Free Gunrunner by Graham Ison

discussed it. Certainly mine would have gone to Kerry. Quite frankly I didn’t expect a woman of her age to die when she did. Well, you don’t, do you?’
    ‘I understand that Bligh and Thorpe, being directors, have a holding in the company,’ I said.
    Hammond gave a short, humourless laugh. ‘Oh, poor Mr Bligh wasn’t very happy that Kerry gained control of the company when Dick Lucas died. Dick was her first husband.’
    ‘So I understand, but why was Bligh upset?’
    ‘Kerry once told me that Bligh and Dick Lucas were instrumental in setting up the company. In fact, they were virtually equal partners, but when Lucas died and left the company to Kerry, Bligh was bloody furious, so she told me, and the thirty-five per cent holding he was given didn’t please him. He thought he should’ve been given control.’
    ‘And if he doesn’t get the company now, he’ll be even less pleased, I suppose.’
    ‘I imagine so.’
    ‘Did you and your wife get on?’ asked Dave suddenly.
    ‘What sort of question’s that?’ demanded Hammond. He glanced across the room at the replaced wedding photograph and did a double take, his expression indicating that he was puzzled by its reappearance. But human nature being what it is, he’d probably blame his cleaning lady.
    ‘A quite simple one, Mr Hammond. Did you and your wife have rows?’
    ‘The occasional tiff,’ admitted Hammond, returning his gaze to Dave once again. ‘We had disagreements from time to time, like most married couples, I suppose, but nothing serious.’
    That might’ve been true, but he probably didn’t know about the ‘occasional flings’ that Bligh had suggested she’d had. Speaking from personal experience, I knew that the husband is usually the last person to find out about a wife’s infidelity. And, to be fair, probably the other way round too.
    ‘I understand that she had to help you out financially once or twice,’ I said.
    ‘Who told you that?’ snapped Hammond. He seemed irritated at the change in questioning.
    ‘Well, did she?’
    ‘When I first set up business, yes. Things were a bit shaky to start with, what with house prices rocketing at the time and the market stalling, but I’m flourishing now.’
    That remained to be seen, even though Bligh didn’t seem to think so. But Bligh’s view might’ve been prompted by animosity. If Hammond was in financial difficulties, and Kerry had left everything to him, he had just provided us with a good motive for murdering her. But that rather depended on what was in her will and whether Hammond knew what was in it.
    That said, I was still surprised that a man who claimed to have had only the occasional slight tiff with his wife should have gone to New York without knowing what had happened to her. Unless he knew what had happened to her.
    It was five o’clock by the time that Dave and I returned to Curtis Green. Nothing had happened during my absence, but I hadn’t expected it to. I briefed Charlie Flynn, my ex-Fraud Squad sergeant, to find out just how successful Nick Hammond’s estate agency was, or wasn’t. But I told him that there was no point in starting before Monday.
    That done, I decided that there wasn’t much more that could be undertaken between now and Monday. One or two members of the team were working on various assignments that I’d given them, but I gave the others the weekend off, what little remained of it.
    It was half past six when I arrived home at my flat in Surbiton, a place I saw but briefly when I was in the middle of a murder investigation. Those rare moments of my off-duty time that I enjoyed were usually spent at Gail’s house, and I kept a change of clothing there.
    As usual, my flat was clean and tidy, and it was apparent that Mrs Gurney had been at work. Gladys Gurney is the uncomplaining middle-aged lady who ‘does for me’ two or three times a week, and she takes care of all the things that I don’t have the time to do myself. She tidies everything,