“Good. Now, something about red roses, wasn’t it…? How romantic.” The laid-back flippancy of his tone was contradicted by the unease in his darting brown eyes.
“Yes. As I say, I was told this by the missing boy Nathan Locke. When he arrived in the back room of the salon that night, the red roses were already there.”
“Perhaps Kyra had another admirer…?”
“That’s rather what I was thinking, Martin.” He looked genuinely puzzled for a moment before he caught on to what she was saying. “Oh, me? Are you suggesting that I had the hots for Kyra?”
“She used to work for you, right here in this salon.”
“A lot of young women work for me, in this salon and in many others. That doesn’t mean I fancy any of them.”
“No, but Kyra Bartos left the job here, because you were sexually harassing her.”
“Oh, we’re back to that again, are we? Incidentally, where did you hear about it?”
“Your ex-wife Connie told my friend Jude.”
“Ah. Yes.” The explanation seemed in some way to relax him. “Of course, your friend Jude. The other half of Fethering’s very own Marple Twins.”
Carole didn’t react to the gibe. “So there might be a logical connection between your ‘coming on’ to Kyra when she worked for you and your giving her red roses when she no longer worked for you.”
“There might be, but I wouldn’t say it was that logical. Nor would I say it’s the kind of thing that would be possible to prove.”
“Did the police ask you about the red roses?”
“Sorry? No, not at all. Remember, I only talked to them right at the beginning of the case. Then all they wanted to establish was the set-up at Connie’s Clip Joint…you know, the fact that Connie was my ex-wife, what our financial arrangements had been since the divorce. They didn’t ask me anything connected with the actual murder case.”
“I wasn’t referring to the first time, Martin.”
“What?” He looked puzzled.
“Not the first time the police talked to you, immediately after the murder. I’m talking about when they questioned you about having been in Connie’s Clip Joint last Sunday morning.” Now it made sense to him. “Because Connie told them about that break-in. And you’re not going to tell me they didn’t follow up on it with you.”
“No. No.” Martin Rutherford looked thoughtful. Then he said, “You know, Carole, I think you and your friend Jude are very stupid to get involved in situations like this.”
“Oh? Why?”
“Because they’re potentially dangerous.” There was no twinkle in the brown eyes he fixed on hers. “It’s very common that someone who is about to be exposed for committing one murder doesn’t have much compunction about committing another.”
¦
Jude was full of her news. When she got back, she went straight round to High Tor to share it with Carole. But there was no reply, just a disgruntled barking from Gulliver.
She returned to Woodside Cottage, the information about Martin Rutherford still bubbling inside her. Then she rang through to the Crown and Anchor, to see whether Carole had gone there, according to their earlier arrangement. But Ted Crisp said she hadn’t been in. Jude moved round the house, unable to settle to anything, and kept looking out of her front window to see whether the Renault had reappeared.
¦
Martin stood up from his chair and moved round to the front of his desk. He sat on the edge, in what should have been a casual posture. But his body was tense, in the grip of some strong emotion. He was only a few feet from Carole, and she could feel the energy sparking off him.
“There’s a lot you don’t understand,” he said at length. “A lot of secrets that should stay secrets.”
“If keeping things secret leads to people being murdered, then I would have thought perhaps they ought to be made public.” The sentence was a lot more articulate and confident than Carole felt.
“Huh.” Martin Rutherford rubbed the back of his hand wearily across his brow. “It’s terrible how easily things go wrong, how easily they get out of hand.”
“Are you talking about what you did to Kyra?”
“I did nothing to Kyra.”
“No? Do you deny that you went round to Connie’s Clip Joint the night the girl died?”
He slowly blew out a long breath, then said, “No, I don’t deny it.”
“When did you go there?”
“About seven, before the girl arrived.”
“But you didn’t stay?”
“No, I had to get back to Brighton.”
“For your Hair and Nail Conference?”
“Yes.”
“To establish your alibi.”
“If you like.” He now sounded very weary. “Yes, I sat through a dinner there and talked to a lot of people.”
“But then you went back to Fethering.” He nodded. “What time did you get back?”
“Ten, half past.”
“And you went back to Connie’s Clip Joint?”
“Yes, but I didn’t go inside.”
“Really? You expect me to believe that, Martin?”
“I don’t know whether I expect you to believe that or not, but it’s the truth.”
“So why didn’t you go in?”
“Because the boy was there, with Kyra. I saw them through the window.”
“So you went in through the back gate…” That would explain the noise Nathan Locke had heard, “…you saw the young couple were there, and then you left?”
“That’s exactly what I did, yes.”
“But surely you must have been furious to see Kyra with another man?”
“For heaven’s sake, I had no interest in Kyra! I never had!”
“Never even when you came on to her downstairs in this very salon?”
“No. No. No…” The monosyllable got weaker with repetition. Martin Rutherford let out a deep sigh, then seeming to reach some conclusion, went on, “Look, I’m going to tell you what actually happened. Not because I particularly want to, but because you seem to have got some dangerous ideas fixed in your mind, and if you start passing them on to the police…well, it could be very inconvenient.”
“And what if I pass on to the police what you’re about to tell me?”
“It’s possible that when you’ve heard it, you won’t want to. And if you do, that may not be such a bad thing. I’m sick to death of lying.” His head sank into his hands. “Maybe telling the truth will
Carole waited while he composed himself. Then he started. “Most of my life I must have heard the expression ‘living a lie’, but only when it happens to you do you understand what it means. I’ve been living a lie for the past few years, and it’s been destroying me.” Again Carole let him take his own time. “Obviously you know that I divorced Connie and married Martina.” He gestured round the room. “That had a very good effect on all this. Martina is a wonderfully talented businesswoman. I could never have built up Martin & Martina to this level without her.”
“On the emotional side, though…” he was having difficulty framing the words, “…things didn’t work out so well. Some people have said Martina only married me because she had her eyes on the business. I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but certainly after the first few months…the emotional side of the marriage…” You mean the sexual side, thought Carole. “Well, it virtually ended, and I realized I had made a horrible mistake…”
“And was that when you started coming on to the young girls in the salon…like Kyra?”
He shook his head in exasperation. “No! I’ve never come on to any girl in my salon. For a start, younger
