If it was, Vogel considered, that policeman was going to get a rollicking for not reporting up the chain of command that he’d spoken to Patel’s ex-wife. Either that or he’d filed a report which hadn’t been properly passed on. Either way, somebody was in trouble, because the SIO had not been told. He had a feeling Maureen Patel was going to prove to be a very interesting witness. She would have been found in the end, of course, but it was only chance that he and Saslow had stumbled upon her so early in the investigation.
‘Why did you call your husband?’ he asked. ‘Were you worried about him because he didn’t turn up?’
‘No. Not a bit. I told you, Jason’s become unpredictable. Careless. It was because of the children, him letting them down, and not for the first time. They’re teenagers now, or very nearly, twelve and thirteen. They don’t admit it, either of them, but they get so upset. That’s why I called Jason. To give him a roasting, I suppose, but also to see if I could make him come over, even if he was going to be hours late. I had the shock of my life when that fella answered and told me Jason had been hurt badly enough to be on his way to hospital, I can tell you.’
‘Mrs Patel, you’ve indicated that your ex-husband’s business partnership with Thomas Quinn played a part in the break-up of your marriage,’ he continued. ‘Why was that?’
‘He changed. He was on edge all the time. He was hardly ever home. They used to go off clubbing, for God’s sake. Or that’s what Jason told me. And he’d come home with lipstick on his collar, that sort of thing. I never thought that was for real. I mean, it even sounds like something out of fiction. But he actually did come home with a lipstick smudge on his collar on more than one occasion. Although he always denied there was another woman. To begin with, I believed him. He’d always been a good husband before. And I’d always trusted him. But I didn’t understand what was happening. It wasn’t like Jason. Sometimes he behaved almost as if he were afraid of Thomas. If Thomas clicked his fingers, Jason jumped. That’s how it was from the beginning. Once or twice I thought drugs might be involved. But Jason denied that too.’
‘Did he offer any sort of explanation?’ asked Saslow.
‘He just said they had some big business deals going on, and he couldn’t think about anything else. It was all going to be over soon, then we’d reap the reward. But that never happened, of course. Things just got worse and worse.’
‘In what way?’ queried Saslow.
‘I said before. He wasn’t the man I married. There was a new hardness about him. If I told him how unhappy I was, he’d just get up and go out. And I never knew where he went, or when he’d be back. And then he started staying out all night. Without a word of explanation. Even when I told him I couldn’t stand it any more, that I wanted us to split up, that I no longer wanted to share my life with him, he just shrugged his shoulders and walked out the door. The kids could see what was happening, of course. Can’t they always? More than you, half the time. And they were getting affected by it all. Bad marks at school. Bad behaviour. Particularly our Jennifer, the thirteen-year-old. Girls grow up quicker than boys, don’t they? You can’t believe there’s only a year between them sometimes. Paul is still a little boy. Jennifer’s fast becoming a young woman. But she’s always been a proper Daddy’s girl. I could see it was breaking her heart.
‘One night we were watching telly and Invasion of the Body Snatchers came on. Paul said, “Do you think that’s what’s happened to Daddy, Mum? Has he been invaded by an alien?” We all had a laugh. And goodness knows we needed it. It was funny after all. But Paul had only been half joking. I really think it seemed to him like an alien had taken over his father and come to live with us.’
‘When did you split up, and was there an incident which brought things to a head?’ asked Vogel.
‘About eighteen months ago. There was nothing special. Just more of the same, really. Finally, one day I told Jason he had to go. I wanted him out. He didn’t argue. Barely said anything. Just went upstairs and came back down ten minutes later with a bag. The sort of bag you’d take on a week’s holiday, not something you’d even start to pack your belongings in if you were leaving home. Then he left. And he barely said goodbye. We got divorced as soon as possible after. He cooperated with everything.’
‘Where did he go?’
‘I found out that he’d gone straight to this flash new apartment overlooking the estuary, just outside Instow. It almost seemed as if he had it there waiting.’
‘So presumably he and Thomas Quinn were successful in their business venture, if he could afford an apartment like that as well as running the family home?’ Vogel continued. ‘Or were you doing that, Mrs Patel?’
‘No, I didn’t work. Not at all when Jason and I were together. He never wanted me to. He wasn’t a chauvinist. We both thought bringing up children was a full-time job. And I never needed to work. Or I didn’t think I did. But I always suspected that it was because of money that he set up the partnership with Thomas. Not that he ever consulted me about that either. And that wasn’t like him.’
‘Does he pay you maintenance for the children?’
‘Yes. Although come to think of it I noticed a couple of days ago that this month’s payment was overdue. I was going to ask him about it. He gave me the house too, by the way. Just signed it over. Didn’t bring in a solicitor or anything to argue the toss.’
‘Did that surprise you?’
‘Not really. That was more like the old Jason. Kind, and generous to a fault. There was a mortgage on it though, much bigger than I thought, but he’s carried on paying the instalments.’
‘Clearly you still care about him., Mrs Patel.’
‘Always. For the kids’ sake, if nothing else. But I have been driven to distraction. And now this... well! You know, it’s strange, but it seems almost inevitable that something horrendous was going to happen. And I tell you this, if Jason survives, and it looks like he’s going to, you lot needn’t worry about interviewing the truth out of him. I’m going to get the full story from him, if I have to stick a hot poker in his wounds.’
Vogel winced. Mrs Patel had used a very graphic turn of phrase. Vogel didn’t like the picture her words conjured up. Extreme violence, even in the abstract, always disturbed him. Vogel wasn’t sure whether that was a good or bad thing for a police officer with almost twenty-five years’ service behind him. He did know it was unusual.
‘He will tell me the truth now,’ continued Mrs Patel, in much the same vein. ‘He darned well will. Or he’ll end up wishing he had died in that shooting.’
Twenty-Six
The next few weeks were not easy for Lilian. But at least there were no further signs that she might be being watched. No more sightings of that black Range Rover. And Charlie’s continued cheery optimism about the outcome of her trial was reassuring.
One Sunday, in a bid to take their minds off all that lay ahead, Kate arranged a lunch party, inviting people from both her own and Lilian’s pasts. For Lilian it was a bittersweet experience. She found herself enjoying the occasion more than she had enjoyed anything in a very long time. But she was also reminded even more of the old days, of how her life had once been, and how cruelly different it had become.
Then, long before anybody wanted the gathering to end, Kate confessed that they’d run out of wine. She normally had it delivered. She must have forgotten to reorder.
Lilian, free at last of the plaster cast on her left ankle and able to walk quite well again, offered at once to be the one who would pop to the off-licence a couple of streets away. Kate and Charlie both expressed doubts. Lilian insisted. This small gesture of independence suddenly seemed very important to her. It was a salient moment, the first time she’d been out of Kate and Charlie’s home alone since her arrival there following her arrest.