Behind Dead Eyes (DC Ian Bradshaw #2) - Howard Linskey Page 0,113

asked, ‘assuming I did like the sound of it?’

‘Our company is expanding,’ Annie told him. ‘I’ve been talking to my father about new hires, some fresh blood to energise the firm. For a while now we’ve been discussing the idea of a director responsible for PR.’

‘I suppose I do have the skills for that kind of role, but what sort of salary would we be talking about?’

‘Seventy K,’ she told him.

‘Seventy thousand a year, just for handling your company’s PR?’ He whistled.

‘I’m sure you’d have to earn every penny. This company is growing rapidly. We are really going places.’

‘That would certainly cure a lot of my problems, but what about my investigation?’

‘I’m not talking about right away,’ she said, ‘I meant afterwards. Once you’ve seen this through, of course.’ And she sighed. ‘We both know my husband hired you in desperation, to see if you could uncover something that might win him an appeal. I know you feel beholden to us because you’ve taken a small amount of our money already and you haven’t got anything to show for it, but I just want to say I understand how difficult this is. No one is expecting a miracle from you,’ she told him, ‘not even Richard.’ Then she added, ‘Especially Richard. All I’m saying is that, when you do get to the end of this, there could be a very good job here waiting for you.’

‘Thanks, Annie,’ said Tom. ‘That’s very kind of you. I promise I’ll give that some serious thought.’

And he did give it serious thought. All the way home he wondered why Annie Bell was trying to buy him off.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The Rosewood café was virtually empty. Rain teeming down outside kept away the faint-hearted but not the detective or the two reporters. They had agreed to meet later than usual to allow Tom and Helen to visit Annie first and now they were bringing Bradshaw up to speed.

‘Could you have a word with someone about a car in Annie’s ledger?’ asked Tom.

‘What are we looking for?’

‘Proof,’ said Tom, ‘that she had a demo for her own use on that fateful day.’

‘I’m assuming she wouldn’t put it in a ledger if she did?’

‘She didn’t,’ admitted Tom. ‘Annie is the only one in the company who could get one without signing it out, so I took a look at it around the time of the murder. Soleil had three cars and all three were in constant use for three weeks, apart from a three-day period which overlaps the murder, when only two cars were logged out on the ledger. The third car never left head office during that time.’ Then he added, ‘In theory.’

‘That would make sense,’ said Bradshaw, ‘if Annie used it.’

‘But it doesn’t prove that she did,’ Tom reminded him.

‘No,’ said Bradshaw, ‘but give me the reg number anyway and I’ll do some digging.’

‘Thanks, Ian.’

‘You reckon she did it,’ Bradshaw said, ‘don’t you?’

‘Don’t you?’ asked Tom.

‘I don’t know. Yes, maybe?’ he offered lamely.

‘She had a motive,’ Tom reminded him.

‘Another woman was screwing her husband,’ agreed Bradshaw, ‘but thousands of women discover that every year and most of them get over it.’

‘But Rebecca was one of many and I think Annie always had her suspicions, regardless of what she says now.’

‘Then why kill Rebecca, if she wasn’t the first he’s been to bed with?’

‘Perhaps she was the final straw,’ said Helen. ‘Maybe she’d had enough.’

‘Then she should have killed her husband,’ observed Bradshaw.

‘And done time for it?’ said Tom. ‘Even with a sympathetic judge and jury, Annie Bell would be a convicted murderer and she’d lose everything: her career, the kids.’

‘And this way she gets rid of her rival,’ said Helen.

‘But she doesn’t win,’ said Bradshaw. ‘She covers her tracks so well her husband goes down for the murder instead.’

‘What if that’s what she wanted?’ Helen asked him. ‘We haven’t really considered that possibility. We just accepted she is standing by him, but he’s going to be away for twenty-four years at this rate.’

‘It’s his idea to deny guilt, which will keep him in for the full tariff, not hers,’ said Tom.

‘But has she been arguing that decision with him or is she going along with it?’ asked Helen. ‘Maybe it suits her just fine for him to be in prison.’

‘Not fond of her, are you?’ asked Tom. ‘If it makes you feel any better, she ain’t too keen on you either.’

‘I was playing a part,’ she reminded him.

‘Of an annoying journalist, and you played it very well.’