The Circle (20 page)

'Are you going to give me a sample?'

'No way. It's pathetic'

So he wanted coaxing. Stella only ever played the wheedling woman in the cause of duty. 'Go on, I'd really like to hear a sample.'

He sighed. 'Don't know if you'll get this. I was playing about with some lines while I was waiting.' He fished in his back pocket and took out what looked like a cheap diary.

'Eleven local writers

Lead the cops a dance.

Who's for an excuse-me?

No chance.'

'Not bad,' Stella said, 'but it dates you. Anyone under forty wouldn't know what an excuse-me is.'

'Tell me about it. I have a daughter of fourteen. They should come with phrase books.'

'What does your wife think of your writing?'

'She died.'

Whoops. A pause for respect. 'Sorry. Let's talk about what's been happening since you made your statement to DC Shilling. There was a meeting, right?'

'Yeah, and I was dropped in it and made press officer. I'm not even a paid-up member and they want me as their spokesman.'

'Which you do very well. What else was decided?'

'Not much. Two of the party left early.'

'Zach and Naomi.'

'If you know it all, why ask me?'

'So why did they leave?'

'I do remember one thing we agreed,' Bob said, 'and that was not to slag off fellow members of the circle.'

He could bat for England, this one. 'But you just told me you're not a member.'

'Nice try, but I like these people - all of them. I've got to know them quite well, their hopes and fears.'

'One of them is almost certainly a murderer.'

'Okay - and ten of them aren't. Until I know which one, I'm going to respect them all.'

You still see yourself as an amateur sleuth, do you?'

He took in a sharp breath and it was no more than a stage effect. 'Bit sarky, that. I was only helping out, like. This was before you and your boss took over. No disrespect, but the police work wasn't up to much.'

'They weren't getting cooperation from everyone. You didn't report the fire at the boat house.'

'Did.'

'Eventually - only after Miss Snow was dead. If you'd come forward earlier they might have saved her life.'

'How?'

'They could have warned her to be careful.'

'That Inspector Cherry? He didn't give a toss when I tried to talk to him. He couldn't find his arse with both hands, that one.'

She should have said something in Johnny's defence. Just couldn't find the words. All she managed was, 'Leave the sleuthing to us, Mr Naylor. We don't want any more people going up in flames.'

Hen was glad she'd left Naomi to last. Thanks to young Shilling's good work, she had a trump to play and she used it straight away. 'What have you got to say about the photo of Blacker and the other man?'

Naomi blinked and gave nothing away.

'You've got yourself in deep shit, crossing a police line and going into that gutted building.'

She was given one of Naomi's smouldering glares.

'You won't have been told we recovered it from Zach's house.'

The eyes narrowed. 'Who told you? Basil?'

'Your accessory, Zach Beale.'

Now it was raw disgust that registered. 'Wimp.'

'He's not very happy with you, either. He could be facing a prison term.'

'What for?'

'Concealing evidence. Conspiracy to obstruct the course of justice.'

'Oh, come on,' Naomi said. 'It's only a photo. Your people would have picked it up if it was any use to them.'

'They didn't want to disturb the scene,' Hen said with the licence her position gave her. 'But you did. I haven't yet decided what we'll throw at you, unlawful entry, theft. Why did you do it?'

After some thought, Naomi said, 'It was there.'

'Like Everest, you mean? The difference is that you crossed a police line to get to it. The place was taped and sealed.'

'It was something that belonged to him. A point of contact.'

Hen found herself frowning. This was a strange woman. 'What are we dealing with here - messages from the dead?'

'No.'

'"A point of contact", you said.'

'I'm a writer. I'm treating what happened as a project.'

'Writing about it?'

'A murder inquiry from the inside. I went to the house to get a sense of the place, and the man.'

'Don't give me that horseshit, Naomi. I think you went there to clean up.'

'What?'

This thought had just come warm and unintended to Hen. 'You returned to the scene to remove evidence that might incriminate you.'

An impact at last. A look of panic. You think I'm the arsonist?'

'The more I listen to you, the more likely it becomes.'

'You're wrong. Listen, you couldn't be more wrong. I went out of curiosity. The picture was hanging there, so I took it.'

This chimed in with what Zach had said. 'Okay,' Hen said, with a deliberate shift from blame to consultation. 'Let's have your views. What did you learn from the photo?'

'It's guesswork,' Naomi said, but she was deeply serious. The threats had shaken her. She knew her best chance was to make herself useful.

'Carry on.'

'If he kept it on his bedroom wall, the other man in the picture must have been important to him. They had their arms around each other.'

