'I was up to my limit with the bank. And my parents decided I was a lousy credit risk long ago. It was no big deal. I paid them back.'
Daniel made a show of looking over the papers on his desk, and I left him to them.
'What are you up to this weekend, Simon?' he asked after a couple of minutes.
'Oh, Lisa and I are going to Marsh House to sort out Frank's stuff'. There's quite a lot to do. What about you?'
'Don't know yet.' Just then his phone rang, and he snatched it up.
35
We drove up to Woodbridge first thing the next morning in my Morgan. I parked it beside the house, in the spot where Frank had always left his Mercedes, and we climbed out. The thin November sun burned through the last remnants of the morning fog to illuminate the browns and golds of the watery landscape. There was no wind, and the silence of the marsh lay like a heavy cloak all around us. The only movement was the occasional flapping of an egret hauling itself into the air. There weren't many left now; most of them had gone south for the winter.
It was cold inside. I wound the grandfather clock and lit the stove, and a steady warmth soon pushed its way out from the old contraption through the building. The house wasn't really built for winter habitation, but the beginning of November was unseasonably warm, and the place was quiet, and cosy, and peaceful.
I had tried to call Jeff Lieberman the previous day, whenever Daniel was out of the office, without success. He was in and out of meetings all day. I had the number of his Riverside Drive apartment, so I tried him again. This time I got through.
'Hi, Simon.' He sounded tired.
'I didn't wake you, did I?'
'Yeah, but don't worry, you just beat the alarm by a couple of minutes. I didn't get home from the office until four last night. And they want me in again at eleven. All so we can make a pitch on Monday that I know we won't win. But you've got to go through the motions.'
'Jeff. Do you remember when Daniel came to New York in October?'
'Yes.'
'You definitely saw him, did you?'
'What do you mean? Yes, I did.'
'And that was the tenth of October, right?' The day Frank was killed.
'I don't know the exact date. I can check with my diary?'
'Please.'
I waited a few seconds.
'Yes. Here it is. October tenth. Brunch. We were supposed to have dinner together, but he changed it.'
'He changed it?'
'Yeah. He called a day or so before, and said he'd met some 'babe' who lived in New York who he wanted to see that night.'
'Daniel? A babe?'
'It sounded a little odd to me. I did try to pry, but he wasn't saying much. But, hey, everyone gets lucky sometime. He spent most of brunch pushing Net Cop.'
That much, at least, Daniel had told me. 'Did you see him that afternoon?'
'No. After brunch he headed off. I don't know where. Why all these questions?'
'Oh, nothing.'
'OK. I'll see you at the Net Cop board meeting next week.'
'See you then. Oh, and Jeff?'
'Yes?'
'Don't mention any of this to Daniel.'
There was a pause as Jeff tried to work out what I was fishing for. In the end he decided to trust me. 'OK,' he said and hung up.
'Well?' asked Lisa as I put down the phone. She was perched on Frank's desk beside me trying to follow my end of the conversation.
'Daniel switched dinner to brunch.'
We looked at each other.
Lisa exhaled. 'So, what do we do now?'
'Well, we don't have absolute proof. But the cops can check him out. They should find something to nail him, if they know what direction to look in.'
'Do we call Mahoney?'
I sighed. 'I'd rather not.'
'What about the Assistant DA? What was her name?'
'Pamela Leyser. Maybe. But I think we should talk to Gardner Phillips first.'
I dialled his home. His wife answered, and said he was out on the golf course. She gave me the number of his cell phone. I tried it. It was switched off. I called Mrs Phillips back, gave her Marsh House's telephone number, and asked her to make sure her husband called me as soon as he got in. It was urgent. She expected him back by eleven fifteen, although she said he might be home before then. I looked at the grandfather clock. Quarter to ten. An hour and a half.
The waiting was difficult.
'Shouldn't we call Mahoney?' Lisa said.
'I don't think so. I know Phillips. He'd definitely want me to speak to him first.'
'But we've proof it was Daniel!'
'I know. And I'm sure Phillips will want us to pass that on to the police. But I've screwed this up before, I don't want to do it again. Let's just wait till he calls back, shall we?'
'All right. But I'm not hanging around here,' said Lisa. 'I'll go crazy. I'm going for a walk. Coming?'
'No, I'll stay here, just in case he does call back early.'
Lisa grabbed her coat and walked out the door. Through the sitting-room window, I could see her tramp along the edge of the marsh to the right of the house.
I went upstairs to make sure the storm windows were securely fastened, my ears listening out for the ring of Frank's ancient telephone.
Instead, I heard the front door bang.
'Lisa! Did you forget something?' I ran down the stairs. 'He still hasn't called…'
I stopped short. There, standing in the middle of the living room, his hands thrust deep into his city raincoat, was Daniel.
'Hello, Simon,' he said casually.
My initial reaction was to bolt back up the stairs, but I fought to compose myself. 'Hello, Daniel,' I said in feigned welcome, as coolly as I could manage. 'What brings you here?'
He wasn't obviously carrying a gun. But he wasn't taking his hands out of his pockets either. I wasn't sure what effect a gun would have if fired from within a coat pocket like that. But from a foot or two's range, I didn't want to risk it.
'Oh, I'm meeting some people for lunch at Woodman's in Essex, and I thought I'd drop by on the way,' he answered. An extremely unlikely story, I thought. 'Where's Lisa?'
'She had to go into the lab,' I replied. 'She'll be there all day.' If the worst came to the worst, I didn't want Daniel hanging around waiting for her to come back from her walk. 'Can I make you some coffee?'
'Sure.'
I moved past him to get to the kitchen. He backed off, keeping his distance. For some reason he didn't want to show his hand yet. Why could that be?
As I fiddled about with coffee and filters, I thought it over. Another murder now would blow the case wide open again, something Daniel would want to avoid. He was here to check up on how much I knew. If I played it right, he
