The Shroud Maker (25 page)

Even though Wesley was used to it, the thought of being watched by invisible eyes still made him feel a little uncomfortable, though not as uncomfortable as Chris Butcher who was sitting to attention in the chair opposite.

After the preliminaries were over and the tape machine was activated, he decided to come straight to the point.

‘You were seen with Kassia Graylem the night before her death.’

‘Who told you that?’

‘Is it true?’

Wesley waited for him to speak. In his experience a suspect could never resist filling a vacuum of silence.

Butcher sighed. ‘OK, I went to the Palkin’s Musik concert and afterwards I saw Kassia walking down the High Street. I caught up with her and told her how much I’d enjoyed the concert. I asked her if she wanted to come back to the boat for a drink and she accepted.’ He paused, a slight smile on his lips as though he was reliving an old, pleasant memory in his head. ‘She had her viol with her. She played for me. My own personal concert.’

‘Nice,’ said Paul. His first word. He looked faintly embarrassed and said nothing more.

‘How did she seem?’

‘Fine. I had a good bottle of malt and we had a few drinks.’

Wesley nodded. This fitted with Colin’s verdict on her stomach contents.

‘You had sex with her?’

He gave Wesley a ‘we’re all men of the world’ look.

‘Did she spend the night on board?’

‘She left just before six the next morning. I offered to call a taxi for her but she wouldn’t hear of it. She said she needed some fresh air.’

‘She lives out near Neston in the middle of nowhere. Did she say how she was planning to get home?’

‘No. And I didn’t ask. Look, I should have made sure she was OK and I’ll regret it for the rest of my life, but I’d had a bit to drink and I reckoned I was still over the limit. I wasn’t in a fit state to drive her anywhere.’

‘You went up on deck to see her off the boat?’

‘Yeah. I watched her walk away from the marina towards the town.’

‘Did you see anyone around? Anyone who might have followed her?’

‘I don’t think so. I watched until she was halfway down the embankment walking toward the
Maudelayne
. Then I went down below so I didn’t see where she went after that.’

‘Had you arranged to meet her again?’

‘I said I’d probably see her at the next concert. She knew the situation.’

‘Ships that pass in the night?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Had you ever met her before?’

Butcher swallowed hard and Wesley knew he’d hit the target. ‘We met a couple of years ago at a concert in London. We had a mutual interest in things medieval.’

‘And?’

‘I might as well come clean. We had an affair.’

‘You wouldn’t happen to be William de Clare?’

Butcher’s cheeks reddened. ‘There’s no harm in a bit of role play.’

‘You say you had an affair. Past tense.’

‘That’s right. Astrid found out and… well, I thought it best to cool it. I told Kassia I couldn’t see her for a while.’

‘But you met up again and took up where you left off.’

‘I’d no idea she’d be in Tradmouth. It came as a surprise.’ A smile played on his lips. ‘A not unpleasant one as it happens.’

‘But you didn’t want to put your marriage at risk for her?’

‘My wife put a lot of capital into my IT company,’ he said with a knowing look. ‘Besides, she’s not a tolerant woman. I thought I was being discreet.’

‘You don’t seem too upset about Kassia’s death.’

‘I’ve had to come to terms with it.’

Wesley glanced towards the two-way mirror. He could picture Gerry behind it, willing him to push the man further.

‘Was Kassia threatening to make trouble for you? You see, we’ve heard that she was infatuated with William de Clare.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I put it to you that she wanted to rekindle your relationship. Maybe she threatened to tell your wife.’

Butcher looked affronted. ‘Absolutely not. She knew the score.’

‘Infatuated people can delude themselves. You’d spent the night together. I’d be surprised if she didn’t take that as a sign that the great romance was on again.’

‘She’d changed. And she seemed to have something else on her mind.’

‘What was that?’

‘If I knew, I’d tell you. But she seemed…’ He searched for the right word. ‘Preoccupied.’

‘Did Kassia mention that she was afraid of anyone?’

‘Can’t say she did.’

‘What do you know about her background?’

Butcher frowned, as if he’d found Wesley’s last question disturbing in some way. ‘She always said she had no past and that everyone she loved had been taken from her. I thought she was just being pretentious, if you know what I mean. But she was deadly serious.’

‘Anything else you can tell us?’

He thought for a moment before answering. ‘When I first met her I knew she was studying history and when I asked her where she’d learned to play the viol so well, she just said in another time in another place.’

‘Evasive?’

He looked at Wesley as though he was impressed. ‘That’s the exact word I’d use.’

‘Have you ever met a man called Eric Darwell? He’s a private investigator from Manchester.’

‘No.’

‘You sure about that?’

‘Of course.’

‘What about Jenny Bercival? She went missing last year.’

Butcher glanced at his solicitor. ‘I might have met her.’

‘Both Kassia and Jenny had tattoos of the Shipworld logo. The cog. Was that anything to do with you?’

Wesley saw panic in Butcher’s eyes, there for a moment then swiftly suppressed. He was on the right track. ‘Well was it?’

Butcher sighed. ‘It’s a Shipworld thing. The real John Palkin used to mark his property with the sign of the cog. It was his trademark, if you like.’

‘So the girls were your property?’

Butcher shook his head. ‘It wasn’t like that. You don’t understand.’

‘Make me.’

