‘What do you think Radhika will want to do?’ Dan asked Bill. He had given Dr Wolf the slip, or rather he’d called LeJuan with instructions to inform the good doctor that personal business would prevent Dan from returning to work before tomorrow.
Bill had been quiet on the drive from Gloucester to Broadway and the Crown and Trumpet on Church Street. He was still quiet.
‘Bill,’ Dan prompted him. ‘You OK?’
‘Sure. Great. If I knew what Radhika was thinking I might really be great.’
‘The fire was only today,’ Dan said. ‘There’s a fair amount of damage, true, but it’ll all get put back together and it may not take as long as you think once the investigation is completed and they get started.’
Bill looked into his glass and didn’t respond.
‘Do you feel like expanding on what you’re thinking?’ Dan persisted.
‘She doesn’t want to keep staying at Tony’s clinic,’ Bill said. ‘Even though there’s a whole unused flat upstairs and Tony’s told her it’s great to have her there and checking on things. Radhika still thinks she’s taking advantage. She’s shocked, of course, and probably frightened though she’d never admit that.’
The man was deeply troubled and for once he was letting it show. ‘Is she frightened because there’s talk of arson?’
‘What do you think?’ Bill drank some cider and smiled a little. ‘Hairy Ferret. With a name like that, it’s as well it’s damn good cider. She thinks – again she hasn’t said it – but she thinks someone wanted to hurt her. I’m sure of that.’
‘I don’t believe that was it.’ Dan thought he knew what was bothering Bill and it wasn’t only the manor house damage. ‘If it was arson, and I think it was, the fire was set in the tower but it was obvious she wasn’t there. All the fire chief has told us is that he thinks it started on that spiral stone staircase. Probably went slowly at first, then worked upward. There’s an attic opening to the rest of the house from those stairs and if it went through there, that’s what caused fire to spread across. It was only in the first upper rooms of the house.’
‘So you think what they wanted most was to burn down the tower?’
‘We’ll have to leave that to fire investigators,’ Bill said. He sipped his cider. ‘Do you want to share what else is on your mind?’
A bartender called out Dan’s name and he went to pick up two plates of haddock in deep golden batter, and chips.
The pub was old, seventeenth century, the cozy, open bars running from one to another. Spindle chairs clustered among dark polished tables and high-backed settles with upholstered cushions. The arrangement gave customers intimate spaces although there were only scattered early diners and drinkers on this Sunday evening.
He put down the plates and sat again. They would nurse their drinks. It looked bad when plods got stopped for drink driving.
‘Tuck into that,’ he told Bill, trying to sound more cheerful than he felt.
They ate in silence for a few moments.
‘It’s good,’ Bill said. ‘I’ve always liked this place.’
‘Are you settled in that new flat?’ Not subtle, Dan. ‘I’m thinking of moving but I’ll see how Calum reacts to the idea. Kids get attached to homes – not that it is his home now he’s in Ireland with his mother.’
Bill put down his knife and fork and tented his hands. ‘Do you ever think about marrying again?’
Bingo! He thought about his answer. ‘I might like to. Sometimes I’d definitely like to. No prospects on the horizon, though.’ These days he tried not to think about Alex too deeply. He couldn’t change her feelings, or become the man she wanted to be with.
‘I’m damned if I know what I want to do,’ Bill said and took a hefty pull on his cider. ‘That’s a lie. I think I know but I don’t want to rock any boats, not now. Not ever.’
‘Don’t let the boat sail,’ Dan said and immediately regretted it. ‘I only mean that sometimes you can put something off until it’s not possible anymore … hell, I hope you know what I mean.’
‘Yes, I do. Radhika and I have talked about where we go from here but only around the edges. I know there’s love there, and everything else we need to be together, but what if …’ He shook his head slowly from side to side. ‘Timing will be everything. I don’t want her to think I’m only interested in getting her to live with me and using the fire as an excuse.’ He blushed, not something Dan ever remembered seeing before.