'Buddies?'

'Possibly. I don't recognise the man. He isn't one of the circle.'

'Agreed.'

'And something was written on the back.'

'"Innocents, Christmas 1982".'

'Yes, I didn't know what to make of that. My first thought was that Blacker and the other man had got into something shady at a later date, and the comment was written later.'

'Something shady?'

'A relationship, maybe. Twenty years ago we were less open about gays. It can't have been too much of a disaster or he wouldn't have kept the picture on his wall.'

'You said that was your first thought. Was there a second?'

'That they later got involved in some criminal act.'

'Do you have any evidence of this?'

Naomi shook her head. 'It's only a guess, but it would account for the "innocents" comment. A scam they both got into.'

Hen said, 'If they did, we have no record of it. Blacker was clean.'

'I've got another theory, then. Suppose they both fell for some confidence trick. A third person duped them. That would give another meaning to "innocents", wouldn't it?'

'Sure would. Any idea who this third person might be?'

'The killer,' Naomi said. 'The arsonist.'

'Covering up old crimes? You've obviously given this a lot of thought. Who do you suspect?'

'Is this in confidence?'

'Of course.'

'That pain in the arse, Tudor.'

20

All these courts must be lit, and our detectives improved. They
are not what they should be.

Queen Victoria, letter to Lord Salisbury, 10 November 1888

A
fter that, I need a bevvy. How about you?' Bob said. Thomasine smiled. 'Mind-reader.'

It was just after ten. Neither of them said so, but one good reason for choosing the Ship, the hotel at the top of North Street, was that no one else from the circle was likely to be in there. They had enough in common not to need other company now.

Thomasine asked for a gin and tonic. 'Don't worry,' she added. 'You won't have to put me to bed. The other evening wasn't typical. Dagmar and I had almost two hours to fill while you were visiting Fran . . .'

'I'd forgotten,' he said with tact.

'... and there was all the stress of Maurice being arrested.' Then, catching up, she said on a sharper note, 'What do you mean - forgotten? You visit a lady's bedroom and forget about it? That's not very gendemanly.'

'I'm such a perfect gent I wiped it from my memory.'

'Oh yeah?'

When he returned with the drinks, she said, 'I don't know if you heard the buzz back there in the nick about Zach and Sharon. He took her to Harrogate last weekend. Some fantasy convention.'

'Zach and Sharon? Strewth.'

'So they're off the list of suspects now.'

'Nice work if you can get it. Another one in the clear is Anton,' he said. 'He proved he was at home and online at the time Miss Snow was killed. The sad bastard sits up every night at the computer.'

There was a moment while each absorbed what the other had said.

'So who's left?' Thomasine asked. 'You, me and who else?'

'Tudor.'

'Basil and Naomi.'

'Jessie.'

'And Dagmar. That's it.'

'How many's that? Seven?'

'Five really,' Thomasine said. 'I'm in the clear and so are you, or I wouldn't be sitting here with you. You weren't around when Blacker was killed.'

'That doesn't wash with the police,' Bob said. 'They reckon I had a run-in with Blacker at some time in the past.'

'In that case, why are you supposed to have joined the circle?'

'To muddy the waters. You lot are the obvious suspects. I can stir up more trouble as an insider.'

'That's stretching it a bit. If it was a game of chess I might believe a theory like that, but you're not going to draw attention to yourself when you don't need to.'

'That's not what they think.'

'High risk if you're the arsonist.'

'Which I'm not.'

'And as you're not, it's no picnic to be one of the circle. Two people have died. Someone else could cop it.'

'Scared?'

She hesitated and took a deep sip. 'Who wouldn't be?'

'Have you worked out why Miss Snow was killed?'

'Because of something she knew?'

Bob said, 'I think it was because of what she had in her possession. That video of Blacker's visit'

She frowned. 'But we all know what's on the video. We were there, all except you, and you've watched it'

He nodded.

She added, 'There's nothing except some cringe-making footage of people hoping to be told they are geniuses and finding out they are not.'

'Something on it pinpoints the killer.'

'I can't think what.'

'Either something Blacker said, that sealed his fate, or something one of the circle said that reveals them as the killer.'

'And they didn't want it known? But Miss Snow handed the video to the police.'

'The killer didn't know that,' Bob said. 'If you think back, most of the circle thought she was in charge of it.'

'She was. She was the secretary, she needed it to help write the minutes and she kept it as a record of the meeting.'

