Murder... Now and Then (27 page)

It wouldn't. Victor was dead now. She hadn't had time to take it in, and here she was denying lulling him. She knew what Max meant now.

‘Go on,' said the inspector. Her eyes had lost the look of disbelief.

‘I wanted to get my own back, that's all. He asked if there was anything worth nicking inside the plant and I told him there was a way in past the cameras to the office block. I spun him a tale about Victor having gone home and not to worry if lights went on and off in the flat, because they were on a timeswitch. I said he kept a collection of silver up there.'

‘And he swallowed all that, of course,' said Finch. ‘Just like you expect us to.'

‘He seemed to,' she said reluctantly. She would have known, if she had been sober. She would never have told him in the first place. ‘I just wanted to get back at both of the sods! I was drunk – I never thought he'd do anything like that!'

‘You think Bannister killed him? Why would he do that?' asked the inspector.

‘Victor got him up an alley,' said Anna. ‘Because of what he'd done to me. He hurt him – really hurt him. He told me he had. And Bannister reckons he had to leave the police in the end because of the damage Victor did.'

‘What did Holyoak use on him?' asked Finch, showing real interest for the first time. ‘A knife?'

‘Victor didn't need knives,' said Anna. ‘He knew all that … you know. Karate, that sort of thing. He could have put him in hospital if he'd wanted to.'

‘But he didn't want to?' asked Inspector Hill.

‘Suppose not. But Bannister reckons he got internal injuries that caught up with him later on.'

Finch looked thoughtful, and Anna knew what he was thinking. He was thinking what she had been thinking ever since he'd come to tell her that Victor was dead. That Bannister hadn't swallowed her story. That he'd tricked the information about the cameras out of her. And he had gone up there to get revenge.

‘Is there a way past the cameras?' asked the inspector.

‘Yes, if you're on foot.'

‘How did Bannister get to Stansfield – did he drive?'

‘Yeah, An old minivan. With a DIY paint job done on it.'

‘When did you and he part company?'

‘Just before nine,' said Anna, her voice growing more and more reluctant. ‘I left him at the pub, and I went home. Max was waiting for me.'

The inspector looked at Sergeant Finch. ‘Where had they got to, checking the tapes?' she asked.

‘About six thirty on Wednesday evening when I spoke to them last,' he said.

‘Tell them to do a fast search until—' She looked at Anna. ‘What time did he come into the pub?'

‘About eight or so,' said Anna. ‘I think.'

‘Until eighty thirty, let's say. If he went to the factory first, it might be on tape. Tell them if there is a van answering that description, I want the registration number checked with the computer, and if it's registered to Bannister, I want him picked up on suspicion of aggravated burglary.'

‘Yes, ma'am.' Finch got up.

‘Sergeant Finch leaves interview room,' Inspector Hill told the tape.

Anna had liked seeing Finch being made to jump to it. She almost liked Inspector Hill. She had almost liked her fifteen years ago; she remembered her now. She had given her some cigarettes and a pep talk.

‘We need a statement Anna,' said the inspector. ‘I want to know exactly what your relationship was with Holyoak, I want to know what this row was about I want to know exactly what Bannister did tonight
and
the time he beat you up, I want to know exactly what you told him to do … all right? If we're here all night you're going to give me proper, truthful answers to my questions.'

Anna nodded. ‘And you'll give me protection?' she said again. ‘Because if you have to let him go again, he'll come after me.'

The inspector smiled. ‘ Don't worry,' she said. ‘If he comes after you again, he'll have Sergeant Finch to reckon with.'

This didn't exactly inspire confidence.

‘Don't be misled by the innocent looks,' she said. ‘He's got two commendations for bravery.'

‘Yeah?' said Anna. ‘Well, I haven't'.

She could still see Bannister holding that truncheon … She closed her eyes. She just had to trust them to protect her.

Dave Bannister had filled up the van in readiness for his journey north.

She looked as if she was making a bob or two, the little tart. Some of it might just as well come his way. Blackmail had crossed his mind, but she had him at just as much of a disadvantage as he had her. The little bitch had seen to it that she had. A large cash sum. That was what he needed, and she'd pay up.

