Thursday morning

…in which a suspect is quizzed and a double life is exposed.

The twin spools in the cassette tape recorder spun slowly, silently. The red light glowed.

The date is Thursday, the eleventh of June, the time is ten-fifteen and the place is Micklegate Bar Police Station in the City of York. I am Chief Inspector Hennessey. I am going to ask the other people in the room to identify themselves.’

‘Detective Sergeant Yellich.’

‘Nathan Samual of Samual, Samual & Kileen, solicitors.’

‘Tim Sheringham.’ Said in a resentful, surly manner.

‘Mr Sheringham, you have been arrested in connection with the murder of Mr and Mrs Williams.’

‘So I understand.’

‘Did you murder Mr and Mrs Williams?’

‘No.’

Hennessey looked at Sheringham, such sudden long shots had paid off before. ‘Thought you’d say that.’

‘Did you know Mr and Mrs Williams?’

‘No.’ Sheringham smiled. ‘I didn’t know them.’ He emphasized the word ‘them’.

‘Did you know Mr Williams?’

‘No.’

‘Did you know Mrs Williams?’

‘Yes. Very well indeed.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean sexually. I knew her sexually. We had an affair. She enrolled at the gym. Things went from there.’

‘I see. How long did you know Mrs Williams?’

‘About two years, maybe longer. I didn’t keep a diary.’

‘When did the relationship finish?’

‘Last week.’

‘Why did it finish?’

‘Because my wife was getting suspicious.’

‘How did Mrs Williams react?’

‘As you’d expect.’

‘Mr Sheringham, I’ve been a police officer for many years, pretty well all my working life, and I have learned not to expect anything. So, how did she react?’

‘Badly. She threw a tantrum. Screaming about the place.’

‘The place?’

‘Her little house.’

‘The house or the bungalow?’

A pause. Then Tim Sheringham said, ‘The house.’

‘Did she threaten to tell your wife?’

‘Probably. She was angry. I didn’t really listen. She was angry because she’d spent a lot of money on me. I was her “boy”. She bought me gifts and meals in upmarket restaurants. I showed her a good time. I gave her a good time. She gave me money and things.’

‘She gave you money?’

‘Yes. She bought my body. Why not? Men do it all the time. And anyway, wouldn’t you want my body if you were a fifty-something woman with a drunkard for a husband?’

Hennessey didn’t reply.

Sheringham smirked. ‘I suppose you wouldn’t really understand that, not being married and all, I mean, would you, Chief Inspector? You know the first time we “did it”, it was at the bungalow. He came home earlier than expected, in a taxi, entered the house and curled up on the sofa, drunk as a lord. We just carried on and then went for a meal. He wasn’t aware of anything going on at all. She told me that had been the first time she’d done “it” for many years, she said she had a lot of catching up to do.’

‘And you helped her catch up?’

‘Well…yes. Is there anything wrong with that? Look, I am not a Christian but that doesn’t mean I’m a bad guy. She had money, she could afford it.’

Hennessey said nothing, but the word ‘credit’ crept into his mind. ‘You didn’t always spend time with her at the bungalow?’

‘No. We met at a house her husband had had built. They had money. I told you. We started to use the house as soon as it was complete because she thought her neighbours were getting suspicious.’

‘And she didn’t take it too kindly when you broke it off?’

‘Like I said, very unkindly. I mean, I was her possession, she’d take me to restaurants not just to buy me a meal, but to show me off. She used to enjoy the envious looks she’d get from other women.’

‘I can imagine.’

‘We went away once…a weekend…a hotel near the coast. Not actually on the coast itself, that was too near bed and breakfast land for her…but just inland, a mile or two inland from Scarborough. She paid.’

‘She would by the sound of it.’

‘Well, she’d have to, the gym is paying its way but only just and anyway, my wife and I have a joint account, I couldn’t hide spending money on Amanda. I’m in trouble as it is. I don’t know how I’m going to explain this.’

‘How did you explain the weekend away to your wife?’

‘Said it was a business trip. Anyway, we were not married then. I enjoyed it, we were both something on the side for each other, that was part of the fun…but she was getting too indiscreet…showing me off too much…I felt it was getting dangerous…coming to the gym very frequently. Daily almost, so I blew her out.’

‘Then what did you do?’

‘Got on with living my life. Running the gym.’

‘So why did you go back to the bungalow after she and her husband had been murdered?’

Sheringham glanced at Nathan Samual, who said, ‘Can you explain that question, Chief Inspector?’

‘I’d be happy to. Your affair, Mr and Mrs Williams were murdered, their home was ransacked. We know that the house was sanitized after the murder, but we got a fingerprint from the bathroom.’ Sheringham caught his breath.

‘Remembering something, Mr Sheringham?’

‘I’m not saying anything.’

‘You see,’ Hennessey continued. ‘You see, not only was the house sanitized after the murder, it was kept in a fastidiously clean manner. Cleaned daily, I should think, especially the bathroom. And your client freely admits that latterly he was rendezvousing with Mrs Williams at a newly built house, not at the bungalow, so his fingerprints could not be in the bungalow by lawful means.’

‘Accepted,’ Nathan Samual said. He was a small, thin-faced man, dwarfed, it seemed to Hennessey, by the powerfully built Tim Sheringham whose T-shirt stretched over a muscular chest and revealed muscular arms.

‘The print in the bathroom, that belonged to Mr Sheringham. It puts you in the house after the murder of the woman with whom you had just broken off your relationship.’

‘No comment.’

‘Why did you ransack the house?’

‘No comment.’

‘What were you searching for?’

‘No comment.’

‘You didn’t take anything. Stopped burglarizing homes, have you?’

‘No comment.’

‘So what were you looking for?’

‘No comment.’

Hennessey opened the file which lay on the table in front of him and took out a photograph and placed it on the table in front of Sheringham. Sheringham’s jaw dropped, his eyes widened.

‘There are quite a few like that. Clearly taken over quite a long time period, at the bungalow, at the house…some out of doors. Only you and Amanda Williams…never a third person, so the photographs were taken with a time-delayed shutter.’

‘Yes…they were. She insisted. I knew it was a bad idea. She sent them away to be developed, there’s a company in London that will print anything. Pretty well, they draw the line at children.’

‘I’m relieved to hear it.’

‘Is this what you were looking for? This and the others? We found them in the garden shed, by the way.’

Sheringham gasped.

‘They were not in the house at all. So what was it? Blackmail?’

Sheringham nodded.

‘Could you speak for the benefit of the tape?’

‘Yes.’

‘How much did she want in return for the photographs?’

‘Nothing. She didn’t need money.’

‘What then?’

‘She wanted me to agree to continue our affair, just carrying on as we had been doing, every Wednesday. You can understand it. How could a woman like that replace a man like me? She was going to send them to my wife. Look, I’m thirsty…how about…’

Hennessey reached for the off button and said, ‘The time is eleven-oh-five a.m. The interview is being suspended for refreshments to be taken.’ He switched off the tape recorder.

Sheringham and Nathan Samual remained in the interview room, sipping coffee out of white plastic beakers. Hennessey and Yellich stood in the corridor.