“What are you looking at?” Noah shouted at a woman with a stroller. “I want to speak to my wife and my solicitor. There’s no need to guide me, I can see the fucking door!” he shouted as he was bundled toward the exit of the Starbucks.
“That’s one to add to my list of last requests before arrest: let me finish my scone,” said Faye.
“Has new evidence come to light?” asked Kate.
Faye nodded. “Come on. Let’s go outside.”
Tristan and Kate followed her out onto the street, where Noah was being put into a police car.
“You don’t need to touch my head. I’m not a moron. I have got into the back of a car before!” he was shouting. There was a group of people watching from the Starbucks window as he was driven away.
Farther up the road, Tristan could see they’d cordoned off a black SUV, and a couple of forensics officers in white suits were working on the car.
“We had a tip-off on the help line,” said Faye. “This person implicated Noah Huntley, saying he saw a large black SUV with Hayden inside. Whilst you were in the coffee shop with Noah, we found garments reportedly belonging to Hayden in his car,” said Faye. “This, coupled with the evidence you provided us, has made us confident to make an arrest so we can question him further.”
A voice started calling Faye on her radio.
“I have to go. Good work, you two. We had no idea you were who he was meeting. We’ve only had him under surveillance since early this morning.”
Faye and Mona crossed the road and got into the blue car and drove away with the remaining police car.
“I only noticed Mona sitting by the window when I went to get him his bloody butter,” said Tristan. “Shit. I didn’t get anything out of him. I’m sorry.”
“You did better than me. I should have seen her there. Not that it would have made any difference,” said Kate.
“Did he tell you anything whilst I was gone?”
“No. He was bitching about the little pot of jam being too small.”
“I feel like I fucked that up,” said Tristan. He felt Kate touch his shoulder, and he looked at her.
“No. You didn’t. And he’s been arrested. He’s been our main suspect since the beginning,” said Kate. He could see she felt cheated that they weren’t able to question him.
40
The next day was three weeks since they’d started their investigation, and Kate and Tristan drove over to see Bill and Bev in Salcombe to give them an update.
It was a hot morning, and they left early, arriving at Bill’s villa just before ten a.m. The sea and sky were in unison, a perfect blue. A group of sailing boats moved across the flat surface of the bay, and a yacht was moored farther out to sea next to a Jet Ski carving its wake in a large circle.
Bev and Bill’s garden had burst into life since their first visit and was filled with sweet-scented summer flowers and the lazy hum of bees. When they reached the front door, Bev was waiting for them. Kate was alarmed to see she was crying, but as they drew closer, she smiled and launched herself at Kate, grasping her in a hug.
“Thank you, thank you so much,” she said. She reached out a hand and pulled Tristan into the embrace. Bev smelled of cigarettes and stale alcohol mingled with peppermints. “It’s been on the news; the police have arrested Noah Huntley . . . Bill recorded it for me. I’ve already watched the news report back twice. Come on in.”
They followed Bev in through the front door into the vast marble living area. It was as empty and neat as before, and just like the first time, Kate thought how out of place Bev looked, padding across the elegant white-and-gold marble in a beat-up pair of pink Crocs. Bill was sitting at the huge breakfast bar with his laptop. A flat-screen television was mounted on one of the walls in the kitchen.
“Hello, Kate; hello, Tristan,” said Bill, with a smile just as wide as Bev’s. They all shook hands.
“This is Noah Huntley’s house,” said Bev, grabbing the TV remote. The frozen image on the TV screen was the outside of a house on a leafy suburban street where a row of police cars were parked. The sun was low in the sky, casting its beam almost horizontally and flashing gold on the surrounding windows, which made Kate wonder how early or late they’d arrived at his house. Bev pressed “Play,” and the camera switched angles to show where neighbors were watching from their doors on either side of the street as a team of forensics officers emerged from the front door carrying items of clothing in clear plastic evidence bags.