“Well, if you have any evidence of that, Mr Francis, please do make a complaint and it will be objectively assessed,” Tamara replied evenly. Ken scoffed at the suggestion. “No doubt we’ll be reopening another case related to the investigation of sexual assault back in London as well.”
“That case was over. I had nothing to answer for,” Ken protested.
“Not you, Mr Francis but your wife.” Ken looked at Jane, his eyes narrowing. Tamara continued. “Witness tampering is a very serious offence. Even if the witness turns out to have been lying after all, bribing them to withdraw testimony is still an offence.”
“You didn’t!” Ken barked at his wife who couldn’t help but retaliate.
“If I left it to you then we’d have been ruined. You are bloody useless at times, Ken!”
Callum laughed. Janssen wondered whether it was genuine humour or pantomime in nature. So often considered to be the community pariah by many people, Callum was undoubtedly pleased to see those considered better than him falling from grace in front of his eyes. How his reaction would have differed if he wasn’t publicly rejected by what Janssen figured was the love of his life, he didn’t know. Jane either had leftover feelings from her youth for Callum or seeing him again rekindled those emotions at a time of great stress in her life, what with her marriage being somewhat unorthodox in nature. Maybe she was in denial about her feelings or it was a badly misjudged fling. Either way, what was once in the shadows was now visible for everyone to see. Janssen turned to Callum whose face dropped as he read his expression.
“Courts don’t look kindly on arsonists either, Callum.”
“Prove it!” Callum replied, crossing his arms in front of him. He knew how things worked. Without a confession or a witness, he would be in the clear.
“You must have spent so much time spying on Ken from the woods, how else would you know what he was up to?” Janssen said, changing tack.
“Public land. I can be where I like. Not my fault if he’s putting it about in clear view with the young lassie.” Jane bit her lower lip at the description. She must have been living in her own world of ignorance or denial, possibly for years.
“Tell us what you saw the night she died then,” Janssen asked. “You saw something otherwise you wouldn’t be so adamant he’s a killer.”
“I’m not a murderer!” Ken protested, suddenly animated. “I didn’t kill Holly.”
“Aye, right!” Callum said, dismissively. “She was here, in your bed that Friday night. Din nae lie, man. I bloody saw her with ma own eyes. I saw her here, with you.”
“I didn’t kill her! She was here but she left. Perhaps if you’d stayed perving on us for a bit longer you would have seen that just as clearly!” Ken’s demeanour shifted from fearful victim to accuser in his own right. “Maybe you did see her leave and saw a chance to get even, a chance to get a clear shot at my wife.” He looked at Jane who stood passively at his side. “Not that she puts up much opposition by all accounts. That’s how my friends described her when we first met, after all.” His tone was callous, cutting. She swiped a hand across his face. He didn’t flinch, fixing his eyes on her.
“And you told this to Mark?” Janssen asked. Callum nodded. “And yet he isn’t here.”
“Maybe he changed his mind or bottled out?” Tamara suggested. Janssen thought about it. That was too simple. Mark struck him as a focussed young man, not merely as a result of his Asperger’s Syndrome. He was driven but what that meant in this scenario he didn’t know.
“Callum, you said in the car how you told Mark that Holly’s killer wouldn’t see justice.” Callum nodded. “Largely because you figured Ken, being who he is, would escape our attentions. Who he is, his name would shield him from us?”
“Aye. That’s about the size of it.”
Janssen indicated for Tamara to join him and he led the way from the kitchen, Callum turning sideways and making room for them to pass. Almost as an afterthought, he turned back to address the three of them. “You lot behave until we come back inside. There are enough charges to go around without adding any more to them.” Callum grinned, evidently still enjoying his moment. No one spoke as he and Tamara stepped outside. The storm front was moving back in, the wind picking up and rolling the fog in off the sea. The earlier brightness was rapidly being replaced by an all-encompassing darkness as if by an onset of a solar eclipse.
“What are you thinking?” Tamara asked him.
“That we’re in the wrong place. It’s not Ken. I don’t believe he killed Holly.”
“He’s just admitted she was here on the night she died and Callum as good as stated he saw them having sex but…” She held her breath for a moment, her eyes drifting across the surrounding woodland. “I think you’re on to something. As neat as it is, this doesn’t sit right with me either.”
“What Callum said to Mark may well have influenced his actions but I reckon Mark hasn’t told us everything he knows, nor did he tell his father.”
“So, who’s the target?”
“I’m not sure but I think I know where we’ll find Mark,” Janssen said with confidence. The sound of a siren carried to them from distance. Assistance was approaching. “The question is, will we find him alone?”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Tamara shivered, the drop in temperature accompanying the shift in the weather felt dramatic. Her phone rang and she answered it. It was Eric. She noticed Janssen’s interest as she listened intently. Her expression must have conveyed surprise. Still processing the recent revelations in the case, she mentally beat herself up for not having seen the interactions sooner. There were
