Night Train to Murder Read online

  All the colour had dropped out of Rupert’s face. He started to say something but couldn’t get the words out. And then he suddenly leaned forward and buried his face in his hands.

  ‘See?’ said Dee. ‘Told you. The agency got me this job as tea lady, and told me to get his fingerprints on some packaging, or, failing that, some photos.’

  ‘And if you couldn’t?’ I said.

  Dee shrugged. ‘Someone else will be waiting in Bath, to follow him wherever he goes and identify whoever it is he’s meeting.’

  I looked at her thoughtfully. ‘That seems like a lot of trouble to go to, for a simple adultery case.’

  ‘I said that,’ said Dee. ‘But apparently the wife is rich. And I mean big-time loaded. And very determined that if this does end up in the divorce courts, lover boy there isn’t going to be in a position to walk away with any of it.’

  ‘But you knew a man had been murdered back here,’ Penny said suddenly. ‘Why were you so determined to enter a crime scene, just to have another go at Rupert?’

  ‘Because this was my last chance to get some hard evidence on him, before we get to Bath,’ said Dee.

  ‘Was that your only reason?’ said Penny.

  Dee smiled briefly. ‘No hard evidence, no bonus.’

  ‘I’m confiscating your camera,’ I said. Because I couldn’t be sure she hadn’t taken some photos earlier that might have included me. ‘Leave Mr Hall alone now, please. Go back down the train to where you came from and stay well away from this carriage. And take your noisy trolley with you.’

  Dee nodded quickly, got behind her trolley and headed for the door. Brian watched her approaching but made no move to get out of her way.

  ‘Play nicely now, Brian,’ I said warningly. ‘Don’t make me have to come over there.’

  Dee pushed her trolley straight at Brian, in a way that suggested she was perfectly ready to drive it through and, if need be, right over him.

  ‘You heard the man,’ she said.

  Brian moved to one side at the very last moment, still favouring his injured knee. Dee pushed her trolley past Brian and managed to steer at least three of the trolley’s wheels over both of his feet. He stared straight ahead, refusing to admit anything was happening. I waited till Dee had entered the vestibule and then called out her name. She stopped abruptly and looked back. I took my time walking down the aisle and finally joined her in the vestibule so I could talk to her quietly.

  ‘Don’t speak to anyone about what’s happened here,’ I said. ‘Or I will talk to the right people and have your licence lifted. And once you’ve passed through the darkened carriage, tell Eric he is to lock the far door, keep it locked and guard it. I don’t want to see anyone else coming this way, for any reason.’

  ‘Have I dropped Eric in it?’ said Dee. ‘He wouldn’t have talked about any of this if I hadn’t persuaded him.’

  ‘He’s not in any trouble,’ I said. ‘As long as you leave him alone.’

  Dee nodded quickly and headed for the next carriage as fast her trolley would allow. I watched her disappear into the darkness and then listened until the squeaking wheels passed through the far door. I went back into First Class. Brian immediately took up his position guarding the door again, flexing his aching knee and glaring at me as if it was all my fault.

  I went back down the aisle to talk to Rupert Hall. He no longer had his head in his hands, but he was still bent right over in his seat and looked as if he might fall apart at any moment. Penny was hovering over him, but he wouldn’t even look at her. She shot me a stern look and then stepped back out of the way. I stood over Rupert and said his name. He slowly raised his head. He hadn’t been crying but he looked as if he wanted to. His eyes seemed bruised, as though life had just taken a hard swing at him.

  ‘I’m really not interested in your domestic problems, Rupert,’ I said. ‘Though I may have to ask you a few questions about them, just to make sure they’re not connected to Sir Dennis’s death. You take it easy for a while, and I’ll get back to you when you’re feeling stronger.’

  He had to swallow hard before he could say anything, and even then his voice was little more than a whisper.

  ‘Thank you. I could use a little time to myself. Before I have to talk about things I never wanted to talk about.’

