Truth Lies Dying: A gripping, unputdownable crime thriller by Graeme Hampton

Author:Graeme Hampton [Hampton, Graeme]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hera
Published: 2023-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

Fiona Tanner was in her late forties. She was, she explained, just back from the gym, but could spare Denning five minutes.

She lived in Kilburn, in a pleasant semi-detached house on a street not far from Kensal Green Cemetery. She showed him into the living room. There was a framed photograph of her and her late husband on a table by the window. Denning had googled Adam Tanner but apart from the information about his alleged involvement in the fraud case, there was little of note.

‘You said you wanted to talk about Adam,’ Fiona said, sitting opposite him. ‘I don’t really know what I can tell you. It was nearly three years ago now.’

She’d come home from work one day to find her husband in the bath having taken an overdose of sleeping pills and drunk half a bottle of whisky. The coroner had said it was suicide, and there was nothing to suggest he hadn’t taken his own life. But Denning wanted to make sure everything had been looked into.

‘He suffered from depression,’ he said. It was as much a statement as a question.

‘Off and on,’ Fiona said. ‘The pressure of the fraud investigation didn’t help. The police had initially thought he was one of the major players. In reality he’d become involved unwittingly. He always insisted he didn’t know it was a fraud. He’d dealt with Ray Bowden and Malcolm Carver for years – we knew Malcolm socially – and he trusted them. The whole thing came as a massive surprise.’

‘The allegations were that Adam had helped to dispose of the money after it had been transferred into various dodgy bank accounts. It was believed that he knew what he was doing, and was aware that it was illegal.’ Denning offered her a propitiatory smile. ‘I’m not passing judgement, only telling you what I know. Which, I have to say, isn’t very much.’

‘The police investigation cleared Adam of any wrongdoing, although his employers weren’t so understanding. He was, let’s just say, encouraged to leave his job. He took voluntary redundancy, we sold our house in Surrey and moved in here. We lived off my money for a while – I run my own accountancy firm – then he eventually found a job managing a market garden in Wembley. It was a difficult time in our lives, but we got over it. I thought Adam had managed to put it behind him, but perhaps he hadn’t. There were always rumours and gossip. We lost a couple of friends over it. They obviously believed he was guilty. Some of the neighbours wouldn’t speak to us. Until we moved round here and nobody knew.’ She looked at him quizzically. ‘And this is to do with a murder, is it? Ray Bowden? I can’t see how Adam’s suicide fits into that?’

He explained about the other deaths; how he was certain there was a connection there.

‘I think the men behind the scam, I mean the ones who organised it all, got away scot-free and somehow wanted to make sure the men left behind kept quiet.

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