‘Why should he be worried? Unless he knew he had reason to kill Adrienne. What if he didn’t tell Adrienne about his live-in girlfriend and she found out about her? Could provide a reason for violence, with his retaliating a touch too far. I always did reckon he had a nasty streak, so I wouldn’t put it past him. It wouldn’t be premeditated, granted, but I can still see him killing her accidentally. And he was out and about near the Staveley’s home at the right time. I know the Chinese takeaway confirmed that he came in for a meal that evening, It’s a shame that they can’t remember if he placed his order over the phone or came in and ordered, but, as I said, he might still have gone on to Adrienne’s place and killed her.’
‘Time’s a bit tight, even if he ordered his meal by telephone. We’ve got him on CCTV both going to the Chinese and returning. The time lapse is no more that fifteen minutes.’
‘Even so. He might just have managed to squeeze her in.’
Llewellyn looked doubtful. His next words proved he was determined to play Devil’s Advocate. ‘Anyway, why would Mrs Staveley care about the live-in girlfriend? She had a husband as well as two other men who admit to being her lovers and whom she mentioned in her diary – she could hardly object if Oldfield had another woman.’
‘You’re not taking the unreasonableness of women into account. What’s sauce for the goose isn’t necessarily sauce for the gander. No, it’s a fair assumption. Let’s go and ask Oldfield if Adrienne knew about Diana Rexton.’
Gary Oldfield was at work in the used car lot on Station Road and not very pleased to see them after they parked up outside the lot and threaded their way through the parked cars towards him.
‘What do you want now? he demanded. ‘I’ve told you all I know. What else do you expect from me?’ He scowled at Rafferty and threw a dirty look in Llewellyn’s direction.
Rafferty took no notice of the scowl or the dirty look and said sternly, ‘I expect your co-operation, Mr Oldfield. As I said to you before, this is a murder inquiry. We’ll ask as many questions as many times as necessary to get at the truth. For instance, I’m interested to learn if Adrienne Staveley knew about your girlfriend.’
‘Of course Adrienne knew. She didn’t care. She wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship. It was only ever a bit of fun.’
‘So you say. But her diary says differently. Her diary says she was pressurizing you to set up home together.’
‘Well, she wasn’t. Or not much. She knew very well that it wasn’t on. I’d told her several times.’
‘Which indicates persistence one her part.’ Rafferty smiled. ‘But I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it that she wasn’t pushing for the togetherness act in some little love nest, won’t I?’
‘So you should, ‘cos it’s true. Now, was there anything else as I’ve got work to do.’
There were no customers hovering eager to get ripped off by Oldfield, so Rafferty didn’t know what work could be so urgent. However, he said, ‘No. I think that’s it for now. Thank you for your time.’
‘Always happy to help the police.’
‘Glad to hear it. Goodbye Mr Oldfield. No doubt I’ll see you again.’
Oldfield scowled a second time at this, then he turned away and made for the Portakabin. He stood in the doorway watching them till they drove away.
‘Think he was telling the truth about Adrienne being aware of his girlfriend?’ Rafferty asked as he did up his seatbelt. ‘She makes no mention of it in her diary.’
From Devil’s Advocate, Llewellyn perversely took the opposite stance. ‘I don’t know. But he would say that, wouldn’t he? There’s no one to contradict him.’
‘Mmm. Right. Let’s go and see the Staveleys again. See if there’s any more we can get out of him and his son. I still don’t like the fact that Kyle ran away. It strikes me as suspicious. With all those simmering teenage hormones, it would be the work of seconds for him to strangle Adrienne, then after a day or two of agonizing about it, to run away in fright at what he’d done.’
‘And what about his father? Do you think he’s covering up for Kyle?’
‘I don’t know. But if John Staveley didn’t kill her himself, he must have a few suspicions about his son’s guilt, though whether the boy has confessed to his father is another matter.’
The Staveleys were both at home. John Staveley explained that Kyle had a home study period, and it seemed that since his wife’s death, Staveley himself had abandoned his pounding of the streets, which was revealing in itself of how poor their relationship had been.
Once seated in the living room, Rafferty didn’t waste any time. ‘We’ve been looking into your wife’s life, Mr Staveley,’ he said. ‘And it seems she was a woman who liked a good time.’
