Vanda North said, ‘I made a pot of tea when I saw you reversing the car into the drive. You need some compensation for having to work on a Sunday afternoon.’ There were biscuits which looked home-made on a china plate beside the teapot. Vanda North did not look to Bert Hook like the sort of lady who made her own biscuits, and Bert was something of an expert on such things. Probably, though, a lady with good taste, who knew where to get the best things in life. Her fair hair was short and expertly cut. Her blue eyes, above a nose which was just a little too prominent, were observant, despite her conventional phrases. He had no doubt that she was measuring them as intensely as they were assessing her.
He flicked open his notebook and retreated into the conventional first question. ‘How long had you known Mr Beaumont, Ms North?’
‘I use Miss. I find the Ms clumsy to pronounce and tiresome to operate. I’d known Martin for just over fourteen years in all.’
Lambert took over the questioning as Hook made his first note. ‘Then obviously you knew him very well. Would you say you were a friend of his as well as a working colleague?’
She smiled at him with her head a little on one side, apparently not at all disturbed to be questioned by the chief superintendent in charge of a murder enquiry. ‘I would, yes. But there’s something you should be aware of from the start. I knew Martin better than most people. I was his mistress for several years.’
She looked at him to see how her little bombshell would be received, but she could not tell from his reactions whether he had already known it. Probably he had, she thought; it was their business to find out such things and someone would surely have told them about it, even though Jane said she hadn’t mentioned it when she’d spoken to the police. It was strange how she now thought of the Mrs Beaumont she had feared to meet as Jane and a friend. Life was very unpredictable.
Lambert’s long, grave face told her nothing. He said, ‘Thank you for being so frank, Miss North. Obviously honesty is helpful to us. The people we talk to normally find that complete openness is the best policy for them too. How long ago did this close relationship end?’
She smiled at his use of that anodyne phrase. ‘You mean when did I stop going to bed with Martin? Eight years ago now. When I was past forty and he decided that I was getting a little long in the tooth. Men like young flesh between the sheets, when they can get it, don’t they?’ She heard her bitterness come out in the question. Before they arrived she had been determined to be cool and detached, so as to distance herself from this killing. That hadn’t lasted very long — perhaps it was something to do with Lambert’s congratulating her on her honesty. She had better treat this man with his reputation as the Great Detective with due care, if she was not to make herself even more of a suspect.
‘You’re telling us that Mr Beaumont had other women, which confirms what others have suggested. Was there someone particularly close to him at the time of his death?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve made it my business over the last few years to know as little as possible of his private life. It seemed the best policy once I had recognized that our affair was over and that I had been no more than one of a series of bits on the side for Martin over the years.’ She heard again the asperity she had been resolved to conceal. ‘Incidentally, I have no wish to emerge to you as an expert on sexual matters. I did not take Martin into my bed casually, and it is not in my nature to flit from one man to another.’
‘Thank you, but it is no part of our brief to take moral stances in these things. We need the facts, but in the main we confine ourselves to those.’
‘Of course you do. But it was also no part of my brief to come over to you as a high-class tart.’
She grimaced a little on her last phrase, and Lambert felt a sudden sympathy for the spirit and courage of the woman. He said quietly, ‘I’m surprised you stayed around to work with Mr Beaumont over the last few years, in view of the circumstances.’
He was studiously polite, but he wasn’t going to let her get away with anything. Vanda found herself warming unexpectedly to this grave-faced opponent, enjoying the excitement of the contest a little despite herself. ‘You’re asking the question I’ve asked myself a few times over the years, though not recently. There are practical considerations, Chief Superintendent. All my capital is tied up in Abbey Vineyards. It was in my interests to see that the company succeeded, as Martin was often pleased to remind me. Over the last few years, the development and the management of residential accommodation at the vineyard has been in my hands, and we have been very successful.’
‘Nevertheless, there must have been a time eight years ago when you felt like withdrawing your investment and leaving Beaumont to it.’
She gave him that knowing smile again, partly to conceal her irritation at his probing of this area and partly out of respect for his intelligence in fastening upon it. ‘There were indeed. There are two reasons why I am still around at Abbey Vineyards. The first is that Martin had tied things up legally so that it proved very difficult for me to withdraw my capital from his company. I only have about a fifth of what he has invested in the company, and my junior partnership was drawn up very much on his terms. I could not withdraw my funds, or even sell on my share in the company to someone else, without his permission. I do not need anyone now to tell me that these are very foolish terms to accept. I signed all the agreements when I was completely infatuated with Martin, in the early stages of our relationship. I trusted him to look after my interests. He took very good care to look after his own.’
‘You’ve investigated the possibilities of withdrawal?’
‘Indeed I have. The latest occasion was only last month. The lawyers tut-tutted and told me as lawyers delight in doing that I should never have signed such documents without their expert advice. The legal expertise was all Martin’s; the stupidity in trusting him to safeguard my interests was all mine. That left me in a situation where I couldn’t afford to take on a legal case with no guarantee of success and with Martin able to employ the best lawyers. It was his habit to ensure that he had the big artillery on his side. He was usually at pains to let his opponents know that.’
Lambert let her bitterness hang in the quiet, low-ceilinged room like a tangible thing, making sure that all three of them appreciated the strength of her motive to murder. It was Hook who eventually looked up from his notes and reminded her, ‘You said there were two reasons why you had continued to work with Martin Beaumont. What was the second one, Miss North?’
Vanda measured her reply carefully. It was important to her that she should convince them of this. ‘I do not think I am without ability, but I have no formal qualifications to speak of, other than a secretarial diploma acquired a long time ago in another life.’ She was silent for a moment, as if contemplating the person she had been in those vanished years. ‘I have enjoyed developing the residential wing at Abbey Vineyards. I think I have a skill in recognizing what the people who stay with us want and how much they are prepared to pay for it. I enjoy managing the staff involved, who are even more vital to success in residential work than in other fields, and I think they are happy with the way I handle things. To use a phrase that now seems to be overworked, I have job satisfaction. I also have a generous salary, which I could certainly not command if I moved away from the company. So long as he remained in control of things, Martin always recognized efficiency and was prepared to pay for it. I think the other senior staff at Abbey Vineyards would agree with that.’
Hook nodded, then without any change in his quiet tone, asked, ‘Where were you last Wednesday night. Miss North?’
She smiled as she set her cup and saucer back on the tray, as if it were important to show them how unruffled she was at this key point. ‘I expected you to ask that, of course I did. I am not the only one with a motive, but I clearly stand to gain by having Martin out of the way. There would be a better chance of withdrawing my stake in the firm, if I wished to. The irony is that with Martin off the scene I may not wish to do that.’ She looked from Hook’s reassuringly ordinary face into the intense grey eyes of Lambert. ‘The answer to your question is embarrassing. No, not embarrassing — I’ll change that to surprising. I was with Jane Beaumont. The woman I had gravely wronged during the years when I was Martin’s mistress.’