“The right culprit. I don’t want you chasing up blind alleys. Persecuting my assistant.”
“She’s not been persecuted, Sir Peter. She’s been interviewed.”
Hearns’s studied politeness enraged Peter even further.
“You have no right!” he shouted. “She’s done nothing wrong.”
“Then you have nothing to fear,” said the detective. “It does seem strange to me that you should be so concerned about us interviewing Miss Grahame, Sir Peter. I hope that you’re not concealing anything. That would not be sensible.”
“What the hell do you mean? How dare you talk to me like that! Do you know who I am?”
Peter felt himself losing his temper, but his anger seemed to have no effect on Hearns’s maddening equanimity.
“You’re an important minister in Her Majesty’s government, and to be honest with you, I don’t know if we’ve ever had a minister in this police station. We don’t get too many VIP’s down in our neck of the woods. I should get you to sign our visitors’ book before you go.”
Peter was speechless. Hearns clearly had a real talent for being rude while pretending to be the opposite.
“The point is, Sir Peter, it doesn’t matter who you are. You could be the prime minister, and it wouldn’t stop me doing my job. There’s evidence pointing toward your assistant, and it’s my duty to investigate it.”
“What evidence? A ridiculous identification and a window she’s left open by mistake. You’re trying to build a case for which there’s no foundation, when you should be out trying to catch the real killers.”
“I am trying to catch them, Sir Peter, and I won’t allow you or anyone else to stand in my way.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I want to take Greta home with me now. Have you finished with her?”
“Yes, just about. There are a few formalities. It won’t take long.”
“So you’re not charging her. I thought as much. You’re not charging her because you haven’t got any evidence.”
“There is evidence, Sir Peter, but at present there is no charge.”
Hearns smiled as if pleased with the succinctness of his response, and once again Peter was treated to a sight of the detective’s yellowing teeth.
“I will have Miss Grahame join you in just a few minutes,” he said.
Greta slept on the way back to London. Peter drove fast, glancing repeatedly at her profile. The smooth, soft skin of her face and the groomed black hair tucked behind her delicate ear made his heart beat fast. He hadn’t realized until now how much he’d missed her. He felt determined to protect her from a hostile world, whatever the cost might be.
In Chelsea he stood at the top of the railings while she went down to the basement and opened the door. A minute later he heard her scream. Inside the apartment, drawers were pulled out everywhere and papers lay all over the floor. There was no cupboard or recess that had not been searched.
“They must have carried on after Hearns took me to Ipswich,” she said. “I didn’t know it was going to be like this.”
“Oh, Greta, I wish I could do something,” he said. “I feel so responsible. I didn’t want you to come back to this.”
“You are doing something. You’re being here.”
They were in the kitchen and Greta was moving about, straightening her possessions, making coffee, and bringing out a glass and a bottle of whisky for Peter.
“Have some too, Greta,” he said. “You’ll feel better.”
“No, I won’t. I’ll feel worse,” she said, laughing suddenly. “The coffee’s enough, and I’ll have some toast. I didn’t touch anything in that filthy police station.”
“Was it really bad?”
“It was squalid. Full of human misery like those places are. They put you in a cell, give you a taste of it to soften you up before they start asking you questions.”
“I’ve never been in one.”
“Of course you haven’t, Peter. You haven’t got a rich past life like me. Sorry, poor would be a better word.” Greta spoke harshly. There was a bitterness in her voice that Peter had not heard before.
“What are they going to do, Greta?”
“Oh, they gave me a date to go back. ‘Bail to return’ it’s called, but nothing’ll happen. They’re grasping at straws.”
“I know. That’s what I told Thomas.”
“It’s because of him that they’re doing it. You know that, don’t you, Peter? He’s so convinced that I’m the person behind it that he’s got Hearns convinced too. And the best part is that he didn’t even see the face of the man that I’m supposed to have been with. God, I wish I hadn’t lied. It’s too late now, of course.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Greta. I understand why you had to. What else have the police got?”
“The window that I forgot to close. The arrangement with Mrs. Ball that Anne asked me to make, and now they’ve got sweet Aunt Jane saying that I was standing in the hall talking to myself about how Lady Anne ‘had fucking had it now.’ Mrs. Posh I’m supposed to have called her.”
“Jane told me something about this. It was the day after it happened, and I went over to Woodbridge to talk to her and Thomas. Everyone got angry.”
“Well, I know why she’s said it. To back up Thomas, because that’s his problem. He needs someone else to say something.”
“You mean she’s lying.”
“Of course she’s lying. She’s always hated me.”
“I’ll dismiss her then.”
“No, don’t do that. It’ll just make things worse.”
“No, you’re right. I can’t leave Thomas there on his own.”
“On his own?”
“I can’t see him. Not after what he’s said to me. Not after what he’s done.”
“What did he say to you?”
“He said I was protecting you because we’re, we’re…” Peter flushed and looked away, busying himself with pouring out another glass of whisky.
Greta sat down beside him at the table and took his other hand in hers, knotting their fingers together.