'But she lent it to me - well, I asked for it - and then she called me late at night saying she needed it back because the fuzz had called it in. Only you and her knew I'd borrowed the thing. As far as anyone else was concerned, it never left her place.'

'And you think that's why she was killed?'

'Got to be, hasn't it, if it fingers the killer?'

'But she handed it to the police.'

'Like I said, the killer didn't know about that. The fire at Miss Snow's was mainly to destroy the evidence.'

Thomasine shivered. 'That's horrible.'

'Makes sense, doesn't it?'

'She was killed for that pesky video? And in reality she'd given it to the police, so she needn't have been killed at all?' She gave a nervous, angry sigh. 'Bob, that's too cruel.'

He stared down at his drink. 'What it means is Blacker's death is still the key to all this. His pep talk to the circle gave something away that triggered the second murder. Be nice if we could run that video again.'

Thomasine's eyes widened. 'If we told this to the police, maybe they'd let us look at it.'

He shook his head. 'Policemen like amateur detectives about as much as they like losing their helmets.'

The circle members had been allowed to leave, but their interrogators were in for a longer night. Hen had summoned them to the incident room for the debriefing. 'A worthwhile exercise,' she summed up. 'Not much in the way of deathless prose, but three interesting alibis to check. Stella has already contacted the hotel at Harrogate and it seems Zach Beale and Sharon paid for a double room and made full use of it.'

'What does that mean? They were at it day and night?' Andy Humphreys said.

'There was a conference going on,' Shilling said.

'Is that what it's called?'

'Envious?' Stella said.

Hen said, 'And Anton's computer appears to show he was sending e-mails at the time Miss Snow's house was being torched. It looks as if we're down to seven. What is more' - she pointed to the enlargement Shilling had made on the computer, now displayed on the board behind her - 'we may have a real breakthrough with this photo Blacker had on his bedroom wall.'

'Or a bloody great red herring,' Johnny Cherry murmured.

'You said something, Johnny?'

'No.'

'Because I want everyone's take on this. Two guys in striped shirts with their arms around each other's shoulders, one of them Blacker. It looks like a celebration. They're holding drinks. On the back someone - presumably Blacker - has written "Innocents, Christmas 1982". We don't know the identity of the blond man. He doesn't resemble anyone in the circle. There's a coffee machine in the background and part of a notice board and over to the right could be the corner of a desk.'

'Office party?' Humphreys said.

'That's my assumption.'

Stella said, 'He was in publishing all his life, so it's a good bet this is a publisher's office.'

'We can find which firm he was with in nineteen eighty-two,' Shilling said. 'Maybe that way we can identify the blond guy.'

'Your job, then,' Hen said.

Johnny said as if the relevance of this had escaped him, 'Why are we taking so much interest in one picture from over twenty years ago?'

'Because we haven't established a definite motive for Blacker's murder.'

'I thought we had. I thought we'd agreed he made a fatal error by trashing the writers' work. One of them took it to heart and put a match to his house.'

'That's only a theory. I'm not a writer looking for a publisher and I don't know how desperate they get.'

'They'd murder just to get into print'

'You say, Johnny, but I can't help feeling it isn't enough. I'm not ruling out some grievance from way back.'

'A blast from the past?'

'Why did he have this picture on his bedroom wall and what does that word "innocents" mean? We don't know. It may be a factor in the case. I want it checked, in any event. Meanwhile let's look at the writers we have left on our list. Which of them really shape up as killers? Some of them seem more serious contenders than others.'

'Basil isn't serious,' Andy said. 'Not about writing. He's a serious gardener. The writing is secondary.'

'How did the interview go?'

'Fine. He's very open. Told me things I didn't need to know, like how he met Naomi.'

'Now you've started, you've got to tell us, Andy.'

He gave them the story of Naomi with her head stuck in the toilet window at Shippam's. Even Johnny Cherry laughed.

'So Basil was in the fire service,' Hen said. 'That's hard to picture.'

'But useful to know if you ever get your head stuck,' Duncan Shilling said, and got an easy laugh from the team and a pointed look from Hen. The young man had a knack of running off at the mouth.

Andy Humphreys said, 'He also goes for an early swim.'

'How early?'

'Not
that
early. Around seven. He's older than Naomi, he says, so he needs to stay fit. But he's relaxed about it.'

'True. He's pretty laid back. Unlike his wife.'

'Naomi. She's capable of anything,' Stella said. 'Those eyes!'

'Capable of nicking a picture from a burnt-out house, anyway,' Hen said. 'Yes, I interviewed Naomi myself, and she's - how shall I put it?'

'Spooky?'

