Page 56 of The Chapel of Bones

‘I’ll get in touch. I’ve always wondered what a police interrogation was like, and I must say this has come as a pleasant surprise.’

They said their goodbyes and left. It wasn’t often they encountered such a satisfied customer.

‘I think Claire Mountjoy is what people call a frenemy,’ said Rachel as they walked back to the station. ‘Suzy suspected her ofsending those nasty emails and the dislike appears to be mutual. But they still have lunch together.’

‘Keeping up appearances. I suspect not many people like Suzy Porter.’

‘But does somebody want her dead?’

It was a question Wesley couldn’t answer.

It was getting late when they returned to the station, but the incident room was still buzzing with activity. A woman murdered and another with a very similar name receiving death threats – plus the murder many years ago of Dr Aleric Donnal, which might or might not be connected. Sue Potter’s body had been found where it could easily be discovered. Donnal’s, however, had been well hidden. It might never have been found were it not for Helen Jones’s zest for home improvements.

Gerry sent out for Indian takeaway from a nearby restaurant and people ate at their desks while they worked. The office would stink of spicy food, but that was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

Wesley and Gerry retired into Gerry’s office to eat in peace and quiet – two items that had been in short supply of late – and Wesley sent a quick message to Pam to say he wouldn’t need dinner. Through Gerry’s window he could see Trish typing busily into her computer. She’d been looking considerably more cheerful since Bella’s safe return.

After telling the DCI about their meeting with Claire Mountjoy, Wesley made himself comfortable on his visitor’s chair. ‘What do you think, Gerry? Did the killer get the wrong target?’ He noticed Gerry’s hand move towards a leaflet in the centre of his desk and push it underneath a pile of witness statements. He glimpsed the word ‘retirement’. It was clearly something Gerry didn’t want him to see.

‘We’re waiting for Tom to get back to us about those emails. And this new lead about the woman in the bookshop is worth following up. Unless our killer just has something against women called Susan. But I think we’re straying into the realms of fantasy there, don’t you?’

Wesley agreed. It sounded far-fetched, verging on the ridiculous. But it was quite possible that two women of a similar age with similar names in the same village might have been mistaken for each other. Nothing they now knew about Sue Potter suggested that she was the kind of person to attract enemies who’d wish to kill her. Suzy Porter, on the other hand, had probably upset a lot of people over the course of her life.

Gerry picked up a pen and turned it over in his fingers. ‘Sue Potter’s is the second murder in Belsham in recent years. Remember that case we had a while ago. The murder at the vicarage – one of your brother-in-law’s predecessors.’

Wesley nodded. It wasn’t something he could easily forget, although living in a house where a murder had been committed had never seemed to bother Mark and Maritia. ‘For a fairly small village it’s had more than its fair share of violent deaths.’

Gerry consulted the scrap of paper in front of him. ‘We really need to find out what Aleric Donnal was doing in that house.’

‘He knew the owner, Ethelred Bingley.’

‘But would Bingley have any reason to kill him?’

‘We’ll be speaking to his daughter soon, so she might be able to throw some light on the matter. And could there be a link between Donnal and either Sue Potter or Suzy Porter in Belsham? The only connection we have so far is that picture of the mythical beast – the lanzani – but I’m struggling to see the significance, though Suzy Porter did know what a lanzani was.’

‘True. And we really need to speak to Aphrodite and Apollo. Where are we going to find them?’

‘Try Mount Olympus,’ said Wesley quickly.

‘Ha ha, very funny.’ Gerry looked at his watch. It was getting late. ‘Let’s pack up for today. Resume tracing Suzy Porter’s potential enemies in the morning. If our killer did get the wrong woman, finding out more about her might give us the breakthrough we need.’ He sounded quite optimistic.

But just as they were about to leave, Gerry received a call. It was from Dale Gadson from the zoo in East Burrington. Could they go round tomorrow? He had something important to tell them.

33

If it had been up to Wesley, he would have gone to see Dale Gadson straight away, in spite of the late hour. But Gerry thought they’d done enough that day. Besides, Gadson wasn’t going anywhere. He had his animals to look after.

Wesley walked home up the steep, narrow streets, passing Aleric Donnal’s cottage on the way. He couldn’t help imagining the grey-haired academic living there alone, with only his books and research for company. He knew this was enough for some people. But he himself was somebody who needed friends and family around him. Everybody was different, he thought as he reached his house in the modern close at the top of the hill overlooking the ancient port. What it lacked in character, it made up for with space and a decent garden, both rare things in the older parts of Tradmouth.

He put his key in the front door, looking forward to spending what was left of his evening relaxing; he felt he needed a few hours to recharge without the need to think about the case. Although he’d probably wake up in the early hours with the possibilities running through his head. Two deaths of very different victims. And the only link he could think of between them was a leaflet for the same zoo and the strange picture and quotation found near Sue Potter’s body, identical to one in the book in the briefcase belonging to Aleric Donnal, the facsimile copy of a medieval bestiary created by pre-Reformation monks to inform the literate and illiterate alike about the wonders ofnature – and its dangers in the form of fearsome beasts, both mythological and real.

He was greeted in the hall by Sherlock, his tail wagging like a windscreen wiper as Wesley fussed him.

‘Michael about?’ he asked Pam as she emerged from the kitchen.

‘He’s up in his room doing what teenage boys do,’ she said with a roll of her eyes. ‘Amelia’s in the living room. And Neil’s here. We’re in the kitchen.’

Before heading for the kitchen, Wesley made a detour to the living room, where he found Amelia kneeling by the coffee table sorting through the cards he’d asked Pam about on Friday night. Each depicted a fantastic beast: crocodiles crossed with gazelles; elephants crossed with leopards. He knelt by his daughter and asked her about them.