by Frank Smith
Her chin came up defiantly. ‘Yes.’
‘In fact you and Simon Holbrook were having an affair for some time before your sister was murdered. Isn’t that correct, Miss Chase?’
Susan closed her eyes and shook her head. ‘You don’t understand,’ she said. ‘You make it sound so tawdry, but it wasn’t like that. Simon was at his wits’ end. Their marriage was falling to pieces, and Laura had literally taken over his business; the business he had built up over the years. His heart and soul were in that business, and he felt as if he were on the outside looking in. He came to me for . . . for help. We’ve been friends for many years, and he thought that since Laura was my sister, perhaps I could help him.’
‘By sleeping with him?’ Tregalles put in softly.
Colour flooded into Susan’s cheeks. ‘That – that just happened,’ she said defensively. ‘We didn’t mean it to happen – it just did.’
‘You say it just happened, but isn’t it true that you have been in love with Simon Holbrook for many years? I think you hated your sister for taking him away from you, because it wasn’t the first time she’d done that to you, was it, Miss Chase? I think that you saw an opportunity to get Simon back, and you persuaded him that the only solution to his troubles, at home and at work, was to get rid of your sister. Permanently. Is that not true, Miss Chase?’
‘No, that is not true!’ she flared. ‘All right, I admit I was in love with Simon; I admit that I was hurt when he married Laura, but I knew how Laura worked, and I knew it wouldn’t last. Laura could be very charming and persuasive when she wanted something, and she wanted Simon and the challenge of the business. But she soon tired of Simon, as I knew she would, because she saw him only as a means to an end. It was the business she wanted, but Simon was genuinely in love with her – or thought he was at the time – and he couldn’t understand why Laura had changed so much. And to make things worse, while she was no longer interested in Simon as a husband, she was very much interested in his skills as an inventor and in the business.’
Susan sighed deeply. ‘The problem was it was no longer Simon’s business; it was Laura’s. She held the reins and wouldn’t let go, and that was when Simon came to me.’
‘When was that, exactly?’
‘Christmas – just after.’ Susan frowned and looked away. ‘Simon was desperately unhappy, and we used to talk long into the night when Laura was away on one of her overnight business trips. We didn’t mean it to happen; it just did. We fell in love all over again.’
‘But nothing could come of it while Simon was married to Laura,’ Tregalles continued. ‘If Simon tried to divorce her and she chose to fight him, it could mean the end of his company. But if she died, the business would revert to Simon; the money she had invested in the company, which I understand was considerable, would remain, and he would inherit whatever else she might have.’ Tregalles leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. ‘I think that prospect would be very tempting to anyone, very tempting indeed,’ he said. ‘You say you talked long into the night when Laura was away. Was that when you came up with the plan to kill her?’
‘No! That’s utterly absurd.’
‘Whose idea was it to break into houses in order to set a pattern of vandalism and escalating violence so that Laura’s murder would look like a burglary gone wrong? Yours or Simon’s?’ Tregalles prodded. ‘I suspect it was yours, and it was you who broke into those houses, because the hair we found in those houses came from your dog, Brandy.’
Susan stared at him. ‘That’s impossible!’ she declared. ‘I don’t know what you are talking about. I had nothing to do with Laura’s death, and neither did Simon. We were together at my flat the night Laura was killed.’
Paget stirred. ‘Does the name Henry Beaumont mean anything to you?’ he asked.
‘I – I’ve heard Simon mention him,’ said Susan cautiously.
‘He is, as I believe you know very well, Miss Chase, Vice President in charge of Research and Development with Drexler-Davies’ UK Division. Have you ever met Mr Beaumont?’
Susan tried to meet his eyes and failed. ‘Once,’ she said huskily.
‘That would be the night he came to your flat; the night your sister was killed, would it not, Miss Chase?’
Susan cleared her throat. ‘That’s right. He came to see Simon.’
