Dakar sat back, and there was silence in the room for a few seconds, broken only by the sound of Stewart’s pen racing across paper. Eventually Dakar came forward again. “How did Daniel and Sandra get on?”
Sarah-Anne smiled, and her face seemed to become lighter. “Very well. Sometimes I thought Daniel only married me because of her. She adored him. She took to him straight away, you know. She was only six when I introduced Daniel to her. I was so nervous. But she just smiled, and he laughed, and it was like they were father and daughter.”
Her eyes drifted as she clutched her cup of tea more tightly, the earthy smell of Rooibos playing in Stewart’s nose. “But she was distraught when she found out that Chad hadn’t wanted to know her. It took her a couple of years to get over it all. Daniel was very good to her during that time, very patient with her, with the tantrums and hatred.”
Pause. “And after he changed?”
“Sandra was seventeen by that point. She didn’t really speak much to me or Daniel. I don’t think she noticed Daniel change, to be honest. And then she moved out in the middle of August, for university. She actually moved into Daniel’s flat. He rented it to her cheaply.”
Long pause. “Where did she get the money to rent the flat?”
“She helped out at Daniel’s dentist practice sometimes. They have a secretary, Dennis, Eleanor’s husband, but I don’t think he’s very good.” She took a deep breath. “Jane …” Sarah-Anne’s eyes became hooded and her expression seemed to set on her face, her lips disappearing as they squeezed together, “… began working there last summer. But there were times when Jane couldn’t make it, and Sandra, or even Russell, Sandra’s boyfriend, would fill in.”
Pause. “And Jane and Russell were also here the night Daniel was murdered?”
Sarah-Anne looked at Dakar, a stillness around her like the calm before a storm. “Oh yes. I invited Sandra and Russell, of course. But if I could turn back time, Mr Dakar, I would have made sure that Jane never came near this place.”
Chapter 15
Sarah-Anne turned away abruptly to find something else at the counter. Stewart sat in the lengthening silence, looking first at Dakar and then at Sarah-Anne’s back.
Pause. “Why would you want Jane to stay away?”
“Because of what she did with Daniel.” Sarah-Anne turned back around. She hadn’t found whatever she’d been looking for.
Pause. “And what was that?”
“Flirted like a little siren.”
Pause, a long pause. “Perhaps we can start at the beginning here, my sister. Have you known Jane a long time?”
“She’s like a daughter to me, Mr Dakar. Or at least she was until a couple of weeks ago.”
Pause. “A daughter?”
Sarah-Anne sniffed. “Jane’s mother died when she was very young, and her father threw himself into his work. She was an only child. I couldn’t stand by and see her abandoned, so I spent as much time with her as I could, and tried to bring her up as my own. Sandra is an only child too, so I thought it might help them both. Like each would have a sister. I thought I had done a good job but …” Her tone turned poisonous, “… it seems I didn’t.”
Pause. “What do you mean?”
“We all got on so well when they were growing up. To be honest, the only time it became an issue would be if Sandra and Jane fought over something, Sandra would sometimes snipe at Jane that she wasn’t really her sister. But Daniel and I came down heavily on that. We were one family. It all sorted itself out as they got older, of course.”
Dakar nodded, and waited, silently. Sarah-Anne took a deep breath, her expression pained.
“But then two weeks before his birthday, I found out Daniel had been going round to the flat, to see Jane on her own. She denied it all, of course. But then that night, the night Daniel died … It was awful. So shabby, so clear. The siren! No, the succubus!” Sarah-Anne spat the antiquated words out with a particular venom.
Pause. “Are you sure this is what Jane was doing?”
“Judge for yourself, Mr Dakar. Look at what she was wearing that night.”
Sarah-Anne dug into purse that was sitting on the kitchen worktop and pulled out a smartphone. She keyed through it, and then held up a photograph, turning the phone lengthways so that it maximised on the screen.
Stewart looked at the photo of the assembled guests. At one end he recognised Charles and Tom, Charles in particular looking happy with himself. He was wearing a smart-casual suit, while Tom was in one of his kaleidoscopically colourful cord suits, looking cheery.
