Cross of Fire (5 page)

'What lousy luck...'

'And he's on his way here now. Which is why I left a message on your answerphone to get here as early as you
could this morning. Both you and Marler have a lot to grasp
before Buchanan descends. Yesterday Paula and I went over
how she would handle it - his questioning. Briefly, no
mention of Karin being hired by some mysterious authority to check the state of France. Just a friend of Paula's who
shared her interest in underwater exploration. I'm going to
point Buchanan in the direction of Paula so he questions her
first. You two can then follow her lead. Volunteer nothing -
answer any questions he asks and shut up.'

'I say.' Marler protested, 'we're not exactly amateurs at
this game.'

Tweed leaned forward over his desk. 'And neither is
Buchanan, so don't you forget it...'

The phone rang, Monica took the call, listened, grimaced at Tweed, who nodded and relaxed in his chair.

'They're on the way up.' Monica said as she replaced the receiver. 'The Heavenly Twins - Chief Inspector Buchanan, with his ever-faithful sidekick, Sergeant Warden.'

'We must welcome them. Make coffee, if you would.'

Tweed rose behind his desk as Monica opened the door
and two men entered. Buchanan was a tall slim man in his forties with a deceptively relaxed manner which had trap
ped more than a few suspects. Warden, an inch or two
shorter, had a poker face and rarely showed any kind of
reaction. He carried a notebook. Greeting them amiably,
Tweed ushered them into two chairs he had earlier placed
so they half-faced Paula and himself.

'We are all ready for you.' Tweed began amiably, 'and Paula is ready to answer your questions.'

'Really?' Buchanan's tone was cynical as he glanced round the room. 'You mean you're going to cooperate without waving the Official Secrets Act in my face? Something General & Cumbria Assurance have been known to resort to.'

Tweed smiled at this reference to the cover name for the SIS, the name on the brass plate on the front door.

'Monica will be bringing coffee.' Tweed continued his welcoming act. 'It's a raw day.'

'It must have been a raw day, Miss Grey, when you went
scuba diving at Dunwich. At least that was the story Mr
Harry Butler told me at Ipswich police headquarters two
days ago.'

'Miss Grey?' She gave him her best smile. 'I recall it was Paula last time we met.'

'This is a formal inquiry into a cold-blooded case of murder. How do you think she was killed?'

He's going for the jugular for openers, Tweed thought.
Trying to throw her off balance with a brutal approach.

'She appeared to have been strangled.' Paula replied
quietly.

'By an expert. One might almost say a professional.'

'What makes you say that?' Tweed interjected sharply.

'The autopsy report. It was carried out by Dr Kersey. You may have heard of him - one of the leading pathologists.' Buchanan jingled loose change in his pocket.

'What does he base that conclusion on?' Tweed persisted.

Buchanan faced him and his alert grey eyes showed a
trace of amusement. He was well
aware Tweed had intervened to take the pressure off Paula for a moment.

'The way the strangler had used his thumbs to press on
the windpipe to bring about death as swiftly as possible. Kersey suspects some of the bruising was inflicted after death - an attempt to cover up the skill with which the strangulation was carried out. Now, if you don't mind, I'd
like to continue asking Miss Grey certain questions. After
all, she was at the scene of the crime. You weren't.'

'I wasn't actually at the scene of the crime as you said.' Paula contradicted him. 'I was shivering with cold and fright near the top of a fir tree.'

'But you saw the murder take place?'

'I did not. Would you like me to explain how Karin and
I came to be there?'

'You're willing to make a statement?'

Buchanan glanced at Warden who sat with his notebook
on his lap, then at Tweed; expecting opposition. Tweed, playing with a pen, merely nodded.

Paula told her story tersely and without a wasted word.
While she talked Buchanan never took his eyes off her but
she stared back. The Chief Inspector crossed his legs,
perched the cup and saucer Monica had given him on his
knee, sipped the beverage as Paula concluded.

'... I wish to God now I'd insisted Karin and I spent the day shopping in London.'

'I hadn't heard you were interested in underwater explo
ration,' Buchanan remarked.

'But you don't know all that about me. I've made my
statement.'

'And these mysterious men in disguise who hunted you
with rifles ...' There was a hint of sarcasm in his tone and he paused, hoping Paula would rise to the bait. When she
remained silent he pressed on. 'Who could they have been?
Why would they want to kill the two of you? When you
were racing back to Aldeburgh with the other outboard
dinghies in pursuit why didn't you head for the shore earlier
and run for it?'

