Common Murder

“No way. I’m the pussycat. Don’t think Judith has betrayed you. There will be plenty of others happy to do that over the next few days.”

Alexandra gave a shuddering sigh. “All right. Yes, I was Rupert’s mistress. I’m not in the least ashamed of that.”

“Tell me about him,” Lindsay prompted.

Alexandra looked down at her desk top and spoke softly. “He was wonderful company, very witty, very warm. He was also a very generous lover. I know you might find it hard to believe that he was a gentle man if all you’ve heard is the popular mythology. But he was very different when he was with me. I think he found it refreshing to be with a woman who understood the intricacies of the job.”

Lindsay prodded tentatively. “But still you wanted to end it. Why was that?”

Alexandra shrugged. “There seemed to be no future in it. He always made it clear that he would never leave his wife, that his domestic life was one he was not unhappy with. Well, I guess I felt that I wanted more from a long-term relationship than dinners in obscure restaurants and illicit meetings when he could fit them in. I loved him, no getting away from that, but I found I needed more from life. And just when I was at that low ebb, I fell in with someone I knew years ago, someone very different from Rupert, and I realised that with him I could have a relationship that held out a bit more hope for permanence.”

“And you told Rupert it was all over?”

Alexandra smiled wryly. “It’s easy to see you didn’t know Rupert. He had a phenomenal temper. When he raged, he did it in style. No, I didn’t tell him it was all over. What I did say was that I was going to have to start thinking about my long-term future. That one of these days I was going to want children, a full-time husband and father for them, and since Rupert wasn’t able to fit the bill, we’d better face the fact that sooner or later I was going to need more.”

“And what was his reaction to that?” Lindsay asked gently.

“He seemed really devastated. I was taken aback. I hadn’t realised how deep I went with him. He asked me-he didn’t beg or plead, he’d never forget himself that much-he asked me to reconsider my options. He said that recently everything he had put his trust in seemed to have failed him, and he didn’t want that to happen to us. He said he wanted time to reconsider his future in the light of what I’d said. That was on Saturday. Time’s the one thing he never expected not to have. You know how I found out he was dead? I read it in the papers. I’d been sitting watching television while he was being murdered.” Her voice cracked, and she turned away from them.

Lindsay found it easy to summon up the set of emotions she’d feel if she read of Cordelia’s death in her morning paper. She swallowed, then said, “I’m sorry to go on pushing you. But I need to know some more. Do you know what he meant when he said everything he’d trusted had failed him? What was he referring to?”

Alexandra blew her nose and wiped her eyes before she turned back towards them. “He said Simon had let him down. That he wasn’t the son he wanted. He sounded very bitter, but wouldn’t say what had provoked it. He seldom discussed family matters with me, though he did say a couple of weeks ago that he’d found something out about Ros that had upset him so much he was seriously considering taking his investment out of her restaurant. I asked him what it was because I’ve known Ros since we were kids, and I suspected he’d finally found out that she’s a lesbian.”

“You knew about that?”

“Of course. I was one of the first people she told. I’ve not seen much of her since then, because I felt really uncomfortable about it. But I’d never have uttered a word to Rupert about it. I knew what it would do to him. But I suspect that that was at the root of his anger against Ros.

“And he was terribly upset about the Ratepayers’ Association. He’d discovered that the treasurer was up to something fishy with the money. Instead of there being a large amount, about seven thousand in the current account, there was barely five hundred pounds. Rupert confronted the treasurer with his discovery, and he couldn’t account for the difference satisfactorily. Rupert was convinced he’d been using it to speculate in stocks and shares and line his own pockets. So he was bringing it up at the next meeting which I’m told would have been stormy, with Rupert baying for blood.”

Suddenly her words tripped a connection lurking at the back of Lindsay’s brain. The combination of a repeated phrase and a coincidence of figures clicked into place. “Carlton Stanhope,” she said.

Alexandra looked horrified. “Who told you?” she demanded. “No one knew. I made sure no one knew. I wouldn’t hurt Rupert like that. Who told you?”