‘Spence blustered about having a brain snap,’ added Mike. ‘Visited the store intending to check Lou out, then bottled it. Megan apparently had no idea he’d ever been there.’
Every time Dana was preparing to concede that Megan had no part to play, something cropped up that put her somewhere near the frame.
‘What’s your take, Mikey?’
‘I think, reluctantly, he might be telling the truth. His fingerprint was there, but partially smudged with another from a store employee, which supports his claim that his visit was last week, and not this morning. Megan’s surprise seemed genuine: I think she’d made it clear Spence wasn’t to do that, and, uh, his job was to agree and obey.’ Mike shook his head. ‘That’s how I see their dynamic, too, by the way. He’s more educated, but she’s smarter. He’s older, but she holds the reins.’
‘Yes, that tallies with everything I’ve seen and heard so far. She has – had – two equally grateful men in her life: now she has the one she apparently wants. Yet, so far, I can’t see the whole jealousy motive quite sticking.’
Dana was suddenly hungry. Adrenaline made her feel over-caffeinated and shaky. She indicated the stairs towards the canteen. As they ascended, Lucy updated Dana about the smart meter and what it might mean. Dana cursed herself for not mentioning it at the briefing – it had taken Spencer’s alibi claim for it to resurface. Another slip that others had thankfully caught. Another indication that the Day was stealing her professional expertise. She’d spent longer, she calculated, vomiting behind a building than she had thinking about the smart meter as an alibi.
‘Jeez, I’m hopeless today, Luce. Megan mentioned that this morning. Ages ago. I should have told you, even if I didn’t share at the briefing. We could be hours into that if I’d concentrated.’
Lucy waved a hand. ‘Ah, I’m a woman ahead of her time. So I’ve caught us up. No harm, no foul. Besides, I’m not happy with it,’ Lucy continued. ‘It looks like it’s providing an alibi but it’s possible to fool it.’
They paused at the top floor, Dana out of breath and tweaking her kneecap. ‘I hear you. So, as an alibi, it’s weak. In which case, the other evidence becomes more weighty. We need full value on the will and the other paperwork. At least that might help us decide if they had enough motive.’
Dana’s phone went: Rainer. Mike mimed swilling coffee and went ahead. Lucy skulked on the landing while Dana took the call.
‘Uh huh, okay. Good, that’s one less thing to worry about. And definitely not last night? Right, right. Yes, start on that. Hospital records, too. There’s something there, I’m sure of it. Danke.’
‘So international right now,’ Lucy grinned. ‘Spanish and German on the same day?’
‘I’m a global village. Rainer found the red-hair source for Lou’s sleeping bag. One of the girls who works shifts at Jensen’s. Uses the store as a rendezvous because her parents consider her boyfriend a bad influence. Apparently, the alarm code is so widely known it’s useless. But the redhead wasn’t there last night – at a concert interstate and definitely got back this morning.’
Lucy folded her arms and tapped one foot against the other. ‘So no evidence Lou was cheating?’
‘Absolutely zero. Which makes me feel pretty crappy now. I jumped into suspecting him because he’s not as good-looking as his wife. Clearly, being the cuter of the two should have made her more likely to be the cheater.’
There was something underpinning Dana’s comment. Lucy thought of pursuing it but bit her tongue and instead said, ‘Rainer was smart about it. There were three redheads on the employee list I gave him. He rang Forensics and double-checked if the red hair was natural or dyed, then tried the youngest first, because she had the pale skin and freckles to go with it. He’s a bright spark.’
‘He is,’ replied Dana as they came through the canteen doors. ‘Might be able to find him a secondment, or something.’
Dana’s mind was still on the potential to fake alibis. It meant she couldn’t drop Megan or Spencer Lynch as suspects. Like Mike, she hadn’t fully appreciated what technology could do to place people at particular times and locations. The public sometimes seemed to imagine the police had an infinite array of databases that placed everyone to the minute and to the millimetre: the curse of television, she presumed. They forgot that the police had no such thing; and that even if they did the data might be unreliable, insufficient, out of date, manipulated or contradictory. In short, it would need checking out.
All the same, the smart meter appeared to Dana to be a viable resource. But Lucy was adamant that the smart meter was as much a red herring as proof: it could provide false assurance without the data itself being doctored.
The cloud was now low and glowering, threatening heavy rain later in the day. Dana’s knee felt better for the walk, despite the stairs. She checked she still had the nebuliser in her pocket.
They grabbed a table by the window. The canteen had once been split into a highly civilised senior officers’ lounge, and a scrappy set of tables and chairs for the grunts. Bill had the divide ripped out in his first week, cementing his reputation as Billy Win-Win. Now they all shared the scratchy plastic chairs, smeared cutlery and wobbly tables. One wall was lined with the photos of fallen comrades, another with posters for an upcoming three-legged race for charity. From the sublime, to ridiculous.
The canteen was on the third floor, high enough to see beyond the outbuildings and most treetops to the horizon. In the west the stacks of the smelter punched the skyline. At night, they took on a science-fiction hue; all hulking metal, warning lights and billowing vapour. By day, even from this distance, they looked like rusty, clattering steam-punk: a relic from another era.
‘How’re you holding up?’
Lucy managed to look at Dana without staring or demonstrating pity.
‘Uh, hangin’ on grimly. Like most days.’ Dana puffed her cheeks. ‘Well, not great, as you can imagine, but I haven’t got long to get through now. Break it down into bite-size pieces, I guess. Thanks for asking. I’m all right. Really.’
In truth, all the decay was taking place under the surface, like a rivet below a ship’s waterline. Everything in daylight looked okay; normal and survivable, somehow. In the deep, it was dark and everything was unravelling.
Lucy took off her shoe and massaged a heel. ‘The interview with Whittler. We only caught the second half of it, of course, but I don’t think that went entirely as you planned.’
‘No, I was braced for more conflict than I got. Not sure if I’m happy with that or not. There’s something big behind the dam, waiting to burst it. I’d rather Whittler was letting the water out a bit at a time.’
‘Did he give in after you told him we’d found the cave? I was expecting a battle royal.’
Dana nodded, angry at herself for misjudging the strategy so badly. ‘So was I. So was Bill, for that matter. We mis-calibrated. In fact, we were way off.’
She paused, sifting through the recollection in her mind.
‘When he acquiesced so quickly it threw me off balance. I had to give too much of myself to get the information I did get: that’s a bad long-term tactic for me. We’re still on the edge here, Luce: he could shut up – or lawyer up – and I don’t think we have a lot of options if he does. So I have to be right, all the time. But Whittler did shout at me, which he hasn’t done before. Or, sort of at me. Shouted at his feet. But all his anger seemed to last about three minutes.’
‘Why?’
Dana glanced at Lucy and smiled wearily. ‘Why did I get it wrong? Ha, I get things wrong all day.’