She wasn’t getting away scot-free this time; she had to be punished. The police would put her through the mill.

Yes, the mills of God – and me, he thought, chuckling – grind slowly but they grind exceeding small. Oh, yes, Annie. Pain must be repaid with pain. An eye for an eye and pain for pain.

He frowned, staring fixedly at Halifax and the police.

He couldn’t kill Annie, though, because, if he did, what would happen then? He had too much invested in her. He needed her alive. First the death, and then the happiness, that was the way it went, that was the pattern. The fantasy could only come true when she was his forever.

Sean rang Annie again, but there was still no reply. Then he rang Harriet, but her assistant couldn’t find her anywhere.

It was half an hour before Harriet rang back on his mobile phone. When he told her what had happened to Derek, she made noises like someone who had been punched in the stomach.

‘Dead? Strangled? Are you sure it was Derek?’

Sean flatly told her what he had seen in one brief glance from the doorway of the room: the sprawled, naked body, the bulging eyes, the blood-engorged features.

‘No question, it was Derek.’

‘Oh, Christ,’ Harriet said, sounding sick. ‘Poor Derek. He was always so scared of getting hurt, he wouldn’t do any of the stunts himself, even the least dangerous. I hope to God he died quickly, anyway.’

‘Strangling isn’t much fun, but it won’t have taken him long to die,’ Sean said, and she made gulping sounds again.

Sean interrupted her, ‘Harriet, any sign of Annie? I rang her, no reply. Her cleaner must have gone home and nobody is answering. Could you go round there? I’m worried about her. Where the hell can she be? I’d go myself, but I have to stay here. Finding a body automatically makes you a suspect. They’ve asked me to hang around for a bit in case they think of questions they have to ask me.’

‘A suspect?’ Harriet sounded taken aback. ‘You aren’t serious? But why should they suspect you?’

‘They suspect everybody – I would, myself, in their shoes.’

She was silent for a minute, then said, ‘Sean, who on earth could have wanted to kill poor Derek?’

‘Somebody with a sick sense of humour,’ Sean said, grimacing at the memory of the way the

body looked. ‘Look, don’t think about it. Just go and look for Annie.’

‘Of course I will. I wonder what she can be doing?’

‘Ring me at once when you catch up with her, won’t you?’ Putting his mobile phone back in his pocket, Sean shivered in the chill spring wind. He had told Harriet not to think about who might have killed Fenn, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it himself. His mind seethed with unanswered questions. Why would anyone want to kill Derek Fenn?

‘How long had he been dead?’ he asked the forensic pathologist just leaving after doing a preliminary inspection of the body.

Dr Kent gave him a dry look. A small, bald man with piercing blue eyes, he had an air of sniffing every time before he spoke, his fine nostrils drawing together in an offended way.

‘You don’t really expect an answer at this early stage? I can’t even give you a guess.’

‘But last night sometime?’ pressed Sean.

‘If you say so.’ Dr Kent left and the detective inspector who was dealing with the case came over to Sean, grinning.

‘Didn’t get any joy from our man, then? Well, you wouldn’t. He takes his time, may be a day or two before we get an answer, and we are the police, remember. You aren’t. Not any more. You’re here to give answers, not ask questions.’

‘Oh, come off it. I can’t turn my brain off, I can’t help trying to work out who could have done it, can I?’

‘If you’ve got any ideas on that score, let me in on them,’ the other man grated, staring at him hard.

‘Well, for a start, the lipstick on the mouth, the sexy knickers … had he had sex before he died? I suppose he hadn’t fooled us all for years – he wasn’t gay, by any chance? I mean, that’s what it looks like to me, a gay killing. Does it look like that to you?’

He knew from the other man’s expression that the idea had already occurred to him, but shrugged.

‘Have you ever heard he was gay?’ He watched Sean shake his head, and said, ‘Well, until I’ve got all the evidence I’m not making any assumptions. If all you’ve got is guesswork, Halifax, why don’t you go home? We know where to find you if we need you.’

Tags: Charlotte Lamb Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net