  I turned to look at Howard Goldwasser, on the other side of the aisle. To give the man credit, he’d been staring out of the window and doing his best not to listen to what Rupert and I were saying. I said his name, and he immediately turned to face me. He met my gaze unflinchingly, making it very clear he didn’t give a damn what I wanted to ask him. I had no idea what that was about, but I was determined to find out.

  ‘I have to start with someone,’ I said. ‘Are you ready to answer a few questions, Howard?’

  ‘Go ahead,’ he said flatly. ‘Ask me anything. It won’t do you any good. I don’t know anything you want to know.’

  Sita started to object on Howard’s behalf, half rising out of her seat, but he just glanced at her and shook his head. She slumped reluctantly back into her seat, scowling heavily as though he’d let her down.

  ‘Take a short walk with me, Howard,’ I said. ‘Just a comfortable distance away from everyone else, so we can have some privacy while we talk.’

  He shrugged and took his time getting to his feet. Not to make any point, as far as I could tell, but because he genuinely didn’t care about any of this. I waited patiently for him to join me in the aisle, and then Penny and I escorted him to a seat further down the carriage. I sat opposite Howard, studying him thoughtfully. Penny shot him a quick reassuring smile as she settled down beside me.

  Howard looked at both of us with equal indifference. There was nothing in his face to suggest he felt at all threatened, by us or the general situation. Which was interesting. I looked to Penny to start things off, and she plunged right in as though she had every confidence in what she was doing. She smiled brightly at Howard and addressed him in an open, friendly tone, as though we were just chatting.

  ‘Let’s start with the easy stuff, Howard. You said you were on a business trip. What kind of business are you in?’

  ‘Office supplies, with contracts to the MOD,’ he said. ‘You’d be surprised how much paperwork they still get through every day. The MOD has been very slow to embrace computers. Except for when it comes to weapons, of course.’

  He stared impassively at Penny and me. His voice had been almost defiantly indifferent. As though none of this mattered.

  ‘How did you know Sir Dennis?’ said Penny.

  ‘What makes you think I did?’

  ‘I saw you look at him,’ I said patiently. ‘In a way that made it clear you knew who he was. And that you weren’t too keen on him.’

  Howard shrugged, not bothered in the least at having been caught out in an evasion so early in the proceedings.

  ‘All right, I knew the man. Never met him before, never wanted to. But I had good reason to know who he was. I’m no longer with the firm I used to work for, because a few years back Sir Dennis suddenly decided to change all the rules, completely rewriting the conditions under which competing firms could bid for tenders. Not to encourage efficiency, or even to follow up on a political promise. He just did it to support those firms he had a financial stake in. The bastard.

  ‘He made a fortune, while firms like the one I used to work for went to the wall. It all came out later, of course. There was a medium-sized scandal, but it wasn’t sexy enough to hold the public’s attention for long. So there was just a lot of finger-wagging and name-calling in Parliament, and in the end Sir Dennis walked away without a stain on his portfolio. Because he had connections. While my old firm lost a lot of its contracts and had to lay off a lot of people. Including me.’

  ‘So you had good reason to hate Sir Dennis,’ said Penny.

  Howard shook his head firmly. ‘No. In his own back-handed way, he did me a good turn. Because when I started with my new firm, I met the woman who becam
e my second wife. The job is secure, I’m making good money, and I’ve never been happier. And all because Sir Dennis couldn’t keep his snout out of the trough.’

  ‘Who are you working for now?’ I said.

  ‘Same line of business. It’s what I know.’

  ‘Why are you going to Bath?’ said Penny.

  ‘Business convention,’ said Howard. ‘The usual thing: check out the new lines and decide which ones are worth recommending to my bosses. Not very glamorous, I suppose, but it all helps to keep the wheels turning.’

  I nodded. Howard was being very concise and to the point, never once hesitating in his answers. But that isn’t how most people talk. It sounded as if he’d spent some time carefully rehearsing what he was going to say to us, to make sure it would sound convincing. So Penny and I would go away and leave him alone. Most of all, his face didn’t match what he was saying. There was no interest in his voice when he talked about his job, and he hadn’t even mentioned the name of the new love in his life.

