“Otherwise engaged.”
“Otherwise engaged?” said Carol. “You’ve not told him, have you? He’s off duty and you’ve thought to yourself how nice it would be to get this done on your own. Leyton Orient are playing at home today, aren’t they? That’s right. He’s watching the football, so you thought you’d take advantage. Big case, this. Make the arrest yourself and you’ll go up a few rungs, yes? I would have thought so. Desmond was a legend round here, wasn’t he? For the wrong reasons? Maybe Beattie’s been acting funny, too scared to delve into areas he shouldn’t, but you’re keen. You want to knoweverything.”
Laura was still, letting Carol do the talking.
“I think we’re your best hope, Laura. Me, her, her, and him. Four—what did you call us?—busybodies? Four busybodies who happen to be very good at it, on the inside. We’re no good to you in here. If we tell you what we know, it’ll get messy. Bob’ll come back to work, you’ll have to keep him informed, there’ll be paperwork, rules, warrants probably.” Carol spoke softly, her head tilted. “Why don’t you let us do our job?”
“It’s not your job. It’s mine.”
“And how’s that going? You’ve arrested two people for the murder and neither of them did it. Now you’ve brought me back in and added another three. It’s like you’re trying to assemble the world’s worst prison football team.”
Laura pursed her lips.
“Let us out,” said Carol. “We’ll look where we need to look,find what we need to find, and once we’ve figured out who the murderer is, I’ll invite you to the dénouement and you can make the arrest.”
“Dénouement?”
“I’m sure Polly can tell you about it when you release her in a minute. It’s the bit at the end of the story when you find out who the killer is and everything gets wrapped up. Let us out and I promise it’ll be along very soon.”
—
“Oh, hello, Polly,”said Carol. “Fancy seeing you here.”
A dazed Polly had joined them in the police station reception area.
“Hello,” said Polly, sitting down next to Carol on an ugly black pleather couch.
Laura, whose face was starting to betray her irritation, told them a taxi would be along for them in a moment.
“Probably best to get an XL,” said Geoffrey. “There’s one, two, three, four, five of us.”
Laura stared at them, silently doing her own head count, then disappeared, muttering under her breath.
Carol thought for a moment, then asked Polly a question. “Your honeymoon, Polly? Where was it?”
“Portugal.”
“Do you remember where in Portugal?”
Polly looked to the ceiling in search of the name. “It was fifty years ago. Fedda…Ferra…?”
“Ferragudo?”
“You’ve been?”
“No,” said Carol. “Sadly not.”
Laura came out of a back room.
“Taxi’s here.” The tired detective opened the back door to the station, and the five started to make their way down the ramp and into the car park. “Carol.”
Carol turned. Laura was giving her the curly finger. “Yes?”
Laura spoke quietly and firmly: “I haven’t ruled you out yet. If this goes tits up, if you let me down in any way, I will make sure you’re back in prison before your feet touch the ground. I’ll have to go and check, but I’m pretty sure conducting an amateur autopsy counts as breaking your parole.”
Carol looked her in the eyes and gave her a nod. The message had been received. “I’d better go and catch the killer, then, hadn’t I?”
Carol caught up with the others and sidled next to Margaret. “Margaret, I wonder if you could do me a favor?”
