The teenager had been slumped in his chair, ignoring the solicitor next to him but lifted his head when Sharp and Larch entered the room and leaned forward.
‘I didn’t kill Sophie,’ he blurted out.
Sharp held up a hand, waited until Larch had sat down, and then formally began the interview once they were recording.
‘Tell me about the golf club we found at your house,’ he said. ‘Did you use it to kill Sophie?’
‘No! You’ve got to believe me – I never hurt her. I loved her.’
‘Then why is there blood on it?’
Josh ran a hand through his hair. ‘Look, two days ago I found a rabbit outside the back door. It had that myxomatosis disease. It was starving, blind. I wanted to put it out of its misery, so I hit it over the head with the golf club.’ His gaze dropped to his hands. ‘I didn’t want to kill it, but I couldn’t stand it being in so much pain.’
‘And you expect us to believe that?’
‘It’s the truth.’
‘What did you do with the body of the rabbit?’
‘I put it in the bin.’
‘Convenient, Josh. The bins get emptied out your way on a Monday, don’t they? So we can’t corroborate your story.’
‘I’m not lying.’
‘We’ll see.’ Sharp terminated the interview, nodded at Larch, and the two men left the room.
Kay switched off the computer monitors and scrambled from her seat, wrenching open the door as the two senior officers passed.
‘Get Harriet to process that golf club as soon as possible,’ said Sharp. ‘I want to know by the morning if we have Sophie Whittaker’s killer in custody, or a teenager that has a knack for killing sick rabbits.’
Thirty-One
Matthew looked up from his computer as Diane pushed the door to the study open, a couple of glasses of red wine in her hands.
‘I thought you might like a drink,’ she said, her stockinged feet silent on the parquet floor.
‘Where’ve you been all day?’
‘I went over to see Blake and Courtney.’
‘But you didn’t stay there, did you?’
She shook her head, and then frowned. ‘How did you—’
‘Courtney phoned here, looking for you. Said she couldn’t reach you on your mobile.’
‘Oh. I was shopping in Tunbridge Wells. The battery had gone dead.’ She put the wineglass on the desk before wandering over to a leather armchair, curled her feet up under her, and took a sip of her own drink.
Matthew leaned back in his chair and reached out for his wine. ‘I didn’t hear you come back.’ He rubbed his hand over his eyes before gesturing to the paperwork strewn across the desk. ‘I must’ve been lost in my own world with all this.’
‘How long have we got?’
‘Two months, maximum. I’m so sorry, Diane. I’ve tried everything. I don’t know what else to do.’
She turned her wineglass in her hands, and then raised her eyes to his. ‘I thought I had it all worked out. How to save the house.’
He snorted, and held up a page. ‘Have you seen these figures?’ He tossed the document to one side. ‘Unless you’re able to perform miracles.’
She sighed. ‘Almost.’
‘Really? What exactly did you have “all worked out”?’
‘Josh and Sophie,’ she said, and shrugged. ‘The purity pledge and their engagement.’
‘Diane? What are you going on about? What’s that got to do with the house?’
She bit her lip, her eyes darting to one side, avoiding his gaze. ‘I made an arrangement with Blake Hamilton that if I convinced Sophie to marry Josh, he’d pay us a dowry. More than enough to cover all that.’ She waved her hand at the accounts. ‘Josh would marry into English aristocracy – which suited Blake and his business interests – and I wouldn’t lose the house.’
Matthew’s wineglass hit the surface of the desk with a thud, his hand gripping the stem, his knuckles white. ‘You did what?’
‘It was for the best, Matthew.’
‘Don’t take on that whining tone with me. It won’t work.’ He pushed back his chair and began to pace the floor. ‘What exactly did Blake Hamilton offer?’
‘To clear all your business debts with the first half of the payment, which we’d have got one month after the engagement party, and then a stipend every year once Sophie and Josh were married.’ She wiped at her eyes. ‘There was even a bonus payment once they produced a grandchild.’
‘Produced? Have you listened to yourself, Diane? You’re talking about our daughter like she was a bloody commodity to be bought and sold, for chrissakes!’
She brought a shaking hand up to her throat. ‘I didn’t mean—’
‘Yes, you did.’ He stopped pacing, and tried to fight down the fury that was seething through his body. Anger clenched in his chest, his heart beat painful. ‘Who else knew about this arrangement?’
‘I – I don’t know. Only Blake and I were—’
‘Are you sure?’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Come to think of it, no.’ She tapped her fingernails against her wineglass, before she jerked her chin up to him. ‘Peter Evans must’ve found out – that’s why he killed her!’
Matthew clenched his jaw, and fought down the urge to grab her shoulders and shake her.
‘You have no idea, do you?’
Confusion spread across her features. ‘About what?’
He shook his head. ‘The police are investigating the Hamiltons. What’s really going on, Diane?’
Her mouth open and closed, her eyes wide, and then she found her voice. ‘Investigating the Hamiltons?’
‘That’s why Courtney was trying to phone you earlier. To tell you Blake and Josh have been taken in for questioning by the police this afternoon.’
‘What for?’
He raised his gaze until he met hers, and tried to recall why he’d found her so attractive all those years ago. He knew she was shrewd and calculating, qualities which once had endeared her to him as the business had grown with her input, but that had been tainted by her obsession over retaining a title that had little of the power she pretended it had, and a house that was falling down around her ears.
‘Courtney said