She must have it stashed away somewhere for when she got too decrepit to appeal to Holyoak, even if she wasn't on the streets any more. Even sex-starved businessmen had their standards, and Annabel couldn't go on for ever. Holyoak would trade her in for a younger model sooner or later, but meanwhile he was obviously paying through the nose for her. And she had no overheads, no mortgage, no car-loan repayments, no kids to feed and clothe. She had money. Cash in hand. No banks for Annabel. No tax. No dealing with the authorities.

It would be wherever she was, and a day's telephoning had finally produced her address from a gullible secretary somewhere in Amsterdam. That was where the money would be.

And by the time he'd finished with her, she would be begging him to take her money. It was almost too easy to scare Annabel. And this time she'd have good reason to be scared, because she had pulled a stroke on him that he wasn't going to forgive in a hurry.

He opened the van door, and a shadow fell across him.

‘David Bannister?'

He closed the door again. Only his ex-colleagues said your name like that. The little whore was going all the way with it.

‘No,' said Zelda. ‘Sorry.'

‘But you were in the car park with Max Scott at six fifteen?'

Zelda nodded. ‘ I was talking him out of going home to Catherine in that mood,' she said. ‘ I was worried. Anna may well have left – I just didn't notice, that's all. Geraldine was there – you could ask her.'

‘We can't seem to get hold of her,' said Judy. ‘Does Max Scott make a habit of hitting his wife?'

Zelda looked shocked. ‘Of course he doesn't!' she said. ‘You'd go a long way before you'd find a kinder, gentler man than Max as far as women are concerned,' she said. ‘ Believe me.'

‘So his wife tells me,' said Judy. ‘But my sergeant saw him, Mrs Driver – and he thought Mr Scott was going to start on him, come to that.'

‘That I could believe – he was very angry. Max is one of these people who hardly ever gets angry, and they're always very nearly out of control when they are. But hitting a woman—' She shook her head. ‘If Max hadn't told me himself that he'd done it, I would have called your sergeant a liar; I've seen Catherine, I know the mess she's in. But I know what Max went through when Valerie died. And it seems she could have prevented that.' She gave a brittle smile. ‘I wonder why she didn't?' she asked.

Judy couldn't tell her, but for once she got the impression that Zelda wasn't seeking information; she was inviting Judy to enquire closely into Catherine's reasons.

‘Its almost impossible for me to imagine Max hitting a woman,' Zelda said. ‘All he has ever wanted to do is give women pleasure. Not pain.'

Judy gave her a disbelieving look. ‘What about his first wife?' she asked. ‘I'm not talking about her murder – just his behaviour with other women – didn't that give her pain?'

‘I don't honestly think it did,' said Zelda. ‘Max genuinely loves women, and women adore him. Even when it's all over, they're still on his side. And Valerie was on his side, too. Because even if he did give her some pain, I'm certain he gave her more pleasure. He's a very nice man to be around.'

That wasn't quite what Sergeant Finch had said after his early morning visit to Anna Worthing's. Judy picked up her tea. ‘You said in your statement at the time of Valerie's death that she was extremely upset about this other woman,' she reminded Zelda.

‘Oh, she was,' said Zelda. ‘But only about what she called ‘‘his latest''. Not about the others. Not about Max himself. She wanted to hang on to Max, believe me.'

‘And his latest was Catherine?'

Zelda looked a little embarrassed, and Judy's eyes widened slightly as she realized why Zelda was so certain of Max's ability to give pleasure.

‘Yes, all right' said Zelda. ‘I was one of Max's conquests. I'm not terribly proud of it but he caught me in a moment of weakness. And technically, I was his latest. But it was a one-night stand two days before Valerie died, and Valerie's problems started long before I ever came on the scene.'

‘In London?'

Zelda nodded. ‘ Max fell in love with Catherine,' she said. ‘He's still in love with her – never mind what he did yesterday – he thinks the world of her. That's what Valerie couldn't take. She was losing him, and she knew it. You don't kick up that sort of fuss for someone who only gives you pain, do you?'

