Chapter 20 #2
“That’s not a line of enquiry. We believe someone had motive to kill Amanda.” I took one of the mugs.
“Why not Micky?”
“No leads have come from our enquiries about Micky. We think Amanda and Micky were working on something, maybe to do with Amanda’s daughter. We’ve found paperwork to suggest that Amanda felt Lily to be innocent.” I wanted to see his reaction.
He was silent for a moment, sipping his tea although it must’ve been too hot.
“Amanda didn’t share her thoughts with me, Detective, on matters of her daughter.
That period was a deeply traumatic time for all concerned, including Lily, and I just hope she received the treatments she needs.
” It was said almost script-like, as if he had an auto-cue in front of him.
“How old is your son, Mr Smith?”
The question surprised him. “He’d be in his thirties. I’m sadly no longer in contact with him.”
“Was he appreciative of you paying his school fees?”
“As much as any teenager was. I suspect he resents not having what you’d call a normal childhood.”
I doubted whether his son had received much warmth. “What’s your son’s name?”
“Stefan, after his grandfather. Maybe not the best choice for this era. He was teased a lot when he was very young, poor lad. I should’ve done better for him.
” He seemed incredibly sad. “I thought I was doing the right thing, with boarding school. It got him away from the estate where his mother lived and away from the bullies, and I hoped he’d make some good contacts to help him get on in life. ”
“Do you have any other children, Mr Smith?”
“Two from my marriage. Darla and Timothy. They’re late thirties now and live in South Africa. After me and their mother divorced, she decided to return home and take the children with her. I’ve had many achievements in my life; being a parent isn’t one of them.”
“When’s the last time you saw any of your children?” I asked, curious more than anything.
“Four or five years ago. Darla and Tim call me when it’s my birthday, or Christmas, and I try to remember to give them a call on their birthdays.
They’d prefer me to have a computer so we could video call or a smart phone, but as you probably know, we eschew technology, believing it to be a scourge on the environment.
My children would’ve loved me to have been a hypocrite, but I am a principled man, Detective. ” He had a longer drink of his tea.
“Principled enough to syphon money from the organisation you run to pay your child’s school fees? They don’t really align,” I challenged. “Did Stefan ever stay with you here?”
“On occasion. Some school holidays.”
“And he was roughly the same age as Lily Goodhew. Did they socialise together?”
“Not really. He was friendlier with her brother, the older one. He was upset after the fire, so much so that he went home to his mother early.” He drained his mug and put it onto the scratched coffee table. “I still don’t see how this relates to Amanda and Micky’s deaths.”
“It might not, but it’s helpful to get a clearer picture. What’s Stefan doing now?”
“I wouldn’t know. I wouldn’t even know how to contact him. I regret paying for that school now. The money would’ve been better served improving water storage or investing in new equipment or renewable energy to serve The Holding, but I made a decision at the time that I cannot change.”
I didn’t think he had any regrets at all; all of this was for show, but why? “And Amanda knew about the school fees?”
“She did. Whether she approved or not, I wouldn’t know because she was a professional and kept her opinions to herself. Hence I wouldn’t know about her looking to appeal Lily’s conviction.” He sat up a little straighter, not realising what he’d said.
“Mr Smith, how did you know she was looking to appeal her daughter’s conviction?”
“Because you told me.”
“I told you Amanda thought Lily to be innocent. Nothing about a wrongful conviction.”
His face reddened and I wondered for a moment if he was about to have a heart attack. I shot a glance to Verity, who seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“Are you okay, Mr Smith?” Verity said. “Can I get you some water?”
He shook his head. “She may have mentioned something, but I don’t remember details. I wasn’t very interested in Amanda beyond what I had to be as her employer.”
“I assume she was very good at her job if you kept her on,” I said. “You don’t seem to have much time for her, despite knowing her for years. Is that because you could trust her not to whistle blow on how you misused money, or because you couldn’t dismiss her because she knew too much?”
He winced, looking increasingly uncomfortable. “Amanda needed her job, so we had a mutual agreement.”
“Did she know what the cash withdrawal each month was for?”
He regained his composure. “I wouldn’t know about that, Detective. Absolutely not.”
I left Andrew Smith’s house wanting a long, hot shower. The place was clean, probably a cleaning service because I doubted he was the sort of man who’d tidy his own shit, but it made me feel itchy.
“He was lying,” Verity said as soon as we got in my car. “He knows about the cash withdrawals.”
“He’ll also know there’s no way we can find out who was receiving them, and the dead can’t be called on to give evidence. He’s got motive for the fire at Micky Mulligan’s.” We had a tentative lead.
“What about the original fire? Could he have been responsible for that – especially if Amanda had died in it?”
“He could’ve had motive. She knew about the school fees. The cash withdrawals didn’t start until afterwards though and they could be completely innocuous.” I tapped the steering wheel. “But why wait until now? Why leave it all these years.”
“Would he be physically fit enough. He looked pretty wrecked in there.”
“Don’t believe everything you see. That could’ve been an act. He’s just confessed to fraud and theft at the very least. Why do that? He could’ve blamed it on Amanda.”
“He knew we’d be able to trace the accounts to a pupil anyway so was there any point in lying.”
I slowed down for lights. “None. He’s saved us some time, but why bother? Why not make it harder for us. Although we still need to check it out, and I don’t think it will be that easy.”
“The school’s closed down so getting hold of the records wouldn’t be straightforward.”
“And they’d want a warrant. I just can’t see why he’d go to the extreme of killing Amanda now.
She’s not grassed him up about the fraud in well over a decade – why would it be an issue now, unless there was something else.
Like thinking Lily was innocent.” The pages that had been printed off for her had been recent; date stamped at the bottom as long as that was accurate.
Ten months ago someone had searched the internet at Amanda’s bequest; her investigation into what happened the night of the fire already on the way.
“What are you thinking, Mia?”
“That Amanda found something out about the night of the fire that someone wanted to keep hidden.”