“No. No, not at all. I don’t really mix with people unless I have to,” he replied. The last appeared most likely aimed towards his wife.
“Could it be him? Dr Bettany?” Tamara asked but Janssen interpreted the hollow tone of her suggestion as a lack of belief in the idea.
“I don’t see why he would,” Ken replied. “These notes started being left at the house before I even met Holly… or any of the Bettanys for that matter.” He turned to face his wife with an expression of contrition. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, love. With everything that’s been going on, I didn’t want to worry you but… it looks like I got it wrong.”
She crossed the distance between them and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, smiling weakly. “It’s okay. I understand. You thought you were doing the right thing.”
Ken looked back to Janssen. “Maybe this person has taken action against Holly because of my relationship with her?” Janssen saw Jane’s grip tighten on his shoulder but Ken didn’t seem to notice. “That would make her death somehow my fault.”
“Oh, Ken. Don’t be so silly.” Jane dismissed the idea. Rather harshly in Janssen’s view. “That’s so far-fetched. I’m sure these notes have nothing to do with Holly. Wouldn’t you say, Inspector?”
Janssen ensured he gave nothing away in tone or expression as he spoke. “We’ll have to look into it. The fire certainly looks like it was set on purpose, so this is at the very least an arson inquiry. We’ll need to take these notes with us.” Ken Francis didn’t object. In fact, he seemed relieved to have brought it out in the open. The idea that they could be related to Holly’s murder was appealing. So far, there was no clear motive for why she was killed. It hadn’t occurred to him she may not be the target and her death could have been to cause pain to others. “While we’re getting things out in the open, where were you last Friday night?”
“I was here,” Ken replied. “In my studio.”
“Alone?”
“No. He came inside after the children went to sleep and then he was with me, watching telly,” Jane said. “Would have been around nine, nine-thirty.” Ken looked to his wife. Was that relief on his face? He didn’t speak, only silently nodded to Janssen to confirm the timings.
“We’ll need to make that official,” he said, choosing not to press it home. It wasn’t a surprise. A wife would often back her husband no matter what state their relationship was in. It was, however, a weak alibi. “When did you buy Holly a laptop?” The relief on Ken’s face was short-lived. His head snapped upright at the suggestion.
“I didn’t. Whatever would give you that idea?”
Janssen analysed the man’s response. This was one of the few occasions where Ken willingly met his eye. “It was with some sketches she had in her possession, presumably drawn by you. They were stashed along with her own.” He was stretching the truth for the artworks weren’t kept with the laptop.
“Sorry. Nothing to do with me… but I did let her keep some of the sketches I drew of her.”
“There was one, a charcoal picture of a girl in high heels. The sketch was monochrome with the exception of a pair of red high heels as I recall,” Janssen said. “Quite… provocative.”
“Stands to reason,” Jane snapped. “Always dressing as if she was much older than she was.” Janssen resisted the urge to make a sarcastic comment about trying to appeal to an older man. His moral judgement didn’t need airing.
“The level of sexual interpretation is very much in the eye of the viewer,” Ken said. Was he trying to lessen the nature of his sexual relationship or was this how artists thought? Either way, he chose not to pursue the conversation. He put the notes into an evidence bag and left the house, speaking with the brigade’s station officer as they made their way to the car. The studio was taped off to await an investigator who was already on his way up from Norwich.
Janssen glanced at the house but on this occasion neither Ken nor Jane were visible. He met eyes with Tamara as they walked to the car. “Convenient. The fire and everything.” He unlocked the car and they both got in. “Let’s say for argument’s sake that Ken is Holly’s killer. She visits him on Friday night. There’s an altercation or a falling out, possibly related to the pregnancy although he denies knowing about it.”
“He kills her accidentally or on purpose,” Tamara said, following through on the thought process.
“Ken’s studio is vandalised and subsequently burned down just as details start to come out about their relationship. Both events set him up as a victim and the fire is a great way of getting rid of any trace evidence.”
Tamara fell silent, thinking it through. If the theory was even close to what happened, Janssen knew they were going to struggle to prove it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jane Francis watched the police officers talking to the fireman in the rear yard. What was he saying to them? The fire was started deliberately. They’d told them that much. A fleeting thought passed through her mind. Were the children safe? The house? The detectives appeared to be saying goodbye and she stepped away from the window so as not to be seen by them. Maintaining a calm and reserved demeanour during Ken’s unfolding tale was necessary and she wondered if she carried it off. The quiet one, Tom Janssen, was focussed, clever. Whereas the other, the woman, came across as manipulative. Her ability to seize on the slightest word and interpret a narrative was clear to her. She was the one to really watch. The one to fear.
Ken appeared behind
