Chapter 32 #2
‘She mentioned them.’ Claire pressed her lips together.
‘Had the nerve to ask me outright whether they had anything to do with me. I said certainly not. I told her they were probably from a crazed fan, but she said children’s authors didn’t usually attract those.
She thought it was personal and started asking whether I knew who’d sent them.
’ She gave an affronted huff. ‘The answer was another no, but I don’t think she believed me.
I told her I was hurt that she could imagine I’d do such a thing.
Anyway, if that poor woman was mistaken for Suzy, the killer could hardly have known her well.
Surely only a stranger would make a mistake like that. ’
Wesley glanced at Rachel. The woman had a point. ‘Has Suzy ever mentioned an academic called Aleric Donnal?’
‘The name doesn’t ring a bell.’
‘Or an artist called Jim Baker?’
Claire shook her head.
‘What about Gadson’s Zoo in East Burrington?’
‘Zoos aren’t really her thing. She always said Lawrence the Lion came from her imagination rather than reality.’
Wesley had another question to ask. ‘Do you have contact details for her surviving ex-husbands?’
‘I don’t think so. You’ve got to remember that once people had ceased to be useful to Suzy, she dropped them.
They became non-people.’ She gave a sad smile.
‘I really don’t know why she still bothers with me.
If I hadn’t married into money and if my late husband didn’t have useful contacts, I suspect she would have dropped me too.
Or maybe I’m the one person who knows her secrets.
Perhaps she wants to keep me on side, hence the invitations to lunch and her tedious book launches. ’ She rolled her eyes.
Wesley realised the woman was more astute than he’d thought at first acquaintance. It seemed she had the measure of Suzy Porter; she knew the real woman behind the mask she presented to the world.
‘One final question before we leave you in peace,’ he said. ‘Can you think of anyone who’d want to kill Suzy? Anyone she’d had a disagreement with, for instance?’
She thought for a while, a frown of concentration on her thickly made-up face.
‘All I can think of is an incident last spring. I was with her at a book launch in Morbay. There was wine and nibbles; the usual thing. I remember a woman came up to her and whispered something, and Suzy was visibly shaken, which wasn’t like her at all.
She had a word with the bookshop people and they escorted the woman away.
When I asked her about it later, she said it was nothing.
She didn’t want to talk about it. But I could tell she was really bothered. ’
‘You don’t know who the woman was?’
‘Sorry. I’ve no idea.’
Wesley stood up. ‘You’ve been a lot of help, Mrs Mountjoy. Thank you.’ He handed her his card. ‘And if you think of anything else . . .’
‘I’ll get in touch. I’ve always wondered what a police interrogation was like, and I must say this has come as a pleasant surprise.’
They said their goodbyes and left. It wasn’t often they encountered such a satisfied customer.
‘I think Claire Mountjoy is what people call a frenemy,’ said Rachel as they walked back to the station. ‘Suzy suspected her of sending those nasty emails and the dislike appears to be mutual. But they still have lunch together.’
‘Keeping up appearances. I suspect not many people like Suzy Porter.’
‘But does somebody want her dead?’
It was a question Wesley couldn’t answer.
It was getting late when they returned to the station, but the incident room was still buzzing with activity.
A woman murdered and another with a very similar name receiving death threats – plus the murder many years ago of Dr Aleric Donnal, which might or might not be connected.
Sue Potter’s body had been found where it could easily be discovered.
Donnal’s, however, had been well hidden.
It might never have been found were it not for Helen Jones’s zest for home improvements.
Gerry sent out for Indian takeaway from a nearby restaurant and people ate at their desks while they worked. The office would stink of spicy food, but that was the last thing on anyone’s mind.
Wesley and Gerry retired into Gerry’s office to eat in peace and quiet – two items that had been in short supply of late – and Wesley sent a quick message to Pam to say he wouldn’t need dinner.
Through Gerry’s window he could see Trish typing busily into her computer.
She’d been looking considerably more cheerful since Bella’s safe return.
After telling the DCI about their meeting with Claire Mountjoy, Wesley made himself comfortable on his visitor’s chair.
‘What do you think, Gerry? Did the killer get the wrong target?’ He noticed Gerry’s hand move towards a leaflet in the centre of his desk and push it underneath a pile of witness statements.
He glimpsed the word ‘retirement’. It was clearly something Gerry didn’t want him to see.
‘We’re waiting for Tom to get back to us about those emails. And this new lead about the woman in the bookshop is worth following up. Unless our killer just has something against women called Susan. But I think we’re straying into the realms of fantasy there, don’t you?’
Wesley agreed. It sounded far-fetched, verging on the ridiculous.
But it was quite possible that two women of a similar age with similar names in the same village might have been mistaken for each other.
Nothing they now knew about Sue Potter suggested that she was the kind of person to attract enemies who’d wish to kill her.
Suzy Porter, on the other hand, had probably upset a lot of people over the course of her life.
Gerry picked up a pen and turned it over in his fingers. ‘Sue Potter’s is the second murder in Belsham in recent years. Remember that case we had a while ago. The murder at the vicarage – one of your brother-in-law’s predecessors.’
Wesley nodded. It wasn’t something he could easily forget, although living in a house where a murder had been committed had never seemed to bother Mark and Maritia. ‘For a fairly small village it’s had more than its fair share of violent deaths.’
Gerry consulted the scrap of paper in front of him. ‘We really need to find out what Aleric Donnal was doing in that house.’
‘He knew the owner, Ethelred Bingley.’
‘But would Bingley have any reason to kill him?’
‘We’ll be speaking to his daughter soon, so she might be able to throw some light on the matter.
And could there be a link between Donnal and either Sue Potter or Suzy Porter in Belsham?
The only connection we have so far is that picture of the mythical beast – the lanzani – but I’m struggling to see the significance, though Suzy Porter did know what a lanzani was. ’
‘True. And we really need to speak to Aphrodite and Apollo. Where are we going to find them?’
‘Try Mount Olympus,’ said Wesley quickly.
‘Ha ha, very funny.’ Gerry looked at his watch. It was getting late. ‘Let’s pack up for today. Resume tracing Suzy Porter’s potential enemies in the morning. If our killer did get the wrong woman, finding out more about her might give us the breakthrough we need.’ He sounded quite optimistic.
But just as they were about to leave, Gerry received a call. It was from Dale Gadson from the zoo in East Burrington. Could they go round tomorrow? He had something important to tell them.