Headhunters by Peter Lovesey

Author:Peter Lovesey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2009-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

thirteen

‘ DO YOU RECKON FRANCISCO slept with Fiona?’ Hen asked Gary.

Gary weighed the question for a moment before shaking his head.

‘Or wanted to?’

He answered with a smile and a shrug that said he wasn’t a mind-reader.

‘They were on close terms,’ Hen pointed out. ‘Must have been if she gave him a key.’

‘With respect, guv, that doesn’t mean a lot these days. They were neighbours,’ Gary said, making Hen feel about ninety.

‘You see where I’m heading with this?’ she said. ‘I know he’s not Mastermind, but he’d be an idiot to kill her for the bloody car. What other motive is there?’

‘Maybe she kept a load of money lying around the house.’

‘Maybe she didn’t. She was an accountant. They keep it in interest-bearing accounts.’

‘She had something on him, then?’

‘Blackmail, you mean? I suppose he may have had secrets she got to know about. But he doesn’t have a record. We checked.’

‘All that means is that he’s not been caught.’

‘Okay, but I can’t see Fiona as a blackmailer.’

‘She knew how to get what she wanted.’

‘You mean what we heard from the people who worked with her? Cosying up to the boss? Yes, they made her sound like the office whore. But she was up to something smarter, known to us women as maximising your assets.’

‘This wasn’t the office,’ Gary said. ‘This was the bloke next door.’

‘How did it work, then?’

Gary hesitated. He was new in the job, but he already knew he’d better not look smarter than the boss. ‘I’m guessing, but let’s say he was into something dodgy.’

‘Such as?’

‘Nicking cars and doing them up. Fiona watches the comings and goings, follows him one day, finds out, and sees a way of turning a profit.’

‘By threatening to tell all? She’d be taking a mega risk demanding money from a hard man like Francisco.’

‘She did. We know the result,’ he said.

‘Not bad, Gary,’ Hen said, ‘not bad at all. I’ve only got one problem with it. We’re investigating two drownings. If he killed Fiona because she was blackmailing him, how do we explain the killing of Meredith Sentinel?’

Gary actually looked relieved, like a driver who has wound down the window and been told he was speeding and had better improve his driving next time. ‘You’ve got me there, guv.’

Hen said, ‘It’s back to the sexual motive.’

She’d lost Gary altogether now. He was frowning. ‘I didn’t think either woman was assaulted.’

‘I’m not suggesting they were. It’s more about what was going on in Francisco’s mind.’

He still looked baffled.

‘Picture the scene on the beach,’ Hen went on. ‘Meredith starts stripping off. They both do, I guess. Suppose Francisco’s secret is that he’s impotent.’

Gary blinked, disbelieving. ‘A muscleman like that?’

‘It’s not so unusual. Agreed, he pumps iron and shaves his head and wears tattoos to suggest the opposite. He persuades himself that if he finds the right woman he’ll turn into a full-blown stud. He’s on a quest to find her. And each time it doesn’t happen he goes into a red mist and kills them. It’s not just that he blames them for his failure, it’s that he can’t bear them knowing.

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