“Look at me, Peter,” she said. “That’s why Thomas is doing this. I didn’t want to tell you before, but things have gone too far now. You need to understand.”
She was very close to him, and he sat captivated by her glittering green eyes.
“He wanted me, Peter. He told me that I was beautiful, that he loved me.”
“When? What did you do?”
Peter felt a rush of panic as if she’d suddenly taken a knife out of the drawer and put it to his throat.
“It was in the taxi on the way back here after we had a picnic in the park. The day that you couldn’t make it, you remember.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. What do you think I did? He was fourteen and I’m twenty-seven. I told him that he was very sweet but it wasn’t right. What else was I supposed to say?”
“Nothing. You did right. He must be crazy.”
“He’s a teenager who has never had a girlfriend. He’s thinking about sex three times a minute just like other boys his age.”
“I didn’t.”
“That’s not the point. The reason I’m telling you all this is so that you’ll understand why he’s got it in for me. I rejected him and he’s got to hate me for that. Then he thinks that I’m having sex with you, which makes him hate me even more because I’ve taken you away from him and because he’s jealous. Then his mother’s killed and he feels guilty about having wanted me when I wasn’t Lady Anne’s favorite person. It’s a poisonous brew.”
“Did he touch you, Greta?”
The thought of his son’s hands, of anyone’s hands holding Greta had engulfed Peter. He suddenly felt sick with jealousy.
“Of course he didn’t, Peter. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I don’t want anyone to touch you.”
“They’re not going to.”
She smiled and reached out her hand so that it touched his cheek. Her red lips
were open, and he could see the tip of her tongue between her perfect small white teeth.
He took hold of her hand and kissed it. He meant his touch to be gentle, but instead it was hungry and his breath came in short, sharp bursts.
She stood up, and for a moment he thought she was going to leave but she did not pull away. Instead she took his other hand, unlacing it from the whisky glass, and brought it up until it covered her breast.
She looked dreamily at the wall through half-closed eyes as he cupped her breast in his palm and felt with his fingers for the hard nipple through the thin black material of her dress.
She was feeling behind her back for the zipper, grimacing in frustration when she could not reach it, but she did not speak. Instead she pulled his other hand round behind her, pressing herself forward into his body while she guided his fingers upward.
A moment later and he had found it. He pulled down and suddenly he felt the flesh of her back. He pulled apart the bra strap so that he could feel the hard bones of her shoulder blades and below that, a second later, the parting of her skin, the cleft above her buttocks.
As Peter’s hand descended, Greta threw her head back, exhaling deeply. The black dress fell away from her, and his face was crushed into the soft center of her breast. He opened his mouth and searched with his tongue for the nipple. It was hard and thick between his teeth, and he held her breast in both his hands, feeling in his fingers the soft size of it, the weight of it in his palms.
But she would not stay still. Instead she was pushing the dress down over her hips as she straddled him in the chair. Reaching out he cupped his hands under her strong buttocks so that he could guide himself deep into her.
Later they made love in Greta’s unmade bed, ignoring the chaos of the ransacked room around them. He moved slowly inside her with his eyes wide open so that he could experience every facet of her nakedness; the pink aureoles, the cleavage between her high breasts, the rich, thick blackness of her pubic hair.
“I love you, Greta,” he whispered and she smiled.
“He loves me, he loves me not,” she said as she rocked backward and forward above him, but he knew that his time for choice, if there had ever been a time, was now over.
Six hours earlier he had watched his wife being lowered into the wet ground, and now here he was having sex with his assistant for the second time. He was disgusted with himself; he smelled the whisky on his breath and the sweat on his body, but at the same time he rejoiced. Greta was more beautiful than he could ever have imagined.
At half past one the telephone rang. Just once, but it was enough to wake Peter up. He had been sleeping badly for the last week anyway. The whisky gave him insomnia, and any disturbance shattered his uneasy dreams.
He lay on his side facing the window and listened to Greta’s whispered conversation.
“Do you know what time it is?” she said angrily, and then after a moment she added: “Wait, I’m going to go in the other room. I’ll call you back.”
He felt her get out of bed and put on a robe. She went out into the hall and put the light on and then came back to stand on his side of the bed looking down at him for a moment. He kept his eyes closed and breathed evenly. He didn’t know why. It was almost as if he felt it was the polite thing to do, to pretend to be asleep.
She pulled the door to behind her without closing it fully, and he sat up in the darkness wondering who it could possibly be, who would call Greta like this in the middle of the night. He thought of the blackmailer Greta had told him about on the night of the murder. Had he come back? Perhaps he wanted more money. That’s what usually happened. It wasn’t just Greta’s problem now, Peter realized. It was his too. Peter needed to tell Greta that she could count on him. He groped around on the floor for his clothes and pulled on his shirt and trousers. Then he walked purposefully down the hallway to the door at the far end and paused with the handle in his hand. Greta’s voice was audible on the other side of the door and Peter suddenly felt that he would be intruding to walk in on her. He knew he ought to go back to bed, but her words kept him rooted to the spot.
