‘Topped himself?’
I shrugged. ‘Grief can be hard to live with.’
‘So can guilt,’ Standish said. ‘We interviewed Frank in connection with Harry Parr’s death.’ He paused before adding, ‘As a suspect.’
‘What?’
‘You think that’s unlikely.’
‘Of course it’s unlikely. She was his daughter, for Christ’s sake.’
Sarah Delaney made her presence known. ‘The focus of this interview seems to be drifting, Detective Inspector,’ she said. ‘If you aren’t charging my client, then I’d like to suggest he be released immediately. In fact I’m still not entirely sure on what grounds he was arrested in the first place.’
‘Tell me why you’ve got Frank in the frame,’ I asked after waving her intrusion away. Delaney crossed her arms and made a face.
‘By all accounts, he and Harry had a feisty relationship,’ Standish said.
‘Did Callum Parsons tell you that?’
‘Amongst others.’
‘Most men have barneys with their daughters from time to time. They don’t go round strangling them in empty houses.’
‘Frank Parr isn’t most men.’
‘He’s more successful. So what?’
‘How would you say Frank took the news of Harry’s death, Kenny?’ Standish asked. ‘Did he seem upset to you?’
‘Not particularly,’ I was forced to admit. ‘Frank’s old-school – doesn’t let his feelings show easily.’
‘Or he doesn’t possess the usual range of emotional responses.’
‘My God, you really have been talking to Callum Parsons.’
‘The man is a trained therapist.’
‘Yeah, and Frank took him for a couple of million when he bought him out of the company, which makes him a trained therapist with a bloody big axe to grind.’
The door opened and Hugo Jacobs entered with a steaming mug. ‘Two sugars, sir,’ he said. ‘Nice and strong.’
‘Where are the biscuits?’ Standish asked.
‘Didn’t know you wanted any, sir.’
‘Tea without biscuits!’ Standish made it sound a worse crime than the one I’d allegedly committed. ‘See if you can sort out some Garibaldi, Sergeant.’
Jacobs looked as though he was about to protest, but then closed his mouth and backtracked to the door. I might have felt sorry for the bloke if he hadn’t been such a cock. And if I wasn’t feeling so sorry for myself, of course.
‘Why would Frank hire me if he knew Harry was already dead?’ I asked. ‘It doesn’t make sense.’
‘Concerned father employs an investigator to look into daughter’s mysterious disappearance. Be more peculiar if a man with his cash didn’t do that.’
‘It’s pretty thin stuff to hang a murder charge on.’
‘Apart from the fact that he chooses someone he can manipulate into discovering the body relatively quickly.’
I was about to say it was Rocco who had told me about the house when I recalled it was at Frank’s suggestion that I’d visited him. And he’d been mustard-keen for me to go down there straight after I’d interviewed his ex-son-in-law.
‘Does make you think a bit, doesn’t it?’ Standish said. ‘And that’s before you factor Anna Jennings’ murder into the equation.’
‘Don’t tell me you think Frank did that?’
‘She had a huge story on him, by all accounts.’
‘How would Anna Jennings know Frank murdered Harry? Always assuming he did murder her, which I’m still not convinced about.’
‘Probably she didn’t,’ Standish said. ‘But there might have been something else Frank didn’t want coming out, and he decided to do something about it.’
Had Frank murdered Anna Jennings simply to stop her writing about what had taken place between him and April? And how the hell had she found out about that? It could have been something unrelated, but then Anna had visited Peachy Thomson, so things did point in that direction. Not to mention that I’d found the photograph in her flat – the same picture that was currently nestling in my wallet.
The skin on the back of my neck began to prickle. Standish took a sip of tea and stared at me for a few seconds. The only way I could maintain eye contact was by reminding myself that I was entirely innocent. Well, fairly innocent.
‘You know, they say that after you’ve killed the first person the second’s a hell of a lot easier,’ Standish said. ‘And if the first person you’ve killed is your daughter, then I’m guessing number two really must be a piece of piss.’
‘Apart from you’ve no evidence that’s what happened,’ I said.
‘You mean Harry Parr might not have been Frank’s first victim?’ Standish stuck out his bottom lip as though considering the point. ‘Now, there’s an interesting thought,’ he said. ‘Wouldn’t know anything about that would you, Kenny?’
‘Of course not,’ I said, trying to push the image of a bloody Eddie Jenkins strapped to a chair out of my mind. ‘Frank Parr employed me to look for his daughter. I succeeded in finding her. That’s the end of the story.’
Standish took a couple of sips of tea and carefully placed the mug on the corner of the metal table. He leant forward until there was only a foot or so between our faces. ‘Maybe that’s true, Kenny,’ he said. ‘And maybe what’s also true is that Frank asked you to do some mopping up after he killed Anna Jennings. See if she had any incriminating evidence, that sort of thing. All of which would make you an accessory after the fact. Now, obviously that’s not as bad as killing her yourself, or knowing it was going to happen, but it’s still going to mean a couple of years inside. Admit that’s why you went round there and it could go a lot easier for you in court.’
By now Standish’s face was so close to mine that I could smell the PG Tips on his breath. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but then I probably didn’t look a whole lot better.
‘The only reason I went to see Anna Jennings was because I thought she might have information that could shed light on who killed Harry Parr.’
Standish shook his head sorrowfully, as though he couldn’t believe I was wilfully passing up my chance to make a clean breast of things. ‘Did Frank Parr employ you to look for Harry’s killer?’ he asked.
‘Not exactly, but he did ask me to stay on the job for a few more days.’
‘Then you finding her dead wasn’t the end of the story at all, was it?’
If Sarah Delaney had been in a conniption about me brushing her off, she was over it by now. Or maybe it was professional pride that led her to intervene.
‘Detective Inspector, Mr Gabriel has told you everything he knows about why he went to visit Anna Jennings and his involvement with Frank Parr. I can’t see what purpose the rest of this interview is serving, and I strongly suggest he’s released immediately.’
‘Fair enough,’ Standish said.
‘What?’
‘He’s free to go.’
The Detective Inspector formally announced the end of the interview before switching the tape machine off.
Sergeant Jacobs came back into the room. ‘They didn’t have Garibaldi in the canteen,’ he said. ‘But I have managed to get hold of some Hobnobs and a packet of Bourbons.’
‘Biscuits!’ Standish said. ‘With my arteries?’