Murder... Now and Then (26 page)

That uncharacteristic violence was the action of someone who felt, utterly betrayed by someone he trusted. Had Catherine betrayed him? To whom? Holyoak? Hardly, according to Judy.

He had let Scott go; was he sending him back to finish what he'd started with his wife? No. He didn't think he was. Whatever had made him beside himself with rage had burnt itself out; he may not have got the truth, but he was resigned to that. Scott was no longer a threat to his wife. He was bitterly ashamed of what he had done; he had said that he was with Anna Worthing rather than admit it.

Lloyd got up. But where was Anna Worthing that evening, and why had she been so unwilling to tell Finch? Zelda said that she had been Holyoak's mistress. Freddie had come as close to advancing a theory as Lloyd had ever heard; that Holyoak had been murdered by someone with whom he had just had sexual relations.

It wasn't looking good for her, Lloyd had to admit.

A woman had joined them. Dark, well dressed. A detective inspector. God knew what they would be wheeling in next. This one hadn't been at the opening; Anna would have noticed. She sighed as she was asked the same old questions. They'd have to let her go soon, unless they had thought up something to charge her with. As it was, she was being more co-operative with the police than she had ever been in her life, simply by staying there. They could hardly expect her to speak to them as well.

‘Miss Worthing – you told Detective Sergeant Finch that you left Mr Holyoak's flat at six fifteen,' she said.

Anna examined her nails. This one didn't get all hot under the collar like Finch. He'd ended up red in the face with frustration because she wouldn't answer; now he was taking a back seat as his boss had a go. DI Hill was asking the same questions as he had, as often as he had, and looked as though she would be happy to keep it up all afternoon. But Anna could counter that with the same ease; it was stalemate, and they both knew it.

‘Mr Scott said you were with him from half-past six,' she said, for the third time to Anna's recollection. ‘But he's changed his mind. He says it was more like nine o'clock, now.'

That was new. It didn't exactly come as a surprise, though. Finch had told her about the bloke thinking the car was blocking his way out of the garage – Max would have given in once he'd been told that. She still wasn't at all sure why Max had been so quick to give her an alibi in the first place.

‘Where were you between six fifteen and nine o'clock?'

Anna read one of the posters.

‘Don't mess me about, Annabel. We're both getting too old for games.'

Jesus Christ. She'd only just given them her prints. They couldn't have found out yet. She turned back and stared at the inspector. ‘Who the hell are you?' she asked, her voice hoarse from disuse.

DI Hill smiled. ‘The last time you saw me I was WPC Russell, Kingston Road Division, Leyford,' she said.

She stared at her. ‘You must have booked dozens of us on that patch,' she said. ‘What have you got up there?' She tapped her own temple as she spoke. ‘A bloody card-index?'

She laughed. ‘Far from it,' she said. ‘I've got a rotten memory. I take notes all the time, when people actually answer my questions. It's not so bad now, with the tapes. But I've got into the habit – I don't feel right without a notebook.'

Anna had a feeling that the chatty approach was leading up to something. Finch was looking startled at the sudden change of tone, and the inspector smiled at him.

‘There are maybe half a dozen things that have happened to me since I joined the police service that I can remember without having to look up files and notebooks,' she said to him.

The police service. That was what they called it now, but it didn't stop them being bastards.

‘And Annabel here is one of them,' she said. ‘That's the name she used to use – isn't that right, Annabel?'

Anna tried to look bored.

‘It was when I had just finished my probationary period,' she said, now talking to Anna again. ‘You deal with all sorts of things – I mean, one minute you're chasing some handbag snatcher through the market, and the next you're giving someone directions to the library. Or assisting at an RTA. Or looking for a missing kid. You know. But you don't really know how you'd cope in a crisis. Something the books can't tell you how to deal with. Something you've just got to find out for yourself.'

Anna presumed that this crisis had somehow involved her, but she was damned if she knew what it was.

‘Then one night, I saw you a millimetre away from kicking my colleague's head in,' she said. ‘I got between you and him, and I told you to sit down. You did.' She smiled. ‘That was when I knew that I could really do this job.'

