56

Eileen listened carefully to what Ian was saying.

‘So we need to go round there and check whether the dog she was talking about is the same dog that attacked Charlotte,’ Geraldine added. ‘And we need to do it before the owner gets wind of our suspicions.’

Eileen nodded. ‘I see where you’re coming from, but what’s important now is that we’re not distracted from searching for evidence that Eddy could have been present when these murders were committed. We know he lied about being with his wife at the time of his stepmother’s murder. We can’t be sure he isn’t giving us another trumped-up alibi.’

Geraldine could hardly insist they forget about Eddy and focus on searching for the dog. Seemingly convinced Eddy was guilty, the detective chief inspector had been sceptical of the alibi he had given Geraldine.

‘Granted there was a robbery in town that evening, that’s still hardly conclusive. He could have seen it on the local news, or read about it in the paper. While his wife was out, he could have gone to visit his stepmother without anyone knowing. His aunt’s unlikely to have left her house with a stranger, in her slippers, so she was presumably killed by someone she knew. And the most compelling thing pointing to him having killed both his parents is that we know he’s in serious financial difficulty, and with them out of the way he stands to inherit a sizeable estate. Whichever way you look at it, everything points to Eddy.’

Even so, Eileen had agreed it was also important to pursue the new line of enquiry. Given that Charlotte had been killed by a dog, and that traces of faeces from the same animal had been discovered near Amanda’s corpse, it was clear that the killer either owned a dog, or else knew someone who did. After the meeting with Eileen, Geraldine drove straight back to the hospital. When she introduced herself and explained the purpose of her visit, the nurse she was speaking to shook her head.

‘I’m afraid she’s not regained consciousness since this morning,’ the nurse said. ‘We’d like to contact her family, but we don’t know who she is.’

‘Haven’t we checked her dental records?’

‘It looks as though she hasn’t had her teeth looked at for decades, if ever.’

Geraldine took a DNA sample from the patient so she could check for a match on the police database. ‘We’re also interested in discovering her identity.’

She didn’t add that the reason the police wanted to know the woman’s identity was that they were keen to search her home, hoping to find a dangerous dog and, hopefully, a killer. At last she was on her way back to the police station with the victim’s DNA sample. There was no match for it on the database, so that was no help. It was time to question Eddy again. He was adamant that when his stepmother had been killed he had been driving the getaway car after a theft. All the details he had given them tied in with an actual robbery but they needed something more conclusive than that if his alibi was to be believed.

Geraldine glanced at Ian who was sitting silently staring straight ahead. She was concerned about him. For a few days he hadn’t been looking like his usual cheerful self. He put on a jaunty show when other people were around, but Geraldine had known him for a long time, since he was a young sergeant, and she could tell he was troubled. She wondered if he was ill. With a sideways glance at him, she stepped in and took control of the questioning.

She leaned forward and spoke firmly. ‘Eddy, you do understand that without any names your alibi’s useless?’

‘I told you his name. It’s Abe. That’s all I know.’ His voice rose in a whine. ‘I’m telling you the truth. I wasn’t on my own, so you can’t say I haven’t got an alibi because I have.’

It took her a while to worm out of him that Eddy had first met the man he called Abe in a betting shop, after which they had gone to a pub and then met on the street. A team was immediately set to work, checking CCTV, to try and piece together Eddy’s movements on the evening of his stepmother’s death, and to establish who he was with. They began by viewing the film from the evening when Eddy claimed he had first met the man he called Abe. No one by that name was known to the police. Vice, drugs squad, and borough intelligence had all checked their records and drawn a blank. No one by that name had even been given a parking ticket or speeding fine. By the following morning the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections team had scrutinised hours and hours of film footage. Eddy was recorded entering a betting shop, just as he had described. He left there just over two hours later in the company of a tall man. Even with image enhancement it proved impossible to make out any of his features hidden in shadow inside his black hood.

