‘For God’s sake, Sam, we’ve been through all this. I don’t have to justify these murderers’ behaviour to you. Maybe it needed two of them to do the murders. They’re sick, fucking psychos, who knows what they enjoy? Perhaps they got a sado-masochistic kick out of a fake murder.’
‘There’s the murder of Mrs Ferrer.’
‘Mrs Ferrer died from pulling a plastic bag over her head. It was a clear suicide.’
‘Perhaps. But that still leaves the murder of Danny and Finn. You were the ones who proved to me that Michael couldn’t have done it.’
‘I can’t believe I’m sitting here listening to this. Just concentrate for a moment, Sam. You made a statement to us saying that Michael Daley confessed to the murders. The forensic evidence from the boat-house clearly confirmed your statement. It is not reasonable to doubt that Daley and Fiona Mackenzie killed the Mackenzies and then that Daley, with or without Fiona Mackenzie, killed Danny Rees, and then Daley killed Fiona Mackenzie, disposing of any link with the crime. If he had managed the fake boating accident with you, then he would probably have got away with it.’
‘Can you think of any possible reason why Finn should have suddenly written a will leaving everything to Michael Daley?’
Chris was looking at me now with an expression close to contempt.
‘I don’t really give a fuck. Patients sometimes fall in love with their doctors, don’t they?’ He paused before resuming with cruel deliberation. ‘Women have been known to behave irrationally in times of great stress. Perhaps she was suffering from trauma, maybe her period was about to start. I’m afraid that this is the way that cases end up. If you’ve got the right people and not too many loose ends, then that’s good enough. Is this what you wanted to see me for?’
‘I thought you might be interested in hearing about a couple of funny things that happened to me in the last couple of days.’
‘Are you feeling all right, Sam?’
‘A couple of months ago I was out doing some shopping for clothes with Finn and I bumped into a woman I’d known at medical school.’
‘That’s fascinating. I think your five minutes are up…’
‘Wait. I met her again on Tuesday.’
‘Give her my regards if you happen to see her again,’ said Chris, raising himself from his seat.
‘Sit down,’ I said sharply.
Chris frowned, and I saw he was wondering whether to ignore me and walk out, but he gave a sigh and sat back down.
‘She had read about me in the papers. She told me it was a funny coincidence because she was a family friend of the Mackenzies. Yet when we had met before, she hadn’t recognized Finn.’
Chris’s face was impassive, still waiting for the punchline.
‘Is that supposed to mean anything?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Don’t you think it’s strange?’
He laughed harshly.
‘Had Fiona lost a lot of weight, Sam?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did she avoid meeting people face to face?’
‘Yes.’
‘So maybe your friend didn’t get a proper look, maybe she didn’t have her glasses on.’
‘And then, when I was reading through Finn’s guide to South America, I accidentally came across a passage, and it was the same – I mean exactly the same – as something she had said to me about her trip there. As if she’d learned it by heart.’
Now he was cracking his knuckles, a look of boredom and, almost, of contempt on his face. He didn’t bother to say anything.
‘And a funny thing happened to me yesterday. I was dashing out of the house and I grabbed a hat at random and it was laughably too small. It just bobbled on top of my head. It made Elsie laugh.’
‘I suppose you had to be there to appreciate the full humour of the situation.’
‘You see this trilby?’ I picked my hat off the table and put it on my head. ‘Fits nicely, doesn’t it? It was Finn’s.’
‘Shrank in the wash, did it? Well, I’m certainly glad that you shared that with me, Sam.’
‘You put your hats in the washing-machine, do you Chris? That explains one or two things. Did you do science at school?’
‘This is crucial to the inquiry as well, I assume. Yes, I did science at school, but I bet I wasn’t as good at it as you were.’
‘I bet you weren’t. Look, I know that reality is complicated, people act illogically, evidence is ambiguous. But…’ I drained my gin and tonic and slammed the glass so hard on the table that people looked around and Chris shifted uneasily.
‘I hope you’re not planning to drive home.’
‘But,’ I repeated. ‘This is not just messy. It’s impossible. Until the discoveries in Michael’s boat-house, it was
He tapped his cigarette.
‘In the way that you’ve described it, maybe. But Michael is dead. Finn is dead. We don’t know what happened.’
I don’t know if it was the gin and tonic on an empty stomach or my anger but I felt as if the hum of the saloon bar had entered my head like tinnitus. Suddenly I felt in a rage.
‘For Chrissake, just pretend for a moment that you aren’t a policeman, just pretend for a moment to be an intelligent ordinary person who cares about what actually happened. I mean, don’t worry about it, there are no other policemen eavesdropping. You don’t have to seem big in front of the boys.’
‘You arrogant…’ With an obvious effort, Chris stopped himself. ‘All right, Sam. I’m listening. I’d really like to know. If we’re so stupid, tell us what we’ve missed. But before you start, I would like to add that you are in danger of becoming a serious embarrassment. To your employers, to us, to yourself, to your daughter. Is this what you want? To become famous as a crazy obsessed woman on the loose? But tell me, I’m listening.’
For a moment I seriously considered picking up the ashtray from the table and braining him with it. Then I cooled down and thought only of throwing the remains of the second gin and tonic over him. I counted to a large number.
‘I thought I was doing you a favour,’ I said.
‘So do me a favour.’
I felt as if I were going to burst.
‘I’m not going to do you a favour but maybe I can help you to think for yourself.’
‘I’ve got to go.’
‘One more minute. The burnt-out car was found on March the ninth. What was the original theory? They had killed themselves by setting fire to the car with a rag stuffed into the petrol tank, nozzle, whatever?
‘Yes.’
‘But since traces of both Finn and Danny’s bodies were found in the boat-house, it is clear that they were dead when the car was set on fire, yes?’
‘Yes.’
‘And Michael couldn’t have done it. Right?’
‘Sam, as I told you, there are some loose ends, some inconsistencies. But try to understand this.’ He was speaking very slowly now, as if English was my second language. ‘We know as a matter of certainty that Michael Daley killed Danny Rees and Fiona Mackenzie. OK? We haven’t yet ascertained exactly how. OK ? He was a clever man. But we will find out, and when we do we will inform you. OK?’ His face was positively twitching with the effort to remain calm.
