Blood on the Marsh (DI Susan Holden 3)

&

nbsp; There was another pause. ‘N … no!’

‘Did he go and visit his mother when he was working? I mean, in his lunch break, for example.’

‘No. You get d … dirty when you’re decorating, and Mr Greenleaf had asked him n … not to.’

‘It would be quite normal for a son to say hello to his mother, though. Didn’t he ever just pop in to see her?’

‘Not that I can rem … rem … remember.’

Holden nodded as she considered this answer, and what to say next. The stuttering was putting her off. She would have liked a wide-ranging chat, but it felt somehow unfair to keep asking questions of a man who had difficulties giving answers. ‘Was it because he didn’t like his mother?’

Hillerby shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’

Holden turned for support towards Fox. It was something he was used to. Holden would turn to him when she wanted him to apply pressure from another angle, but usually – almost always in fact – they discussed these tactics in advance. But not this time. Even so, Fox knew she wanted him to intervene. He cleared his throat. ‘Was it because his mother didn’t like him?’

Hillerby’s eyes opened wide, and he sat up straighter. The question had clearly struck a nerve. ‘His m … m … mother was a horrible woman. She was v … very unkind. To everyone. E … e … everyone!’

It was a moment of minor revelation for Holden. She had, of course, never met Nanette Wright, but she had assumed that she was essentially a nice old lady. That wasn’t to say that Holden hadn’t come across difficult and cantankerous old women, but her own mother was essentially nice – if a little overinterested in her daughter’s life – and she wanted everyone else’s ageing mother to be nice too. But it was an interesting thought – that Nanette Wright had actually been a right old cow who went around upsetting people and making enemies.

But that was for later. Right now, having got Fox to bail her out, she took back control and changed tack. ‘I understand you and Bella are very good friends?’

‘W … we are friends.’

‘Are you lovers too?’ There was no point in beating about the bush even with someone who stammered.

Hillerby’s Adam’s apple pulsated, bulging and contracting. ‘Wh … what’s that got to do with y … you?’

‘I’m investigating a suspicious death. Bella Sinclair looked after Mrs Wright.’

‘Lots of p … p … people looked after her.’

It was a fair comment. Lots of people had had access to her, and had cared for her in different ways. But Bella was the one who had been suspended, Bella was the one who had been accused of abusing another patient, and also of theft. If you were going to start with someone, then Bella was the obvious person. And if Bella had done something, then maybe Roy Hillerby was the man who might know. But if he was soppy about her, he was hardly going to split on her.

‘If there’s something you know, you must tell us, Roy.’ Holden had leant forward, emphasizing her point. ‘Because if you know something and you refuse to tell us, then that’s aiding and abetting, and that’s very serious. You could get yourself locked up if you don’t tell me everything you know. You do understand that, don’t you?’

Roy Hillerby’s eyes narrowed, and the sinews in his neck tightened visibly. ‘Don’t treat me like I’m an idiot,’ he hissed. There wasn’t even a hint of a stammer. ‘Bella and I are friends, and she has done nothing wrong. N … n … nothing!’

‘So, what do you think?’

Holden and Fox had retreated outside Sunnymede, so that Holden could succumb to her third cigarette of the day. Until a few days ago, she had convinced herself that she had got her habit well and truly under control, but she knew now that her willpower was in serious danger of collapsing. She had smoked two cigarettes on the trot when she had got back home the night before, and she had even had one that morning before her cup of tea. She knew it was a bad sign. When the case was over, she told herself without conviction, things would improve.

‘He never answered the question,’ Fox said. There was a blank look on Holden’s face, and Fox realized that she hadn’t followed his thought pattern. ‘About whether they were lovers.’

The blank look faded. ‘Do you think they are? Or have been?’

‘I don’t know. But he was very protective of her.’

‘Yes, I noticed. He’s clearly fond of her.’

‘But why would she kill Nanette Wright? There’s no motive, is there?’

Holden took a final pull on her cigarette, dropped it onto the gravel, and ground it underfoot. ‘If Nanette Wright was the vicious old woman that Hillerby said, then who’s to say she didn’t provoke Bella?’

‘But murder?’

‘Manslaughter, probably. Consider this. She puts morphine in Nanette’s hip flask as some form of petty revenge, or perhaps just to quieten her down. The only problem is, she overdoes it, and the old woman reacts badly to it and dies. Anyway that’s my best guess.’