As Rachel stepped inside, she gave the place a 360-degree sweep of her gaze.
‘I forgot how fantastic this place is. Through my sister I’ve seen a lot of nice places, but if I had to choose one, I think yours would be up there in my top three. It’s truly . . . grand.’
‘You came to Mike’s fiftieth, didn’t you? Disappeared with a member of the jazz band, if I remember correctly,’ said Patty, taking a slug of water from an Evian bottle.
Rachel smiled thinly as she recalled that particular evening. She had been thrilled to wangle an invite to the Reynoldses’ fancy party, but since she had known very few people there, she had ended up chatting to the drummer from the jazz band that had played after dinner. They had liberated a bottle of Dom Perignon from the catering supplies and played strip poker in the tennis pavilion, which had culminated in very vigorous and noisy sex that had apparently been overheard by some of the guests. He had gone on tour to Germany the following Monday and she had never heard from him since, but she could still remember the evening with hot embarrassment.
It was typical of Patty Reynolds to have remembered too.
‘Well, thank you for your comments about the house,’ said Patty more kindly. ‘I still pinch myself whenever I wake up here.’
‘Pinch yourself?’
‘The house I grew up in was smaller than the garage,’ she smiled.
‘Really?’ said Diana with surprise.
‘I’m not from Julian or Michael’s sort of background. Actually I think it was the making of me. I went to the sort of school that rewarded success in football and woodwork, not academic achievement, but I always used to tell myself that it didn’t matter, because one day I would make my own money and buy a place by the sea.’
‘Well, what a place.’
‘You can see the Isle of Wight from our grounds; that was the only place my parents ever took me on holiday. I look at it now and remind myself how far I’ve come. Drink?’
‘Diet Coke if you’ve got it.’
Patty produced an organic cola from her enormous Sub-Zero fridge.
‘So what di
d you want to know?’ She smiled, and Rachel felt more at ease. ‘I assume this is about the investigation you’ve been doing into Julian’s death. I wondered when it was my turn for a proper interrogation.’
‘Can I be blunt?’
She smiled. ‘We don’t know each other well, Rachel, but well enough for you not to ask that question, surely.’
‘I think there was a multi-million-dollar motive for Julian to be murdered.’
Patty didn’t look surprised by her remark.
‘You could probably say the same about any billionaire businessman found dead in unusual circumstances.’
‘In the weeks before he died, Julian was about to pull a potential blockbuster drug off the market. Doing so would have devalued the market price of Denver Chemicals, which was for sale. It’s still for sale; in fact the wheels are already in motion for finding a buyer.’
‘So what do you want to know from me?’ asked Patty, frowning.
‘Do you know if Greg Willets’s company Canopus was advising on the deal?’
She was silent.
‘If you know anything, Patty, please tell me.’
‘Probably,’ she said after a moment.
Rachel began to speak her thought process out loud. ‘And if Greg was handling the deal and the market value of the company suddenly plummeted, what would happen?’
The older woman shrugged. ‘The sale price would be reduced or the whole thing might fall through.’
‘And what happens to the investment bank in that situation?’