Her daughter’s hand flashed out and the hand cream slapped into her palm inches from Mummy Dearest’s nose. Her daughter’slefthand.
The plan had worked after all.
Roberta smiled. ‘Interesting...’
Adriana rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t be absurd. My mother and I both wear our watches on our right wrists, ofcoursewe’re left-handed. We never said we weren’t.’ She turned to scan the crowd, until she was staring straight at Susan, her voice a withering sneer. ‘You never told me your wife was acompleteidiotfest.’
Susan blushed and looked away.
A triumphant sniff, and Adriana twisted the lid off the hand cream and dabbed a little on the back of her hand. Smoothed it in.
Sergeant Moore’s mouth barely moved as his voice dropped to a whisper. ‘It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again.’
Adriana went in for a second fingertipful.
Oh, you think so, do you?
Roberta marched right over there and stuck her hand under the cow’s nose. Filling the words with menace: ‘That’s no’ yours.Give.’
Silence settled back into the room.
Adriana glared at her, all high and haughty. Chin up. So superior.
Roberta bared her teeth.
Oh, if she thought she was going to get away with treating Susan like that, and stealing Susan’shand creamlike that, andbeing an utter bitch in front of everyone.Like.That. She was about to find out how a four-knuckle sandwich tasted.
Five.
Four.
Three...
Adriana dropped her gaze and held the hand cream out.
Better.
Roberta plucked it from her fingers, tossed it in the air – so everyone could see – and caught it again. Turned her back on the lot of them. ‘See, our killer thought they could muddy the water so much, no one would ever see the bottom.’ A sigh as she slipped the hand cream back into her pocket. ‘Laying a false trail here, distracting with flashy footwork there.’ Sauntering back to the middle of the room. ‘They say it takes a village to raise a child, but how many people does it take to killoneman?’
She turned, nice and slow. For some reason, no one wanted to make eye contact with her. Not even the VIPs. ‘Because sooner or later the phones will start working again and, if the bridge is still out, Inverness will send a helicopter full of officers. You’ll all be questioned again, under oath this time,separately.’ Roberta let them think about that for a moment.
A bit of shuffling at the back.
A woman in twinset-and-pearls let loose a little nervous laugh – Edith or Dorothy, it was difficult to tell from here.
A couple of people cleared their throats.
And still no one could look at her.
‘Three men can keep a secret as long as two of them are dead, right? Someonewillcrack, they always do. Someone will crack and cut a deal, and then it’ll be too late for the rest of you.’
Lord Fitzroy-Galbraith’s face wrinkled into a mask of upper-class scorn. ‘We don’t have to sit here listening to this poppycock.’
‘So the choice is: save yourself, or sit at home waiting for that patented knock on your door.’ She raised the heel of her boot and hammered it into the carpet – three times, setting the floor booming. Deep breath. ‘POLICE! OPEN UP!’
‘You don’t have any proof anyone’s done anything.’
She nodded. ‘Oh aye, I do.’ Then turned to Sergeant Moore. ‘Don’t I,Sergeant?’
