A Finer End

catching her watching him — as he had just then — with a pensive expression he couldn’t fathom. Each time he’d asked her what was wrong, she’d brushed his enquiry off with an inconsequential reply.
    ‘What’s first on the agenda?’ Gemma leaned back in her chair, ’I’d like to know how Faith’s doing this morning.’
    ’I’ll give Jack a ring, see if I can catch him at home before he leaves for the hospital.’ He had just pulled the phone from his pocket when it rang, earning him a dirty look from the couple at the next table. ‘I should keep the damned thing on vibrate,’ he muttered as he answered.
    ‘Duncan?’
    ‘Speak of the—’
    ‘The police have taken Nick in for questioning this morning,’ his cousin interrupted. ‘ "Helping them with their inquiries,” Greely called it. You said all Nick had to do was tell the truth.’ He sounded as though he felt betrayed.
    ‘Jack, there’s never anything to gain from lying to the police. Look, I don’t imagine they have enough to keep him more than a few hours, but I’ll give Greely a ring. I’ll call you back.’
    ‘They’ve picked up Nick,’ Gemma guessed as he disconnected.
    ‘And Jack thinks I’ve led them both up the garden path.’ Kincaid grimaced. ‘Bloody hell. I suppose I’d better find out if Greely knows something we don’t.’
    He dialled the mobile number Greely had given him, identifying himself when the detective answered. ‘I hear you’ve pulled in Nick Carlisle.’
    ‘I thought Mr Montfort would be speaking to you,’ Greely answered, sounding amused. ‘The boy’s prints are on record, and we also found them all over the farmhouse when we dusted it yesterday.’
    ‘Well, they would be if he did what he claims,’ Kincaid observed mildly. ‘Any luck with the van?’
    ‘No prints except Todd’s and the girl’s.’
    ‘Anything wiped?’
    ‘No. Our killer must have worn gloves. There are quite a few smudged places on the steering wheel and door handles.’
    ‘Somehow our lad doesn’t strike me as the calculating type.’
    ‘Maybe not,’ said Greely, ‘but he’s the best thing we’ve got at the moment.’
    ‘You don’t have enough to charge him.’
    ‘No. But it never hurts to shake the bottle a bit. We’ll send him on his way this afternoon if nothing else turns up, keep an eye on him. Maybe the girl helped him, and she’s the one that thought to wear gloves.’
    Not a bad hypothesis, Kincaid thought, and of course in Greely’s position he’d think — and do — exactly the same. ‘How’d the lad get himself a record?’
    ‘Some university fracas in Durham. Too much beer ending in a punch-up, is my guess. Oh, and thanks, by the way, for having Carlisle deliver himself. Saved us a bit of work.’ Greely sounded quite pleased with himself.
    Glancing up, Kincaid saw that the couple at the next table were now listening to him with undisguised curiosity.
    ‘You’ll keep me posted?’ he asked Greely, reluctant to say more.
    ‘Right. Oh. One more thing. We begged and bullied the pathologist into performing the post mortem this morning. You’re going to like this one.’ Greely plainly relished keeping Kincaid in suspense.
    ‘And?’
    ‘It seems as though Todd drowned. Fresh water, untreated. So it didn’t come from a tap.’ With that, Greely rang off.
    ‘What’s he—’ began Gemma, when Kincaid jerked his head towards their eavesdropping neighbours. She fell silent, toying with the flakes of pastry on her plate, while Kincaid sipped at his coffee, his mind busy with speculation.
    After a few unrewarding minutes, the couple gave up and left the room. Kincaid grinned. ‘Short attention spans.’ He then repeated Greely’s side of the conversation.
    ‘I don’t believe Faith helped murder Garnet, or that she’s calculating,’ Gemma said stubbornly when he’d finished. ‘For heaven’s sake, she’s still a child.’
    ‘You know all too well that’s no guarantee. And she did show up in hysterics at Jack’s around the time Garnet was killed, with no real explanation for where she’d been.’
    ‘I still don’t buy it. Greely says Garnet drowned? What are Nick and Faith supposed to have done — held her under in the tub? That’s ridiculous. And I don’t think it’s any more likely that they enticed her to go somewhere where they could do it more conveniently.’
    ‘If it’s any comfort, Greely wouldn’t dare charge Nick at this point unless he had a confession, and he