'I was going to say committed. She claims she's writing the inside story of the investigation from the point of view of a suspect. A good excuse for some very odd behaviour.'

'Confirmed by Zach,' Shilling said.

'Which means Zach believed it, no more than that.'

'But if Naomi is the killer, would she have taken the risk of using Zach as a collaborator?'

'Why did she use him?'

'For his writing skills. He's the one Blacker said was the new Tolkien.'

'So it was to be a writing partnership?'

'That's his explanation, guv, and he seemed to feel he was forced into it.'

'Okay,' Hen said. 'We have Naomi as a contender. Who else? What about Tudor Thomas?'

'I interviewed him,' Stella said, 'and he came over as confident when I tackled him on the insurance he'd sold to Blacker.'

'The stolen Wodehouse manuscript?'

'Yes. It was obvious he's been questioned before and he thinks he's watertight on this one. It stinks to high heaven, and it probably scuppered his career prospects, but he smiles and answers the questions like a man who knows he can't lose.'

'Do you think they did a deal and split the payout?'

'You can see it in his eyes as he says the opposite, guv. I suggested to him that Blacker did the dirty on him over his own manuscript and there was a glimmer of agreement about that, but not enough to pin the murder on him.'

'He can feel safe about any deal they did now Blacker is dead.'

'Yes, but Blacker wouldn't ever have admitted to the fraud. I don't think that's enough for a motive.'

Hen turned back to Andy Humphreys. 'Who did you see first - Mrs Warmington-Smith?'

He reddened at the memory. 'We got off to a bad start. She seemed to think I was attacking her for living in a house owned by the church. When we got round to her movements on the two nights in question she admitted she goes for late-night walks.'

'How late?'

'After midnight sometimes. She's a poor sleeper. The walks are just in the cathedral area. She also owns an old car that runs on leaded. I asked if she ever uses it at night and she says she doesn't.'

'She would, wouldn't she?'

'Maybe, but she didn't have to tell me about the walks.'

'Agreed. What do you make of her personality? How does she shape up as a potential arsonist?'

Humphreys drew in a long breath. 'She came out with some weird stuff. Gets signs and that, like Joan of Arc, she said.'

'What, heavenly voices?'

He nodded. 'She told me God was in the interview room with us.'

'Only place he can get a smoke,' said Shilling, and got another laugh.

'She said some stuff about the journey of the soul.'

'Are you saying she's strange enough to go to the top of our list?'

'Don't know about that. She wasn't bitter about Blacker or Miss Snow. I don't think she hated either of them.'

'Okay, there's a question mark over Warmington-Smith. That leaves us with Thomasine O'Loughlin, Bob Naylor and one other.'

'Dagmar Bumstead,' Shilling said. 'The one you can easily forget. I interviewed her. She keeps a low profile, even though she was one of the founders of the circle. Very discreet about everybody. Works for a solicitor.'

'She doesn't leap to mind as a suspect, I agree,' Hen said. 'Remind me what she writes.'

'Romances. That's the surprise. She's got them stacked up at home, all unpublished.'

'That's how she gets her rocks off,' Humphreys said. 'Writing about it.'

'And some people get theirs off talking about it,' Stella said with a glare.

Shilling said, 'It's easy to overlook Dagmar, but she's close to the centre of things. A friend of McDade, the chairman, and of Thomasine O'Loughlin. She and Thomasine were the most active trying to get McDade released from custody.'

'But what had she got against our two murder victims?'

'Blacker showed some interest in her script and then dropped her like a hot brick when he heard she'd had so many rejections. That must have hurt.'

'But why would she have wanted to kill Miss Snow?'

Shilling was silent for a moment, then came out with a profound remark. 'Why would anyone want to kill Miss Snow? On the face of it she was a harmless little lady, but she had a few secrets, didn't she? She was an accountant, so she probably knew if anyone in the circle had money problems. She was secretary and treasurer of the circle.'

'Worked in a charity shop,'Johnny chimed in. 'Knew who bought their clothes secondhand.'

'Are you saying Dagmar was strapped for cash and didn't want anyone to know it?'

Shilling shook his head. 'I can't be certain of that, guv.'

'But worth a thought. All right. That leaves Tommy and Tuppence.'

This got some blank looks.

Hen was shaking her head, disappointed in her squad. 'You're not with it, are you? Agatha Christie's amateur detectives. I've got all the tapes.'

Nobody said a word.

She went on, 'I'm referring to Bob Naylor and Thomasine O'Loughlin. Stella, you spoke to Naylor. What do you make of him?'