Before six the next morning, a call from Harriet Burke catapulted Alex and Tony from sleep. Tony swung his legs over the side of the bed and grabbed his mobile.
‘Tony?’ Harriet all but whispered. ‘I’ve never done a thing like this before but you gave me this number and I had to make sure you knew. You’ll have to go to Alex and tell her. She’ll need a lot of comforting. We think it’s important for you to decide how to deal with it before people start babbling and asking all sorts of questions. You know how they are. Then they’ll talk about so-called remembering this and that and how they can’t imagine why they didn’t notice at the time. You—’
‘Harriet,’ Tony interrupted, as gently as he could. ‘Please, take a big breath and explain what’s upsetting you.’
Alex scrambled to sit beside him and put her face by his, trying to hear the conversation. He moved the phone closer to her ear.
‘Do you take the morning paper?’ Harriet said.
‘At the clinic, yes,’ Tony said.
‘Well, we get two copies and we each read one in bed,’ Harriet announced. ‘The murders are all over the thing. Of course, there aren’t many other things of interest, are there? No. But, and it’s hard to say this, but there’s an unsavory piece written in that unpleasant secret-sharing way these people have sometimes. A source who can’t be named for their own safety, that’s what it says.’
Tony closed his eyes. ‘What else does it say?’ He thought he knew what was coming.
‘It’s one of those local interest pieces – at least I suppose it is. Just a sidebar but on the front page. About how some women can’t be trusted with other women’s husbands. A well-known local woman who owns one of the most successful businesses in Folly-on-Weir likes multiple men in her life. Lately she’s been seen in rather questionable situations with a very prosperous businessman who is much older than she is. This isn’t the first time this woman has caused heartbreak. She ruined her first husband’s life with her demands during a messy divorce in which many consider her the unreasonable party.’
‘That little shit,’ Tony muttered.
‘Excuse me?’ Harriet said. ‘What did you say? What can we do to help? You see, everyone will know who this is talking about, don’t you think?’ The sound of rustling paper was clear. ‘And Mary says to tell you there’s another artist’s sketch of this Beverly woman – in a different article, of course – it shows her with more gray in her hair and older again than the first pictures. The police have had a lot of calls but it doesn’t say anything about finding this person.’
‘Thank you very much, Harriet,’ Tony said. ‘And thank Mary for me, please. I’ll talk to Alex and we’ll see you soon. Meanwhile, the only thing you can do to help is be noncommittal. The truth will come out eventually and we’ll hope it doesn’t take long.’
Alex held his arm and rested her head against his shoulder. ‘I’m beginning to wonder if we will see all this cleared up.’
‘I think we will but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go to Knighton today, do you? Under the circumstances?’
‘If I don’t and Grant finds out I was coming but changed my mind, he’ll use that as proof that his nasty tales have frightened me because they’re true and now they’re in the open. Let me think about it.’
Yesterday’s struggling sun was a memory. Lashings of rain slanted out of gunmetal gray skies and a vicious wind drove the rain harder while it made creaking monsters of the trees.
Dan ran from the car to the parish hall and cranked the door handle until he all but fell inside the building. Bill followed, cursing aloud at the infidelities of nature.
‘Morning, guv, sergeant.’ Ashton and Longlegs stared at their superiors. ‘Early, aren’t you? Good thing LeJuan got the coffee here. No pastries yet, though.’ That was Longlegs’ contribution. Ashton continued to stare.
‘All right, all right,’ Dan said. ‘This isn’t the first time you’ve seen either of us early in the morning. I’m glad you got the message to be back here today. I hope you also heard you’d better be on your toes. My temper is very short. You’ll have seen what’s in the papers and there will be an early news conference on the tele. Where’s LeJuan?’
‘He said he’ll be back in half an hour,’ Longlegs said. ‘That was, well, it was a little while ago.’
‘Does he have a romantic interest in Folly?’ Bill asked. ‘Someone he’s romantically interested in, I mean?’
‘I wouldn’t know about that,’ Ashton said, deadpan.
The constable answered a phone and frowned while he listened. ‘I think he knows but I’ll tell him. Yes, I’m listening.’ There was a pause. ‘Is that so? Any confirmed contact for that. Let me ask Detective Chief Inspector O’Reilly and one of us will get right back to you.’
Dan waited while Ashton hung up. ‘Well?’
‘Response to one of yesterday’s sketches that sounds promising, guv. Woman says she’s a retired nurse who worked for a plastic surgeon in London. They’re asking what you want to do about it.’
Crossing his arms, Dan did his best to keep his tone level. ‘What about the retired nurse who worked for the plastic surgeon?’
‘Oh, sorry, guv. She thinks she remembers a patient who looked like the second sketch of Beverly Irving. That name doesn’t ring a bell. She says if the woman in the sketch is the one she’s thinking of, she doesn’t look anything like that anymore.’