‘I was just thinking,’ said Jude, ‘back to October the third, you know, the Saturday when you served Amos Green in Polly’s Cake Shop …?’
‘Yes, I wondered when you were going to get on to that.’
‘Well, I was wondering, that evening after work, when you came back here, did you watch the sea out of your bedroom window?’
‘Course I did. I do that every night. Much more interesting than anything I’ve ever seen on the telly. That’s why I don’t have a telly.’
‘But you can only see during daylight?’ asked Carole. ‘Presumably once it gets dark, you can’t see anything other than the lights?’
‘You can see most of what goes on inshore and, you know, round the estuary. There’s quite a lot of light spillage from the streetlamps along the Parade. They don’t get turned off until eleven.’
‘But that particular evening,’ Jude went on, ‘did you see anything strange?’
‘What kind of strange?’
‘Anyone out there in a small boat …’ Jude hazarded, ‘you know, a dinghy, probably rowing it?’
Binnie grinned complacently. ‘Yes, I did see someone.’
‘Do you know who it was?’
She shook her head. ‘Too dark to see that.’
‘Or how many people were in the boat?’
Another shake of the head.
‘But did you recognize the actual boat?’
‘Oh yes. I know who owns all the boats in Fethering.’
Jude couldn’t wait. ‘And was it,’ she asked, ‘the blue-painted rowing boat that belongs to Quintus Braithwaite?’
‘Oh no,’ replied Binnie. ‘It came from much closer than that.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It was an inflatable. A silver rubber dinghy. The one Kent Warboys keeps at the end of his garden.’
TWENTY-SEVEN
Both Carole and Jude looked flabbergasted. ‘So what do you reckon they were doing in the boat?’ asked Jude breathlessly.
‘Well, as I say, I couldn’t see.’ Binnie Swales was clearly enjoying her moment in the spotlight. ‘But, piecing it together, working from the available information …’ Was she actually sending up their roles as amateur sleuths? ‘… one might conclude that the boat was being used to dispose of the body of Amos Green.’
‘Why do you say that? How do you know he was dead?’
‘You two found his dead body on the beach, didn’t you? He was certainly dead then.’
‘Yes, but that was about three weeks later. How did you know he was dead on the evening of the third of October?’
‘Well, I’d seen him dead, hadn’t I?’
‘You mean you saw him being killed?’
‘No, Carole, I didn’t say that, did I? Listen to what I say. I said I saw him dead.’
‘Yes.’
‘Which means just that. I saw him dead.’
‘Earlier that evening?’ asked Jude.
‘Yes.’
‘Did you see him in the store room at Polly’s?’
Binnie nodded. ‘It was after closing time. I’d said goodbye to Sara, who was the only other member of staff still there. Hammo and the rest had gone home. Then Sara went to take some rubbish out to the recycling bins at the back and I suddenly remembered we were nearly out of doilies for the cake stands. So I thought I’d just check we’d got some in the store room and, if we hadn’t, I’d write them down on the “To Buy” list in the kitchen.
‘So I went into the store room.’ She was silent, pacing her narrative.
‘And?’ demanded Carole.
‘And I saw the body of the man who I’d served with an Americano that afternoon.’
‘He was dead?’
‘Definitely. There was a hole in his temple. Very little blood.’
‘Any sign of a gun?’ asked Jude.
‘One on the window sill. And no, there was no way he could have shot himself there and then fallen across the room. He was too far away from the gun. Someone else shot him, that’s for definite.’
There was a long, bewildered silence at the end of this narrative.
Then Carole said, ‘Binnie, have you told anyone else about what you saw?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Nobody asked.’
TWENTY-EIGHT
They didn’t get much more out of Binnie. Not that she was unwilling to speak, she just didn’t have much more to tell them. She had seen the body in the store room, closed the door and gone home. She had never even contemplated informing the police. ‘I thought somebody else’d find the body soon enough, no point in me getting myself involved. And I do remember from the days when I used to watch crime series on the telly that the person who discovers the body is always the first suspect, and I could do without all that hassle of questioning and what-have-you.’
‘But didn’t you find it odd,’ Carole had asked, ‘when there was nothing in the media about the body being found in Polly’s?’
Binnie had shrugged. ‘Yes. But it wasn’t my business.’
‘And thinking of who might have killed Amos Green – did you reckon that was your business?’
‘Some things it’s best not to get involved in.’
‘So …’ Jude had asked, ‘you really haven’t any suspicions at all as to who might be the murderer?’
‘Not really, no.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Just that the last thing the dead man did, you know, when I gave him the bill for his coffee, was to ask if Josie Achter was around.’
‘And you told him that she was in Brighton for the day.’
‘Yes, because that’s what I’d been told. But presumably she came back from Brighton at some stage.’
In a way they had both known that there would come a moment when the investigation was bound to point towards Josie Achter. Like roads and Rome, everything seemed to lead back to her.
They had no contact number. She was still either in her hotel in Hove or, if the sale had gone through, in her new flat. Carole and Jude had no idea what either of those addresses were. And Rosalie had very firmly told Jude that her mother didn’t want her new mobile number given out.
They racked their brains for ways to get in touch with her. Since Josie had mentioned being a part of the Jewish community in Hove, Carole wondered whether they should try contacting the synagogue there. Surely they’d have contact lists for their congregation?
Then Jude remembered something that had been said at the EGM when Kent Warboys announced that he was the owner of Polly’s Cake Shop.
‘What, you think he’d have a number for Josie Achter?’
‘I should think he probably would.’
‘Well, we’re going to have to contact him at some point.’ Carole grimaced. ‘To ask him about the use of his rubber dinghy on the night Amos Green’s body disappeared.’
‘Yes, but I don’t want to do that yet. Not until we’ve got more information about that evening.’
‘Very well, but why are you—’
‘At that EGM, Kent said the SPCS Action Committee Treasurer had sat in on a couple of his meetings with Josie Achter.’