‘To finalize the secret negotiations that were going on between Mr Holbrook and Mr Beaumont,’ Paget said. ‘Negotiations that would have meant that Holbrook Micro-Engineering Labs would no longer be independent, but would become part of the Drexler-Davies Corporation. That was the real reason Simon came to your flat that evening, wasn’t it, Miss Chase?’
Susan’s eyes flashed. ‘If you know all this, why are you asking me?’ she flared.
‘Please answer the question.’
‘Yes, that’s why he was there. All right?’
‘Who else knew about the negotiations?’
‘No one,’ she said sullenly. ‘Simon didn’t want anyone to know until everything was settled.’
‘Especially his wife, to say nothing of the employees who would be losing their jobs.’
‘Simon regretted that, but there was no other way.’ Susan was having trouble keeping her voice steady. ‘He said he couldn’t face the thought of rebuilding the business again. Too much stress; too much time wasted. He said it was impossible to be creative in that sort of atmosphere. You have to understand, Chief Inspector, Simon was the best in his field; he had a unique talent and a reputation, but he couldn’t get on with what he loved doing while trying to rebuild the business. It was just too much, so he went to Henry Beaumont and they worked out this arrangement where Holbrook Micro-Engineering Labs would become a separate division of Drexler-Davies. Simon would be in charge of that branch of technical research. He would be able to get on with what he did best without having to worry about interfacing with clients or any of what he called the front-end stuff.’
‘So what would happen to someone who had been there since the beginning? Someone like Peggy Goodwin, for example? What would happen to her under this new arrangement?’
Frowning slightly, Susan gave Paget a quizzical look. ‘Funny you should mention her specifically,’ she said, ‘because I think Simon was quite concerned about Peggy. He said she didn’t really have much of a life of her own outside work, and because they have worked together since the beginning, she thought of herself as a partner rather than an employee. But as he said, even if she does call herself his PA, she is only a glorified secretary. A very good one, but a secretary just the same.’
Paget wondered how Peggy Goodwin would have reacted to that statement, had she heard it. ‘Would the company have remained here in Broadminster if the deal had gone through?’ he asked.
Susan looked down at her hands. ‘For a while, yes,’ she said, ‘but Simon did say he expected there would be some sort of consolidation within a year, and we would probably be moving to Solihull, where we could leave all this behind and make a fresh start.’
‘We, Miss Chase . . .?’
Susan raised her eyes to his. Tears glistened on her cheeks. ‘We were to be married,’ she whispered. ‘Simon promised me. He promised. We could have been so . . .’ Susan’s hands fluttered in a helpless gesture before falling into her lap.
‘Oh, I don’t expect you to understand,’ she went on as she saw the look of scepticism on their faces, ‘but Simon never really loved Laura. He thought he did for a time, but it was nothing more than infatuation. Laura had that sort of power over men; she could draw them in; they were fascinated by her. It was as if they were mesmerized, but it didn’t last because she soon lost interest once she had what she wanted. When Simon came back to me, he said it was as if he were coming out of a dream that had turned into a nightmare, and I was the only one he had ever truly loved. He said that this time we would . . .’ She stopped and turned her eyes toward the ceiling, trying hard to hold back the tears.
‘You were there, th
roughout this meeting, were you?’ Tregalles asked.
Susan shook her head. ‘No. I left them to it. Simon said he thought Mr Beaumont would feel more comfortable if there wasn’t a third party there, so I took Brandy for a walk.’
‘What time did you leave and how long were you gone?’
‘Mr Beaumont arrived shortly after seven thirty, and I left a few minutes later and came back around nine thirty or quarter to ten.’
Tregalles looked sceptical. ‘You walked the dog for two hours?’ he said.
‘No,’ Susan said displaying exaggerated patience. ‘I walked Brandy for something like half an hour, then came back and sat in the car and listened to the radio. I knew they had a lot to discuss, so I didn’t want to go back too soon.’
‘Can anyone verify that? Did you see anyone you know on your walk? Stop anywhere? Talk to anyone?’
‘Apart from exchanging the odd “good evening” with other dog walkers, no, I did not,’ Susan said, allowing her irritation to show. ‘Why is that so important, Sergeant?’
