Free A Maze of Murders by Roderic Jeffries Page A

the larger London ateliers and it is a condition of her employment that she works for no one else. Therefore, she never gives a receipt for work done on the side, since this could incriminate her and lead to her dismissal. Further, it was she who suggested she delivered the dresses here, not London, so that she could be paid in pesetas. I imagine she is buying a property, but naturally didn’t ask. We were delighted to agree. It saved my wife making a journey to the UK.’
    â€˜What is her name and address?’
    Clough smiled. ‘Give those and she runs the risk of having her moonlighting identified by the Inland Revenue, which would be small thanks for all her care. No, Inspector, I will not give you those details. Were I to do so and as a direct consequence she was in trouble and unable to carry out further commissions for my wife, I should never be forgiven by either party.’
    Alvarez felt a certain admiration for the other. He could not have expected to be questioned; the questions could well have caused a sense of panic; yet he had thought up, on the spur of the moment, answers that were just this side of feasible and offered a valid reason for not providing corroborative evidence. It was not every man who was that quick of thought.
    â€˜Have you any more questions?’
    â€˜I don’t think so, señor.’
    â€˜Then we can relax and I’ll get you another drink.’
    Alvarez saw no reason to refuse.

CHAPTER 10
    Alvarez was awoken by Dolores’s call. He stared up at the bedroom ceiling and decided that after winning the lottery, he’d pay someone to wake him up at the end of every siesta so that he could enjoy the luxury of returning to sleep.
    â€˜Are you up, Enrique?’
    He slowly and reluctantly swivelled round, put his bare feet on the floor, and rested. Sweat trickled down his chest.
    â€˜Hurry up. Your coffee’s getting cold.’
    She was forever fussing. Perhaps somewhere in her ancestry there was a Galician influence. He stood. By ill chance he was standing at right angles to the small mirror on the chest of drawers and could see his stomach. Another few centimetres and he would be forced to accept the description, fat. He really must, he decided resolutely, go on a diet.
    Dolores should not have offered him a second slice of almond cake. After all, it would have hurt her feelings to refuse … He gathered up the few crumbs left on the plate, pressed them together between thumb and forefinger, put them in his mouth and savoured their flavour …
    â€˜You’re going to be really late,’ she said.
    He looked up at the electric clock on the wall and was surprised to note that the time was almost six. ‘Is it easy to spend a million pesetas on two frocks?’
    â€˜Madness, more like!’
    â€˜Sure. But are there people who spend that much?’
    â€˜I’ve read there are some who waste even more to look ridiculous.’
    Was Vera Clough one such person? From what he’d seen of her, he doubted that whatever the occasion she would dress ostentatiously, yet accepted that it was dangerous on so brief an acquaintance to make any judgement, let alone one that only a woman could correctly make. Nevertheless, one developed an instinct about a case and his said the story of the dresses was nonsense … Vera Clough had been shocked by the news of Lewis’s death, but not by Sheard’s – obviously, people were far more concerned over the death of someone known than someone unknown to them … Would she have accepted from her husband the need to deny any meeting with Lewis unless there was very good reason for the denial? If she accepted the need, she must have a good idea of what her husband was doing …
    â€˜Are you all right?’ Dolores asked.
    He looked up to see her standing at the head of the table and regarding him intently. ‘Why d’you ask?’
    â€˜You’re very late