Caroline walked into the interview room feeling like the cat that got the cream. She sat down next to Dexter, opposite Monique and her solicitor, both of whom looked as though they’d rather be anywhere else.
‘Okay Monique,’ she said, starting the interview. ‘Let’s begin by recapping what you told me earlier today at your workplace, shall we? For the record, you told me that you’d been having a relationship with Martin Forbes for some time. To use your words, it was “just sex”. Is that correct?’
Monique replied without looking up. ‘No comment.’
‘Right,’ Caroline said, sighing. ‘Now, I don’t know if that’s something you’ve got off the telly or if your solicitor told you to say that, but I’ll give you credit and presume it’s the latter. He may well have led you to believe that because you told me about the affair before you were arrested, it won’t be admissible in court. First of all, that’s not strictly correct. In fact, it would likely count heavily against you in court if you were shown to have retracted evidential statements which we can otherwise prove to be true.’
‘Those last four words being the crucial ones,’ the solicitor remarked.
‘I don’t think they’ll be an issue,’ Caroline replied, smiling and turning her attention back to Monique. ‘Besides which, if you’re as innocent as you make out, you have nothing to worry about, do you? Holding things back is only going to prolong the situation. So it was “just sex”, was it?’
Monique looked briefly at her solicitor, and Caroline could see her confidence in him had started to fall. ‘No comment,’ she whispered.
‘Okay. In that case, let’s move on to something else. We can circle back round later. When I came back to the offices of Allure Design earlier today, I found you shredding some documents. Can you tell me what they were please?’
‘No comment.’
‘That’s fine. We seized the rest of them anyway, plus the ones that had already been shredded. It’s an impressive cross-cut shredder, but you’d be amazed at what our guys can do nowadays, especially if they’ve got an idea what they’re looking for. I imagine that’ll be more invoices, will it? That’s what made up the rest of the pile.’
Monique chose not to answer.
‘The invoices were all made out to a company called DQK Consultancy. Have you heard of them?’
She glanced at her solicitor again before answering, this time even less convincingly. ‘No comment.’
‘The sole director of DQK Consultancy is somebody called Doris Knowles. Does that name ring any bells?’
Caroline watched as Monique clenched her jaw. She could tell from the body language between her and her solicitor that she’d already disclosed the truth to him. They must have been well aware this was going to come out.
‘Doris Knowles is you, isn’t it?’ she asked.
‘I hated the name,’ Monique answered, through gritted teeth. ‘It was my grandmother’s name. She died two weeks before I was born. I never even met the woman, and I already got saddled with a dead person’s name. I wouldn’t have minded if it was a nice name, but it’s just so… common.’
Caroline raised her eyebrows. ‘Well I’m sure your nan’s jumping for joy up there at the way you chose to honour her memory.’
‘Like I say, I never met her. There was nothing about my name that particularly appealed.’
‘So you changed your name. To the rather… different… Monique Dupont.’
‘Yes.’
‘Why did you form DQK Consultancy in your old name then?’
Monique took a deep breath, then exhaled heavily. ‘I don’t know. I wanted a bit of distance.’
‘And has DQK Consultancy ever functioned as an actual business, or does it exist purely to embezzle funds from Allure Design?’
The solicitor cleared his throat. ‘Detective Inspector, please take care with your choice of words.’
Caroline ignored him and looked at Monique. ‘Monique?’
‘Martin knew about it,’ she said eventually. ‘I raised invoices from DQK to Allure, then paid them through Allure’s accounts.’
‘Okay. Why?’
Monique shrugged. ‘Why not?’
‘You tell me. Tax dodge?’
‘No. I’ve always paid my taxes in full.’
‘So what was it then? Just stealing money for the fun of it?’
‘I told you. Martin knew. You can’t accuse me of stealing something from someone who knew about it and let it happen.’
‘We’ve only got your word for that, haven’t we? Martin, quite conveniently, happens to be dead. In any case, Sandra Forbes is also a director of Allure Design. Did she know you’d been embezzling funds?’
‘Detective Inspector,’ the solicitor grumbled.
‘I don’t want to answer that question,’ Monique replied.
Caroline jotted some notes on the pad in front of her as she spoke. ‘Okay. I’m sure your solicitor will make you aware of this if he hasn’t already, but Martin Forbes having been an accessory to your act of fraud perpetrated against a company co-owned by his unknowing wife doesn’t absolve you of any liability in that regard. Just so we’re clear. But let’s circle back round on this. Your relationship with Martin. Did that begin before or after you started this little scheme?’
Monique swallowed. ‘After.’
Caroline and Dexter exchanged a brief glance. ‘I see. And were you as keen on the idea as he was?’ She watched as Monique tried desperately to hide her reaction, lost in the confusion as to what she should be willing to tell them. ‘Did he coerce you into a sexual relationship in exchange for allowing the embezzlement to continue?’
Monique’s jaw began to tremble as tears filled her eyes. Eventually, she closed them and nodded.
Caroline looked at Dexter again. They both knew what the implications were. If Martin Forbes had coerced Monique into regularly having sex with him, effectively in exchange for money, it shifted the power dynamic substantially. But it also gave her a prime motive for murder.
‘Okay,’ Caroline said, now acutely aware of her duty of care towards Monique. ‘How do you feel? Are you happy to continue or would you like a few minutes?’
Monique shook her head and sniffed. ‘No. It’s fine. I want this all over with as quickly as possible.’
‘Alright. In that case, I’m sorry to have to ask you this, but can you tell me where you were between six o’clock yesterday evening and nine o’clock this morning?’
‘At my mum’s in Corby, for most of it.’
‘Most of it? Can you be a little more specific please?’
Monique sighed. ‘Okay, well I left work at the usual time and went straight round there. I stayed overnight until I left for work this morning. So no, it’s physically impossible for me to have killed Martin, if that’s what you’re asking.’
‘We are going to need to verify that, Monique. I hope you understand.’
‘Verify it all you like. I stayed over because my dad’s in hospital. They had a break-in a few years back, and the guys beat my dad to a pulp. It made the papers and everything. He had a bleed on the brain. He’s never been the same since. He gets seizures every now and then. Every few months, perhaps. Each time he does, he has to stay overnight in hospital for observation. Mum called me yesterday afternoon to say it’d happened again, so I stayed over with her. She’s petrified to sleep in the house on her own after what happened. Especially when the whole reason dad’s not there is because of the break-in.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Caroline said, mentally noting that it wouldn’t be difficult to confirm all this from police reports and hospital records.
‘And if you need proof,’ Monique said, as if reading Caroline’s mind, ‘that won’t be difficult either. They’ve done the place out like Fort Knox since that day. CCTV cameras, video doorbells, the lot. I was probably on more cameras and screens last night than Richard Osman.’
Caroline nodded. They’d have to access the footage as quickly as possible to verify her alibi, especially in light of the revelation that Monique had been a victim of sexual coercion. Caroline didn’t like to use the word lightly, but there could be a strong argument for calling it rape by deception or fraud.
‘Okay. We’re going to need to check the footage and confirm everything at this end. We’ll pull out all the stops to do that as quickly as we possibly can.’
‘Will I have to wait here, or can I go?’
Caroline pursed her lips. They hadn’t yet got any proof of what Monique was saying, and even if she could prove her whereabouts it didn’t clear her of conspiracy or some level of involvement. ‘We’ll need you to hold on a little longer, if that’s okay.’
Monique slowly nodded. ‘Yeah. Yeah okay. Just… try and be quick. Please. I really want to see my dad.’