‘And did you?’
He took a deep breath. ‘I didn’t actually tell her I’d seen Kate. I told her what I’d decided, which was that I’d continue to pay for Chloe until she was twenty-one. If she was at university, I’d be funding her studies. Even though she’s not capable of that, I’m not going to deprive her.’
‘And did you tell Kate?’
‘I emailed her.’
‘Did she reply?’
‘Ye-es. She was a bit disappointed. If I’ve learned anything it’s that you can’t please everyone.’ He trapped his hands between his knees. ‘Look, my wife doesn’t know about me going to see Kate and I don’t want her to know.’
‘Is she here?’ I asked.
‘She’s upstairs, resting.’
‘We’ll probably need to speak to her too.’
‘Oh.’ He looked awkward. ‘I don’t know if she’ll agree.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘She didn’t know Kate. They never actually met. She doesn’t want anything to do with all this.’
‘We’ll keep it brief.’
Emery swallowed nervously. ‘She’s not— don’t think she’s always— Kate brings out the worst in her, basically.’
‘It can be difficult to cope with ex-wives,’ I said. It can be fatal. ‘How does she get on with Chloe?’
‘Fine. Bel’s absolutely wonderful with her. Wonderful. They’re great pals.’ A big smile. ‘The daughter she never had, I suppose.’
‘You have stepsons, I gather.’
‘Oh yes. Nathan’s fourteen and Nolan’s eighteen. They go to boarding school.’
‘Were they here at the weekend?’
He nodded. ‘They come back one weekend in three. It’s nice for them. A bit of a break. I don’t think they’d want to be here all the time – too boring for one thing, with just their mum and me. It’s a bit remote here for teenagers.’
‘So they were here, and Chloe was here,’ I said slowly, ‘and your wife was here … but you weren’t.’
‘Oh.’ He laughed. ‘No. Very unfortunate timing. I had a business meeting.’
‘In London.’
‘Yes.’
‘And you stayed overnight.’ I tapped the end of my pen on my pad. ‘It took us fifty-three minutes to get here from central London through weekday traffic. I wouldn’t have thought you’d need to stay away.’
‘Well, it was two meetings. One late on Friday, one early on Saturday morning.’
‘A business meeting on Saturday morning.’
‘Business breakfast.’ He patted his stomach. ‘I should really try to avoid that sort of thing. You can eat a hell of a lot of saturated fat that way without even noticing. My heart won’t thank me for it in a few years.’
‘What is it you do, Mr Emery?’ Derwent asked.
‘I run my own business supplying and fitting carpets. We work with developers, mainly. My team have just done all the carpets for a development of two hundred flats in Nine Elms. We’re talking about that sort of scale of job.’
‘Impressive,’ Derwent said softly. ‘But I wouldn’t have thought it was the kind of thing that involved meetings at weekends. I mean, in our job, we work weekends without even thinking about it because we have to, but if I had a choice about it, I wouldn’t.’
‘What can I say? I love my job.’
‘And you probably take home a bit more cash than we do,’ Derwent said.
‘It’s very unfair really. The police, teachers, nurses – I mean, you’re the ones making a valuable contribution to society. All I do is keep people from having cold feet.’
‘So what was the big carpeting emergency on Saturday morning?’
‘A supplier.’
‘What’s the name?’ I asked.
He rubbed the top of his head with the heel of his hand. ‘They’re an Indian company. I don’t see why it’s important to involve them.’
‘Mr Emery, your ex-wife was murdered some time between Wednesday and Sunday,’ I said coldly. ‘You need an alibi more than you need to avoid upsetting your supplier.’
He gave a sigh. ‘All right, then. I’ll get you the details. They’ll be able to confirm where I was.’
‘Thank you.’ I leaned forward. ‘And while you were gone, Mr Emery, what happened here?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Why did Chloe run away? She wasn’t supposed to go, was she?’
He blinked. ‘No. She was supposed to stay until today. I’d taken the day off work yesterday to spend it with her. Another plan that didn’t quite work out.’
‘Why did she go?’
‘I have no idea. She hasn’t told you?’
‘She hasn’t said anything.’
‘When I came back on Saturday she was quiet. That’s all I can tell you. I tried to bring her out of herself – I thought we could all go to the cinema in Oxford, and then out for a meal. But she said she wasn’t hungry and there was nothing she wanted to see. She went to bed, in fact. The rest of us watched a film together – something the boys found on Netflix. It was all right. Kept us occupied.’
‘When did she go?’
‘Very early Sunday morning. I was up at six – we have a chug and a cockapoo, Betsy and Tyler, and I had to take them out for a walk. I can only think she left right after me, because the alarm was off and no one would notice the door opening and closing. They’re used to me going in and out in the morning.’
‘How did she get to the train station?’
‘Not the train. She’ll have got the coach. It stops near here on the way to and from London. There are loads of them – they run a twenty-four-hour service. Nothing easier than getting back to London from here.’
A creak from upstairs made him jump. ‘That’ll be Belinda. She must be up.’
‘Great,’ I said. ‘We can speak to her now.’
He stood up, rubbing his hands on his shirt as if his palms were sweaty. ‘I’ll let her know you’re here. I’m sure she’ll want to help but – well, she might take a bit of persuasion. I’ll try to hurry her along.’
‘Take your time,’ Derwent said, and held the door open for him. We listened to him making his way upstairs, followed by the low murmur of a quiet conversation. It was too indistinct to be able to pick up any words, and Derwent closed the door softly.
‘Are you wondering what I’m wondering?’ he murmured.
‘Probably. Why did it take Chloe Emery so long to get home if she left here at six in the morning? She didn’t get off the train in Putney until after three.’
‘That,’ Derwent allowed. ‘That’s worth wondering. But that wasn’t it.’
‘What, then?’
He looked genuinely bewildered. ‘What the fuck is a chug?’
11
The second Mrs Emery was physically different in almost every way from her predecessor. Tall where Kate had been of average height, Belinda Emery had a mane of black curls and an impressive bosom. For a large lady, she was light on her feet; I didn’t hear her approaching the door. She flung it open as if she was expecting to catch us doing something we shouldn’t have been doing. I was, in fact, trying to get Derwent to stop holding forth about designer dogs and speculating on what a Chihuahua/pug cross might look like, so I was more than pleased to see her.
‘Mrs Emery?’ I ventured.