Page 96 of Blow Down (The Plumber's Mate)
Right. Because no cheating husband in the entire history of the world ever told porkies about that.
“Look, I felt bad about her, okay?” Vi insisted, maybe sensing she was losing her audience. “But Arlo would’ve divorced her years ago if she hadn’t been ill. He was just too kind-hearted for his own good.”
Seriously?
Vi must’ve caught my expression. Her face fell. “Oh God, he was lying to me, wasn’t he?”
“Based on the evidence? Probably.” I closed my eyes briefly, felt like I was drifting off, and reluctantly opened them again. “You see him the day of the fayre?”
“No.” She shrugged. “I was supposed to, but I rang him and told him I thought we should stop seeing each other. He said we should talk about it, but we never did. Everything got a bit forgotten when Amelia died.”
On her side, maybe. I was betting not on Arlo’s. He struck me as something of a vindictive bastard.
“Why’d you dump him?” I asked. I mean, she hadn’t known he was a murderer.
Well, potential murderer, at that point.
“It was . . . He had a bit of a temper, you know? It made me feel uneasy. And, well, I’d been spending some time with Lance—he was helping me with my business ideas. I mean, I didn’t really have any ideas, but he’s so full of them. I was a bit resistant at first, but, well . . .” She blushed as she smiled. “We’re seeing each other now. He’s really keen on everyone reaching their full potential. So inspiring.”
I wondered if she’d still think that if she’d heard the way he’d spoken to us about her. Then again, hadn’t his main criticism been that she was wasting her potential? “Why’d you keep it a secret, you and Lance?” Her and Arlo’s little bit of adultery, yeah, she wouldn’t want to brag about that, but Lance?
She stared at me. “Daddy was in mourning. I didn’t want to be insensitive.”
Uh-huh. “And neither of you twigged it might look a bit suss, meeting in secret after a murder?” I took another sip from the glass of water Vi had got me. Talking too much, again.
“But we didn’t do it,” she said, like miscarriages of justice were something that only happened to other people. She shook her head. “But why would Uncle Arlo kill his own sister?”
“Not sure. The necklace?”
“Maybe.” She bit her lip. “Are you sure it was Uncle Arlo who killed Amelia?”
“Pretty sure. Think he’d risk jail to protect anyone else?” Then I frowned. “How,” I began, and coughed. Vi topped up my glass of water from the jug on the table. For someone who’d just shot a bloke, her hands were pretty bloody steady. Then again, the wound looked far from fatal, more’s the pity. “Cheers. How did Arlo know we were gonna be here?”
Vi looked away. “Um. Well, you see, he called me while I was with Lance. He asked me to let him know if I had any more contact with you.”
“What?” My voice cracked. “You mean you told him I’d be here?”
“Well, I didn’t know he was going to try to kill anyone! He said he just wanted to talk.”
Jesus.
I was glad to hear the sirens at that point.
It was a long, long time later before me and Phil got to go home, what with all the police and paramedics who all wanted a piece of us.
Alex Majors got home before we did—apparently they hadn’t charged him with anything yet, seeing as Sharp had been on the ball enough to smell a rat in his sudden confession. Alex seemed a bit bemused to find us in his house, but I reckoned he didn’t much care about anything other than being back home with his surprisingly non-matricidal daughter.
“Oh, Daddy,” Vi said, giving her dad a fond but exasperated look as he sat next to her on the sofa, still wearing the rumpled clothes he’d been arrested in. “How could you possibly have thought I killed Amelia?”
He clutched her hands. “Darling, I’m so sorry. So very sorry. I didn’t want to believe it. But I realised, after the marriage, how much you resented Amelia. I . . . I didn’t do things very well. I should never have given her your mother’s necklace. I . . . I loved her very much.” He hung his head for a long moment, and when he looked up again, his eyes were wet with tears. “I hoped you would one day warm to her. I prayed you would. But then she died, and Arlo . . .”
He didn’t finish.
“What about Arlo?” Vi demanded for all of us.
“He seemed so kind. So regretful. He said he couldn’t stand to see me nurse a viper at my bosom.” Alex had to stop for a mo and take a few deep breaths before he could carry on. “He took me in completely. He told me he saw you going into the tent. Where Amelia was . . . Where it happened. And then when Tom was attacked after you called him here . . .”
Christ. It must have seemed to confirm it. But . . .
