear suggestion in the prosecution case that part of his attempt to cast the blame elsewhere was to clean his prints from anything that looked suspicious-such as the bathroom taps-but that he was too stupid to do a thorough job.'

She looked doubtful again. 'It would have meant him using the lavatory after he found Grace's body. Do you think that's likely?'

'Very likely,' said Jonathan dryly. 'He probably vomited into it.'

'What about Grace's prints?'

Jonathan eyed her with approval. 'What about them?'

'If her murderer had cleaned up, there wouldn't have been any.'

'Go on.'

'Wouldn't the police have noticed?' she asked with a frown. 'I mean, if they were arguing that Howard wasn't thorough enough to remove all of his, then Grace's should have been all over the place. Do you see the point I'm making? It would have been very peculiar if the only prints found were Howard's. The defense team would have picked up on it straight away because it would have supported his story.'

Jonathan pulled a letter from his briefcase. 'That's more or less what I thought, so I wrote to Howard's solicitor first thing Monday morning and this is his reply. I'll read the relevant paragraph ... it's quite brief: 'By