‘I know his name.’
‘What was it?’
‘Gerald Adamant.’
Chapter 21
The revelation of a tie-in between Helen Langdon’s former husband and a former lover came as a surprise to the team in Homicide. On the one hand, was a man known for his philanthropy, on the other, a man who had criminal connections.
The team were in Isaac’s office at Challis Street. ‘Is she certain?’ Isaac asked Wendy.
‘She didn’t make the connection at the time, knowing nothing about the man, other than what she had heard about him.’
‘She kept this quiet from us.’
‘She was the only one who saw him at the party, except for Aberman and Slater.’
‘And they’re both dead. She’s worried she’ll be next.’
‘Is there another side to Gerald Adamant we don’t know?’ Larry said.
‘The man’s always come across as clean,’ Isaac said. ‘Bridget, what do you have?’
‘Gerald Adamant, seventy-three when he died. The family money came through significant investments in Africa. It was his grandfather who made a fortune, his father who invested it wisely, and Gerald who devoted their wealth to worthy causes.’
‘Has he worked? What’s his education?’
‘He went to Eton, then Oxford, majoring in Economics. After university, he worked as an investment analyst at the family firm, did well according to the reports. On the death of his father, he appointed someone to run the company. He was a clever man, and there are no black marks against him. He married in his thirties, Archie and Abigail the result of that union. His wife died of cancer, he married again, a woman who’s twenty years younger than him. She had a child, Howard. The marriage broke down; they divorced. Howard stayed with the father; the mother took off overseas. After some years, Gerald Adamant married Helen Langdon. The rest you know.’
‘We need to know what Adamant was doing with Aberman,’ Larry said.
‘But how? There’s no one alive to tell us now,’ Wendy said.
‘There are Adamant’s children,’ Isaac said as he picked up his phone. ‘Mr Adamant, we need to talk.’
‘If it’s important.’
‘It is.’
‘We can meet at the house, two hours.’
‘Your sister and brother?’
‘I can’t answer for them. If you want them there, you can give them a call.’
‘That’ll not be necessary. We want to talk to each of you individually.’
Isaac and Larry arrived at the Adamants’ house earlier than the two hours. Isaac parked the car on the gravel driveway and looked around him. He and Larry walked over to the expansive lawn in front of the house; a peacock strolled by.
‘The upkeep must cost plenty,’ Larry said.
‘There’s no shortage of money. I checked out the Adamants’ investment company on the internet. They posted record profits at the end of the last financial year.’
‘I hope this is important,’ Archie Adamant said once the three of them were seated in the library.
‘It is. Mr Adamant, did your father know Ben Aberman?’
‘Not to my knowledge, but I wouldn’t have known all his movements or all his acquaintances.
‘You know who he is?’
‘I was at Helen’s trial, and Aberman’s been on the television. I know he was Helen’s lover before she met my father.’
‘Apart from a shared history through Helen, we were unaware that the two men knew each other.’
‘Did they?’
‘We have a witness to them meeting the one time at Aberman’s house in Bray.’
‘Then I can’t help you. Our father never mentioned it. Is it suspicious?’
‘We’re not sure. Two months after their acrimonious meeting, Aberman disappears, now known to have been murdered. And Nicholas Slater, Aberman’s lawyer, who was also present at their meeting, was shot in the head as he was just about to tell us who is behind the group that took over Aberman’s businesses.’
‘Are you implying that my father was a criminal?’
‘What do you reckon? Your father could have been involved in Aberman’s death. He couldn’t have been involved in Slater’s.’
‘Are you accusing me of Slater’s murder?’ Adamant said.
‘We’re police officers. We’re putting forward scenarios, evaluating reactions, exploring the possibilities.’
‘You’ll get no reaction from me, other than disdain that you could consider my father was involved.’
‘If your father was involved with Aberman’s death, you could be involved with Slater’s.’
‘That’s illogical and insulting.’
‘Why? You’ve got money, a good life. Maybe it’s a little boring, the same as it was for your father. He met Aberman, sensed an opportunity for adventure. He’d not be the first honest person to be seduced by the glamour of crime.’
‘Are you suggesting that Helen passed herself on to our father after her lover was murdered?’
‘I wasn’t, but it’s possible. What if Helen knew about your father? What if she saw her survival in aligning with him, playing the dutiful wife? The greatest confidence trick of all time, the charming older man, the devoted younger wife. How much did they manage to scam out of your father’s rich friends?’
‘You cannot continue to denigrate the memory of my father with such nonsense. He loved Helen, she loved him, and as for this criminal theory, that’s all it is.’
‘I hope you’re right. But if it’s proved right, she was more calculating than we had previously thought. If her lover is killed, and she knows she’s about to die as well, she then inveigles her way into your father’s affections. And when she is ready, she killed your father. Did you, Mr Adamant, love her too? Don’t answer. I know what it is.’
‘Everyone loved her, even Howard. That’s how it was with the woman.’
‘And once she’s got you all where she wants you, she kills your father, calls for your sister.’
‘But Helen went to prison.’
‘She had weighed up the options. It was either a sentence for first-degree murder or, with mitigating circumstances, it’s second-degree or manslaughter. She’s prepared to do her