Hope to Die

‘Mrs Swann,’ he says, taking his seat, ‘as you know, I’m DS Chris Gislingham, and you already know DC Everett. You should be aware that this is a formal police interview and is being recorded. I also need to advise you that new evidence has come to light which means we now have no choice but to arrest you on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. There may also be further charges at a later date, depending on what comes to light in the course of our investigation. Do you understand?’

Merrick is staring at Gis like a rabbit in headlights: she’s obviously never handled anything remotely like this before.

‘And precisely what,’ says Swann, ‘am I supposed to have done?’

‘Well, we can start with the fact that you washed your husband’s nightclothes, even though you knew they would be important items of evidence –’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake –’

‘But it’s not just that. We now believe that you and your husband colluded in concealing or destroying certain other items, in an attempt to suppress the identity of the man your husband shot.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snaps.

Gislingham smiles. ‘That’s funny. Your husband used exactly the same phrase.’

She gives him a withering look. ‘That’s because it is ridiculous. Why on earth would we do such a thing?’

She doesn’t, Ev notes, ask what they’re supposed to have got rid of.

Merrick, though, is just about to. ‘Can I ask which “items” you mean?’

‘A wallet,’ says Everett, ‘a mobile phone and a backpack.’

Margaret Swann raises an eyebrow. ‘And how, pray, do you know he even had such things?’

‘It’s a reasonable assumption, Mrs Swann, as I’m sure –’

‘That’s not proof,’ says the lawyer quickly. She clearly thinks this is a big win.

‘True,’ says Ev. ‘But, luckily for us, there is also a witness.’

‘Witness?’ says Margaret Swann. ‘What witness?’

‘A taxi driver,’ says Gislingham. ‘The taxi driver who dropped the man off at your house and saw him walk up the drive to the door. Hardly the behaviour of a random housebreaker, wouldn’t you agree?’

She sniffs and looks away.

Merrick is poised, pen at the ready. ‘Could you give me the details of this witness, please?’

Ev pushes a piece of paper across to her. ‘He works at the station cab rank and picked the man up at just after nine that night. He gave Gantry Manor as his destination, spent most of the journey looking at his mobile phone and paid with cash from a leather wallet. He also had a backpack with him.’

Merrick looks up. ‘You only have the driver’s word for that.’

Gis smiles. ‘Actually, no. We’ve been able to secure CCTV footage from the station, and that completely corroborates the driver’s story. The man can be seen quite clearly coming through the ticket barriers. He also had a return ticket.’

He lets the implications of that settle for a moment.

‘And would you believe,’ he continues, ‘we’re fortunate enough to have a second witness. Someone who saw Mr Swann outside the house that night, with a black plastic bag.’

Margaret Swann laughs. ‘And taking out the rubbish is a crime now, is it?’

Gis pauses. ‘No. But I do start to wonder when I’m told this occurred only a few minutes after the sound of gunfire. Gunfire which – as we now know – left a man lying dead in your kitchen with his brains blown out. I don’t know about you, Mrs Swann, but “taking out the rubbish” isn’t the first task that would come to my mind in circumstances like that.’

The lawyer flushes slightly; she’s getting out of her depth and she knows it. ‘All the same, you can’t prove that wasn’t what he was doing –’

‘He was walking in the opposite direction of the bins, so yes, Miss Merrick, I think it’s a fair assumption.’

Swann stares at Gislingham. ‘And have you actually found the things you allege we “destroyed”?’

‘Not as yet, no. But it’s only a matter of time. I hope you know that.’ Gis sits back in his chair. ‘Your husband says he’d never seen the man before. You’re aware of that?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you know who he was?’

She frowns. ‘I told you, I never saw him.’

‘That’s not what I asked.’

‘No, of course I didn’t know who he was. He was a burglar. We don’t know those sort of people.’

‘He was nothing of the kind, Mrs Swann, as you well know.’

Swann gives him a poisonous look but says nothing.

‘So, for the record,’ says Everett, ‘you’re denying all and any prior knowledge of this man?’

Merrick may be a rookie, but even she knows this is heading in a dangerous direction. As for Swann, she’s gripping her handbag so hard her knuckles are white.

Ev fixes her with a cool stare. ‘I’m afraid I don’t believe you, Mrs Swann.’

Swann lifts her chin. ‘I’m not a liar, Constable, or whatever it is you are. And neither is my husband.’

Gislingham nods to Ev, who passes across a second piece of paper.