Paget eased himself forward again. ‘Tell me, Miss Chase,’ he said, ‘did Simon explain to you how he intended to acquire his wife’s share of the business, because, according to your own words, her reason for marrying Simon was to get her hands on the business. So how did he intend to persuade her to give that up without a fight?’
‘I–I don’t . . . We didn’t discuss . . .’ Susan began haltingly. ‘Simon said Drexler-Davies would be advancing him the money to buy her out, and they would be making her an offer she couldn’t refuse.’
‘And you believed that?’
Once more the tell-tale colour began to rise in Susan’s face. ‘Yes,’ she said shakily. ‘Laura was always looking for new challenges. I’m sure Simon had it all worked out.’
But Paget was shaking his head. ‘I don’t think you really believed that, did you, Miss Chase? You knew your sister better than anyone, and you knew that she wouldn’t stand for that. She had literally put Holbrook Micro-Engineering Labs on the map; she wasn’t about to give that up, which meant that whatever you were hoping for was nothing more than a pipe dream unless Laura could be taken out of the picture permanently.’
Paget sat back in his chair. ‘Do you know what I think, Miss Chase?’ he asked softly. ‘I think you and Simon had it all worked out ahead of time. I think the two of you planned this months ago. I think you read about that burglary in Dunbar Road and decided to use it as a model, vandalizing houses, doing more and more damage each time to give us the impression that a couple of psychos were responsible, and it would look like their work when the Holbrook house was targeted and Laura was killed.
‘I think,’ he continued relentlessly, ‘that while Simon was with Beaumont, you went to Simon’s house, entered by the front door, using a key, then crept upstairs where you proceeded to beat your sister to death with a metal bar. You then pulled her wedding and engagement rings from her finger and took them with you. I’m not sure why you did that, but considering what she’d done to you over the years, perhaps it was simply a spur of the moment symbolic gesture on your part. Then you went downstairs and proceeded to make it look as if the place had been vandalized, pried open the back door to make it look as if entry had been forced, then left. And rather than carry the rings around with you, you wrapped them in the closest thing to hand and shoved them into the glove box of your car.’
Susan’s face was ashen as she stared at him. ‘I’ve never heard such a load of rubbish in all my life,’ she gasped when she found her voice. ‘I don’t know what you are trying to do, but . . .’
She stopped abruptly as Paget produced the clear plastic bag containing Laura Holbrook’s rings and placed it on the table in front of her. ‘Then how do you account for the fact that Laura’s rings were found in the glove box of your car?’
Susan stared at the rings. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. ‘Do you deny that these are your sister’s rings?’ he prompted.
She looked dazed. ‘No, they’re Laura’s rings,’ she said in a strained voice, ‘but I didn’t put them there, and I didn’t kill my sister. The real killer must have put them there . . .’ Susan raised her hands and let them drop in a helpless gesture as she saw the look of scepticism on their faces.
‘You had motive, means, and certainly opportunity,’ Paget told her. ‘In fact all of the evidence points straight to you. But let’s leave that for the moment and go back to the killing of Simon Holbrook. The estimated time of death is roughly five o’clock on Thursday morning, which is when you say you left the house. We’ve taken fingerprints from the wardrobe and one of the taps on the bathroom. They have Simon Holbrook’s blood all over them. I expect we’ll find they’re yours. The tests are due back any minute. There will be evidence—’
‘No! That’s not true!’ Susan broke in harshly. ‘It can’t be. Simon was alive when I left him. He was sleeping, and I didn’t even go into the bathroom for fear of making too much noise. So I took my clothes and tiptoed out of the room and dressed downstairs before leaving the house. So you’re wrong; they couldn’t be my prints.’
‘Forensic will say they are,’ Paget said.
‘I don’t care what Forensic or anyone else says,’ Susan shot back. ‘They are not my prints, and there was no blood in that room when I left.’
‘Was there anyone else, besides Simon in the house when you left?’ he asked. Then: ‘Please answer for the tape, Miss Chase,’ he said sharply as she shook her head.
