‘And did you think he had committed suicide?’
‘Never for a moment. Amos did not hate himself. He loved himself.’
‘So who do you think killed him?’ asked Jude.
‘Assuming, that is, that you didn’t?’ Carole dared to add.
Josie Achter looked at her bleakly. ‘You don’t understand, do you? I loved Amos. He had hurt me more than anyone I knew, but that didn’t stop me loving him.’
‘So who do you think killed him?’ Jude repeated.
‘I’ve no idea,’ Josie replied wearily.
‘Where was Rosalie that day?’ asked Carole.
‘She was with me in Brighton.’
‘Really?’ Carole looked unconvinced. ‘Sharing the Shabbat with your widowed mother? Rosalie told me she’d given up what she called “all that Jewish crap”.’
‘She was always very close to her grandmother. She bonded more with her than she ever did with me. For her grandmother, Rosalie would pretend that she still believed “all that Jewish crap”.’
‘But she didn’t come back to Fethering with you that night?’
‘Of course not.’ Josie wrinkled her nose. ‘She stayed in her squalid little flat in Brighton, surrounded by all her druggie friends.’
‘What we haven’t talked about …’ said Jude gently, ‘is the first time you met Amos Green.’
‘No, we haven’t,’ Josie agreed shortly.
‘How did you meet?’
‘It was fairly soon after Hudson and I got married. We had just bought the house in Esher and he was using one of the spare bedrooms to work in. Which wasn’t ideal because he couldn’t really see clients there. So we had plans drawn up for a proper studio to be built on the back of the house.’
‘We were in it yesterday morning,’ said Carole.
‘Oh, yes. Anyway, Hudson was very busy as ever, so we agreed that I’d sort of follow through the progress of the planning application, which involved a lot of trips to Kingston and …’
‘And Amos Green was on the planning committee,’ Carole completed the sentence for her.
‘Yes. And we fell for each other just like that. It was a terribly difficult time for me. Because I realized what a massive mistake I had made in marrying Hudson. I had thought what I felt for him was as good as love got, and then when I met Amos … this sounds terribly corny, but I knew it was the real thing.’
‘And you didn’t consider just cutting your losses and moving in together?’
‘Oh, we talked about it, yes. But we were both so recently married and we felt we had loyalties and … In retrospect we were very stupid. We should have followed our instincts, but … we didn’t. And then life got complicated.’
‘In what way?’
‘Amos got into trouble in connection with the planning committee. There were allegations that he had been accepting bribes from some architects to give favourable responses to their planning applications.’
‘Do you know if they were true?’
Josie shrugged. ‘I didn’t quite honestly care. All I knew at the time was that it meant I could see even less of Amos. Our time was tight enough, what with the demands of our spouses, and then Amos had to keep going off to give evidence at enquiries and … It was a very difficult time for both of us.
‘And then I fell pregnant with Rosalie and that seemed to be a sign for me. A sign that we should end it. If we’d set up together, Amos would never have coped with the responsibility of bringing up a child. Hudson would clearly provide a much more stable background. He’d be a much better father for Rosalie.’
Jude looked steadily into the woman’s dark eyes. ‘Even if he wasn’t actually her father?’
Josie Achter gave the words exactly the same emphasis as she repeated, ‘Even if he wasn’t actually her father.’
‘Did Amos Green even know you were pregnant?’ asked Carole.
Josie shook her head. ‘He was under so much pressure at the time … I couldn’t have added to it.’
‘And do you know if he was ever prosecuted for taking bribes?’
‘I don’t know. I do know that he had to resign as a councillor.’
‘Did he talk to you about the details of the case against him?’
‘Not much. All he did say was that if he ever decided to take up blackmail he’d got a lot of information on a lot of architects’ practices that could be extremely valuable one day.’
‘Did he name any of those companies?’ asked Jude.
‘I’m sure he did, but it’s a long time ago and it was at a pretty stressful time for me. Oh, actually I do remember one – and only because it was such a dreadful name. “Fit The Build”.’
‘Oh,’ said Jude, remembering when Kent Warboys had told her the really bad name of one of his former companies.
TWENTY-NINE
Jude rang Kent from the Renault on the way back from Brighton. The rain had eased off but it was still a truculent-looking day. Dark clouds augured more bad weather to come.
Maybe Kent had been anticipating a call. He certainly seemed to recognize the seriousness of what they wanted to talk to him about. He was at home. Sara was out doing a major shop at Sainsbury’s. Carole and Jude were welcome to drop by for ‘a drink and a chat’.
As they approached the house, they were aware again of how close it was to the Fethering Yacht Club. The two buildings stood either side of the Fether estuary, both with large windows facing out to sea and smaller ones looking directly at each other.
Kent led them up to his magnificent sitting room and again made the offer of ‘coffee or’ – gesturing to a drinks cupboard – ‘something stronger; it’s certainly time for a Sunday lunchtime drink.’ But both women refused. They wanted to get on with the conversation that was no longer avoidable.
‘It goes back to the night of the third of October,’ said Carole.
‘And it also goes back a lot further,’ Jude added. ‘To the time when you had an architectural company in the Kingston area.’
‘Ah yes. Rather a messy period of my professional life. And presumably it also goes back to any dealings I might have had with Amos Green?’
‘Yes,’ said Carole, in stern, avenging angel mode.
‘Right.’ He looked across towards the drinks cupboard. ‘I’m going to get myself a drink. Are you sure you …?’
Both women shook their heads. Kent Warboys sighed and went to pour himself a large scotch. Then he turned to face them, his back to the picture window and the turbulent sea. ‘I don’t know how much you know already.’
‘We know that you used to have a company called “Fit The Build” in the Kingston area,’ said Carole.
He winced. ‘I’ll never get over what a terrible name it was.’
‘And at that stage you had some dealings with Amos Green, who was on the planning committee.’
‘And who subsequently had to resign from the planning committee,’ Jude pointed out.
‘Yes, okay. Well, it was the usual thing. Shabby, small-town corruption. Amos Green was found to have been guilty of taking bribes to ease through planning applications. We’re not talking big sums of money here, just the occasional small incentive. Often it wasn’t even money. Tickets for Wimbledon, major golf events, expensive meals out, cases of vintage wine delivered. Where is the point when backscratching becomes bribery?’
‘And Fit The Build was involved in this?’ asked Carole implacably.
‘Yes, most of the companies round there were. It was a more relaxed time. You’d find the same sort of stuff going on in most local planning authorities. Fit The Build was wound up very soon after all this happened. I needed to start out again with a clean slate.’