“I think you’re right, although that doesn’t really help us,” Charlie admitted.
“Which is why we’re on the way to his home. Hopefully, the victim’s wife or girlfriend, assuming he has either, will be able to fill in some of the blanks for us.”
She steered the car, narrowly missing a large pothole then pressed her foot on the accelerator and darted down two more roads until they were sitting outside Bobby Simmonds’ semi-detached house. The garden was filled with the green shoots of spring, unopened daffodil heads dancing in the slight breeze.
The concrete path had seen better days and they had to pick their way carefully up, for fear they’d catch their heels in larger than average gaps in some sections.
After tackling the obstacle course of the path, Katy rang the doorbell and waited.
A petite woman in her early forties opened the door slightly and poked her head around it. “Yes? What do you want?”
Katy and Charlie produced their IDs. “DI Katy Foster and DS Charlie Simpkins. Are you Mrs Simmonds?”
“For now. What’s this about?”
“Would you mind letting us in to discuss the matter?”
“If I must. You’ll have to make it snappy, I’ve arranged to meet my friend in town to go on a shopping trip, what with Easter just around the corner and us having to miss out on Christmas last year.”
“It was unfortunate, Christmas being cancelled for everyone, unprecedented times.”
She showed them into a neat lounge, which could be described as minimalistic. The only furniture present were two leather sofas, an oak coffee table and a TV stand with a ginormous telly sitting on top of it. “Take a seat.”
“Thanks.” Katy and Charlie sat opposite the woman. Charlie extracted her notebook and flipped it open. Katy began, “We’re here to tell you some bad news.”
Mrs Simmonds’ hand flew up to cover her mouth. “What? Oh, no, it’s not my father, is it? I’ve told him he should have given up his car years ago. It’s too dangerous for him to still be on the road. He went through a red light when we visited Wisbech together last year. My heart was in my mouth at the time.”
Katy raised a hand to stop the woman. “No, this has nothing to do with your father and everything to do with your husband.”
“Oh, him. What about him?”
“I take it you’re not getting along too well at present. You mentioned you were his wife ‘for now’ at the front door, does that mean you’re in the process of getting a divorce?”
“Yes, we’re just waiting on the decree absolute to come through; we were promised it would be here at the end of last week, they lied to us. I’m desperate to seek my freedom. I’m done with that man. Can’t stand to be in the same room as him now.”
Katy nodded. “I understand. Have you been together long?”
“Ten long years. I would have got less time if I’d committed a bad crime, I suspect. Anyway, I’ve ranted on long enough about that prat, what is it you want to tell me?”
“Unfortunately, your husband’s body was found earlier this morning.”
“Body? You’re not making any sense. What do you…? Oh, God, you’re not telling me he’s dead, are you?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Her jaw slackened and her mouth dropped open as she stared at Katy. Her eyes welled up, and she shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe what you’re telling me. Where? How did it happen?”
“A few miles away. He was cycling. Can you tell me what his movements were yesterday?”
“I don’t understand.”
“He was on his bike, had he gone out for a ride at a particular time?”
“No. I don’t think so.” She wiped away the tears. “He would have been at work until around eight-ten, eight-fifteen. He locks up the store, you see. Oh, shit, does this mean I’ll have to break the news to his mother? She hates me.”
“No, we can send someone to do that. Where did Bobby work?” Katy decided to no longer refer to the victim as her husband, due to their circumstances.
“He’s, I mean, he was the warehouse manager at B&Q. Bobby was also a fitness freak, he cycled the ten miles or so into work every day. Is that what happened? He was cycling home and had an accident?”
“Possibly. His body was found on the road, close to the bike, so we can’t rule it out. I have to ask if you reported him missing last night.”
“No. I was out. I stopped over at a friend’s house. I got back this morning around nine. I didn’t think to check if he’d been home last night or not. He’s his own person, so am I. The lockdown last year revealed our marriage wasn’t as strong as we thought it was. Hence our decision to part ways.”
“I see. Do either of you have different partners, or significant others now?”
“No. We decided it would be better if we respected each other and waited until the divorce came through.”
“And yet you’re coming across as though you were sick of the sight of him,” Charlie added.
She sighed. “I was. We might have agreed for the split to be amicable, but just lately he’s pissed me off. Sorry, I know I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead. You know when you go down one route and someone tries everything they can to drive you in another direction? Well, that sums up our life. We’ve been fighting about the proceeds of the house in the past few weeks. He wanted to keep the house, I told him I wanted two hundred grand and the house could be his. He argued it wasn’t worth that much and the estate agent more or less agreed. We’ve been at each other’s throats for a couple of weeks over that. Nothing had
