Free The Price Of Darkness by Graham Hurley Page B

pulled a face, leaving the sentence unfinished.
    ‘What about business pressures? Can you think of anything recently? Anything that might have upset him?’
    ‘No.’ She shook her head, emphatic. ‘As I told you, Jonathan kept his business affairs to himself. But why would anyone want to kill him? Especially like that?’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘Like … so professionally? So coldly ? It makes me shudder even thinking about it. Someone like Jonathan, he’s canny, he’s clever, he just doesn’t get into situations like that. He knows the boundaries, he knows how far to push. He might take the odd liberty - we all do - but there are limits and he’d be the first to respect them.’
    ‘The odd liberty?’
    ‘Yes.’ She frowned, and Suttle became suddenly aware of the shapeliness of her hands, cradling the swell of her belly. ‘He takes a risk or two sometimes. But that’s fine. That’s what makes him fun.’
    Suttle was wondering about her use of the present tense. Mallinder was clearly going to leave a very large hole in her life.
    ‘Was the call you mentioned the last time you heard from him?’
    ‘Yes. Sometimes he’d phone in the evening to talk to the kids, but on Monday he didn’t.’
    ‘No late-night call?’
    ‘No. But then I didn’t expect it. I go to bed early. He knew that.’
    ‘And no indication that something might have upset him? No calls to the house you might have been aware of? E-mails? Anything like that?’
    ‘Nothing. I don’t make a habit of looking at his e-mails but if there was anything wrong, really wrong, I’d be able to tell, believe me. No, Jonathan had the lowest blood pressure of any man I’ve ever known. Nothing got to him.’ For the first time she smiled. ‘We’re moving next week, can you believe that? Much bigger place over in Wentworth. Me? I’ve been tearing my hair out for weeks. Jonathan? He just gets on with it. Take this last weekend. Boxes to pack? Arrangements to make? Little details you can’t afford to forget? It’s just never a problem. He copes. He keeps a little mental list. And come six o’clock, with the kids still rushing round, you know what? It’s all sorted. Amazing. I kept meaning to ask him. What’s the secret? Just how do you always manage to stay so calm? So cheerful?’ She sniffed, then turned her head away. Suttle found a box of tissues on the carpet beside the sofa. She dabbed at her eyes then blew her nose. ‘Shit,’ she said quietly. ‘I swore I’d never do this.’
    ‘It’s completely understandable.’
    ‘Yeah?’ She looked at him. ‘You’d know, would you?’
    The interview came to an end shortly afterwards. Suttle gave her a phone number and told her to call if she thought of anything else he ought to know. She nodded, getting heavily to her feet. Benskin was going to drop by the hotel at some point and take her back to London. If she never saw Portsmouth again, she said, she wouldn’t be the least bit sorry.
    Out in the corridor Suttle asked if there was anything else she needed.
    ‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘The keys to my husband’s car.’
    Suttle remembered a line from the preliminary SOC report. No one had been able to get inside the Mercedes parked in the drive.
    ‘You don’t have a spare set?’
    ‘No. I phoned the garage in the end. They’re dropping some off. Tomorrow.’
    ‘So what will you do?’
    ‘Do?’ She looked vacant for a moment then stepped back into the room. ‘Christ knows.’
     
    Faraday took the call on his mobile as he stepped into Barrie’s office. He hesitated a moment, backed into the corridor, then returned seconds later. Barrie turned from his PC. Faraday rarely grinned.
    ‘Good news?’
    ‘Very.’
    ‘ Billhook ?’
    ‘My son. He’s just stepped off the plane at Heathrow. ’
    Barrie took a moment to absorb this news. ‘But I thought he was deaf?’ he said at last. ‘I thought he couldn’t talk?’
    ‘He can’t. That was a friend of mine on the phone. She’s up there to