“That’s different. I’m old. It’s natural for an old woman to be on her own. At least that’s one thing nature got right — it’s always the men who die first. You were married once, weren’t you?”
“How do you know that?” Taylor was shocked.
“You used to wear a wedding ring — until quite recently, if I’m not mistaken. You can still see where it used to be.”
Taylor looked at her ring finger. Alice was right. There was a slight white stripe where the wedding ring had been.
“You should be a detective,” she said.
“You tend to become more observant as you get older. You’re a bit more worldly-wise. What happened? With your husband, I mean.”
“He died.” The words startled her. She had hardly spoken about her husband since her arrival in Cornwall.
“I’m sorry,” Alice said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
“It was a car crash last November. He was killed instantly.” It was curiously easy to talk to the old beekeeper.
“You poor thing. And that’s why you came here? To get away from everything?”
“Yes.”
“There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Isn’t it always, where men are concerned? Did you know that Milly carried on wearing her wedding ring long after her husband passed away? It’s probably something you youngsters wouldn’t understand. Marriage was sacred in those days.”
“He wasn’t alone in the car.” Taylor was starting to get angry. “There was a woman with him. Danny worked for a property developer in the city. The woman was a client of his. And if you believe that they just happened to be checking out a place that late at night, you’ll believe anything.”
Alice stood up and put her hand on Taylor’s shoulder for a minute without saying anything.
“I’m over it,” Taylor said, “I’ve moved on. I just had to get as far away from Edinburgh as possible. I like it here.”
“Men,” Alice mused, “they’re all the same deep down. Weak, that’s what they are. That’s just the way it is. My Stanley promised me the earth and never failed to let me down.”
“I’d better get going,” Taylor said abruptly. “I don’t even know why I told you all of this — I’ve never really spoken to anybody about it before.”
“And what you’ve told me will stay within these four walls. It doesn’t do you any good to keep it bottled up. The first time Stanley buggered off, I was in tatters. Milly had to try and put me back together again. As the years went by I soon developed a thick skin. It’s what we women do. Don’t give up, though. There are still a few good ones out there. Take old Eddie Sedgwick next door for example. He may be an old gossip, but he has a good heart. No, don’t give up.”
“When was the last time you saw your husband?” Taylor asked.
“Ten years ago, thereabouts.”
“He was seen in Trotterdown last week,” Taylor told her.
“Who said that?” Alice sounded rather sharp.
“A man in the Old Boar. Albarn. That was his name.”
“Dennis Albarn?” Alice shook her head. “Good-for-nothing criminal. He was Stanley’s best man. He’s done time, you know.”
“So I heard.”
“It figures. Stanley would rather come and see his low-life friend than me. Probably for the best, anyway.”
“I really ought to be going.” Taylor stood up. “If you think of anything else that might be useful about Peter Sugden, give me a ring. You still have my number, don’t you?”
“Of course. It’s on the fridge with all the other important numbers.”
“And thank you for listening to my babbling,” Taylor added. “Like I said, I haven’t really talked about it before.”
“Look at us,” Alice said, “what a pair we make. Two women sifting through the wreckage left by our awful husbands.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
When Taylor got back to the station, DI Killian was nowhere to be seen. She went to the office she shared with DS Duncan, sat behind her desk and turned on her computer. While she waited for it to boot up, she thought about what she had told Alice Green.
She wondered why she’d opened up to the old woman.
She clicked on her emails and sighed when she saw the address on the first one. It was from the law firm that had represented her husband’s estate. The whole experience had been relatively painless — Danny’s will had been quite straightforward — and it was supposed to be all over.
What do they want now? I paid all the fees in full. She paused for a moment and opened up the email, which said only: ‘Please see attached’.
Taylor opened the attachment and read it twice in disbelief. It was a letter from the company Danny had worked for. The deal that Danny had been working on before he died had finally been completed. Taylor, as sole heir to Daniel Taylor’s estate, was due the commission Danny had made on the deal. After the legal costs, she stood to get almost £14,000.
“Fourteen thousand,” she said out loud. Just for the moment, she wasn’t even sure if she wanted the money. She’d deal with it later. It was too much to think about at the moment.
She scanned her other emails. Apart from the forensic report from Milly Lancaster’s car, there was nothing of interest. She printed the report and placed it in a plastic file. DS Duncan entered the room and sat down at his desk. He was sweating heavily.
“How can they expect us to work in this sauna?” He wiped his head with a handkerchief. “We need air con in here.”
“It’s not that bad,” Taylor said. “We used to freeze to death in Edinburgh, summer and winter.”
“How did the interview with Sugden go?”
“He says he didn’t do it.”
“Of course he does. They all say that. I’d have got him to spill the beans. I don’t know why Killian insisted on having you in there.”
“Where is the DI? Still at the hospital?”
“His wife’s taken a turn for the worse. I hate to say it but it could be for the best.”
“Why would you say that?”
“She’s in for an infection, but her main problem’s Alzheimer’s. One of those types you get really young. She’s in the advanced stages, I’m afraid.”
“I didn’t know.”
“He doesn’t shout about it, but he was even thinking of taking early retirement at one stage so he could look after her. She wasn’t having any of it. She managed to persuade him to hire a full-time carer instead. It’s a horrible disease.”
“The poor man. I’m so sorry. D’you think one of us should be at the hospital with him?”
“He wouldn’t thank us. Best thing we can do for Jack is to crack on with this investigation.”
“I don’t know what to make of it. I can’t find any reason why Peter Sugden would want to kill Milly Lancaster.”
“Bugger the motive, we’ve got evidence. That’s enough for me.”
“Hmm.” She changed the subject. “Is there any more news on that body the fisherman picked up this morning?”
“Nothing. They might find out something from dental records but that’ll probably take some time. I wouldn’t even bother, to be honest. It’s just a poor bastard who happened to run into a hungry shark.”
“It wasn’t a shark.”
“And you’re suddenly an expert on shark attacks too, are you? Haven’t you got work to do? In case you’ve forgotten, I’m your superior officer, especially with Killian otherwise engaged. We’ve got two days to get Sugden to crack before we have to let him go. Let’s get on with it.”