‘And what are you doing while I’m pushing paperwork?’
‘I’ll grab Carys and head out to the Hamiltons. Find out how much Josh knew about Sophie’s relationship with Peter.’
Barnes raised an eyebrow as he opened his door.
‘Now that’s going to be an interesting conversation.’
Nine
‘Nice place you have here, Mr Hamilton.’
Kay strode across the driveway towards an expensive-looking four door saloon car, Carys at her side.
Blake finished arranging the suitcases in the back of the vehicle, shut the lid and turned before placing his hands on his hips. He squinted at the sun reflecting off the water.
‘Yeah, it’s a nice spot. Of course, we had to pull the old place down.’ He wrinkled his nose. ‘Whole building was rotten. Took about a year to get the plans for this agreed by the local council, but they saw sense in the end.’
‘How long have you been here?’
‘About three years. I wanted somewhere easy to commute to the office in the city, and Courtney wanted to be in the English countryside.’ He spread his hands expansively and gestured to the house. ‘This is perfect.’
‘It’s certainly a very nice house.’
Blake smiled, and then his eyes fell. ‘Any other time, I’d love to give you a guided tour, but as you can see, we’re on our way out.’
‘We?’
‘Myself and Josh.’ He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. ‘He only started back at university a few weeks ago, but given the circumstances, we’ve spoken to his lecturers and agreed with them he’ll spend the rest of the semester back at home. He can study online and go back in the New Year.’
‘Which university?’
‘Brunel.’
‘I was wondering if we might have a word with Josh, actually.’
A pained expression crossed the other man’s face. ‘We really need to be off,’ he said. ‘Traffic’s a bitch in the city late afternoon.’
‘I understand that, Mr Hamilton, but I’m in the middle of a murder investigation.’
He frowned. ‘You’ve got your suspect, haven’t you?’
‘We do, and we’ll continue with that side of our inquiry. In the meantime, I’d like to speak to Josh, please – I’d like to learn more about Sophie Whittaker.’
Blake sighed. ‘Look, you can have a quick word, but we can’t hang around.’
Kay plastered a smile on her face. ‘That’s fine. We’ll go through some preliminary questions now, and come back tomorrow.’
‘Right, um – okay.’
Kay and Carys followed him through the front door and into an expansive hallway, an iron and marble staircase sweeping up through an atrium to the upper level of the house while doorways led off to different rooms on the lower floor.
Baking aromas wafted through from a door beyond the staircase, and Kay was struck by the sense of normality compared to the Whittakers’ house.
It was also evident that, by contrast, Blake Hamilton’s business was doing well – his house retained a polished sheen whereas the ancestral home of Diane Whittaker had appeared to be falling apart.
Shabby chic, Crossways Hall was not.
She jumped as Blake yelled up the stairs.
‘Josh – get a move on.’
The gangly form of the teenager appeared at the top of the stairs, a sports bag slung over his shoulder, sunglasses pushed up on top of his blond spiky hair.
He slouched his way across the landing before descending the stairs, and stopped dead when he caught sight of Kay and Carys.
‘Come on,’ said Blake. ‘The police want a quick word with you before we go.’
‘Everything okay?’
Kay turned at the sound of Courtney Hamilton’s voice. ‘Morning, Mrs Hamilton.’
‘What’s going on?’
The woman’s eyes were wide as she dried her hands on a towel.
‘We wanted to ask Josh some questions about Sophie Whittaker,’ said Kay, ‘but I understand Mr Hamilton wants to get him up to the university as soon as possible. We won’t keep you long – we can come back tomorrow.’
‘Oh. Okay. I’ll leave you to it.’
She disappeared back into what Kay presumed was the kitchen, humming under her breath.
‘Right, so – what did you want to ask Josh?’ said Blake, and placed an arm around his son’s shoulders as he joined them in the hallway.
Kay realised he wasn’t going to back down on his assertion that he would be leaving imminently, and decided she didn’t have time for subtlety.
‘Josh, can you take me through the events of last night, in your own words?’
Blake Hamilton let out a loud sigh. ‘Honestly, Detective, we really don’t have time for this. Josh already provided a statement to one of the police guys last night.’
She ignored him, and nodded to Carys who had her notebook and pen ready. ‘Josh?’
The teenager shrugged. ‘We got to the Whittakers’ house about six o’clock I suppose. The people from our church group were the only ones invited – we wanted to keep it a private ceremony. We walked around for a bit and talked with everyone, and then our pastor, Duncan, got everyone together in the marquee so Sophie could take her pledge. After that, I presented her with an engagement ring.’
Kay nodded, but said nothing and waited for him to continue.
Another shrug. ‘After the ceremony had finished, we sat down for the formal meal, and then the staff cleared the tables away and the disco started.’
‘What time was that?’
‘About half eight, I think.’
‘What did you do after the meal?’
‘Mingled. Had a few beers.’ He wrinkled his nose. ‘One of the older women tried to get me to dance, but no way.’
‘When was the last time you saw Sophie?’
His brow creased. ‘About nine-fifteen, I guess.’ He scratched his cheek. ‘Yeah. About nine-fifteen. She was on the terrace talking to her mother, and I wandered over. I don’t know what they were talking about, but Diane looked pretty pissed off about something. She seemed to get over it pretty fast though, and then left me and Sophie to it.’
‘What did you talk about?’
‘Oh, this and that, y’know.’
‘Could you elaborate, please?’
‘Hang on.’ Blake held up a hand. ‘What sort of question is that?’
‘I’m trying to ascertain what your son and Sophie Whittaker spoke
