‘As may be,’ I said, ‘but she’s very loyal and I’m sure she will help if she can. Call her and see if she’s got a spare room, or even a sofa, you can borrow. I’ll speak to you in the morning. I’ll call the yard office.’
‘But...’
‘No buts, Declan. You need the horses as much as they need you.’
The Mercedes dropped Kate and me at the Bedford Lodge Hotel and then set off to collect Declan from Bury St Edmunds.
‘No problem,’ the driver had said when I asked him. ‘I get paid by the hour and the mile. The more the merrier. I’ll take him to wherever he wants to go. I hear it’s very nice in John o’Groats at this time of year.’
He was still laughing to himself as he drove off.
‘So they’ve released Declan?’ Kate said, when we had settled at our table in the hotel’s Squires Restaurant.
‘So it would appear. They obviously didn’t get an extension beyond the initial twenty-four hours.’
‘Does that mean he’s innocent?’
‘Not necessarily, but they probably wouldn’t have let him go so easily if they really thought he was guilty. Perhaps they’ve looked at the CCTV from Newmarket Station.’
‘What would it show?’ Kate asked.
I decided that Declan making a statement to the police was as good as putting its contents into the public domain, so I explained to her about him having picked up Zoe from Cambridge the previous Sunday, and how her blood had subsequently been found in his car.
Her eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline.
‘No wonder the police arrested him.’
‘Yes, but Declan maintains he dropped her off, alive and well, at the station in Newmarket on Sunday afternoon for her to catch a train back to London.’
‘But she didn’t actually catch it?’
‘No. Instead she turned up dead in Oliver Chadwick’s stable yard.’
‘In the fire?’
‘Yes, but the post-mortem shows that she was dead before the fire started.’
The eyebrows went up again, maybe even further this time.
‘Wow! No wonder you went off so fast last night. Eat your heart out, Sherlock Holmes!’
I smiled across the table at her.
‘But what about Zoe’s blood in the car?’ she asked. ‘How did that get there?’
‘Elementary, my dear Watson,’ I said. ‘Zoe had a habit of self-harming. She regularly picked so hard at her fingers that they were red-raw and bleeding. The blood in the car came from that.’
‘She used to do that at school,’ Kate said wistfully. ‘How dreadful that she was still doing it all these years later.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘Zoe was clearly a very troubled individual.’
‘Obviously Arabella was too,’ Kate said. ‘And now that Declan has been released, it all seems such a waste. You’d think she would have waited to find out if he’d really done it before she killed herself.’
But I wasn’t sure that Arabella’s suicide had anything to do with Zoe’s murder.
19
Sadly, Kate went home later in a taxi.
‘I need to get my Tatts uniform for work tomorrow,’ was her excuse and, to be honest, I could do with the sleep. By eleven o’clock, I was out on my feet, and an excellent bottle of Saint-Émilion Grand Cru over dinner hadn’t exactly helped.
‘Maybe we can see each other again tomorrow night,’ she said as I walked her out to the taxi. ‘I don’t have to work on Saturdays.’
‘That would be great,’ I said. ‘I’ll call you.’
I went to give her a peck on the cheek, but she turned it into a passionate kiss on the lips.
Bugger her Tatts uniform, I thought, as her taxi pulled away and I went reluctantly alone to my room.
The red message light was flashing on the bedside telephone.
Now what? Not Declan again with more bad news?
However, it was not Declan but Oliver Chadwick, and he was apologising on behalf of his eldest son.
‘I’m sure Ryan didn’t mean to be rude and I trust you didn’t take his words in that manner,’ he said. ‘It’s just that it has been rather a stressful time here recently.’
I could imagine the scenario.
Ryan would have worked out that his actions at the racecourse had been somewhat less than prudent, and he had gone to his father to confess that he’d spoken sharply to Sheikh Karim’s personal representative.
Oliver would have been furious with him and demanded that Ryan call me immediately to apologise. But Ryan would have refused because (a) he was embarrassed, and (b) he didn’t want to lose face, primarily the latter.
So Oliver had had to do it himself, but he’d called the hotel number, rather than my mobile, so that he wouldn’t actually have to speak to me. He could safely leave a voicemail. I’d have probably done the same in his position.
There was no reference to Ryan also repeatedly poking me in the chest with his forefinger, so he’d probably kept that little gem from his father.
I listened to Oliver’s message again.
‘I’m sure Ryan didn’t mean to be rude and I trust you didn’t take his words in that manner.’
A bit difficult not to, I thought, when he’d called me an effing traitor.
I slept the sleep of the just, eight full hours of deep, uninterrupted slumber, and woke on Friday morning refreshed and ready for action.
The first thing on my agenda after breakfast was to call ASW.
‘How are things going?’ he asked.
I filled him in on the events of the past couple of days, while deciding to leave out any mention of Kate. There are some things the boss doesn’t need to know.
‘I saw some reports on the news,’ he said. ‘Seems like a complete mess. Did Declan cause the fire?’
‘I don’t believe so. I think he’s telling the truth but not necessarily the whole truth. There’s something else going on in this family and, in spite of the animosity between them and the death of two of their number, no one is mentioning it.’
‘So what do you do next?’ ASW said. ‘I had a conversation with the Sheikh early this morning and he’s quite happy for you to stay there a while longer if it’s going to be productive. Georgina has provisionally booked your hotel room until the end of next week.’
If it’s going to be productive, I thought. Easy to say.
‘Can we get hold of any bank records?’ I asked. ‘Money seems to be an important issue here.’
‘When is it not?’ he said with a laugh. ‘Whose money in particular?’
‘Zoe and Peter Robertson’s for a start. And I’d quite like to speak to Peter Robertson, although he seems to be rather an oddball if what everyone says is anything to go by.’
‘And his wife has just been murdered.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘But the police must have interviewed him by now, if only to eliminate him from their enquiries. In my limited experience, the cops always suspect the spouse first.’
‘Can’t you ask them what he said?’
‘I fear my relationship with the DCI in charge of the case has soured somewhat, but I could try. Or else I could come down to London and go and see him over the weekend.’
‘When is his wife’s funeral?’ ASW asked.
‘I haven’t heard but it’s unlikely to be soon. Zoe’s body, or what’s left of it, is a major piece of evidence and any future defence team would want their own post-mortem carried out. I should think a funeral is several months away, at best.’
‘Poor man. Not only is his wife dead, but he can’t even lay her to rest.’
‘I think I’ll go and see him tomorrow if that’s all right.’
‘Fine by me,’ ASW said crisply. ‘I’ll send you his address. Keep me posted, and I’ll get on to the research boys to see what they can do about the bank records.’