Smart Alec comments were usually a bad idea, definitely at this moment. ‘You’ll sort it out, Bill. I’m no advertisement for relationship success but I may be wiser than I used to be about some things. Talk to me whenever you feel like it. Just unload. That can help.’
‘Right,’ Bill said but Dan doubted the man would voluntarily pour out his guts again anytime soon.
‘Nothing from the diver up at the pond so far,’ he said.
‘He’d hardly been in the water when the fire at Radhika’s started,’ Bill said. ‘They heard the calls, and saw smoke, and had the diver come back up. All he’d reached was what they say looks like the first radio made – and fossilized. Junk. The thing is really deep. They knocked off for an hour or so when the fire at Radhika’s was reported. Already being so close like that, they wanted to stand by in case they were needed, but they’re going back at it. I expect to hear they’re either through for the night or just through, period. Looks like they’ll have to go back tomorrow. Bloody waste of time and money.’
‘Evening, sir – guv.’ LeJuan arrived and slid to sit in a chair opposite Dan and Bill. He gave one of his famous grins. ‘Thought you might be glad to see me.’
‘Do we look that hard up?’ Bill said, deadpan.
LeJuan put a manila envelope on the table and turned to look at the counter. ‘Can I interest anyone else in a drink – another drink?’
When he got no takers, he went to the bar and returned with a glass of what looked like pale ale, and a bag of crisps. The latter he opened and crunched down rapidly while Bill continued eating and Dan stared at the envelope.
‘Interested?’ Crumpling the empty crisp bag with one hand, LeJuan pushed the thick packet back and forth on the table with one long forefinger.
Dan shrugged. ‘You’ll tell us about it if you want to. Won’t he, Bill?’
‘Get on with it!’ Bill made a move toward LeJuan’s prize, but he whipped it up.
‘If you insist.’ LeJuan revealed a sheet of notes and photographs of different sizes kept separated by their own clear sleeves. ‘This is all better on a screen but you’ll get the idea. The original,’ he said, producing the fuzzy photo that had accompanied the one of Hugh found on a bed at Green Friday.
Other shots, some large, some close-ups of details, were soon spread out. Dan moved their plates to a nearby empty table and the three men huddled together to look.
Eventually Bill crossed his arms and said, ‘Impressive work with the original, but if this is a big reveal, I’m not getting it.’ For which Dan was grateful since he could merely appear impassive.
‘Yeah, right,’ LeJuan said meaningfully. ‘These don’t mean a thing to either of you. Look at the wall behind the man. Graffiti art. Brilliant graffiti art.’
‘If you say so,’ Dan commented.
‘Not on my garden walls,’ Bill added.
LeJuan only grinned. ‘First, you don’t have a garden, so no garden walls. Second, these things are worth a chunk by some artists. More than a chunk. People used to pay this man a fortune to do one of these. And he didn’t just paint outside walls. He was in art galleries.’
‘Not the Louvre,’ Bill muttered.
‘Does the name Zack in connection with graffiti art – also called urban art or street art – mean anything to you?’
Dan matched Bill’s negative shake of the head.
‘Well, that’s who he is. Zack – one name only. But there’s something else he’s more famous for. Real name, Scott Zachary Wilson. Ring any bells yet?’
‘He’s …’ Bill leaned farther forward and lowered his voice. ‘He murdered his parents in the Lake District? Windermere?’
Now Dan remembered. He ought to. The case had been luridly reported in every gruesome detail, together with the killer’s attempt to flee followed by an ambush arrest in which a SWAT team member was badly wounded.
They passed the photos between them and read notes about the process of the examination that had been done, together with a summary of the crime on another sheet of paper.
‘The big question is, what was it doing together with a picture of Hugh among our missing woman’s possessions – a woman we’re presuming is Sonia Quillam?’ Bill said.
LeJuan propped his jaw on a hand. ‘We don’t know, but Zachary Wilson is in the same forensic psych facility as Elyan Quillam.’