‘But,’ said Atherton, ‘the fat lady said the quarrel was later, near midnight.’
‘I’ve looked at the write-ups. She said there was a quarrel. The rifle-range man’s description matches Carmichael all right, but the fat lady said a tall man – Carmichael is not notably tall – older than Zellah – Carmichael doesn’t look particularly older than her – and she said he had brown hair, where Carmichael is notably dark. When Emily said that thing about the dumb excuse being true, I started to wonder if Zellah didn’t meet two men after all, and have two quarrels: one at ten, and a second, serious one at twelve.’
‘Yes,’ said Atherton, staring at nothing, ‘it works. She fights with Markov. She runs off across the Scrubs weeping, thinking her world is at an end. But after a while and some walking, she wonders if there isn’t still hope. She sees the Snogging Couple and asks to use their phone, rings Markov again, he comes to meet her.’
‘Meet, you see, not fetch,’ said Slider.
‘They have another row, she jumps out of the car, he chases her and kills her.’
They were silent.
‘But, sir,’ said Connolly, ‘if she told him she was up the pole the first time they met, why would he come to see her a second time? Why did they quarrel again? And why did that quarrel lead him to kill her?’
‘And why,’ Atherton said, ‘did he take a pair of tights with him when he went to meet her the second time?’
‘That,’ said Slider, ‘is something I think we’ll have to ask him.’
‘But first we need the phone records,’ Atherton said. ‘If it wasn’t Markov she phoned, the whole theory is a crock.’
‘We can’t expect to get them tonight. I think we should all go home and get a good night’s sleep.’
Atherton cocked his head. ‘Dollars to doughnuts you won’t sleep tonight.’
‘That’s entirely my problem,’ Slider said with dignity.
Joanna, holding Slider in bed, could feel both his weariness and his tension. The intense sympathy he always felt with a murder victim, even when it was a low-life scumbag, was partly what made him a good detective, but it also wore him out. He would find it hard to get to sleep tonight. He was keeping quite still, so as not to disturb her, but it was not a restful stillness. She sought for something to take his mind off the case.
‘Your father rang again this evening,’ she said, quietly, so as not to wake the baby.
‘Hmm?’
‘He sounded wistful.’
Slider sighed. ‘I’ll ring him tomorrow. I’ll make time. I’ve got him on my conscience.’
‘You haven’t got room on your conscience for anything else. I looked at more flats today.’
‘Oh?’
‘Nothing we could afford. You wouldn’t believe what a broom-cupboard costs these days. The only thing in our range was a lock-up garage. But it had no plumbing.’
‘What about . . .?’
‘I looked at rentals, too,’ she anticipated. ‘The rents are as much as a mortgage would be. The only reason I can afford this place is that I’ve been here so long the rent’s protected.’
‘I’ve let you down.’
‘Don’t start that. I’m not your dependant. But I just can’t think of a way out. We can’t increase our incomes, and we’ve nothing to sell. Unless . . .’
‘Unless what?’
‘Well, I did think perhaps we could sell George and lease him back. You get a big tax advantage with lease-back.’
‘I’m glad you’ve still got your sensa yumour,’ he said. ‘You’ll need it, living with me. We can’t even get a council flat, since I was foolish enough to marry you. They only give them to unmarried mothers.’
‘I was just wondering about your dad, though. If he’s selling his place, perhaps we could pool our resources and live together.’
‘You wouldn’t mind?’ Slider was amazed and touched.
‘I love your dad.’
‘But it’s different having him to live with us.’
‘Well, it’d be the other way round, really, since the money would be his.’
He kissed her brow tenderly. ‘Thank you for the thought. I’m glad you like the old man that much. But you don’t know that he’d want to live with us.’
‘I think he would. He was hinting that he’d like to move closer to us.’
‘Closer and with aren’t the same thing. But anyway, that cottage can’t be worth much – not enough to buy somewhere in London, let alone something big enough for the four of us.’
‘Oh well,’ she said comfortably, ‘we’ll just have to stay put. At least we’ve got a roof over our heads. People in past times lived in small spaces and shared rooms.’
‘People in past times had surgery without anaesthetic.’
‘Not the same thing. I think we’ve just got too nice. We’re all going to have to trim our nails if the recession gets bad.’
‘Hmm.’
She could feel he had relaxed, and the ‘hmm’ was much more contented than the first one. They were silent a moment, and then she thought of something that infallibly relaxed him and put him to sleep afterwards. She laid her lips against his ear, and whispered, ‘How would you feel about a close encounter of the marital kind?’
‘Hmm,’ he murmured into her neck. And one second later she felt the infinitesimal thud as he fell off the cliff of consciousness and into the void of sleep. It was that quick when you were as tired as he was. Smiling in the darkness, she held him until he was deep enough under for her to release herself without waking him, then turned over into her own sleep position.
TWENTY
You Must Remember This; A Kiss is Still a Coordinated Interpersonal Labial Spasm
Tufnell ‘Tufty’ Arceneaux, who described himself as ‘The Bodily Fluids Man’ with more than a coincidental accuracy, rang Slider as soon as he was at his desk in the morning. ‘Bill, old chum!’ he roared (everything about Tufty was larger than life). ‘How’s the world treating you? How’s the wife? How’s the nipper?’
‘He’s great fun,’ Slider said. ‘He’s just started crawling.’
‘That’ll be useful training for later life! Especially if he wants to get on in the police force.’
‘We’re not allowed to call it that. It’s the police service now.’
‘Makes you sound like a lot of bloody tennis players.’
‘How’s Diana? Is she enjoying the job?’ Tufty’s wife had recently gone back to work in an advertising agency.
‘Loves it. A prank a minute. They’ve just taken on a new product, Galaxy-type chocolate bar called Destiny. She put up a whole folder, artwork and everything, with the slogan “It’s the Destiny that shapes our ends”. Did it with a straight face,’ he concluded admiringly.
‘They’ll sack her if she’s not careful.’
‘Oh, no, they love her. All the others are under twenty-five. She’s the only one who can spell. Anyway, I’ve pulled every digit out of every orifice, done the impossible, and got all your analyses done.’
‘All of them? That’s amazing,’ Slider said. ‘I thought I’d have to wait until Monday at least.’
‘What are you talking about? I’ve had them since Tuesday.’
‘I know you had the first ones on Tuesday, but Freddie only sent the foetal tissue on Thursday.’
‘I can do it in thirty-six hours when I have to. Come to think of it, I’ve done it for thirty-six hours when I’ve had to, but that’s another story.’
‘Well, I’m very grateful.’
‘Special service for my old and bestest chum. Fact is, when the foetal tissue came in, I thought there’s no point in the one lot without t’other, so I got on with it without waiting for you to fast-track. Now, if that doesn’t warrant an invite to dinner with you and your charming mate, I don’t know what does.’