‘Not really.’ Bren had phoned in that morning, struck down by the flu. Kathy had spoken to him and he’d been apologetic. There had been so many other things demanding his attention. She was sympathetic, but angry all the same. Her anger had been growing over the weekend, as she’d tried to work out the machinations that had allowed Warrender to follow her moves. And now, the memory of Guy at the airport gave her heart another wrench.
Brock saw it, the anger burning inside her. He leaned forward, eyes on her, and said, a note of caution in his voice, ‘But if that letter is genuine, Kathy, it sounds as if da Silva was making an earlier attempt to poison Marion, doesn’t it?’
‘Not with arsenic. Sundeep established she hadn’t previously taken it. But it could have been something else.’ What it reminded her of, in fact, was the diary entries of Emile L’Angelier complaining about feeling sick after visiting Madeleine Smith. And of course Marion would have been very familiar with those.
‘All right,’ Brock went on, sounding brisk, wanting to rouse Kathy from her introspection. Clearly she had been fond of this Guy, he thought, and was understandably upset, but they had work to do. ‘Da Silva is our prime suspect. How do we nail him?’
‘He’s been careful. We haven’t been able to find him on cameras at the critical scenes, except the British Library.’
‘We’re saying he murdered Marion to prevent her from presenting her paper at Cornell that would destroy his life’s work, is that right? Is that credible?’
‘He certainly sounded pretty desperate about it.’
‘Then why kill Tina?’
‘Because she’d followed the same trail as Marion and found the same source.’
‘How would he know that?’
‘She must have told him when she came to his house the night before she died. Donald Fotheringham told me that he, Tina and Emily had been investigating the archives of the Havelock family in the India Office Records at the library.’
‘Yes,’ Brock said, ‘the woman who found Tina at the library, Lily Cribb, told me that she’d first met Tina trying to find the India Office Records. It seemed odd.’
‘I think that Haverlock’s diary must have been stored there in the Havelock family’s archive. I wonder how Marion found it. It must have seemed like a miracle. If we’re right, it was her death warrant.’ Kathy thought. ‘By last Monday, when da Silva found Marion’s notes in her house, he would have realised that the source of Marion’s revelations was Haverlock’s diary, but he still wouldn’t have known how to find it-her paper only refers to a London archive. It was still tucked away in the India Office Records. On the Wednesday evening, when she called at his house, Tina must have told him she’d found it. He would have gone spare, thinking he’d put a lid on it all with Marion’s death.’
Brock said, ‘And the following day he would have been tracking her, trying to find out where the diary was.’
‘Yes. The trail will be there in the record of the books that Tina called up at the British Library. If we can show that she had found the Haverlock diary before she went to see da Silva, that would then put her in the same situation as Marion before she died.’
Brock nodded. ‘Circumstantial, but it might just be conclusive.’
Kathy returned to her desk and called over Pip Gallagher, who was working for her again now.
‘You okay, boss?’ Pip asked. ‘You seem a bit down.’
‘No,’ Kathy said, too abruptly. ‘I’m fine, Pip. I just wish I knew where the hell da Silva might have got arsenic from, if it wasn’t from the laboratory.’
‘How about Rafferty? Da Silva admitted paying him money. Maybe it wasn’t just for the key to Marion’s house.’
‘That is a thought. Look, I want you to drop what you’re doing and go over to the British Library and get them to give you a list of all the documents Tina requested in the week before she died. I’m particularly interested in a diary written by someone called Haverlock, which we think is held in this archive in the India Office Records.’ She handed Pip a note of the references. ‘Find out if she requested it, okay?’
‘Sure. I was never that hot as a reader, but I’ll give it a go.’
It felt like a penance, Kathy thought, as she worked through the day, poring over the details dredged up by her team, cross-checking the witness statements.
Finally Pip phoned in. ‘I’ve got it, boss. Tina was here all right, looking at stuff from the Havelock archive. She requested the Haverlock diary on the evening of Wednesday last.’
Kathy sighed, rubbing her hand across her face. ‘Great.’
‘What do I do now?’
Kathy thought. ‘I think we’ll need to retrace Tina’s steps. Leave it for now. Tomorrow, I want you to go round all the libraries we know Marion and Tina went to, and get a complete record of their borrowings.’
The line was silent for a moment, then Pip said, ‘Really?’
‘Yes, really.’
Kathy put the phone down. The evening was drawing in, the streetlights flickering on outside the window. She felt a tightness in her chest, her stomach. Maybe Brock had been right, she thought, this had become too personal-Rafferty’s threat of legal action against her, Jock’s cat, Prague, Guy. Rafferty. What was his part in all this, the predatory stepfather? She remembered sensing a false note when Douglas Warrender had described his relationship with Rafferty. If Warrender had arranged Julian Fenwick’s services, then it suggested that Warrender and Rafferty were closer than Warrender had implied. And Rafferty knew them all-Warrender, Ogilvie and da Silva-all of them locked together somehow, using and reluctantly protecting each other, a single nut to be cracked. She closed down her computer, shrugged on her coat and caught a District line tube out to Ealing Broadway.
•
Kathy followed the deck to the door of the Raffertys’ flat and rang the bell. Sheena Rafferty answered, not recognising Kathy straight away. Kathy explained that she had some important information of a personal nature to explain to her, if she could spare a moment.
‘I dunno,’ Sheena looked doubtful. ‘Keith told me not to speak to you.’
‘It could be to your advantage, Sheena. It won’t take long.’
The word advantage did the trick, as Kathy knew it would. She didn’t enjoy deceiving Sheena, but she was sure that Marion would have thoroughly approved of what she had in mind. She followed Sheena into the sitting room. Two half-drunk glasses stood on the coffee table, a gin and a beer. Sheena reached for the gin and a cigarette.
‘Make it quick, will ye? Keith’s takin’ a shower. He’s lost his job and he’s not in a good mood.’ The rumble of plumbing promptly stopped.
‘How have you been?’
‘Fine, fine. What is it ye want exactly?’
‘It concerns your daughter’s estate, Sheena.’
‘Estate?’ She looked dubious.
‘Her property, her assets, that will come to you, as her next of kin.’
‘What, like an insurance payout?’ she said hopefully.
‘I’m not aware of any insurance, but it’s possible, I suppose.’
‘Och, well, what about compensation, victims of crime? I’m a victim too, you know.’
‘Again, I don’t know about that. What I have in mind is potentially much more significant.’
There was a roar from the doorway. ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ Keith Rafferty stood with a towel around his waist, skin pink from the shower, eyes blazing. ‘I’m calling my lawyer right now.’
‘No, hang on, darlin’,’ Sheena said quickly. ‘The inspector’s come to see me, about Marion’s assets.’
He hesitated. ‘What assets?’
‘She’s just about to tell me, is that no’ right, Inspector?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, go on then,’ Keith said.
‘This is a private matter I have to discuss with Marion’s mother, Mr Rafferty. I’m well aware of your lawyer’s insistence that I should have no further contact with you, and I don’t feel comfortable having you present. Maybe I should speak to you another time, Sheena, when you’re alone.’