There was a long silence before Butcher spoke. ‘It was all about role play. I was William de Clare, Lord of the Lands of Dart. Jenny was the Lady Morwenna, rescued from the old Lord of Pacifion, and Kassia was the Lady Alicia, de Clare’s lover. It was fantasy. Fun. I spelled that out from the start.’

Wesley recalled Lisa’s words. Kassia changed when she became involved with William de Clare. Whatever the relationship had been for Butcher, she had taken it seriously.

‘Not much fun when they were killed.’

‘I didn’t think you’d found Jenny. How do you know she’s dead? Her parents split up and she was going through a bad patch. I presumed that’s why she’d chosen to disappear.’

‘Two skeletons have been found on your property. We’re waiting for them to be dated. If one of them turns out to be Jenny…’

Butcher raised his hands in a gesture of defence. ‘Now look, that’s absolutely nothing to do with me. I’ve only just bought the place. If I knew they were there, do you think I’d have let a load of archaeologists loose in the garden?’

‘But you admit you were having an affair with Jenny Bercival at the time she disappeared?’

‘We met in London and we used to get together when she came down here. It wasn’t serious. Just a bit of fun.’

The fun word again. Something made Wesley think Butcher was trying to fool himself. Or the police. ‘You didn’t come forward when Jenny disappeared.’

‘I only thought she’d gone back to London to get away from her mother’s angst.’

‘Were you upset when she went missing?’

He shrugged his shoulders.

‘When did you last see her?’

‘I can’t remember.’

Wesley could tell he was lying.

‘So you were involved with Kassia, who’s now dead. And Jenny, who could well be dead. You’re the common denominator. What have you got to say to that?’

‘I had nothing to do with Kassia’s death or Jenny’s disappearance. I swear.’

Wesley made a great show of consulting his notebook. During the pause he glanced up at Butcher and saw that he was fidgeting with the empty plastic cup in front of him. He was nervous. The solicitor whispered something in his ear but Butcher appeared to ignore him.

‘I’ve been looking at the Shipworld website. Who’s the Shroud Maker?’

‘The villain of Shipworld. Why?’

‘He seems to be responsible for the deaths of various women. Is he based on a real-life character?’

Butcher shrugged. ‘Not particularly.’ His eyes flickered for a moment and Wesley suspected that the subject made him uncomfortable. So far he had delegated trawling the depths of the Shipworld website to others. Now he suddenly resolved to take more interest.

‘I saw an image of the Shroud Maker. He has no face.’

Butcher raised his eyebrows. ‘Nobody’s supposed to know his identity. That’s the whole point.’

‘You’re in charge of the website so you must know who he is.’

‘That would be telling.’

‘Don’t play games with us, Mr Butcher.’

‘Look, I’m not privy to the Shroud Maker’s identity. Palkinson and his ilk deal with all that.’

‘We still haven’t traced this Palkinson. Any idea where we can find him?’

Butcher hesitated slightly before shaking his head. ‘Sorry.’ He suddenly looked up. ‘Come to think of it, I did see Kassia talking to someone after the concert.’

‘Who?’

‘Miles Carthage. The man I told you about who does the illustrations for Shipworld.’

Wesley glanced at the mirror. This was a new development. ‘You saw Kassia talking to Miles? He told us he’d never spoken to her.’

‘I saw him stop her and whisper something in her ear. She gave him a strange look. Can’t really describe it.’

‘Try.’ Wesley was growing impatient.

‘As if she was excited about something. But I could be wrong.’

‘Did she mention him while you were with her?’

‘Can’t say she did.’

The solicitor was looking hopeful that the attention was about to shift away from his client. There was, however, no getting away from the fact that Butcher had had sex with Kassia shortly before she died.

After another three hours of questioning, both Wesley and the solicitor knew they didn’t have enough evidence to bring charges. As Butcher left the interview room he looked completely relaxed, as though he knew he’d got away with something bad.

Pam had been waiting up for Wesley when he’d arrived home at eleven the previous night. She’d greeted him with a weary smile and a kiss, whispering in his ear that she’d missed him. Then she’d asked him how Manchester was.

The day had been so full that Manchester now seemed an age away but over a glass of wine he’d told her about Eric Darwell’s widow and Kassia’s friend, Lisa, making only a casual passing reference to Rachel. When Pam asked how her wedding preparations were going he’d given an evasive reply. As far as he knew they were going OK. He hadn’t really had time to ask. Pam had rolled her eyes in despair at the male sex’s lack of curiosity and let the matter rest. But that night he’d found it hard to sleep and when he arrived at the station the next morning he felt tired.

He sat at his desk and went through everything that had come in overnight. The anonymous phone call drawing their attention to Chris Butcher had been made from an unregistered mobile located in the centre of Tradmouth. Not much help there. Now they knew that Chris Butcher was William de Clare, he had to be their main suspect and Wesley felt frustrated that he’d been released pending further inquiries. Maybe the breakthrough would come when they discovered more about his exact relationship with Jenny and Kassia.

He’d asked one of the team to contact the witnesses to Kassia’s parents’ accident but the inquiries had produced nothing new. It was only the Wentworths, the widowed father and his son, who hadn’t been traceable. Their contact number had been called and the Polish au pair who’d answered the phone said that her employers had bought the house from Mr Wentworth five years ago. She thought he might have gone to live abroad.