Waiting for Wednesday

FORTY-TWO

Karlsson opened the file. Yvette was writing in her notebook. Riley and Munster looked bored. Hal Bradshaw was sending a text. He noticed Karlsson’s fierce glance and put the phone down on the table but continued to steal glances at it. Karlsson took his watch off and laid it next to the file.

‘We’re going to talk about this for five minutes,’ he said, ‘because that’s about all I can stand and then we should go our separate ways and try to solve this case. Do you know what I wish? I wish Billy Hunt had killed her and that he was safely in prison and that we hadn’t lifted the rock and found out about all the adultery and drink and drugs and underage sex.’

‘Maybe Billy Hunt really did it after all,’ said Riley.

‘Billy Hunt didn’t do it.’

‘Maybe his alibi is flawed. Maybe the timing on the CCTV wasn’t right.’

‘Fine,’ said Karlsson. ‘Check it out. If you can break his alibi, you’ll be a hero. Now, back in the real world. Remember when we first saw the body, all those days ago? I wondered who would kill this nice mother of three. Now the queue goes out the door. Who shall we start with? There’s Russell Lennox: betrayed husband, drink problem, tendency to violence.’

‘We don’t know it was him who beat up Paul Kerrigan.’

‘No, but I’d lay a bet on it.’

‘And he didn’t know about his wife’s affair,’ said Munster.

‘You mean he said he didn’t.’

‘His print was on the cog along with Billy’s,’ put in Yvette.

‘Because he owned it. But, still, that sounds most likely. Confronts his wife, picks up that cog thing. There’s the awkward matter of his alibi, of course. So let’s keep leaning on him. Their children were at school and they’re children. But now we’ve got Judith and her every-parent’s-nightmare boyfriend. Ruth discovers about him. Arranges a meeting at their house. Threatens him with the law. He picks up the cog. I don’t like Zach Greene. I don’t like him at all. Which unfortunately isn’t evidence. Any comments?’ He looked around. ‘Thought not. But we should lean on him some more. Where did he say he was that afternoon, Yvette?’

Yvette turned pink. ‘He didn’t actually say,’ she muttered.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I asked him. But, now you mention it, he didn’t give me an answer. He went on about them being consenting adults or something. He distracted me.’

Karlsson stared at her. ‘Distracted you?’ he repeated pleasantly, coldly.

‘Sorry. It was stupid of me. I’ll get back to him.’

He stared down at his papers for a moment. He didn’t want to shout at her in front of Riley and Bradshaw but it took an effort.

‘Moving on. We have the Kerrigans. He wants to break off with her. Or she discovers about his office affair. Confronts him. He picks up the cog.’

‘Would she do it at her house?’ said Yvette. ‘Wouldn’t the flat be more logical?’

‘She might have threatened him at the flat,’ said Bradshaw. ‘She could have said she would inform his wife. For him to confront and kill her in her own home would be a tit for tat. Exposing her in her own family home.’

Karlsson frowned at Bradshaw. ‘I thought your theory was that the murderer was a loner, of no fixed abode, that he had no family connections, that the murder was a kind of love.’

‘Ah, yes,’ said Bradshaw. ‘But in a real sense Kerrigan was a loner, estranged from his family, and because of this rented flat, he actually was of no fixed abode and the murder was, arguably, a last, desperate expression of love, the end of love.’

What Karlsson really wanted to do was to lean across, take Bradshaw’s smart-phone and hit him over the head with it repeatedly. But he said nothing.

‘And then there’s Kerrigan’s wife, Elaine. Humiliated wife. Finds out about Ruth, confronts her, picks up cog.’

‘But she didn’t know about the affair,’ said Yvette. ‘Or Ruth’s name. Or where she lived.’

‘Maybe she did know,’ said Munster. ‘They always do.’

‘What do you mean, they?’ Yvette glared at him.

‘Women.’ Munster was wary at Yvette’s sharp tone. ‘You know, when their husbands are unfaithful. They know. Deep down. At least, that’s what some people say.’

‘Crap,’ said Yvette, decisively.

‘Anyway, we suspect that someone knew,’ said Karlsson. ‘Someone might have pushed that cut-up doll through the Lennox letterbox as a warning.’

‘That could just be coincidence.’

‘In my world,’ announced Bradshaw with a modest smile, ‘coincidence is another word for –’

‘You’re right,’ cut in Karlsson, decisively. ‘It could be coincidence. It might have been Dora’s charming schoolfriends persecuting her. Did you talk to her again, Yvette?’

Yvette nodded. ‘She said she’d assumed it was for her. And she thinks it arrived around lunchtime. She got distressed. But she didn’t want to talk about it really – apparently things are better at school since her mother was killed. Everyone wants to be her friend suddenly.’ She made a grimace of disgust.

‘OK. So, the doll’s either a clue or it isn’t. Maybe we can talk to the head teacher and see if she can throw any light on it. Moving on, what about the sons?’

‘Josh and Ben Kerrigan?’ Yvette wrinkled up her face. ‘They’re both pretty contemptuous and angry. But Josh seems to have been in Cardiff – although he hasn’t been able to come up with any concrete alibi apart from being in bed with his girlfriend, who confirms that was probably the case. No sign on his bank statements that he used his card for a train ticket or anything. But that doesn’t mean much – as he himself pointed out, he could have used cash. His younger brother Ben was in a lesson. Apparently. His teacher can’t remember his being there, but she can’t remember his not being there and she thinks she would have noticed.’

‘Brilliant.’

‘What about Louise Weller?’ asked Yvette. ‘She was on the scene pretty quickly.’

‘On the scene?’ Karlsson shook his head. ‘She came round to help.’

‘It’s a common expression of guilt,’ Bradshaw explained comfortably. ‘Perpetrators like to involve themselves in the inquiry.’

‘What? Mother of three kills sister?’

‘You can’t rule it out,’ said Bradshaw.

‘I’m the one who rules people in or out.’ Karlsson spoke quickly. ‘But you’re right. We’ll talk to her again. And the Kerrigan boys. Anything else?’

‘Samantha Kemp,’ said Riley.

‘What?’

‘The woman Kerrigan had his affair with.’

‘Yes, I know who she is, but …’ Karlsson paused. ‘You’ve got to talk to her anyway, to check Kerrigan’s claim he was with her that afternoon. Maybe it’ll turn out she has a jealous boyfriend.’ He slammed the file shut. ‘Right, that’s it. Yvette, check that alibi. Chris, you talk to this Samantha Kemp. Now, for God’s sake, one of you go out and get me something.’