‘Lead me to her,’ Salter replied, gleefully rubbing his hands together.
Verity Randall exploded from her chair the moment Riley opened the door to the grim interview room in which she was being kept, her pinched features puce with rage. ‘What is the meaning of this outrage, Chief Inspector? I was dragged down here like a common criminal in full view of my neighbours. It was mortifying, especially since you have no cause to embarrass me in such a fashion.’
‘Sit down, Mrs Randall,’ Riley said calmly.
‘I will not! I demand to be released immediately.’
‘You can demand all you wish, but it won’t make any difference. You can choose to seat yourself or I will have my sergeant put you back in that chair himself. It’s your choice.’
‘Oh, very well.’ She threw herself back into the chair in question. Riley motioned for the constable who had been watching over her to leave the room, which he did with alacrity, no doubt having been the focus of the woman’s vitriolic tirade ever since her arrival. Riley seated himself across from her, with a scarred table separating them. Salter, as always, leaned against the wall with notebook at the ready.
‘Why didn’t you tell us that you were acquainted with Ezra Dawson before he came to your sister-in-law’s attention?’
‘I…’ Her mouth flapped open and then closed again. ‘What makes you think that I was?’
‘Just answer the question,’ Salter growled.
‘As my sergeant has just reminded you, we ask and you answer. Don’t make me repeat myself. I am not a patient man, especially when suspects continually lie to me.’
‘Suspects? You think that I…’
She was almost convincing in her indignation, but for the fact that a tic started working beneath her eye and she couldn’t altogether keep the fear out of her expression.
‘Ezra,’ Riley reminded her in a mordant tone.
‘Well yes, it’s true, I was acquainted with Ezra before Ida knew him.’ Verity tossed her head in a feeble attempt to appear calm and in control of herself. Riley wasn’t fooled by her performance and knew that Salter wouldn’t be either. She was worried, and would be wondering how much they knew or had guessed. ‘It didn’t seem relevant to your enquiry, which is why I didn’t mention it.’
‘How did you meet him?’
‘I stumbled in the street when someone rudely barged into me and I twisted my ankle. Ezra happened to be passing and saved me from falling. He was very concerned, very courteous, and insisted upon helping me to reach home.’
Riley and Salter glanced at each other. They hadn’t realised that Ezra had deliberately contrived the accident, although it had been a less elaborate ruse than the one he had used to bring himself to Ida’s attention.
‘Naturally, I invited him in for tea as a way of thanking him. I was quite shaken up, and he insisted upon staying until I was more composed and the pain in my ankle had eased. He even insisted that a doctor be sent for.’
Riley nodded, thinking that would have been enough to secure Verity’s complete devotion, since no one else seemed to care much about her wellbeing. Ezra had certainly known how to pick his victims.
‘We got talking. Ezra was very easy to talk to, and an excellent listener. I don’t quite recall how we got onto the subject but I found myself telling him about Ida and how she disgraced Sir Philip’s name with her blatant behaviour beneath his very roof. How she refused to help her own family, her own son’s career, when she had money to burn. How she didn’t permit Sir Philip to manage her fortune, robbing him of his dignity as a man.’ Now that she had started attempting to justify herself, the words spewed from her mouth in a vitriolic stream. ‘He was very sympathetic and asked me if I would like him to gain a modicum of revenge on my behalf. Naturally, I declined.’
‘You were doing well, and had managed several sentences without lying to me,’ Riley said. ‘However, I suggest that you rethink your last words.’
Verity glowered at him through eyes that had narrowed to slits, clearly attempting to decide how much Riley knew and how little she could tell him in order to secure her release from Scotland Yard. He refrained from mentioning that she would not be leaving any time soon; perhaps not ever.
‘Oh, very well. Ezra convinced me that he would be able to make Ida very grateful to him. I did not ask how he intended to go about it.’
Riley allowed that particular lie to go uncontested. It wasn’t important. ‘Go on,’ he said.
‘Ezra promised me it would be financially rewarding and that we would share the spoils.’ She pursed her thin lips and elevated her chin. ‘I did not imagine for one minute that he would become her latest paramour, or that she would agree to give him so much money to start that wretched club of his. That was not part of the plan, but when I pointed that out to him and asked for my share, he laughed in my face.’
‘Excuse me, but I was not aware that you knew about the proposed loan. How did you find out about it?’
She tutted. ‘Ezra took great delight in telling me.’
‘Which must have infuriated you, I can quite understand that. So you killed him,’ Riley said starkly.
‘Of course I did not!’
‘I told you she wouldn’t be able to resist lying for long,’ Salter said from his position against the wall. ‘Her sort who think life owes them a living don’t look upon it as lying ’cause they manage to justify their behaviour in their own minds. How often have
