that kind of thing yet. I don’t know what I’ll do with all his things. I never realized he’d collected so much junk. I wish I could just get up and leave Gratly, go somewhere else.’
‘You’ll not be staying here?’ asked Hatchley.
She shook her head. ‘No, Sergeant, I don’t think so. There’s nothing for me here. It was Harold’s work, really. His place.’
‘Where will you go?’
‘I haven’t really thought. A city, I suppose. Maybe London.’ She looked at Banks.
‘I shouldn’t worry about it yet,’ he said. ‘You need a bit of time. It’ll all get taken care of.’
Silence followed. Mrs Steadman offered to make a cup of tea, but Banks, much to Hatchley’s distress, refused for them both. ‘No thanks. It’s just a flying visit. We were in the area.’
She raised her eyebrows, hinting that he should get to the point.
‘It’s about Penny Cartwright,’ Banks began, noting that her expression didn’t alter a jot at the mention of the name. ‘I gather that she and your husband were rather close. Didn’t that bother you at all?’
‘What do you mean, “bother me”?’
‘Well,’ Banks went on cautiously, ‘she’s an attractive woman. People talk. People have talked about her before. Weren’t you worried that your husband might have been having an affair with her?’
It was immediately clear that the suggestion surprised rather than annoyed Emma Steadman, as if it were something she had never even thought of. ‘But they’d been friends for years,’ she answered. ‘Ever since she was a teenager, when we first came up here for our holidays. I don’t- I mean, I never really thought of her as anything else, really. A teenager. More like a daughter than a rival.’
Banks felt that it was short-sighted in the extreme to look upon a woman only twelve or thirteen years one’s junior as a child, especially if that woman was over the age of sixteen. ‘It didn’t bother you at all, then?’ he went on. ‘It never caused any trouble, any jealousy?’
‘Not on my part it didn’t, no. As I said, Chief Inspector, she’s been a friend of the family for years. I suppose you know that she and Michael Ramsden used to go out together ages ago? He brought her up here quite often – after all, it was his home then; we were only summer visitors. I think she had a lot in common with Harry. She looked up to him as a teacher, a man of knowledge. So did Michael, for that matter. I’m sorry, I’m afraid I can’t really see what you’re getting at.’
‘I simply wondered whether you suspected your husband of having an affair with Penny Cartwright.’
‘No, I didn’t. First you cast doubts on my marriage, now you accuse my husband of adultery. What’s going on? What is all this about?’
Banks held up his hand. ‘Wait a minute. I’m not making any accusations; I’m asking questions. It’s my job.’
‘That’s what you said last time,’ she said. ‘It didn’t make me feel any better then, either. Don’t you realize they’re burying my husband tomorrow?’
‘Yes I do, and I’m sorry. But if you want us to carry out a thorough investigation into his death, you’ve got to be prepared for some awkward questions. We don’t find the truth by skating over the surface or by skirting difficult patches.’
Mrs Steadman sighed. ‘I understand that. It’s just… so soon.’
‘Did you see much of Penny after she left Helmthorpe?’ Banks asked.
‘Not much, no. Sometimes, if we were in the same place – London, say – we’d have dinner together. But you could count the times on the fingers of one hand.’
‘What did she seem like during that period?’
‘Like herself.’
‘She never seemed depressed, on drugs, strung out?’
‘Not when we saw her.’
‘How well did your husband know Jack Barker?’
‘Jack? I’d say they were fairly close. As close as Harry could be to someone who didn’t share his enthusiasms.’
‘How long had Barker been living in Gratly?’
‘I don’t really know. Before us. Three or four years.’
‘How long had your husband known him?’
‘They got to know each other over the past eighteen months. We’d met before, on our visits here, but it wasn’t till we moved in that Harold really spent much time with the locals.’
‘Where did Barker come from?’
‘He’s from Cheadle, in Cheshire. But I think he lived in London for a while.’
‘And neither your nor your husband knew him when you first visited Gratly?’
‘No. I don’t think anyone in Helmthorpe or Gratly did. Why this fascination with the past, Chief Inspector?’
Banks frowned. ‘I’m not really sure, Mrs Steadman. I’m just trying to get a sense of the pattern of relationships: exits and entrances.’
‘And that’s why you were asking me about Harry and Penny?’
‘Partly, yes. Major Cartwright didn’t seem too pleased about their friendship.’
Mrs Steadman made a sound halfway between a sneeze and a guffaw. ‘The major! Everybody knows he’s a crackpot. Mad as a March hare. She’s all he’s got, you know, and she did desert him for a long time.’
‘You know about the rumours?’
‘Who doesn’t? But I don’t think you’ll find anyone who takes them seriously these days.’
‘Forgiven and forgotten?’
‘Something like that. People tire easily. Surely you don’t think. .. the major?’
Banks didn’t answer.
‘You policemen have such wild imaginations,’ Emma Steadman went on. ‘What do you think happened? Do you think the major found out about this mythical affair and killed Harry to protect his daughter’s virtue? Or do you think I did it in a jealous rage?’
‘You couldn’t have done it, could you? You were watching television with your neighbour at the time. We don’t rely entirely on imagination, Mrs Steadman. I know it’s a difficult period for you right now, and I apologize if I seem to be pestering you, but I’m simply trying to build up as complete a picture as I can of your husband and his circle. This is a difficult and vital time for us, too. Memories fade and stories change with every hour that goes by. As yet, I don’t know what’s important and what isn’t.’
‘I’m sorry for mocking you,’ Mrs Steadman apologized. ‘I know you have your job to do, but it is upsetting, you coming around talking about Harold having affairs and suggesting our marriage was in trouble. You must try and see it from my point of view. It’s almost as if you’re accusing me.’ She paused and smiled weakly. ‘He just wasn’t that kind of man, and if you’d known him you’d see what I mean. If there’s anything Harry was having an affair with, it was his work. In fact, sometimes I thought he was married to his work and having an affair with me.’
She said this with good humour, not in bitterness, and Banks laughed politely. ‘I’m sure my wife thinks the same,’ he said, then called to Hatchley, who had turned to browse through the decimated bookshelves.
‘I won’t trouble you any further,’ Banks said at the door, ‘but there is one small piece of information you might be able to help me with.’
‘Yes?’
‘Your husband taught at Leeds in the history department, am I right?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. That was his field.’
‘Who were his colleagues? Who did he spend most time with during your years there?’
She thought for a moment before replying. ‘We didn’t socialize a great deal. Harry was too intent on his career. But let me see… there was Tom Darnley, he was a fairly close friend, and Godfrey Talbot. I think he knew Harry at Cambridge, too. That’s about all, except for Geoffrey Baynes, but he went off to teach in Winnipeg, in Canada, before Harry left. That’s all I can think of.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Steadman,’ Banks said as the door closed slowly. ‘That’ll do fine for a start. See you tomorrow.’
They walked back the same way to the car, which was hot from standing in the sun most of the day, and