  And on top of all that, there was nothing in his gaze as he looked at me or Penny, not necessarily because he was trying to hide something, but more as though he simply couldn’t be bothered. Because he had something more important on his mind.

  I looked at Penny, and she looked at me for a cue on how to proceed. We’d asked all the obvious questions and received a set of perfectly acceptable answers. I wasn’t sure I believed any of them, but I didn’t feel like pressing him. For the moment. Better to let him go back to his seat and think he’d put one over on us. I nodded to Penny.

  ‘Thank you, Howard,’ said Penny. ‘That’s enough for now.’

  ‘One last question,’ I said. ‘What was it you were working on earlier, on your laptop?’

  And Howard froze. He looked at me and then at Penny, but he didn’t say anything. He hadn’t expected that question and he didn’t have a prepared answer. He licked his lips, forced out a smile and got ready to lie.

  ‘Just a few notes. For a report I have to write. The one part of the job I hate. I’ve never been any good at that sort of thing.’

  I waited to see if he might carry on talking and perhaps give something away. But Howard just closed his mouth firmly, as though to keep any more unrehearsed words from spilling out. He made steady eye contact with me for the first time, as though only now taking me seriously as a potential threat. And I couldn’t help but wonder: what kind of threat could I possibly pose to him? I smiled easily back at Howard, as though I hadn’t noticed anything.

  ‘You can go back to your seat now,’ I said. ‘Please don’t talk to anyone else, until we’ve finished speaking to them.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Howard.

  He couldn’t get out of his seat fast enough. Rupert and Sita both looked at Howard closely, to see how our questioning had affected him, but he wouldn’t even glance at them. He hurried down the aisle, chose a new seat well away from Sita and Rupert, and sat down with his back to Penny and me. I thought he had the air of someone trying to decide whether or not he’d just dodged a bullet. I turned to Penny.

  ‘Well, that was interesting.’

  ‘He was definitely being evasive about something,’ said Penny. ‘When he told us about finding his wonderful new wife, he didn’t smile once. But … I’m not sure that whatever he’s hiding has anything to do with Sir Dennis. He didn’t show any real emotion when he talked about the man. Even when he called him a bastard.’

  ‘Given the way Howard was looking at Sir Dennis earlier, he definitely felt some ill will towards the man,’ I said. ‘And if Howard is trying to conceal something … Why didn’t he make more of an effort to convince us he wasn’t the killer?’

  ‘I don’t think he gives a damn about Sir Dennis being murdered,’ said Penny. ‘Or anything else, really. It feels to me as though he just wants all of this to be over, because it’s getting in the way of whatever else he has on his mind. The only time he showed any interest in what’s happening was when he seemed worried he might lose the hotel room he’d booked in Bath.’

  ‘Let him stew for a while,’ I said. ‘We’ll talk to the others and then have another go at him. See if we can crack open a few of these secrets he’s so determined to keep hidden from us.’

  ‘I have to say, I think you’re doing very well, darling,’ said Penny. ‘For someone who was so sure he wasn’t any good at interrogation.’

  ‘It’s not easy,’ I said. ‘I can’t ask our suspects any of the usual questions in a murder case. Like … where were you when the victim was killed? We already know the answer. I can’t question anyone’s alibi for the time of the murder, because we’re part of it. All we can do is keep piling the pressure on everyone and hope we can trap someone in an obvious lie …’

  ‘Like Howard,’ said Penny.

  ‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘Though I can’t help feeling he was merely substituting one lie for another. There’s something not right about Howard …’

  ‘There’s something not right about this whole case,’ said Penny.

  I smiled. ‘We’ve handled worse. Ready to take a crack at the next suspect?’

  ‘Bring them on,’ said Penny. ‘Who did you have in mind?’

  ‘I thought Sita Patel.’

  ‘OK,’ said Penny. ‘This should be fun.’

  I stood up and looked down the carriage. Sita met my gaze immediately, as though she’d expected me to pick her next. She glowered at me challengingly, so I hit her with my most engaging smile.

  ‘Sita,’ I said. ‘Would you come over and join us, please?’

