spoken to him, but Tom wasn’t to know that. She jumped in quickly, before Tom could inadvertently give anything away.
‘Was it because of your deal, Max? Is that why you wanted to kill him?’
Leo looked at Tom as she spoke, hoping that he would interpret her ‘shut up’ signals. He gave an almost imperceptible nod.
‘I wanted to pull out. I went to see him this afternoon, and I waited hours but he didn’t come back.’
Tom was clearly trying to hide his confusion at this turn of events, and Leo thought he deserved some sort of explanation.
‘Max had a business deal with Sean. They were going to develop some properties together. Max had invested quite a lot of money. That’s what he’s talking about.’
A bit of colour was returning to Max’s face now, and Leo decided she should find him some brandy or whisky or something. She stood up from her crouched position, as Max started to talk.
‘I’ve been a complete prat, Tom. I wanted to make some money - the whole ‘man the hunter’ thing. You see, all of this,’ he said, indicating the extravagant kitchen, but clearly meaning the whole property, ‘was down to Ellie. And, plonker that I am, I wanted to equal her contribution to our life. I know, I know. Pathetic - but it seemed like such a great idea. Sean had some get rich quick scheme, which involved a site for which planning permission had proved difficult. But he’d been talking to Gary, and it appeared that things had changed, and something might be sorted. I provided the capital. Or rather, Ellie did. I was going to tell her all about it on Saturday - when everything was finalised and there was no going back.’
Finally, Max’s overheard conversation in the pub made sense.
‘Did you talk to Alannah about this, Max?’
He looked guilty just at the mention of her name.
‘Another stupid mistake. When she asked me to keep her habit a secret, I told her I was already keeping one secret too many from Ellie, and I wasn’t happy about it - but at least we were getting to the point where I would soon be able to tell her the truth.’
Knowing that Tom would be totally bewildered by this conversation, Leo gave him a slight smile that she hoped he would interpret as ‘I’ll tell you later’.
Max ran his fingers through his hair so that it stood up on end.
‘I decided today that I wanted to pull out of the deal. It wasn’t so much the building part - I thought that would be exciting. But I found out a couple of days ago exactly what had changed in terms of the planning. The laws hadn’t changed at all, but Gary said that with a bit of a sweetener, he could push it all through. Ellie might have accepted my secret ambition to make some money with Sean, but bribes? She would flay me alive if she thought I’d been bribing anybody, and quite rightly so.’
Leo clinked the glasses as she grabbed three between the fingers of one hand.
‘Be careful, Max. Don’t forget Tom’s a policeman,’ she said, not entirely joking.
‘Not tonight, I’m not. What happened?’
‘I didn’t know about the bribe until I’d already transferred the money. Sean had said that he thought planning regs had softened a bit, but it was only when the funds were in place that he mentioned Gary’s role in all this, and I went ballistic. That’s why I spent most of the afternoon hanging round outside his house. I couldn’t go in - I didn’t know what state Bella was in, and if she was drunk in charge of those kids, I didn’t know whether I would have to report them to social services. That would have been the final straw, wouldn’t it? I was going to go to see Gary too, but not until I’d spoken to Sean. What a sodding mess.’
Leo sloshed some whisky into three glasses, and pressed one into Max’s hands. She couldn’t imagine how he was feeling.
‘Max, I know I said I wasn’t a policeman tonight,’ Tom said, ‘but you’re going to have to tell DI Corby about the deal between Sean and Gary. If Sean didn’t pay Gary, or there was a third party involved that you don’t know about – well, people have murdered for less.’
Max gave a defeated nod of the head.
‘Fine. I’ll speak to him. But what happens now, Tom? With Ellie, I mean,’
‘Leo’s going to sort her out some