CHAPTER 12
Pete arrived at nine o'clock with croissants and fresh fruit. Anna made them both omelets and brewed up some coffee. Once again, they were totally at ease with each other. Pete helped unpack her boxes and put up the plasma TV; he was helpful and considerate, and very adept at checking plugs and carrying all the cardboard boxes down to the bins in the basement.He worked alongside her, washing china and ripping off the bubble wrap from various pieces of furniture. He loved her new flat and, when they took a coffee break, they sat on the small balcony looking out onto the river. Anna was wearing old jeans and a stained T-shirt with sneakers. He was similarly dressed; they could have easily been mistaken for a loving couple. But he didn't make any moves on her; in fact, apart from a kiss on her cheek when he arrived, he had not touched her.She was surprised how disappointed she felt when he checked the time and said he should be making a move. "Do you have to go? I owe you dinner.""I'll take a rain check. I'll probably be pretty tied up next week."She smiled. "Okay. Thanks for helping me out this morning."She watched him leave, feeling at odds with herself. She was unwrapping the few items still left to put into the kitchen when she came across a painted mug. It was nothing special to look at, but what made Anna sit back, thinking, was its shape. She had seen one similar—far better painted, and with a more professional glaze—in Michael Sudmore s antiques shop.Honour Nolan had said she was a beginner at pottery, and twice had mentioned that she had a small kiln in one of the barns. What if that was a lie? What if there wasn't any kiln, but perhaps a stove: something to give heat to the barn, if someone was living in it? It would be a very good cover. After looking over the farmhouse, Anna was pretty certain there-was no one else living there—but what if one of their barns was being used? She again went over the possibility that Julius D'Anton might have had problems with his van and somehow inadvertently come across Alexander Fitzpatrick. He could have given D'Anton money and the Mitsubishi to drive, yet knew he would have to get rid of him, so dumped him in the Thames.Anna showered and changed, and drove to Chiswick to talk to Sandra D'Anton. She really needed to get her time frame in order. She knew the dates of the antiques fair and how many times D'Anton had visited the shop, but had no clear date for when he returned to London. His fingerprints were matched to ones found in the Chalk Farm squat, but were they there before the murder? Had she been wrong about the passenger in the Mitsubishi with Frank Brandon: could it have been Julius D'Anton? That didn't quite add up. D'Anton was tall, but not six feet four. However, she made a mental note to test his shoes against the prints in blood at the scene of crime.Sandra was surprised to see Anna, who was wearing casual trousers and a sweater, rather than her usual suit. She invited her into the kitchen, which was in even more disarray, with most of the windows removed. There was a burly guy working in there, and Sandra asked if he would take a break for fifteen minutes. He put down his tools and took himself over to the pub.In response to Anna's questions, Sandra found a rather moth-eaten- looking diary that was two years old. All she could recall clearly was that Julius had said he was going to the antiques fair. The next time she had spoken to him was when he had called to say he had found something special, and was going to check out some possible buyers. The next call was to tell her he had trouble with his van. "He was onto something really promising, but he didn't say what it was. He was, in his words, 'hanging out with some friends.'"Sandra shrugged. Usually, this meant he was getting stoned, but she had no idea who these friends were or where he was. When Anna asked it she had seen him after that, Sandra sighed. "Look, I've honestly told you everything I know. He could have returned here, but I wasn't around."Anna looked up from her notebook."Julius and I were really just sort of cohabiting, if you know what I mean. I'm living on and off with Hal, the builder you saw. With all the work going on in the house, I stay over at his place. Jules could have come home. I don't really know, but 1 never saw him again.""Did your husband know about your relationship with Hal?""Yeah—he didn't mind.""So he could have come back here?""Yeah. I didn't check his clothes or anything. I mean, as far as 1 knew, he was still off scouting for antiques, which is why I never mentioned any of this when you first came to see me.""But when you did talk to him, he said he was onto something special?""That's right, but he was always onto some scam or other, so I didn't give it much thought. He said it was going to make us a lot of money, maybe he even said he had some money already. I don't really remember, he just sounded a bit high; you know, he gabbled a bit. I have got so fed up with these promises over the years, 1 just said, 'Yeah, yeah, see you when I see you.' 1 told you this.""He said his van had broken down?""Yes, he was waiting to get it fixed. It was a dreadful old thing, an old post office van he got for peanuts; he used to drive it into the ground. He said he'd gone into a ditch or something. I honestly didn't pay that much attention."If the damage to D'Anton's van had been caused by driving it on the narrow lane by Honour Nolan's farm, this would place him close to the farmhouse. From there, he might have walked farther up the lane and toward the farmhouse. He could then perhaps have seen Fitzpatrick. Anna knew that, without proof, all her stitching together of this information was supposition; nevertheless, she had traced the old post office van and she did now know for sure that D'Anton had called into the ivy-covered cottage. So, he had to have been very close to the farmhouse. The significance of all this hinged on whether or not she was correct about Alexander Fitzpatrick being there.Anna drove into the car park at the Lambeth laboratories and went into the building to see if Pete was around. She was disappointed, and a trifle confused, to be told that he hadn't been in. She could see by the extra assistants that work was being done over the weekend. The number of trestle tables with victims' clothing laid out for testing made it look like a jumble sale. She asked a young Asian scientist if she could look over the clothing from the body of Julius D'Anton.The polo-neck sweater was cashmere, but very worn and frayed around the neck. The socks had holes in them, and the old tweed jacket had leather patches over the elbows. They had not as yet begun testing and retaining fibers. Anna asked if the shoes had been matched to the bloody footprints left at the drug squat in Chalk Farm. There and then, the scientist, whose name was Shara, picked one up and carried it over to the far side of the room. The footprints had been transferred onto sheets of white paper with markings showing the stitching on the soles. It was obvious that D'Anton's shoe did not make the imprint; it was nowhere near the same size.Anna decided that, as she was at the laboratories, she would see if the pathology lab had any results. Passing the office, she saw that Ewan Fielding was sitting eating a sandwich at his desk; he looked up with annoyance when she tapped and entered.Apologizing for interrupting, she asked if it would be possible for her to see the corpse of Julius D'Anton. Fielding sighed, muttering that it was his weekend off; he was already tired and planning to leave, having had to work long hours to accommodate the extra workload."I don't know if your boss is collecting every corpse from all over London and dumping them on my lap. but the body count supposedly connected to your case is becoming ridiculous," he grumbled. "I've had to ship in another pathologist to give me a few hours off"They walked to the cold storage section. Fielding still complaining. "No one seems to understand that until I have tests completed, there is nothing I can report.""Did he drown?""No, and I believe you've already been told this," he snapped as he walked to drawer four and gestured for an assistant to open it up."Have you any thoughts on how he died?""Thoughts?