The Red Herring (30 page)

‘It's a pity you didn't bother to tell Verity Beale that,' Woodend said, in disgust.

‘What do you mean?'

‘She set his own daughter to spy on him.'

‘That does appear to have been an oversight,' Horrocks said, sounding slightly uncomfortable. ‘It's not always easy, when your business itself is secrecy, to make sure that everyone is fully briefed about everyone else. But it was certainly a mistake on VB's part to ever consider Dunn a security risk.' He glanced at his watch. ‘Time's pressing. Can I say what
I've
got to say now.'

‘Aye, go on,' Woodend replied.

‘The offer I'm about to make was originally intended for your Sergeant Paniatowski – that's the main reason she was allowed on to even the periphery of my investigation – but now you've found out so much for yourself, I suppose I'd better make it to you.'

He stopped, and looked questioningly at Woodend.

‘I'm still listenin',' the chief inspector said.

‘Since I was never really officially here, I can only take the murder investigation so far myself before I'm forced to hand it over to others to tie up the loose ends. Which is a lucky break for you, Mr Woodend.'

‘Is it? Why?'

‘Because I've done all the work – and you'll get all the glory.'

‘You sound like you've made an arrest already.'

‘Nobody has actually been arrested as such, but I do have the guilty parties under detention.'

‘An' they are?'

‘Martin Dove and Roger Cray.'

‘The Latin teacher and the bureaucrat!' Woodend said, disbelievingly. ‘Have they confessed?'

‘Not as yet. But they will.'

‘What was their motive?'

‘They were planning to steal some secret documents, and VB was on to them. The only way to silence her was to kill her.'

Woodend shook his head. ‘As a motive, that really doesn't hold water, you know,' he said.

‘Why not?'

‘Because of somethin' that's been botherin' me from the very start of this case – the way the killer chose to dispose of the body.'

‘What do you mean by that?'

‘If you'd told me that Cray had killed her because he'd found out she was not only sleepin' with him but with Dove as well, I'd probably buy it. At a push, I might even accept the idea that they both knew she was sleepin' with the other, but then they discovered she was havin' it off with a third man, an' that's what pushed them over the edge. But if they'd killed her because she'd learned about their spyin' activities, they simply wouldn't have disposed of the body in the way they did.'

‘So how do you think they
would
they have disposed of it?' Horrocks asked sceptically.

‘Any number of ways. Left her where they'd killed her. Buried her in the woods. Maybe even tried to burn the body. But what they
wouldn't
have done is risk drivin' her twenty miles just so they could dump her in a pigsty. Why should they? There's nothin' personal in the kind of murder you just described. They'd have killed her simply because she was a threat to their security, an' they'd have wanted to be shot of her body as soon as possible.'

‘Perhaps they did it in the way they did
precisely
so you'd come up with just the kind of theory you're producing now,' Horrocks said – but his voice was starting to lack any real conviction.

‘In the real world – a world which you seem to know very little about – people simply don't think like that,' Woodend said.

‘And I suppose that because you – as you see it –
do
live in the real world, you know who actually
did
kill her, do you?'

Woodend closed his eyes, and put his hands to his forehead – an indication, to anyone who knew him well, that his brain was going into overdrive.

‘I thought that would throw you,' Horrocks crowed. ‘It's all very well for you to criticise my methods, but it's not quite so easy to come up with a solution of your own, is it?'

A pained look crossed Woodend's brow. ‘It'd be easier to think in the middle of a bloody monkey house than it is sittin' next to you,' he said. ‘Why don't you just shut up for a minute, an' let me work it out.'

It was more than a minute – possibly as many as three – before Woodend lowered his hands again.

‘Well? Do you have a theory – or don't you?' Horrocks demanded.

‘You asked me if I knew who'd killed Verity Beale,' Woodend said. ‘An' now I've finally managed to clear my head of all the distractions that the Helen Dunn case has been fillin' it with, I rather think I do know.'

