“You’re a very logical woman, Carole.”
“I like to think so.”
“All right. I’ll tell you why I was there.” And he did. He confirmed exactly the conjecture that Jude had spelled out to his ex-wife the day before. Kyra Bartos’s departure from the Worthing Martin & Martina salon had followed her resistance to his advances. He tried to make light of what had happened. “It was only in fun. Just jokey chatting-up, the kind of thing that goes on in the salon all the time, you know between the men and the girls.”
Carole sat stone-faced during his attempt to laugh it off and, embarrassed, he continued his explanation. Kyra, he said, did not have much of a sense of humour and she took his playfulness more seriously than he had intended. So yes, there had been a bit of awkwardness about her leaving. And though, on one of the rare occasions when he’d spoken to Connie, she’d said something about the girl contemplating legal action, he’d never taken it seriously…until he’d heard what Jude had to say to him in Martin & Martina on the Saturday morning.
“That made me think there was a real threat, and so I thought it was just possible that, if Kyra had actually got any information together or approached a solicitor or something, there might be a record of it left at Connie’s Clip Joint. I knew she had a fairly tense relationship with her father, so she was more likely to have kept that kind of documentation at the salon than at home.”
He looked pleadingly up at Carole, offering himself to her judgement. “So that’s why I was there yesterday morning. I wasn’t thinking very rationally. I just got it into my head that it was worth trying. If the police had found anything which suggested Kyra was contemplating legal action against me…well, suddenly that would put me in the frame with a motive to do away with the girl.”
“Yes,” Carole agreed implacably.
“Which, for anyone who knows me, is an absolutely daft idea. If there’s any criticism ever made of me, it’s that I’m a bit soft. I haven’t got it in me to hurt anyone. It would just go against all my instincts.”
“Hmm. Did your wife not think it was odd, you going off early yesterday morning?”
“She would have done, I’m sure. I always give her exact details of where I’m going at any time. It’s necessary when you’re running a business together. But she’s away this weekend. Her mother lives in Prague and she’s not well…dying in fact, so Martina flies over there roughly once a month. She got a flight on Saturday afternoon and she’s coming back tomorrow.”
“I see. So there was nothing to stop you making your illegal entry to Connie’s Clip Joint?”
“No.” He sighed. “In retrospect, it would have been better if Martina had been at home. Then I wouldn’t have gone on such an insane wild goose chase. I didn’t find anything in the salon, needless to say. But I was in a very manic state, and I thought there was a chance, and I was desperate to do anything that would stop the police wanting to question me any further.”
“Whereas in fact what you did has had exactly the opposite effect. The police now do want to question you about what you were doing at the salon yesterday morning.”
“Yes. I thought at that time of the day I’d be safe. I didn’t reckon on you and your dog.”
“Lucky I wasn’t taking my dog for a walk when the person who killed Kyra Bartos came out.”
It had been a risk to make the connection so openly, but Martin Rutherford was smart enough to pick up her implication. “Look, I didn’t kill her. I don’t know whether any of the local gossip is suggesting that, but it’s absolutely untrue.”
“As I’m sure you’ll be able to prove to the police.”
“The police?” He sounded bewildered.
“When they question you about your movements.”
“Oh yes, yes, of course. Sorry. Bit slow there. No, it’ll be fine when I talk to the police.”
“You mean you have an alibi?”
“Not for when you saw me yesterday morning. But you know that. You saw me. There’s no way I can wriggle out of that and say I was somewhere else.”
Carole pressed him. “But for the night of the murder? Do you have an alibi for then?”
“Of course I do,” he replied confidently. But then he seemed to lose his nerve. “That is…”
“What?”
“Well, I…Look, I’m sorry, Carole, but I don’t have to tell you. When the police ask me, then of course I’ll tell them where I was that night.”
“Fine,” she said, and then dared to add, “If the answer’s embarrassing…”
“No, it’s not embarrassing.” He made a decision. “All right, I was at a conference that night. There’s a big annual one, the Brighton Hair and Nail Conference. I haven’t been there before, but this year I decided I should.”
“Was Martina with you?”
“No, it started on the Wednesday evening. Someone had to be around the salon, in case anything came up in any of the branches. So she stayed and I went to Brighton. Just stayed the one night.”
It was an alibi that could be checked. On the other hand, it was not a totally watertight one. Brighton was not that far from Fethering. A determined murderer could easily slip away from the conference hotel for a couple of hours to do what he had to do. Unless he could produce someone who could vouch for his attendance at the conference all night, the alibi was pretty worthless.
But Carole didn’t say any of that. Indeed, she didn’t get the chance to. Martin Rutherford had finally got on to the real purpose of their meeting. “Listen, this whole situation’s very unfortunate. I’ve been stupid and, as a result, I’m going to have what I think could be quite a nasty grilling from the police.”
If he was fishing for sympathy, Carole didn’t feel inclined to grant him any. She was surprised by how negative she felt towards Martin Rutherford. Connie was far from being a bosom pal, but Carole still had a lot of fellow feeling for her. The way Martin had behaved in their marriage – and indeed the way he continued to behave with girls like Kyra – was appalling. Carole felt empathy for Connie, the solidarity of divorcees who had been badly treated by men.
“Anyway,” Martin went on, “that will be my punishment – and it serves me right.”
“It’s possible,” said Carole waspishly, “that that won’t be all your punishment.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’d have thought, even if you used your keys to get into Connie’s Clip Joint yesterday…”
“Which I did. Still got a set to the back door.”
“Even if you did, you could be charged with breaking and entering.”
The idea didn’t seem to worry him. “No, surely that’d only happen if Connie pressed charges. And she’d never do that.”
“Don’t underestimate her.” And don’t underestimate how much you have hurt her and how vengeful she might be towards you, Carole thought.
Martin still dismissed the idea of a criminal charge. “Well, that is not currently among my many worries. But look, Carole…now this business about my going to Connie’s Clip Joint yesterday is known to the police…and they’ll probably soon know about the reasons for Kyra’s dismissal too…could you please – you and your friend Jude – not say anything? I mean, don’t spread the news to anyone else.”
“I had no intention of doing so,” said Carole sniffily.
“Good. I’m sorry, but I do have a business reputation round here. It’s not going to be improved if anyone finds out the police are questioning me again. And I don’t want to risk any further damage. So please, will you and Jude keep quiet about it?”
“Yes, of course we will.”
What does he take us for – a couple of local gossips? Carole couldn’t help thinking.