‘Yes. She missed the money when I was made redundant. It meant we couldn’t afford to entertain. Or not in the way that we and our friends were used to.’
Not being able to afford to entertain was one thing, but to learn your wife was a promiscuous slapper was something else. That was, if it was news to Staveley. But either way, it was news that had to be broken and Rafferty broke it. ‘Not only that – she also liked men friends and had several. In fact, we’ve discovered at least two of them were her lovers. Did you know?’
‘Lovers? Adrienne? No, of course I didn’t know. How would I?’ He paused then, as if he thought it prudent to ask, and said, who were they?’
‘That’s not important. What is important is whether one of her lovers had anything to do with her death.’
‘And do you think they might have?’
‘It’s a possibility, nothing more at this stage.’
‘She certainly had plenty of time to entertain men friends,’ Staveley said bitterly. ‘She’s not worked since we married and was on her own all day. As you know, I left the house in the morning and stayed out till evening, every day. Kyle did the same.’
What sad, separate lives this family had lived, was Rafferty’s thought. At least now, with Adrienne gone, they felt able to spend time in their own home, rather than wander the streets or make use of the local library’s facilities.
‘You didn’t know any of her men friends?’ Rafferty now asked.
‘No. We pretty much lived separate lives. Anyway, how do you know she had lovers? ‘
‘She kept a diary. A very explicit diary.’
‘I see.’ His face tightened as he took this in.’ His face looked thinner as if he had lost weight. In fact, he looked gaunt and more Draculaesque than ever. ‘So there’s no doubt about these lovers you say she had?’
‘No, sir. None at all.’
Staveley nodded at this, but said nothing more on the subject.
Rafferty reflected again on the sadness of their marriage. He hoped he and Abra never came to such a pass. Always supposing they were still together by the time the wedding came round…
‘You’re sure you didn’t suspect your wife’s extramarital liaisons?’ What was it that Llewellyn had said? That the husband was the last to know. He and Abra were already man and wife in all but the paperwork. Was he being played for a cuckold like John Staveley? Was that why Staveley had taken a mistress?
‘I didn’t know she had lovers.’ The answer was sharp. ‘I had no idea. I told you. I was hardly ever here, apart from in the evenings. And then I shut myself away in the study. Adrienne did her own thing – she always did, even when I was working, she never changed her plans to accommodate me or my son.’
‘I see. Tell me, did your son ever meet any of your wife’s men friends?’
‘I don’t know. Kyle?’ Staveley turned questioning eyes on his son.
Kyle reacted like a startled rabbit. He shot forward in his chair and blushed furiously.
‘Kyle?’ Rafferty encouraged.
After several seconds and with a clear degree of reluctance, he answered in the affirmative. ‘Yes. Once. I came home from school one day because I was ill and there was a strange man here. She didn’t introduce us. I just went up to my room and stayed there. I heard them come upstairs shortly after and go into her bedroom. They didn’t seem to care that I was in the house. I could hear them through the wall. They made no effort to keep quiet.’
John Staveley looked shattered at this revelation. It was one thing for one’s wife to have lovers, his expression seemed to say. But quite another to flaunt his humiliation and her infidelity in front of his son.
‘You didn’t think of confiding in your father?’
With a quick, faintly apologetic glance at his father, Kyle said, ‘God no. How could I? He was already stressed after being made redundant. To learn his wife was having sex with another man in his own house and in his own bed…’
Poor lad. What a discovery to have made. Adrienne Staveley must have been a shameless bitch. Rafferty was really beginning to dislike her. He wasn’t surprised that she had been murdered. Her behaviour was such as to invite violence. She must have been an extraordinarily blinkered woman not to see beyond her own immediate pleasures. John Staveley and his son had had a lot to put up with. Had it led one of them to murder?
Rafferty couldn’t altogether blame them if it had. But it was still his job to catch Adrienne’s killer, no matter how distasteful actually slapping the cuffs on might be.
They left soon after. Rafferty had intended questioning Mrs Staveley Senior again, but when they called at her house it was to discover that she wasn’t home, so they just returned to the station.
‘What a cow Adrienne was,’ said Rafferty once they were back in the office. ‘Imagine just continuing with her sex jinks with her stepson in the house. What a situation to put the poor boy in. Serve her right if he’d told his father. Fancy carrying on like that in front of an impressionable lad.’
