Coffin Knows the Answer by Gwendoline Butler

Author:Gwendoline Butler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2012-02-01T16:00:00+00:00

They stood outside, Coffin, Phoebe and Winnie Ardet facing each other for a moment in silence. He looked backwards over his shoulder at the house where he could see Mrs Owner looking out of the window.

‘Will she be all right?’

Winnie Ardet nodded. ‘I’ll see she is, sir.’

‘She’s a friend?’

‘In a way, sir. I’ve known her since I could walk … earlier, really, our mothers knew each other. My mum asked me to keep looking after her … I went on knowing her even when …’ She hesitated.

‘I know what you don’t want to say. I helped put her away. It must have been difficult for you.’

‘It was,’ said Winnie with feeling.

Coffin and Phoebe Astley walked towards their car, with Winnie trailing.

‘Is there a Mr Owner? Or is that an invention?’

‘No, there is, I met him once but he does travel a lot.’

‘Can we trust what she says?’

‘Oh yes, she’d tell the truth to me.’

‘And what made her come out with it now?’

There was a pause. ‘You may find this hard to believe, sir but she liked women, despite her business. And after a bit she couldn’t take the killings.’

Coffin found he believed her.

‘She was still frightened, but she knew I’d do my best for her.’

He nodded at Phoebe as they turned towards her car. Then he said to Inspector Ardet. ‘As you have done, Winnie. I reckon you’ve been a good friend.’

‘What do you make of that?’ he asked Phoebe as they drove off. ‘Did Owner hear what she claims?’

‘I think so. Not what I’d call an inventive woman.’

‘No. But a frightened one.’ He watched as Phoebe swung the car into the busy traffic. ‘Wonder what’s she frightened of?’

‘Well, she said: the serial killer.’

‘Is that enough?’

‘It might be,’ said Phoebe who thought it very well would be for her if she was in Mrs Owner’s (what a name!) position. Of course, as a serving police officer she was often in a worse position but backed up and supported by her mates. That did help.

Layers here, Coffin thought, complicated layers, it was often the way with a murder case. Sometimes you could never see straight through to the bottom. It was hard to live with that, but you had to learn how.

‘What she seemed to hear, or perhaps I should say what she seemed to make of the dying woman’s words, was that she was a stand in or substitute.’

‘Theatrical,’ said Coffin shortly. ‘The understudy.’

So who was the star?

‘I know you think this connects with Miss Pinero somehow.’

‘Not just think,’ said Coffin fiercely. ‘I know.’

Phoebe drove on in silence. Some very strange thoughts were milling around in her head. How could Stella be part of this? And yet Stella already was. She had been attacked, kidnapped, and only escaped by a kind of miracle. Phoebe hardly knew what to say. ‘Straight home, sir,’ was all she managed. ‘Or back to HQ?’

‘I’ll go to the theatre and see Stella.’

‘Right, sir, right.’

‘But take me to the Tower first, I must look in on the cat again.

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