Free The Ten Commandments by Anthea Fraser Page A

close. He didn't see them out of office hours.'
    'Who did he know socially, then?'
    Well, there's Bill Price, I suppose, but really Simon was a home bird. He met so many people during working hours, often in very distressing circumstances, that when he came home; he just wanted to relax with me and the children.'
    Price's name and phone number were noted. It didn't seem much to go on.
    'Can you remember anyone else he might have mentioned?' Webb persisted. 'Someone who'd been in some sort of trouble, perhaps?'
    She smiled sadly. 'Most of his clients were in trouble, Mr Webb. That's why they went to him, but he never talked to me about them.'
    'What about the man he was meeting on Monday?'
    'Jim Fairlie.' She said the name thoughtfully.
    'He did mention him, then?'
    'Yes; when he came in, he asked me if I remembered him speaking of anyone by that name.'
    'And did you?'
    'No. He told me this man had rung him and said they'd met on some course, but he didn't remember, and various other names the man reeled off didn't ring a bell, either. But Simon was always bad on names – we used to tease him about it.' Her eyes filled with tears.
    It tied in with what Steve Parker had told them. Webb had hoped Judd might have said more to his wife, but it seemed not.
    'But you gathered it was a professional rather than a social call?'
    'I suppose so, since he had a problem to discuss.'
    Webb thought for a moment. He'd more or less dismissed the claimed acquaintanceship as a ploy to coerce Judd into a meeting – but suppose it was true? Could Judd have injured someone seriously enough to warrant his own death, when he couldn't even remember meeting the man?
    'Did he get any personal calls at work?'
    'You'd have to ask the Department. I only phoned there if it was urgent.'
    'And you can't remember having heard of Jim Fairlie before? Not just recently, but in the past?'
    'No – and I've a good memory, Simon used to rely on me. But it wouldn't have been his real name, would it? You'd hardly give that over the phone, when you were planning to – to –' She came to a halt, and after a moment added unsteadily, 'If he had done, I might have recognized it.'
    'Thank you, Mrs Judd,' Webb said gently. 'Now, if you don't mind we'd like to take a look at your husband's papers – letters, insurance policies, his will, anything personal he kept at home.'
    'I doubt if it'll help.' Ella Judd went over to the desk against the wall. 'Simon went through his papers regularly, throwing away everything that had been dealt with. He never kept letters once they'd been answered.'
    Webb could have wished he'd been less methodical.
    She watched while they systematically worked through the folders. As she'd intimated, the paperwork was minimal and everything neatly in place. As with Judd's office files, there was nothing at all to give them a lead to his death.
    Resignedly, Jackson stacked the papers and replaced them in the various drawers. Another necessary task completed, Webb reflected as he watched him, and, like many another, it had got them precisely nowhere.
    It was the normal practice for the family to gather for lunch at Brighton Villa on the first Sunday of the month. However, since she and Frederick had been away at the beginning of July, Edwina had decided this month to bring the arrangement forward a week. It seemed a long time since they'd all been together and she was looking forward to seeing them, albeit with underlying anxiety. Alex had been singularly uncommunicative when she and the boys came for tea; by actually seeing her with Roy and watching the interaction between them, it should be easier to gauge how things were.
    Not, she told herself hotly, as this thought occurred to her, that she was spying on them; she merely wanted to satisfy herself that things had not deteriorated during her absence.
    She came out of the kitchen and paused in the hallway, enjoying the sunlight which streamed through the pane in the front door and