The Reckless Engineer (5 page)

CHAPTER 7

Saturday, October 16 — One Day Later

‘Edwards has agreed to come here for the questioning with WPC Hansen.’ Harry broke a little bit of good news as he took his seat in the armchair in which Jeremy had sat the night before.

It was about forty minutes past midday. Harry had driven in through the right entrance of the long U-shaped driveway leading up to the house, in his Mercedes Benz this time, no doubt to fit in better with the surroundings of his clients’ mansion. Jeremy had watched Molly and Max herd the Mercedes to a more prestigious location closer to the house. The dogs judged a book by its cover and allocated parking accordingly, he thought.

‘But he hasn’t given me any indication whether or not he would let Jack come home on bail afterwards, although I am hopeful,’ Harry broke the possibly bad news.

Félipé, the brown lad, brought in a silver tray of sandwiches delicately cut into triangles with potato crisps and grapes on the side, and set it on the coffee table. He then brought in a tray of tea and coffee followed by some side plates, paper napkins, and cutlery. The working staff of the estate had reported for work and all except Félipé had been sent away by Caitlin. Félipé, being Spanish, was much less likely to spread gossip in the village, unlike the English staff, Caitlin had explained.

‘Please help yourselves,’ Caitlin said and sat on the couch at the end close to Harry as if she were seeking his protection from the difficult experience she was about to go through with DCI Edwards.

‘Edwards will be here in about an hour. I should like to go through a few things with you before that, Caitlin.’ Harry got straight down to business in his trademark fashion the way Jeremy had seen many times before. ‘Jeremy has outlined to me the events you have related to him. The police have the anonymous letter sent to you. Edwards put it in front of Jack during the interview. Have you got a copy of it somewhere?’

‘I put a copy of mine away in a box up in the attic. The police would have taken it from there, but I asked them to leave copies of everything they took in my office upstairs. Papa took the originals and I think he has given them to the private eye he hired.’

Jeremy dashed up to Caitlin’s office and back. ‘There’s quite a pile of paperwork by the copier, too much for us to go through right now. They have also taken the PC base units, both in Caitlin’s office and in Jack’s workshop.’

His heart felt tight and was thudding from the sudden exertion.

‘Caitlin, have you got the contact details of the private investigator your father hired?’ Harry asked.

‘No, but Papa does. He’s expected to arrive later this afternoon.’

Having finally caught his breath, Jeremy picked up the plate of sandwiches he had left on the mantelpiece and moved unobtrusively to the chaise lounge nearby.

‘The main time period of interest to Edwards, according to his questions yesterday, is from about 5:40 Wednesday evening when Michelle was last seen alive in her local Morrisons supermarket, till 2:10 Thursday afternoon when she was found dead by her friend and neighbour who also does some housekeeping. Ideally we need alibis for both Jack and yourself . . . at least one person to vouch for your whereabouts during this time. That is someone to vouch for Jack’s and your presence at a place
other
than at Michelle’s house.’ Harry added a bit of humour to his leading question.

Caitlin nodded thoughtfully.

‘Well, I work in my office at BlackGold Monday through Friday from about 8:30 am. Jack and I both leave home shortly after 7:00 a.m., which we did Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week as usual. Hannah should vouch for this. The drive takes an hour. We take the same route, but I drop Gillian at school and, just before reaching Portsmouth, I turn east towards Havant while Jack heads west towards Cosham. Some of my engineers at BlackGold start work earlier than I do and they should verify my times of arrival.’

She paused.

‘Caitlin, please have some food. You are not going to feel well going through this interview on an empty stomach.’

‘Thank you.’ She picked out some sandwiches before continuing.

‘Jack’s office has swipe-card access; the electronic access logs should show when he got in and left. Jack normally leaves the office between 6:15 and 6:30 p.m. and gets home about an hour later. Some days he leaves Marine Electronics about 4:30 p.m. and works a few hours at BlackGold with our engineers, particularly if he has a new electronics design to send into production. He came home straight from Marine on time Tuesday and Thursday, but on Wednesday he came home about midnight.’

That was the night of the murder. Jeremy watched her carefully.

Caitlin shifted uncomfortably.

