DS Atkins looks very pleased with herself when we open the door. “So,” she says, “Jenny says you came home at ten fifteen—that would be ten minutes after your van drove past the first camera. So that must have been a very quick snog. Jenny is sure about the time because she was looking at the clock and out of the window because she was worried about meeting her friend. She says you got out of the van, Mrs. Eastwood. But Mr. Eastwood didn’t come in. He drove off alone. But the garage camera shows there was someone in the passenger seat.”
“That would be Charlie,” Liam says. “You’d better come in.”
Forty-one
THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019
Elise
Her bottom had barely made contact with the chair when the phone rang.
“I know Charlie Perry made it home on Friday,” DS Atkins said, and Elise could hear the growl of adrenaline in her voice as she gave the details. “I’m bringing in Liam and Dee Eastwood.”
“Great work,” Elise said, scribbling a note to herself.
Trying to keep up. She’d only just got back in the driving seat and it was all going a hundred miles an hour. Her heart was racing as she sat and tried to untangle the knot of questions in her head until Caro cleared her throat beside her.
“Susie and I can do both of them?” Caro said.
“No, you’re all right. I’ll take Liam. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m a lightweight.”
“Boss,” Caro hissed in her ear, “we’ve got Bram and Pauline to question as well. Don’t overdo it on your first day. You’ll make yourself ill.”
“I’m not. And I’m fine.”
* * *
—
“Why didn’t you tell us straightaway?” Elise said as soon as Caro had done the formalities. No point in beating about the bush.
“I don’t know.” The man sitting opposite looked as though his life was on fire, his eyes darting round the room as if looking for an escape route. “Look, Charlie was fine. A bit drunk—well, a lot drunk, if you know what I mean—when I left him. And we thought he’d turn up. We didn’t want to get dragged into anything.”
“？‘We’？”
“Me and Dee.”
“So whose idea was it to keep quiet?”
The eyes went to his lawyer, who tapped her legal pad with her pen. Elise wondered if it was an agreed signal. One tap for “Shut up”？ Two for “No comment”？
“I dunno. No one gets involved with the police if they can help it, do they?”
“I see. I understand Charlie Perry owed you money.”
“Well, me and every builder who worked on his house. I was renewing the pipework—the whole house needed doing—but he never paid the final bill. I chased it but he said he had a cash flow problem. Look, it happens in my business.”
“How much did he owe you?”
“Not that much.”
“Exactly?”
Liam Eastwood swallowed hard. “Four grand, give or take.”
Elise leaned back. “That’s quite a big sum for a one-man business. Did it cause you financial problems?”
Eastwood’s head went down. The lawyer’s pencil tapped twice. But perhaps he hadn’t heard it.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “It’s not right, is it? It’s like he was robbing me. Screwing me over. We’ve got a bit behind with bills and might get chucked out of the house. Dee is trying to sort it out with the landlord.”
“You must have been very angry about being screwed over.”
Two taps.
“No comment,” he said sulkily. And the lawyer made a note on her pad.
“But look,” he suddenly added, “I might have had a word but I’d never have hurt him. He was an old man. Charlie was okay when I left him.”
“But why should we believe you?” Elise leaned farther forward. “You’ve already lied to us about that night, haven’t you? You said Charlie had been seen up by the workers’ caravans but you knew for a fact that he hadn’t. Because he was sitting beside you in your van.”
Eastwood’s feet started doing a soft shoe shuffle under the table. “I only said that after he was found dead because I thought one of them might’ve had something to do with it. There’s all sorts up there. Have you checked?”
“We’re talking to everyone, Mr. Eastwood. Did you talk to Charlie about the debt when he was in your van?”
Liam looked up wearily. “No. I couldn’t get a word of sense out of him. I got him out of the van and pointed him at the caravan. Then home. End of. Ask Dee.”