  For a moment, I thought she might actually defy me – as if she wanted me to come and fetch her, and drag her down the aisle by brute force. As though that would prove something. In the end, though, Sita heaved herself up out of her seat and stomped down the aisle, scowling. I couldn’t help noticing that Rupert and Howard didn’t so much as glance at her, so intent they were on their own thoughts.

  Sita dropped into the seat opposite Penny and me, folded her arms tightly and pressed her lips firmly together, to make it clear we weren’t getting anything out of her without a struggle. She glared impartially at both of us, as though having trouble deciding who was more deserving of her displeasure. She wanted us to start something, so she could have the satisfaction of fighting her corner. I shot Penny a warning glance, but as usual she was way ahead of me.

  ‘Thanks for helping us out, Sita,’ said Penny, smiling encouragingly. ‘We’d be grateful for anything you can tell us that might help solve the mystery of what happened to Sir Dennis.’

  Sita just stared right back at her, not giving an inch.

  ‘All right, let’s start with the basics,’ I said, as pleasantly as I could. ‘What are you doing on this train, Sita?’

  ‘I told you,’ she said flatly. ‘I’m a journalist. A staff writer, for the Evening Standard.’

  ‘Yes,’ Penny said patiently, ‘But what story are you working on? What was it in particular about Sir Dennis that caught your attention and brought you here, to this compartment?’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ said Sita. ‘Don’t you believe I’m a journalist? Do you want to see my NUJ card?’

  ‘We don’t have to be enemies, Sita,’ said Penny, in her best Let’s all be reasonable and play nicely tone.

  ‘Really?’ said Sita, raising her chin so she could look down her nose at both of us. ‘I’m all about telling people the truth, while your job is to protect the secrets of those in power. All the things people have a right to know. What could we possibly have in common?’

  ‘We all want to find out who killed Sir Dennis, don’t we?’ I said. ‘Wouldn’t that make a much bigger story for you to cover?’

  Sita looked at me with new interest. ‘You’d let me be a part of that?’

  ‘We might,’ I said. ‘You help us get to the truth about the murder, and we’ll see to it you get access to the kind of details that would make for a real exclusive. Of course, if you give us a hard time …’

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sp; ‘Oh … go on, then; hit me with your questions,’ said Sita. ‘But I have to be allowed to contact my editor as soon as possible! This is the kind of story that makes careers! You can bet the moment the news gets out that Sir Dennis has been murdered, the rest of the media will be all over this story like fleas on a dog. Right now, I’ve got the advantage, and I’m damned if I’ll give it up.’

  ‘You can have your phone and your laptop back the moment we get to Bath,’ said Penny. ‘But if you can say you were present when the murderer was captured, that should give you a head start on everyone else. Though, of course, you can’t mention Ishmael or me.’

  ‘Like I even know your real names,’ said Sita, not bothering to hide a sneer at such obvious pseudonyms.

  ‘Let’s try again,’ I said. ‘What story, exactly, were you pursuing, Sita? What do you know, or think you know, about Sir Dennis and his new appointment?’

  ‘You sound like my editor,’ said Sita. ‘Always wanting me to be sure of my facts …’ She sighed deeply and actually relaxed a little as she prepared to tell us the truth at last. ‘I got on this train hoping for a chance to pin Sir Dennis to a wall with some really tough questions, in a situation where he wouldn’t have his usual protectors to run interference for him. I had to call in some really serious favours to find out which train he was going to be on this evening. But don’t ask me who leaked the information because I’ll never tell!’

  ‘That’s all right,’ said Penny. ‘We don’t need to know.’

  Sita looked disappointed, as though she’d been hoping that we would insist on knowing, just so she could tell us to go straight to hell. She probably had a fiery speech already prepared, about the sacred duty of a reporter to protect her sources. She hesitated, and I could see the inner conflict in her eyes. She knew she shouldn’t really share any information with the enemy, but she couldn’t resist an opportunity to show off to us how much she knew. She leaned forward in her seat, her gaze darting from Penny to me and back again.