Breaker

'Yes. He came out to my boat on Monday, and they were on the table.'

'Did he see them before Monday?'

'I don't know. He trashed my boat four months ago.' He ran his tongue around his dry mouth. 'He might have found them then.'

Carpenter leaned back, his fingers toying with his pen. 'Which would have made him angry,' he said, more as a statement than a question. 'She's a pupil of his and he had a fondness for her himself, albeit a hands-off one because of his position, which you knew about.'

'I-er-guess so.'

'We understand you met Marie Freemantle on fourteen February. Was that while you were having a relationship with Kate Sumner?'

'I didn't have a relationship with Kate.' He blinked nervously, trying like Tony the night before to pre-guess the direction the questions were going. 'I went back to her house one time and she kind of ... well ... threw herself at me. It was okay, but I've never been that keen on older women. I made it clear I wasn't interested in anything long term, and I thought she understood. It was just a quick shag in her kitchen-nothing to get excited about.'

'So when Tony tells us the relationship went on for three or four months, he's lying?'

'Oh, Jesus!' Harding's nervousness increased. 'Listen, I may have given him that impression. I mean I knew Kate ... you know, as an acquaintance ... for quite a while before we actually got it together, and I may have ... well, given Tony the idea there was a bit more to it than there actually was. It was a joke, really. He's a bit of a prude.'

Carpenter watched him for a moment before lowering his eyes to a piece of paper on the table in front of him. 'Three months after meeting Marie, sometime during the week twenty-four to thirty-one May, you had a one-night stand with Bibi Gould, Tony Bridges' girlfriend. Is that right?'

Harding gave a small groan. 'Oh, come on! That really was nothing. We got drunk in the pub and I took her back to Crazy Daze to sleep it off because Tony was away and his house was locked up. She came on to me a bit strong and ... well, to be honest, I don't remember much about it. I was rat-arsed and couldn't swear that anything happened worth recording.'

'Does Tony know?'

He didn't answer immediately. 'I don't-Look, why do you keep going on about Tony?'

'Answer the question, please. Does Tony know that you slept with his girlfriend?'

'I don't know. He's been a bit off recently, so I've been wondering if he saw me ferrying her back to the slip the next morning.' With a worried gesture, he pulled at the hair that flopped across his forehead. 'He was supposed to be staying the whole week in his folks' caravan, but Bob Winterslow said he saw him that day at his granddad's place, getting ready to tow his rib out.'

'Can you remember which day it was?'

'Bank-holiday Monday. Bibi's hairdressing salon doesn't open on bank holidays, which is why she was able to stay over on Sunday night.' He waited for Carpenter to speak, and when he didn't, he gave a small shrug. 'Listen, it was no big deal. I planned to square it with Tony if he ever said anything'-another shrug-'but he never did.'

'Does he normally say something when you sleep with his girlfriends?'

'I don't make a habit of it, for Christ's sake. The trouble is ... well, Bibi was like Kate. You try and be nice to a woman, and the next minute they're climbing all over you.'

Carpenter frowned. 'Are you saying they forced you to have intercourse with them?'

'No, but-'

'Then spare me the excuses.' He consulted his notes again. 'How did your agent get the idea Bibi was your girlfriend?'

Harding tugged at his hair again and had the grace to look embarrassed. 'Because I told him she was a bit of a goer.'

'Meaning she'd be amenable to pornographic stills?'

'Yes.'

'Would your agent have mentioned that to Tony?'

Harding shook his head. 'If he had, Tony would have taken me apart.'

'Except he didn't take you apart over Kate Sumner, did he?'

The young man was clearly baffled by the question. 'Tony didn't know Kate.'

'How well did you know her, Steve?'

'That's the crazy thing,' he said. 'Hardly at all ... okay, we did it once but ... well, it doesn't mean you get to know someone, does it? I avoided her afterward because it was embarrassing. Then she started treating me as if I'd wronged her in some way.'

Carpenter pulled out Harding's statement. 'You claimed she was obsessed with you, Steve. I knew she had a serious crush on me...' ' he read. ' 'She used to hang around by the yacht club waiting for me to come ashore ... Most of the time she just stood and watched me, but sometimes she'd deliberately bump into me and rub her breasts against my arm...' Is any of that true?'

'I may have exaggerated a bit. She did hang around for about a week till she realized I wasn't interested. Then she sort of ... well, abandoned the idea, I suppose. I didn't see her again till she did the thing with the nappy.'

Carpenter sorted Tony Bridges' statement from the pile. 'This is what Tony said: 'He told me on more than one occasion this year that he was having problems with a woman called Kate Sumner, who was stalking him...' Did you decide to exaggerate a bit when you told Tony?'