“This is Daniel?”
Dakar pointed to a younger man, who Tom had his arm around. Sarah-Anne nodded. He was sharp-looking, tall and slim, hair jet-black with a sort of goatee thing going on, the younger cousin of his father’s monstrous beard. He was wearing a truly horrific suit, a light turquoise colour. His eyes were wide and wild, almost crazy, like he had too much energy and it was overflowing out of him.
A man and woman stood off to one side. Even in the frozen shot of the photograph they looked stiff, their shoulders raised and pulled in, mouths pulled out at the edges not out of happiness but rather out of obligation. The man, short, balding and fat, was wearing what looked like a cheap variant of a Christmas jumper, with brown cords. The woman was tall and broad, with a hawk-like nose. She wore a long, dark green dress.
“Eleanor and Dennis.” Sarah-Anne supplied the names as Dakar and Stewart looked at the different people.
Dakar pointed at another woman, who was standing next to Sarah-Anne. “Martina Donaldson.” Her tone became harder, more business-like.
Martina stood looking darkly at the camera, her face tilted down slightly, thoughts masked behind a smile that didn’t touch the rest of her face. Stewart couldn’t tell how old she was, as she was blessed with the olive complexion that seemed to bestow eternal youth, and dark black hair that hung down her back. She was wearing long, loose trousers, a billowing shirt and a scarf draped loosely but exactly around her shoulders and neck.
Sarah-Anne herself stood in the middle, wearing a long dress that was patterned in different shades of deep red, with matching, elbow-length red gloves. She seemed somehow alone, her husband away with his father and her daughter on the far side with her friends. There seemed to Stewart a kind of nobility about the way she was standing, erect and haughty.
There was then a blond guy, probably about Stewart’s age. He was a bit taller than Stewart was. He had on jeans and a khaki shirt, the sleeves rolled up, and the kind of ruddy face that said he’d spent a substantial amount of time outside.
“That’s Russell. Sandra’s boyfriend.”
Finally, there were two younger women, arms around each other. Stewart didn’t require the familial resemblance to say which one was Sandra and which was Jane. Sandra was wearing smart jeans and a jumper, grey and blue. Jane, on the other hand, was wearing a lot of make-up, with a short, tight, black skirt, and a red shirt that had quite a few buttons opened. A black bra strap could be seen as one of her shoulders was exposed.
“I don’t need to point out who Jane is, do I?” Sarah-Anne asked rhetorically, taking the phone back. “The dress invitation was smart-casual, not show off everything you’ve got. I thought what I was wearing was quite nice, but I was nothing compared to Jane. Plus of course I had to wear an apron most of the night.” She muttered it towards the end.
Pause. “The suit Daniel was wearing …”
“Oh God, I know. I wouldn’t have let that kind of monstrosity in the house. But Tom brought it with him, that night, as a present. Daniel loved it, I think mostly because he saw the look on my face when he put it on. He refused to take it off, no matter how ridiculous he looked.”
Pause. “You had no other one like it?”
“Mr Dakar, I may not be the most fashionable woman in the world, but I do have some standards. There was nothing else remotely like it in the house.”
Dakar moved his finger over to Charles. “You didn’t know Char
les before that evening?”
She shook her head.
Pause. “How then did he come to be invited?”
“Daniel invited him. I had no idea he was coming. But fortunately there was enough food for everyone.”
Pause. “I thought it was surprise birthday.”
“It was meant to be. But Daniel found out. I imagine Jane told him, after Sandra told her.”
Dakar stared at the assembled people. “Who took the photograph?”
“Craig, Martina’s son. He said he didn’t like being in photographs.” Sarah-Anne put her phone down again.
Pause. “When was this taken?”
Just after our wonderful dinner. Oh yes. It was fantastic.” Stewart looked up in surprise, only to see Sarah-Anne sit back, her arms folded, lips vanished as they squeezed together. “Daniel couldn’t keep his eyes off Jane, and she was looking pretty slavishly over at him. As the night went on, he just got louder and louder, talking and carrying on. Stupid man.”
