Final Moments

‘Holloway’s Heating and Plumbing.’ Lambert knew where the business was situated, out on the industrial estate. A small, thriving business, bent on expansion.

‘We’ll nip along there now,’ Kelsey said. ‘We’ll have a word with Holloway.’

Ten minutes later they were in Holloway’s office. ‘We’ve been trying to get a word with Mr Colborn,’ the Chief told him. ‘We understood he was here with you.

‘He was here,’ Holloway said with an edge of impatience. He was a short, thickset bull of a man with a jutting jaw. ‘For all the good he did he might as well never have come. He left here some time ago, before twelve.’ He flung out a hand. ‘Total waste of time, he was in no state to make head or tail of my books. He looked half dead when he got here, as if he’d been up all night. I asked him if he was all right and he said he was. But when he started asking me the same questions twice over I put it to him fair and square that he hadn’t got his mind on what he was supposed to be doing.

‘Then he came out with it and said he had one hell of a migraine, he could hardly see straight. I said to him: “Why on earth didn’t you say so right out, instead of carrying on with this pantomime? You could have cancelled the appointment, fixed another day.’” He thrust out his jaw. ‘I told him, “The last thing I need is my commercial future judged by a guy with migraine.”’ He walked with Kelsey to the door. ‘So he gave in and took himself off. I don’t know where you’ll find him now. He may be back at the bank or he may have gone home to bed. That’s where I’d be in his condition, he looked absolutely knackered to me.’

CHAPTER 4 (#ulink_840f857f-f052-5471-9993-dc5e95e1ee44)

‘Back to Springfield House,’ Kelsey directed as he got into the car. ‘I’ll lay you two to one Colborn’s still there.’

And the blue Orion was still drawn up by the front door when they again turned in through the gates. This time it took four rings before Colborn came to the door. The grey had left his face, his cheeks were flushed, he looked as if he had just been wakened from a doze. Again he said nothing but stood looking at them without impatience or irritation.

‘A couple of points we overlooked when we were here,’ Kelsey said in a tone of apology. ‘If we might step inside again. It won’t take a minute.’

Colborn drew back the door in silence and they stepped inside. He closed the door and turned to face them. In the same moment the Chief produced the brown scarf in its plastic wrapping and thrust it out under Colborn’s nose.

‘Have you ever seen that before?’ he asked abruptly.

Colborn jerked his head back in surprise. He stared down at the packet. ‘It’s a scarf,’ Kelsey told him.

A look of appalled horror crossed Colborn’s face. He glanced up at Kelsey. ‘You mean it’s the scarf . . .?’

Kelsey didn’t answer that. He repeated, ‘Have you ever seen it before?’

The colour had drained from Colborn’s face, he looked on the point of collapse. He put out a hand and steadied himself against the wall. ‘Do you recognize it?’ Kelsey pressed him. Colborn drew a long trembling breath and shook his head. He looked poleaxed, utterly grief-stricken.

‘You loved her,’ Kelsey said. ‘That’s the truth, isn’t it?’

Colborn dropped his head into his hands and began to weep, with great shuddering sobs. ‘You’d better tell us about it,’ Kelsey invited. Colborn made no response. The shuddering and sobbing continued. ‘We can’t stand here,’ Kelsey said brusquely. ‘We’ll go along to your study.’

Colborn made a strong effort to take a grip on himself and the shudders began to die away. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his eyes. After a minute or two he seemed to have regained some measure of control. He followed the Chief along to the study.

The moment Sergeant Lambert closed the study door behind them Colborn began to speak, in a rush, with an air of relief. ‘It was a terrible shock when I heard about Mrs Franklin,’ he said in a rapid, uneven tone, his face contorted at the recollection. All three of them were still standing. ‘I was told of it when I got to the bank this morning. One of the girls had heard it on the local radio. I couldn’t believe it.’ He looked earnestly at the Chief. ‘It was all over between us months ago. It was never anything very . . . intense, for either of us, it was—’ He drew another trembling breath. ‘Just folly, really. She was at a loose end after the divorce and I—’ He moved his shoulders. ‘I was restless, overworked. It seemed some kind of answer, a distraction from pressure and strain. She was always light-hearted, she took my mind off my worries.’ He pressed his hands together. ‘But it was an appalling shock, all the same. I was still fond of her. It didn’t end in a quarrel, nothing like that, it was all very amicable.’

