Amie looked at them for a moment, then poked her head round the door into the living room. ‘Gavin? Can you take the girls upstairs for a bit please?’
They listened as Amie’s husband did as he was asked, before Caroline spoke quietly enough to ensure they wouldn’t be overheard.
‘I’ll get straight to the point. We’ve had some reports that your relationship with Martin wasn’t always strictly work-related. Is that true?’
Amie laughed. ‘Is that what you wanted to ask me? Jesus Christ, of course not. No chance.’
‘There was never anything other than a working relationship?’ Caroline asked.
‘Absolutely not, no. If someone’s tried telling you that, they’ve got the wrong end of the stick completely. He tried coming on to me a few times, but I always brushed him off. I’m married with kids, for Christ’s sake.’
‘And it never went any further than Martin’s advances and your rejections?’
‘No. Categorically no.’
Caroline nodded as she wrote in her notebook. ‘Okay. Sorry. You understand we have to ask these things, of course.’ Amie didn’t reply. ‘Ooh, I like those,’ Caroline said, nodding her head towards the vase on the kitchen windowsill. ‘Are they roses? They’re very dark.’
Amie’s demeanour seemed to change almost immediately. ‘Yes. Rosa Black Baccara.’
‘You seem to have quite a lot of admirers.’
‘Actually, they were my dad’s favourite. He used to be a gardener at Barnsdale. Every year he used to send me a dozen of them on Valentine’s Day.’
‘Used to?’
‘He died. Ten years ago. I think my mum sends them now, but she’ll never admit it. I thought it was Gavin at first, but it’s not. I can always tell when he’s lying. I suppose I might never find out, but that doesn’t matter. It’s sort of a reminder of Dad. It’s nice.’
‘It is. Sorry, I didn’t mean to—’
‘It’s fine.’
‘They’re an interesting colour. I’ve never seen roses that dark before.’
Amie shrugged. ‘I guess that’s why he liked them. He loved anything that was different, out of the ordinary. He was a bit of an old hippy, in many ways.’
‘Man after my own heart. So, let’s go back to Monday night. You weren’t at work, is that right?’
‘Yes. I’ve got the week off.’
‘Were you at home?’
‘Yes. We went into Peterborough on Saturday, but we’ve been at home since. Gavin’s been out to walk the dog a couple of times, but that’s about it.’
‘In the village?’
‘Yes.’
Caroline nodded and noted this down. Market Overton was a good half an hour’s drive from where Martin’s body was found. ‘And what time did he go out on Monday?’
Amie laughed. ‘About lunchtime. Sorry, but you’re on the wrong track if you think Gavin had anything to do with it.’
‘We’re just trying to ascertain everyone’s whereabouts, that’s all.’
‘Okay, well in that case we were both here, at home. All evening.’
‘What were you doing?’
Amie sighed. ‘We put the kids to bed, then I had a bath for an hour or so, then I came downstairs, we opened a bottle of wine and we had sex on the sofa. Is that enough information for you?’
‘Where was he while you were in the bath?’
‘Downstairs, watching TV. And before you ask, yes, I know he was because he’s allergic to the dog and he was sneezing almost constantly. Besides which, the car’s parked right below our bathroom window so I would’ve heard him if he’d gone out, and it’s a bloody long walk to Seaton.’
‘Okay, I think we all need to take a breather for a few moments,’ Caroline said, trying to sound as soothing as possible. ‘I understand it’s a difficult time and we might not be coming across in the right way, but I just want to assure you that all we’re trying to do is get all the information we can as quickly and efficiently as possible so we can find Martin’s killer.’
Amie nodded and looked up at her. ‘Well in that case, you’d better get back out there, because you’re not going to find them here.’
19
‘We can verify everything with cell site info,’ Dexter said as they walked back to Caroline’s car. ‘We’ll be able to see if either of them left the house. The car’s brand new, too. That’ll have a tracker on it.’
‘We won’t get authorisation to access that. We’re nowhere near the evidence threshold.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Afraid so. Vehicles are classed as premises, so it’d count as property interference. We’d need part 3 RIPA authority. Chief Constable territory, that. We won’t get it.’
‘If the car’s classed as premises, can’t we just get a search warrant under PACE?’
‘Only if you fancy convincing a magistrate that we’ve got solid grounds for suspecting Amie.’
Dexter raised an eyebrow. ‘Does that mean you think she didn’t do it?’
Caroline sighed. ‘Honestly? I don’t know. I don’t think she was lying. But that doesn’t change the fact that something doesn’t quite seem right.’
‘Yeah, but if Martin Forbes definitely died on Monday night and Amie and Gavin Tanner definitely didn’t leave their house on Monday night, what else can we do? If the evidence says it can’t be them, it can’t be them.’
‘It doesn’t mean they’re not involved. Monique Dupont was a solid suspect too, until an alibi popped up. What if that is the connection? What if they’re working together? We need to dig deeper. Find out more about them, their connections. They could’ve paid someone else to do it.’
‘I don’t think that’s likely, do you?’ Dexter asked. ‘There are plenty of angles here. Martin Forbes seems to have pissed enough people off along the line. We had Monique Dupont pretty much nailed on at one point, don’t forget.’
‘None of this is likely, Dex. Nothing. It’s not likely you’ll go out for a jog and get beaten to death under a viaduct, but try telling that to Martin Forbes.’
‘Even so, I don’t think I’m fully on board with the Tanners being gangland kingpins who can just drop twenty grand and
