was.”
Hal changed tack.
“What exactly was your relationship with Olive’s father?”
He clamped his knees tighter about his hands.
“Friendly.”
“How friendly?”
Mr. Clarke sighed.
“Does it matter now? It was a long time ago and Robert is dead.” His eyes drifted towards the window.
“It matters,” said Hal brusquely.
“We were very friendly.”
“Did you have a sexual relationship?”
“Briefly.” His hands struggled from between his knees and he buried his face in them.
“It sounds so sordid now, but it really wasn’t. You have to understand how lonely I was. God knows it’s not her fault, but my wife has never been much in the way of a companion. We married late, no children, and her mind has never been strong. I became her nurse and keeper before we’d been married five years, imprisoned in my own house with someone I could barely communicate with.” He swallowed painfully.
“Robert’s friendship was all I had and he, as you obviously know, was homosexual. His marriage was as much a prison as mine, though for different reasons.” He pressed the bridge of his nose with a finger and thumb.
“The sexual nature of the relationship was simply a by-product of our dependence on each other. It mattered a great deal to Robert and very much less to me, though I admit that at the time a period of three or four months only I genuinely believed myself to be a homosexual.”
“Then you fell in love with Olive?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Clarke simply.
“She was very like her father, of course, intelligent, sensitive, really quite charming when she wanted to be, and extraordinarily sympathetic. She made so few demands, unlike my wife.” He sighed.
“It seems strange to say it, in view of what happened later, but she was a very comfortable person to be with.”
“Did Olive know about your relationship with her father?”
“Not from me. She was very naY ve in many respects.”
“And Robert didn’t know about you and Olive.”
“No.”
“You were playing with fire, Mr. Clarke.”
“I didn’t plan it, Sergeant. It happened. All I can say in my defence is that I ceased being’ he sought for the right word - ‘intimate with Robert the minute I recognised my feelings for Olive. We did not stop being friends, however. That would have been cruel.”
“Bullshit!” said Hal with calculated anger.
“You didn’t want to be found out. My guess is you were shafting both of them at the same time and loving every exciting minute of it. And you have the bloody gall to say you don’t feel responsible!”
“Why should I?” Clarke said with a flash of spirit.
“My name was never mentioned by either of them. Do you imagine it wouldn’t have been if I had unwittingly precipitated the tragedy?”
Roz smiled contemptuously.
“Did you never wonder why Robert Martin wouldn’t speak to you after the murders?”
“I assumed he was too distressed.”
“I think you feel a little more than simple distress when you discover that your lover has seduced your daughter,” she said ironically.
“Of course you precipitated it, Mr. Clarke, and you knew it. But, by God, you weren’t going to say anything. You’d rather see the entire Martin family destroy itself than prejudice your own position.”
“Was that so unreasonable?” he protested.
“They were free to name me. They didn’t. How would it have helped if I had spoken out? Gwen and Amber would still have been dead.
Olive would still have gone to prison.” He turned to Hal.
“I regret intensely my involvement with the family but I really can’t be held responsible if my connection with them led to tragedy.
There was nothing illegal about what I did.”
Hal looked out of the window again.
“Tell us why you moved, Mr. Clarke. Was it your decision or your wife’s?”
He damped his hands between his knees again.
