Challis - 03 - Snapshot (28 page)

She glanced from one to the other. No.

The man who shot your mother? The
man driving the old car?

She shook her head emphatically. No.

He collected the photographs and
substituted her drawings. Remember these?

Georgia eyed him brightly,
seriously. Thats my name in the corner, see?

Yes.

Thats my mum on the ground.

Challis nodded. Im mainly interested
in the driver of the car the bad men came in.

Ive got other pictures, she said.

Have you?

She left the room, Challis and the
aunt exchanging polite, sad smiles. Meg passed him a cup of instant coffee. The
central heating cut in and Challis felt warm air gust over him from a wall
vent. He sipped his coffee: it was terrible coffee, weak, stale, and nothing
would ever put it right: sugar, milk, or an extra spoonful of granules.

Georgia returned with three
drawings. The situation was potentially morbid and unhealthy, a small child
reliving her mothers murder through drawings and conversation, but Challis was
reassured by the warmth and peacefulness of the kitchen, the fact that Meg wasnt
chiding Georgia or hovering anxiously, and Georgias own air of wisdom and
maturity. These are good drawings too, he said.

Two were essentially the same
drawing, but the third showed the killers car in profile. Cream body, yellow
drivers door, just as shed described it on the day of the murder.

Challis returned to the drawings
that showed the driver, his arm hanging out of the window. It was a typical
young toughs driving pose. And there was that same lumpy hand on one of the
new drawings, the outline smudged.

Challis was wary of asking leading
questions, so he pointed and said, I always had trouble drawing hands when I
was a kid.

Georgia frowned. Was Challis
criticising her drawing skills, or merely admitting to his own? First I did a
proper hand, then remembered and rubbed out one of the fingers.

Rubbed out?

Does it hurt, Georgia said, if
you get a finger chopped off?

Chalks went very still. I expect it
does, he said carefully. Do you remember which finger?

She held up her right hand and gazed
at it critically. This one, she said finally, pointing to her ring finger.

It was lunchtime when he got back to
the office. Ellen and Scobie were there, their hard, tense, hopeful smiles
telling him thered been a development.

* * * *

41

Raymond
Lowrys wife was a small, discouraged-looking woman with drawn features. It
was more verbal than physical, she said. She paused. Ray had anger-management
issues.

She used the term awkwardly. Is
that the expression Janine McQuarrie used? asked Challis.

Deborah Lowry shifted about in
consent. They were in a CIU interview room overlooking the carpark. Ellen
leaned forward and touched the womans wrist. You say he was more verbal than
physical, meaning he did sometimes hit you?

Yes.

So you sought counselling.

I wish I hadnt!

Why?

I didnt know what she was like!

Janine McQuarrie?

She went right off, said men like
Ray needed to pay, a simple rap over the knuckles in court isnt enough, they
have to be confronted.

And she confronted your husband.

She could have got me killed doing
that! He came storming home afterwards, slapped me around, said hed kill me,
kill her.

Challis sat back in the plastic
chair and folded his arms. Is he capable of killing someone? Do you think he
did it?

Deborah Lowry shrugged, looked sulky,
as if her choice of husband reflected badly on her character.

You were concerned enough to come
here today and make a statement, said Ellen encouragingly.

Rays got a terrible temper. Who
knows what hes capable of? Ever since he left the Navy hes been kind of
drifting. His mobile phone business is struggling. He... she finished,
gesturing helplessly.

When she was gone, Challis called
Dominic OBrien at Bayside Counselling, who refused to hand over Janine
McQuarries file on Deborah Lowry. Mrs Lowry is now my client, Inspector.

Ah.

OBrien pressed home his advantage
with a tone of portly satisfaction. And I do not intend to reveal my own
assessment of her.

Challis sighed irritably. The
irritation apparently communicated itself to OBrien, who went on to say, However
it is my judgment that Mrs Lowry is not a threat to herself, or anyone or
anything else. Look elsewhere for your murderer, Inspector.

* * * *

At
two oclock that afternoon, Raymond Lowry was brought in for questioning. Ellen
led by saying, You used to be in the Navy, Mr Lowry.

Lowry examined his nails, a picture
of boredom. So?

You travelled widely, ending up at
the base near Waterloo. You liked the area, and when you left the Navy you
decided to settle here with your wife.

So? repeated Lowry, glancing at
Challis as if to say that he knew where Ellen was getting her information from.

A good place to raise a family and
start a business.

Lowry stared at her.

But your wife doesnt live with you
any more, does she?

Challis, seated to one side of the
interview room as if merely an observer while Ellen Destry asked the questions,
saw Lowrys jaw tighten. He took in the mans powerful build, large teeth bared
in a mocking smile, and small ears tight to the head. Ex-Navy, now a shopkeeper
who sold mobile phones: what disappointments drove him?

Challis slid his gaze sideways to
meet Ellens and gave her a tiny nod. The tape machine was running. Lowry hadnt
requested a lawyer yet.

You and your wife had marriage difficulties,
Mr Lowry? Ellen asked.

Full of fake concern, and Lowry wasnt
buying it. Nothing unusual about that.

Of course not. But not everyone
seeks counselling from a psychologist.

It was stuffy in the little room and
Lowry had hung his polar fleece jacket on the back of his chair. He wore jeans
and a V-necked cotton sweater over a white T-shirt. Under it all he was bulky
from steroids or the gym. He frowned. What are you on about?

Your wife saw a psychologist, Mr
Lowry. Didnt you know that?

