Daisy in Chains(74)

‘That you were in love with her. You never told her that.’

That look again. Closed. Sad. Secret. ‘No. I should have done. Maybe if I had, things would have turned out differently.’

There is more noise outside.

‘Maggie?’

‘Sorry. This racket is distracting. Is there something going on outside?’

‘Something will be kicking off somewhere. It happens. Don’t worry. The cons can’t get down here without keys. You may have to wait a while before they let you out.’

There is movement on the floor above them as well and she is being too easily distracted. ‘Where were we?’

‘I was giving you the best alternative suspect you could hope for and you were worryingly unmoved by it.’

She makes herself focus. ‘OK, I get that Pete could have framed you, and I get that it could just have been a combination of circumstance and chance that he chose you out of the whole football team, but what you haven’t told me is why Pete killed three women. Especially given that he’s killed no others in the two years since you were arrested.’

‘None that you know of.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Maybe he got a bit cleverer. Maybe he targeted women who weren’t so easily missed. Lot of homeless women in and around Bristol. Maybe he got better at hiding the bodies as well.’

‘And what was his motive?’

‘Ah, glad you mentioned it. Has he told you when his marriage broke up?’

She has to think about that. ‘Not specifically. Long enough for him to have moved out, not long enough for the divorce to be close to finalizing.’

‘He found out Annabelle was shagging one of his colleagues in January 2013, six months before Jessie disappeared. Two months before the Facebook conversation with the fictional Harry began. The whole team knew about it, Maggie. Pete wears his heart on his sleeve. Especially when he’s had a few.’

Is that true? She remembers Pete’s outburst at the police station about his daughter. His coming round to her house half drunk on Christmas Day. ‘Lots of marriages break up. Especially police marriages.’

‘True, but this was a nasty one. He lost his wife, his daughter, his home, and he has to see the bloke who took them away every day and he has to call him sir. That kind of shit would mess with anyone’s head.’

It would, wouldn’t it? ‘I still don’t—’

‘I’ve got a theory on how the bodies got into the caves, by the way. Are you interested?’

She holds up her hands in mock despair. ‘Oh, please.’

‘Everyone more or less believes the girls must have gone into the caves voluntarily, while they were still alive. Agreed?’

‘Because it would be next to impossible to carry dead bodies that size up the gorge cliffs and into caves?’

Wolfe points an index finger at her. ‘Exactly. But only if the bodies were moved as fresh corpses.’

She is conscious of her body tensing up. ‘What are you saying?’

‘I don’t think the bodies were taken to the caves until some time after the girls died. I think they were kept somewhere and left to decompose.’

He stops, lets her think about it. She nods for him to go on.

‘Body tissue breaks down very quickly,’ he says. ‘Especially in summer, or in hot rooms. Insect activity starts to eat away at flesh, at the same time the internal decomposition kicks in. Give it a few months, and you’d be left with not much more than skin and bones.’

‘Which anyone could bundle into a big bag and carry to the caves quite easily.’

He leans back, stretches his legs. ‘And if that’s the way it was done, I’m in the clear, because I was taken into custody days after Myrtle went missing. Her body was still quite sizeable when I was taken out of the picture.’

‘If we can prove that—’

‘If you can prove that, Maggie Rose, I will be forever in your debt.’

There is a look in his eye that she doesn’t want to dwell upon. ‘I can look at the pathology reports again. See if there’s anything at all that would fit that theory.’

‘Thank you. And let’s get back to Detective Pete. Odi may have recognized him. She may have been too frightened to say something because who would take the word of a homeless woman against that of a . . .’ He pauses, waiting for her to finish his sentence.

‘Of a detective sergeant.’

‘Once she’d said something, once she’d accused him, it would have been all over for her. A detective, especially a senior one, could track her down. She’d be looking over her shoulder the rest of her life. What would have frightened Odi more than knowing the killer she’d witnessed was a police officer?’

‘If this is true, her death is my fault. I’m the one who told Pete Weston about Odi and the possible sighting at Rill Cavern.’

‘Weston lives a hundred yards away from where Odi and Broon were killed. He knew they were there, knew they’d spoken to you. His windows probably overlook that Town Hall entrance. He could have sat quietly in his room for hours, waiting for his chance.’

She has no idea which of the Crown windows is Pete’s. It could easily overlook the Town Hall.

‘And if he left any trace behind, well, he was first detective on the scene, there’d been a bit of accidental site contamination. Maggie, do you really believe the murders of Odi and Broon were coincidence?’