“We’d like to run through the events leading up to the murder, if we may, Mr Reeves,” said Gus. “My colleague and I intend to visit the murder scene after we leave here. It helps me establish the distances involved, the relationship and the possible relevance of buildings close to the side street where Marion parked her car. Her killer left that car covered in blood, yet nobody came forward to say they had seen someone.”
“You don’t need to remind me of what happened to my wife, Mr Freeman,” said Theo Reeves. “The police spared me the trauma of seeing Marion’s injuries. When I identified her body in the morgue, all I saw was her face. That’s not an experience I would wish on my worst enemy.”
“I apologise if you believe I was unnecessarily graphic in my description of events at the industrial estate, Mr Reeves,” said Gus. “I intend to uncover the truth of what happened that morning. If I need to ruffle a few feathers, then so be it. Seven years have passed, and people’s memories of the exact sequence of events change. There can be several reasons for that. They lied in the first instance or omitted certain steps that might implicate them or, at the very least, put them in a poor light. Other witnesses unintentionally get the sequence of events out of order even though they recall every single one.”
Gus sat back in his seat as Theo Reeves absorbed the full impact of his comments.
CHAPTER 5
“How on earth do you tell fact from fiction?” asked Theo Reeves.
“We keep asking probing questions to expose the reasons behind a witness not telling us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” said Lydia. “The relationships within a family unit can alter significantly over time. Someone could come forward with fresh evidence today because they no longer have an allegiance to protect another member of the family.”
“Are you talking about my family unit?” asked Theo. Lydia sensed his anger was bubbling just below the surface. A younger man might have lost control, but apart from a tension in his body that wasn’t there earlier, Theo Reeves remained calm.
“My colleague was commenting in general terms on how we discover which of our witnesses is lying,” said Gus. “But I think you would agree; it’s fair to say relationships have changed between you and Martyn Street in the past seven years. They aren’t the same between you and Stephanie either. She was a teenage student living under your roof when Marion died. Now she’s an independent adult with a job, living with another man. No matter how often you see Stephanie and how amicable those meetings are, the situation has changed forever. You alluded to the possibility that Martyn and Stephanie’s relationship changed while they both still lived in this house. We don’t know how that changed, but now they live separate lives. If we ask them questions about where they were and what they were doing on March the eighteenth, they might give different answers to the ones they gave the police seven years ago. Do you understand how that could happen in cases that we handle?”
“Yes, I suppose there must be instances where a husband or brother lies to protect a loved one who had become a suspect. Surely, you must see that didn’t apply in this case?”
“Everything we know of this case hinges on evidence gathered by the detective team who worked on it in 2011,” said Lydia. “You are the first person we’ve spoken to this time around. Mr Freeman is checking each element of that evidence to make sure that it’s still valid.”
“We’ve clarified why we need to go over the events leading up to the eighteenth of March,” said Gus. “So, let’s get back to the Friday before the murder. Marion withdrew six thousand pounds in cash from her bank. Did she tell you what she’d done?”
“No,” said Theo. “I don’t know whether she kept the cash in her handbag all weekend or hid it somewhere in the house. I never saw it.”
“Did you and Marion have a joint bank account?” asked Lydia.
“We did,” said Theo. “Once we got married, I closed my current and savings accounts and opened new accounts in our married names. The account Marion retained was where she held the money her ex-husband gave her. That was Marion and Martyn’s money. I’d never considered it available for me to spend. Marion hoped one day Martyn could learn to drive, and she could buy his first car.”
“You mentioned the balance wasn’t significant,” said Gus. “Did Marion ever tell you how much was in there after the divorce settlement?”
“That was another hangover from the marriage to Street that wasn’t a subject for discussion,” said Theo.
“What happened when solicitors dealt with probate after Marion’s death?” asked Gus. “How much money remained in the account, and how did the executors disburse it?”
“The six thousand pounds Marion withdrew practically cleared it out,” said Theo. “Only a few hundred pounds got transferred into our joint account later that summer. Martyn was still living here, and Stephanie was revising for her exams. I could tell they were both struggling to come to terms with everything, and I used the money to pay for a weekend away at Centreparcs at Longleat. I picked a miserable, wet weekend, and Martyn had a panic attack in the escape room attraction. All three of us were on the verge of a breakdown. The whole thing was a disaster. Stephanie’s drinking spiralled out of control not long after that weekend.”
“If we can switch back to the weekend before the murder,” said Gus. “What did you do as a family? Was there anything different in your routine? Did Marion go