Pause. “And after dinner, there was a drinking game?”
“Yes. We went to the living room after dinner, and then the children went back through to the dining room. They got uproariously drunk. Or rather, Russell and Charles did, trying to show off. And we eventually had to carry them up to the guest bedroom.”
Pause. “Daniel did not try to follow, to speak with Jane?”
A smile came over her face, but it was laced with contempt. “No. As soon as Jane had gone, Martina went to speak to him. She’s another one who doesn’t mind using her looks, Mr Dakar, to get her way.”
Pause, nod. “Do you know what they discussed?”
She shook her head. “They were all whispers. Martina did look a bit upset afterwards, but she refused to tell me what it was about. Daniel looked quite happy though.” Sarah-Anne pulled herself upright, her expression one of a person grudgingly conceding a point. “I did think that was a bit odd. That’s why I asked.”
Pause. “Did Daniel speak to anyone else?”
“Almost everyone, except for me, of course. Charles and Tom. Well, before Charles went to try and drink himself to death. Dennis was hanging around him as well. And when it was time to go outside for the fireworks, Eleanor was speaking to him. That also looked intense.”
Pause. “Do you know what Daniel and Eleanor spoke about?”
“I was only his wife, Mr Dakar. It wasn’t my place, I’m sure.”
Pause, nod. “And then the fireworks show?”
“Yes. We all went outside. Tom was very full of himself, stoating around. I’m not all that interested in fireworks, to be honest, and I’ve had a lot on my mind recently, so I was just sort of daydreaming. And then Jane and Tom had some kind of fight about something, and then Jane began shouting and pointing at the window. And then I saw Daniel.”
Pause. “Everyone was outside?”
Sarah-Anne shrugged. “I think so. I’ve thought hard about it many times. Everyone except Russell and Charles, of course. People were going in and out all the time before that, though. I put the beers, wines and spirits at the back door as well as any spare glasses I had, so they didn’t have to, but … People were still in and out, presumably to use the toilet.”
Pause. Stewart took a moment to shake out his hand, the muscles cramping. It felt like his pen was on fire. “You didn’t see Daniel go inside?”
She shook her head. “If I’d known what was going to happen, I would have been watching everyone. But as it was … I was just thinking about other things, until I saw Daniel at the window.”
Dakar leaned forward. “What did you actually see?”
“Daniel. He had his back to the window. He began banging on it, but then he disappeared, and there was some kind of crash.”
Pause. “He began banging with his back to the window?”
“Yes.”
Pause. “And what happened then?”
“Daniel disappeared. Then Jane began running for the door, and everyone charged up, en masse.”
Pause. “You did not charge up?”
She sighed, and looked down. “No. Daniel had changed. Some of the things he’d said over the last month …” She shrugged. “I thought it was a joke, not real. So I walked rather than ran.” She closed her eyes, scrunching them up tight.
Pause. “Were you not concerned about Daniel?”
A deep breath, before she looked up. Her eyes were red-tinged. “Not really, Mr Dakar, not then. I felt more …” Sarah-Anne looked around, as if searching the room for the right word, “… weary. World weary. You have to understand that Daniel had changed a lot, and was capable of doing pretty much anything, including some kind of sick joke on the kind of night when I had gone to the effort of organising a nice birthday for him. Especially on that kind of night.”
Pause, nod. “Did you become concerned when you heard everyone else shouting?”
She shook her head. “No. Even when they shouted about blood, I still thought it was a joke. Later, when I saw the knife, I thought maybe something had happened.”
Pause. “Where was the knife when you came in?”
“On the floor, amongst the other things. I don’t think anyone touched it.”
Pause, nod. “What did you see when you first arrived?”
“By the time I got there, Jane shouting about Charles and Russell being dead, of all things. I thought she was trying to create a distraction, to let Daniel get out or something. So instead of going in I ducked into the closet, watching the stairs, to see if Daniel tried to slip past.” She shook her head, lips pursed.
