‘Move it.’ Mark was growing impatient but his reward was a look of utter scorn.
‘I want to talk to you about Peter Brightston,’ Emilia continued.
‘Tragic.’
‘Odd that he should kill himself so soon after Ben’s accident. It was only an accident, right?’
‘That’s what we believe.’
‘Only some colleagues at his firm are spreading rumours that he killed Ben. Would you care to comment on that, Inspector?’
‘People will always speculate Emilia, you know that.’ Helen refused to play the game by somebody else’s rules. ‘If anything changes I’ll let you know, but it’s not an active line of -’
‘What did they fall out over? Love? Money? Were they gay?’
Helen pushed past.
‘You’re wasting my time, Emilia. And the last time I checked that was a criminal offence.’
Helen and Mark climbed into the unmarked car. Mark pointedly started the engine, staring daggers at Emilia. She looked down her nose at him, then slowly walked back to her car. Helen was relieved and pleased that Anna and Marie hadn’t featured in their discussion – it had been put out as natural causes and no one seemed to be challenging that – yet.
As they drove away, Helen glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure she wasn’t following them. For once, Emilia had decided discretion was the better part of valour and given up the chase. Helen breathed a sigh of relief. There was no way she could have an audience for what she was about to do.
Hannah Mickery was in the middle of preparing a dinner party when Helen arrived on her doorstep. She was every bit as respectable and attractive as she looked on her website. A good example of what money can do for you. The bottles of Clos Vougeot that had been decanted in anticipation of her guests’ arrival reinforced the overall feeling of wealth.
She had so much and Helen would have thought she was extremely eligible. Yet she lived alone. This was the first curious thing that struck Helen. Later, in the interrogation room, Hannah Mickery insisted it was because of her work. That she gave so much to her clients that she seldom had time for socializing or dating. The dinner party that Helen had ruined had already been postponed twice because of her unpredictable job. The feeling of resentment towards Helen for the intrusion snapped sharp in the room.
She had her lawyer flanking her. He was expensive too. Mickery always waited for him to intervene and only if he didn’t would she answer the question. They made a strong, considered, credible team. They’d be hard to discredit if they ever got this to trial.