I
t was that time of day when the workers were at work, the children were in school and the old people were just letting their lunches go down before setting out on their gentle afternoon strolls. So the two men walking towards each other at the top end of the Corporation Park had the place pretty much to themselves.

‘It was very good of you to make the time to see me, Mr Barnes,' Woodend said.

‘You were lucky to catch me during my free period,' the history teacher replied. ‘I've only got half an hour before I'm due back in the classroom. Will that be long enough for what you want?'

‘It should be. I've only got a
few
questions I need to ask you.'

‘About Verity?'

‘Naturally. I'm almost at the point of makin' an arrest, but before I actually go ahead with it, there are one or two matters I need to clear up. An' I think you might be just the man to help me with that.'

‘I see,' Barnes said seriously, as if he were aware of the heavy responsibility, which was being laid on him. ‘What is it you want to know?'

‘Why do you think Verity Beale showed an interest in goin' to your church?'

‘I thought I'd already explained that.'

‘Then explain it again.'

‘She wanted the chance to get to know God better.'

‘Did she? Or was it just that she wanted to get to know some of the
congregation
better?'

‘People do use their places of worship as a basis for their social lives. There's nothing to be ashamed of in that.'

‘Is that what you do?'

‘No, but . . .'

‘How long it did take Verity Beale to become acquainted with Captain Tooley?'

‘I think I introduced her to him the first time she attended the church, but I couldn't say for sure.'

‘In other words, Tooley had been a member of the congregation for longer than she had?'

‘Yes, he appeared shortly after Christmas, which was when, I assume, he was first posted to the Blackhill base.'

‘Did she specifically ask be introduced to him?'

‘Not that I remember.'

Woodend pulled his packet of Capstan Full Strengths out of his pocket, and offered it to Barnes. When the teacher shook his head in refusal, he lit up one for himself.

‘Could you do somethin' for me, Mr Barnes?' the chief inspector asked.

‘What?'

‘Could you close your eyes?'

‘All right,' Barnes agreed, still mystified.

‘Try to picture that first meetin' between Verity an' Tooley in your mind. Was it like she was bein' introduced to a complete stranger, or do you get the impression she already had an idea who he was?'

‘She . . . she called him Captain Tooley,' Barnes gasped.

‘Go on,' Woodend said encouragingly.

‘He wasn't in uniform at the time. I introduced him as “
Wilbur
Tooley”, but when she shook hands with him, she said, “Pleased to meet you,
Captain
Tooley.” Why didn't I notice that before?'

‘Because you're not trained to,' Woodend said.

The sound of a heavy vehicle distracted them both. They turned to see a police tow-truck labour its way up Park Road and then turn on to the Eddie's staff car park.

‘What's that doing here?' Simon Barnes asked.

‘My lads need to check over one of the cars, an' I thought it would be better if it was taken away, so they could do it somewhere the pupils can't see what's goin' on,' Woodend explained.

‘Whose car are we talking about, here?'

‘We'll come on to that later,' Woodend said easily. ‘Let's get back to Miss Beale. When did you first fall in love with her?'

Barnes jumped. ‘I beg your pardon?'

‘You heard,' Woodend told him. ‘You're surely not goin' to deny it, are you?'

‘No,' Barnes said thoughtfully. ‘I'm not going to deny it. I probably fell in love with her the moment I saw her. But it was not until we started going to church together that I was really sure of my feelings.'

‘In other words, you realised that you were in love with her when she seemed to be startin' to take an interest in you,' Woodend said. ‘For a while back there, you must have considered yourself the luckiest man in the world, Mr Barnes.'

‘I did,' Barnes agreed. ‘I'd never had much success with women. And looking at me, you can easily understand the reason for that, can't you? But, you see, I thought Verity was different. I thought that she could see beyond the surface trappings to the real me.'