‘He’s keeping his back to the camera,’ one of the VIIDO officers told Geraldine, who was leaning forward looking at the screen. ‘We’ve been through this section of film again and again but there’s no sight of his face, and no other clue to his identity.’

The same thing happened when Eddy and his companion were picked up again about ten minutes later, entering a local pub. Eddy’s face was clear enough to recognise but the other man must either have been very lucky or else he knew the position of the security cameras, because he had his back to them the whole time. There was no other sighting of the two men on camera that they had been able to find yet.

‘We’ll keep searching,’ the VIIDO officer assured Geraldine.

They both knew it was likely to be pointless. They were hardly likely to catch a chance glimpse of Eddy on CCTV again, with his hooded companion’s face visible.

‘We’ll just have to put pressure on him to talk,’ Eileen said when she was brought up to speed. ‘His alibi is suspect, to say the least, and we know Amanda was killed by someone she knew. A woman of her age wouldn’t go out in her dressing gown and slippers with a stranger. Only someone she knew could have persuaded her to go out like that.’

‘I wonder why anyone would want to do that,’ Geraldine muttered.

She glanced at Ian but he didn’t respond to her helpless shrug.

‘We need someone else, a witness, to corroborate what you’re telling us,’ Geraldine repeated to Eddy.

He scowled at her. ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’

‘It’s not a question of whether or not we believe you,’ Geraldine said wearily. ‘A jury won’t take your word for it. If you don’t have a witness…’ she broke off with an exaggerated sigh. ‘Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.’

‘But this is ridiculous!’ Eddy burst out. ‘I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t kill my stepmother. I didn’t go anywhere near her on Friday. Why would I want to kill her, anyway?’

‘Money,’ Ian said curtly, speaking for the first time.

As though Ian’s contribution was his cue, the lawyer joined in. His narrow features were pinched with exasperation, while his voice seemed devoid of energy.

‘You have to tell the police what they want to hear. If you don’t, they’re going to think the worst.’

‘You don’t know that,’ Eddy objected, casting a glance of supplication at Geraldine. ‘You can’t assume they’re all bad, just because they’re cops.’

‘They want a conviction, Eddy. That’s their job. And mine is to protect you, so I have to warn you, if you don’t tell the police everything they want to know, you’ll risk being convicted for murder. Three murders in fact. It doesn’t matter whether or not you killed anyone. All that counts is what a jury are going to believe. And refusing to cooperate with the police isn’t going to help your case. You have to tell the police the name of your witness.’

Eddy’s dark eyes glared helplessly around the room. He was sweating.

‘Abe’s the only name I know. That’s what I called him. Abe.’

The lawyer called for a break and they left the room.

As they walked along the corridor back to the offices, Geraldine approached Ian quietly.

‘Are you all right?’

‘Why shouldn’t I be?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t want to pry, but you haven’t seemed like yourself for the last few days.’

He frowned. ‘Is it that obvious?’

‘Only to someone who knows you really well.’

He looked surprised by her answer and she felt her face grow hot.

‘I mean, we’ve known each other for a long time,’ she added. ‘Tell me to get lost and it’s none of my business if you like, I won’t mind, but if there is something wrong, I thought you might like to talk about it with a friend.’

They were nearly back at his office when he paused in his stride and turned to face her. In a low voice he told her that his ex-wife had asked to see him. Momentarily nonplussed, Geraldine hesitated. She didn’t think it would be right for Ian to be reconciled with his wife after the way she had cheated on him and deserted him, but she wasn’t sure she could trust herself to give a sensible response. In wanting him to reject his wife, she was afraid she might be motivated by self-interest.

‘Do you want to see her?’ she asked before the silence could become awkward.

‘She left me because she was having another man’s baby,’ he replied sourly. ‘Why would I ever want to see her again?’

He turned and disappeared into his office, but not before Geraldine had seen the hurt in his eyes. She wanted to follow him and say something comforting to him but she continued walking steadily back to the office, maintaining an appropriately calm expression.