‘Do you think she loved him?’ Wendy said.
‘We’ll never know.’
‘We need to prove that Gerald Adamant was responsible for Aberman’s death,’ Isaac said. ‘Larry, we’ll go and visit his daughter. She may be the easiest to deal with.’
***
Abigail Adamant, a woman who did little other than spend the family money on frivolities, had not been easy to find. In the end, Bridget found her through accessing her Facebook account; she was at a restaurant in Chelsea.
‘Miss Adamant, the death of your father’s widow,’ Isaac said once he and Larry had separated the woman from her friends.
‘Call me Abigail,’ she said. She was fashionably dressed, and also slightly drunk after lunch with her friends. One or two of them had looked over at the tall, dark and handsome detective chief inspector when Isaac and Larry had entered the restaurant. Isaac had seen the sniggering, the comments passed between the women. He had felt embarrassed. He was on duty and anxious to conclude the current investigations.
‘Abigail, was your father involved in crime?’
‘Are you accusing him?’
Isaac realised his questioning was probably too direct for a woman unsteady on her feet. He ordered her a black coffee. He needed her sober.
‘We’ve received information that your father was involved in the takeover of Ben Aberman’s clubs.’
‘Ben Aberman?’
‘Are you saying you’ve not heard of the man?’
‘I read the news. His body was found in the back garden of his house.’
‘He was the former lover of your father’s widow. You must have known this.’
‘Not from Helen.’
‘We have to consider the possibility that Helen, a woman that no one seems to know fully, had married your father as a means of getting close enough to kill him.’
‘By why marry him? Why pretend to love him and to take an interest in his causes?’
‘Because if she managed to convince you and your brothers that she loved your father, you would all support her assertion that it was self-defence.’
‘But it’s absurd. No one could keep up that pretence for so long.’
‘She could. She had stripped in a club, yet came away unscathed, she had married your father, and then she fell in love with James Holden.’
‘Love?’
‘His widow believes she had fallen in love with her husband.’
‘Could it have been a pretence with James Holden?’
‘Did you know the man?’
‘He and my father were friends.’
‘If we prove that your father was involved in crime, what would you think of your father?’
‘Nothing would change. He did a lot of good with his causes.’
‘So did James Holden, and he was killed. There’s something else.’
‘What is it?’
‘We believe your father gave the order for Ben Aberman to be killed,’ Isaac said.
‘What right do you have to besmirch my father’s good name by such accusations?’
‘Ben Aberman and your father met on several occasions. Your father was far from the saint you would portray him as.’
‘I’ve not said he was a saint.’
‘Did you know Nicholas Slater?’
‘Yes, I met him once or twice. Father introduced me to him.’
‘He was an acquaintance of Ben Aberman, even went to his parties.’
‘My father went to one or two, I know that.’
‘Did you know what sort of parties they were?’
‘I never asked my father, but I can imagine. Alcohol and a good time.’
‘And women supplied by Aberman,’ Isaac said.
‘Good for my father, if that was the case,’ Abigail said.
Larry observed Isaac going easy on the woman. ‘Abigail, if what we have been told is correct, it would destroy your father’s reputation,’ he said.
‘It wouldn’t concern me. I’m not filled with the need to help others. I’m a selfish person. My father helped a lot of people. My brother is trying to do the same, but he’ll not succeed as well as our father.’
‘Why?’
‘Our father had genuine compassion. He was charismatic, people instinctively liked him. You’ve met my brother. He can be blunt with people, and he doesn’t have the same level of commitment. My brother and I, we’re the generation that loses the money.’
‘Howard, your younger brother?’
‘He was never spoilt by the wealth.’
Isaac could tell that Abigail Adamant was incapable of any great passion. She did not concern herself with right and wrong, only with what gave her pleasure, and whereas she had shown compassion for Helen, she was not interested in whether her father had died as a result of murder or of a woman defending herself. Isaac had to admit that he did not like her very much.
Chapter 25
Two things happened the day following Isaac and Larry’s conversation with Abigail Adamant. The first was Richard Goddard coming into Isaac’s office to tell him that the audit into the department had been cancelled: it was not unexpected.
‘The man beat them again,’ Goddard said. ‘Even the head of Counter Terrorism Command is back in his old job.’
‘It’s an admission from Davies that he was wrong.’
‘That’s not how Davies operates. He’ll take the criticism, turn it into an advantage. The commissioner is a man who listens to the rank and file, a man who believes in an open-door policy to his office. The next time you meet him, he’ll be friendly, singing your praises.’
‘And I’m meant to show him the necessary respect?’ Isaac said.
‘You’ll show him due deference as befits his rank.’
‘The plan to remove him has been shelved?’
‘It’s always there, but he’ll stay, at least until his contract is up. I have to give the man his due, he knows how to play the game.’
‘The damage he’s caused to the Met,’ Isaac said.
‘It’s minor. We’re still here, so are the majority of the competent and dedicated.’
The second thing that happened was when Abigail Adamant went home and questioned her brother,
