‘What for?’

‘I don’t suppose you like being reminded.’

‘Like I said, it doesn’t matter. You learn to live with it. What else can you do? There’s no point crying into your beer for the rest of your life.’

‘I guess not.’

‘And in case you’re wondering, the answer is no, I didn’t. I may have loathed and despised my wife, but I didn’t put a bullet in her head.’

In that moment, despite the scepticism she’d once had and for reasons she didn’t entirely understand, Sadie found herself believing him. There was something in his eyes, a depth of hurt that made her feel he was telling the truth. However, she was hardly in a balanced state of mind so her instincts could be way off course.

‘Let’s get back to your story,’ he said. ‘The Gissings grabbed you in Haverlea, right?’

‘Yes. When Mona didn’t turn up, I went home and there they were, waiting in a van just near the house. They brought me back to London, locked me in the cellar and…’ She made a vague fluttery gesture towards her face. ‘Well, what can I say? They wanted payback for Eddie. Kelly reckoned I was responsible and so…’

‘Jesus,’ he said. ‘We had no idea. I swear to God. We just thought they were holding you. If we’d known what they were doing, we’d never have —’

‘Hang on,’ she interrupted, astounded. ‘What the hell are you saying? You knew they had me? You knew all along?’

‘Sure. You don’t think Wayne kidnapped you just for the fun of it, do you? He wanted twenty grand for your safe return.’

‘What?’

‘Yeah, he thought that with me being your fancy man and all, I’d be more than willing to pay up.’

And now a red raw anger was rising in her. She could feel the tightness in her chest, the banging of her heart, as she glared across the table at him. ‘You knew? You bloody well knew and you didn’t even bother telling the police? You just left me to rot in that vile stinking cellar. What’s the fucking matter with you?’

Stone’s eyebrows went up again, but his voice remained calm. ‘And would that be the same Old Bill who have you firmly in the frame for Peter Royston’s murder?’

Sadie, who was on the verge of delivering the next instalment of her tirade, opened her mouth and then smartly closed it again. She paused, thought about it, swallowed hard and then said, ‘Well maybe I’d have rather faced the police than have the shit kicked out of me every day. Did you ever consider that? And if you knew where I was, why didn’t you come and get me?’

Stone leaned forward again and put his elbows on the table. ‘Look, we knew he had you, okay, but we didn’t know where. We didn’t think he’d be so bloody stupid as to keep you in his own damn cellar.’

Sadie gave a snort. ‘This is Wayne brain-dead Gissing we’re talking about.’

‘Fair point,’ he said.

‘And who’s this “we”, for God’s sake? Did Velma know about it too?’

‘No, Velma didn’t know anything. It was just me and Terry. The note, the ransom note, was delivered to the Hope. It was addressed to both of us.’

Sadie shook her head in confusion. ‘I don’t get it. Why should Terry give a toss about what happens to me?’

‘He doesn’t,’ Stone replied blithely. ‘But villains take care of their own – at least the smart ones do – and I don’t have that kind of dosh. Wayne must have figured that Terry would give me the money.’

‘And would he?’

Stone gave a low mirthless laugh. ‘What do you think? But Terry’s not a complete bastard. He was prepared to play along until we sussed out where you were.’

Sadie didn’t even want to think about how long that might have taken. ‘I could have been dead by then.’

‘Wayne was never going to kill you. You weren’t worth anything to him dead.’

Suddenly it all felt too much for Sadie. She’d been to hell and back and there was still no light at the end of the tunnel. Feeling a sudden urge to cry, she bit down on her lip and covered her face with her hands.

‘Sadie?’

‘I can’t do this any more,’ she mumbled. ‘I can’t.’

Stone was quiet for a while. The only sound in the room was the loud tick, tick, tick of the clock on the wall. ‘The way I see it, you’ve got three choices: you can just sit around feeling sorry for yourself, you can go on the run or you can front it out with the law.’

Sadie moved her hands away and stared at him. ‘You’d be feeling sorry for yourself if you’d just ruined your entire life.’

‘It’s not ruined,’ he said. ‘It’s in a bit of a mess, that’s all.’

‘A bit of a mess?’ She barked out a mirthless laugh. ‘That’s an understatement if ever I heard one. And how on earth can I go on the run? Go where? Do what? I’ve got family, a home, I’ve got —’ She’d been about to say ‘a boyfriend’ but somehow Joel seemed very distant to her now, like someone she’d known a long time ago. ‘I can’t just disappear.’

‘Which only leaves the third option.’

Sadie lifted her arms in frustration. ‘I’m wanted for murder,’ she said. ‘They’ll lock me up and throw away the key.’

‘You’re only a suspect because you disappeared straight after Royston was killed. That’s going to look suspicious to even the most pea-brained plod. What we need to do is to come up with a story that explains your absence. Why you went away, what you’ve been doing, why you didn’t come forward earlier.’

‘Why are you doing this? I don’t even understand why you’re here.’

‘Maybe I just like interfering in other people’s business. And anyway, as you pointed out to me in the Fox, if I’d never invited you to the dogs, the Gissings wouldn’t have been convinced that you’d hired someone to waste Eddie.’

‘It was hardly an invitation. If I remember rightly you —’

‘God, let’s not go there again.’

Sadie bowed her head, swirling the dregs of tea around in her mug while she tried to sort things out in her mind. Could she trust him? The question was, she realised, completely irrelevant. She had reached the end of the road. She had run out of choices. Slowly, she lifted her head to look at him again. ‘So, what are you thinking?’

59

Stone got up, paced silently around the kitchen for a few minutes and then sat down again and began to talk. ‘For starters,’ he said, ‘I think you’d better skip this whole “strangers on a train” malarkey. It’s not going to wash with the law. No, I reckon you need to stick with Mona’s own story, that you two knew each other way back and that you just bumped into each other again. Maybe she… I don’t know… maybe she developed some kind of weird obsession with you, started calling all the time, sending gifts, turning up unannounced.’

‘And then?’

‘And then she started dropping hints that she might know something about Eddie’s death.’

‘So why didn’t I go to the police?’

‘Because you didn’t believe her. Why should you? The girl’s a raging fantasist. And you were aware that she had big problems, psychological problems. You didn’t want to make things worse by involving the law.’

‘But that doesn’t explain why I said nothing to Joel.’

‘It’s not Joel you have to convince.’

Sadie gave a sigh, knowing this wasn’t entirely true.

‘If the cops ask,’ he continued, ‘just say that you didn’t think much about it, that you thought it would all blow over, that it was just in Mona’s head.’ He scratched at his chin, at the stubble that was casting a dark shadow across his jaw. ‘You have to keep things simple, straightforward. It’s the detail that trips you up.’

‘So what about the fair? I was there. People must have seen me.’

‘For sure, but that doesn’t prove anything. Tell it like it was, that you got a note from Mona, went along to the fair, but she didn’t show up so you just went home again. You weren’t especially worried because she wasn’t what you’d call the reliable sort. Anyway, next morning you decided you wanted to get away for a few days so you took a train to London and —’