Dead Man's Footsteps

Stephen Klinger’s eyes moved to the left in response to a question they were moving to his memory side, which meant he was likely to be telling the truth. So if his eyes moved right, then that meant he was likely to be lying. It wasn’t a failsafe technique but it could be a good indicator.
    Leaning forward, as the maid put down his cup and saucer, and a china jug of milk, Branson said, ‘In youropinion, sir, do you think Ronnie Wilson would have been capable of murdering either of his wives?’
    The look of shock on Klinger’s face was genuine. As was the double-take on his wife’s. His eyes stayed dead centre as he replied. ‘Not Ronnie, no. He had a temper on him, but…’ He shrugged, shaking his head.
    ‘He had a kind heart,’ Sue added. ‘He liked to look after his friends. I don’t think – no, definitely, I don’t think so.’
    ‘We have some information we’d like to share with you, in confidence at this stage, although we will be making a statement to the press in the next few days.’
    Branson glanced at Bella, as if offering her the opportunity to speak, but she signalled back she was happy for him to continue.
    He poured some milk into his coffee, then said, ‘It doesn’t seem that Joanna Wilson ever made it to America. Her body was found in a storm drain in the centre of Brighton on Friday. She’d been there for a long time and she appears to have been strangled.’
    Now both of them looked genuinely shocked.
    ‘Shit!’ Sue said.
    ‘Is that the one that was in the Argus on Monday?’ Stephen wondered.
    Bella nodded at him.
    ‘Are you saying that – that – Ronnie had something to do with it?’ he asked.
    ‘If I may continue for a moment, sir,’ Branson pressed, ‘we learned yesterday that Lorraine Wilson’s body has also been found.’
    Sue Klinger blanched. ‘In the Channel?’
    ‘No, in a river outside Melbourne, in Australia.’
    Both Klingers sat looking at him in stunned silence. Somewhere in the house a phone started ringing. No onemade any move to answer it. Glenn drank some of his coffee.
    ‘ Melbourne? ’ Sue Klinger said eventually. ‘ Australia? ’
    ‘How on earth did she get there from the English Channel?’ Stephen asked, looking totally astonished.
    The ringing stopped. ‘The post-mortem has shown that she has only been dead for two years, sir – so it doesn’t look as if she did commit suicide by jumping into the Channel back in 2002.’
    ‘So she did it by jumping into a river in Australia instead?’ Stephen said.
    ‘I don’t think so,’ Glenn replied. ‘Her neck was broken and she was in the boot of a car.’ He held back the rest of the information he had.
    Both the Klingers sat very still, absorbing the impact of what they had just heard. Finally Stephen broke the silence. ‘By whom? Why? Are you saying the same person killed Joanna and Lorraine?’
    ‘We can’t tell at this stage. But there are some similarities in the way they both appear to have been killed.’
    ‘Who – who would have killed Joanna – and then Lorraine?’ Sue asked. She began twisting a gold bracelet on her wrist round and round nervously.
    ‘Were either of you aware that Joanna Wilson inherited a house from her mother, which she sold shortly before her death?’ Glenn asked. ‘It netted an amount of approximately one hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds. We are now trying to track down what happened to that money.’
    ‘Probably went to pay off Ronnie’s debts the moment it came into her account,’ Stephen said. ‘I liked the old bugger but he wasn’t too clever with money, if you knowwhat I mean. Always wheeling and dealing, but never getting it quite right. He wanted to be a much bigger player than he had the ability for.’
    ‘That’s a bit harsh, Steve,’ Sue commented, turning to face her husband. ‘Ronnie had good ideas.’ She looked at the two detectives and tapped her head. ‘He had an inventive mind. He once invented a gizmo for extracting air from wine bottles that had been opened. He was in the process of patenting it when that – what’s it called? – Vacu Vin came out and cleaned up in the market.’
    ‘Yeah, but the Vacu Vin was plastic,’ Stephen said. ‘Ronnie made his out of brass, the stupid sod. Anybody could have told him that metals react with wine.’
    ‘You said yourself at the time you thought it was smart, didn’t you?’
    ‘Yeah, but I wouldn’t invest in any business Ronnie was running. Done it twice before