Susan cleared her throat and said, ‘No.’
‘And you admit that you had spent the night with Simon Holbrook, sleeping together in the same bed. Is that right, Miss Chase?’
‘Yes, but—’
‘As you have been doing both before and after your sister’s death. But Simon wasn’t in love with you. In fact I seriously doubt if Simon Holbrook ever loved anyone other than himself. The plain and simple truth is he wanted to be rid of his wife, and he used you to do it for him.’
Paget leaned forward, hands on the table in front of him as he said, ‘You told us earlier that your sister enjoyed the thrill of the chase, but from what we have learned during this investigation, Simon Holbrook was very much the same. He never did stay with one woman for long, did he? In fact he and Laura were two of a kind, but he wanted to move on and she didn’t. In fact she would fight him tooth and nail for a share of the assets of the firm if he tried to divorce her, and he could see everything he’d worked for going down the drain if he tackled her head on. So he came to you looking for help to get rid of her.
‘He used you, Miss Chase, promising to marry you once Laura was out of the way, but then things started to go wrong, didn’t they? Once we realized that the burglaries had been staged, and told him so, he began to panic. I think he knew that sooner or later we would find the evidence that would convict him, and whether you care to admit it or not, you knew there was no depth to the man, and you were afraid he would try to save his own skin by putting all the blame on you. So you killed him. You got up out of his bed and stabbed him with one of his own kitchen knives. Isn’t that the way it happened, Miss Chase?’
Susan’s eyes met his own defiantly. ‘No, that is not the way it happened!’ she grated, jabbing a finger at the rings that lay between them. ‘And I don’t care where you say you found her rings, I had nothing to do with Laura’s death. And Simon was alive when I left him.’
Paget was barely conscious of her words. He, too, was looking at the bag containing the rings, and somewhere in the back of his mind a memory stirred. He lifted his eyes to meet those of Susan Chase across the table, angry, frightened eyes, yet still defiant.
‘Tell me how the windows of your car came to be broken?’ he said.
Susan eyed him suspiciously. ‘I don’t see what you’re getting at, and I don’t see what that has to do with anything.’
‘Please, just answer the question, Miss Chase. It’s important.’
Susan shook her head as if to say
she couldn’t see the point of the question, but it was easier to answer than to argue. ‘It was just mindless vandalism,’ she said. 'Some drunken yobs with nothing better to do smashed my windows along with half-a-dozen others in Tavistock Road where I parked my car the other night.’
‘The night Simon was killed? Was anything stolen?’
She shook her head. ‘No, in fact it might have made more sense if there had been,’ she said. ‘It was sheer bloody-mindedness on their part.’
‘Did you check the glove box to see if anything was missing?’
‘No. Why should I? There was nothing in there to steal.’ She sat back in her chair and folded her arms. ‘And that is the last thing I intend to say to you, so if you’re going to charge me, go right ahead, but I want to talk to my solicitor now!’
Paget shook his head as he got to his feet. ‘Not for the moment,’ he said, ‘so you are free to go, Miss Chase. But please don’t leave the immediate area without telling us.’ He nodded to the WPC. ‘Please make sure that Miss Chase gets home safely,’ he said.
A short time later, when Paget entered the incident room, Ormside said, ‘Tregalles tells me you let Susan Chase go without charging her.’ The sergeant kept his voice neutral, but it was clear he, too would like to hear an explanation.
Paget smiled. ‘Did he also tell you he thinks I’ve gone mad?’
‘Not in so many words, no,’ Ormside said diplomatically. ‘But he said the evidence against her was pretty conclusive.’
If the sergeant was hoping for an explanation, he was disappointed. Instead, Paget took the bag containing Laura Holbrook’s rings from his pocket. ‘I want you to get this over to Forensic immediately, and tell them I want a complete analysis of the tissue the rings were wrapped in,’ he said.
Ormside eyed him narrowly. ‘You’re thinking DNA?’ he suggested.
‘That would be nice, but I doubt if we’ll be that lucky,’ Paget said. ‘I’m thinking smell.’