Judy thanked Zelda, and made her way back to the station, thinking about Max Scott, and the uncontrollable anger that had led him to hit his wife, shocking rigid everyone who knew him. Had he been uncontrollably angry with the first Mrs Scott? She sighed. Domestics were always depressing. Then she smiled, as she considered her own rather off-beat domestic set-up.

At first, she had found Lloyd's quick temper alarming; he would say things that wounded when he was angry. But it was always all over almost as soon as it had started, and Lloyd's tongue was his only weapon. Much safer than the Max Scott slow burn; losing his temper was no big deal to Lloyd. Judy couldn't imagine him out of control of his actions.

It was late when she got back; she had thought that Lloyd might have gone home, but he was at his desk. She gave him what she had got from Zelda, for what it was worth, and he looked thoughtful.

‘You said that there was no love lost between Mrs Scott and her stepfather?' he said.

‘Well – if he moved his set-up to be here, perhaps he thought rather more highly of her than she did of him. But she made no bones about her feelings – at one point I actually thought her reluctance to remove her coat might be because her clothes were bloodstained, but she was just hiding kind, gentle Max's handiwork.' Judy raised her eyebrows.

Lloyd smiled. ‘ Nowt so queer as folk,' he observed. ‘I wish I knew what he wanted to know.' He sighed, and picked up the still photograph of Bannister's van that the security system had magically generated for them, and which had resulted in Bannister's arrest. Only then had they been able to persuade Anna Worthing to leave the station.

Judy yawned. Anna's enormous statement had taken for ever; she had revealed that she had custody of a large collection of private detectives' reports that Holyoak had received on his stepdaughter's movements. They could prove very useful on the Valerie Scott murder, but someone had to read them. She'd get them picked up and put Finch on to it in the morning, she thought tiredly, before he went to the post-mortem.

It was almost ten o'clock. She had been awake since dawn, and had had hardly any sleep before that. Lloyd thrived on that; he could stay here all night. She didn't, and she wanted to go home, but there wasn't much chance of that yet, as Lloyd still studied the photograph of Dave Bannister's van.

‘Bannister's the dancer, as I recall,' he said, his first indication that he knew who Dave Bannister was. The rule that their private lives shouldn't intrude on their working lives had been made by him, which apparently meant that he could break it whenever he chose.

‘He's the one with a nice line in sublets,' said Judy.

‘All right,' said Lloyd. ‘ Back to business.'

On the other hand, she might have been better off with Dave Bannister. She sighed.

‘What do we know about him?' he asked.

‘Precious little,' said Judy. ‘He left the Met about three years ago. He hasn't got a record of violence or anything else.'

‘But you believe all that about his beating Anna up and Holyoak ‘‘getting him up an alley'', as she puts it?'

Judy shrugged. ‘ I don't know,' she said. ‘But Bannister
was
in Stansfield, and he had to be here for some reason.'

Lloyd sat back, tipping the chair back, rocking slowly back and forth. ‘Operation Kerbcrawl?' he said.

She shrugged. ‘It's what they've all got in common,' she said. ‘Though I can't see how a bit of sleazy business in a car leads to murder years and years later.'

‘Holyoak wasn't even picked up on Anna's patch,' said Lloyd. ‘She wasn't involved in those arrests.'

‘Why was he kerb-crawling anyway?' asked Judy. ‘ If Anna owed him a favour, you'd think he'd have had no need.'

‘Mm.' Lloyd laid down the photograph. ‘ That presupposes that Anna's telling the truth,' he said.

‘I think she is,' said Judy. ‘She's scared, Lloyd. And it's not of us.'

‘Telling the truth even about this mysterious visitor to Holyoak's flat who isn't on the video?'

‘Well it wasn't Max, not if whoever it was came at six fifteen,' she said. ‘I imagine she made that up on the spur of the moment – she just hoped that would get us off her back, I suppose. But I think I believe her that there is someone else in Holyoak's life – I expect that that's what her row with Holyoak was really about.'

‘Did she expand on that?' asked Lloyd.

‘She says Holyoak hadn't been very impressed with her handling of the reception, and the row ended with her giving her notice.' She shrugged. ‘ Maybe she was sacked,' she said. ‘It seems more likely.'