Ash & Bone

'You've not seen him again?'

'No.'

'Which day did you fly back, Je

'The Tuesday. Tuesday morning. The twenty-fifth.'

'All right. Thanks.' Karen doing her best to keep any excitement from her voice.

'Steve,' Je

'Not necessarily.' Karen opened the office door. 'Thanks for your time.'

Out on the street, the rain had just ceased, leaving the paving stones slippery and dark.

'Didn't waste any time, did he?' Karen said. 'Flies back on the twenty-fifth and a day later Maddy Birch is dead.'

'We still don't have proof.'

'We've got enough to bring him in for questioning.'

Elder nodded.

With a broad smile, Karen hit Ramsden's number on her phone. 'Okay, Mike. Bring him in.'

Ke

Situations like that, people panicked, even i

'Steve,' Ramsden called up, keeping it friendly. 'A word, eh?'

Ke

'DS Ramsden. This is DC Furness.'

'Yes, I remember.'

'Not altogether defective then.'

'What?'

'Your memory.'

'Sorry, you'll have to explain.'

'At the station.'

'What? Oh, come on.'

'No, you come on.'

Ke

Ramsden lighting a cigarette and pacing easily up and down, wanting to believe they had him, but not letting himself, not quite, preferring to believe in what they said about when the fat lady sings.

They kept him waiting the best part of an hour, trying his patience, the young uniformed constable as inscrutable as one of the Guardsmen on sentry duty on Horse Guards Parade. When Karen Shields entered, Ramsden and Elder close behind her, the PC stepped outside.

'You know you can have a solicitor present if you wish?' Karen said, sitting down.

Ke

'And you realise you can leave at any time?'

Ke

'You don't mind if I tape this interview?'

'Be my guest.' Leaning back now, enjoying it.

We'll see, Karen thought. 'I'd like to ask you some questions,' she said, 'about your recent holiday in Spain.'

'Great food, lovely weather, iffy hotel.'

'You stated previously that you and Ms McLaughlin returned to this country on Friday the twenty-eighth.'

'That's right.'

'According to Ms McLaughlin, you came back early on the twenty-fifth.'

Ke

'Mr Ke

'Sorry, what?'

'That you flew back to this country on the twenty-fifth?'

A slight movement of the shoulders. 'If she says so.'

'What do you say?'

'All right, yes. Yes, the twenty-fifth.'

'Then why, when you were asked before, did you claim it was the twenty-eighth?'

Ke

Karen leaned, almost imperceptibly, towards him. 'Tell me.'

'It's obvious, isn't it? She was killed on the Wednesday, wasn't she? Maddy. And you were going to be going round, all the blokes she'd been out with. Friends. Anyone who knew her. Asking questions, poking into their lives. Easier to stay out of it, right? No harm done either way.'

'Unless you've got something to hide.'

'Who hasn't?'

'Where were you on the evening of Wednesday, twenty-sixth?'

'See. There you go, right there.'

'Where were you?'

'Went to see this film. The Medallion. Jackie Chan. Holloway Odeon. Absolute bloody rubbish. Don't often go and see stuff like that, but sometimes that's what you want, right? Rubbish. Give your brain a rest. But can I prove it? No. Who keeps cinema tickets? No one. Afterwards I went to the pub up the road, set back, past the traffic lights towards the Archway. I don't even know what it's called. Had a couple of pints, went home.'

'And then what?'

'Then nothing. Up at six thirty next morning. Off to work, same as usual.'

'You didn't go out again?'

'No.'

'You're sure?'

'Course I'm sure.'

'Like you were sure you flew back to England on the twenty-eighth?'

'I've explained that.'

'This pub you say you were in, did you talk to anyone?'

Bloke behind the bar.'

'Think he'd remember you?'

'I doubt it.'

'No witnesses to support what you say you did or where you were.'

'That's right.'

'As an alibi, it doesn't begin to stand up, does it?'

Ke

'So what do you think?' Karen asked.

They were in her office, herself, Elder and Ramsden. Late afternoon, early evening. Furness was babysitting Ke

'I'd like to smack him in the face,' Ramsden said.

'Frank?'

'Would he be that sure of himself if he were guilty? I don't know.'

'You don't think he's covering up something?'

'Probably.'

'Well?'

'I don't know if it's what we want it to be.'

'Half an hour alone with him,' Ramsden said, 'I'd bloody find out.'

Karen laughed despite herself. 'Mike, you're such a sweet old-fashioned thing.'

'Bollocks,' Ramsden said. Adding a mock-deferential, 'Ma'am.'

'Well, I'd like to have another go at him, ask him about his relationship with Maddy. See if there isn't something we can shake him on there.'

Elder was just about to say something when his mobile started to ring. Turning away, he listened briefly. 'Five minutes. I'll call you back.'

'I'm sorry,' he said to Karen, 'something I have to deal with. You carry on.'

As he turned away, she wondered what could have brought the concern so clearly to his eyes.