Read Online Malice Aforethought by J. M. Gregson - Free Book Online Page B

he said, ‘You can do better than that Mr Reynolds. I’m giving you the opportunity to do so.’
    It sounded like a threat in Reynolds’ burning ears. A threat of what? He was not sure of what, but he was no longer thinking rationally under the merciless gaze of those grey eyes. No wonder frightened adolescents signed confessions after hours in places like this. He found his mouth saying, ‘All right! We didn’t get on as well as I said we did, Ted and I. He didn’t like me taking up with Sue. I think he hated her, would have done anything to frustrate what she wanted to do with her life.’
    ‘I see. That wasn’t quite the impression Mrs Giles gave us of their relationship when we spoke to her yesterday. Perhaps we shall need to speak to her again.’
    This time Graham Reynolds was sure it was a threat. But he knew he mustn’t offer them any more information. ‘Sue kept her distance from him, only spoke to him when she needed to. She didn’t believe in giving him opportunities to be awkward.’
    ‘I see. Well, last Saturday night someone denied Mr Giles the right to be anything. And this morning, after pretending otherwise as long as you could, you tell me that you and he were enemies. As the man charged with investigating the murder of Edward Giles, your deceptions interest me, Mr Reynolds. I think you should now tell me what you were quarrelling about, without any further prevarication.’
    It was quietly spoken, but all the more insistent for that. Lambert had not raised his voice throughout the interview; even now, his tone suggested well-meant advice. And yet to Reynolds, used only to speaking to people in social situations where the conversational niceties were used to oil the wheels, he seemed inexorable. Glancing at the face of Bert Hook on Lambert’s right, he found that rubicund countenance as expectant and unblinking as his questioner’s, and capitulated. ‘We had a real row because I told him to lay off Sue. I said I was going to marry her and he said he’d put every obstacle in our way.’
    ‘But you must have known that he couldn’t hold things up indefinitely. The law is on your side, as you must be aware.’
    ‘I knew that, of course. But his attitude annoyed me. I told him as much, and we exchanged words about it, angry words. But there was no more to our quarrel than that.’ His mouth set in a line; the tanned, experienced features were suddenly sullen and determined as those of any child who is determined to stick to his story.
    Lambert wondered if that was really all there was to the argument between the two men, but he sensed that it was all he was going to get at this stage. Reynolds was not under caution, was still officially helping the police of his own free will. Lambert said, ‘When did you last see Mr Giles?’
    The swiftness of the switch threw Reynolds, who had been setting himself to frustrate further probing of his quarrel with Ted Giles a fortnight before his death. ‘I — I haven’t really thought about it.’ That rang as false in his own ears as theirs: they all knew he must have considered the answer to this, whether he was guilty or entirely innocent. ‘I think I saw him in the staffroom before afternoon school last Friday afternoon. Yes, I remember now, I did. But not later than that. I was free for the last period on Friday and I left school early, you see.’
    Lambert ignored that. ‘And where were you last Saturday night, when Mr Giles was being murdered?’
    The question shook most people, especially when it was framed in those blunt words. But for the first time in their exchange, Graham Reynolds smiled. He made himself take a little time, tried even to savour the moment. ‘I was in Ireland on Saturday night, Superintendent. Enjoying a splendid meal in a hotel in Killarney, to be precise.’
    ***
    Christine Lambert felt giddy as the waves of relief surged through her. For a moment she felt she might faint, falling forward from her armless chair in a heap