cameras. How can that be?’
‘He’s careful,’ answers Ruiz.
‘Or they’re protecting him.’
‘Why?’
Bryan Chambers shrugs. ‘I don’t know. Makes no sense. I got six guys guarding the house now, round the clock. It’s still not enough.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Last night someone poisoned the lake at Stonebridge Manor,’ he explains. ‘We had four thousand fish- tench, roach and bream- they’re all dead.’
‘Tyler?’
‘Who else?’
The big man has stopped pacing. The fire has gone out of him, at least for the moment.
‘What does Gideon want?’ I ask.
Julian Spencer answers for him. ‘Mr Tyler hasn’t made this clear. At first he wanted to find his wife and daughter.’
‘This was before the ferry accident.’
‘Yes. He didn’t accept the marriage was over and he came looking for Helen and Chloe. He accused Bryan and Claudia of hiding them.’
The lawyer produces a letter from the drawer of his desk, refreshing his memory.
‘My Tyler took legal action in Germany and won a court order for joint custody of his daughter. He wanted an international warrant issued for his wife’s arrest.’
‘They were hiding out in Greece,’ says Ruiz.
‘Just so.’
‘Surely, after the tragedy, Tyler stopped his harassment.’
Bryan Chambers laughs caustically and it turns into a fit of coughing. The old lawyer pours him a glass of water.
‘I don’t understand. Helen and Chloe are dead. Why would Tyler keep harassing you?’
Bryan Chambers slumps forward in a chair, his shoulders collapsing over his chest in a posture of abject defeat. ‘I figured it was about money. Helen was going to inherit the manor one day. I thought Tyler wanted some sort of pay-off. I offered him two hundred thousand pounds if he left us alone. He wouldn’t take it.’
The old lawyer tut-tuts his disapproval.
‘And he hasn’t asked for anything else?’
Chambers shakes his head. ‘The man is a psychopath. I’ve given up trying to understand him. I want to crush the bastard. I want to make him pay…’
Julian Spencer cautions him about making threats.
‘Fuck being careful! My wife is on antidepressants. She doesn’t sleep any more. You see my hands?’ Chambers holds them across the table. ‘You want to know why they’re so steady? Drugs. That’s what Tyler has done to us. We’re both on medication. He’s made our lives a misery.’
When I first met Bryan Chambers, I thought his anger and secrecy were evidence of paranoia. I’m more sympathetic now. He has lost a daughter and granddaughter and his sanity is under threat.
‘Tell me about Gideon,’ I ask. ‘When was the first time you met him?’
‘Helen brought him home. I thought he was a cold fish.’
‘Why?’
‘He looked as though he knew the secrets of everyone in the room, but nobody knew his. It was obvious that he was in the military, but he wouldn’t talk about the army or his work- not even to Helen.’
‘Where was he based?’
‘At Chicksands in Bedfordshire. It’s some sort of army training place.’
‘And then?’
‘Northern Ireland and Germany. He was away a lot. He wouldn’t tell Helen where he was going, but there were clues, she said. Afghanistan. Egypt. Morocco. Poland. Iraq…’
‘Any idea what he was doing?’
‘No.’
Ruiz has wandered across to the window, taking in the view. At the same time, he glances sidelong at the pinstriped man, sizing him up. Ruiz is more intuitive than I am. I look for telltale signals to judge a person, he feels it inside.
I ask Mr Chambers about his daughter’s marriage. I want to know if the breakdown had been sudden or protracted. Some couples cling to nothing more than familiarity and routine, long after any real affection has gone.
‘I love my daughter, Professor, but I don’t profess to understand women particularly well, not even my wife,’ he says, blowing his nose. ‘She loves me- figure that out.’
He folds the handkerchief into quarters and returns it to his trouser pocket.
‘I didn’t like the way Gideon manipulated Helen. She was a different girl around him. When they married, Gideon wanted her to be blonde. She went to a hairdresser but the result was a disaster. She finished up with bright ginger hair. She was embarrassed enough, but Gideon made it worse. He poked fun at her at their wedding; belittled her in front of her friends. I hated him for that.’
‘At the wedding reception, I wanted to dance with her. It’s traditional- the father dancing with the bride. Gideon made Helen ask his permission first. It was her wedding day, for Christ’s sake! What bride has to get permission to dance with her father on her wedding day?’
Something flashes across his face, an involuntary spasm.
‘When they moved to Northern Ireland, Helen would call at least twice a week and write long letters. Then the calls and letters dried up. Gideon didn’t want her communicating with us.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. He seemed to be jealous of her family and her friends. We saw less and less of Helen. When she came to visit it was never for more than a night or two before Gideon packed the car. Helen rarely smiled and she spoke in whispers but she was loyal to Gideon and wouldn’t say a word against him.
‘When she fell pregnant with Chloe, she told her mother not to visit. Later we discovered that Gideon didn’t want the baby. He was furious and demanded she had an abortion. Helen refused.
‘I don’t know for sure but I think he was jealous of his own child. Can you believe that? Funny thing is, when Chloe was born his attitude changed completely. He was besotted. Captivated. Things settled down. They were happier.
‘Gideon was transferred to Osnabruck in Germany, the British Forces base. They moved into a flat provided by the army. There were lots of other wives and families in the married quarters. Helen managed to write about once a month but soon these letters stopped and she couldn’t contact us without his permission.
‘Every evening Gideon quizzed her about where she went, who she saw, what was said. Helen had to remember entire conversations verbatim or Gideon accused of her of lying or keeping secrets from him. She had to sneak out of the house to call her mother from a public phone because she knew any call from home or her mobile would show up on the phone bill.
‘Even when Gideon went away on tours of duty, Helen had to be careful. She was sure that people were watching her and reporting back to him.
‘His jealousy was like a disease. Whenever they went out socialising, Gideon would make Helen sit in a corner by herself. If another man talked to her, he’d get angry. He’d demand to know exactly what was said- word for word.’
Rocking forward in his chair Bryan Chambers clasps his hands together, as if praying he’d done something sooner to rescue his daughter.
‘Gideon’s behaviour became even more erratic after his last tour. I don’t know what happened. According to Helen he became distant, moody, violent…’
‘He hit her?’ asks Ruiz.
‘Only the once- a backhander across her face. It split Helen’s lip. She threatened to leave. He apologised. He cried. He begged her to stay. She should have left him then. She should have run away. But every time she
