Martin Edwards - The Coffin Trail

She came to a halt a couple of yards short of the bench. ‘Daniel Kind.’

It was a statement, not a question. Her face had a few freckles and was faintly tanned by the wind and sun. She wore no make-up or jewellery and didn’t have a single ring on her long slim fingers. He couldn’t detect a perfume. He guessed that her attitude was take me as you find me. When they shook hands, her grip was firm. Her gaze was intense as she weighed him up. Her dark eyes gave nothing away. It would be no joke, being a suspect under interrogation by Hannah Scarlett.

‘It isn’t every day I get to meet a television celebrity from the soft south.’ Her voice was husky, not easy to hear against the crash of water cascading over the weir. He caught the faint undertow of scepticism in her words. Not a woman who was easily impressed.

‘All that is history,’ he said with a grin.

She winced. ‘So a flair for lousy jokes runs in the family? Did he train you in the art of card tricks, too?’

He waved her to sit down. ‘I used to think my dad had a pretty good sense of humour. As for conjuring, he always used to enthrall my sister and me. I never did figure out how he could make the King of Diamonds turn into the Ace of Spades. Then again, I was only twelve years old.’

She joined him on the bench, leaving a gap between them. ‘Presumably there was a lot of resentment when he left, as well as unhappiness.’

‘For my mother and Louise, yes. Both of them were very bitter, his name became a dirty word. Me, I was just dazed. His running off with Cheryl was a disaster that came out of the clear blue sky. Being told that he’d walked out was like being hit by a falling tree.’

‘You had no warning?’

‘I suppose Mum realised something was up, but we never discussed where and why they went off the rails. Talking about the time when we were a family of four, not three, was absolutely off-limits.’

‘He hated hurting you all.’

‘You think so?’

‘I know so. Of course, he and I didn’t talk about what had gone wrong between him and your mother, that was private. Over a lager one night after we’d wrapped up a case, he told me that not a day passed without his conscience nagging him. Your sister was — what, fifteen at the time? Studying for her exams? He had a lot to feel guilty about and it didn’t help when he phoned her and tried to explain.’

Daniel leaned forward. ‘Louise never mentioned to me that he called.’

‘Did she not? She told him that he’d ruined the lives of all three of you. Swore at him and said some vicious things about Cheryl. She made it clear she never wanted to speak to him again. That cut him up, and yet he had to admit that it was his own fault.’

Daniel’s eyes settled on a board by the river. Dangerous Water. ‘All through my teens, I had this recurrent dream. The settings varied — home, school, my uncle’s house — but the plot-line was always the same. The phone would be ringing and I knew it was Dad, wanting to talk to me, to say that one day we’d be together again. I never made it to the phone in time. It would fall silent the moment before I picked up the receiver, and all I’d ever hear would be the dialling tone.’

‘Now you know why he didn’t call you sooner. Once bitten, twice shy. But he was thrilled when you eventually made contact with him.’

‘Whenever we did speak, he came over as a bit of an old curmudgeon.’

‘That was just his way. To survive as a detective, you need a hard shell. But if you harden up all the way to the heart, maybe you’ve got a problem.’

For a moment, he wondered if Hannah Scarlett might be talking as much about herself as about his father. She seemed cool and collected in person, as she had on the phone. Whatever might lie beneath the surface poise, she could hardly be more different from impulsive, vulnerable Miranda. This was a woman who kept her feelings under lock and key.

‘Deep down, he was as compassionate as any cop I’ve met. Not that he’d thank me for saying it.’ She paused. ‘You deserve to know what he was really like. I don’t blame his wife and daughter for judging him harshly, but there are two sides to every story.’

Daniel said, ‘I haven’t come just for you to tell me what you think I’d like to hear.’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘I wouldn’t do that.’

‘It’s good of you to spare this time to talk to me.’

‘The least I can do. I owe your father a great deal.’

She told him how Ben Kind had taken her under his wing and about how much she’d learned from him. How he’d taught her that showing empathy for the victims of crime must not stop her from detaching her emotions from the case. How often he’d urged her to keep her eye on the ball; every investigation was full of crap that could distract even an experienced detective. The secret was never to lose focus.

‘As the years passed, he gave up on amateur magic, concentrated on playing the gruff sceptic. A popular act with the older men, a chap on my team plays that game. You have to look past the scowls and grumbles, try to make out what they really think and feel.’

‘And what did Ben Kind really think and feel?’

‘He was a decent man, Daniel. The only wrong thing he ever did that I know of was leaving you and your family in the lurch so that he could run off with Cheryl. I suppose he felt cornered.’

‘Meaning what?’

She studied her unvarnished nails for a moment, as if making up her mind how much to say. ‘He did once let something slip. Whilst he was still living at home, Cheryl gave him an ultimatum. Although she made most of the running, after they’d slept together a couple of times, she insisted that if he didn’t make an honest woman of her, the relationship would have to end. Forcing him to make a choice.’

‘He told you that?’

‘And one other thing. Long before the end, he was afraid he’d made the wrong choice.’

For a little while, Daniel didn’t speak, just studied the ground at his feet.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked.

‘I spoke to his neighbours,’ he said, looking up again. ‘They told me that Cheryl started an affair before he died.’

‘It wasn’t her first,’ Hannah said shortly.

‘I take it that you weren’t a member of her fan club?’

‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.’

‘I’d rather you tell me the truth.’

‘Even if the truth is uncomfortable?’

‘Historians expect it to be.’

‘Just like any police officer, then?’ she said with a glimmer of a smile. ‘Don’t get the wrong idea. Cheryl and I scarcely knew each other. The two of us had nothing in common, apart from Ben. Besides, I don’t think Cheryl had many women friends.’

‘But men friends?’

‘Men she liked. She was a flirt. And once or twice she went further.’

‘My father told you that as well?’

She cleared her throat. ‘In this job, when you work together for a long time, you share a lot. Grief, disappointment. Confidences get shared too.’

As he considered this, he didn’t look at her, kept his eyes on the river rushing past. For all the warnings, he couldn’t help dipping his toes into that dangerous water. Presently, he said, ‘So you and he were very close?’

‘We weren’t lovers,’ she said shortly, ‘if that’s what you mean. Very good friends. The best, I’d say. But no more than that.’

Her candour startled him. ‘Sorry. I…’

‘No need to apologise. Cheryl made the same assumption, apparently, but I’m not sure she gave a damn. On the contrary. If Ben was getting his oats elsewhere, he wouldn’t be troubling her, would he? I suppose that’s the way her mind worked. Of course she was wrong. As you’ve discovered, I share a house with Marc Amos.’