‘I’m going to tell you what I think happened,’ Sam said.
The lawyer shook his head. ‘No, I don’t think so, Sergeant. You’ve got nothing. This is a fishing expedition. We’ve had enough of this. Either charge my client or we’re walking out of here.’
‘No,’ Barnes said, laying a hand on his lawyer’s arm. ‘Let the man speak. I want to know what this fantasy is that he’s constructed. Forewarned is forearmed, after all.’
Sam gathered himself together, remembering Tony’s advice. One chance. And this was it. ‘I think you killed all three of them. Sleeping pills to knock them out and carbon monoxide poisoning, is my guess. Then you dumped the bodies. Harry was your get-out-of-jail-free card. If the bodies turned up, there was the evidence that Danuta had had a lover. You were vindicated.’
‘If I was that clever, wouldn’t I have made it look like a murder and suicide?’ Barnes demanded.
Sam nodded. ‘That puzzled me to begin with. Then when I talked to Angela I realised that even us stupid plods might have thought twice about that scenario once we found out what a total loser Harry was. Danuta would never have run off with him, not in a million years. Not even under the influence of post-natal hormones. So I fell back on Plan B.’
‘Fascinating,’ Barnes said. ‘And what’s this Plan B?’
Sam grinned. ‘You’re going to confess to disposing of the bodies, aren’t you? You’re going to tell us how you suspected Harry might have abducted your wife and daughter, so you went to his caravan where you found they’d died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty heater. You’re going to tell us how you were in a quandary then. Because you’d no evidence of abduction. You’d already told the police that she’d left you. We might have thought you’d gone there in a fit of jealous rage, killed them all, then made it look like a terrible accident. And you’re going to tell us that the only thing you could think of was to dump the bodies.’
Barnes laughed, a loud artificial sound. ‘That is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.’
The lawyer pushed back his chair. ‘Right. That’s it. This is egregious. We’re not entertaining these speculations a minute longer.’
Carol leaned across. ‘Interview terminated at 10.57 p.m.’ She switched off the tapes.
‘It’s not speculation,’ Sam said, all geniality gone. ‘It’s cold, hard fact. We’re going to be looking, Nigel. We’re going to be turning over stones. Your life is going under the microscope. We’re going to be announcing our discovery tomorrow and Angela’s going to be talking to the press. She’s already lining up a whole team of former colleagues from Corton’s to talk about how pathetic Harry was. Virtually autistic, I hear. They’ll all be talking about how truly terrible Danuta’s life with you must have been if she preferred shacking up in a caravan park with Harry Sim to staying with you. Imagine. How shit must it have been for Harry to be the answer? And then there will be the speculation - did she really run off with Harry? Who could have put the bodies in the lake?’
Barnes stood up, his hands clenched by his side, his composure slipping like greasepaint under klieg lights. ‘You can’t do that.’
‘We won’t be doing it. What we’ll be doing is going round every single person in your life asking about you and Danuta. Your friends, your colleagues, your clients. Because you’re not that clever, Nigel. You’ve made this way too complicated. You should just have left them in the caravan with a dodgy heater. But no. You had to be Mr Clever Clogs,’ Sam said sarcastically.
Barnes made a lunge for Sam, but his lawyer bumped his side, setting him off balance. ‘You’ve got nothing on me,’ he shouted.
‘We will have,’ Sam said. ‘Because you’re really not that clever. And when stupid people try to be clever, they make mistakes.’ Hs turned to Carol. ‘Fourteen years ago, what was he driving? Something nice, I bet. BMW, Mercedes, that sort of thing. There’s got to be a good chance it’s still around. Those quality motors last.’
Carol pretended to think. ‘Credit-card receipts, Sam. He’ll have had to buy petrol somewhere. Chances are we’ll be able to track that down.’
‘Or we could just issue a statement to the press saying we’ve interviewed her husband and we’re not looking for anyone else in connection with the suspicious deaths of Danuta Barnes, Lynette Barnes and Harry Sim. I mean, if we’re not going to get a conviction, we might as well not bother wasting our time.’
‘Are you threatening my client?’ the lawyer said, too timid to give either Sam or Carol cause for concern.
‘How can telling the truth constitute a threat?’ Carol assumed her most innocent face. ‘Sam’s right. That’s the most efficient way to go. We’ve interviewed the husband - that’s you, Nigel, in case you’ve forgotten, with all these years intervening - and we’re not looking for anyone else.’ She shook Sam’s hand. ‘Sorted. Sometimes the court of public opinion is all you need.’
Barnes looked wildly at his lawyer. ‘You’ve got to stop this. It’s an outrage. It’s persecution.’
Sam knew there wasn’t much the lawyer could do or say. He and Carol had been careful not to overstep the mark. He let the silence hang heavy while Barnes ran his hands through his hair. Then, very quietly, he said, ‘Of course, if you were to admit to Plan B, none of this would have to happen.’
‘I think this is bordering on the inappropriate,’ the lawyer said weakly.
‘Why don’t DC Evans and I go have a cup of coffee so you can consider your options?’ Carol said, setting off for the door with Sam at her heels.
They said nothing till they were clear of the custody suite. Then Sam sank into a squat, his head in his hands. ‘I so wanted to nail him,’ he said, his voice muffled. ‘He’s a stone killer.’
‘I know. But I think he’ll go for disposal of the bodies and perverting the course of justice. Better to face the certainty of that than endure the knowledge that everywhere you go people are pointing the finger.’ Carol crouched beside him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. ‘It’s a result, Sam.’
‘No, it’s not. It’s about a quarter of a result.’
‘I hate it as much as you do. Always have. But sometimes you have to settle for less. It’s a closed case, Sam.’
He tilted his head back and sighed. ‘You’re always talking about how we speak for the dead. But sometimes we just don’t shout loud enough.’
CHAPTER 36
Carol recognised the buzz in the MIT squad room that morning. It was always like this when the team was teetering on the edge of a breakthrough. The phone call she’d taken from Paula late the night before had signalled a new phase in their investigation and she’d called them together for this seven o’clock briefing because nobody wanted to wait to get cracking. That Nigel Barnes had chosen to confess to the disposal of the bodies in Wastwater was just a bonus.
They assembled round the table, coffees in hand. At the very last minute, Tony walked in. ‘No show without Punch,’ he said cheerily, grabbing the nearest chair and dumping his papers in front of it. He looked around, feigning surprise. ‘I thought there was a new kid on the team?’
‘DS Parker has been unavoidably called back to the faculty,’ Carol said, glaring repressively at him. ‘So we’re stuck with you.’
‘Welcome back, Doc,’ Kevin said.
Carol cut across the general greeting. ‘If we can get down to business?’ They came to order and she began. ‘We have some movement to report. Paula, would you like to explain how that’s come about?’ Carol raised her eyebrows at Paula. She’d already made it clear that, while she welcomed the breakthrough, she didn’t appreciate Paula bringing an outsider into the middle of their confidential investigation.