‘It wasn’t anything to worry about at all. It was Martin Johnson – do you know him?’
‘Martin?’ said Theo. ‘Yes, I know him. He’s a nice enough guy.’ He turned to DS Grange. ‘We spoke to him at the time. He had a bike accident a few years back, head injury, but he’s not dangerous. He saw Marianne’s body in the garden that morning.’ He gave Adam a brief look of apology.
‘He was her number one fan.’
‘I didn’t know they were friends,’ said Rowan.
‘He was one of the people my sister took under her wing,’ he explained to the police. ‘She was good like that, looking out for other people. We always worried that she’d pick up someone dangerous one day but she never did, thank God.’ He stopped. ‘Unless . . .’
‘Let’s not jump to any conclusions,’ Theo said. ‘We’ll talk to Martin, obviously. But Marianne’s death may still turn out to be an accident – Mr Cory’s, too, even. Let’s try and keep those possibilities in mind until we find out otherwise.’
Adam nodded, looking bleak.
‘But Ms Winter,’ said DS Grange, ‘just to go back to Martin for a moment – you said he was looking over here?’
‘From his window, at night. A couple of times during the day, too, but it was easier to see him at night, I suppose, with the lights on.’
‘What did you think he was doing?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said, scrambling. ‘At night, I wondered if he was a Peeping Tom.’
‘Forgive me – business and pleasure,’ Theo glanced in Adam’s direction, ‘but when you and I had a drink the other day, Rowan, you seemed to express some . . . uncertainty about the idea that Marianne might have fallen. Unless I got the wrong end of the stick.’
Adam shifted next to her and she felt his eyes move to her face. Could he see the crimson spreading up her cheeks? ‘It just felt . . . odd,’ she said, more to him than to Theo. ‘With her vertigo. We hadn’t spoken for so long, as you know, and that could have changed, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have any other reason for asking.’
Adam looked at her for a moment then back at the police. ‘But she’d been worried – Marianne, I mean – that someone might have been getting in here.’
‘I remember.’ Theo nodded. ‘We’ll go over our information on that again.’ A faint buzz came from his pocket and he took out his phone and glanced at it. ‘Right,’ he said, looking at DS Grange, who stood up immediately. ‘We’ll have to leave it at that for now, I’m afraid.’
Adam stood to walk them out.
‘I’m so sorry you’re being put through this,’ Theo told him. ‘The only thing I can promise is that if there is anything untoward going on, we’ll do our very best to find out what it is.’
‘Thank you.’
Perhaps she was being paranoid, Rowan thought, or perhaps he just hadn’t been able to resist a final cheap shot but as he rounded the door, Theo looked back at her and said, ‘We’ll be in touch.’
When she heard their shoes on the tiles in the porch, Rowan let her head drop briefly into her hands. She was screwed. Panic swamped her, increasing the pressure on her heart until she could barely breathe.
She’d had no choice. If she hadn’t done it, it would all have come out anyway. But here in Oxford – should she have gone to London, done it there? That would have taken planning and time – time she hadn’t had. There was no way of knowing how long Cory had intended to stay here but she guessed he wouldn’t have left until he was satisfied he knew the truth about Marianne. Given what Adam had said last night in the car, his commitment made sense now: he’d been in love with her, he’d said so himself, and Marianne had been falling in love with him, too; Rowan didn’t doubt Adam was right about that. Of course Cory hadn’t believed she’d jumped, if they’d just been starting something.
The light through the window outlined her fingers in blood. At the click of the door and Adam’s feet across the carpet, Rowan put her hands in her lap and composed her face. ‘Oh God, Adam.’ She stood up and went to him. His heart thumped through the cotton of his T-shirt and when she looked up, he was crying.
‘How am I going to tell Mum?’ he said.
Rowan closed her eyes against a mental image of Jacqueline at the funeral.
Adam swiped his cheeks with the heel of his hand. ‘Ro, what you said to the police about the vertigo just now – you meant it? That really was the only reason you had any doubt that Mazz’s death was an accident?’
‘Yes.’
‘You promise me?’
‘Yes.’
‘And Martin?’
‘I should have told you about that. I’m sorry.’
‘If anything else happens, if there’s anything remotely suspicious or you’re worried or frightened, you’ve got to tell me. Straight away. This is serious, Rowan – don’t even think about trying to be a hero. People are dying.’
She felt a shudder, a frisson in the air like a premonition.
‘All right?’ he asked, and she nodded.