want to talk about your movements last night. The ones you didn’t mention.’
‘I didn’t do it, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’ll take a lie-detector test.’
‘That’s old technology. Subjects can defeat it by simply biting their tongues. It was never very reliable to begin with. These days we use an electroencephalograph that monitors brain-waves.’
‘You have one of those?’
‘No, of course not. It’s far too expensive. Besides, my partner prefers us to use the old psychological methods—non-verbal communication skills, studying your gestures and so on.’
Aaron dropped his hand from his mouth. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘Quite an age difference between you and Mr Avery. About twenty years?’
‘Eighteen. It never made a difference.’
‘Happy, then? No rifts, no arguments?’
‘I wouldn’t say that; nobody would.’
‘Tell me about Marshall,’ May said casually. ‘Did you meet him at the Bondini brothers’ workshop, or somewhere else?’
Aaron grew pale, and finally sat on his hands to keep them still. ‘I’d seen him around,’ he said in a small voice. ‘I took a table into the workshop to get its leg fixed, and he was there.’ He started to panic. ‘You’re going to talk to him, aren’t you? His parents don’t know, they think he’s going out with a Greek girl—his father would kill him.’
‘When did you first meet?’
‘It was just a few months ago, but we didn’t—I mean, we’ve only gone out together a couple of times. Jake didn’t know anything about it. I would never have hurt him, he was wonderful to me, and now—’
‘I’m sorry, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t buy this “nice chap who made one small mistake” routine. You saw Marshall Keftapolis on over twenty separate occasions behind your partner’s back. Let’s take it from there.’
‘It wasn’t as often as—’
‘I’ve already talked to him this morning, Aaron. You met five months ago, and according to Marshall, you’ve told him on numerous occasions that you were going to leave Jake, but he didn’t believe you’d ever get around to doing so because you were dependent on him for money. So let’s be a little less disingenuous about your innocence.’
The boy sat forward, and lowered his head in his hands. ‘You’re making it sound more heartless than it was.’
‘The statement of simple facts has a habit of appearing heartless. I don’t doubt you feel bad, you blame yourself because you lied to him about where you were going, and you were out with someone else when he met a nasty end. Yes, I’d be feeling pretty guilty too. It’s why you left the lights off—you didn’t want to wake him up and face his questions. For the record, I don’t believe you did it.’
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t know, perhaps because you took your clothes off in the dark before going into the room, and went to the trouble of neatly folding them. You’d have to be abnormally cold-blooded to do that before killing someone to whom you were emotionally attached. I suppose you could have folded the clothes afterwards, but to what end? Your past indiscretions are only interesting if they shed a light on Mr Avery’s murder. The best you can do now is think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt him. Had he argued with someone, made any enemies?’
‘There were tensions at work; I don’t really know the details. And he’d fallen out with Randall Ayson. They had a shouting match about theology in the middle of the street. Ayson’s God-Squad, man is born to procreate, the Lord made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, that sort of learned-by-rote rubbish. Ayson’s condescending because he’s got children, but it’s common knowledge that he was having an affair behind his wife’s back.’
‘What do you mean, common knowledge?’
‘It was the hot topic at the Wiltons’ party. Lauren, the girl who’s going out with Mark Garrett. Apparently she and Randall were an item. Your partner was there. He must have picked up on it.’
‘Fine, but I doubt Mr Ayson decided to murder Mr Avery simply because he wasn’t planning on having children. Anyone else in the street?’
‘Well, Garrett, I suppose. He gave Jake some duff property advice.’
‘Quite normal. Keep going.’
‘Jake had a row with Heather from across the road once.’
‘Do you know what it was about?’
‘I think it was Stanley Spencer.’
‘The artist? Why would they have argued over Stanley Spencer?’
‘Jake was researching Spencer’s life because his company was planning a documentary. She did PR for a Cork Street gallery before her husband dumped her, had some strong views about art.’