Echo

Deacon shrugged. 'If Barry says it wasn't there, then it wasn't there.'

'Sounds to me like they're trying to frame him for the murder,' said Terry aggressively. 'I mean he's a sitting duck if they reckon she had some patsy helping her.' He nudged Lawrence in the ribs. 'You shouldn't let them question him like this. They ain't given him a caution or nothing.'

'Oh, I think you do our police friends an injustice, Terry. They know as well as you and I that Barry would not have told them he'd seen a man in Amanda's house if he were guilty of murdering him.' He frowned slightly. 'It's quite a problem, isn't it? Assuming Nigel was murdered, then one must accept that Amanda was party to the murder. Yet, she's such a lovely young woman.'

'Do you know her, sir?'

'I've seen her once or twice. She and I are distant neighbors and, as Michael will tell you, I like to sit on the riverbank and watch the world go by.'

'Go on, sir,' said Fortune when Lawrence came to a halt.

'Forgive me. I was wondering how far human depravity can sink without its showing. You see, if Michael is right, then Mrs. Powell must have encouraged Nigel to make love to her in order to facilitate his murder, and that would make her very depraved indeed.' He smiled a little wistfully. 'By and large, I prefer to think well of people.'

The superintendent smiled politely, hiding his impatience over an old man's ramblings. 'In my experience there's no relationship between how a person looks and how they behave.'

'Normally I would agree with you.' He took the photograph of Nigel de Vriess from Barry and examined it with interest. 'It's a cruel face, don't you think? But then he was a very arrogant man, and arrogance is a dangerous quality. I can say quite truthfully that Nigel de Vriess was one of the nastier by-products of a civilized society.'

'Did you know him, sir?'

'In a manner of speaking. One of my younger partners handled his affairs for several years.' He tapped the photograph. 'The occasion when he refused to act for de Vriess again was when he was instructed to buy off a young woman who had been beaten within an inch of her life during sexual intercourse. De Vriess put a value of ten thousand pounds on her physical and mental well-being, but my colleague was so shocked by the damage done to her that he severed our firm's connection with him. He described de Vriess as a psychopath, and nothing I have ever read or heard about him leads me to think any differently. Society should never allow a man like this to accrue wealth. When money is in the wrong hands then justice, the bedrock on which our democracy rests, can always be corrupted.'

Deacon's expression was thoughtful as he looked at his elderly friend.

'I'm not sure I understand the point you're making, sir,' said Fortune.

Lawrence looked surprised. 'I'm so sorry. I assumed it was obvious. You see, I can believe in de Vriess's depravity far more readily than I can believe in Mrs. Powell's.'

'But it's de Vreiss who is dead, sir, and not his lady friend.''

Barry cleared his throat nervously. 'She didn't look at all happy,' he confessed. 'He was pulling her round the room by her hair at one point, and then he made her bend over a little table so that he could-well-' he faltered to a halt. 'I think he might have been raping her,' he added in a whisper.

Five pairs of eyes swiveled in his direction.

'Why the hell didn't you tell us this yesterday?' demanded Harrison.

Barry looked terrified.

'You didn't ask him,' Deacon pointed out. But, by God, it explained much of Barry's confused behavior over the last twenty-four hours. No wonder he had been able to describe the dominant male with such accuracy...

* Daily Express: 27.12.95

Stop Press: Police took the unusual step this afternoon of releasing the name and photograph of a woman they want to interview in connection with the disappearance of missing entrepreneur Nigel de Vriess, whose Rolls-Royce was found abandoned in Dover. She is Amanda Powell of Thamesbank Estate, London E14, formerly known as Amanda Streeter. She is thought to be in hiding somewhere in the UK.

* Daily Express: 30.12.95

Stop Press: Following a sighting by a member of the public, police have charged Amanda Streeter-Powell with the murder of her onetime lover, Nigel de Vriess. She was discovered last night in a cottage in Sway in the New Forest which is only 40 miles from de Vriess's home in Andover. Neighbors say she was a regular weekend visitor there. Neighbors in London E14 and colleagues at work describe themselves as 'dumbfounded' by her arrest. 'She's a nice woman,' said one. 'I can't believe she's a murderess.'

Telephone message

From: DS Greg Harrison

To: Michael Deacon (Room 104)

Date: 3.01.96

Dictated to: Mary Petty

Greg Harrison is fed up with your calls. He says he spends more time talking to you than he does to his wife, and he loves her!

Amanda Powell has been charged with murder and is on remand at Holloway, and, no, he can't take you to see her because you'll probably be called as a witness at her trial, along with Barry. In any case, it would be a waste of time your talking to her because she has nothing to add to what she told the police six years ago about James's disappearance. She spent the weekend of 27th/28th/29th April with her mother in Kent, and her mother confirms this. Her alibi satisfied the investigating officers then and continues to satisfy them. Without more evidence, there is no justification for wasting taxpayers' money by trawling the Thames at Teddington.

With regard to de Vriess's murder, and for Christ's sake don't quote Greg as this is all sub judice and he could get the sack for talking out of turn (Greg asked me to underline that) Amanda agrees with Fiona Grayson. There had been no contact between her and Nigel for months. Amanda claims she had