The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,128

She didn’t understand the questions I was asking. It was a nightmare! I didn’t know I had the wrong woman until I got a phone call. I asked what I should do and they said it was my mess and I should sort it out.’

Jen thought about that. Preece had known that Craven had abused one vulnerable woman, but he’d set him up to be alone with another, in a situation where she’d be scared and powerless. ‘Did you touch her?’

‘No!’ The question seemed to horrify him. ‘Of course not. I was scared and I just wanted it to be over. I was panicking. I left her in the flat with food and drink. I knew Preece would be angry if I didn’t get what he wanted, but it was horrible. Such a mess. I just wanted to run away, but I couldn’t do that.’ He looked up. It was almost as if he wanted Jen’s approval. ‘I did the right thing in the end.’

Again, she forced herself not to respond, to keep her voice even. ‘You took Christine to Simon Walden’s flat. He’d already died by then.’ She paused for a beat, looked straight into his eyes. ‘Did you kill him?’

‘No!’ Craven was spluttering in his panic. ‘No! I didn’t know who the flat belonged to. I was just following orders. I didn’t know that Walden had anything to do with Rosa. As far as I knew, he was a homeless man with mental health problems. Someone who’d turned up drunk to the church and whom we’d helped. Someone Caroline had taken pity on.’

Another of her lame ducks. Someone like you. Jen thought about that. But really, you had nothing in common with Simon Walden. He was on the side of the angels.

‘Someone searched Walden’s flat after you dropped Christine at Lovacott. Was that you?’

‘No!’ Now he was crying.

Jen couldn’t tell if they were tears of fear or frustration. They certainly weren’t tears for Simon Walden. ‘Where were you this afternoon?’

‘I was with Caroline this morning. Then I had a series of meetings with parishioners. People who wanted to organize baptisms and funerals. Their names and phone numbers will be in the office. You can call them, check.’

‘And then?’

‘Then we spent the afternoon together.’ He paused. ‘Really, I couldn’t go through that again. The stress of picking up the woman and asking questions that she didn’t seem to understand. You don’t know what it was like. I was on the verge of a breakdown. I still dream about it.’

And I expect she does too.

‘Someone tried to kill Lucy Braddick this evening,’ Jen said.

‘That wasn’t me!’ He screamed the words and she saw that he was unravelling, that his control and his reason were slipping away. She knew that she should stop the interview, before she pushed him over the edge. She didn’t believe that he’d killed Walden or attempted to drown Lucy. He didn’t have the courage or the strength to have hit Matthew on the head so hard that he was knocked out. They had his phone and that should give them some idea of his movements.

She looked at her watch. ‘Interview terminated at two a.m.’ She stood up. She felt unclean, desperate for a shower. Suddenly, she didn’t want to be in the same room as him.

He looked at her, suddenly calm. ‘You hate me. Now everyone will hate me.’

She didn’t know what to say, then remembered a form of words used by one of the nuns who’d taught her. ‘I don’t hate you. I hate what you’ve done and what it led to.’

She left the room and didn’t look back.

Chapter Forty-Two

ON THE WAY TO LOVACOTT, MATTHEW was still wired, fizzing. It was the end of the case, the shock of survival. There was no light at the front of the grand house on the square at Lovacott, but when Matthew leaned on the bell and Dennis Salter answered the door, he was fully clothed.

‘I expect you’re surprised to see me,’ Matthew said. ‘I should be dead.’

‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Imperious. Dennis had always put on a good show. If Matthew was alive, he must know that Lucy would be safe too. Did Salter think she’d be so cowed she wouldn’t speak? Or that the authorities would take no notice of the evidence of a woman with a learning disability? And it had been so dark on the beach, he’d know Matthew wouldn’t have been able to identify the man who’d