‘What time do you want me?’
‘As soon as possible.’ Randall paused. ‘Let’s get it over and done with, sir.’
‘I’ll be down within half an hour although I want it registered that I consider it a gross intrusion by the police at a very difficult time for me.’
Fine, Alex thought as he put the phone down. Just fine.
He rang Martha straightaway and was not surprised when she agreed to witness the interview from behind a one-way mirror. He was looking forward to hearing her observations.
It was six p.m. by the time the three of them were assembled, Martha stationed behind the one-way mirror. Randall found Aaron Sedgewick in more of a state of shock than he had expected. He arrived looking pinched and pale and very tired. Unexpectedly Alex felt some pity for him – an emotion he never would have thought he could have applied to Aaron Sedgewick. He sat him down in the interview room and offered him some coffee.
Once they were seated he explained the purpose of inviting him down. ‘This is an informal interview,’ he began. ‘There are no charges. I simply need to explain to you the findings of the post-mortem and to clarify one or two points.’ He met Sedgewick’s eyes. ‘I apologize for the intrusion but you must understand we, the police, have a job to do. Your wife’s death is unexplained.’ He paused. ‘As yet.’
Immediately Sedgewick began to bluster. The détente was over. ‘What do you mean, unexplained? It’s obvious what happened. The police have been harassing her since she took that horrible thing up to the hospital. God knows why she did that but that is what she did. My wife…’ He looked around hopelessly, crumpling before Randall’s eyes. ‘My wife is… was…’ he corrected, ‘a very fragile woman.’
‘Why?’ Randall asked bluntly.
‘There is no why,’ Sedgewick snapped. ‘She just was. That’s the only why. It was her mental make-up, if you like.’
‘So you would not be surprised if she had committed suicide?’
‘No.’ Sedgewick frowned thoughtfully. ‘Not really. Alice was a vulnerable woman.’
Randall pressed on. ‘But you understand that without a letter of explanation we don’t know exactly what happened, what state of mind she was in, what finally tipped her over the edge. After all – it’s a week since her visit to the Royal Shrewsbury and she seemed to be coping well.’
Sedgewick leaned forward, a fire burning in his eyes. ‘Isn’t it bloody obvious what tipped her over the edge? This ridiculous hounding of our old property. Yesterday you found some bones.’
Alex felt himself grow hot with embarrassment. ‘They were animal bones.’
‘Right.’ If anything, Aaron Sedgewick’s eyes blazed even more furiously. ‘You are telling me,’ he said speaking very slowly and deliberately, ‘that my wife probably committed suicide over a few animal bones?’
‘If that’s why she did it,’ Randall admitted. ‘We can’t know for sure, Mr Sedgewick, without a note.’ Alex had put the ball neatly right back into Mr Sedgewick’s court but Aaron wasn’t about to give up. ‘Why on earth did you have to dig up that wretched patio?’
‘It was a necessary part of our investigation.’
‘But why make it public?’
Randall felt bound to defend himself. ‘We didn’t, deliberately. Unfortunately the story leaked out and we had no control over what was printed.’
‘If you say so,’ Sedgewick said wearily.
‘You know a post-mortem was performed on your wife this morning?’
Sedgewick winced.
Alex ploughed on. ‘I’m sorry to have to inform you that it appears your wife took her own life using a mixture of barbiturates, which she had been prescribed by a doctor, along with alcohol. Did she give you any clue that this was her intention?’
‘No. Not when I last saw her.’
‘Which was? Just for the record?’
‘I left for Leicester on Tuesday night,’ he said. ‘She seemed quiet, a little withdrawn but I wasn’t worried about her.’ He looked up. ‘If I had been I would not have gone on a business trip. You understand?’
Alex nodded. ‘Your wife has appeared extremely disturbed by recent events.’
‘Well – wouldn’t your wife be just a little troubled by this?’
Alex’s face darkened. Had Sedgewick been observant he would have seen the inspector’s face twist with pain. But Aaron Sedgewick was noticing nothing. Martha, however, didn’t miss it. She watched Alex Randall as he regained control of himself and continued.
‘When did you last speak to your wife, Mr Sedgewick?’
Martha leaned forward to catch Sedgewick’s words.
‘Yesterday morning. She sounded well. And Acantha keeps an eye on her, of course.’
‘And you haven’t found a note somewhere in the house?’
‘No.’
There had been, Martha thought, the very slightest of hesitations. To such a simple question?
It seemed Alex had picked up on something too because he went over the point again, carefully. ‘Not addressed to you or your daughter – or your son – or even Mrs Palk? The two seemed close.’
‘No,’ Sedgewick said, deliberately aggressive. ‘I said no. That’s the truth. If she did, as you say, deliberately take a fatal dose of her tablets, she must have done it on impulse.’ He frowned and looked up. ‘How can you know she did it deliberately? It’s pure supposition on your part. You can’t possibly know. It could have been an accident.’ His face changed, became softer. ‘Maybe she had a bit to drink and forgot how many tablets she’d already taken.’ He obviously liked this explanation. His face relaxed.
But Alex was not going to let him off the hook. ‘Did your wife have a drink problem?’
Sedgewick wasn’t quite sure how to answer this question. ‘Not a drink problem,’ he said slowly. ‘But sometimes she had a little more than was wise. It made her rather emotional. Shall we leave it at that?’ With an effort he lifted his eyes up to meet Alex’s. Martha knew that this admission had cost Sedgewick something.
Randall thought for a minute then nodded his head slowly. ‘Without a note I have no option but to agree.’ He met Sedgewick’s eyes. ‘Had there been a note it might have provided some explanation of her actions last week. I suppose it’s possible that your wife did not mean to kill herself. In which case we can discuss the circumstances with the coroner and possibly have an accidental death verdict. We may even be asked to look into the impact of our investigation, together with the effect the newspaper story would have had on her already fragile mental state.’
Martha smiled. Randall was well used to her advising him on his job. This was the first time he had directed her. She concentrated on listening to the interview.
‘Do you know whether your wife knew about the discovery of the bones at Bayston Hill?’
‘I don’t know,’ Sedgewick said, ‘but I would have thought it highly probable. It was even on the TV.’ Then as suddenly as a flash of lightning Sedgewick found his temper again. ‘Why didn’t you just leave things alone, inspector? Why did you have to go digging up the past, searching for something you were never going to find, digging up the patio of our old house, making us look so guilty when you must have known we can’t have had anything to do with the death of that thing?’
Alex leaned forward, his face steely. ‘We have to investigate the death of the child, Mr Sedgewick.’
‘But it had nothing to do with us. My wife simply came across the body.’
‘Right.’ Alex Randall shuffled some papers. ‘Well, I’ll share with you some of the anomalies which have bothered us and made us suspicious of you. Can you explain the presence, in your house, of a room specifically decorated for a child when you have no children, no grandchildren and, according to Mrs Sedgewick’s previous statement, no children stay with you? Why have a room for a child that doesn’t exist?’