‘Please bear with us, Dayle.’
Dayle frowned. Whether it was at the use of her first name or at being asked to bear with them, Annie wasn’t certain.
‘Now, around the time Gavin Miller had been accused of sexual misconduct, he came to see you here, drunk, you said, and started to pour out his feelings of being an innocent person victimised and demonised.’
‘Right.’
‘But you didn’t believe him.’
‘There’s no smoke without fire.’
‘And you also had first-hand examples of his awkward sexuality, and his apparent inability to handle normal relationships.’
‘You could say that.’
Annie sipped some tea. It was a bit weak. She liked to use two teabags steeped in the pot for seven minutes. A blackbird perched on the wall at the back and sang. Such a beautiful song for such a common and underappreciated bird, she thought. ‘In fact, you considered it quite believable that he might try to bully or blackmail some poor defenceless young student into having sex with him.’
Dayle paused. ‘Well, I wouldn’t put it quite like that, but it certainly wouldn’t have surprised me, no.’
‘Did Gavin Miller know you felt that way about him?’
‘Of course not. Why would I tell him that?’
‘Even when he came to see you?’
‘No. I tried to listen patiently. I made all the right noises and got rid of him as quickly as I could.’
‘He wasn’t angry with you?’
‘He had no reason to be.’
‘And you never saw him again?’
‘No.’
Winsome turned a page in her notebook and Dayle glanced over at her. ‘What’s this all about? Would you please get to the point.’
Winsome glanced at Annie, who went on, ‘Did you have a conversation, or a series of conversations, with Sally Lomax several weeks after Gavin Miller came to see you?’
‘I’ve had many conversations with Sally. I told you. We’re friends.’
‘Yes, but this one was specifically to do with Gavin Miller and his problems. Someone had been to see Trevor Lomax at the college. Someone who told him that she had overheard the two girls who accused Gavin Miller talking in the ladies’, and that they had admitted they set him up. Do you remember that?’
Dayle averted her eyes. ‘Vaguely. Why? What does it matter now?’
‘Did Sally Lomax seek your opinion on the subject?’
‘She may have done. We often discussed things. It’s what friends do.’
‘Personal things?’
‘All sort of things.’
‘Did she tell you that her husband was in a bit of a quandary? He was a friend of Gavin Miller’s, and he wanted to help him, but he didn’t trust the girl who came to see him with the information, and he thought she might be making the whole thing up.’
‘That’s more or less what Sally said, yes.’
‘And that it was also too late to do anything, anyway, and that trying to do something might cause a hell of a stink and drag the college into some nasty publicity, something they had managed to avoid thus far?’
‘She may have mentioned that. Sally is very committed to Trevor’s career.’
‘Is Trevor ambitious?’
‘I suppose you could say he is.’
‘And Sally?’
Dayle thought for a moment, cradling her mug. ‘She likes her job, but I wouldn’t say she was ambitious. She’s more than happy to follow along behind Trevor’s coat-tails, be the belle of the department Christmas party. Sally’s a very attractive woman.’
‘So her ambitions are for her husband?’
‘Sally’s no Lady Macbeth.’
‘Sorry, that’s not what I meant. Interesting point, though. Look at all the bodies in that play.’
‘Are you suggesting that Gavin’s murder four years later has anything to do with some misguided plot of Trevor’s to take power?’
‘Not at all. How could it have? Gavin Miller had no power. Trevor Lomax was his boss. Besides, what would be the next step for him? Dean? Vice chancellor? I don’t know much about the college hierarchy.’
‘Clearly. Then...?’
‘Well, whatever it is, he hasn’t got there. He’s in exactly the same position as he was four years ago. Department head. What I’m asking is what you advised Sally Lomax to tell him.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘A woman whose ambitions are mostly for her husband’s success tends to have a great deal more power and influence over him than we’d imagine. She has to, in order to manoeuvre him into making the right decisions, the ones that benefit his career, and therefore her, the most.’
‘This is all a bit too Machiavellian for me.’
‘Did Sally seek your advice?’
‘She asked me what I thought about it all, yes.’
‘And what did you tell her?’
‘That Gavin probably put the girl up to it, making up some story about overhearing them.’
‘Would it surprise you to hear that Gavin had never heard anything about the matter, or at least so we believe? That it never went any further than Trevor Lomax’s office.’
‘I can’t say as I’ve ever really given it much thought.’
‘You should,’ Annie said. ‘You see, based on your experience with Gavin, you told Sally to ignore what the girl said, that he’d most likely done it, and that no good would be served by trying to open another inquiry on the basis of one student’s say-so. That it would only cause problems for Trevor, and possibly harm his future career prospects. Am I at all close?’
Dayle’s lips drew tight, and her expression darkened a little. She put her mug down and folded her arms. ‘So what if I did? It’s true, isn’t it? No one ever comes out of these things smelling of roses.’
‘Well, Gavin Miller certainly didn’t.’
‘Gavin, Gavin, Gavin. I’m sick of hearing about poor bloody Gavin. Other people have worked hard for what they’ve got, you know. I don’t see why we should all waste our time helping some bloody loser to get reinstated for something he probably did anyway. Making him out to be some sort of victim we should all feel sorry for. Believe me, coercing a student was probably the only way Gavin Miller could have got laid.’
‘Except with you,’ said Annie. ‘And he’d already failed that test, hadn’t he? Did that make you feel angry and rejected, Dayle, that he didn’t fancy you enough to shag you? What did you do wrong? Come on a bit too strong with him? A touch of the Fifty Shades, was it? Bring out the whips and chains?’
Dayle stood up abruptly. ‘That’s it, you nasty little bitch. I’ve had enough. I let you into my home, and you sit there and insult me. I don’t have to listen to any more of this. You can get out now. Both of you. Go on. Get out!’
‘Oh, sit down, Dayle,’ said Annie. She could see that Winsome was on the verge of leaving but gestured for her to remain seated. ‘We’re not going anywhere until we’ve got what we want.’
‘I’ll make an official complaint to your boss.’
‘Go ahead. It wouldn’t be the first time.’
Slowly, Dayle subsided back into her chair like a deflating doll. ‘You can’t talk to me like that.’
‘Sorry,’ said Annie. ‘Really. It’s just that shock tactics sometimes get us where we want to go much faster than being nice. Saves a lot of time.’
‘And where is it you want to go?’
‘I want to establish that when someone went to tell Trevor Lomax what she had overheard in the ladies’, Lomax was close to believing her and close to trying to find some way of exonerating Gavin Miller. But that you persuaded Sally Lomax that Miller was not worth putting her husband’s career on the line for, and that Miller probably did what he was accused of, anyway.’
‘OK, so that’s what I thought. That’s what I said. What of it? I’m entitled to my opinion, aren’t I?’