'It's probably nothing,' she said hastily. 'I'll get Peter to check, if you like.'
'Yes, yes, I would like,' said Daphne.
After a moment's silence, she added, 'I suppose all this came up when you were giving your husband a blow- by-blow account of my visit yesterday?'
'No, I didn't tell him you'd been, nor anything of what you said,' said Ellie evenly.
'Cross your heart?' said Daphne, faintly mocking.
'And Guide's Honour. But he did say he was going to see Mr Elgood this morning. I don't know why, but if it turns out to have anything to do with you, please believe me, Daphne, I haven't told him.'
Their gazes met and locked for a moment.
Then Daphne smiled wanly and said, 'I believe you. I thought a lot about things last night and it struck me that the picture of you as a police spy was almost as ridiculous as you wearing a funny hat at the Tory Conference.'
'Thanks,' said Ellie.
'I'm usually pretty good at first impressions,' continued Daphne, 'and my first impression was that you were likely to be honest to the point of embarrassment, perhaps even tedium.'
'Thanks, again,' said Ellie. 'I'm not sure that my gratitude is going to last out if you continue on those lines, though. And don't get carried away. Remember, I confessed to having chatted about you with Peter. I may not be your dyed-in-the-wool agent provocateur, but I'm not your sea-green incorruptible either.'
'You're the best I've got,' said Daphne, finishing her coffee. 'Look, if you've got the time, I'd like to talk with you about Dick and me, and Patrick too. What happened, and everything.'
'Are you sure you want to?' asked Ellie, troubled.
'Can't I trust you?'
'Not unless you can trust me,' said Ellie. 'All right. Shoot.'
'Not here,' said Daphne. 'If Special Branch haven't bugged this place for your sake, the WI certainly have for mine. Let's stroll around, if that's all right.'
A slight head movement brought the eager waitress.
'My turn, I think,' said Daphne, opened her handbag. Then her composure vanished.
'Oh damn!' she said. 'With all that fuss, I forgot to pick up my purse anyway. Ellie, would you mind?'
'You can always tell the very rich,' said Ellie opening her bag. 'They never carry money.'
Daphne laughed, but the waitress on her behalf was clearly not amused.
Elgood caved in quite suddenly. Pascoe was surprised. Even by using the old trick of implying much greater knowledge than he had, he hadn't been able to sound very knowledgeable. If Elgood had simply stuck to his first story that his intercession on Mandy Burke's part in the matter of the market lease had been a simple act of charity to ensure that the widow of a former employee didn’t fall on hard times, Pascoe might well have ended up believing him.
All that he had besides was the business of the car not being parked in the drive and his own recollection of Elgood's defensively aggressive response when he had tried to associate Burke's death with those of Eagles and Bulmer.
Plus, of course, Elgood's reputation as a Lothario, Mrs Burke's lively manner, and above all her easy reception of his questioning as though perhaps she had been forewarned.
But the strongest suspicions are straw to the fire of a respectable citizen's indignation, and Pascoe was ready to retreat at the first digit of the Chief Constable's number.
He pressed his insinuations. The receiver was lifted, the finger poised.
Then Elgood said wearily, 'To hell with it. What am I doing? I'm acting like a bloody criminal and I've done nowt. I'll be calling for my lawyer next.'
He sat down behind his desk and pressed a button on his intercom.
'Miss Dominic,' he said. 'Let's have some coffee, love. Aye, for two.'
He looked his age suddenly. Sixty and tired. But he managed a wan smile as he spoke.
'You, Pascoe,' he said, 'I've got you worked out. You'll not leave this alone, will you? Christ, I started something when I talked to you, didn't I. Andy Dalziel's not daft. I could chuck you out of here and you'd be right off round to talk to Mandy Burke again. Right? Of course it's bloody right. Well, listen. I don't want that. Not that I've done anything criminal, you understand, but I don't want any aggro, not just at the moment. So what I'm going to tell you now is to get things straight and get you out of my hair. And it's off the record. Right?'
The efficient Miss Dominic entered with two cups of coffee on a tray. She set it on the desk, glanced assessingly at Pascoe, and left.
Pascoe said, 'It's not in my power to give you that assurance, sir. Not in advance.'
Elgood opened a drawer, produced a bottle of almost colourless liquid and poured a shot into each of the coffee cups.
'Plum brandy,' he said. 'You can hardly smell it. All right. You decide when you like. Me, I'll just deny everything! But this is what happened. Yes, you're dead right. I was having a thing with Mandy Burke. She'd been down to my cottage a couple of times. She was keen, you follow me? Too much for poor old Chris Burke.
'Well, we met by accident that lunch-time. I'd been having a business lunch in the White Rose, I recall. There was me, and our sales director, and Patrick Aldermann was there as well for some reason, and a couple of chaps from the Council. It wasn't a big deal, fitments for a new old folk's home or something, but these Council lads like their pound of flesh in the form of best fillet steak. Afterwards the others all went off, but I slipped into the bar to wash the talk out of my throat. And who should be there but Mandy. We had a quick one together and I think we
