‘Not again,’ he groans. ‘You can’t keep making things up, Cass.’ But doubt has wormed its way into his eyes.
‘I think it might be better to continue down at the station,’ PC Thomas interrupts, worried his murder inquiry is going to turn into a domestic. ‘Would that be all right, Mr Anderson?’
‘No, it would not!’
‘Then I’m afraid I’ll have to caution you.’
‘Caution me?’
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I turn to them, looking anguished. ‘You don’t really think he killed Jane Walters, do you?’
‘What?’ Matthew looks as if he’s about to pass out.
‘It’s my fault,’ I say, wringing my hands. ‘They were asking me questions and now I’m scared that every little thing I told them is going to be used against you!’ He stares at me, horrified, while PC Thomas reads him his rights. When he gets to the end I start sobbing as if my heart is broken, and I realise that I’m not pretending anymore, because my heart has been broken, not only by Matthew but also by Rachel, who I had loved like a sister.
They lead him away and once I’ve shut the door
behind them I dry my tears, because I haven’t finished yet. Now it’s Rachel’s turn.
I dial her number. I was only going to speak to her over the phone but as I wait for her to answer I decide to ask her to come round because it will be much more fun telling her what I have to tell her face to face, much more satisfying to actually see her reaction rather than just hear it.
‘Rachel, can you come round?’ I ask, tearfully. ‘I really need to talk to someone.’
‘I was just about to leave work,’ she says, ‘so I can be with you in about forty minutes, depending on traffic.’ For the first time, I’m able to detect a hint of boredom in her voice and I know she thinks I’m going to start banging on about the murderer being after me again.
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‘Thank you,’ I say, sounding relieved. ‘Please hurry.’
‘I’ll do my best.’
She hangs up and I imagine her texting Matthew,
as she’ll have bought a new phone by now. But with him in custody, she’s not going to be able to get hold of him.
She arrives an hour later, perhaps because of traffic, perhaps because she wanted to let me stew a little longer.
‘What’s happened, Cass?’ she asks as soon as I open the door. ‘Is it to do with Matthew?’ She looks worried, which means that I was right, that in the time since I phoned she’s been trying to get hold of him.
‘How do you know?’ I ask, looking surprised.
‘Well, you said you needed to talk so I presumed
something had happened,’ she says, flustered. ‘And I thought maybe it was to do with Matthew.’
‘You’re right, it is,’ I say.
‘Has he had an accident or something?’ She can’t hide her panic.
‘No, nothing like that. Can we sit down?’
She follows me into the kitchen and sits down opposite me. ‘Just tell me what’s happened, Cass.’
‘Matthew’s been arrested. The police came and took him away for questioning.’ I look at her hopelessly.
‘What am I going to do, Rachel?’
She stares at me. ‘Arrested?’
‘Yes.’
‘But why?’
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I wring my hands. ‘It’s my fault. They wrote down
every little thing I said and now I’m scared they’re going to use it against him.’
She gives me a sharp look. ‘What do you mean?’
I take a deep breath. ‘This afternoon, while I was doing some gardening, I found a knife in the shed.’
‘A knife?’
‘Yes,’ I say, happy to see she’s gone pale. ‘I got such a fright, Rachel, it was horrible. It looked exactly like the one in the photo – you know, the one that was used to kill Jane. I don’t know whether I told you, you know what my memory is like, but one evening, when you were in Siena, I saw a huge knife lying on the side in the kitchen. But when I called Matthew to come and look, it had disappeared. So when I found the knife in the shed, I thought the murderer might have hidden it there. I called the police—’
‘Why didn’t you call Matthew?’ she interrupts.
‘Because he didn’t believe me last time and I was
worried he wouldn’t believe me this time. Anyway, he was already on his way home.’
‘So what happened? Why did they arrest Matthew?’
‘Well, the police came and they started asking me all sorts of questions, about where he was on the night of the murder…’
She looks suddenly frightened. ‘You’re not seriously suggesting that they think he’s guilty of killing Jane?’
‘I know, it’s mad, isn’t it? The thing is, he doesn’t really have an alibi for that night. I was out in Castle The Breakdown
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Wells – it was our end of term dinner – and he was here
by himself. So he could have gone out. At least that’s the way the police seem to be looking at it.’
‘But he was here when you got back, wasn’t he?’
‘Yes, but I didn’t see him. He had a migraine and
went to sleep in the spare room so that I wouldn’t disturb him when I came in. But listen, Rachel, there’s something I need to ask you. You know the
tea towel you brought me back from New York, the