‘Keep in touch, Hill. We need each other,’ the parting words from Cojocaru as the men separated, a brief handshake. ‘Remember, take care with me. I’m a good friend to those who understand me.’
And a savage and malignant bastard to those that don’t, Larry thought.
Chapter 5
Guy Hendry had an ex-wife and two children, that much was known. Failing any others, they were the next of kin, although according to the tabloids, the relationship between Guy and the former Mrs Hendry was acrimonious.
‘I’ve no issues with Guy,’ Liz Hendry said after she had opened the door to her house in a leafy suburb near Richmond Park. ‘The man can’t help himself, but he’s looked after us well.’
The two police officers found themselves sitting in two chairs in the main room of the house. It was well decorated, the sort of place that featured in magazines.
‘Guy paid for all this, not that he couldn’t afford it.’
‘You seem very composed given the circumstances,’ Wendy said.
‘I reported from a few war zones earlier on in my career, saw things no person should ever see. Guy’s death, as well as Gillian’s, has come as a shock to my children and me.’
‘Your children, where are they?’
‘They’ve left home now. Two daughters, the oldest is twenty-two and married, the youngest is nineteen, and living with her boyfriend. They’ve been over to see me, and my sister’s in the other room, so is Guy’s.’
‘You knew Gillian Dickenson?’ Wendy asked, her initial concerns about the woman in part allayed by her pleasant manner.
‘I knew of his conquests. I was one when I was younger. I liked Gillian, and some may have said she was with Guy for his money, but he was still great fun. I would have had him back in a flash, but that’s not how he was wired. One of the reasons that he’s been so successful. He knew of his appeal to women, and he knew how to turn on the charm.’
‘Sergeant Gladstone’s right,’ Isaac said. ‘You don’t come across as the grieving widow.’
‘I am. Ask me what you want, and then if you could, please leave me in peace. At least for a few days. I will take responsibility for the funeral arrangements, along with his sister.’
‘We should interview her while we’re here.’
‘She’s not bearing up as well as me.’
‘The truth is that we don’t know who the intended target was,’ Isaac said. ‘The shooting was well-executed. Apart from a local criminal, no one of interest was in the salon.’
‘Loved by all, was Guy. Loved by too many, the occasional discarded boyfriend might have said. Sometimes, the women would come on to him, and one or two might have been married or in a relationship. The one fault, minor I suppose, is that sometimes he couldn’t say no.
‘Any incidents that you know of?’
‘One or two. Guy would phone me up occasionally to let me know, and when the children were younger, we’d all go away on our annual holidays together. Some may have seen it as strange, but we didn’t, the reason our daughters are so well-balanced.’
‘He should have stayed with you,’ Isaac said. He had to admit that he liked Liz Hendry, a person with a refreshing honesty about her.
‘He tried, but then the fame and fortune came along. When we first met, he was struggling. The occasional photo shoot for a men’s clothing line, an in-store magazine, and we had no money to spare. But then he got the first game show to host, and for a while he was impossible to live with. We used to live in a one-bedroom bedsit, and then we had a four-bedroom house.’
‘We’ve only heard good reports about his affability, although there was an autograph hunter in the salon. The photos of her with Guy don’t show him as being overly friendly with the woman.’
‘You’ll not hear a bad word from me about him, nor will our daughters say anything against him. Our youngest has taken it badly, and she’ll come back later to be with me. The eldest is more stoic, more like me in many ways.’
‘Jealous husbands and discarded boyfriends don’t hire professional killers,’ Isaac said.
‘Guy wasn’t the target, nor was Gillian. I liked her and she thought it was love, no doubt Guy did, but after about six to nine months, there’s another temptation. Don’t get me wrong, he was a good man, as good as you could hope for. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve spent enough time putting on a brave face.’
‘That’s understood,’ Isaac said. ‘If we could meet with Mr Hendry’s sister.’
Liz Hendry shook Isaac’s hand and then Wendy’s. She then left the room, a handkerchief in her hand.
After a few minutes, Guy Hendry’s sister came into the room. It was clear that she was older than her brother by more than a few years.
‘Step-brother,’ Pamela Vincent said. ‘We were close as children. I was more like a mother to him than our father’s third wife was. She was a bitch, the wicked step-mother, and our father was a charmer, the same as Guy, but he didn’t have the inherent decency that my brother had. More my influence than his parents.’
‘Your mother, Guy’s mother?’
‘They both took off, and we rarely saw either of them. We came from money, yet Guy didn’t want any of it. That’s why he was down in London with Liz and struggling to make ends meet. If it had stayed that way, then he’d still be alive.’
‘We can’t control our destinies,’ Isaac said, knowing full well that if he could, he would be happily married to Jess, but she was long gone and now had two children with another man. He suddenly felt sad,
