women have never appealed to me that much and, then again…well, it’s one of the first things you learn. If you’re going to run a successful business, keep your hands off the staff.”
“Oh, come on, Martin, that won’t wash. Connie told Jude there was a great history of you touching up the juniors, going right back to when you were married to her.”
“Oh, God,” he groaned. “How complicated things become. You invent one little untruth to get you out of a hole, and suddenly you find you’re having to fabricate more and more of them, and the hole is getting bigger and bigger.”
“I think you’d better tell me about those little untruths,” said Carole in her most magisterial Home Office committee-chairing voice.
“All right. I said I’d made a mistake in marrying Martina, but I did it because I was infatuated with her. When the infatuation faded, I looked around and realized what I’d done. And I also realized that there was only one woman I had ever loved and that was Connie.”
“Did she feel the same?”
“Yes. I had to summon up a lot of nerve to ask her, but yes, she did.”
“So all that business about what a bastard you’d been to her…?”
“That bit was true.” A wry chuckle. “I had been a bastard to her.”
“But you touching up the juniors in your salons…?”
“Was a complete fabrication. A smokescreen. Connie and I would do anything to hide the fact that we still loved each other.”
“But why? Surely if you’d divorced once, you could do it again?”
His lips tightened as he said, “Not from Martina. Martina is a Czech Catholic. She doesn’t believe in divorce. Or at least she didn’t object to marrying a divorcee, but there’s no way she’d let me divorce her.”
“But these days a lot of people don’t bother with divorce. They just move out.”
“I don’t think I could just move out from Martina.”
The chill with which he spoke made it abundantly clear that Martin Rutherford was actually terrified of his second wife. “She is a very powerful woman.”
“So, going back to where we started this evening, were the red roses for Connie?”
He nodded. “It was very hard for us to meet. I had to fabricate alibis. Martina did not trust me being out of her sight. So the Hair and Nail Conference seemed perfect. I set up to meet Connie that evening.”
“In the salon?”
“Yes. I couldn’t risk our being recognized in a hotel. Then where Connie lives – the house we used to share when we were married – well, there’s a snoopy neighbour, old boy at the back who watches everyone’s comings and goings, So that wasn’t safe. But in the salon…I could park out of sight, go in the back way. It had worked well for us in the past.”
“But when you went back there that particular night, you found out that someone else had set up their own romantic encounter?”
“Kyra, yes. As I say, I went in early to set up the flowers, did the dinner in Brighton, and came back to find our little love nest occupied.”
“So you told Connie?”
“Our arrangement was that I’d get there and give her a call on my mobile, to say that the coast was clear, then she’d come and join me. But of course the coast wasn’t clear.”
“What did you do?”
“I was stupid. I should have gone straight back to the conference hotel in Brighton. But I thought: I’ve actually managed to get a night off from Martina. I’ve got my alibi. Who knows when I’ll next get a chance to be with Connie? So I went to her place.”
“And stayed all night?”
“Much longer than I should have done. We were just so happy to be together. The time was so precious. We talked and talked all night and well into the morning.”
“Was that why Connie was late into the salon? And why she hadn’t done her hair or make-up?”
Martin Rutherford nodded ruefully. “We talked about everything. About what we were going to do. About how I was finally going to face up to Martina and tell her it was all over. But then, when I heard about Kyra’s death, everything had to be put on hold. Connie and I couldn’t risk letting the police find out what we’d been up to. If they found out I’d been at the salon that night…” He shuddered, then concluded glumly, “Everything still is on hold.”
“But you are planning to see Connie tonight, aren’t you? Because Martina’s going to Prague? Is that why you couldn’t fix to see me later?”
His nod had something of bravado in it, the action of a cheeky schoolboy doing something he shouldn’t. “Sad, isn’t it, a man having to set up elaborate deceptions so that he can go and see his ex-wife?” He looked at his watch. “Connie’s waiting for me in the back room of the salon even as we speak.”
They were interrupted by the sound of the outer office door closing. Carole looked up in alarm, but Martin said, “Don’t worry. Girls locking up. I must go down in a sec to check everything’s all right.”
“Yes, well, I don’t think I need to detain you much longer.” Carole looked at him sternly through her rimless glasses. “You realize you are going to have to tell all this to the police?”
He sighed, then dropped his head. “Yes, you’re right. We probably are.”
“It could be material to their investigations. Now they’re talking to Nathan Locke, they’ll need all the information they can find on what actually happened that evening.”
“All right. I’ll do it. But not tonight. Tonight’s just for me and Connie. Tomorrow we’ll face the consequences.”
“And stand up to Martina too?”
“Yes. I think facing the police is going to be easier than facing Martina.” He rose from his perch on the desk and picked up a briefcase. “I’d better be off.”
“Just one thing before you go…”
“Yes?”
“We’ve established that you never came on to any of your juniors…”
“I hope we have, because I can assure you – ”
“No, no, that’s fine, but what I want to ask is: if Kyra Bartos didn’t leave this salon because you’d been molesting her, why did she leave? She hadn’t been here very long.”
“Ah.” Martin Rutherford looked embarrassed. “Yes, there was a bit of a problem.”
“What was it? Come on, you’ve told me all the rest.”
“Well, all right,” he said wretchedly. “The fact is, as I said, I’ve never touched any of the juniors. But the pretty ones…well, occasionally I might say something. Nothing offensive, just a compliment. And Kyra was very pretty, so…well, I never think it hurts to tell a woman she’s pretty. It was completely innocent.”
“Then why did it become a problem?” asked Garble implacably.
“Because of Martina. Martina did not like me making these compliments to Kyra. She got the wrong end of the stick. She thought that I fancied the girl.”
“So that’s why Kyra had to go? Because Martina was jealous of her?”
“Yes. Well, I suppose that’s right.”
“How jealous is she?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, if Martina had got it into her head that the relationship she imagined you to be having with Kyra was still continuing, then she might have a motive to – ”
“No, no, you’re talking nonsense. Dangerous nonsense. Come on, I must go. Just check Kelly-Jane’s got everything tidied up.”
Down in the salon all was neat and swept clean. The manic activity of half an hour before might never have happened. A tall girl who must have been Kelly-Jane stood with a bundle of keys, clearly waiting for the all-clear to go home.
“Thanks, Kelly-Jane, looks great. Not sure whether I’ll be in in the morning or not.”
“Will Martina?”
“No, of course not. She’s off to Prague.”
“Oh, I thought she might have changed her plans.”
