‘My sergeant’s interviewing her right now. But you know this could well clinch the case against Sheringham, he had a motive to murder them both. She was going to inform on him to his wife and he was going to inform on him to the police. What better solution than to batter the life out of the both of them?’
‘What better? Is he in custody?’
‘No. Don’t want to bring him in too early, don’t want to start the clock ticking until I’m on sure footing.’
‘And he’s not going anywhere…I can understand your caution.’
‘Have him in for another chat, though. We’ll be doing that in the light of this. What have you got on Sheringham from your perspective?’
‘Not enough. We believe that anabolic steroids have been seeping out of Sheringham’s Gym for a while now. Then one of our informers, he told us that a larger than normal amount had been shifted and the money bags was a guy called Williams. He has, or I should say, had, a reputation in the Vale for being something of a good touch for finance.’
‘He had.’
‘Anyway, all that consignment had been moved when we heard that Sheringham was twisting Williams’s arm, wanting him to fund a much larger shipment. Usual deal, Williams got his investment back plus twenty per cent once the stuff had been sold, but Williams may well be a good touch but he’s scared of the law. I got the impression that he was desperate to recover some money and was flirting with crime as a consequence, silly man. Anyway, we had him in here, a little off-the-record chat, offered him a deal, asked him to fund Sheringham, we’ll keep Sheringham under close surveillance, and when he makes the purchase we’ll pounce: we’ll get Sheringham and his supplier and the steroids, Williams gets his money back plus immunity from prosecution.’
‘Not a bad deal.’
‘That’s what we thought. He said he’d think it over. That was just last week sometime.’
Hennessey stood. ‘Well, thanks, Liam. Owe you one. Time for a second chat with Sheringham.’
Yellich found Vanessa Sheringham a very attractive woman. She would, he thought, be attractive in any man’s eyes. He thought her perhaps five foot eight or nine inches tall, angular features, high cheekbones, a mane of dark, glowing hair, blue eyes. She sat in the office of Sheringham’s Gym wearing a blue leotard with silver tights and a pair of blue and white trainers that didn’t look as’ though they were ever worn out of doors. She wore an expensive-looking wristwatch and equally expensive-looking engagement and wedding rings.
The watch and the rings were balanced by gold bracelets on the right wrist. By her smile, by the gleam in her eyes, Yellich knew that she was enjoying his eyes upon her. The woman knew she was beautiful. He disliked her intensely. It was Yellich’s experience that great beauty goes hand in hand with great cruelty and great selfishness. It had been his emotionally scarring experience to have once had an involvement with a photogenically beautiful woman, an actress, he remembered, and he had found her, and recalled her, as being self-obsessed and volatile, usually in public; making a meal out of issues other people would make light of. Yellich, looking back, if not at the time, saw her as a woman who would never know contentment, and would only approach happiness if she was on a pedestal, enjoying universal attention and approval, and getting her own way. She had been, in fact, the ugliest person to have crossed his life’s path. It had been a salutary lesson and while, since then, he had continued to enjoy the images of human female perfection, he did not yearn for any form of contact, physical or emotional, with a woman of this kind. And here in front of him was one such, enjoying his attention, and the annoying thing about it for Yellich was that she believed he was thinking exactly the opposite of what he was actually thinking.
‘So, you’ve arrested my husband?’ She smiled, but haughtily so.
‘Not yet. He is helping with enquiries.’
‘He once told me what that phrase meant. The first time he helped the police with their enquiries, he was fifteen and a policeman threatened to break his arm unless he confessed to a crime he hadn’t committed.’
‘No comment,’ Yellich said coldly. ‘So you help your husband in the gym?’
‘No.’
‘No?’ Yellich glanced to his left through the pane of glass at men and women in brightly coloured sportswear pushing weights and running on small conveyor belts, moving to music with a strong beat.
‘No. He helps me run the gym. It’s my gym. We are married but the gym is mine. It belongs to me, lock, stock and barrel. I’m a wealthy woman, I was when I married him. He was not a wealthy man, he comes from Tang Hall, he’s still there in his mind. My father’s a businessman, farming equipment, has a house in Nether Poppleton.’
‘Different side of the tracks. Literally.’
‘Yes. He’s lucky to have me, don’t you think? I am a woman with everything, looks, charm, money. He’s a nice hunk of man flesh…he at least looks the part.’
‘Appearance means a lot to you, does it?’
‘It means everything. Appearance and money. But I’m secure. If I divorce him and cast him out into the great unknown, he goes back to Tang Hall and crime. And he knows it. I can control him. If he steps out of line he’s by himself. He dare not even look at another woman. Are you married?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is your wife pretty?’
‘No.’
Vanessa Sheringham smiled.
‘She’s beautiful. She’s a very beautiful woman. In every way.’
‘I see, the old “eye of the beholder” number…’
‘We’ll keep this official if you don’t mind, Mrs Sheringham.’
‘As you wish.’ Just then the music in the gym suddenly stopped.
‘Your husband can’t be very secure in his marriage. I mean, from what you’re telling me, if you were to divorce he has no claim, even in part, on the house or the gym.’
‘He doesn’t. Both were my possession before we married and he has signed a contract that should we divorce he will not lay claim to either. He gave his name to the gym because it has a certain ring to it. Before that it was called “Vanessa’s Gym”, but Sheringham’s is a little classier sounding. Don’t you think?’
‘Perhaps.’ But privately he conceded that names of products are very, very important in terms of marketing strategy. That was why dog fish used to be sold as ‘rock salmon’. When the practice was outlawed, nobody bought dog fish, though they’d been eating the inexpensive and highly nutritious ‘rock salmon’ for generations, so Yellich had once read.
‘But yes, I suppose he is a little insecure.’ Vanessa Sheringham turned to her side and replaced another compact disc in the hi-fi machine - once again, music of a strong beat and rhythm played loudly in the gym. ‘But I like that, you know.’ She smiled as she once again turned towards Yellich. ‘It keeps him on his toes, he’s very attentive. I’m happy with the arrangement. He’s not, but that’s the way I like it. I’m not prepared to surrender the least bit of control.’
‘What I’m driving at is that your husband has a lot of motivation to keep you happy?’
‘Yes.’ Vanessa Sheringham nodded. ‘That I like…a lot of motivation to keep me happy. He’s nothing without me, and an awful lot of women would be queuing up to fill my shoes. Not only because of what nature has given me, but because I have a fit, healthy and a handsome husband who will do my least bidding because he’s terrified of our marriage ending. That’s power. Power is lovely, it’s as profound as an orgasm.’
‘That’s very interesting.’ Yellich spoke softly. ‘Very interesting indeed.’
‘Power is, I’ve always liked power.’
‘No, I meant that your husband would do much to keep his marriage alive.’
‘Oh, he would. He comes from poverty, he’s frightened of going back to it. One step out of line, as I said, and he can kiss goodbye to the good life.’
‘He must be totally faithful to you?’