“Be simpler if you come round here.”
“Very well.”
“Now, do you know Fethering?”
“I’ve been there when we lived in Worthing, but you’re talking thirty years ago, so my geography’s a bit rusty. I remember the bit where the river goes into the sea, and the Yacht Club.”
“I’m not far from there.” Carole gave him instructions to find High Tor. He arranged to be with her at half past eleven.
He arrived on the dot, casually dressed in off-white chinos and a biscuit-coloured suede jacket. Carole was once again struck by his family likeness to Marie, and once again wondered what had prevented his vivacity from being shared by his sister. Was it just a difference in personality, or had Marie experienced some event in her life which had left her permanently traumatized? The more Carole thought about Gaby’s mother, the greater the impression she got of a woman in shock. And that had been the case before the recent blow of her husband’s murder.
Carole had coffee ready on a tray in the sitting room, and quickly supplied Robert with a cup. “Just black – no sugar for me – got to watch my figure – nobody else does.”
She had forgotten how much his brown eyes twinkled, and how they expressed the full focus of his attention on her. Though not conventionally good-looking, Robert Coleman was an attractive man.
“I just wanted to say first of all, Carole, many thanks for organizing the hotel for Marie and Gabs. They’re both in such a shattered state that they need someone to make the decisions for them.”
“It was no problem.”
“But getting them away from Harlow was very necessary. Inspector Pollard’s a good copper, but not necessarily the most sensitive” – he chuckled – “of abreed that isn’t noted for its sensitivity at the best of times.”
“I was glad to help.”
“And you say you’ve seen Gabs? How did she seem?”
“All right in herself. But she was very worried about Phil. She’d been trying to contact you that day about him. I assume you know that he had been taken in for questioning?”
“Yes. I heard. It was nothing to worry about.”
“That’s not the way Gaby saw it.”
“No. People are very paranoid about the police. Someone gets ‘taken in for questioning’, the general public immediately assume he’s about to be charged with murder. Phil was only being questioned because some of his friends have been involved in car theft in the past. Well, so’s he, come to that. Pollard was trying to get a line on the car in which Howard’s body was found.”
“Would this be through Phil’s friend Bazza?”
Robert Coleman’s white eyebrows raised. “How do you know about him? You
“Gaby mentioned him when I saw her.”
“Ah.” He seemed relieved by the explanation. “Yes, Bazza’s a bit of a naughty boy. Been up before me as a magistrate more than once. If there’s a car theft in Harlow, Bazza’s the first person you think of.”
“I thought that was Phil.”
“Oy, oy.” Robert Coleman wagged a finger of reproof. “No slandering my nephew, thank you very much.” But he wasn’t serious. “Phil may have misbehaved in the past, but he’s a good boy now’. ‘Is he?”
“Oh yes.” But his tone suggested Robert was not totally convinced. “Anyway, Phil’s fine. Pollard only had him in for an afternoon.”
“Does Gaby know that?”
“Yes, I told her.”
“Good. Apart from the fact that it was a car theft, were there any other reasons why Inspector Pollard suspected Bazza?”
Robert Coleman grimaced wryly. “Main one is that he’s done a runner. Phil crashed out at Bazza’s place the night after the party and saw him the next morning, but nobody’s seen him since. Bazza’s made himself scarce. Which, if he did steal the car that got burnt out, might be seen as the action of a guilty man.”
Carole took this in, and was silent for a moment. Then she asked, “The night of the party, at the hotel – who actually organized the car for Howard? I wasn’t there at the time, you remember. I’d taken Marie home.”
“That’s right. Well, there was some problem with just ordering a cab the normal way.”
“A big conference or something.”
“Yes. So there were various discussions about how Howard should be got home and…” He seemed unwilling to continue, but eventually he said, “It was Phil who said he could organize a car for his dad.”
“Through his mate Bazza?”
“I’ve got no proof of that, but it might be a logical inference.”
“So it’s no surprise Inspector Pollard wanted to talk to him.”
“No.”
It was a difficult question, but Carole felt she had to ask it. “You don’t think Phil had anything to do with his father’s death, do you?”
“God, no.” Robert sounded appalled by the idea. “Phil had no reason to get rid of his dad. He liked the old boy. And all right, there’s some petty crime in his background, but nothing like that. Strangling’s a pretty nasty way of killing someone.”
“Yes. Sorry.”
“No, reasonable enough question.” He grunted a little laugh. “It must be odd for you, Carole, coming into this situation. Your son announces his engagement. Suddenly you’re deeply involved with another family.”
“Not to mention an ex-husband,” she said glumly.
“Yes. And then, through the new family, you’re involved in a murder scenario. I’m not sure that those natty little books of wedding etiquette cover the proper behaviour for those circumstances.”
Carole grinned. She remembered having a similar thought when she was grilling Marie in the Renault after the party.
“It is a bit odd, yes. And, at the same time, heartbreaking. I’m afraid my main concern in all the business is for Gaby. I mean, I feel sorry for the rest of your family, but Gaby’s the one I know.”
“That’s as it should be. Gabs is going to be your daughter-in-law.” Robert Coleman looked at his watch. “Which reminds me, I’d better be off. Said I’d be there for lunch. What’s the food like at the Dauncey Hotel?”
“I haven’t actually eaten there myself, but its local reputation’s very good.”
“Excellent. I’m quite peckish.” He rose from his chair. “Thank you so much for the coffee, Carole. It’s been really good to have a chat.”
“Yes.” Carole hesitated. She didn’t want to let him go quite yet. Robert Coleman seemed the most accessible of Gaby’s family, and there were questions she could ask him that might be difficult to put to anyone else. On the other hand, she didn’t want to make her curiosity about the case too blatant.
She decided to take the risk. “Robert, there is one thing I’d like to ask you about.”
He smiled easily. “Ask away.”
“It goes back to things that were said at the engagement party…you remember, when Marie fainted.”
“Uh-uh.” He was still relaxed, but a little more guarded.
“Howard talked about someone ‘coming back’.”
“I remember.”
“And he said he had arranged to talk to that person.”
“Yes.” Now Robert was very alert, hanging on what she was going to say next.
“I was just wondering…”
“Hm?”
“…whether seeing that person, or a connectionwith that person might have had anything to do with Howard’s murder?”
“Well, this is all a bit vague, isn’t it? ‘That person’ – Do you know who you’re talking about?”
“No, I don’t,” Carole admitted. “But I just wondered if it might be Michael Brewer?”
As at the engagement party when she had mentioned Gaby’s burglary, the casualness instantly left Robert
