Breaker

Galbraith laid a forefinger on a page of his notes. 'This is a quote from Danny Spender,' he said. 'Tell me how true it is. 'He was chatting up the lady with the horse, but I don't think she liked him as much as he liked her.' Is that what was happening?'

'No, of course it wasn't,' she said with annoyance, as if the idea of being chatted up was pure anathema to her, 'though I suppose it might have looked like that to the children. I said he was brave for grabbing Bertie by the collar, so he seemed to think that laughing a lot and slapping Jasper on the rump would impress the boys. In the end I had to move the animals into the shade to get them away from him. Jasper's amenable to most things but not to having his bottom smacked every two minutes, and I didn't want to be prosecuted if he lashed out suddenly.'

'So was Danny right about you not liking him?'

'I don't see that it matters,' she said uncomfortably. 'It's a subjective thing. I'm not a very sociable person, so liking people isn't my strong point.'

'What was wrong with him?' he went on imperturbably.

'Oh God, this is ridiculous!' she snapped. 'Nothing. He was perfectly pleasant from beginning to end of our conversation.' She cast an angry sideways glance toward Ingram. 'Almost ridiculously polite, in fact.'

'So why didn't you like him?'

She breathed deeply through her nose, clearly at war with herself about whether to answer or not. 'He was a toucher,' she said with a spurt of anger. 'All right? Is that what you wanted? I have a thing against men who can't keep their hands to themselves, Inspector, but it doesn't make them rapists or murderers. It's just the way they are.' She took another deep breath. 'And while we're on the subject-just to show you how little faith you can put in my judgment of men-I wouldn't trust any of you farther than I could throw you. If you want to know why, ask Nick.' She gave a hollow laugh as Galbraith lowered his eyes. 'I see he's already told you. Still ... if you want the juicier details of my relationship with my bigamous husband, apply in writing and I'll see what I can do for you.'

The DI, reminded of Sandy Griffiths' similiar caveat regarding her judgment of Sumner, ignored the tantrum. 'Are you saying Harding touched you, Miss Jenner?'

She gave him a withering glance. 'Of course not. I never gave him the opportunity.'

'But he touched your animals, and that's what put you against him?'

'No,' she said crossly. 'It was the boys he couldn't keep his hands off. It was all very macho ... hail-fellow- well-met stuff ... you know, a lot of punching of shoulders and high-fives ... to be honest it's why I thought he was their father. The little one didn't like it much-he kept pushing him away-but the older one reveled in it.' She smiled rather cynically. 'It's the kind of shallow emotion you only ever see in Hollywood movies, so I wasn't in the least bit surprised when he told Nick he was an actor.'

Galbraith exchanged a questioning glance with Ingram. 'I'd say that's an accurate description,' admitted the constable honestly. 'He was very friendly toward Paul.'

'How friendly?'

'Very,' said Ingram. 'And Miss Jenner's right. Danny kept pushing him away.'

'Child seducer?' wrote Galbraith in his notebook. 'Did you see Steve abandon a rucksack on the hillside before he took the boys down to Nick's car?' he asked Maggie then.

She was looking at him rather oddly. 'The first time I saw him was at the boat sheds,' she said.

'Did you see him retrieve it after Nick drove the boys away?''

'I wasn't watching him.' Her forehead creased into lines of concern. 'Look ... aren't you jumping to conclusions again? When I said he was touching the boys I didn't mean ... that is ... it wasn't inappropriate ... just, well, overdone, if you like.'

'Okay.'

'What I'm trying to say is I don't think he's a pedophile.'

'Have you ever met one, Miss Jenner?'

'No.'

'Well, they don't have two heads, you know. Nevertheless, point taken,' he assured her in a conscious echo of what she'd said herself. Gallantly he lifted his untouched mug from the floor and drank it down before taking a card from his wallet and passing it across. 'That's my number,' he said, getting up. 'If anything occurs to you that you think's important, you can always reach me there. Thank you for your help.'

She nodded, watching as Ingram moved away from the window. 'You haven't drunk your coffee,' she said with a malicious gleam in her eyes. 'Perhaps you'd have preferred it with sugar after all. I always find the mouse droppings sink to the bottom.'

He smiled down at her. 'But dog hairs don't, Miss Jenner.' He put on his cap and straightened the peak. 'My regards to your mother.'

Kate Sumner's papers and private possessions had filled several boxes, which the investigators had been working their way through methodically for three days, trying to build a picture of the woman's life. There was nothing to link her with Steven Harding, or with any other man.

Everyone in her address book was contacted without results. They proved, without exception, to be people she had met since moving to the south coast and matched a neat Christmas card list in the bottom drawer of the bureau in the sitting room. An exercise book was found in one of the kitchen cupboards, inscribed 'Weekly Diary,' but turned out, disappointingly, to be a precise record of what she spent on food and household bills, and tallied, give or take a pound or two, with the allowance William paid her.

Her correspondence was composed almost entirely of business letters, usually referring to work on the house, although there were a few private letters from friends and acquaintances in Lymington, her mother-in-law, and one, with a date in July, from Polly Garrard at Pharmatec UK.

Dear Kate,

It's ages since we had a chat, and every time I ring, the phone's off the hook or you're not there. Give me a buzz when you can. I'm dying to hear how you and Hannah are getting on in Lymington. It's a waste of time asking William. He just nods and says, 'Fine.'