Warden smiled to himself. A typical Buchanan tactic.
Without warning he was putting on the pressure to break
her down with a barrage of queries. Pressure had broken
many witnesses before.

'I've made my statement.' Paula repeated. 'In that state
ment I answered all but one of those three questions but I'll
humour you. You don't mind if I repeat myself, Chief
Inspector?'

'Not at all,' Buchanan replied agreeably.

'I've no idea who the killers were. I've no idea why they came after us. The third question was not covered in my statement. If you knew that part of the world you'd know that south of Dunwich is one of the loneliest stretches of coast in the world. I felt we had to get to the parked car to
escape.'

'And the three dinghies these men used to pursue you at sea had appeared after you had dived below the surface?'

'I refer you to my statement.'

'Karin's husband, Captain Victor Rosewater, is stationed at a Nato base in southern Germany. Someone will have to
tell him what's happened.'

'I've already done that. It wasn't a pleasant duty.'

'You left that out of your statement.' Buchanan pointed
out.

'It's been added to the statement now.'

'How did he react?'

This was the unexpected question she'd been dreading.
Something which hadn't arisen when she'd had her long
session with Tweed. She hesitated for a second, used her hand to straighten a pleat in her blue skirt.

'He expressed complete disbelief. I don't think he'd taken it in by the time the conversation ended.'

Buchanan smoothed his brown, neatly cut hair, stroking the back of his neck. Warden recognized the gesture: frustration. Buchanan suddenly looked over his shoulder at
Newman.

'Have you anything to add to the latter part of Miss
Grey's statement? After all, you were there at the crucial
time. I have a further question when you've explained your
own version of events.'

'I have nothing to add to Paula's very lucid description
of what took place. And your other question?'

'The timing seems wrong. I was at Ipswich police HQ when your call came through. I was passing the duty sergeant's desk and he'd also gone down with flu. So I took your call...'

'Funny, I didn't recognize your voice,' Newman inter
jected, playing for time.

'Probably because I used my official voice. I recognized yours. The call was timed at exactly 8.20 p.m. From Miss Grey's account you must still have been on the marshes. So
how did you know the right number to phone?'

'Driving out to find Paula we passed a call box. I stopped
the car, went back, checked the number in the phone directory.'

'Why? At that stage?'

Buchanan's tone was whiplash. Newman smiled, lit a
cigarette, blew smoke rings.

'I refer you to Paula's statement. You're a detective. You should have worked that out for yourself. When she called
for help she mentioned hearing Karin scream. I feared the
worst, thought we might need the police.'

'I see.' He turned suddenly to Paula. 'Were you carrying
a weapon?'

'No.' she lied promptly.

'What about you, Newman - and the others?'

Buchanan had twisted round in his chair again. His gaze swept over Marler, rested on Newman.

'We were all armed. I don't have to explain why, do I?'

'What weapon were you equipped with?'

Buchanan was addressing Marler who had been sitting
like a statue. He was smoking a king-size cigarette. Marler flicked ash from the cigarette into a glass bowl, looked at Buchanan with amusement.

Tor the record.' he drawled, 'as if it mattered, I had my
favourite weapon. An Armalite.'

The cup and saucer on Buchanan's knee jiggled. Warden,
intrigued, leaned forward. It was the first time he had ever seen his chief rattled. Buchanan recovered quickly, nodded in response before he replied.

'A strange weapon to be hawking round the countryside.'

'You think so?' Marler's tone was still bantering. 'I would
have thought it logical when we'd heard the men hunting
Paula were carrying rifles. I'm quite a fairish shot, you
know.'

Buchanan put down his cup and saucer on a table.
Standing up, he addressed Paula, his tone neutral.

'We'll have your statement typed out and then maybe you would be good enough to drop in at the Yard to sign
it.'

'Have it brought here,' Tweed said quietly. 'Something
urgent cropped up yesterday. Paula will be occupied for
some time to come.'

'As you wish.' Buchanan walked to the door Warden had opened. He turned round before leaving. 'I would like to thank everyone for their cooperation. And yours especially, Tweed...'

He said nothing more until he had climbed behind the wheel of his Volvo parked further along the Crescent. He
was fixing his seat belt when Warden asked his question.

'What do you think, Chief?'

'Paula Grey was lying.'

'Really, I didn't get that impression.'

'She was lying by omission. Her statement bore all the
hallmarks of having been carefully rehearsed. Probably with
Tweed. There's a lot they haven't told us. You noticed
Newman said very little? Just said he agreed with Paula's
version. Not like him to keep so quiet.'

'That Marler is a saucy sod.'

'Oh, that was a clever tactic. A way of terminating the
interview.'