‘But she soon lost interest in you, didn't she? Or rather, she transferred her interest to other people.' Woodend paused again. ‘Yesterday, when we were swoppin' quotes in the playground, you said somethin' about us all actin' – from time to time – like “the jewel of gold in the swine's snout”. You were makin' a general point yourself, but that's not how it's used in the Bible, is it? In Proverbs, Chapter 11, Verse 22, it's much more specific.'

‘Yes, it is,' Barnes agreed.

‘So what's the full quote?'

‘You already know.'

‘I'd still like to hear you say it.'

Barnes closed his eyes again. ‘“As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.”'

‘Why don't you tell me exactly what happened on the night Verity Beale died?' Woodend suggested.

Barnes sighed, as if keeping up a front had suddenly become far too much of an effort. ‘I had my suspicions about how she was betraying herself, but I didn't want to condemn her out of hand,' he said.

‘An' so you followed her?'

‘That's right. While she was on the base, I parked in the woods. When she'd finished her class, she got into her Mini again and drove past my hiding place. A minute or so later, Tooley the Fornicator followed her in his car.'

‘An' you followed them
both
.'

‘Yes, I did. There's a secluded lay-by about three miles beyond the woods. They pulled into it, and I drove on.'

‘But you didn't go far?'

‘No, not far at all. I parked a little way up the road and walked back on foot. When I reached the lay-by, Verity's car was empty, and they were both in his. Tooley's is a big car – a heavy car – yet it was rocking! Rocking! Because inside they were . . . they were . . .'

‘Makin' love?'

‘Making
lust
! I loved her with all my heart, yet had never even so much as touched her. But Tooley, a man married in the eyes of God to another woman was . . . was . . .'

‘How did you feel?'

‘How do you think I felt?' Barnes demanded angrily. ‘Tooley isn't handsome! He's not built like a Greek god. He's gangly and awkward. Just like me! He could . . . he could almost have been taken for my brother.'

‘An' just as Cain was jealous of his brother Abel, because God seemed to prefer him, you were jealous of Tooley. Did you want to kill Tooley, just like Cain killed Abel?'

‘Of course I did. I wanted to kill them both.'

‘What stopped you?'

‘I thought if I could only talk to Verity alone, I could make her see the error of her ways.'

‘So you went back to your car and waited?'

‘Yes. When they had finally finished their fornication, they drove off again, and I followed them to the Spinner.'

‘You didn't go in?'

‘No, I parked my car where it wouldn't be noticed, and waited for them to come out again.'

‘Somebody
will
have noticed, you know,' Woodend said. ‘With all the forensic evidence my lads will find in your car, we probably won't need any witnesses to make our case – but they'll be available if we want them.'

‘Does that really matter now?' Barnes asked.

‘No, I don't suppose it does,' Woodend replied. ‘Why don't you go on with your story?'

‘The American left the pub first – driving home to the family he had chosen to betray. The landlord locked the door at a quarter past eleven, but there still people drinking inside. At about twenty-five to twelve, Verity came out. If there'd been someone else with her, I'd probably have put off confronting her until the morning. But she was completely alone – almost as if that were the way God had intended it to be.'

‘What did you say to her?'

‘That she was not irrevocably lost. That there was still hope for her. She laughed in my face. “Hope for
me
?” she said. “What you really mean is hope for
you
, isn't it? Hope that I'll turn into the kind of woman you've always wanted – and could never have!” It was cruel – so very, very cruel!'

Yes, it was cruel, Woodend thought, but he could understand how it might have happened. Verity Beale had been playing an unnatural, stressful role for months – maybe even for years. She must, during that time, have done things which, even though she thought them necessary for the good of her country, still made her despise herself. That very evening she had made love to the American airman, not because she wanted to, but because she needed to keep a hold on him while she completed her investigation. When she had seen Simon Barnes standing in the car park, looking both condemnatory and pathetic, it must all have seemed like the last straw, and she had lashed out at him with words, just as Woodend himself had lashed out with his fists at the spy with the droopy moustache.