Martin Edwards - The Cipher Garden

‘You got to know them all?’

‘Tina and I were never going to be best pals, and Sam was always surly, but Kirsty’s sweet. Still is, poor thing.’

‘Warren tried it on with you?’

Bel’s face was a mask. ‘It’s no secret. Nothing to be ashamed of. If Warren met a woman he couldn’t have, he saw it as a challenge.’

‘Yet you turned him down?’

‘Of course. Once bitten, you know? I was happy with Tom. After Tom took ill, I was wrapped up with caring for him. Warren’s flirting was a distraction. A nuisance. I wasn’t flattered, I knew that all he wanted was to get me into bed again. If you’ll excuse the expression, I’d been there and done that. He had nothing to offer me.’

‘Your husband was dying and he was pestering you to sleep with him.’

‘Yes.’

‘And after Tom died?’

‘He had the brass neck to say it would do me good. Take me out of myself.’ Bel kept her eyes on Hannah. ‘I hate to say it, but that’s the sort of man he was. He never took no for an answer.’

‘So how did you deal with that?’

‘How would you deal with it, Chief Inspector? I kept repeating myself, kept on saying no.’

‘And how did he react?’

‘He wasn’t happy. Said I might as well be dead myself.’

‘Not very nice.’

‘That was Warren. He could be cruel.’

‘You were very upset, I presume?’

‘You presume right. But if you’re wondering whether I killed him because of it, the answer is no.’

Hannah turned to Oliver. ‘Were you aware that Warren Howe was making a nuisance of himself?’

He shifted under her gaze. ‘I hardly knew the man. Once Jason left, I had my hands full, trying to make sure that the restaurant kept afloat. To me, Howe was just another customer. A married man with a roving eye. After my experience with Jason, I suppose I was glad it was women he was interested in, but I did feel sorry for Bel.’

‘In case you’re wondering,’ Bel said, her voice steady, ‘there was never anything — personal — between Oliver and me while Tom was alive.’

The coffee was hot and strong. As she sipped it, Hannah wondered if Bel Jenner was telling her the truth. Maybe, maybe not. But what did it matter?

‘Later, when we became a couple, there was gossip,’ Oliver added. ‘Inevitable, I suppose. I overheard people talking behind Bel’s back, saying it was a disgrace that she’d become involved with a younger man when her husband was still warm in his grave. It was so unfair. She’d suffered a lot. I’m not an idiot, I realise people round here still say I was only interested in Bel’s money. But the honest truth is, Bel was all I was interested in.’

Protesting too much? Hannah let it go. ‘Roz was another of Warren’s former girlfriends and her husband had left home around this time. Did he try his luck with her again?’

Bel said, ‘You’ve talked to her, Chief Inspector, and I think she’s answered your question.’

A quiet, dignified reply. Sometimes this job made you feel uncomfortable, like a voyeur. Or was that, Hannah wondered, part of the appeal of police work, the chance to walk into other people’s lives and nose around their most intimate secrets? She recalled Nick’s phrase about ordeal by innocence.

‘You and she are still very close.’

Bel folded her arms. ‘Lifelong friends. We’ve never had secrets from each other. You know how it is, with your best friend.’

Hannah knew how it was supposed to be, though there was plenty she wouldn’t tell Terri. As for Marc, right now there was also something important she wasn’t telling him.

‘She must have been shocked when her husband disappeared.’

‘It was a terrible time for both of us. Losing the men we loved. At least there was a silver lining. In the end I found Oliver, and Chris came back to Roz.’

‘You’d assumed Chris was dead?’

‘What else could we think? We were afraid he’d committed suicide. He vanished without a word, which seemed so cruel. But he wasn’t himself; you have to see it from his point of view. When he had his breakdown he needed to run away, so he could get his head together.’

‘Ever any doubt that the breakdown was genuine?’

Bel’s lipsticked mouth curved in distaste. ‘Really, Chief Inspector. I’m sure if you check your files, you’ll find that poor Chris was interrogated long and hard when he turned up. The very idea that he might have killed Warren is absurd. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. Besides, he had an alibi.’

Oliver turned to her. ‘Better be careful, darling. Remember, we were never able to come up with watertight alibis for ourselves. If the police run out of other ideas…’

Hannah pulled herself free of the armchair’s seductive caress and sat upright. A bowl of nuts sat on the table and she helped herself to a handful. The interview wasn’t going well; she’d lost the initiative. Instead of making allies of these people, she was fast antagonising them. Time for an olive branch.

‘We worry about people with alibis almost as much as those without. According to your statement, Ms Jenner, you spent most of the day at home next door, sorting through your late husband’s business affairs?’

‘After he died, the last thing I wanted to do was to bother with paperwork, but the solicitors handling the probate were asking for various bits of information. I set aside that day to get to grips with it.’

‘Did you go out?’

‘No. The restaurant was closed that day until six-thirty. During Tom’s illness, and after Jason left, we cut back the opening hours. Bad for business, but money was the least of my worries. I walked over here at half five. Oliver was already hard at work.’

‘You’d moved in by that time, Mr Cox?’

Oliver nodded. ‘There’s a flat upstairs. At present we have a couple of girls over from Croatia for the summer who share it. Jason lived there, but when he left Bel offered it to me in lieu of a pay rise for my extra responsibilities. I’d been holed up in a crummy bedsit in a Coniston back street, not far from Coppermines Valley. The first thing I saw when I woke up each day was a damp stain the shape of Africa on the wall. Of course, I jumped at the chance to move. On the day of the murder, I popped next door about nine-thirty. To see how Bel was bearing up, I wanted to keep my eye on her after everything she’d been through. I said I’d go into Hawkshead to pick up some food. The rest of the time I spent pottering around this building. No witnesses, I’m afraid.’

‘Is there anything you might have overlooked at the time or forgotten to mention to my colleagues?’ Bel and Oliver shook their heads in unison. ‘When did you first hear about the murder?’

‘Roz rang while she was waiting for the police to arrive,’ Bel said. ‘She’s a strong lady, but she was in a dreadful state. First her husband had disappeared, now she’d found a man cut to the pieces in her own back garden.’

‘You knew Warren Howe was working for her?’

‘She and Chris decided to have the work done and she didn’t want to change the plans. Superstition, I suppose. If she acted as if Chris were dead, she’d somehow make her nightmare come true.’

Hannah tried another tack. ‘I gather that Gail Flint supplies you with wine?’

‘We like to support local business ventures. And of course I’ve known Gail a long time.’

‘She had an affair with Warren not long before he died.’

Bel allowed herself a mischievous smile. ‘Well, nobody’s perfect.’

‘So it wasn’t just a rumour?’

‘I heard the relationship was over before the murder. And Gail would never have killed him. She can be tough, but she’s squeamish. I can’t imagine her doing — what the murderer did to Warren.’