Strange Blood (11 page)

Foy clicked the off button and Raven's image disappeared from the screen.

‘What about his wife?' Megan asked, ‘Are you planning to interview her tonight?'

‘Yes', he replied with a heavy sigh, ‘You up for it? Need to phone home?' He gave her a sly look. ‘Don't want young Patrick waiting up, eh?'

Megan felt her cheeks burning. Was he fishing or did he know? She could just imagine him sniggering to his colleagues, telling them she was knocking off one of her students. She pretended she hadn't heard, scribbling observations about Raven on the pad in front of her.

‘I'll get some coffee brought down,' Foy said at last. ‘His wife's name's Mariel, by the way. Like Muriel but with an ‘a'. Looks like a real witch too – long black hair and big on body piercing.'

Megan nodded, her face angled slightly so that her pierced nostril was directly in his line of vision. It gave her a perverse sense of satisfaction to see him shift uncomfortably and look away.

Mariel Raven looked like a pin-up from a bondage magazine. She stood up in a flurry of chains, studs and biker leathers, her blue-black hair swinging round her face like a pirate flag in a gale. She was thirty-nine, but looked at least five years younger.

Megan watched through the mirror as Kate O'Leary walked into the room and took a seat next to Steve Foy. Kate was rather like a toned-down version of the woman she was about to interview. Same long dark hair, but hers was marshalled into a thick French plait. She had the same pale skin and brown, almond-shaped eyes as Mariel Raven, but the only jewellery she wore was a pair of tiny garnet studs in her earlobes. Catherine Zeta Jones meets Cher, Megan thought with a wry smile.

As the interview progressed Megan began to understand why Sean Raven had broken the law to make Mariel his wife. She was supremely confident. The sort of woman Megan could imagine inadequate men paying to dominate them. Totally unfazed by anything Steve or Kate threw at her, she gave as good as she got.

‘Yes, I suppose you could describe me as a swinger,' she said, leaning back in her seat and folding her arms so that the chains on her jacket rattled. ‘I love Sean but I've never restricted myself to a single sexual partner – male or female. He knows that. I don't expect him to be monogamous. As long as we're honest with each other, that's all that matters.'

‘Ask if he was honest with her about his affair with Tessa.' Megan spoke into the microphone that connected her with the two police officers.

Steve Foy put the question. Megan watched Mariel Raven's face closely as she replied. The lips pushed into an inverted ‘U' and the eyebrows, one pierced with a silver ring, shot towards her hairline. When they came, her words were laced with biting sarcasm.

‘She was just another little glitter-witch. We get them all the time. Bored housewives with a ‘vacant' sign slung across their fannies.'

Megan couldn't see the faces of the police officers but she heard Steve Foy cough slightly before he spoke again.

‘What do you mean by ‘glitter witch'?'

‘It's what serious Wiccans call people who are just playing at it. All they're really interested in is the trappings – it's like kids dressing up.'

‘But didn't Tessa go through the initiation ceremony?' Kate cut in. ‘Surely that involved some level of commitment?'

Mariel smiled wryly. ‘Well she was on what you might call a fast-track entry,' she said. ‘Sean was desperate to fuck her and he knew she wouldn't do it unless he told her it was part of the deal of becoming a witch. She was quite prim and proper when she first started coming, but he soon cured her of that.'

‘How long were they … lovers?' Kate hesitated slightly before enunciating this last word as if she found it somehow inappropriate.

‘About a year, off and on, I suppose.'

‘You suppose?' Steve Foy said, ‘You mean you're not certain?'

‘Well he didn't tell me every single time they did it, if that's what you mean,' she retorted, ‘I mean, it would have got a bit boring, really, wouldn't it? I used to like to hear about it at first. It's always interesting when one of us is screwing someone new. But she was so full of shit.'

‘What does she mean?' Megan whispered.

‘What do you mean?' Kate O'Leary's head tilted forward slightly, as if inviting a confidence.

