‘According to my notes, you’ve been on holiday?’
She was almost past him, following a line of roses away from her front door. ‘If you know that, then you know I couldn’t possibly know anything about the fire. And she’s scarcely my neighbour. There is another property separating hers from mine.’
‘I understand that,’ Sutton said, hurrying along beside her. He didn’t like the woman. Clipped voice, born-to-rule manner, an air of impatience and indifference. ‘But I do need to ask you how well you knew Clara Macris.’
‘I didn’t know her at all.’
‘You never talked to her? Visited her?’
‘Certainly not.’
‘Did she ever visit you?’
‘Good heavens, no. Look, all of my mail is being held for me at the post office. I got in late last night and have a lot to do. If you don’t mind, I’d like-’
‘Do you know who her friends were?’
Sutton was asking questions on the run, now, following Stella Riggs around to the side of the house, where she pointed a remote control at the lock-up garage. The door slid open, revealing a white Mercedes.
‘How should I know who her friends were? Nothing to do with me.’
‘Recent visitors, regular visitors, strangers, nothing like that?’
‘There’s her boyfriend. At least, I’m assuming it was her boyfriend. His car was always there.’
‘Boyfriend,’ Sutton said.
‘One of your lot. A policeman. In a police car. Always there. Tall, gloomy-looking fellow. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot to do.’
Sutton returned to the car. He muttered, as Pam Murphy started the engine, ‘There’s a prize cow.’
‘Sit down, Sergeant,’ Challis said, one hour later.
But van Alphen continued to stand, and first he gazed grimly at Challis, then at Scobie Sutton, and finally at Senior Sergeant Kellock. He pointed at Kellock. ‘What’s he doing here?’
Kellock cleared his throat. ‘I’m representing the interests of the uniformed branch, Sergeant.’
‘Bullshit. You’re here because you’re pissed off that I questioned your decision on Bastian, you and McQuarrie, and you’re hoping to see me sink.’
Sutton said, ‘Van, why don’t you just sit?’
Fatigue had sharpened the planes of van Alphen’s face. Not for the first time, Sutton was struck by van Alphen’s resemblance to Challis. They were lean, hard-working men driven by private demons. As though aware that the greater challenge came from Challis, van Alphen sat, finally, and squarely faced the inspector across the desk.
Challis said, ‘You claimed just now that the Senior Sergeant hoped to see you sink. Are you expecting to sink? Is there anything you wish to tell us?’
‘I’m not stupid, sir.’
‘Nobody suggested you were.’
‘I’m as tuned in to canteen gossip as anyone, even when it’s about me. You think I killed Clara Macris.’
Challis said, ‘Do we?’
Van Alphen folded his arms. He sat rock still and apparently filled with contempt. It was contempt for a police force that didn’t protect its own, Sutton decided, and not aimed at Challis in particular. ‘Van, we need to know more about your relationship with the dead woman,’ he said.
Van Alphen’s narrow head swung slowly around until they were staring at each other. No wonder the locals hate him, Sutton thought.
‘What relationship, Constable?’
Fine, Sutton thought, if that’s the way you want to play it, I’ll drop ‘Van’ and call you by your name and rank. ‘Sergeant van Alphen, we have a witness who saw a police car at Clara Macris’s house on a number of occasions. We’ve checked the vehicle logs and duty rosters. You often signed a car out.’
‘Really. Is that a fact?’
Challis stepped in. ‘You investigated the woman’s mailbox fire, is that correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘You made follow-up visits to her?’
‘I may have done.’
‘Either you did or you didn’t. It wasn’t that long ago.’
‘She was badly shaken up.’
‘And you went around and gave her a cuddle, hoping she’d come across for you,’ Kellock put in.
Challis darkened. ‘Senior Sergeant, please leave the room.’
‘I have a right to be here, Inspector.’
Challis was clipped and dismissive. ‘No you don’t. This is a murder investigation. Constable Sutton and I investigate murders. You don’t.’
‘This is my station.’
Challis slapped his hand on the desk and shouted, ‘And this is my investigation. Now get out.’
Kellock stood slowly, massively, and with feigned good grace left the room.
Challis grinned. After a while, van Alphen allowed himself a wintry smile.
‘Clara Macris was a user,’ Challis said. ‘According to the toxicology report on her body.’
‘I thought she might have been.’
Challis nodded. ‘But that’s all we know about her. And it’s one aspect of her that must have led her into contact with other people.’
Van Alphen shrugged. ‘I guess so.’
‘Do you know who was supplying her?’
‘No.’
‘What did she tell you about herself?’
‘Nothing much.’
‘Did you like her?’ Sutton asked suddenly.
Van Alphen blinked. ‘Yes.’
‘Is that why you kept going back to see her?’
Van Alphen said irritably, ‘I didn’t keep going back to see her at all. I may have dropped in a couple of times.’
‘Did you have sex with her?’
‘No.’
‘Did you want to?’
‘Oh, so that’s why I killed her. I wanted a fuck, she didn’t, so I killed her.’
‘Well, is that what happened?’
‘No. I mean, no, I didn’t kill her.’
Challis had been watching this, leaning back, his right foot resting on his left knee, tapping a pen against his teeth. He straightened again. ‘What did you talk about?’
‘Nothing much.’
‘She didn’t tell you about her private life?’
‘No.’
‘What about your old cases, Van?’
Van Alphen frowned. ‘My what?’
‘You’re not very popular. Has anyone threatened you? Been following you? Could someone have wanted to kill your girlfriend to get back at you?’
‘She wasn’t my girlfriend. No-one was following me.’
‘Come on, Sergeant, we’re offering you a lifeline here. You were sleeping with her, weren’t you?’
‘No.’
‘Were you supplying her with drugs?’
‘Was I what?’
‘You heard. She had a habit. She told you she’d sleep with you if you supplied her with drugs.’
‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’
Now, you shouldn’t have chosen those words, Sutton said to himself. They don’t ring true. He decided to push it. ‘Where did you get the drugs? The evidence locker?’
‘It seems,’ van Alphen said, looking at the ceiling, ‘that I should have a lawyer present.’
‘Or did you rip off a dealer? Is that how you kept her supplied?’
‘You’re making an awfully big leap from my visiting her a couple of times on official business to my supplying her with drugs in order to sleep with her.’
‘More than a couple of visits,’ Challis snapped. ‘Your car was seen there several times, by several of the residents of Quarterhorse Lane.’
Van Alphen muttered something sullenly.
‘Speak up, Van.’
‘I said, she thought someone was after her.’
The tension ebbed from the room. Challis said gently, ‘Were you sleeping with her?’
‘Yes.’
‘What did she tell you about herself?’
‘Almost nothing. She came from New Zealand, I suspected she was a user, and that’s about it.’
‘Who did she think was after her?’
‘She didn’t, wouldn’t, say.’
‘What led her to think someone was after her?’
‘She thought the mailbox business was a warning.’
‘You told her about the other mailboxes?’
‘Yes. I think I convinced her, but in general she was pretty agitated. The abductions didn’t help. She told me she thought it was a smokescreen, that she was the intended victim and it was just a matter of time.’
‘You must have formed an opinion of her, Van,’ Sutton said. ‘Who she was, whether or not she was hiding anything.’