“She just did things like that. She liked to be outrageous. She didn’t care what people thought. Besides, she wasn’t coming with us to the Bar None. Said she didn’t like the music.”
“Where was she going?”
“Dunno.”
“Okay, Stuart. You went into the Maze through the back exit of the Bar None shortly after you got there. Why?”
“I went to see if Hayley was okay.”
“You were worried about her? But you just told me you didn’t think she was in any danger, or had any reason to be.”
“Yeah, well, it just struck me that it’s dark down there and, you know, she might get lost or something.”
“And you wouldn’t? You know your way around the Maze, do you?”
“I didn’t really stop to think.”
“No. You just dashed out back to go and watch Hayley Daniels have a piss. Are you a pervert or something, Stuart?”
“No! I told you, it wasn’t like that at all. I wanted to… I wanted to see where she went.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? After she’d finished… you know… I wanted to see where she went. I didn’t do anything. Please. You have to believe me. I wouldn’t have hurt Hayley. Not for anything.”
“Were you in love with her?”
“I don’t know about love,” Kinsey said, “but I fancied her something rotten.”
At least that sounded honest, Banks thought. “Did Hayley know that?”
“It was pretty obvious.”
“What was her reaction?”
“Said we were friends. She blew hot and cold, did Hayley.”
“What was your reaction?”
“What do you mean?”
“She rejected you. How did you react?”
“It wasn’t like that!”
“Do you mean she accepted your advances? I’m confused.”
“I didn’t make any advances.”
“So how did she know you were interested?”
“We talked, like, we got on, you know, had stuff in common, bands and things, went to the pictures a couple of times. And there’s like an electricity between people, you know, you can feel it.”
“Did Hayley feel it, too?” Banks asked.
“I don’t suppose she did. At least she wouldn’t admit it. Hayley could be very distant. You never really knew where you stood with her. Like I said, hot and cold. She liked to be a part of the crowd, the party girl.”
“Center of attention?”
“Well, it wasn’t difficult for her. She was fit and she knew it. I mean, sometimes she got a bit rowdy, but it was just harmless fun. Sometimes I thought it was her way of, you know, keeping away any one particular person, being part of the group so you never really had to get close to someone, you could keep them at arm’s length. You’d get into a conversation with her, and then she’d say something, and before you knew it everyone would be involved and she was laughing at someone else’s joke. You couldn’t have her to yourself for very long.”
“That must have been very frustrating,” Banks said.
“You’re telling me.”
“So where did it lead?”
“Well, it didn’t lead anywhere, really. I didn’t sleep with her or anything. Just snogging and stuff. Sometimes I got the impression recently that she… no, it doesn’t matter.”
“It might, Stuart,” said Banks. “Let me be the judge.”
Kinsey paused and chewed on his fingernail. “Can I have a cup of tea or something?” he asked. “I’m thirsty.”
“Of course.” Not wanting to interrupt the rhythm of the interview, Banks signaled to Winsome, who got up and asked the constable outside the door to rustle up some tea.
“Won’t be long,” Banks said to Kinsey. “Now, Stuart, you were going to tell me about that impression you had.”
“Well, you know, it was just a sort of vague idea, like.”
“Even so…”
“Sometimes I thought maybe she’d got a bloke.”
“When did this start?”
“Couple of months ago. Around then.”
“Any idea who this bloke was? One of the others in the group?”
“No. Someone she was keeping secret.” He leaned forward on the table. “You see, that’s what I meant when I said I was in the Maze because I wanted to see where she went. I was going to follow her, find out who the mystery bloke was.”
“But you didn’t see her?”
“No. I thought she must have already gone. I mean, it was a good five minutes or so after we left her that I went in. It doesn’t take that long to… you know.”
“Right,” said Banks. Hayley had been sick, he remembered Dr. Burns telling him, which would have kept her there longer. “Did you see or hear anything while you were in there?”
“I… I thought I heard a door bang shut and a sort of… not a scream, but a muffled sort of cry. You don’t think it could have been her, do you? It creeped me out, I have to tell you.”
“What time was this?”
“Just after I went in. I wasn’t really aware of the time, but I suppose it was around twenty-five past, something like that.”
Just five minutes after Hayley herself had entered the Maze, Banks thought. “Did you see anyone?”
“No, nothing.”
“What did you do when you heard the noise? Is that why you were running?”
Kinsey nodded and studied the scratched table. “I got out of there pretty damn quickly,” he said. “I figured she must have finished before I got there and left already. You don’t really think it was her I heard, do you? Maybe I could have saved her, but I got scared. Oh, God…” Kinsey put his head in his hands and started crying.
Banks was almost certain that it was Hayley whom Kinsey had heard, but he wasn’t going to tell him that. His own imagination would torture him more than enough as it was. At least the time of the attack could be fixed more accurately now. Hayley’s killer had grabbed her about five minutes after she had gone into the Maze, just after she had been sick and finished what she had gone there to do. Perhaps watching her had excited and inflamed him.
The timing made perfect sense, of course. Hayley would hardly have been hanging around there unless she had made an assignation. Again, what Kinsey had said about the mystery boyfriend came back to Banks. Maybe she had made a date with him? Maybe that was who had killed her? But why arrange to meet him in the Maze if she was going to spend the night with him? It would make far more sense to go to his flat or wherever he lived. And why would a boyfriend resort to rape, or murder? Such things did happen, Banks knew. Not long ago, West Yorkshire police had arrested a man who regularly drugged and raped three girlfriends who would all have been perfectly happy to have consensual sex with him. Nothing much surprised Banks these days when it came to sexual deviance.
Hayley had carried condoms in her handbag, so she was obviously sexually active. Perhaps Stuart Kinsey had killed her, out of frustration, or out of jealousy. They were powerful emotions, as Banks knew from previous cases. Under the sway of jealousy, a man or a woman was capable of almost anything.
The tea arrived and Kinsey calmed down. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just couldn’t bear the thought that I might have been able to do something, but I ran away.”
“You didn’t know what was happening,” Banks said. It wasn’t much consolation, but it was some. He leaned forward. “I’m very interested in this idea of yours about Hayley having a secret boyfriend,” he went on. “Any ideas who it might be or why she might keep him a secret?”
6
It’s good to see you again, Alan,” said Annie early on Tuesday afternoon in the Horse and Hounds, a tiny, quiet pub off the market square where you could get a decent salad and enjoy a pint without Detective Superintendent Catherine Gervaise finding out about it. There was a tiny windowless nonsmoking bar, all dark gleaming wood and plush red velveteen, with old hunting prints on the wall — at least it was still legal to depict scenes of foxhunting — where it seemed that nobody ever sat. You had to go to the main bar to get drinks, but other than that, it was the ideal place for a private meeting.