And None Shall Sleep (17 page)

‘The Carters sent abusive letters to Selkirk until they were reprimanded by the police. Wilde claims that Selkirk asked him to warn the Carters off again after receiving an anonymous letter on the morning he died. Superficially, it looks like another one from the Carter family. We've sent it to forensics for analysis. They should have had time to do the comparison later today.'

She looked around the room. ‘Wherever your sympathies lie,' she said, ‘and we all feel appalled at the death of little Rowena Carter, this man was brutally murdered, and the law is the law.'

As the officers filed out she spoke to Mike. ‘There are two things worrying me as far as the Carter family are concerned, Mike. One, how did they know Selkirk had been forced to kneel? It wasn't in any of the papers.'

‘And?'

Her face was troubled now. ‘Remember the wall of their sitting room? All those photographs?'

Mike nodded.

‘One was missing. I just wonder if it was used to remind someone of the Rowena Carter case.'

Grateful to have her office back, Joanna and Mike were sitting eating sandwiches for a very late lunch and washing them down with the fifth coffee of the day when Joanna's telephone rang. It was the duty sergeant.

‘You've got a visitor, ma'am.'

She spoke with her mouth full. ‘Are you going to tell me who it is or is this a game of twenty questions?'

‘He's given his name as Pritchard.'

They heard the sergeant speak to someone in the background ... ‘Got a first name, sir?'

‘Don't worry, I know it,' Joanna said drily. ‘Send him in.' They heard the footsteps tap smartly along the corridor before there was a rap on the door and Mike pulled it open.

‘Mr Pritchard,' he said in a genial voice. ‘How very nice of you to call in and offer to help with the case.'

To give ‘Grandpa Tony' his due, he wasn't taken in by Mike's friendliness but glanced nervously around the room. ‘Sergeant,' he said formally, ‘Inspector.'

‘Please.' Joanna said, ‘do sit down!

Mike took up his customary position – arms folded, legs apart, leaning against the door.

Pritchard flopped down into the seat.

‘What can we do for you, Mr Pritchard?'

‘Look,' he said awkwardly. ‘I thought I'd better come in. Explain a few things.'

Joanna raised her eyebrows.

‘Sheila doesn't know I'm here.'

Joanna waited. ‘I thought you should know a bit more about Jonathan Selkirk. It might help you to understand why he was murdered in the first place, and why his family are not exactly heartbroken.' His eyes were trained on Joanna's face. ‘But it doesn't mean they had anything to do with it. They didn't wish him dead.'

‘No?'

Pritchard's mouth was working furiously. ‘Look – I know I was his friend ...' He was having a hard time hunting for the right words. ‘But he wasn't quite what he seemed.'

Who is? Joanna thought.

‘He was very good at appearing the genial country solicitor.' Pritchard coloured then, and looked ashamed. ‘His family knew him better – unfortunately.'

The two police officers exchanged glances. Was Pritchard such a fool that he couldn't see what he was doing? Or was this a clumsy attempt at playing a double game? Joanna scrutinized his face. Just what was he up to?

‘Really? Well, Mr Pritchard,' she said blandly, ‘how very helpful of you.' She rested her plaster cast on the desk where it looked even more cumbersome and felt more heavy than on her lap. ‘It's always helpful to know a bit more about the victim when you're investigating a murder.'

‘Yeah, nice of you to come in and talk to us,' Mike echoed.

Pritchard could not help but hear the sarcasm in Mike's voice. He swivelled round, met Mike's hostile gaze and quickly turned back to face Joanna.

‘Do go on, Mr Pritchard.' She was finding it difficult to pronounce a judgement. Sheila Selkirk had carefully portrayed him as a friend of her and her husband both. Yet obviously this was far from the truth. So had this handsome, distinguished, rather elegant man merely waited in the wings? Possibly. Sheila Selkirk was a handsome woman. Correction – a handsome widow, handsome and now wealthy too. Pritchard was a widower. They would make a good-looking couple.

So why drop her in it? She waited for Pritchard to enlarge on his story. He cleared his throat. ‘You don't know what sort of life Sheila had with him,' he began. ‘He was an absolute tyrant. He liked control. And he drank, you know. She met him when they were both students.'

