‘You're saying that your mother was actually having an affair with her gardener?'

‘Sounds very D. H. Lawrence put like that' doesn't it?'

‘Does it?'

‘But Lee Sherratt is just a youth from the village who saw the chance of getting his end away with an older woman. He isn't exactly a Mellors.’

Tailby wasn't sure what he was talking about. 'Your father believes Sherratt may have killed your sister.’

‘If he did,' said Daniel. 'If he did kill her — it was my father's fault.'

‘Ah. How do you make that out?’

°He let it go on'' he said. 'Until it had gone too far. He enjoyed it.'

‘What?'

‘Oh yes.’

Daniel pulled at his T-shirt' which was sticking to his sides where the sweat was beginning to dry. He fidgeted in his chair' his jeans squeaking on the leather. He looked from Tailby to Cooper' the expression in his eyes shifting and changing. When he spoke again' his voice had altered. It was quiet' less aggressive' with an adolescent edge to it that spoke of an inner pain he could no longer conceal.

‘One day'' he said’

‘I came across my father in his room. I wanted to speak to him about something I needed for university' just before I went away. I knocked on the door' but he must not have heard me. It turned out he was otherwise engaged.’

Daniel gave him a small' ironic smile. Tailby didn't react. His face was expressionless, but for one eyebrow lifted slightly — indicating a mild interest only. It spurred Daniel on more than a probing question would have 'done.

‘He was standing at- the windows. He was using binoculars' looking at something in the garden. At first I thought he was watching birds. I was surprised' I didn't know he had taken up a hobby. He was never a man for hobbies' except golf — and even that is a business tool.'

‘Go on.'

‘I was about to ask him what species he had seen. There have been woodpeckers in the garden sometimes.

Then he heard me come in, and when he turned towards me I saw him. I mean ... I saw his face. He was startled' and angry at being interrupted. But most of all, he looked guilty. He asked me what I wanted. I wanted to know what he was looking at, but he wouldn't say. He started to bluster about trying out the binoculars before he loaned them to a friend. But as I stood there' looking out of the window' I saw my mother.’

The young man was silent for several seconds' until Tailby thought he had finished. The DCI began to frown, frustrated at the seeming pointlessness of the story. But Daniel had more to tell.

‘She was with Lee Sherratt. In the summerhouse down there. He was naked from the waist up' as he often was, and he was grinning. My mother had been wearing a red silk shirt' with the ends tied at the front in a sort of loose bow. When I saw her' she was just putting it back on. It was the first time I had seen my mother's breasts.’

The silence grew in the interview room. Somewhere in the station someone started whistling. A telephone rang half a dozen times before it was answered. Tailby dared not move in his seat for fear of breaking the moment.

‘But that wasn't the worst'' said Daniel. 'The most sickening thing of all was my father. When I came into the room and he turned away from the window, I noticed two things straightaway. The first was the binoculars round his neck. The second was his erection.’

The young man was staring at the desk' as if interested in the ballpoint pens and a scatter of paperclips. Tailby remembered Graham Vernon's desk in his study. There had been a framed print propped against a table lamp’

a photograph of a wedding couple' taken in the 1970s by the look of the bridegroom's hairstyle and the lapels of his suit. Graham Vernon was recognizable by his salesman's smile' and the sincerity of his direct gaze at the camera. But allowing for the changes in fashion' in his youth Graham Vernon had looked very much like this young man in front of them now.

‘It was sticking out at the front of his trousers like a monstrous growth'' said Daniel. 'It was unreal. At first I couldn't figure out what it was' you know. I thought he had something in his pocket. But he never carries anything in his pockets because it spoils the cut of his suit. Then I realized. The fact is' it turned him on to watch my mother having sex with the gardener. That's my father' Chief Inspector.' His voice cracked. 'That's the bastard I call my father.’

Tailby nodded slowly. He had spent too long in the police service to be shocked by other people's sexual activities. They were merely facts to be noted now, data to be filed away as possible motives' to be assessed for their relevance to other details in the mass of information that was pouring into the incident room. The life and background of Laura Vernon were being pieced together' bit by bit' like a badly designed jigsaw. Everything that cast light on her circumstances was important. But how much could be trusted of what was said by an angry' bitter young man who hated his father and had just had his sister murdered?

18

The blue police tape still fluttered from the trees. A PC still stood guard further up the path. But the Scenes of Crime officers and forensic scientists had gone. They had other things to do now — the scene of a suspected arson to attend in Matlock' a serious assault case at Glossop' a linked series of aggravated burglaries in Edendale.

‘It's too hot. It affects my brain. I can't think straight out here.’

Ben Cooper found himself back on the baking hillside again, standing with DCI Tailby at the murder scene.

‘So what was the weapon?' asked Tailby. 'A bough of a tree' a lump of wood? But there are no traces of bark in the head wounds' and Mrs Van Doon says there would be. Besides, the injuries were made by something hard and smooth' not rough. So. A stone? Quite possibly. But no sign of it. You wouldn't take a thing like that away with you' would you' Cooper?’

Cooper was not too surprised to be asked his opinion by the DCI. He had worked under him before and had seen the contrast between the ease with which Tailby talked to individual officers' even a humble DC' and the awful stilted pomposity which seemed to overwhelm him when he had to deal with members of the public. The standard police jargon flowed unthinkingly from his lips when he had to address someone who was neither suspect nor fellow detective. There was no room in his vocabulary for normal conversation with ordinary' innocent citizens. It was as if they had to be held at arm's-length' kept behind a barrier of meaningless formality.

Despite his experience in criminal investigations, Tailby's career was seriously handicapped by his lack of public relations ability. In time' he would probably be shunted to an administrative post' where he could compile reports and write memos in as pompous a style as he liked. Cooper thought it would be a loss. But everyone had their fatal flaws — sometimes they were just less obvious.

‘If it was a rock' and you had your wits about you' sir' all you'd have to do would be to toss it into the stream.’

They walked a few yards to look down into the gulley where the Eden Valley Trail footpath ran. The bed of the shallow stream was littered with handy-sized stones. There were hundreds of them. Thousands of them. And all of them constantly being washed clean in front of their eyes by the cool' rushing water.

‘Let's see if the Vernons are in'' said Tailby wearily.

*

Graham Vernon looked flushed' and his face was puffy, even before he started to get angry. Looking at the drinks cabinet, Cooper guessed that the man had been turning to the alcohol too much to help him cope with the situation.

‘I can't imagine why you're giving any credibility to this lurid picture of my daughter' Chief Inspector. You can't seriously be taking notice of what the boy Lee Sherratt has been telling you?’