He shrugged. The Navy sent me to
three bases in two years. That was disruptive. Plus she was scared Id be sent
to the Gulf and come back in a body bag. Another shrug. Nothing to be ashamed
about. Thats why the Navy has a counselling service.

Im not talking about the past, Im
talking about now, this past year. And Im not talking about the Navys
psychologists. Im talking about Janine McQuarrie.

Challis watched Lowry scowl. I
suppose my wife told you all about it.

It doesnt matter how we know. What
matters is your response. You said, and I quote, I could kill the bitch. Do
you remember saying that, Mr Lowry?

Yep.

Well, did you carry it out?

Nope.

He was abrupt, unruffled,
contemptuous. Challis leaned forward. You were angry. We can understand that.

If I was to murder anyone it would
be my wife.

Shoot her in the head like you shot
Janine McQuarrie, Challis said. Were searching your house and business, Ray.
Are we going to find the gun you used?

You were questioning me on Tuesday
morning. How can I be in two places at once?

So, who did you hire?

Look, am I under arrest?

No.

Do I need a lawyer?

I dont knowdo you think you need
one?

Lowry continued to sit impassively.
Eventually he said, Ill humour you for the time being.

Ellen leaned forward and said, Janine
McQuarrie tried to empower your wife, didnt she? And you didnt like it.

Doesnt mean I killed her.

But it was more than that, wasnt
it, Ray? said Challis, toying with his pen. Janine McQuarrie made contact
with you. She confronted you.

Raymond Lowry shrugged
indifferently. Challis slammed the flat of his hand on the table. She
confronted
you,
Ray.

Lowry was unruffled. So?

Didnt that upset you?

Sure. But I didnt kill her and you
cant prove I did.

Challis sat back and folded his
arms. Were the first to admit that she wasnt very well liked, he said
reasonably. In fact, many loathed her. She liked to confront people,
particularly men. We can understand why youd want to punish her, get even with
her. Tell us, Ray: youll feel better.

Lowry sighed, as though they were
slow and needed the obvious pointed out to them. Youre describing someone
losing it, flipping out, acting in the heat of the moment. Yeah, I admit, Ive
got a temper. But as I understand it, the bitch was shot dead by contract
killers, which doesnt sound like heat of the moment to me.

He gave them his arid smile.

Maybe you got very calm and hired
those killers, Mr Lowry.

How would I go about doing that?

You own a mobile phone shop,
Challis said. Is that how you kept in contact? You used cloned, throwaway
phones to cover your tracks?

You thought youd got away with it,
too, Ellen said, but we received an anonymous call from someone who knew
quite a bit about the murder.

Challis watched Lowry with interest.
Lowry merely shrugged.

Was that anonymous caller you, Mr
Lowry?

Lowry glanced at his watch
indifferently. If Id shot her, why would I call you?

Perhaps you only wanted to scare
her, and things got out of hand.

I wasnt bothered by her, okay?

Are you protecting someone?

Like who?

You hired a mate. He let you down,
but youre unwilling or afraid to tell the police about it.

Will that be all? Lowry was saying.
Or should I ask for one of the duty solicitors? Perhaps
he
will make
you see sense.

He?
Ellen asked, amused. What if its a
woman? Oh, I forgot, you have trouble relating to women, dont you, chuckles?

Believe that, if it makes you
happy.

Especially clever, articulate,
fearless women like Janine McQuarrie.

Why waste a good bullet? Lowry
asked.

* * * *

42

Challis
had no choice but to release Lowry without charge. Later that Friday afternoon,
the car repairer called to say that his Triumph was ready, so he swapped the
loan car for it and returned to the station, where he called the last briefing
before the weekend.

Outlining the results of the Lowry
interview, he said, We need more: warrants for his home and office
phonesincluding any second-hand phones he may have in stock, and phones
brought in for repairand warrants to search his house, shop and car. We need a
weapon, ammunition, or anything that will tie him to the murder. Meanwhile, the
funerals on Saturday. Scobie, I want you to attend, photograph the mourners.

Boss.

Challis rubbed his palms together. Getting
back to Lowry. Ellen? Is he our man?

Ellen shrugged. Janine McQuarrie
liked to confront people mainly menwho she thought were abusive in some way.
She liked to rub their faces in it. She went too far, confronted the wrong man.
But was it Lowry? She pissed him off, but as he said, Hal, he was being
interviewed by you on Tuesday morning, just before Janine was shot.

Challis nodded. But that doesnt
let him off the hook. He could have hired someone to do the job.

They brooded. Scobie Sutton said, Ellens
right about the pattern to Janines behaviour. We know she confronted Lowry,
and my wife has told me about similar incidents. By sending those photos to her
husband and the others, Janine was being true to form.

So who else did she confront, said
one of the Mornington DCs, and why, and in what way?

Challis cleared his throat. And
were the photographs the first step, or was she following up an earlier, face-to-face
confrontation?

All four men seemed shocked and
puzzled though, Hal, said Ellen.

True, said Challis, glancing at
the uncurtained window. The day was closing in. Theyd all be driving home in
darkness. He said slowly, Did she confront the super? Maybe Robert refused to
be cowed by her, so she went to his father. They shifted uncomfortably at the
thought of interviewing the super.

Later Challis was to refer to it as
speak-of-the-devil. At that moment, McQuarrie appeared in the doorway of the
incident room. Nostrils flared, he directed a hard bright smile at them one by
one and said, Inspector, sit down.

Sir?