the table, so that we can both see the evidence. ‘13 May 2010 – 3 p.m. SG.’
Kit groans. ‘This is your big revelation? Proof that Selina Gane and I must be playing house together at 11 Bentley Grove behind your back? SG is Stephen Gilligan, a lawyer at London Allied Capital. I met him at three o’clock on 13 May, at the office in London. Ring Joanne Biss, his PA, and ask her.’ He hands me his BlackBerry. ‘Now, so that you’ll know I haven’t had a chance to ask her to lie for me.’
‘You know I’m not going to ring anybody.’
‘You can’t risk being proved wrong, can you?’ Kit leans in front of me, forcing me to look at him. ‘You’d rather cling to your suspicions, the imaginary world you’ve constructed.’
‘I didn’t imagine what happened in January, and I didn’t imagine that woman’s body,’ I say shakily.
‘You went through my diary. Of all the low fucking . . .’ Kit grabs my arms, pulls me towards him. His fingernails dig into my flesh. ‘I don’t know any Selina Gane,’ he says in a fierce whisper. He doesn’t want anyone to notice his anger – only me. ‘I haven’t been to Cambridge since the last time I went there with you, in 2003. I’ve never set foot inside 11 Bentley Grove. I’m not leading a double life, Connie – I’m leading a very lonely, very unhappy married life with a wife I hardly know any more.’ He lets go of me when he sees Sam coming back with my water. All that time in the queue and it’s a small glass, only half full. If that’s what counts as a glass of water around here, I should have asked for seven. There’s a dry burn in my throat, as if I’ve been screaming for a year.
‘Connie? Is everything okay?’
‘No,’ says Kit. ‘Things are far from okay. I’m going to work.’
Once he’s gone, once I’ve composed myself, I say, ‘We had a row. I expect I don’t need to tell you that. You’re a detective, after all.’
Sam taps his fingers on the table-top, as if he’s playing the piano. ‘What aren’t you telling me?’ he says.
‘What aren’t you telling me?’ I fire the question back at him. ‘You could have told me about the stain on the carpet over the phone. You must be busy, and yet here you are – wasting time on me and my silly story. Why?’
Sam looks caught out. ‘Lorraine Turner told me something that bothered me,’ he says.
I lean forward, my heart racing.
‘Selina Gane’s no longer living at 11 Bentley Grove. Immediately after putting the house on the market, she moved into the D— into a nearby hotel.’
I make a mental note to find out which Cambridge hotels have names that begin with D. Or maybe it was ‘Du’. The Duchess? The Duxford? Isn’t there a place near Cambridge called Duxford?
‘Why would anyone do that?’ I say.
Sam looks away. We’re both thinking the same thing, or at least I think we are. He doesn’t want to be the one to say it.
Fortunately, I have no such reservations. ‘You’d do it if you knew someone had been murdered in your house. Or if you’d murdered that person yourself.’
‘Yes,’ Sam agrees. ‘You would. But, Connie, you must see that—’
‘I know: it doesn’t prove anything. Do Cambridge police know?’
‘I’m not sure. Probably not. Lorraine Turner happened to mention it to me when we were talking about the map – she was worried about something so valuable being left in an empty house – a house empty of people, I mean. Most of Dr Gane’s belongings are still there, Lorraine says. Her furniture, books, CDs . . .’
‘Did she tell Lorraine why she was moving out?’
‘No. And Lorraine didn’t ask. She didn’t feel it was her place.’
I gulp my water down in one mouthful. ‘You’ve got to tell Cambridge police,’ I say.
‘It won’t make a difference.’
‘If they analyse the carpet, they might find traces of blood, or DNA.’
‘They won’t do anything, Connie. There’s no proof. Selina Gane moving out of her house is odd, I agree, but people behave strangely all the time. The guy I’ve been dealing with, DC Grint – he was satisfied with what Lorraine told him.’
‘Then he’s a crap detective! Lorraine’s the person who took the pictures for the virtual tour, isn’t she? She’s the last person whose word he ought to rely on. Has he checked with the Beaters, or Selina Gane? What if the