Free The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards Page B

didn’t have any rich relatives who’d shuffled off this mortal coil. What did Emma tell you about this windfall?’
    ‘Only that she’d come into money unexpectedly. We were delighted for her and of course it did salve our consciences. With a child on the way, we wanted to turn Emma’s rooms on the top floor into a playroom with a store area for the baby’s things, but we dreaded having to ask her to leave. But everything worked out for the best.’
    ‘Her sister couldn’t think of anyone who might have left her a sizeable bequest.’
    ‘The two of them weren’t close, it might be somebody Karen knew nothing about.’
    Hannah sipped her coffee. An Arabic blend, too strong for her taste. ‘When she put down the deposit on her bungalow, she paid cash. Same with the Fiat she bought. A probate solicitor would pay out legatees by cheque, but her bank account didn’t reveal a significant payment in during the twelve months before she disappeared.’
    ‘Odd.’
    ‘Emma told her sister and Alex Clough that she’d won a big prize on the lottery. When we checked, that wasn’t true. Why would she lie to them, do you think? Or to the two of you?’
    He stared at her. ‘Emma had no reason to deceive us. We were glad for her. After years of not having two pence to rub together, finally she could please herself.’
    The door opened and Vanessa Goddard bustled in. Small and buxom with frizzy red shoulder-length hair, she wore a black tee shirt and denim jeans. Her plump arms were freckled, her lipstick vivid. A port-wine birthmark the shape of Africa spread across her left cheek. When they’d first met, Hannah’s eyes kept straying to it and she’d felt hot with embarrassment. But Vanessa had taken no notice; she’d had a lifetime to acclimatise to people staring on first acquaintance. She sat beside her husband on the sofa, their bodies touching. Francis’s hand strayed to her knee, her shoulder rubbed against his.
    ‘Sorry to keep you, Chief Inspector, but Christopher needed help with a Google search. Homework’s changed since the three of us were at school. Now, what can we do for you?’
    Hannah wasn’t flattered by the implication that they were much of an age. Vanessa must be fifty now, her husband a few years her junior. Perhaps having a child later in life made you feel younger. How would Marc react if she told him she was expecting a baby again? Would she see that same trapped look on his face?
    Jesus, this was no use. She needed to concentrate.
    ‘Did Emma ever talk about her time in Liverpool, mention the people she knew there?’
    ‘She flitted from job to job. Temping for accountants and lawyers, a spell working on reception at a hotel, another as a PA at the Women’s Hospital. She never found her niche, that’s why she came back to the Lakes.’
    ‘Why did she leave in the first place?’
    ‘She’d had a series of dead-end jobs since leaving school and the bright lights lured her. Liverpool was an exciting city long before they called it the Capital of Culture, and she’d always been a Beatles fan. Her parents died when she was sixteen or seventeen, and she and her sister didn’t get on too well.’
    Hannah said, ‘You said before that, according to Emma, when she came out as a lesbian, Karen gave her the cold shoulder.’
    Vanessa nodded. ‘We think of the Lakes as cosmopolitan, don’t we? Because people from so many countries comehere to work, as well as to visit. Go into a café in Bowness and you can be served your cup of tea by someone from anywhere in the world. But the fact is, some of the locals are deeply conservative. I’ve never met Karen, Chief Inspector, but Emma gave the impression she was rather narrow-minded.’
    ‘So Emma decided to get away from here?’
    ‘I suppose she wanted to find herself, if you like.’
    ‘But she didn’t find herself in Liverpool, did she? She doesn’t seem to have formed any meaningful ties there. That’s why she came back.’
    Vanessa