Pause. “But you did not see Daniel?”
She shook her head. “No. But I saw Dennis go upstairs.”
Pause. “You saw Dennis go up the stairs? When?”
“Just after Jane began shouting and screaming about Charles and Russell. He ran into the guest bedroom, where Jane was still having hysterics. At that point I went into Daniel’s bedroom. That’s when I saw the knife.”
Pause. “Do you know if Dennis was upstairs before you?”
“No. I certainly didn’t see him downstairs when I came up, and I’m sure I was last. Tom was still labouring up the stairs when I got to the bottom.”
Pause. “Could he have been hiding downstairs?”
She shrugged. “It’s possible. I didn’t check the other rooms when I went upstairs.”
Pause. “And when you came upstairs, did you lose sight of the stairs at any point?”
She shook her head. “No. I was watching them for Daniel.”
Pause. “When you went into the bedroom, was the window closed?”
“Yes.”
Pause, nod. “Was there much blood in the en suite?”
She nodded. “That’s the strange thing. Well, one of the strange things. We saw him at the window, and the crash was just afterwards. But there wasn’t much blood in the bedroom. There was much more in the en suite.”
A long pause now, Dakar’s eyes glinting in the light. “Is it possible Daniel could have slipped out the en suite onto the landing and hidden until later, and then slipped away?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know about what others saw, but the door between the en suite and the upstairs landing has a bolt on it, on the inside. It was bolted. At least when I saw it.”
Pause. “Was the en suite always locked?”
“No, hardly ever. That was the strange thing. There’s only one key, and it was missing. The police found it in Daniel’s pocket, on the body.”
Pause, nod. “And I understand that afterwards you searched the entire second floor?”
Sarah-Anne nodded. “That’s right. Well, if the body wasn’t in that room, then it must have been nearby. It couldn’t have gotten down the stairs. So we searched the entire upstairs floor, systematically this time, and didn’t find anything. No blood, much less a body.”
Pause. “And what then?”
Sarah-Anne’s eyes narrowed, her lips becoming invisible. “Jane decided to announce to everyone that Daniel had told he
r he had been planning a big surprise for later that night.” She ended in a shrug of frustration. “People thought the banging on the window might be it, some kind of joke he was playing on us all.”
Pause. “We heard that you took Jane into the en suite after this?”
She nodded, and closed her eyes for a few seconds. She opened them again with a deep exhalation. “There is a limit, Mr Dakar. It was one thing for this to be done privately. But publicly was something else. I took her in there and demanded to know what was going on. I told her I wasn’t angry, but that I didn’t want any games.”
Pause. “And her response?”
“She denied it all, of course. Began accusing me of things, like paranoia and jealousy.”
Long pause, nod. “And then people left?”
“Yes. Sandra went off to the pub in case Daniel was down there having a good time. She took Jane and Craig with her. Eleanor and Dennis left too. Martina and Tom stayed. I don’t know why Martina hung around. I’d asked Tom if he wanted another drink, because I wanted to try and speak to him about Daniel, about this latest escapade. And then Tom went down for another bottle of red, and … he found the body.”
Sarah-Anne took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She fingered her wedding ring again, her mouth forming a grimace as her mind recalled unwanted memories.
Pause. “I am full of sorrow for your loss, my sister.”
Sarah-Anne nodded, trying out a smile as she wiped water away from her eyes.
Pause. “Why did Tom go down the stairs?”
She swallowed. “He wanted more wine. I didn’t really fancy another drink after what had happened. Daniel was lying at the bottom of those stairs, the man I married … dead and gone. Tom had a fit when he saw him. We called an ambulance for him.”
Dakar sat back, the stool creaking softly as his weight shifted over the top of it. “Over the last few months, was there anywhere Daniel went in the house, to be on his own?”
Sarah-Anne laughed bleakly. “Yes, there was. He used to go to the study when he needed time to himself. But more recently he went to the garage. He set up a little office there, made it into a little fortress. He kept the door locked all the time, and he kept the only key.”
The Price to Pay Page 7
