Inspector Frayne settled into the only armchair while the constable took a chair from the dining table and positioned it on the other side of the sofa. Sadie, as she gradually recovered her senses, was aware of the two men watching her carefully.

‘Perhaps some tea?’ the inspector suggested.

Joel glanced at Sadie and squeezed her hand. ‘I’ll do that, shall I? Will you be all right?’

She gave a nod.

There was a short silence while Joel left the room. Then Frayne said, ‘I’m sorry. It must be a dreadful shock for you.’

Sadie leaned forward, placing her hands on her thighs. Her hands curled into two fight fists. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said again. ‘What happened to him? Was it an accident?’

‘Mr Wise was murdered,’ Frayne replied softly.

Sadie felt the response like a blow to her chest. Her heart missed a beat and then began to race. ‘No,’ she said hoarsely, her mouth suddenly dry. ‘When? How? Jesus, why would anyone…’ Her voice trailed off into nothing. She swallowed hard. A lump the size of a marble had lodged in her throat.

‘We can go down to the station if you’d rather.’

‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Why would I…?’ She saw the inspector’s eyes dart towards the kitchen and instantly understood. ‘Oh, no, you can ask whatever you want in front of Joel.’ She stared at Frayne and a shudder ran through her. She had been in London. She had been with Eddie. Did they consider her a suspect? They couldn’t. It was mad, crazy. ‘When was he killed?’

The inspector didn’t reply directly. ‘We’ve been told that you went to see Mr Wise yesterday.’

‘Yes.’

‘Perhaps, if it’s not too hard for you, we could talk about that.’

Sadie wanted to scream that it was too hard for her, that she still hadn’t absorbed what she’d been told, that her head was still spinning. But she knew she didn’t have a choice. Their questions would have to be answered and she may as well get it over and done with. ‘I-I went to London, to Kellston, on Friday. I wanted to see Eddie to get our divorce papers signed.’

‘That’s a long way to go. Couldn’t you have posted them to him?’

‘I could have if I’d known where he was living.’ As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wished she could take them back. Why hadn’t she just said that she’d wanted to make sure he signed, that he had a habit of putting things off? Now she was going to have to explain how she’d actually found him.

The inspector frowned. ‘So you travelled all the way to London without an address?’

Sadie shifted on the sofa, knowing that it sounded odd. Quickly she tried to justify her actions. ‘Well, I’d heard that he was in Kellston. He’s got friends there and I thought he wouldn’t be too hard to find.’

‘Really? Kellston’s a big place. You could spend a long time searching for someone.’

‘Eddie is… was… a creature of habit. He liked a drink. I figured I’d find him in one of the pubs.’

‘A long shot.’

‘Not that long,’ she said.

Frayne gave a thin smile. ‘Go on.’

Sadie lifted her shoulders in a shrug. ‘I booked into a guest house, a B&B called Oaklands. It’s just opposite Kellston station. And then I started looking. I went to a few local pubs but didn’t have any luck.’

At that moment Joel came back with a pot of tea, four mugs, milk and sugar on a tray. His arrival created a natural break in the conversation and while he organised the drinks, Sadie tried to fight her way through a fog of disbelief to invent a credible tale for the police. She didn’t want to mention Velma and she certainly didn’t want to mention Nathan Stone. The latter, she was sure, would not welcome a visit from the cops. And seeing as she hadn’t even mentioned him to Joel… Her heart was thumping in her chest. She didn’t like lying but what else could she do?

12

Sadie took a sip of tea and looked at the inspector. ‘I found out where he lived on the Saturday,’ she said, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘I bumped into an old mate of Eddie’s in a café on the high street.’

‘That was lucky,’ Frayne said dryly.

Sadie shrugged again. ‘Not really. Eddie knows… knew a lot of people.’

‘And what was this mate’s name?’

Sadie plucked a name from the air. ‘Dave,’ she said. ‘I don’t remember his surname. It’s been years since I last saw him. He told me Eddie was living on the Mansfield.’ She gave Joel a sideways glance, glad now that she hadn’t gone into any detail when she’d got home yesterday. The vague story that she’d given him pretty much tallied with this one. And he hadn’t asked any difficult questions. Joel was a trusting kind of guy, not the sort to probe.

‘Dave,’ the inspector repeated.

‘Yes.’ Sadie noticed the young officer scribbling in his notepad. Would the waitress remember her being in Connolly’s? It was doubtful. The place had been busy, chock full of customers. But even if she did, there was no way she could swear that Sadie hadn’t talked to anyone else.

‘So, this Dave gave you the address and then what did you do?’

Sadie thought there was a distinct scepticism to his tone, but carried on regardless. What choice did she have? ‘I went over there but there was no one in. I didn’t want to hang about and so I went back to the guest house.’

‘You didn’t try again later?’

‘No. It was Saturday and I didn’t think there was much chance of him getting back until late. When Eddie goes out he usually stays out.’ She paused and took another sip of tea. ‘I decided to wait and have another go first thing in the morning.’

‘And what time was that?’

Sadie reflected for a second, remembering Mrs Cuthbert’s comment about most people not coming down for breakfast before nine. ‘It must have been around twenty past eight when I left Oaklands so I probably got to the Mansfield about fifteen minutes later. I wanted to go early, to catch him in case he went out again.’

‘And this time he was there?’

Sadie nodded. ‘Yes, he was there with his girlfriend.’

‘And how was that?’

Sadie stared at Inspector Frayne over the rim of her mug. ‘What do you mean?’

‘How did he react to you turning up out of the blue? Was he happy, angry, irritated, confused?’

‘I don’t know. Surprised, I guess, but not angry. He was all right about it.’

‘And what happened next?’

‘Kelly left and we sat down and talked.’

‘Talked or argued?’

Sadie felt alarm bells going off in her head. ‘Why would we argue? We’ve been separated for years. The divorce was just a formality.’ But already she knew that the police must have spoken to Eddie’s parents. They’d have told him about the bad blood between her and Eddie, about how he’d walked out on her and fleeced her in the process. Although she was sure they’d have put a different slant on it. ‘What’s going on here?’ she asked defensively. ‘Are you accusing me of something? Am I a suspect?’

‘Of course you’re not!’ Joel exclaimed. He looked at Frayne. ‘Tell her. Tell her she isn’t.’

Inspector Frayne skirted around the request. ‘This is a murder inquiry. I’m sorry but there are questions we have to ask.’ He shifted his gaze on to Sadie. ‘You may have been the last person to see Eddie Wise alive.’

Not the last, Sadie thought. That would have been the person who… ‘I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re thinking. We might have had our differences but they were in the past. I’d never have… I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.’

‘But the split was acrimonious.’

‘He walked out on me, if that’s what you’re saying. But the marriage was over anyway. We hadn’t been getting along for months. And it was all a long time ago, almost five years now. I didn’t hate him. I wasn’t even angry at him any more. He took some money but I didn’t want it back. I just wanted to get the divorce sorted and move on.’