Майкл Ридпат - Launch Code

‘Brooke wouldn’t lie,’ said Alice.

Actually, Toby wasn’t sure about that. He would lie for Alice.

‘Whatever,’ said Megan, stepping back from her accusation. ‘But, Dad. You have to tell the police all this. Otherwise they’ll lock Alice up again!’

Bill swallowed, and looked at his eldest daughter. He appeared to be on the edge of tears. ‘I can’t,’ he said to her. ‘You must understand that.’

Alice’s face hardened. She got to her feet and left the kitchen table. A moment later they heard the front door bang. They could see her through the kitchen window leaning on the flint garden wall next to the pear tree, staring out over the marsh.

Toby joined her. He put his arm around her and squeezed.

Time to dispel one of the many Guth secrets. ‘You know why your father doesn’t want to tell the police all this?’ he said.

Alice didn’t answer.

‘Because he thinks you killed Sam Bowen.’

‘He told you that, did he?’ Alice said, turning towards him. There were tears in her eyes, but also contempt.

‘Yes,’ said Toby. ‘I don’t believe him, obviously.’

Alice turned away from him towards the marsh, brooding under a low grey sky. A couple with a dog strode in single file along the top of the dyke down towards the dunes, which were slumbering under their thin, worn blanket of grey-green grass. To the west, an early brushstroke of pink was already tickling the underside of the clouds.

Toby tried to put his arm around her again, but she shook him off. ‘You don’t believe I think you killed him, do you?’ he repeated.

No answer.

The door to the house opened behind them and Megan appeared in the front garden, clutching her phone. ‘Nothing from Maya yet, but I got an answer from Vicky,’ she said to Toby. ‘She doesn’t want to talk to me about Craig. If she talks to anyone it has to be Justin — according to her, he’s the only one who still cares about her brother. I guess that’s not surprising. And, anyway, it looks like Craig’s death isn’t that important after all.’

Alice spun round. ‘Will you just butt out, Megan? This has nothing to do with you! It’s got to do with me and Dad. Can’t you just leave us to it?’

‘I’m only trying to help,’ said Megan.

‘But you’re not!’ said Alice. ‘You’re only making things worse.’

Megan glanced at Toby. ‘Go back inside, Megan,’ he said.

‘No,’ said Megan. ‘Anything that has to do with my dad and my sister — and with my mother, for that matter — has to do with me. It’s my family. Our family. That’s important.’

Alice turned back towards the marsh and snorted. ‘It’s ridiculous to hear you say that.’

But Megan wasn’t giving up. ‘Alice? Why didn’t you do more to get yourself off the hook with the police?’

Alice didn’t reply.

‘Toby and me are doing what we can, which isn’t much. But we’re trying. But you and Dad. You do nothing. You don’t give them anything. Mom told you a lot about all this stuff, didn’t she? Well, why didn’t you tell the police? Why didn’t Dad?’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ said Toby.

Alice turned to face her husband and her sister. Her cheeks were wet with tears.

‘Isn’t it obvious? You’re so damned clever, Megan, can’t you see it? Can’t you, Toby?’

‘No,’ said Toby.

Alice sobbed.

‘I didn’t tell you because Dad killed Sam Bowen.’

‘What?’ said Megan.

Toby was shocked. Someone must have killed the historian, and he had supposed there was a chance it could have been Bill, but he was surprised the thought had occurred to Alice. And if it had occurred to her, that she hadn’t dismissed it immediately.

But if she did believe her father was a murderer, it would explain a lot of her own behaviour.

‘How can you be sure?’ Toby asked.

Alice sniffed and wiped the tears from her cheeks. ‘You are right, Megan. Mom did tell me more than you and the others. She thought I should know, so that if necessary I could help Dad after she was gone.’

‘Know what?’

‘That Dad had killed Craig on the submarine. That she had introduced Dad to a peace activist who had put him in touch with Russian contacts in the peace movement. That he had told the Russians about the near-launch. That subsequently it had turned out that they were KGB.’

‘Dad just admitted all that himself,’ said Megan. ‘That doesn’t mean he killed Sam Bowen.’

‘No, but it does mean he had a reason to. That’s why I went to see Sam Thanksgiving evening. Toby said Sam had mentioned Pat Greenwald in passing, so I skirted around the subject with Sam at dinner.’ Toby remembered Alice’s earnest conversation with Sam at the table. ‘It was clear he suspected something, but I realized I needed to find out exactly what. So on the way back from the grocery store — in Hunstanton, not King’s Lynn — I dropped into the King Willie to talk to him. We had a drink in the bar, but it was closing time, so we went up to his room. I told him I had missed his conversation with my father because I was cooking the turkey, but that in the past my mother had told me things that might be helpful. I discovered he knew quite a lot about Pat Greenwald, and that he was planning to fly to New York this week to speak to her son. Apparently the son remembered seeing his mother with a naval officer when he was a kid.’

‘Wow,’ said Megan.

Alice sighed. ‘Then, after I came back here and put the groceries away, I went to see Dad in his study. I told him what Sam had said. And that night, Sam was killed.’

‘Bill never said you spoke to him,’ said Toby.

‘He told the police,’ said Alice. ‘He just didn’t tell them what we spoke about. And neither did I.’

‘So he was lying to us?’

‘He wasn’t telling you the whole truth,’ said Alice.

What a surprise, thought Toby. Bill would probably claim he was trying to protect Alice by keeping quiet.

‘And then you think Dad killed Sam?’ Megan said.

‘That was my first thought,’ said Alice. ‘As soon as I left Dad in his study, he went over to the pub and knocked on Sam’s door.’ Alice hesitated. ‘And then he stabbed him. To stop him from telling everyone how Dad and Mom had been spying for the Russians. I tried to tell myself it couldn’t possibly be true—’

‘Quite right,’ Megan interrupted.

‘But it must be. I’m sorry, Megan, it must be.’

‘So that’s why you kept so quiet with the police? To stop them from suspecting him?’

Alice nodded.

‘But what about you?’ Toby protested. ‘Are you willing to go to jail for him?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe. But I don’t think it will come to that. If in reality I haven’t killed anyone, it will be difficult for the police to prove I have. My solicitor seems to agree that’s the best strategy.’

Toby knew Alice would do anything for her father. But even if she thought he had murdered someone? Two people?

‘Did you tell your lawyer you thought your father had murdered Sam?’

‘No. But I think she knows there are things I’m not divulging. My guess is she assumes they are things that would incriminate me, so she would rather not hear them.’

‘But Dad was watching TV with us when Sam was killed,’ said Megan.

‘No he wasn’t,’ said Alice. ‘The game was over by the time I got back. I unpacked the groceries and then I went to speak with him in his study. If he had gone straight to the pub after that, he would have had time to kill Sam Bowen. Sam would have let him into his room, and if Sam hadn’t gone to bed right away, he would still be dressed. Believe me, I’ve had plenty of time to think this through.’