‘We’re not here to judge you.’ From the tone of Derwent’s voice, though, it was clear that he had judged her, and not kindly. ‘We’re here because Kate Emery has disappeared. From the state of her house we know something terrible happened there. It is a murder investigation.’
‘You don’t understand, do you? I don’t care who killed Kate,’ Belinda spat.
A noise in the doorway made me look round: Brian Emery. Very quietly, he said, ‘I really think it would be helpful if we all calmed down.’
Belinda was far too angry to notice he was there. ‘I don’t care if she’s dead. I don’t care if you never find her body. The only thing that surprised me about it was that it took so long for someone to decide to murder her. I’d have done it years ago.’
‘Brian Emery has interesting taste in women, doesn’t he?’ Derwent settled down in the passenger seat. ‘Goes to show money and sense don’t go together.’
‘She’s terrifying.’ I smiled and waved at the pale face in the window: Brian Emery, watching us go as if we were his last chance of salvation. ‘But I can’t quite make it all fit together. You don’t get to run your own business and make a huge success of it if you’re a total doormat. It’s not as if property developers are notoriously easy clients.’
‘People can be different at home and at work.’
‘Oh yeah?’ I glanced sideways at him. ‘So when you’re at home with Melissa you’re really quiet and gentle, is that it? I’d never have guessed.’
‘I’m not talking about me.’ So back off. ‘I don’t quite believe he’s as meek and mild as he seemed to be. I imagine it’s useful for him to pretend to be that way. Belinda’s not the kind of lady who likes to be challenged. But he had a big old argument with Kate, didn’t he?’
‘Well, she shouted at him. We don’t know if he shouted back.’
‘And we don’t know if he was really happy about giving Kate money all the time. It was causing him problems in his marriage, wasn’t it? I wouldn’t want to sign up to anything that would get me in trouble with Belinda.’
‘He could have given Kate the lump sum she wanted. That would have ended it.’
‘Would it? Kate kept coming back to him. She was tapping him for more and more money. I doubt it would have been the end.’ Derwent rubbed his face. ‘What do we think about Chloe? Why did she run away?’
‘I don’t know. It could have been as simple as a row between her and Belinda. God knows, I wouldn’t want to spend any time under the same roof as her.’
‘Why wouldn’t she tell you about it though?’
‘Embarrassed? Maybe she thought it was her fault that her stepmother didn’t like her. I’m tempted to apply for a restraining order to keep Belinda away from her. No wonder Chloe doesn’t want to go and live with her dad.’
‘Do you think Belinda had a point?’
My hands tightened on the wheel. ‘About not dressing in revealing clothes because men can’t control themselves?’
‘About Chloe being much more capable than Kate would ever admit.’ He reached over and patted my knee. ‘Calm down, dear.’
‘Keep your hands to yourself,’ I snapped.
‘Temper, temper.’
I shook my head. ‘You’re so annoying.’
‘Famous for it,’ Derwent agreed.
‘I don’t know if Chloe is faking. I don’t think she is. But …’
‘What?’
‘She’s friends with Bethany Norris, and that girl is nobody’s fool. I don’t really understand their friendship but they seem close.’ I bit my lip, remembering the two girls laughing on the floor of Bethany’s bedroom, and how the light had died in Chloe’s eyes when she realised I was watching them. ‘Maybe Chloe is more capable than Kate allowed. Remember the files of paperwork in Kate’s study? She did seem to go through a lot of specialists, as Belinda said.’
‘Well, there’s your next job. Collect up all the papers from the study and have a good look through. See if you can talk to any of the people who assessed Chloe and didn’t give Kate the answers she wanted.’
‘What are you thinking?’ I asked.
‘It did suit Kate that Chloe was dependent on her.’
‘And you think Chloe might have resented it?’
‘It’s possible. What if she wanted to spread her wings? What if she didn’t like being kept at home?’
‘I wouldn’t have liked it,’ I said, thinking about it.
‘Me neither.’
‘But she could have left. She is an adult now.’
‘She might not have known that. She might have thought she needed to stop her mother interfering in her life once and for all. She’s a pretty girl, isn’t she?’
‘Stunning,’ I agreed.
‘And according to Belinda she dressed provocatively.’ Derwent held up his hands. ‘Which is completely her right and I’m not saying she shouldn’t have. If anything, I wish more women dressed that way.’
‘Men like you are the reason they don’t.’
He whistled. ‘Harsh, Kerrigan. Anyway, my point is that she could have recruited someone to help her. Someone to do the deed while she was miles away. Someone who could have camped out in Harold Lowe’s house and waited for the signal to go in and slaughter Kate Emery.’
I thought about it. ‘It’s possible. But it’s not easy to find someone who’s prepared to kill for you, is it?’
‘People kill for all sorts of reasons – you know that. Sex. Money. Shame. Frustration. Fear. No shortage of any of them in Kate Emery’s life, as far as I can see. You heard what Belinda said. She was surprised it took so long for someone to kill Kate.’
I nodded. ‘All it needed was for one person to have had enough.’
12
‘Where shall I put this?’ Georgia Shaw was standing beside my desk, holding a box of files.
‘Anywhere.’ I sounded snappy, even to myself. I looked up from the letter I was reading and tried to smile. ‘Sorry. I don’t mean to be rude. I’m just trying to get my head around Kate Emery’s life and it’s confusing.’
‘It’s fine,’ Georgia said in a tone that made me feel it wasn’t fine at all. ‘That’s the last box. Do you want me to start going through it?’
‘No. I’d better do it myself.’
Her mouth tightened before she turned away and I suppressed a sigh. Did I really have to explain that it wasn’t that I didn’t trust her? That she didn’t know what she was looking for and neither did I? That boring paperwork was a huge part of the job and sometimes it meant spending an entire morning reading through the mind-numbing admin of a stranger’s life?
‘Georgia.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Can you make some calls for me? See if you can get hold of any of these people and if they’ll speak to us.’ I handed her a sheaf of letters. ‘The addresses are old, I’m afraid. We’re going back ten or fifteen years. It might take a bit of time to track them down.’
‘Who are they?’
‘Psychologists who saw Chloe Emery when she was a child. Kate took Chloe to see quite a few before she felt she got the correct diagnosis.’
Georgia frowned. ‘OK, but what does this have to do with whoever killed her?’
‘I don’t know yet. It might be a complete waste of time. It’s bothering me, that’s all.’