‘Very well. Dominic O’Connor came here to warn me off — to tell me that I wasn’t going to benefit financially from any association with his wife.’
‘And how did he propose to do that?’
‘He said what I already knew: that he was a Catholic who didn’t approve of divorce and wouldn’t consent to it. When I said that that would represent no more than a delaying tactic, he told me he was planning to change his will. Ros would inherit nothing. And she would get nothing if she left him whilst he was alive.’
‘And your reaction to this was?’
‘I told him that I didn’t think the law would allow him to behave like that. Women have rights to property, even in a divorce which they have initiated. He conceded she might get the house, or a share of it. But he was a rich man, a partner in a prosperous firm, and he’d get an expert lawyer onto the task. He would deny Ros and me every possible penny. He said he thought I should know this, since it would undoubtedly change my intentions towards his wife.’
‘It must have shaken you.’
‘It didn’t. Well, not as much as you might think. I wasn’t really surprised that he knew about Ros and me. Discretion isn’t Ros’s strong point — if he challenged her, she’d be likely to scorn deceit and come out strongly about her feelings for me and her feelings for him. I think he was eventually more rattled than I was. I said I was sure he couldn’t leave Ros as destitute as he planned to do, and that even if he succeeded it wouldn’t alter my feelings in the slightest.’
John Alderson stopped on that. He was almost challenging them to dispute what he said, because it was important to him that he asserted the depth of his love for Ros. Peach said reasonably, ‘But this meeting must have shaken you to some degree. The discovery that the man was hell-bent on denying you the financial benefits you could have expected from a long-term relationship with Ros must have altered your expectations about the rest of your life.’
‘No. Dominic O’Connor thought he could make me back off. He thought that if I was told I wasn’t going to make big money on the deal I’d drop his wife like a used coat. He looked round this place and assessed it, the way you did when you came here on Wednesday. He said that I was unemployed and anything but prosperous. Then he said he was sure I wouldn’t want to take on an enemy like him, that I’d see sense and back off.’
‘And did you agree with him?’
John was shrewd enough to know that Peach was trying to nettle him, to make him reveal more of himself than he wished to do. He took his time, trying to estimate what reactions his words would excite in these men who wanted an arrest. ‘I surprised myself a little, I think. I told him that I didn’t want him as an enemy. I said that I could understand that he must feel humiliated that someone like me now had the affection of his wife. But I also pointed out that he’d brought this upon himself by taking a string of lovers and treating Ros with contempt. I told him that I wasn’t in this for financial gain and that it was insulting of him to presume that I was. I said that the lady would decide on this and that I was confident that Ros would come to me, whatever the financial set-up might be. I then asked him to leave my house.’
‘You sound very organised. You sound as if this is a statement you prepared in case we came to interview you about this meeting.’
John smiled for the first time since they’d mentioned O’Connor’s visit here. ‘It wasn’t as cool and as logical as this at the time. There was passion on both sides and a good deal of shouting. I’ve given you the gist of a very animated half hour.’
‘So he came to threaten you, but was met with defiance and sent away without satisfaction. But you now knew that he was determined to deprive you of whatever financial benefits he could. So you thought about it and decided that you had better act quickly, before he could implement his threats. Knowing that his wife would be away visiting her sister, you went there on the evening of the same day and killed Dominic O’Connor.’
‘No. I know it looks bad, which is why I didn’t want you to know about that meeting on Friday morning. But the money or lack of it wasn’t going to alter my intentions one jot.’
He hadn’t realised how hard he was breathing, how emotional he felt, until the CID men rose to leave. He was dimly conscious of Peach warning him coldly that they might require a statement about the events of Friday morning. Then they were gone and he was standing in the empty hall of his house, pressing his forehead hard against the coolness of the long mirror on the wall.
SIXTEEN
DCI Peach had not been back in the CID section for two minutes when there was a summons from on high.
‘I need to be put in the picture. I can’t form a satisfactory overview of the local crime scene unless you put me in the picture,’ complained Thomas Bulstrode Tucker. The Chief Superintendent sounded rather petulant on the internal phone.
Percy looked at his watch. Two minutes to four on Friday afternoon. Par for the course, then: Tommy Bloody Tucker preparing to depart for his weekend whilst a murder hunt continued without him. Peach climbed the stairs with a stoic resignation and watched the lights beside the door flash a succession of commands when he pressed the button beside them. He donned an artificial solicitude as he sat down on the uncomfortable upright chair in front of the directorial desk. ‘Feeling better today, sir, are we?
‘Better?’
‘You were somewhat under the weather on Wednesday, sir. I was glad to hear you got home safely.’
‘Ah, yes. Wednesday. I was overworked.’
‘As a newt, sir.’
‘I suppose I may have been a little — well, unwise.’
‘As a newt, sir.’
‘Look, I don’t mind telling you, Percy. As a friend, I mean. I think I might have — well, overindulged a little on Wednesday. Of course, I was perfectly happy-’
‘As a newt, sir.’
‘Look here, Peach, we’re not going to get anywhere if you keep repeating that ridiculous phrase. Wednesday is over and done with. Part of history. Do you understand that, Peach?’
Percy was glad to hear that his forename had been abandoned. He felt much happier with the state of armed neutrality which prevailed when Tucker used his surname. ‘Was Mrs Tucker able to minister to your needs satisfactorily, sir?’ Percy’s face was suddenly suffused with the blandest of his inquiring smiles.
Tommy Bloody Tucker shivered visibly. This was a novel and pleasing phenomenon for Percy. He even felt a momentary spurt of sympathy for his chief at the thought of Brunnhilde Barbara’s ministrations to her stricken husband. He didn’t think helpless drunkenness was a quality of which she would approve in her spouse, even though Wagnerian scales of excess should have been within her tolerance.
The chief superintendent forced out a concession. ‘It was good of you to see that I was taken home safely on Wednesday.’
‘No trouble, sir. DC Murphy is an efficient chauffeur who can be trusted to maintain silence about the episode.’
‘Good. That’s good. It was a bit of an overreaction on your part, of course. I was perfectly capable of making decisions and of driving myself home, but I know you meant well.’
‘I did indeed, sir.’ Percy tried to dismiss the vision of himself acting as Jeeves to this unlikeliest of Woosters. ‘I expect Mrs Tucker was overreacting as well, when she rang in and accused me of sending you home as drunk as a lord.’
‘As a lord?’
‘I paraphrase, sir. I think the expression “piss artist” passed between her fair lips, but she seemed to be under considerable stress at the time. Perhaps you could disabuse Mrs Tucker of the notion that I was responsible for your condition on Wednesday. It might keep me out of the stocks.’
Tucker glanced fiercely at his watch. ‘Look, I’ve no time for any more of your fripperies. Put me in the picture on the progress of your enquiries into the Dominic O’Connor murder.’