‘I knew about Gwen and Jeremy. It was before Gwen and me.’
‘Did you know at the time?’
‘I suspected something. Gwen confirmed it a few months back. She had lost her temper, started talking irrationally. She let it slip.’
‘Then why were you threatening Amelia?’
‘Amelia had met with Gwen in the pub sometime before. Their meeting didn’t go well, and Amelia accused Gwen of stealing her man and her father.’
‘Amelia knew from before?’
‘Even when I was with her, she knew, but she never told me. Amelia worshipped her father, although he didn’t always reciprocate, and I don’t think she ever approved of him and Gwen.’
‘What was your reaction when you found out?’
‘What do you think? My wife’s past life included sleeping with the father of my former girlfriend. I was shocked at first, then angry. I may have called Gwen a whore.’
‘May?’
‘I did. Not that she liked it, but that’s what she was, still is.’
‘It’s hardly the basis for a long-lasting marriage,’ Wendy said. She had seen the personal assistant outside, noticed that she was attractive and knew how to smile at her DCI, look down her nose at his sergeant. Wendy knew a tart when she saw one.
‘What do you want me to say? You’ve met Gwen, you met her father. Both of them were without shame. Her father, pretending to be a beacon of decency, allowing his daughter to cheapen herself by getting me in her bed.’
‘It takes two,’ Wendy said.
‘I know that, and I can’t say I’d act differently, even now.’
‘We know about you and your personal assistant.
‘Gwen?’
‘She told us.’
‘I’ve no intention of apologising for my actions. You’re here because of Amelia and the other woman, and besides, your opinion of me, good or bad, does not interest me. I’ve assumed the chairmanship of this bank, and I intend to succeed. Now, if you don’t have anything more to discuss, I’ll bid you goodbye.’
‘I’m sorry, Mr Waverley, but it doesn’t work like that. We can either discuss this here or down at Challis Street. The decision is yours.’
‘Ten minutes, that’s all I can give you.’
‘Do you want your lawyer to be present?’ Isaac asked.
‘No. I don’t intend to compromise myself, and you’ve no evidence against me.’
‘Should there be some?’
‘Get on with your questions, please,’ Waverley said. Isaac could see the man becoming annoyed.
‘We know now that you are the Q mentioned in Amelia’s diary. According to her, she was frightened of you, even considered ending her life because of it.’
‘Amelia had flights of fancy. You can’t believe all that she wrote.’
‘Unfortunately, Mr Waverley, we do. It is clear that Amelia, increasingly irrational, not necessarily because of you, was threatening to reveal the fact that your wife and Jeremy Brice had been sleeping together. And we know from your wife what your father-in-law’s reaction would have been. The man had some old-fashioned ideas, not that it stopped him keeping his mistress as his PA for all those years, even when his wife was ill.’
‘It’s not stopping you either, Mr Waverley,’ Wendy said.
‘As you say. I’ll not deny it, why should I?’
‘Mr Waverley, have you no shame? Your wife sleeps with Amelia’s father, you carry on a friendship with the man, even after you know, and then, on the one hand, you’re sleeping with Amelia, and on the other, you’re threatening her to keep quiet or else.’
‘You make it sound sordid,’ Waverley said.
‘It is sordid,’ Wendy said.
‘It may be according to your proletarian values, not ours,’ Waverley said. Isaac had wondered how long it would be before the personal insults started. Now he knew he had Waverley on the ropes.
‘Mr Waverley, I put it to you that you murdered Amelia and then you travelled the short distance to Christine Devon’s flat and killed her. How do you plead? Guilty?’
‘You’ve got it all wrong. Amelia liked Christine Devon; told the woman her life story. It was dynamite. Gwen, the daughter of George Happold, and Jeremy Brice in a love triangle with Brice’s daughter’s lover. There would have been a media frenzy. The Devon woman had no money; she could have sold the story. And if it were out in the open, George Happold would be forced to defend the honour of his daughter. It would have affected the value of the bank, confidence in the chairman would have been lost. It’s all to do with perception. Happold, he treasured his reputation, and now it was about to go south. Christine Devon was the key, not Amelia. If one died, they both had to die.’
‘Christine Devon would never have told anyone. You killed her for no reason.’
‘I didn’t kill her.’
‘You’ve just confessed.’
‘No, I haven’t.’
‘Then what have you just said?’
‘I’ve told you what happened, but I’ve not told you who gave the instruction and who committed the crime.’
‘Mr Waverley, you’ve allowed us to question you here without a lawyer, knowing full well that you intended to tell us the truth. Will you allow your wife to be charged with murder? Was this your intention all along?’
‘It’s a hard world. George Happold taught me well, so did Gwen.’
The two police officers sat still for twenty seconds, allowing all that had been said to sink in.
In their careers, they had met rogues and villains of all shapes and colours, but none so deceitful and callous as the man who sat in front of them, a smug look on his face.
‘Was it all worth it?’ Isaac said.
‘Whatever happens, I will hold all of Gwen’s assets in trust for our children until they turn twenty-one. By that time, I will have brought this bank into the twenty-first century and made plenty