‘Oh, she turned into a real prick-teaser. Spent most of the time telling him how guilty she felt about her husband and her kids. That's what I meant about her being a glitter witch. She liked to pretend she was a free spirit but what she really wanted was monogamy. She couldn't cope with the idea of sex without commitment.' She paused, her fingers stroking a silver pentacle pendant that rested on the smooth white cleavage above her black lycra vest. ‘I'm sure she would have ditched her old man if she'd thought there was a chance of something permanent with Sean.'

‘But that wasn't on the cards?' Kate was still using her sympathetic voice.

‘Not a chance!' She almost spat the words out, her hand flying from the pendant and thudding on the table. There was a pause as the officers exchanged glances.

‘Ask her why she married him,' Megan said.

‘Mrs. Raven,' Foy picked up, ‘can I ask you why you agreed to marry Sean? You see, I don't understand what the attraction would be for someone like yourself. Of marriage, I mean.'

‘It was for my son's, sake, not mine.' There was another clink of metal as she shifted in the chair.

‘Your son?'

‘Yes. He was seven when I met Sean and he was having problems at school. Sean offered to marry me and adopt him. He thought it would help, you know, give him a bit of stability.'

‘But he failed to tell you that he was already married?'

Megan could hear a noise like a snake hissing. ‘Yes, Detective Superintendent, he failed to tell me he was still married. I don't know why you're asking – you already know all the gory details, don't you?'

‘And yet you married him a second time while he was in prison.' Foy carried on as if he had not heard the last part of what she said. ‘Now why would that be? Not for your son's sake, surely? I mean, he must be what, eighteen, nineteen now?'

‘He's twenty-one,' she said through gritted teeth. ‘And like I said before, I happen to love Sean. I can't expect someone like you to understand the way we live but I think that's our business, don't you?'

‘As long as it doesn't involve breaking the law, yes,' Foy said. Megan could imagine his expression as he said it. The pale, bushy eyebrows would rise, the nostrils would curl slightly and he would rub the index finger of the hand he was leaning on up and down on his chin. He reminded her of a fox. But Mariel was no silly chicken cowering in a corner of the henhouse.

Megan watched and listened as Foy tried to break the woman down with the shock tactics she had suggested. At one point he thrust one of the crime scene photographs at her, staring pointedly at the pendant around Mariel's neck. There was a flicker of revulsion as she took in the sight of Tessa Ledbury's mutilated face, but no other sign of emotion.

‘Okay,' she said, nodding her head slowly, ‘Now I can see what this is all about. But it's a set-up. It has to be. Can't you see that?' Her eyes flashed angrily as she tossed the photograph back across the desk. ‘There are plenty of people who rubbed their hands in glee when Sean got sent down. You should have seen some of the letters I got!'

‘You mean Sean has enemies?' Kate O'Leary's words were more of a statement than a question.

‘You know he has!' There was a sound like fingernails on a blackboard as Mariel leaned forward, the studded leather bracelet on her wrist scraping the table. Megan winced.

‘No, we don't actually.' Steve Foy was being bloody-minded now. ‘Surely you don't mean those nice people at Saint Paul's church?'

‘If you're trying to wind me up you can forget it!' Mariel gave him a withering look. ‘They're pathetic. Misguided, blinkered but ultimately pathetic. Certainly wouldn't have the balls for anything like that.'

‘Even if they discovered that one of their new converts had been dabbling in witchcraft?'

‘Don't ask me!' she replied indignantly. Foy shrugged. There was a long pause.

‘Ask her if she owns a bicycle.' Megan's voice was deadpan. She watched Foy shift in his seat and felt a surge of adrenalin.

Kate O'Leary looked at Foy. Neither spoke. Foy glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘Interview terminated at twenty-two thirteen,' he growled.

*   *   *

Delva couldn't understand why Megan hadn't called back. She had left two messages on her mobile and one on her answerphone at home. She wondered whether to try her office but decided there would be no point. The university's switchboard would have closed down for the night by now.

Her head felt as if it was going to explode. The image of Richard Ledbury and that policewoman sizzled as if it had been branded on her brain. Questions flew like sparks. What the hell were they playing at? Was it
Richard
who had killed Tessa because he was in love with Kate? But how
could
he have killed her if he was at work all day? Had someone done it for him? Had the
policewoman
done it?