‘How did it end?’ Kelsey asked.

Colborn spread a hand. ‘I simply came to my senses, saw the risks I was taking. I put it to her and she understood. I have a very good marriage, I value it highly, it was madness to risk losing my wife.’ He broke off suddenly with a look of consternation. ‘My wife–she won’t have to know any of this?’

‘She won’t hear it from me,’ Kelsey assured him. Colborn closed his eyes for an instant. ‘But there’s no telling in a case of this kind,’ Kelsey warned him. ‘These things have a way of coming out. It might be better to tell her yourself, right away. She’ll probably be a lot more understanding than you think.’

‘I couldn’t do that,’ Colborn said on a note of dismay. ‘She’d be horrified. She doesn’t know anything about Venetia, she doesn’t even know she existed.’

‘She’ll know she existed by now all right,’ Kelsey said. ‘Everyone in the town will know about Mrs Franklin by now. Your wife’s bound to discover she was a customer at the bank. You’ll have to be prepared to talk about her. Your wife’s bound to be interested, to ask you questions, it’s only natural.’

‘I can cope with that,’ Colborn said. ‘But I couldn’t tell her the rest of it.’

‘It’s entirely up to you.’ Kelsey made a dismissive gesture. He glanced about. ‘We might as well sit down. Now–you told us earlier that you didn’t know Mrs Franklin before she was married.’

‘I did know her very slightly,’ Colborn said. ‘She was a good deal younger than me.’

‘Were you in love with her at that time?’

He shook his head. ‘She was just a pretty girl who worked in a shop near the bank. She used to come in for change. I talked to her sometimes.’

‘Did you want to marry her at that time?’

‘Good heavens, no! I was in no position to think about marrying anyone. My mother was alive then, I was living here with her. She’d been an invalid for years. I had enough to contend with without looking for new responsibilities.’

‘And recently, when you took up with Mrs Franklin again, did you want to marry her then?’

Colborn was beginning to look immensely fatigued again. ‘No, there was never any question of that, for either of us. It was never that serious.’

‘Perhaps you wanted to marry her but she was unwilling?’ Kelsey persisted.

Colborn shook his head.

‘Did she perhaps agree to marry you and then later change her mind?’

Colborn pressed the fingers of both hands against his temples. ‘No, that was never the situation.’

‘Is there anything else you want to change in what you told us earlier? When you last saw her, if you knew where she was going for the weekend, and so on?’

Again he shook his head.

‘She made no objection when you told her you wanted to end the association?’

‘She would have liked to go on with it. She always took it lightly–she wasn’t running any risks, it was just an amusement for her. But she understood when I pointed out that it could ruin everything for me, my marriage, my career. We didn’t part on bad terms. If I saw her in the bank or if she wanted my advice about some business matter, it was always perfectly friendly, no hard feelings on either side.’

‘There was never any awkwardness?’

‘Never. She was a very pleasant woman, she had a very nice nature.’ He suddenly dropped his head into his hands again. After a few moments he looked up and said with an attempt at composure, ‘I can’t deny I’m pretty shattered by her death.’ His eyes were full of pain. ‘It’s caught me at a low ebb. It’s the shock, coming on top of all the pressure I’ve been under lately.’

‘Do you know of any new men friends she may have had in the last month or two?’ Kelsey asked.

‘No. I wouldn’t expect to know.’

‘You made no attempt to find out?’

‘Certainly not.’

‘Perhaps she told you she’d met someone else, that she wanted to break it off with you? Perhaps that was how you came to part?’

‘No, that wasn’t the way it ended. I’ve told you how it was.’

‘Did you know she had joined a singles club?’