‘Yes. It is pretty despicable,’ Llewellyn agreed. ‘She must have been a very selfish woman.’
‘You can say that again. I think I’d have been tempted to murder her myself if she’d been my wife. I wonder why Staveley didn’t divorce her.’
‘Probably couldn’t afford it. From what we’ve learned of her she was likely to sting him for every penny.’
‘Poor sod. What a situation to find yourself in. Wonder why he married her as some of her selfish traits must have been evident before they got hitched. She seems to have been keen on between the sheets sport, so I suppose it was the sex.’
‘It usually is,’ was Llewellyn’s world-weary comment.
‘Oh well. Get the interviews typed up and then we’ll get some lunch. The Black Swan suit you?’
‘Yes. Sounds good.’
The reports on the interviews with Oldfield and the Staveleys didn’t take Llewellyn long and they were soon headed out for lunch.
The Black Swan was an attractive pub on the banks of the – at the moment – not-so-Sniffy Tiffey and served excellent meals at lunchtime. Rafferty chose roast lamb with all the trimmings and Llewellyn had salmon and spinach with creamed potatoes.
The staff were efficient and their meals were quickly served. They tucked in with relish. They were quiet for some time as they enjoyed the good food, but when they had finished and were sipping their drinks, they discussed the case some more.
‘Oldfield’s become favourite with me,’ said Rafferty. ‘Even though his girlfriend provided him with an alibi, it fell at the first hurdle. Though the more I learn about Adrienne the more I have to say that John Staveley is a close second. I wish we could get some evidence either way. The case is moving way too slowly for my liking.’
‘Yes, it does seem sluggish. But I’m convinced something will happen to speed things up.’
‘Like what? Rafferty sipped his Adnam’s bitter morosely.
‘I think a witness will eventually come out of the woodwork.’
‘I wish they’d hurry up.’ As long as this metaphorical witness didn’t implicate Abra. ‘The case has had enough publicity to bring every witness out of the woodwork.’ He paused and put his beer down. ‘So who do you think is the killer?’
The habitually cautious Llewellyn wasn’t prepared to commit himself and told Rafferty that he was a ‘don’t know’.
‘Can’t you plump for someone for once?’ Rafferty asked peevishly. ‘You’re always sitting on the fence.’
‘But as you said, we’ve no firm evidence against any of the suspects, so how can I plump for a particular one? They all had the opportunity and some had a definite motive.’
‘That’s the trouble. Too many suspects and motives, yet precious few clues. Oh well…’ Rafferty drained his beer. ‘Want another mineral water?’
‘No thanks. I think we should be getting back.
‘Before the super starts looking for us, you mean?’
‘Just so.’
But fortunately, according to Bill Beard on reception, Bradley hadn’t been on the prowl and they got back to their office without meeting him. Rafferty gave a sigh of relief. Bradley was getting ever more tetchy about the investigation and its slow progress. Always keen to impress Region, the super liked his cases to progress smoothly with no hitches or delays, so the situation with this case didn’t suit him at all. Just let him find out about Abra…
Chapter Twelve
Superintendent Bradley stayed away from them for the rest of the day, much to Rafferty’s relief. He didn’t feel up to defending his corner against Bradley’s unreasonableness yet again. The man was insupportable and shouldn’t be in charge of staff. Once again, Rafferty found himself wishing that Bradley would get promotion to Region and thus out of his hair. Let him promulgate politically correct dogma for the force to adhere to; that was about his mark.
Reports continued to come in as the questioning of potential witnesses continued, but none of them told them anything new. The most prominent of the potential witnesses that had come forward had long ago been questioned and there remained only the dregs and the attention seekers to be interviewed, which tasks Rafferty mostly left to the team to undertake.
‘We’ve got to start thinking outside the box,’ Rafferty told Llewellyn as he threw the negative reports down on his desk in disgust.
Llewellyn twisted round in his chair and fixed his intelligent brown gaze on Rafferty. ‘What box would that be?’
‘The box that we’ve managed to shut ourselves up in. The box of the official investigation. We’ve been too blinkered, done too much thinking in straight lines. It might explain why we haven’t got anywhere.’