Роберт Гэлбрейт - Lethal White

‘For one thing,’ said Robin carefully, ‘it was a mistake to keep meeting Kinvara in the lead-up to the murder. She kept pretending she’d forgotten where she was meeting your father, didn’t she? Just to get a couple of minutes with you, just to see you and check up on you—’

‘That’s not proof.’

‘Kinvara was followed to Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons on her birthday.’

His eyes narrowed.

‘Who by?’

‘Jimmy Knight. Flick’s confirmed it. Jimmy thought your father was with Kinvara and wanted to confront him publicly about not giving him his money. Obviously, your father wasn’t there, so Jimmy went home and wrote an angry blog about how High Tories spend their money, mentioning Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons by name.’

‘Well, unless he saw me sneaking into Kinvara’s hotel suite,’ said Raphael, ‘which he didn’t, because I took fucking good care to make sure nobody did, that’s all supposition, too.’

‘All right,’ said Robin, ‘what about the second time you were overheard having sex in the gallery bathroom? That wasn’t Francesca. You were with Kinvara.’

‘Prove it.’

‘Kinvara was in town that day, buying lachesis pills and pretending she was angry that your father was still seeing you, which was all part of the cover story that she hated you. She rang your father to check that he was having lunch elsewhere. Strike overheard that call. What you and Kinvara didn’t realise was that your father was having lunch only a hundred yards away from where you were having sex.

‘When your father forced his way into the bathroom, he found a tube of lachesis pills on the floor. That’s why he nearly had a heart attack. He knew that’s what she’d come to town for. He knew who’d just been having sex with you in the bathroom.’

Raphael’s smile was more of a grimace.

‘Yeah, that was a fuck-up. The day he came into our office, talking about Lachesis – “knows when everyone’s number’s up” – I realised later, he was trying to put the frighteners on me, wasn’t he? I didn’t know what the hell he was on about at the time. But when you and your crippled boss mentioned the pills at Chiswell House, Kinvara twigged: they fell out of her pocket while we were screwing. We hadn’t known what first tipped him off . . . it was only after I heard he was ringing Le Manoir about Freddie’s money clip that I knew he must have realised something was going on. Then he invited me over to Ebury Street and I knew he was about to confront me about it, and we needed to get a move on, killing him.’

The entirely matter-of-fact way he discussed patricide chilled Robin. He might have been talking about wallpapering a room.

‘He must’ve been planning to produce those pills during his big “I know you’re fucking my wife” speech . . . why didn’t I spot them on the floor? I tried to put the room straight afterwards, but they must’ve rolled out of his pocket or something . . . it’s harder than you’d think,’ said Raphael, ‘tidying up around a corpse you’ve just dispatched. I was surprised, actually, how much it affected me.’

She had never heard his narcissism so clearly. His interest and sympathy was entirely for himself. His dead father was nothing.

‘The police have taken statements from Francesca and her parents, now,’ Robin said. ‘She absolutely denies being in the bathroom with you that second time. Her parents never believed her, but—’

‘They didn’t believe her because she’s even fucking dumber than Kinvara.’

‘The police are combing through security camera footage from the shops she says she was in, while you and Kinvara were in the bathroom.’

‘OK,’ said Raphael, ‘well, worst comes to the worst, and they can prove she wasn’t with me, I might have to come clean about the fact that it was another young lady I was with in the bathroom that day, whose reputation I’ve been chivalrously trying to defend.’

‘Will you really be able to find a woman to lie for you, in court, on a murder charge?’ asked Robin, in disbelief.

‘The woman who owns this houseboat is mad for me,’ said Raphael softly. ‘We had a thing going before I went inside. She visited me in jail and everything. She’s in rehab right now. Crazy bitch, loves drama. Thinks she’s an artist. She drinks too much, she’s a real pain in the arse, actually, but she fucks like a rabbit. She never bothered taking the spare key to this place off me, and she keeps a key to her mummy’s house in that drawer over there—’

‘It wouldn’t happen to be her mother’s house where you had the helium, tubing and gloves delivered, would it?’ asked Robin.

Raphael blinked. He hadn’t expected that.

‘You needed an address that didn’t seem connected to you. You made sure it was delivered while the owners were away, or at work, then you could let yourself in, collect the failed delivery card . . . ’

‘Pick it up, disguised and get it couriered it off to dear old Dad’s house, yeah.’

‘And Flick took delivery and Kinvara made sure she hid it from your father until it was time to kill him?’

‘That’s right,’ said Raphael. ‘You pick up a lot of tips in jail. Fake IDs, vacant buildings, empty addresses, you can do a hell of a lot with them. Once you’re dead—’ Robin’s scalp prickled – ‘nobody’s going to connect me with any of the addresses.’

‘The owner of this barge—’

‘Is going to be telling everyone she was having sex with me in Drummond’s bathroom, remember? She’s on my team, Venetia,’ he said quietly, ‘so it’s not looking good for you, is it?’

‘There were other mistakes,’ said Robin, her mouth dry.

‘Like?’

‘You told Flick your father needed a cleaner.’

‘Yeah, because it makes her and Jimmy look fishy as hell, that she wheedled her way into my father’s house. The jury’ll be focused on that, not how she found out he wanted a cleaner. I’ve already told you, she’s going to look like a grubby little tart with a grudge in the dock. That’s just one more lie.’

‘But she stole a note from your father, a note he wrote while he was trying to check Kinvara’s story with Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. I found it in her bathroom. She’d lied, told him her mother was going to the hotel with her. They’d never normally give out information about guests, but he was a government minister and he’d previously been there, so we think he managed to trick them into agreeing that they could remember the family vehicle there and that it was a shame her mother hadn’t made it. He made a note of the suite Kinvara was in, probably pretending he’d forgotten it, and he was trying to get hold of the bill, to see whether there was any sign of two lots of breakfast or dinner, I suppose. When the prosecution produce the note and the bill in court—’

‘ You found that note, did you?’ said Raphael.

Robin’s stomach turned over. She had not meant to give Raphael another reason to shoot her.

‘I knew I’d underestimated you after that dinner we had, at Nam Long Le Shaker,’ said Raphael. It wasn’t a compliment. His eyes were narrowed, his nostrils flared in dislike. ‘You were a mess, but you were still asking fucking inconvenient questions. You and your boss were cosier with the police than I expected, too. And even after I tipped off the Mail —’

‘That was you ,’ said Robin, wondering how she had never realised. ‘ You put the press and Mitch Patterson back on us . . . ’

‘I told them you’d left your husband for Strike, but that he was still shagging his ex. Izzy had given me that bit of gossip. I thought you needed slowing down, you two, because you kept poking away at my alibi . . . but after I’ve shot you,’ – an icy chill ran the length of Robin’s body – ‘your boss’ll be busy answering the press’s questions about how your body ended up in a canal, won’t he? I think that’s called killing two birds with one stone.’