‘How?’
‘You have to understand that Adrienne and Sarah were very different personalities. Sarah was outgoing, a bit brazen, up for anything, scared of nothing. Adrienne was shy, more reserved and pretty conservative sexually. They were both incredibly sexy, but for different reasons. There was an innocence about Adrienne and a sort of earthy joie de vivre about Sarah.’ Mia drank more water. ‘As you know, Laurence Hadfield and Anthony Randall were mates. Apparently, they went out for dinner together once with the girls, some swank restaurant in Manchester. Well, Adrienne caught Randall’s eye — he was always a bit of sadist, I thought, and despoiling innocence would probably be right up his street — and Hadfield developed an itch for eastern promise.’
‘Let me get this straight,’ said Banks. ‘Both girls were sleeping with their partners, right? Having sex with them?’
‘Yes. But, as I said, Adrienne had this aura of innocence. As a good deal of sex has to do with fantasy, Randall could imagine himself despoiling her innocence. I’m not saying he was into rape or S&M or anything, except in his fantasies.’
Banks glanced at Gerry to see how she was doing. She gave him a nod, which let him know she was keeping up fine. And no doubt understanding it. ‘Go on,’ he said to Mia.
‘Randall and Hadfield came up with the idea of a sort of girlfriend-swapping scenario. But first they wanted to watch the girls frolic by themselves for a while, just to get their juices going, you might say. Adrienne rang me when Hadfield was putting pressure on her to get involved with this foursome scheme, and it made her nervous.’
‘And your role was?’
Mia looked away. ‘I’m ashamed to say that I talked her into it. I’m not proud of myself, but Adrienne lacked confidence. She was a true natural beauty, but it was a hard job talking her into having a sugar daddy in the first place. It was the money that did it, really. The poor kid was broke and she wanted to finish her studies. She also wanted to go off to Africa or somewhere and see wildlife, help the starving people. Adrienne was a humanitarian. She felt she was sacrificing something, her innocence, whatever, for her ideals. I grasped that when I first tried to persuade her to try the life, and I thought if I had succeeded there, I could succeed with this other thing. All she needed was a gentle nudge in the right direction. After all, what did it amount to? A roll in the hay with Sarah wouldn’t have been so bad, then she just had to fuck Randall. Well, I could think of many better things, like having a root canal, but there you go. And there was a nice bonus in it for everyone. But Adrienne was already feeling bad about what she was doing. You know, being Hadfield’s sugar baby. Just how bad I didn’t quite realise. She just... It wasn’t her... Nobody forced her. She forced herself, and it damaged her.’ Mia shook her head. ‘I should have seen that coming, done something about it. Do you know, I think she died of shame.’
‘Did you have feelings for Adrienne, Mia?’
‘I... I...’
‘Be honest. We’re not here to judge you.’
Mia was silent for a while, chewing on her lower lip. Finally, she nodded. ‘I liked her, yes. Maybe more. But it couldn’t be more. I can’t have feelings for the girls I recruit. Or the men. I’m bi, but Adrienne wasn’t. Looking back, I shouldn’t have tried to persuade her. I should have just told her to forget the whole thing. In fact, I shouldn’t even have convinced her to go with Hadfield in the first place.’
‘Easy to say with twenty-twenty hindsight.’
‘Well, given what happened... I mean... I just told her to take a couple of pills to relax, you know, like when you go to the dentist’s sometimes.’
‘What pills?’
‘I gave her two Valium. I have them on prescription.’
‘From Randall?’
‘God, no. I wouldn’t go to him for an ingrown toenail. Besides, like I said, he’s not a GP.’
‘Just two Valium?’
‘Yes. I honestly don’t do drugs. Nor do my girls, at least not if I can help it. I try to be very careful about that. Sometimes, though, with the kind of thing they were planning, you just need something to take you out of yourself.’
‘What did she do with them?’
‘Took them, I suppose. The next time I saw her she was dead. But it can’t have been because of two Valium.’
‘Back up a bit, Mia.’
Mia sniffled, and Banks passed her a tissue. ‘Look at me,’ she said. ‘Behaving like a silly little girl.’
‘It’s OK. Take your time.’
‘I persuaded her to go through with it. That’s all there is to it. I persuaded her, and she ended up dead. I also gave Sarah Adrienne’s number so they could talk it through and feel more comfortable together. Like I said, Sarah was so much more confident than Adrienne. It was all set to take place at Laurence Hadfield’s house on that Saturday night.’
‘What time?’
‘I don’t know the exact time. Evening.’
‘So what went wrong?’
‘I got a call from Hadfield at about nine. He said something had gone terribly wrong and I had to get over to his place right away. He wouldn’t tell me what it was, not even over the burner. Naturally, I was worried something had happened to Adrienne or Sarah, so I headed out there.’
‘And what did you find?’
‘Randall and Sarah were there with Hadfield. I didn’t see Adrienne. Sarah was in hysterics, saying we had to call the police and an ambulance, and Randall and Hadfield were telling her not to be a fool, it was too late for that. I asked what had happened, and Hadfield told me Adrienne had taken some of his pills from the bathroom cabinet and must have had a bad reaction. Mandrax. He has trouble sleeping and he gets them from a doctor he knows in Cape Town. Adrienne also had a bottle of whisky with her. She never usually drank much. She was probably trying to psych herself up for the show.’
‘Where was she?’
‘Upstairs. In the big bathroom. Apparently, she’d been there a long time, too long, and both Randall and Hadfield were getting impatient, so they sent Sarah up to talk to her. It was Sarah who found her body. Hadfield told me Adrienne had been edgy all evening and had even told him she wasn’t sure she could go through with it.’
‘Are you sure he didn’t offer her the pills and booze to make her comply, the way you offered her Valium?’
‘No, I’m not sure. I wasn’t there earlier. But what does it matter? They’re both dead. All I knew was that she’d taken them.’
‘What happened next?’
‘I tried to calm Sarah down, but I couldn’t. There was no way. She was in a hell of state. In the end, Randall took her out to the car and they drove off. I’m sure her carrying on must have sent him over the edge, and he killed her, but I can’t prove it. I wish I could.’
In all likelihood, Mia was right, Banks thought. When they got to the bothy off the country lane, Randall had had enough of Sarah’s hysterics and threats of calling the police, so he let her out of the car. She ran off, he went after her, then they argued some more and he killed her. Annie had mentioned seeing evidence of his quick temper in her and Gerry’s first interview with him.
‘Don’t worry about that,’ Banks said. ‘We’ll make sure Randall pays for what he did. He’s got more than the Medical Ethics Committee to deal with now. Why didn’t he try to help Adrienne? He is a doctor, after all.’