فصل 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Home at last

Eliot sat at his computer and looked at a report he had started on Friday. But questions about the Forley case filled his mind, and he could not push them away. Why were the Crowthers not telling him the truth? Had Catherine Crowther been having an affair with Forley? What had made her suddenly change her style of painting? And did anyone visit Forley after Wilver had left on Friday? Catherine Crowther would not have seen if they had arrived after one o’clock and gone out through the back gate. And what had Forley been so worried about?

Eliot made a great effort to work. He had three other reports to write, and they should all have been finished days ago. But he could not stop thinking about the case. By the time he went home, he had hardly written anything.

‘Dad!’ said Micky as soon as he got through the door.

‘Did you see that brilliant goal last night?’

‘On Match of the Day?’ Eliot asked. ‘Weren’t you in bed by then?’

‘Mum said I could stay up and watch it,’ Micky said.

‘He could hardly keep his eyes open,’ said Sally.

‘Neither could I,’ said Eliot. He gave them both a kiss. Sally had already started the evening meal. Eliot rarely cooked, except for Sunday lunch and on Wednesdays when Sally worked late. She taught part-time at Lewisham College. Her classes were usually over in time to pick up Micky from school at 3.30, and on other days her sister took care of him.

As soon as he sat down at the kitchen table, he relaxed. Forley’s death was a problem which interested him, but did not worry him any more. Forley had had no children or family of his own. Of course, his friends would miss him, but they had their own lives. And Amanda Grant was strong enough to start again. It was not Eliot’s business if the Crowthers and the Wilvers had problems with their marriages. He hoped the pathologist would say it was suicide, and that would be the end of it.

But Eliot’s feelings told him it was more complicated than suicide. And after eighteen years with the police, he trusted his feelings. He knew that two people were lying, and maybe more. What were they trying to protect?

Still, it could all wait until tomorrow. Now it was time for him to listen to Micky. He smiled as his son began to tell him about last night’s firework show.