The Tinder Box (12 page)

'f

'Not yet,' murmured the inspector dryly, 'but he f i

will. He's a man without scruples. He recognized a j

fellow traveller in Rosheen, seduced her with promises 1

of marriage, then persuaded her to kill his grand "<

mother and her nurse so that he could inherit. Rosheen

didn't need an alibi - she was never even

questioned about where she was that night because

you all assumed she was with Kevin.' I

*i

'On the principle that shagging Kevin was the only |

thing that interested her,' agreed Siobhan. 'She was clever, you know. No one suspected for a minute that r

she was having an affair with Jeremy. Cynthia Haver

si ey thought she was a common little tart. Ian thought j!

Kevin was taking advantage of her. / thought she was

having a good time.'

'She was. She had her future mapped out as Lady

of the Manor once Patrick was convicted and Jardine

inherited the damn place. Apparently, her one ambition

in life was to lord it over Liam and Bridey. If you're

interested, Mrs Haversley is surprisingly sympathetic

towards her.' He lifted a cynical eyebrow. 'She says

she recognizes how easy it must have been for a

degenerate like Jardine to manipulate an unsophisticated

country girl when he had no trouble persuading sophisticated - ' he drew quote marks in the air - 'types

like her and Mr Haversley to believe whatever he told

them.'

Siobhan smiled. 'I'm growing quite fond of her in

a funny sort of way. It's like fighting your way through

a blackened baked potato. The outside's revolting but

110

the inside's delicious and rather soft.' Her eyes strayed

towards the window, searching for some distant

horizon. 'The odd thing is, Nora Bentley told me

on Monday that it was a pity I'd never seen the kind

side of Cynthia . . . and I had the bloody nerve to say

I didn't want to. God, how I wish--' She broke off

abruptly, unwilling to reveal too much of the anguish

that still churned inside her. 'Why did Liam and

Bridey take Kevin with them?' she asked next.

'According to him, they all panicked. He was scared

he'd get the blame for burning the house down with

Rosheen in it if he stayed behind, and they \\zrz scared

the police would think they'd done it on purpose to

prejudice Patrick's trial. He claims he left them when

they got to Liverpool because he has a friend up there

he hadn't seen for ages.'

'And according to you?'

'We don't think he had any choice. We think Liam

dragged him by the noose round his neck and only

released him when they were sure he'd stick by the

story they'd concocted.'

'Why were Liam and Bridey going to Ireland?'

'According to them, or according to us?'

'According to them.'

'Because they were frightened . . . because they

knew it would take time for the truth to come out. . .

because they had nowhere else to go ... because

everything they owned had been destroyed . . .

because Ireland was home . . .'

'And according to you?'

Ill

'They guessed Kevin would start to talk as soon as

he got over his fright, so they decided to run.'

She gave a low laugh. 'You can't have it both ways,

Inspector. If they released him because they were

sure he'd stick by the story, then they didn't need to

run. And if they knew they could never be sure of him

- as they most certainly should have done if they'd

performed a ritual murder - he would have died with

Rosheen.'

'Then what are they trying to hide?'

She was amazed he couldn't see it. 'Probably

nothing,' she hedged. 'You're just in the habit of

never believing anything they say.'

He gave a stubborn shake of his head. 'No, there is something. I've known them too long not to know

when they're lying.'

He would go on until he found out, she thought.

He was that kind of man. And when he did, his

suspicion about Rosheen's death would immediately

raise its ugly head again. Unless . . . 'The trouble

with the O'Riordans,' she said, 'is that they can never

see the wood for the trees. Patrick's just spent nine

months on remand because he was more afraid of

being charged with what he had done . . . theft . . .

than what he hadn't done . . . murder. I suspect Liam

and Bridey are doing the same - desperately trying to

hide the crime they have committed, without realizing

they're digging an even bigger hole for themselves

for the one they haven't.'

'Go on.'

112

Siobhan's eyes twinkled as mischievously as Bridey's

had done. 'Off the record?' she asked him. 'I

won't say another word otherwise.'

'Can they be charged with it?'

'Oh, yes, but I doubt it'll trouble your conscience

much if you don't report it.'

He was too curious not to give her the go-ahead.

'Off the record,' he agreed.

'All right, I think it goes something like this. Liam

and Bridey have been living off the English taxpayer

for fifteen years. They got disability benefit for his

paralysed arm, disability benefit for her broken pelvis,

and Patrick gets a care allowance for looking after

both of them. They get mobility allowances, heating

allowances and anything else you can think of.' She

tipped her forefinger at him. 'But Kevin's built like a

gorilla and prides himself on his physique, and Rosheen

was as tall as I am. So how did a couple of elderly

cripples manage to overpower both of them?'

'You tell me.'

'At a guess, Liam wielded his useless arm to hold

them in a bear hug while Bridey leapt up out of her

chair to tie them up. Bridey would call it a miracle

cure. Social services would call it deliberate fraud. It

depends how easily you think English doctors can be

fooled by professional malingerers.'

He was visibly shocked. 'Are you saying Patrick

never disabled either of them?'

Her rich laughter peeled round the room. 'He

must have done at the time. You can't fake a shattered

113

wrist and a broken pelvis, but I'm guessing Liam and

Bridey probably prolonged their own agony in order

to milk sympathy and money out of the system.' She canted her head to one side. 'Don't you find it

interesting that they decided to move away from the

doctors who'd been treating them in London to hide

themselves in the wilds of Hampshire where the only

person competent to sign their benefit forms is - er medically

speaking - well, past his sell-by date? You've

met Sam Bentley. Do you seriously think it would

ever occur to him to question whether two people

who'd been registered disabled by a leading London

hospital were ripping off the English taxpayer?'

'Jesus!' He shook his head. 'But why did they need

to burn the house down? What would we have found

that was so incriminating? Apart from Rosheen's body,

of course.'

'Sets of fingerprints from Liam's right hand all over

the door knobs?' Siobhan suggested. 'The marks of

Bridey's shoes on the kitchen floor? However Rosheen

died - whether in self-defence or not - they couldn't

afford to report it because you'd have sealed off

Kilkenny Cottage immediately while you tried to work

out what happened.'

The inspector looked interested. 'And it wouldn't

have taken us long to realize that neither of them is as

disabled as they claim to be.'

'No.'

'And we'd have arrested them immediately on

suspicion of murder.'

114

She nodded. 'Just as you did Patrick.'

He acknowledged the point with a grudging smile.

'Do you know all this for a fact, Mrs Lavenham?'

'No,' she replied. 'Just guessing. And I'm certainly

not going to repeat it in court. It's irrelevant anyway.

The evidence went up in flames.'

'Not if I get a doctor to certify they're as agile as

lam.'

'That doesn't prove they were agile before the

fire,' she pointed out. 'Bridey will find a specialist to

quote psychosomatic paralysis at you, and Sam Bent

ley's never going to admit to being fooled by a couple

of malingerers.' She chuckled. 'Neither will Cynthia

Haversley, if it comes to that. She's been watching

them out of her window for years, and she's never

suspected a thing. In any case, Bridey's a great believer

in miracles, and she's already told you it was God who

rescued them from the inferno.'

'She must think I'm an absolute idiot.'

'Not you personally. Just your ... er ... kind.'

He frowned ominously. 'What's that supposed to

mean?'

Siobhan studied him with amusement. 'The Irish

have been getting the better of the English for

centuries, Inspector.' She watched his eyes narrow

in instinctive denial. 'And if the English weren't so

blinded by their own self-importance,' she finished

mischievously, 'they might have noticed.'