Joanna nodded. ‘She had a better degree than he did but he was jealous of her. He couldn't cope with having such a beautiful, intelligent wife.'

Pritchard leaned forward to confide. ‘He never allowed her to practise law. It was a condition of their marriage. Systematically – all their life together – he eroded her self- confidence by criticism.' He drew in a deep breath. ‘And he was mean. Do you know, Inspector, when she went to the supermarket he'd check all the way down the list for unnecessary items. She would have to justify each one and if she couldn't he reduced the amount of housekeeping the following week.'

Joanna kept silent ‘And as for the way he treated Justin ... it defied belief that any man could be so cruel to his own flesh and blood. My dear wife and I never had children of our own so I was very fond of Justin. He became like a son to us. Poor old thing, he had a terrible time at school.'

Joanna regarded Pritchard steadily. ‘They must have been delighted when he was shot,' she said conversationally.

Tony Pritchard flushed again. ‘I ...'

Joanna's gaze was steely. ‘There is such a thing as divorce, you know, Mr Pritchard. Why didn't she simply divorce him?' And then she knew Pritchard was lying.

‘She didn't believe in divorce,' he said haughtily. ‘It wasn't an option Sheila was prepared to consider.'

‘Was she prepared to consider a contract killing, Mr Pritchard?'

‘Grandpa Tony' looked furious. ‘You have absolutely no right. .

Mike moved in for the kill. ‘Someone paid to have Jonathan Selkirk murdered,' he said venomously. ‘So far everything you've said here gives us more reason rather than less to believe it was his wife – or his son.'

Pritchard looked startled. ‘I didn't come here to ...'

Joanna studied the thin, handsome face with its hook nose. There was a superficial impression of strength, but Tony Pritchard had a weak chin and a narrow, mean-looking mouth with a twist of cruelty It crossed her mind that Sheila Selkirk showed poor judgement when it came to men.

She leaned right across the desk so that her face was inches away from his. ‘Selkirk was a wealthy man, wasn't he? Perhaps that was why she wasn't willing to consider divorce. After all, Mr Pritchard, a whole cake is twice as good as half a cake, isn't it?'

‘That had nothing to do with it.' Pritchard was full of righteous indignation. ‘He took up with a mistress...'

Joanna gave Mike a swift glance. This was not only news. It was at variance to Sheila Selkirk's comments on her husband's sexual prowess.

‘Who was this mistress?' Her voice was casual but her fingers gripped the side of the desk.

‘I'm not prepared to say.'

‘May I remind you, Mr Pritchard, that this is a murder investigation.'

Mike chipped in, saying coolly, ‘It wouldn't happen to be the glamorous Miss Wilde, would it?'

Pritchard's shoulders twitched.

‘Well, whoever it was, it turned out to be the last straw, didn't it, Mr Pritchard?' Mike had moved away from the door and was giving Pritchard one of his heavy looks. ‘He was a solicitor, and a clever one at that. He could have filched some money where it couldn't be traced and his wife would have been left with a lot less as a divorcee than as a merry widow. So her husband's death would have been worth a little – investment!

‘Now look here ...' Tony Pritchard began to bluster. ‘I came here this afternoon of my own volition, under my own steam. No one forced me to come.'

Joanna lifted her plaster cast one inch from the desk. Her shoulder was aching. ‘And that's what puzzles us, Mr Pritchard. Why did you come?'

As she had expected, he had no answer ready.

‘Now what was the point of all that?' Joanna asked as they watched him go.

‘I don't know what the point was,' Mike said grimly, ‘but it's had the effect of moving the suspicion straight to Selkirk's widow and son.'

‘You can't really believe Selkirk and Samantha Wilde were having an affair?'

Mike's frown was still directed at the door. ‘That was what he implied.'

‘Why? What was in it for her? It wasn't sex, was it?' Mike shook his head.

‘So it has to have been money.' Joanna stared around her. ‘But I can't see it somehow, can you? I mean, she's quite a ...'

‘Dollybird, while Jonathan Selkirk was ...'

‘An unattractive specimen. But then we've only Pritchard's word for it that they
were
having an affair.'

Mike nodded.

Clumsily she draped her jacket round her shoulders. ‘Come on,' she said, ‘we'd better follow up Pugh's offering and visit the hospital.'