Delva was desperate to tell Megan what she had seen. She was within a couple of streets of her own house when she suddenly steered the car sharp right. Megan's house was only five minutes away. There was just a chance she had arrived home and forgotten to check the answering machine.

There were no lights on but Delva rang the bell anyway. When nothing happened she stepped back onto the pavement, looking up at the bedroom windows to see if the curtains were drawn. Delva walked over to a streetlamp and peered at her watch. Twenty past ten. Surely she wouldn't be in bed?

She rang the doorbell again, pressing her face to the glass like an impatient child. After a couple of minutes she got back into her car, slamming the door and striking the steering wheel with the heel of her hand. She sat for a while in the darkness before snatching up her mobile phone and punching out Steve Foy's number.

*   *   *

Steve Foy sat down next to Megan in the video room. She was waiting for him to speak. Apologise or come out with some excuse. But he said nothing.

‘Why didn't you ask her about the bicycle?' She fixed him with a hard stare.

‘Sorry?' His forehead creased in puzzlement like someone waking up in a strange bed.

‘Before you ended the interview I asked you to ask Mariel Raven if she owned a bike.' She cocked her head, waiting for a reply.

‘Oh,' he shrugged. ‘Didn't hear that. Must've been the audio link. Plays up sometimes.'

Megan leaned back in her chair, arms folded. Did he really expect her to swallow that? ‘Why didn't you tell me about the cyclist seen outside Tessa's house?' she persisted. ‘I only found out by accident.'

‘Sorry!' He slapped his forehead with the heel of his hand.' Must have slipped my mind with all the kerfuffle over Raven.' He gave her a lopsided smile. ‘I'm a bit knackered, that's the problem. Haven't had much sleep since all this kicked off.'

Before Megan could reply Kate O'Leary walked in to the room followed by Dave Todd.

‘What did you make of her, Kate?' Foy said. Obviously glad of the interruption, Megan thought.

‘Well, she certainly had a motive, Guv.' Kate pushed a stray lock of hair back into the French plait. Over the course of the day Megan had watched the plait slowly loosen from a severe, schoolmarmish creation to something wispy and quite vampish.

‘Yes, I suppose there's no reason why the pair of them couldn't have done it,' Foy nodded. ‘What do you think Megan?'

Megan's eyes narrowed. She was still not sure he was being straight with her. ‘Well,' she said slowly, ‘I have to admit she's the sort of person who could act her way out of anything if she chose to.' She reached across the table for the coffee. ‘But I wouldn't like to jump to any conclusions until I've had a word with the woman who shopped Sean Raven.'

Foy nodded. ‘Carole-Ann Beddowes. You taken that statement off her yet, Dave?'

‘Yes, Guv.'

‘Where is she now?'

‘Still in the interview room. Hollis was fetching her something from the canteen.'

‘Does she know about the tip-off?' Megan asked.

‘No,' Foy replied, getting to his feet, ‘When Delva Lobelo gave us the car registration and mentioned the name Raven we put two and two together. Didn't actually need to talk to the woman before we lifted him. We hauled her in a couple of hours ago. Told her we're questioning everyone with a known connection.' He stepped back, holding the door open for Megan. ‘Dave,' he said, ‘can you take Doctor Rhys to the interview room? I want to have another go at our mate Sean. You coming, Kate?'

As she followed Dave Todd along the corridor to Interview Room Number 3 Megan caught sight of Mariel Raven through an open doorway. She was leaning back in a chair, the spike heels of her black leather boots resting on the formica table and a steaming polystyrene cup in her hand. She glanced up at the sound of footsteps, clocking Megan. Her lip curled in a look of pure hatred. Megan looked quickly away. Had Mariel Raven recognised her from the TV documentary she'd appeared in last year? Guessed she was in on the case? Far more likely, Megan told herself, that the woman gave such looks to anyone and everyone in the building; anybody remotely connected with the criminal justice system that had put her husband behind bars and now seemed hellbent on doing it again.

There was was a strong smell of steak and kidney pie as Megan pushed open the door of the room Carole-Ann Beddowes was in. An empty plate had been pushed to the edge of the table and the woman Megan had last seen at the wheel of the the red Fiesta was flicking ash onto it from her cigarette.