‘She wasn’t pregnant?’
‘Not that I saw. I mean it’s a long time ago and she could have been in early pregnancy without it showing but I know she wasn’t obviously pregnant. I can’t recall much detail now but as far as I remember this was how they struck me. Mr Godfrey had made a lot of money in a fairly short time and…’ He laughed. ‘His wife was going to make sure she spent it. He appeared…’ He paused. ‘Indulgent. Does that help you?’
‘Yes. Thanks,’ Delia said. ‘You’ve been really helpful. I wonder if I might trouble you for the contact details of Mrs Isaac’s family.’
‘It’ll take a while,’ Plumley said. ‘It was a few years ago. Can I ring you later?’
‘That’ll be fine.’ WPC Shaw gave Plumley her card. ‘These are my contact details. If I’m not there just leave the names and addresses on the answerphone.’
‘I will.’ Plumley stood up and shook her hand.
As soon as he got the phone call from Sergeant Shotton, Alex Randall sent Paul Talith round to number 41 to talk to the Sedgewicks and tell them that they were following a lead at their previous house in Bayston Hill. He would be interested to note their reaction.
Talith broke the news to both Sedgewicks in the now familiar sitting room.
Alice appeared composed. In fact she didn’t react at all, but sat, hands folded on her lap, a polite half-smile on her lips, looking around the room. Her husband, however, was incandescent.
‘A lead,’ he taunted. ‘What lead?’
‘I’m sorry but I’m not at liberty to reveal that, sir,’ Talith said, watching the man’s face carefully.
The careful politeness failed to improve Aaron Sedgewick’s mood. ‘That’s right,’ he flung back bitterly. ‘Hide behind bureaucracy, why don’t you?’
Talith didn’t rise to the challenge.
Aaron thundered on. ‘I don’t know why you’re hounding us in this way,’ he shouted. ‘My wife was simply the person who found this wretched body.’ His eyes bulged as he spoke the word. There was no sympathy for a tragic death or even for the impact it might have had on his wife. Aaron Sedgewick was, Talith decided, an extremely self-centred man.
Sedgewick ranted on. ‘There’s nothing at all to connect my wife with the child’s death. I shall speak to Acantha and demand that you stop persecuting us.’
Talith thought the word ‘persecuting’ a little strong but he kept his cool, a talent he was fast honing to perfection.
‘We’re being as quick and thorough as we can, Mr Sedgewick.’
‘So why have you come round today?’
‘Just to clarify some details.’
‘Clarify? What details?’
‘The patio, sir, that you constructed in the garden of your old house?’
‘What about the patio?’ Sedgewick responded irritably. ‘This is quite ridiculous. It’s just a patio.’
‘We’re only doing our job,’ Talith said steadily. ‘That’s all. Now. The patio? Did you build it?’
‘Yes I did,’ Sedgewick admitted.
‘Yourself, sir?’
‘Yes. Well, I had some help from a firm of builders that I owned back then but I did most of the work. Want something doing and all that.’
‘Can you remember exactly when you built the patio?’
‘It would have been around 2003 or 4. I know it was sometime during the summer. It was really hot and then suddenly it turned wet. We had the devil of a job trying to drain the water off so we could lay the flagstones.’ He eyed Talith. ‘I admit I built a patio,’ he said, mocking him. ‘It’s hardly a major crime. You don’t even need planning permission. So what of it?’
Talith kept quiet and watched Sedgewick’s eyes narrow as he stopped blustering and started to work out what was behind this trail of questions.
‘Why are you interested in a small building project?’
‘We’ve taken the sniffer dogs round there,’ Talith said steadily. ‘They are specially trained to detect long-decayed bodies.’ He waited. His inspector had taught him the value of a pause of the right length and in the right place.
Aaron Sedgewick was scowling like a troll.
‘Exactly what are you implying?’
Again Paul Talith waited for Aaron Sedgewick to realize where this was heading – which he finally did.
‘You think my wife buried someone under the patio?’
Talith gave a swift glance at Alice. Even though her husband had just spoken the most outrageous of sentences which involved her she was still sitting, staring in front of her, a fixed smile on her face.
Talith felt a shiver. This woman was not quite right in the head.
He looked back at Aaron. And right in front of Talith’s astonished eyes the colour drained out of Aaron Sedgewick’s face. For a moment Talith even thought he would pass out. ‘Sir,’ he said urgently. ‘Sir?’
Aaron stared right past him, as though seeing his own ghost.
He completely ignored the presence of his wife, muttering, ‘My wife. My wife? My wife?’
Talith could see no point in pursuing the questions.
Half an hour later he was relating the result of the interview to Alex Randall.
‘Honestly, sir,’ he said. ‘I thought he was going to drop in front of my very eyes. He looked completely shocked, as though he had suddenly realized something. All the fight was gone out of him.’
‘Did he actually say anything?’ Randall asked.
‘He sort of muttered, “my wife, my wife, my wife”, over and over again and she just sat there with this weird smile on her face. I’ve never seen anything like it. I was glad to get out of there.’
‘What do you make of it?’
They looked at one another, possibilities streaming through their minds.
‘Oh my word,’ Alex said slowly.
Martha rang Simon that afternoon and he sounded clipped and strained.
‘Hello, Martha,’ he said glumly. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m well. Thank you, Simon. You?’
‘The girls are making things very difficult,’ he complained. ‘They’re hell. They won’t even try and like Chrissi. They’re being so unreasonable. Do they want me to be alone for ever?’
She thought he was being a little dramatic. ‘Simon,’ she said, ‘hear me out.’
‘You don’t like her either,’ he said glumly.
‘I don’t dislike Christabel,’ she said. ‘I think she’s fine but lots of people find it hard when they’re suddenly left on their own after being married for a long time.’
‘And?’ She could sense the hostility in his voice. He was guarded, negative, suspicious.
‘Why not have her as a girlfriend. Why all this talk about being married? What’s all the hurry?’
The other end of the line went quiet.
‘It’s because you haven’t got used to the fact of being alone. I know, Simon, because I’ve been through it myself. You’re simply rushing for a swift solution.’ She paused. ‘It’s more likely to be a disaster than if you wait.’
More silence. Then: ‘Have you not been tempted to marry again?’
‘At first I desperately didn’t want to be alone,’ she said, ‘rather than wanting to marry a specific person.’
‘And now?’
‘Mind your own business,’ she said, laughing.
And after a brief pause Simon joined her. ‘I shall listen to your voice,’ he said.
Almost as soon as she had put the phone down Alex Randall rang her. ‘Just keeping you informed, Martha,’ he said. ‘We’re digging up the patio at Bayston Hill, the house the Sedgewicks lived in before they moved.’
‘Why?’ she asked bluntly.
‘The sniffer dogs became frenzied there this morning – over one particular spot. They’re rarely wrong, Martha.’