An ambulance was swinging out of the drive as they drove ' in. Through the black glass they could just make out a row of people squashed together. Joanna watched them with a sense of unease.

Mike noticed. ‘What's wrong?'

‘I don't remember going in an ambulance,' she said. ‘I can remember being on the side of the road and various other things. But I don't remember going in the ambulance.'

‘It'll come back.' He pulled the car into a vacant slot and they approached the automatic doors.

The ward sister didn't look in the least bit pleased to see them. ‘I'd really like this matter buried as soon as possible. It's bad publicity, and worrying for patients, relatives and staff.' She gave Joanna a hard stare. ‘And when, Inspector, are we likely to get our fire door back?'

‘I think it's best you get a new fire door fitted' Joanna said. ‘It's possible we might need to produce it in court as evidence. You can send the bill to the police department.'

The nursing officer's face was hostile. ‘I don't suppose I have much choice in the matter, do I? Why have you come back?'

‘We think ... we think one of the nurses might have let the gunman in.'

‘Absolutely impossible,' she said emphatically. ‘I trust my nurses absolutely. They are beyond suspicion.'

‘No one's beyond suspicion.'

‘Nurses have to be,' she said.

‘As in the Frost case?'

The nursing officer blinked. ‘That has nothing to do with Mr Selkirk's abduction,' she said. ‘It was a tragic accident – a depressed, vulnerable man who was deeply unhappy.' She stopped. ‘It's just coincidence ...'

‘That the same nurse was on duty both nights,' Joanna said. ‘Two violent deaths taking place in the same, small hospital?' She watched the nursing officer carefully. ‘Would that be usual?'

‘You know it wouldn't.' They both knew she had been neatly caught.

‘Is Yolande Prince back on duty?'

‘No, but ...' Her face froze. ‘Oh no,' she said. ‘You can't think ...' Her voice trailed away and the two police officers waited.

‘She's still off sick. I haven't spoken to her,' she said at last.

‘And the other two?'

‘Are back on days. They're on the wards now.'

‘Right, we'll talk to O'Sullivan first.'

O'Sullivan sauntered in, his blue eyes sparkling with anticipated mischief-making.

‘I thought you'd come back to me,' he said. ‘You've taken your time about it.' He sat down casually in the armchair, crossed his legs and leaned back. ‘But I suppose better late than never, eh?'

‘Tell us a little more about the night Mr Selkirk disappeared,' Joanna said. ‘Exactly what do you remember? Did you enter the room next to his? The one with the open window?'

O'Sullivan shook his head. ‘Now what would I be wantin' to go in that room for?' he queried. ‘It was empty.' He looked at them as though they were stupid. ‘There were no patients in there.'

‘And the door? Think for a moment before you answer.'

‘Shut,' O'Sullivan said after pressing his fingertips to his temples in a theatrical gesture of thought. ‘Otherwise there would have been a draught. Doors bangin'.'

She watched him carefully. ‘And what exactly did Selkirk say to you?'

O'Sullivan blinked. ‘He said that they wouldn't get him.'

‘You didn't mention this before. Who did he mean by “they”?'

The nurse thought for a moment. ‘He said the family… Said he'd disappoint them yet. That he wasn't ready for his grave.' He put his hands across the desk. ‘They all talk like that. Imagine their families are going to be havin' a fine time without them, spendin' all their hard-earned money.'

Joanna leaned forward. ‘You imagined he was referring to his wife and son?'

‘Well, who else would he be meanin'?'

Joanna gave Mike a quick glance, then turned back to the Irishman. ‘Now tell us about Frost. What exactly do you know about his death?' She met the blue eyes directly. ‘What did you actually
see,
O'Sullivan?'

‘It was in the night,' he said. ‘She'd been talkin' to him for ages before she went to give the drugs out –'

‘You mean Yolande Prince,' Joanna interrupted.

‘Yes.'

‘Then what?'

‘About an hour later I was workin', along the top end of the ward when I heard a sort of thump. I stuck my head out of the window and looked down into the car park. I could see a man lyin' there, in pyjamas. He was quite still. But she was screamin'. Like a mad thing she was, runnin' to the bathroom.'