‘We had a fight. I suspected he might have been with Michelle. He did not want to talk about it and went straight to bed, but he was tossing and turning and didn’t sleep all night. He was troubled and upset on Thursday also. Got home early quite drunk and went straight to bed. He was late to work Friday morning.’

She got up from her seat and poured herself a glass of champagne from the drinks refrigerator. A glass of chilled champagne was just what Jeremy wanted to wash down the sandwiches.

‘I leave BlackGold about 3:00 in the afternoon and get home an hour later so that I’m here when Gillian gets home with Hannah, except on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays I leave at 2:30 and pick up Gillian and three of her friends from school. I bring them home and give them riding lessons for a few hours. On Fridays I leave work at noon. Jack generally goes to BlackGold Friday afternoons but he came home this week. Nothing different happened with my schedule this week.’

Harry sighed. Caitlin’s testimony was not ideal for Jack.

‘Caitlin, I shall be straight with you. Your testimony does not look good for Jack, particularly the part about Wednesday evening.’ He paused to allow Caitlin to infer his unspoken direction.

‘Michelle was a vicious girl. If he killed her he did it for us, and I want to protect him. I shan’t mention any fight. I shall just say that he was out working late at BlackGold.’

‘That’s the best you can do for him.’ Harry nodded.

Harry is protecting Jack, at Caitlin’s cost
. It was in Caitlin’s interest to reveal these facts that threw the suspicion fairly and squarely onto Jack and off her shoulders.

‘I know in my bones Jack is not a killer. But I don’t know if I can forgive him his affair.’

‘Affairs,’ Jeremy muttered to himself.

Harry briefly caught his eye. Jack’s marriage was hanging by a thread. Jeremy walked to the drinks cabinet and offered to refill Caitlin’s champagne glass. ‘Thanks,’ she accepted. He poured a glass for himself. He could see her plate back on the table, one triangular sandwich half nibbled on.

‘Unfortunately that suggests a strong motive for him to kill the girl—to save his marriage,’ Harry explained. ‘If you want to help Jack it is best to stick to safe facts about events when Edwards questions you. I have to advise you not to answer any question that might in any way assign yourself a motive or an opportunity for the murder. You do not have to answer any of the questions. If you are in any doubt, you can ask to stop the interview and speak to me in private. On the other hand, right now you are not the primary suspect. If you refuse to answer his questions or are caught in a lie, that might change. So it is in your interest to be cautiously cooperative.’

Caitlin shifted in her seat with a look of despair and frustration. ‘I had nothing to do with this woman other than the direct calls
she
made to me and the events imposed on me by Jack’s association with her!’

‘I just want you to be ready for Edwards’ questions, Caitlin.’ Harry leaned forward and touched Caitlin’s hand protectively.

‘The second series of questions is likely to be about the poison. Edwards would be trying to gauge if and how either of you could have acquired the poison. He has a vial of some sort and Edwards will ask if you have seen it or something like it before. He might have an assessment of what the poison might be and possibly a partial toxicology report by now. He will question you about either Jack’s or your associations with places or methods such material could have been available to either of you.’

Jeremy hung on Harry’s every word. This vial thing was very intriguing. Where the hell could they have found it to throw suspicion on Jack? And what was the poison in it? Jack with poison? He could imagine Jack reaching the end of his tether with that high-pitched nagging and going at her with a cricket bat, but a vial of poison! Nah. No not even a cricket bat. Jack was a lover, a
serial
lover, not a killer.

Caitlin was nodding. ‘I have no idea about any vial.’

‘The next series of questions will be about the period prior to last Tuesday, from about the time you received the anonymous letters. Although a poison is more likely to have been administered during the 24 hours prior to Michelle’s death, it could have been introduced into her premises some time before that and she could have just happened to have taken it on Thursday. A poison may also be administered gradually and accumulate in the body over a period of time with minor effects and become fatal only after an extended period of time. So Edwards is likely to question you on the events of the past three months from about the time of the arrival of the anonymous letter.’

‘Police at the gate,
sénora
,’ Félipé interrupted them and hurriedly cleared the trays, replacing them with a fresh silver tray of bottled water and glasses. ‘I put Max and Molly in the stables.’

