Free Murder in the Dark - A Libby Sarjeant Murder Mystery (Libby Sarjeant Murder Mystery Series) by Lesley Cookman Page B

I’d been for the last week and asked me to sign a statement. Oh, and to inform the police of any change of address.’
    ‘And where had you been?’ asked Fran.
    ‘At home.’ He grinned suddenly, teeth startlingly white against the dark skin. ‘And I have plenty of people to vouch for me – even overnight.’
    ‘Oh, good,’ said Libby, clearing her throat.
    ‘So why do you think you might be a suspect?’ asked Fran.
    Edward shrugged again. ‘Because I’m used to it. I would have sworn that the sergeant wanted to get at me, and I’d bet anything that my face is up there on their incident room white board.’
    ‘It sounds ridiculous to me,’ said Libby, ‘but I suppose we could ask, Fran?’
    Fran, remembering that Ian had already asked if they didn’t think Edward turning up was “odd”, slowly nodded. ‘We could.’
    ‘There,’ said Libby. ‘We’ll ask Ian – carefully – and we’ll pay a visit to St Mary’s on Monday.’ She turned to Fran. ‘Shall we ask Patti if she’s got an in with the vicar?’
    ‘Who’s Patti?’ Edward looked from one to the other.
    ‘A vicar friend of ours. The thing is, most village churches round here are served by one vicar to three or four churches, so sometimes access is dificult. There are usually churchwardens one can apply to, but Patti might guarantee us entry, and a look at any documents there might be.’
    ‘Did Ramani actually say “document”?’ asked Fran. ‘Might it be something else?’
    Edward frowned. ‘Come to think of it, I’m not sure she said. She’d found something in the church, so I suppose I assumed it was a document.’
    ‘It could be something else, then,’ said Fran. ‘I think asking Patti’s a good idea, Lib.’ She turned back to Edward. ‘We’ll give her a ring and let you know what happens.’ She smiled. ‘And try not to worry.’
    ‘What do you think?’ asked Libby as soon as their guest had taken his leave.
    ‘I don’t think he’s guilty,’ said Fran. ‘Selfish, yes, but not guilty. I’d love to know exactly what Ramani told him, though.’
    ‘And I’d like to know exactly what it was Roland told Ramani,’ said Libby.
    ‘Quite. And he isn’t likely to tell us, is he?’
    ‘No, but he might tell the police. We ought to tell Ian what Edward’s told us anyway, and they may be able to persuade Roland to let Edward search the house.’
    ‘If Adelaide doesn’t,’ said Fran.
    ‘I don’t think she’s that brave yet,’ said Libby. ‘Come on, who’s calling who?’
    ‘I’ll call Ian and you call Patti. Friday afternoon – is she busy?’
    ‘Oh, I can’t remember. I’ll risk it anyway.’
    To Fran’s surprise, Ian answered his official mobile immediately and listened carefully to Fran’s story.
    ‘That’s more or less what he told us in brief. He didn’t say anything about the string of lovers, though.’
    ‘Will you ask Roland Watson if Edward can search the house? With us, preferably? We’re going to see if we can find this document Ramani told Edward about.’
    ‘I already have. I think I told you I wanted you to be there if the search went ahead, didn’t I? Well, very reluctantly, he agreed. We laid on thick that we had to find out if this story had anything to do with Ramani’s death.’
    ‘Well,’ said Fran, ‘that’s true, isn’t it?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Ian, ‘but I’m damned if I can see why.’
    ‘So do we make an appointment with him?’
    ‘I will,’ said Ian. ‘Or rather, I’ll get Robertson to liaise between you, Libby, Hall, and Watson. Anytime that isn’t convenient?’
    ‘Not Saturdays. I help in the gallery. And we were going to try and look at the church on Monday, but that isn’t certain yet.’
    ‘Right. Robertson or I will come back to you as soon as possible.’
    Libby had finished her own call to Patti and was waiting eagerly for news.
    ‘So, Ian’s setting up the search,’ Fran concluded, ‘but he didn’t say anything about Edward except