Deadly Waters

Horton raised his eyebrows. This just wasn't Mickey Johnson's style. So who was pulling his strings? It had to be someone who knew that Mr Martin kept a boat at Town Camber; a fellow boat owner or a neighbour? Perhaps someone who worked with Martin?

'What does this James Martin do for a living?'

'He's retired.'

Bang went that theory, though there were still the other two to explore. 'Do any of the other robbery victims own boats?'

'It's not in the reports. I'll check.'

'If they do find out where they keep them.' It was a possible lead.

'Martin and his wife have only just got back from London,' Somerfield continued, 'They went to a show last night and stayed up in town. The fingerprint bureau are sending someone to Martin's house. I'm just on my way there to interview him.'

Horton let her go, with instructions to keep him informed. Then he grabbed his helmet and his leather jacket from his office and headed for the mortuary where he found Edney pacing the corridor. He was pale and anxious. Horton didn't blame him for that.

'Can we get this over with, Inspector? I've a meeting to attend,' Edney said tetchily.

Horton ignored this. 'I must warn you that you may find this disturbing. She'd been out in the sea air for some time.'

Edney gulped. 'The sea? But I thought she'd been killed in her apartment.'

Horton hadn't said and Edney had assumed. He could see Edney's mind racing with this new information.

'Surely she couldn't have gone sailing last night after… after work?' Edney continued.

Horton was convinced he had been about to say something else but had quickly substituted the word 'work.' Why? Did Edney know her movements?

'You know she sails?'

Edney nodded. 'She talked about it occasionally.'

'Does she have a boat?'

'I don't know.' Then he asked hesitantly. 'Where was she found, Inspector?'

Horton didn't see any reason not to tell him, as it would soon be made public knowledge. 'On the mulberry in Langstone Harbour.'

Edney's face registered surprise. 'My God!' he breathed.

'Are you ready, sir?'

Edney set his shoulders and nodded.

Tom, the mortuary attendant, respectably clad in a white coat instead of the mortuary garb and minus the whistling rendition of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, pushed back the door to a small room, which was used for identification purposes, and Horton gently ushered in Edney.

The thin man tensed, drawing a sharp breath. Tom pulled back the sheet covering the recumbent corpse just far enough to ensure that Edney didn't see the gaping scars where he'd inserted the knife in the forehead and the chest. Horton watched Edney's eyes flick to the dead woman. The blood drained from his face. His body swayed, and Horton put his hands out instinctively to catch him, but at the last minute Edney pulled himself together.

'That's her. It's Jessica Langley,' he said faintly.

Outside, he took a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his narrow forehead. He was still trembling.

'Would you like to sit down for a while? Can I get you a drink?' Horton volunteered.

Edney shook his head. 'No. I must get back. I have asked all the staff, with no exceptions, to be in the staff room.' His voice faltered and he fell heavily on to the seat. Horton nodded at Tom who fetched a plastic beaker of water.

Edney grasped it with both hands and drank it down in one go. After a moment he said, 'I'm sorry, Inspector, you must think me very weak. I couldn't quite believe she was dead until I saw…How did she die?'

'We're still trying to establish that. We'd appreciate all the co-operation you can give us, Mr Edney.'

'Of course.'

'I'd like to be present when you tell the staff.'

Edney's head came up and Horton could see some of the old hostility and suspicion re-emerging. 'You can't think that any of us could be involved in murder?' he cried.

'We need to find out all we can about Ms Langley's personal and professional life in order to find her killer.'

Edney lost what little colour he had regained.

'I understand that Ms Langley only joined the school at Easter,' Horton continued. 'Was her appointment a popular one?'

'The board of governors and the local education authority thought so.'

Horton picked up on a slight nuance of tone. 'But you didn't.'

'I didn't say that,' Edney replied, stiffly.

No, you didn't have to, Horton thought, it's written all over your face and embedded in your voice and attitude. Horton waited. His patience was rewarded when Edney eventually said, 'I admit I didn't like her.'

Horton sat down beside him. 'Why not?'

Edney sucked in his breath, pondered a moment, and then exhaled. Clearly his feelings had been pent up inside him for months and Horton's question unleashed a torrent of vitriol. 'She was a callous, vindictive, evil woman.'

'To anyone in particular?' Horton asked, hiding his surprise at the vehemence of Edney's feelings.

'No.'

Horton didn't believe him. He was protecting someone. Maybe it was Edney himself who had been on the end of Langley's sharp tongue.

'How did you get on with her?'

'She needed me,' Edney replied evasively and with bitterness. 'She was an impatient woman. She couldn't be bothered with drawing up the timetable, or seeing to all the staff problems, and the day-to-day running of the school. That is what I am good at.'

Horton recollected the state of Langley's office and the pile of unanswered e-mail printouts and memos spilling from her in-tray.

Edney continued, 'She was an ideas person and though some of her ideas were good, many of them simply caused more problems than they solved, which of course I then had to deal with. I was for ever running round smoothing over things and dealing with the people she upset. '

'And the board wanted an ideas person.'

'Apparently so,' he answered with disparagement.

'Did you apply for the position?'

'Yes. And I have an excellent track record.' A spark flickered in Edney's eyes and his colour heightened. 'Who do you think managed to raise all that money to build the new hall and drama suite? Me. And what kind of reward do I get for that? Nothing.'

'Why didn't you apply for a headship elsewhere?'

'Why should I? That was and is my school. I've been there twenty years.'

Yes, thought Horton, and was that enough of a motive to kill for?

'You see, Inspector, I don't seek self-publicity. My job is running a school and ensuring that the pupils are given the best education within my powers. Clearly, that wasn't enough for the governors.'

Horton left a silence to allow Edney to calm down. 'What will happen to the school now?'

'You mean who will take over the headship?'

Horton nodded.

'The board of governors and a representative from the local education authority will decide that tonight when they meet.'

'But you're expecting to be appointed.'

'Yes.'

Horton watched Edney climb into the waiting police car. He certainly had a strong motive for killing Langley. He hated her and she had pipped him to the promotion post. Could Edney handle a boat? Did he have a boat? Horton didn't even know where he lived yet. But somehow he couldn't see Edney stuffing money wrapped in honey inside Langley's knickers. And he couldn't imagine him dumping her on the mulberry in the middle of the harbour on a cold, wet and windy night. But it didn't do to discount him, not yet. Horton had met less likely murderers in his time with imaginations so wild behind a meek outward manner that they made Dr Jekyll's Mr Hyde look normal.

He called Uckfield to tell him they had a positive ID. Uckfield said the press conference would go ahead at three forty-five, just after Edney had informed the staff. Uckfield and the chief executive of the local education authority were already ensconced in Uckfield's office at the police station, and Marsden was with them. The PR lady was organizing the media and would usher them all into one of the conference rooms in half an hour's time.