Damned by Logic (20 page)

‘Thank you for coming along,' Glover said.

‘Had I thought I had an option, I would have stayed at home.'

‘If you will follow me.'

They went into one of the interview rooms. Ansell had learned the routine – sitting on opposite sides of the table, switching on the recording unit, the preliminary establishing of place, date, time, persons present.

‘Before we continue,' Glover said, ‘do you wish to have your solicitor present, as is your right.'

‘Why should I need him?'

‘You do not wish to be represented?'

‘I have just said not.'

‘It is desirable to have a definite expression of intention.'

‘Then I repeat, I do not need a solicitor to represent me.'

‘Very well, Mr Ansell. We have received further information regarding the matter in hand, but before I deal with that, I should like you to confirm certain facts. Were you a passenger on MV
Helios
when she made a Mediterranean cruise which began on the ninth of June?'

‘Yes.'

‘While on it, did you meet Melanie Caine?'

They watched him as he remained silent.

‘I will ask again. Did you meet a fellow passenger whose name was Melanie Caine?'

He accepted he could no longer deny that. When last questioned, desperate to prove his innocence, confused, he had betrayed himself. This time as well he didn't have to concern himself with feeling humiliated in front of DC Belinda Draper. ‘Yes,' he finally admitted, gaining a strange, brief pseudo-relief from the admission.

‘A fact you have denied on several occasions?'

‘Because to admit it could make it seem I had been involved in her barbaric murder.'

‘Were you in any way involved in her death?'

‘No.'

‘Because of your close friendship with Melanie Caine, did she at the end of the cruise ask you to take ashore a facsimile Barbary ape?'

‘Yes.'

‘Did you not wonder why she did not take it herself?'

‘She said she had no room in her luggage because of all the clothes and gifts she had bought during the cruise.'

‘She could have carried it in her hands since the ape is not large.'

‘She must have thought that would make her look rather absurd. And ...'

‘Yes?'

‘If I had to return it to her, I would have every reason to see her again.'

‘You suggest she might have thought you would otherwise not have done so? Did you disembark with her?'

‘I couldn't find her before I went ashore.'

‘Neither your luggage nor you was searched by custom officers?'

‘No.'

‘Melanie Caine was strip-searched. Did that not make you wonder why?'

‘I did not know she had been.'

‘She did not tell you at a later date?'

‘I did not see her again.'

‘You had not agreed to meet after you had both passed through customs and immigration?'

‘She didn't want to.'

‘Did that concern you?'

‘It puzzled me.'

‘You weren't worried it was a brush-off?'

‘Not when she said she'd phone to say when and where we could meet.'

‘You did not think perhaps she did not wish to be seen with you?'

‘No.'

‘It did not make you wonder if there was something more than foam in the ape?'

‘Of course it didn't.'

‘You arrived home and inadvisably left the ape on your bed. Your wife and Mrs Morley saw it there and Mrs Morley noticed the scent and blonde hairs, suggested to your wife you had had an affair on the ship?'

Ansell did not answer.

‘Did Melanie Caine later contact you?'

‘Yes.'

‘How?'

‘She phoned.'

‘Where were you?'

‘At home.'

‘You had given her your number? You weren't worried your wife might query who she was?'

‘I gave her my mobile and home numbers and a cover story – what to say if my wife answered the call.'

‘Why did she phone you?'

‘To say I must return Georgie to her immediately.'

‘What did you do?'

‘Went upstairs.'

‘Why?'

‘To make certain my wife who'd previously gone up wasn't listening to the conversation.'

‘On the extension phone?'

‘No.'

‘You've told us you'd arranged things to hide the real reason for the call.'

‘She'd have known from my voice that something had happened.'

‘Did Miss Caine indicate who was threatening her?'

‘No.'

‘When the call ended, what did you do?'

‘Went up to the bedroom to make certain Georgie was there.'

‘You expected your wife to have moved it?'

‘No. It was because ... I was very frightened by the call and told myself ... It'll sound ridiculous ...'

‘What did you tell yourself?'

‘That if I touched him, she'd be alright.'

‘And then?'

‘I asked Eileen where she had put Georgie.'

‘What did she answer?'

‘She said she'd burned him.'

‘Did you ask her where?'

‘Yes.'

‘But she wouldn't answer?'

‘No, but I was certain it had to be in the garden.'

‘Why?'

‘Obviously she couldn't have had a bonfire elsewhere without creating interest, perhaps alarm.'

‘Did you search the garden to confirm what she had told you?'

‘At night, with the rain? And the way she spoke? I was certain she had to be telling the truth.'

‘But she was not.'

‘There had been so much hatred in her voice.'

‘If Melanie asked you to carry the ape through customs because there was something valuable in it and she might have her luggage searched, what would you have done?'

‘She didn't say that.'

‘You are unwilling to answer my question?'

‘To answer a hypothetical one.'

‘I suggest you have been lying throughout this interview.'

‘I've told you the truth.'

‘You have admitted you lied to us during a previous interview.'

‘I explained why.'

‘Few liars limit their lies. You are lying when you say your wife told you she had burned the ape.'

‘I am not.'

‘I believe that a loose word, perhaps even a hint, on Melanie's part, convinced you she was using the ape to carry something valuable and illegal. That is why, when she asked you to carry it ashore and through customs, you agreed. You passed through customs without your luggage being searched. Had it been, had the ape been found, you would have pleaded ignorance and named her. Later, you deposited Georgie in your bank, convinced you were providing yourself with a generous financial future.

‘We gained permission to open your strongbox. Inside, wrapped up in sheets of a British national newspaper dated after your arrival in England, was a material Barbary ape, bought in Gibraltar. Do you still deny you put Georgie in your strongbox in the bank?'

