‘Only if they’re guilty,’ I said lightly. ‘And right now, you’re auditioning beautifully.’ I paused. ‘No lawyer, Hunter?’
‘Don’t need one,’ he said baldly, giving me a smile I didn’t believe for a second. ‘I’m innocent.’
‘Yeah? Did you know where Alasdair lived?’
He looked at me for a beat. ‘No comment.’
‘All right. How about this? Your military record says you’re skilled at subtle ingress. You know what that means? It means you’re real good at getting in places you aren’t welcome. You can pick locks, Hunter, and someone picked Marlow’s locks. That was you, wasn’t it?’
‘No comment,’ he replied again, though a smug smirk tugged at his lips.
‘You haven’t got the stones to say anything to us other than no comment, Hunter?’
‘No. Comment.’
I smiled. ‘If that’s how you want to play it, that’s fine. Interview terminated. Channing, show Mr Hunter the way out.’
‘Yes ma’am.’
When Hunter was out of the room, I tagged Bland who was waiting, ready to follow Hunter. I waited until Bland had eyes on his target and then rang off.
When Channing returned I asked him, ‘Impressions?’
‘Thinks he’s untouchable, a hard ass. Arrogant. Doesn’t think he needs a lawyer to tell him to spit out “no comment.”’
‘Absolutely,’ I agreed. ‘And we can work with all of those things. Send in the Kerrs. Let’s start with the Mrs. I don’t think the prim and perfect Mrs Kerr is going to love being Beeks’s alibi. I wonder who suggested it? I guess they couldn’t come up with a nice and innocent explanation for all of them being together at 5am, so they had to use a scandalous excuse instead. But what does that tell us?’
‘If they’re lying about being together sexually, it’s because Beeks needed an alibi.’
I grinned at my partner, who was becoming less green by the day. ‘You got it. Let’s see if Mrs Kerr does indeed like two men at once, and if not, then we’ve got something to play with.’
Mrs Kerr was accompanied by a lawyer. Maybe she was smarter than the others, or maybe she had more cash. With his slick pinstripe suit and his equally slick hair, the man who rolled in with her certainly wasn’t a court-appointed lawyer, that much was certain.
‘Mrs Kerr,’ I greeted her expansively. ‘How good it is to see you again.’
She glared back and sat down in the chair opposite me, and the lawyer settled in next to her. ‘Cop bitch,’ she sneered. ‘You people frame us every time something goes wrong.’
‘Angela,’ the lawyer said mildly, ‘please.’ He turned to me. ‘Apologies for my client’s language. She’s overwrought.’
‘She’ll be more overwrought by the time we’re done here, counsel.’ I leaned back in my chair, letting the silencestretch. People always fill the silence; it’s human nature. The paracetamol had kicked in, and I had my patience back, so I sat and waited.
Predictably, she cracked first. She folded her arms across her chest. ‘I don’t know why I’m here. We didn’t kill him. Drummond was one of us. He wasour voice.’
‘Good,’ I said evenly. ‘Then you’ll want to help us find whodidkill him.’
‘You’ll twist everything I say!’ she spat. ‘Ogre-loving wh—’
‘Mrs Kerr!’ the lawyer interrupted firmly. ‘Remember your instructions.’
She grimaced but simmered down.
The lawyer reached into a briefcase and pulled out a sheet of paper. ‘Here is my client’s prepared statement.’
I scanned it and looked up, letting a smirk pull at my lips. ‘Two men at the same time,’ I noted. ‘Which holes did they use, Ange? Pussy and arse, or did they—’
Mrs Kerr shot to her feet, eyes blazing, lips curled over her teeth. Oh, she didn’t like that one bit.
The solicitor took his client’s arm gently and tugged her back down to sitting. He levelled a flat, unfriendly look at me. So much for becoming fast friends. Shame. ‘Inspector! Your comments are unnecessary and incendiary.’
