the police were expecting him to come in for a second interview and how he had thought about running away or going over a cliff but then he remembered Ashley and he couldn’t deprive her of both parents at once even though it seemed like it was only her mum she cared about, not that he was resentful, he loved her, and he hadn’t killed Wendy – swear to God – although he’d nearly killed this other bloke up on the cliffs last night—
‘Vince, Vince, Vince,’ Steve said, ‘calm down. I’m on my way over. Everything’s going to be fine.’ Although as soon as he arrived at Vince’s flat he said, ‘I’m not a criminal lawyer, Vince,’ and Vince said, ‘Well, that’s good, because I’m not a criminal, Steve.’ What was a corporate lawyer exactly? he wondered. It seemed to be mostly defined by what it wasn’t.
‘Naturally they’re going to want to talk to you,’ Steve said. (‘Christ, is this really where you’re living, Vince?’) ‘You’ve got to look at it from the viewpoint of the police—’
‘I don’t want to see it from their viewpoint! I want them to see it from mine!’
‘Take it easy, Vince. You don’t want them to see you so agitated. It’s all about appearances. You were married for – what? Twenty years?’
‘Twenty-one.’
‘Twenty-one. And you’re in the middle of a divorce. The police are going to suspect acrimony, even anger on your part. You’re bound to be top of the list of people they want to talk to.’
‘And you definitely didn’t see Ms Easton – Mrs Ives – your wife’ (as if he didn’t know who Wendy was) ‘when you visited the house the other night?’
‘I never went inside the house. I told you that. I’ve told you everything a million times.’ No, he wasn’t about to say ‘No comment’ to everything, he had lots of comment!
When he’d woken this morning, at stupid o’clock – he supposed he would never sleep soundly again – he’d gone for a walk up to the house. No longer the ‘marital home’ but a crime scene, it was festooned with yellow and black tape. Crime Scene Do Not Cross. They still hadn’t been able to get hold of Ashley and he imagined her coming home unexpectedly and finding her childhood home wrapped up like a macabre gift. A police officer appeared out of nowhere and said, ‘Sir? Can I help you?’
‘I doubt it,’ Vince said. He doubted anyone could. Nonetheless, it had seemed like a good idea to phone Steve Mellors. Vince had saved his life a long time ago, it was time to call in the favour and get Steve to save his.
He’d phoned him at home and his wife, Sophie, had answered. ‘Oh, Vince,’ she said, ‘how are you? It’s a long time since we’ve seen you. How’s Wendy?’
‘Wendy?’ Vince hesitated. It was only eight o’clock in the morning and in the background he could hear the boy, Jamie, asking where his clean rugby kit was and the girl moaning about something. It didn’t seem polite to pollute this unsullied family atmosphere with the grisly facts of his life. ‘Good. She’s good, thanks. Fighting off a bit of a cold,’ he added. He didn’t want to make her sound too well.
‘Well, give her my best. I’ll fetch Steve, you just caught him. You and Wendy must come to dinner again soon. I think it’s our turn.’
Vince thought Sophie probably wouldn’t want Wendy sitting at her dinner table in the state she was in at the moment.
‘Smashing,’ he said.
There was a young detective sergeant tag-teaming with Inspector Marriot. He kept showing photos of the murder scene to Vince, pushing them across the table towards him for Vince to push them back. And they kept asking him the same questions, again and again, as if he would break down and confess from the sheer relentless tedium of it all.
‘I didn’t kill Wendy,’ he said. ‘How many more times?’ Steve laid a placatory hand on his arm again but he shook it off.
‘We’re not saying you did, Mr Ives. We’re just trying to find out what happened.’
‘I know what happened!’ Vince said. ‘Someone killed Wendy! Someone that wasn’t me! I was in the Belvedere.’
‘Except for when you were at your house.’
‘I was there for five minutes. Literally.’
‘Five minutes is long enough for a lot of things to happen, Mr Ives.’ Inspector Marriot sighed heavily as if she was disappointed with him. He was alarmed to find that his natural inclination was