Robert Goddard - Name To a Face

“Why was it… impossible?”

“Because you didn’t know all or even most of the factors that were in play. Before I explain them, though, I’d better tell you how last night unfolded.” They were clear of the car park now, heading for the main road into Nice. “Hayley rang the penthouse around seven. The phone had rung a couple of times before and Carol had answered, but the caller had hung up. Only when Barney answered did she speak. She introduced herself and confessed straight out to stealing the ring from Heartsease.”

“She said that?”

“She did. She also said she regretted what she’d done and was willing to hand the ring over to Barney and explain why she’d stolen it. She wanted him to meet her in Menton later that evening. He agreed. It was a nicely judged decoy. She said she’d be waiting for him on the promenade near the casino at eight o’clock. He set off, telling Carol he was meeting me to discuss some business emergency. Perhaps if he’d told her the truth, she’d have been more on her guard, though I doubt it. Anyway, while Barney was in Menton, stooging around the sea front as eight o’clock came and went, Hayley was in Monaco. She’d been there when he left, hiding in the shadows near the back gate. As he drove out and the shutter-door came down, she’d wedged a bar under it to stop it closing. Barney’s not the type to wait to make sure the door’s completely shut every time he leaves. You know that. Well, it looks like she did too.”

“So, she got in by rolling under the door?”

“Yes. It wasn’t difficult. And it was even less difficult to get inside the apartment. The patio doors were unlocked. I expect she had some other way in planned, but that made it real easy for her. She crept into the kitchen and took a knife from the block on the worktop. Carol was in the lounge watching television. She never heard a thing. Suddenly there was a knife at her throat. She thought she was going to be killed. There and then.”

“Poor Carol.” Harding shut his eyes for a second, imagining how she must have felt in the moment when she realized her life might be about to end. “What did she do?”

“She was paralysed by fear. Probably just as well. But she wasn’t struck dumb. So, she talked, pleading for her life. At first, she didn’t know who her attacker was. Hayley stayed behind her. Carol reasoned with her as best she could. It was a monologue, apparently. Hayley never said a word. Then, suddenly, she threw down the knife and fled. It was only at that point that Carol recognized her.”

“But she’s never met her before.” It was a feeble objection. Hayley’s resemblance to Kerry Foxton made some form of recognition inevitable. As Whybrow emphasized in his own way by ignoring the point.

“Carol was in shock. She can’t properly account for what she did afterwards. Instead of calling the police, she locked herself in the bathroom, fearing Hayley might come back. She didn’t, of course. She was probably long gone by then. Meanwhile, Barney was starting to worry. He phoned home and got no answer. Then he worried some more. He didn’t want to head back in case Hayley was simply late for their appointment. So, he phoned me and asked me to call round. Carol was still in the bathroom when I got there. I had to do quite a lot of talking just to get her to open the door. I’d searched the apartment by then and was certain no one was hiding anywhere. The bar was still propping open the shutter-door when I arrived, by the way. Hayley hadn’t bothered to remove it. Or maybe she’d been too distraught at her loss of nerve to think of it.”

“How do you know she lost her nerve? Maybe she’d only ever intended to threaten Carol. Though why I can’t imagine.”

“She left something in the kitchen that convinced me she was planning to murder Carol. A pocket recorder, with a tape in it. I listened to the tape while waiting for Barney to drive back from Menton. I’d phoned him, but not the police. I don’t believe in acting hastily. And this is a good example of why that’s always a sensible policy.” Whybrow pressed a button on the dashboard. The radio and hi-fi panel lit up. A tape engaged in the player. And Carol’s voice echoed in the car.

Barney’s playing golf, so I thought I’d give you a call. What are you doing? Treating Humph to a cream tea? It’d be wasted on him. He doesn’t appreciate the good things in life. But I do. Our afternoons together are very good, Tim, very, very good. Shall we-

Whybrow’s finger hit the off switch. Silence reclaimed the foreground. Harding could not suppress a groan as he gazed out through the passenger window into the blackness of the Mediterranean. “That’s quite enough of that, I think, don’t you?” said Whybrow softly.

“Has Barney heard this?”

“Not yet. And there’s no reason why he needs to. As long as we can agree how to handle the… ramifications.”

“What exactly do you mean?”

“I believe Hayley’s plan was to frame Barney for Carol’s murder, leaving the tape to be found by the police when they responded to the anonymous 112 emergency call she obviously intended to make after killing Carol. She’d arranged for him to have no alibi that would bear examination, whereas I assume she had one standing by for herself. The tape would have supplied the perfect motive. It could plausibly have been obtained from your phone by some private detective, employed by Barney to check up on Carol. It was a good plan. We can only be grateful she couldn’t bring herself to go through with it. Barney’s denials wouldn’t have counted for much. I don’t know how I could have got him off. The beauty of it, from Hayley’s point of view, was that Barney would have understood very clearly who’d framed him and why, without being able to do a damn thing about it, except tell the truth and have it universally disbelieved. Sweet revenge, in Hayley’s mind. Better than murdering Barney, she’d have murdered his beloved wife and ensured he’d spend the rest of his life in prison contemplating that fact.”

“Barney might have understood. But I don’t. What would Hayley have been avenging?”

“Her sister’s murder-as she sees it.”

“What?”

“Her name isn’t Winter, Tim. It’s Foxton. She’s Kerry Foxton’s twin sister.”

I wasn’t with the company back in the summer of 1999,” said Whybrow His soft, susurrant voice was the only sound that reached Harding through the dark blanket of the night. “If I had been, things might have been very different.” They were parked in a lay-by just round the headland from Nice, no more than a couple of kilometres from Villefranche. “I think I’d have questioned Kerry Foxton’s credentials-and her motives-sooner and more searchingly than I gather Ray Trathen did. But that wouldn’t necessarily have made any difference. There’s no legislating for accidents. And an accident is what happened to her on that diving expedition.

“I made enquiries about the Foxton family at the time of the inquest. It seemed prudent to establish whether there were any surprises in store for Barney. That’s when I first heard about Hayley Barney really should have told me sooner. He’d heard from Carol, of course. Kerry had confided in her that she had a twin who’d suffered from depression since her mid-teens. Her parents were embarrassed by the contrast between the two girls and never mentioned Hayley. After a spell in hospital and a sequence of recoveries and relapses, Hayley cut herself off, living alone in Birmingham, where she held down various temporary jobs when she was well enough to work. Kerry kept spasmodically in touch with her, but the accident put a stop to that. Her parents told Hayley nothing about it, apparently for fear the news would only make her illness worse. She didn’t hear about their deaths until long after the event.