‘Has he been inside? I know the name, and that he’s been in bother in the past. He could have come across Shirley Hewarth when she was a welfare officer in the nick. She wasn’t only at Sittingwell.’ Vera was thinking this probably wouldn’t lead anywhere, but there was an itch in her brain and she had to scratch. A bit like when the eczema on her leg was particularly bad.
‘I’ll have to check.’
‘Well, run along and do that then, bonny lad.’
He returned a few moments later. ‘Nothing since he was a juvenile, and that was just a bit of shoplifting. He got three months in a detention centre.’
She nodded. The detention centres had been another failed attempt at tackling youth crime. The short, sharp shock that just made the lads bitter. And much fitter, so they could run faster from the scene of their burglaries.
‘I might just go along and have a word with him all the same,’ she said. That itch again. Impossible to ignore, but probably nothing to worry about.
Crow lived on the outskirts of Kimmerston in one of the executive developments that Hector had railed about every time he saw them. Shoddy, pretentious blots on the landscapes. Sitting in her Land Rover outside the house, Vera could hear her father’s voice in her head and couldn’t help smiling. Hector had delighted in coming across a smart new estate so that he could vent his anger and display his prejudices.
She rang the bell. It was mid-afternoon on a Sunday and she thought Jason was unlikely to be there on his own. Despite any fling he might have had with Lizzie, there’d probably be a wife, older kids. This wasn’t the home of a single man. If Jason had been on his own he’d have gone for one of the flash new apartments on Newcastle’s Quayside. Rumour had it that he could afford to buy one in cash, if the fancy took him, and one of his companies probably owned half of them anyway.
The door was opened by a man. Middle-aged. Sandy-hair that might once have been ginger. Freckles. A naughty schoolboy, grown up.
‘Sorry, we don’t buy at the door.’ An unexpectedly pleasant voice. Vera was starting to see how he’d slid away from so many criminal charges. This wasn’t a thug or a bruiser. Crow would be charming and plausible, and he probably had friends in high places. She could imagine he’d be a good golfer.
‘And I’m not selling.’ Vera didn’t bother looking for her warrant card. She hated scrambling in her bag to find it. It looked unprofessional. ‘Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope.’
He raised his eyebrows. A gesture of amusement. They’ll let anyone join the service these days. ‘Sorry, Inspector. You’d better come in.’
Inside, the place was less flash than she’d imagined. Classier. A lot of wood. Uncluttered. Plain painted walls with some pieces of art that drew her in and made her stare. Photos of two daughters, one on her graduation throwing a mortar board in the air. A piano. ‘Sorry to disturb you on a Sunday.’
‘I was at my desk,’ he said. ‘I work mostly from home now. One of the perks of being boss. I don’t keep regular hours. Come into the office.’ He walked ahead of her and she realized that despite being middle-aged, he had the body of an athlete. His shirt sleeves were rolled up and his arms were muscular. Her glance followed his spine down to his legs and she realized why Lizzie had been attracted, despite the difference in their ages.
The office was at the back of the house and looked out into the garden. A long lawn with a pergola at the end. Closer to the house a trampoline that looked as if it was no longer used. Inside the office there was custom-built furniture and a rack of heavy-duty filing cabinets. Jason was old enough to prefer paper. He sat on the desk and nodded for her to take a seat so that she was looking up at him. ‘I hope this won’t take too long. I have to leave in ten minutes. I’m meeting a friend.’ An apologetic smile to take the aggression from the words.
‘Your family not about?’
‘They’ve been in France for Easter. I’m joining them next week and we’ll travel back together.’ He paused. ‘What is this about?’
‘Lizzie Redhead,’ Vera said.
‘Ah yes, Lizzie. One of my more spectacular mistakes.’ A boyish grin that didn’t quite convince.
‘Tell me.’
For a moment he said nothing. ‘She came to work for me.’
‘And then?’
‘And then I fell for her, Inspector. Hook, line and sinker. Not my usual style. I’m happily married. If I stray occasionally, it’s recreational. No strings on either side. But Lizzie was different.’
‘In what way different?’ Vera really was curious to know.
There was another silence. Vera thought that he’d been sitting here, his family away, thinking about Lizzie. And now he wanted to talk about her to the only person who would listen. Even if that person was a cop.
‘She was wild, funny and very beautiful. Most women I meet are attracted to me. Or attracted to my money. Lizzie didn’t seem to be. I fell for her. I’d have done anything for her by the end. When we first got together I couldn’t quite believe it.’
Vera wasn’t sure she believed this story even now. It felt like something she chuckled over in a women’s magazine while she was waiting to see the dentist. But what would she know about relationships? Like Holly, she was a loner. ‘Then Lizzie ripped you off.’
‘At first I couldn’t accept that she’d done it.’ He paused and played with the wedding ring on his finger. ‘It sounds daft, but I thought we were soulmates.’ A pause. ‘I grew up too quickly, got into bother because that was the way my family earned a living. I’d never had anything like a romantic encounter. Sex was almost always a financial arrangement. Even my marriage felt a bit like that. I was ready to settle down and have kids, and Kate could give me stability and a family. And a bit of respectability. Her background’s very different from mine.’ He paused again and stared out of the window. ‘With Lizzie, it was like falling in love for the first time. She was bonkers, you know. Fearless. We made love in places I wouldn’t have dreamed of. On building sites, in half-built houses, in the car by the side of a busy road. It wasn’t just the sex. I told her stuff I hadn’t told anyone else in the world. And all the time she was stealing from me. Fiddling the books and sliding cash into her own online accounts.’
‘So she had to pay.’ Vera pulled his attention back into the room.
He shrugged. ‘In my position you can’t be seen to let people take the piss. Even if you want to.’ He paused again. ‘If she’d asked for the money, I’d have given it to her. I’d have left my wife and married her. But she made a fool out of me and I couldn’t let that go.’
‘You could have come to us. She’d have been prosecuted.’
‘And got a fine that her parents would have paid! Or a suspended sentence.’ His face was red and she saw how Jason might get, if he was angry. Mad. Violent. Even against someone he claimed to love.
‘So you persuaded her parents to sell you their business.’
‘I’ve got a brother who works in that field. Not the sharpest tool in the box, so occasionally he needs a hand. He wanted to expand into Kimmerston. It seemed a good way of helping him out and showing people it wasn’t a good idea to mess me about.’
‘You threatened Sam and Annie Redhead.’ Vera’s voice was quiet.
‘I didn’t need to.’ The words came back at her immediately.
‘Of course. You have a reputation.’ She hoped he could hear the sneer in her voice. ‘You’re a hard man.’
There was a moment of silence before Vera continued. ‘Then Lizzie got into a fight in a bar and was sent to prison anyway.’
‘That was nothing to do with me.’ He paused. ‘I heard that she went crazy when we separated. Perhaps I was good for her and kept her sane for a while. She shouldn’t have ripped me off. We’d have been good for each other.’ Another pause. ‘How is she anyway?’