As much as Caroline disliked darting backwards and forwards across the county numerous times a day, there was no substitute for seeing the whites of people’s eyes. Phone calls didn’t quite cut it in the same way. And while calling people in for interviews was certainly a lot easier, there was often a lot to be gained by speaking to them in their natural environment.
Aidan had called her to update her on what they’d discovered at the George & Dragon in Seaton, and it had certainly got more than a few cogs turning in her mind.
She parked a little further up the road from Allure Design’s offices than she had previously, and walked the last few dozen yards.
As she got there, she noticed the heavy front door hadn’t been fully closed. She thought about pressing the intercom button anyway, but decided against it. An open door was an open door.
She stepped inside and gently closed the door behind her. The office was quiet, as was to be expected considering the circumstances, but it was clear somebody was still here. A vaguely familiar whirring noise came from the far side of the building, and as Caroline stepped forward she noticed the light spilling out through the doorway into what had been Martin Forbes’s office.
She reached the doorway and looked inside. Monique was on all fours with her back to Caroline, feeding sheets of paper into a large shredder.
Caroline knocked on the door with her knuckle, watching as Monique almost jumped clean out of her clothes.
‘Sorry, hope I didn’t frighten you.’
‘Oh! No. No. How did you get in here?’
‘Door’s open,’ Caroline replied, thumbing a gesture over her shoulder. ‘What you doing?’
‘Just some filing. Nothing important,’ Monique answered, climbing to her feet and straightening out the creases in her black pencil skirt. It was clear from her body language that something wasn’t quite right.
Caroline looked at the papers on the floor. ‘Those are invoices, aren’t they?’
‘Old ones,’ Monique replied, bending back down and scooping them up. ‘No use having them cluttering up the place, is there?’
‘This one’s dated last month,’ Caroline said, picking up an invoice and inspecting it.
‘Yes, well, everything’s digitised now, isn’t it? It’s all dealt with, and we try to be as environmentally friendly as we can.’
‘By feeding paper into an electric shredder?’
‘It gets recycled. That can’t happen if it’s in a filing cabinet. Anyway, can I help you?’
Caroline looked around the office, enjoying the fact she’d taken Monique by surprise and put her on the back foot. It had crossed her mind that there’d been a distinct lack of Latin phraseology so far, too.
‘I was hoping to ask you a couple of questions about your relationship with Martin Forbes,’ she said, looking back at Monique. Now that she’d caught her on the hop, she felt like a predator going in for the kill. Monique had clearly been up to no good, and seemed far too keen to stop Caroline getting a closer look at any of the paperwork she’d been shredding.
‘You’ve already asked me that,’ Monique replied.
‘Ah. No, I mean your other relationship.’
The response was subtle — a slight facial twitch — but Caroline had been looking for it, and it had made itself apparent.
‘Sorry. I don’t know what you mean. Now, I really must get on.’
‘So you’re telling me you weren’t having a sexual relationship with Martin Forbes?’ she asked, looking her dead in the eyes. It was clever wording from Caroline. She hadn’t made an accusation, hadn’t verbalised it as a statement, but had loaded the question with enough weight to make a guilty party aware of what she knew.
Monique swallowed, her fake eyelashes fluttering like plastic insects trying to take off. ‘Uh, well, I don’t know quite what you’re insinuating, but—’
‘It’s a perfectly simple question,’ Caroline replied.
Monique let out a sigh, the tension visibly easing from her body as she perched herself against the edge of Martin’s desk and folded her arms. A defensive motion, Caroline noted.
‘What do you already know?’ Monique asked.
‘I’ll ask the questions, if that’s okay. How long has it been going on?’
Monique shrugged. ‘A while.’
‘Months? Years?’
‘Closer to the latter.’
Caroline nodded. A long-term affair. A classic example of a situation ready to explode, with deadly consequences. She’d need to ensure everything was recorded in an official statement from Monique, but she got the sense that now wasn’t the time to approach that. At the very least, Monique was talking. ‘Was it serious?’ Caroline asked.
Monique made a noise that sounded like somebody deflating a beach ball. ‘No. Of course not. It was just sex.’
‘For years?’
‘Not far off. I haven’t exactly been keeping a diary.’
‘Who else knew?’
‘No-one, as far as I was aware. But clearly someone’s figured it out and told you.’
Caroline ignored the thinly veiled request for names. ‘Was Martin’s wife aware?’
‘I doubt it. Awareness has never really been her strong point. She’s either brilliant at burying her head in the sand or she genuinely has no idea who she was married to.’
Caroline sensed there was something hidden beneath those final words. Could there have been more to Martin’s vices than an extra-marital affair? ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
‘Nothing. It’s fine.’
‘It really isn’t. If you have information which could lead to Martin’s killer, why would you want to withhold it?’
Monique shuffled awkwardly. ‘It won’t lead to Martin’s killer.’
‘And how could you possibly know that?’ Caroline asked, cocking her head.
‘I think it’s best I consult a lawyer before I say anything else,’ Monique replied, her voice almost a whisper.
Caroline nodded. So this was how it was going to be. ‘There’s certainly a way we can speed that up, Monique. I’m afraid I’m left with very little alternative but to place you under arrest and bring you in for formal questioning.’