“Look, you’ve got to leave me alone.” Greta sounded angry like she had been in the bedroom.
A pause, then her voice came again, louder this time: “Don’t call me that. I’m not your Greta Rose. Not anymore.”
Another pause and then: “You’ve had what we agreed. You got it all. Now leave me alone.”
Peter felt like a spy. He had to go forward or back, and he went forward. He needed to know what it all meant.
As he opened the door, he was just in time to hear her last words before she put down the phone.
“I’ve got just as much on you now as you’ve got on me. Remember that.”
Greta looked shocked to see Peter standing in the doorway.
“I thought you were asleep,” she stammered.
“I was. I heard you get up. Who was that calling you? Was it that man?”
“Yes, yes it was. He won’t call again.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve got something of his. I made him give it to me when he had the money. You heard what I said.”
“What have you got?”
“I don’t want to tell you, Peter. You don’t need to know. Isn’t it enough that I tell you he’s going to stop?”
Greta held her arms out toward Peter and her robe fell open, exposing her body. But he remained by the door. His forehead was creased with anxiety.
“‘I’m not your Greta Rose.’ What does that mean, Greta? I need to know what it means.”
“You were listening outside the door, Peter. You were spying on me.”
Peter ignored the accusation. He needed an answer.
“Tell me what it means, Greta.”
“It means nothing. Greta Rose is my name; that’s all. Everyone used to call me that up in Manchester. Rose was my grandmother. I don’t know where they got the Greta from. Unless it was Greta Garbo, but she was a bit before my mother’s time, I think.”
Greta smiled but Peter was still not satisfied.
“I’ve never heard you called Greta Rose.”
“That’s because I dropped the Rose when I left Manchester. I wanted to make a clean break with all that life, start afresh. I told you that before.”
“Why did you say you weren’t his Greta Rose?”
“Because I’m not. You know what I told you. He likes me. He tried it on that last time he was here, but I didn’t let him.”
Peter’s head swam. The thought of this stranger’s hands on Greta had the same confusing effect on him that it had had when she had told him about the blackmailer a week before. Except that now the sight of Greta’s naked body and his experience of it only hours earlier redoubled his anger and lust.
Greta could see the effect of her words and pressed home her advantage.
“Perhaps I should have let him. It would have been easier.”
“No.” Peter almost shouted the word as he crossed over to Greta and took hold of her hands in a fierce grip.
“I didn’t because of you,” she said softly as he pushed the robe back from off her shoulders and laid her down on the floor.
This time he came almost immediately and lay exhausted with his head upon her breast. She had pulled a cushion under her head and lay naked on the carpet, making no effort to cover herself. She stared dreamily up at the ceiling with a faraway look in her green eyes. A smile played across her red lips as she stroked the thick black hair of her lover.
Chapter 18
“The next witness, my Lord, is Matthew Barne.”
“Barne or Barnes?”
“Barne, my Lord,” said John Sparling. “Without the s.”
It was Monday morning and the courtroom was once again full. The benches reserved for the press were packed, and there was a sense of expectancy in the air. All the jurors were alert, and Greta noticed that the Margaret Thatcher look-alike had moved into the seat nearest the judge, where the foreperson of the j
ury goes when it’s time to deliver the verdict. It looked as if it would be a forewoman this time.
Matthew Barne came in accompanied by his mother, who took a seat close to the witness box while her son took the oath.
He had red hair and freckles and pale blue eyes, which fluttered from person to person as he stumbled over the words on the oath card that Miss Hooks held up in front of him.
He was dressed in a double-breasted suit, which looked as if it had been bought for the occasion, and his school tie was tied in a big knot over a shirt collar that seemed to be a size too small for his bulging neck. He had a gift-wrapped appearance, and his discomfort showed in the way that he answered questions. He spoke in stops and starts, sometimes saying too little and sometimes too much so that his audience felt as if they were only catching periodic glimpses of his true personality. He constantly brushed his bangs off his forehead in a habitual gesture that reminded Greta of Thomas.
“How old are you, Matthew?” asked the judge.
“Sixteen, sir.”
“I think you’d be more comfortable if Mr. Sparling and Mr. Lambert here called you Matthew rather than Master Barne or anything formal like that. Is that what you’d prefer, Matthew?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And I suggest you sit down to give your evidence. It’s not easy for someone of your age being in court, and you should tell me if there’s anything I can do to make it less difficult for you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Matthew managed a nervous smile as he sat down and turned his buttoned up neck toward John Sparling. “Matthew, do you know Thomas Robinson?” asked the prosecution barrister.
“Yes, I do. He goes to school with me.”
“Which school is that, Matthew?”
“Carstow School, sir. It’s in Surrey.”
“How long have you known Thomas?”
“Since last September. We both started together.”
“Tell us about your relationship.”
“He’s my best friend. All the other boys in our class had already been there two years when we got there, and so we were sort of in it together, if you know what I mean.”
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