Reluctantly, Marriott allowed them into the house. The rooms at the front were in darkness, but the lights had been left on in the small kitchen. He led them there now.
‘Take a seat,’ he said, gesturing at four chairs arranged with almost mathematical precision, one on each side of a square deal table. ‘I’m going up to see the girlfriend. I don’t want her to be frightened.’
‘We’d like to talk to her, too, if she doesn’t mind coming downstairs. Does she have a name?’ said Juliet.
Marriott threw her a withering look.
‘Course – it’s Kezia. I doubt she’ll want to come down, though. She doesn’t like people seeing her without her make-up on.’
He returned quickly, but not before Tim had noticed that three mugs had been left to soak in the kitchen sink.
‘Kezia says she’ll be with us when she’s had chance to get dressed.’
‘That’s good of her,’ said Juliet.
Only Juliet was seated. Tim had propped himself against the sink and Giash Chakrabati was standing beside the back door.
‘Would you like to sit down, Mr Marriott?’
‘No, I’ll stand.’
‘As you wish. That was a quad that we saw driving away from this property, wasn’t it?’
‘It sounded like one, yes.’
‘Do you own a quad yourself?’
‘I don’t own one, no. I’ve shown you the old one we use at the farm. That’s good enough for me. I can borrow it when I want.’
‘Did you borrow it this evening?’
‘No.’
‘But you had a visitor?’
Marriott hesitated. Tim moved to one side of the sink so that the dirty mugs were in view.
‘Yes.’
‘And your visitor was still here when we arrived?’
‘Yes.’ Marriott’s mood was hard to gauge. He seemed subdued, rather than truculent.
‘And now he’s gone. That was your visitor we saw driving away on the quad, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Mr Marriott, I don’t understand why we’re having to drag this information out of you bit by bit, but I can tell you it isn’t making a good impression. Who was your visitor? And why didn’t you want us to know he was here?’
‘It was Aaron, my brother. Well, half-brother, if we’re splitting hairs.’
The words were spoken by the woman who had just entered the room unobserved. The three police officers all turned to look at her. She was a large-boned woman of about forty, her mass of dark hair tied back with a red scarf. She was dressed in jeans and an immaculate white shirt.
‘You’re Kezia?’ said Juliet. ‘Thank you for getting up again. I’m sorry we’ve had to disturb you.’
‘What’s your brother’s surname?’ Tim asked.
‘It’s Buckland. Aaron Buckland.’
‘He’s Nathan Buckland’s brother?’
‘Yes. Aaron’s older than Nathan. He works for his dad. He’s been in trouble with the police – some time ago, it wasn’t serious – but Josh says it freaked him out when you came. He must’ve thought you’d gone when he left.’
‘So you weren’t with him while we were outside with Mr Marriott?’
‘No. I went to bed earlier. I was still up when he got here.’
‘Is your name Buckland, too?’
‘No. Same mum, different dads. My name’s Pett. Kezia Pett.’