‘I haven't put anything in the box since returning from the cruise.'

‘There were seven uncut, illegally mined diamonds in the ape. An expert has determined these came from Sierra Leone. It can be proved Melanie Caine was in possession of them when she returned to the
Helios
after meeting a man in a café in Beirut, that she was not carrying them when she arrived back here. You have admitted she gave you the ape to take ashore, that you did not later hand it to her; that when she phoned to say she desperately needed it to save her life, you falsely told her it had been burned by your wife.'

‘Eileen told me what she'd done,' Ansell shouted. ‘In God's name, how can you believe I wouldn't have got Georgie to Melanie to save her, even if the devil had been in the way? Why won't you believe me?'

‘It is not easy to believe someone who has been forced to admit he has previously lied over a considerable time. I am arresting you, David Hugh Ansell, on suspicion of having reason to have caused the death of your wife.'

On instructions, Ansell followed Glover down to the charge room.

Police bail was granted.

F
rick called Belinda into his room. ‘The guv'nor's arrested Ansell.'

‘I've heard.'

‘You are to understand you will have no further contact with him, either in a professional position or socially.'

‘Since when has he the right to tell me what to do in my own time?'

‘You wouldn't catch a lifebelt if you were swimming for your life in the middle of the North Sea. He's trying to prevent you cocking up your career.'

‘Or afraid I could prove he's made a mistake?'

‘I'm buggered if I understand you, always making your life difficult for yourself.'

‘There's no need for me to do that, other people manage it perfectly well enough.'

‘You've been given his orders, so make of them what you will. Right now, get to this address and find out what the woman's been up to for the husband to beat the hell out of her.' He held out a sheet of paper.

‘Is it a law in your life that a husband always has reason to beat up his wife?'

She left, went into the CID room to collect her jacket which was hanging behind her desk.

Trent, who was working at his computer, looked up at her and said, ‘You look like you've just lost your knickers and can't remember where.'

‘You make nonsense of the theory that men only think of sex ten times a day.'

‘Those statistics are for men over seventy. Why the sniping? Have you been hauled over the coals for something?'

‘I've been told whom I'm not allowed to talk to.'

‘Never speak to royalty until they speak to you unless they're about to fall down a manhole. Who's trying to educate you?'

‘The guv'nor.'

‘He's only looking after your morals.'

‘Get stuffed.'

‘Is the subject of the embargo Ansell? He needs sympathy, not silence, since having bumped off his wife, he's a widower.'

‘You're slightly more bearable going on about sex than trying to be humorous. Where's Britling Road, south Frithton?'

‘Why go there?'

‘To advise a wife to buy a baseball bat and knock the hell out of her husband.'

She left the inharmonious home in Britling Road after a wasted interview with a now contrite husband and forgiving wife, crossed the pavement and climbed into her car. If her parents had not shown her what was a happy marriage, work might have convinced her they were as rare as penguins in the Antarctic. Her bitterness at the range of matrimonial discords caused her to engage the wrong gear and the engine stalled. Further annoyance – at her incompetence – caused her to restart the engine and drive away without consulting the mirrors and collision with a passing car was only just avoided. The remainder of the drive was without incident. In her rash state of mind, she didn't think twice about where she was now headed.

Ansell opened the front door of number thirty-four, regarded her first with surprise, then reserve. ‘The same old questions to find out which answers differ from the forty-ninth time?'

‘No.'

‘Fresh ones, then?'

‘No.'

‘Then what brings you here?'

‘Being told not to have any further contact with you.'

‘And you refuse to be told what not to do as enthusiastically as what to do?'

‘I suppose. I'm getting cold in the wind. Are you going to ask me in?'

He stepped aside so that she could enter. She unbuttoned her coat and he helped her out of it, hung it on an old-fashioned stand. ‘If you'd like to go into the sitting room, I'll make coffee in the kitchen.'

‘I'm not allowed in there?'

‘Your presence would be appreciated.'

They went in. She watched him pour beans into an elaborate machine.

‘I hope I get things right,' he said, ‘but there are so many dials I usually turn the wrong one or the right one in the wrong direction.'

‘For someone professing incompetence, you seem to have a natural ability to know what to do!'

He laughed. ‘Reserve your comments until you taste what's in the cup ... I'd ask you to sit, but there aren't any chairs in here.'

She'd noticed the lack of any dining area.

He walked across to one of the wall cupboards above the work surfaces. ‘Would you like some chocolate digestives?'

‘Please.'

He opened the first cupboard's doors, searched. ‘I thought they were in here, but it must be in one of the others.'

A second cupboard was equally empty of biscuits.

‘Would I be correct,' she said, ‘to think you don't spend much time in here except to make coffee?'

‘You promised no questions.'

He found the biscuits in a third cupboard, as the coffee machine hissed. He set out cups, saucers, sugar, plates with biscuits on one, looked for and quickly found a tray.

‘Can't we drink and eat in here?' she asked.

‘Standing up?'

‘You never eat or drink in here?'

‘Eileen doesn't ...' He stopped.

She moved until she could put a hand on his arm. ‘Sorry, David. Let's go and be comfortable.'

They sat, facing the blocked fireplace and television set to the side of it. Their conversation was unforced, light, and sometimes amusing until she suddenly said, ‘David, I want to ask one question.'

‘Now the true reason for your coming here?'

‘I told you what that was.'

‘Who said you weren't to have contact with me?'

‘The inspector; Glover.'

‘D'you know why?'

‘Because of what the sergeant had said to him.'

‘Which was what?'

‘Best left unsaid.'

‘Presumably that I'd threatened Eileen in an effort to save Melanie?'