Jeremy got up and hurried out to the front door. A marked police car was being slowly and deliberately driven down the driveway from which DCI Edwards and WPC Hansen emerged, intermittent radio messages scratching the air over the tetra radio communications units attached to their belts. DCI Edwards was in a grey suit with a strained buttoned jacket he was clearly growing too paunchy for. WPC Hansen joined him by his side in her uniform of black trousers and white short-sleeved shirt under the black Kevlar vest with the blue “police” sign on it, accessorized to impressive effect by a baton, radio units, handcuffs, and a gun.

Jeremy greeted them at the door and led them to the living room where he had left Caitlin with Harry for some last minute advice.

‘Is this okay, Inspector?’ Caitlin asked after the introductions, gesturing to the two arm chairs they had set to the left of the couch she was seated on and at a right angle to it. ‘If not, we could use the board room.’

‘This is fine, Mrs. Connor.’ Edwards seated himself on the chair closer to Caitlin’s couch.

Hansen took the other chair and set her files on the side table that Félipé brought over. She poured two glasses of water for her boss and herself.

Jeremy walked unobtrusively to the wide bay window with a cushioned bench built into the wall below the ledge. Perched on the ledge with one foot on the bench he could see Caitlin over the shoulders of the officers seated with their backs to him.

‘Mrs. Connor, we need to ask you some questions in relation to the murder investigation of Michelle Williams. As you know your husband is also being questioned in connection with her death. I’m sure your solicitors have advised you of your rights.’ He paused briefly.

‘Yes.’ Caitlin nodded and shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

‘To be clear, you do not have to answer any of the questions. What you do say may be given in evidence. . .’

Harry and Caitlin both nodded and agreed they were ready to proceed.

‘How well did you know Michelle Williams?’

‘I didn’t know her at all. I first heard of her in an anonymous letter I received about three months ago alleging an affair with my husband.’

Jeremy could see WPC Hansen taking notes. Edwards had opted to take notes non-intrusively rather than record the interview, clearly to not intimidate Caitlin in the hope that it would encourage her to be more forthcoming.

‘The only direct contact I have had with her was from the large number of phone calls she made here asking to speak to me. I . . .’

Caitlin’s land phone began to ring suddenly, startling her.

‘Félipé will answer that in the hallway.’ Caitlin paused, waiting for the ringing to stop.

‘I know nothing more about that woman other than what Jack has explained to me and what she herself said during her very intrusive calls to me here at my home,’ she continued. ‘Jack said—’

Edwards took, from Hansen, a slab of papers about two inches thick, bound through punched holes with silver metal folded clips.

‘Mrs. Connor, we found this under the floorboards in the attic here.’ Jeremy rose to his feet as the thud of the bundle of papers Edwards put down on the coffee table made the silver tray, the glasses, Caitlin, Harry, and himself jump in unison.

‘It is a dossier of information covering every possible aspect of Michelle William’s life, from her birth certificate to her credit card numbers; from her height and weight, records of her menstrual cycle, her pregnancy tests, and even the dates of her pregnancy scans. Have you seen this before?’

This startling line of questioning was interrupted by Félipé opening the door and walking in.

‘
Senora
, it is
Senor
Mac Allan you papa on the phone. He say he speak to you right now. He say I stop this meeting and you speak to him right now.’

The rapid developments momentarily stunned the whole room into silence. Jeremy took his drink of water and slowly walked from the window to the mantelpiece. Whatever those papers were they could not be good for Caitlin, Jeremy suspected. Harry would need to act fast to protect her.

Caitlin looked up from where she had been staring at the file, stunned and pale, as if she had been bitten by a poisonous snake.

‘Harry, I er,’ she mumbled, looking at him, begging for his help with her eyes.

‘Inspector, my client needs to speak to her father, and then consult with me in private at once. We need a twenty-minute break. Could you please excuse us?’

Edward shook his head and sat back with a sigh of exasperation. He was clearly regretting not getting Caitlin into the station for the interview where he would have been in control, and uninterrupted.

Harry had already stood up and stepped aside, gesturing Caitlin to stand, and was now accompanying her out into the hallway followed by Félipé holding the wireless phone handset and the officers’ sharp eyes registering Caitlin’s every gesture and expression in response to Edwards’ question.