Dear God. Anna went cold. She wasn't dredging that up from her memory. They'd got Bannister, and God alone knew what he had told them. The alert look on the inspector's face meant that she had seen Anna's involuntary reaction; Anna was out of practice at this game.

‘Do you want to tell me what happened last night, Anna?' she asked.

If they had Bannister, he could be telling them anything; her stand-by of saying nothing was beginning to look inadequate in the face of the evidence that they would begin to gather against her, what with Max giving her unwanted alibis, and Bannister telling them what she had done.

‘I left Victor's flat at six fifteen,' she said. ‘I told him.' She nodded over at Finch. ‘Max saw me leave – he said so.'

‘We're not inclined to take Mr Scott's word for anything after this morning,' the inspector said.

‘He got a lift home from Mrs Driver! She'll tell you. Or that woman doctor! She was in the car park with them!'

‘Mrs Driver is extremely busy at work, in view of what's happened,' said the inspector. ‘We haven't been able to get hold of Dr Rule ourselves yet. But we aren't really disputing when you left, Anna. I'd like to know why you left, though.'

Anna frowned. ‘ Someone came to the door,' she said.

‘Who?' asked the inspector.

‘I don't know. I didn't see them.'

‘Was it a man or a woman?' asked Finch.

Anna sighed. ‘I just said I didn't see them.'

‘But presumably you heard a voice' he said. ‘ They must have used the security phone to get in.'

Anna frowned a little. That hadn't occurred to her.

‘No,' she said. ‘I could only hear Victor's end.'

‘And this was at quarter-past six?' said Finch. ‘When you left?'

‘Yes.'

‘Was he expecting someone?'

‘Yes.'

‘But you don't know who?'

‘Well …' She didn't want to do this – it went against every principle that she had in her dealings with the police. But he had landed her here, giving her a phony alibi. ‘I thought it might have been Max,' she said. ‘But he says he saw me leave, so I don't suppose it could have been.'

‘We can check that out,' said Finch. ‘But I'm more interested in you, right now. What was your relationship with Holyoak?'

‘I worked for him.'

‘Nothing more?' asked the inspector.

Anna looked from one to the other, not sure how much they knew, how much they had been told by Bannister and Max, how much they were guessing. But she was telling the truth, and they didn't believe her, that much was obvious.

‘Come on, Anna,' Finch said. ‘There was a bit more to it than just working for him, wasn't there?'

‘I worked for him,' she repeated.

‘Where did you go when you left?'

‘I went to the pub.'

‘Which pub?'

‘The Stag.'

‘It would be,' said Finch.

The Stag was dark and dingy and noisy and dirty, full of winos and receivers of stolen goods. It had gleefully thrown out afternoon closing as soon as the law was changed, and it was never short of customers. It was the closest pub to the factory; that was why she had gone in there. Even if the staff did remember her, they wouldn't tell the police. She knew that, and they knew that.

‘Were you alone?'

They knew she hadn't been. She shook her head.

‘Who was with you?'

‘You already know,' said Anna. ‘Why ask?'

The inspector raised her eyes to the ceiling. ‘No more games, Anna,' she said. ‘Who was with you?'

Anna looked at her. ‘Dave Bannister, of course,' she said.

‘
Bannister
?' the inspector repeated incredulously. ‘How does he come into this?'

Anna stared at her, but Inspector Hill wasn't play acting. Dear God, they hadn't got Bannister at all. And now she had said he was there. For a second, she panicked, but her bridges were burned, and she had to tell them. ‘Look,' she said, her stomach tanung over as it always did when she thought of Bannister's long-ago visit, of what would have happened if Victor hadn't got there when he did, ‘if I tell you, you've got to give me protection.'

‘We haven't got to do anything,' said Finch. ‘ If you've got information, you'd better let us have it – without conditions.'

Anna ignored him, and turned to the inspector. ‘You've got to listen to me! He came after me before – he'll do it again if he thinks I've said anything!'

The inspector was regarding her with some interest, if not actual belief. ‘Came after you?' she said. ‘When? Why?'

