Ottey looked at the text from Mackenzie announcing the result and smiled. She walked over to Cross’s office, who was also reading something on his phone.
‘Is that the text from Alice about the case?’ she asked him.
‘No,’ he replied. He looked momentarily fixated on his phone.
‘You heard though? Not guilty,’ Ottey said brightly.
‘Yes,’ he said, leaving the office.
‘Where are you going?’ she asked, following him.
‘To talk to Montgomery.’
‘Okay. I guess this means it’s not looking so great for him just now.’
As they walked down the corridor, she noticed Cross was still looking a little perplexed.
‘What is it, George? What were you reading on your phone?’
‘A text from my father.’
Ottey knew this meant it was important. Raymond never texted his son at work because he knew it distracted him. He also never wanted to worry him with anything that could wait until the end of a working day.
‘What did he want?’ she asked.
‘Nothing. He didn’t want anything.’
‘Then what did he say, George?’ she asked.
‘It’s my mother. Her husband died this morning.’
‘Oh no. Well, you need to call her.’
‘I don’t. I didn’t know him.’
‘But she’s your mother.’
‘Who I also don’t really know.’
‘George, she’s your mother and you need to call her to offer your condolences,’ Ottey insisted.
‘I don’t think so. It’s none of my business.’
‘So why did your father text? Ask yourself that.’
‘To inform me. Which he’s done.’
‘No, it was to let you know so that you could call her.’
‘If he’d wanted me to call her, he would have said so specifically.’
They arrived at the interview room and, in classic fashion, he immediately surprised her.
‘Mr Montgomery, I’m releasing you on police bail. I no longer consider you to be a person of interest in the murder of Alistair Moreton. However, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary want to discuss the burglary of Sandy Moreton’s house.’
‘So that’s it for the murder? I’m no longer a suspect?’ asked Montgomery with obvious relief.
‘For the time being,’ said Ottey, looking quizzically at Cross while rapidly playing catch-up. ‘New evidence may come up and if it does you may well be rearrested.’
‘Well, that’s not going to happen,’ Montgomery retorted.
‘I’m glad you’re so confident,’ she replied.
‘I am, because I didn’t do it.’
Cross turned to leave the room. Neither he nor Ottey had sat down. She turned to follow as she wanted to find out exactly what was going on and wasn’t going to do so in front of Montgomery.
‘DS Cross,’ Montgomery said. Cross turned at the door. ‘Have you had a look at Richard Brook for this?’
‘Why?’ Cross asked.
‘Well, for one thing, those two have had a beef since I knew them at school.’
‘I’m aware of that.’
‘They’ve been at each other’s throats ever since and now it looks like Brook might have done Moreton’s political career over with his inquiry.’
‘It would certainly seem so. But what is your point?’ Cross asked.
‘You know about his brother, yes?’
‘I didn’t know he had a brother.’
‘Well, you wouldn’t. He doesn’t seem to talk about it much. Richard’s a real high-flier. You can see that from what he’s achieved. But it was always going to be so with him. You could see it at thirteen, unlike Sandy Moreton or Richard’s brother. Adam he was called. Bright and able, but nothing like his older brother. I knew him at prep school and then we went our separate ways. I didn’t hear anything about him again till I was eighteen. I’d just got into university with pretty decent A levels but it seems Adam Brook didn’t. Didn’t have the grades for Oxford.’
‘How do you know this if you’d gone your separate ways?’ Cross asked.
‘My best friend from prep school was at senior school with him. It was the sister school to All Saints, which is why I didn’t want to go there,’ Montgomery continued.
‘So, your parents did listen to you at some point,’ said Ottey.
‘Yes, I suppose they did,’ he said, as if this had never occurred to him before now and smiled. ‘Anyway, Adam was sent to a crammer in London to get the grades for Oxford. He lasted just four months there,’ he said quietly.
‘What happened then?’ asked Cross who had over the years recognised a pause for a feed question from someone telling a story they thought crucial to an enquiry. Asking it, he’d learnt, simply sped the process up.
‘He killed himself.’
‘I see,’ replied Cross. ‘And what does that have to do with this case?’
‘The headmaster of the crammer was Alistair Moreton. It was the only job he could get after he’d been removed by the All Saints governors.’
Cross said nothing.
‘Richard Brook never got over the loss of his brother and laid the blame fairly and squarely at Alistair Moreton’s door.’