‘Because of the complaint I made about him!' shouted Anna, tired of trying to get thick cops to understand what she was saying. ‘He came after me – nearly a year later! He beat me up for that – God knows what he'll do to me this time.'

The inspector frowned. ‘The complaint?' she said. ‘Are you talking about what happened that night in
Leyford
?'

‘Yes,' said Anna.

‘Well, I'm not,' she said firmly. ‘I'm talking about what happened last night, right here in Stansfield. What has Bannister's beating you up years ago got to do with Victor Holyoak?'

She hadn't been promised protection, but there was no turning back. Anna swallowed, and looked down at her hands. ‘Victor pulled him off me, or I don't know what state he'd have left me in,' she said.

‘But according to you, you only met Holyoak six months ago,' Finch said.

‘I lied.' Anna looked defiantly at him.

‘Why? Because you're his mistress? Because he had to put you on the payroll to explain your coming to Stansfield with him? What happened, Anna? Did he ditch you once he'd got you here? Who was he expecting – were you jealous?'

Anna didn't answer.

‘Anna,' said Inspector Hill sternly. ‘If you didn't kill Victor Holyoak, you have to tell us the truth. Because right now, you're the best bet – you must see that.'

‘It is the bloody truth!' shouted Anna.

‘That you were in a pub with Dave Bannister? Anna – for crying out loud, you don't seriously expect me to believe that, do you?'

‘It's the
truth
. He saw me on the bloody telly! He came haring up here to the factory, but everyone had gone. So he went to the pub, and he found me there!

Finch had finally had enough. ‘Who
is
Bannister?' he demanded.

‘An ex-colleague of mine,' said Inspector Hill.

Finch looked startled, and turned back to Anna. ‘Why did he beat you up?' he asked.

‘Because I reported him for sexually assaulting me,' said Anna.

‘Oh,' he said, sitting back in his chair.

‘Good for him, is that what you're thinking?' said Anna. ‘That's what they said, the bastards.' She looked back at Inspector Hill. ‘He came after me, and he beat me up. Victor got him off me – he didn't know me from Adam then. He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to do anything that he did for me. I didn't kill Victor – don't you understand?'

‘And you say this Bannister turned up here last night?' asked Finch, with total disbelief.

She nodded. ‘Look,' she said, putting her real fear into words for the first time. ‘ I might have caused it. I didn't mean to. I swear to God, I didn't mean to. I'd had too much to drink – I just wanted to get back at both the bastards. I didn't mean that to happen, I swear I didn't!'

‘Both?
Had
you had a row with Holyoak?' Inspector Hill asked.

Anna nodded. She was rusty at this, and DI Hill wasn't.

‘What about?'

‘Work. I – I handed in my notice,' said Anna, drawing circles with her finger on the formica tabletop. ‘Then I went to the pub to get drunk.'

‘All right,' she said. ‘Go on from there.'

‘I'd been there a couple of hours when Dave Bannister comes and sits beside me.' She glanced up at the inspector, who still looked unconvinced. ‘I couldn't believe it either,' she said, ‘ but he was there! I didn't recognize him, not straight away. I'd only ever seen him in uniform. And he thought he could screw some money out of me. He's out of work.'

‘Money for what?' asked Finch.

‘To feed his wife and kids,' said Anna.

‘No – I mean, why did he think you would pay him money?'

‘So as he wouldn't tell what I did for a living before I shook cabinet ministers' hands,' she said, and smiled, despite the position she was in. ‘I shook more than their hands in my time,' she said. ‘They like them young, and they think you won't know who they are if they pick you up off the street.'

They smiled too. Both of them.

‘I told him to stuff it, I don't have any money and the papers were going to find out anyway, so he'd backed a loser.'

Finch leant forward. ‘I'm sorry,' he said. ‘ The papers? Should I know who you are?'

Anna shook her head, trying not to be goaded into anger any more. ‘Victor,' she said. ‘He's news in Europe. Like they'd like to find mud to throw at him except they don't know where to look. He's got money. Power. They know he's a bastard and they can't prove it. It'll get like that here,' she said, and then remembered.