The Glass Room (Vera Stanhope 5)

potatoes in the microwave, she heard Ashworth grovelling to his wife.
    ‘Yeah, I know I promised, but this is something I can’t get out of.’
    They ate sitting by the fire with plates on their knees.
    ‘Is there anything I should know,’ Ashworth said. ‘Before we go in there?’
    ‘I wouldn’t want to influence you.’ And that was true enough, Vera thought. She’d be glad of Joe’s take on the pair. He disapproved of them instinctively, just because of their clothes and the way they looked, the fact that they didn’t have a real job or the whole 2.4 kids thing. Vera wasn’t sure of the way her sergeant voted, but she knew that by temperament he was conservative. He’d be sceptical about the pair and wouldn’t be taken in by the romance of their relationship. That was just what Vera needed.
    They saw the couple before they realized Vera and Joe were there. Again the lights had been switched on, but the curtains – if there were any at the Myers Farm kitchen window – hadn’t been drawn. Jack and Joanna were sitting at the table. Supper plates were piled on the draining board. Jack was wearing thick woollen socks. His feet were stretched towards the ancient Rayburn and he drank beer from a bottle. The pose suggested complete exhaustion, and Vera thought he couldn’t have slept much even after Joanna’s release from custody. Joanna was sitting at an old-fashioned sewing machine, turning the handle with her right hand and guiding the fabric under the dipping needle with the other.
    ‘My nana used to have one of those Singers,’ Joe Ashworth said. He sounded wistful. Perhaps he thought his wife should spend her time sewing clothes for the kids instead of making a life of her own.
    ‘No time for nostalgia, lad.’ Vera knocked sharply at the door and marched in without waiting for a reply. Jack jumped to his feet. It was almost as if they’d woken him from a deep sleep. Joanna just looked up from the sewing.
    ‘What is it, Vera? Have you come to arrest me?’ The question was amused and impassive, as if the answer would have been of purely academic interest.
    ‘Nothing to make a joke about.’ Vera took a seat at the end of the table, leaving the one opposite the woman free for Joe. ‘We’ve just got a few questions.’
    ‘What will you have?’ Jack said. ‘Beer? Coffee?’ Now he was on his feet, it seemed he couldn’t keep still. He bounced towards the dresser on the balls of his feet, shook the stiffness out of his arms and shoulders.
    ‘This isn’t a social call.’ Vera looked at him. ‘Maybe there’s something you could be getting on with. We could do with some privacy.’
    ‘I’m not sure.’ He glared at them. ‘I think I should stay. You hear all sorts of things about the police. You might need a witness.’
    ‘This is Vera, Jack!’ Joanna threw back her head and laughed. ‘She’s not going to fit me up.’
    He seemed about to respond, but glowered at the detectives and walked out without a word. They all watched him leave the room. After Jack’s bluster, the place seemed very quiet and calm, like a house after all the kids have been put to bed. Eventually they heard his boots cross the yard as he made his way to the barn.
    ‘Someone’s trying to fit you up,’ Joe Ashworth said. ‘That’s how it seems at least.’
    Oh yes! Vera said to herself. Good opening, Joey-boy. Nice way in!
    ‘What do you mean?’ Joanna was sitting very upright in her chair.
    ‘The note, apparently from Ferdinand. If it wasn’t from him, perhaps the killer wanted you at the murder scene. What did you do with it, by the way? The note, I mean.’ The question was thrown in as an afterthought, although it was what he’d wanted to know from the start.
    ‘I’m not sure. I have looked for it. I thought perhaps you’d be able to test the handwriting, though only the initials were written. The rest was done on the computer and printed out.’
    ‘Didn’t that strike you as odd?’ Joe said. ‘A note as short as that, why not just scribble it on a bit of paper? Why not speak to you, if it comes to that? Ferdinand must have seen you at lunch. He could have told you whatever he wanted then.’
    ‘Everything about that place was weird,’ Joanna said. ‘And I did wonder if the note was a ruse and Ferdinand just wanted to get me into his room on our own. But while there was a chance he had information about a publisher I decided to play along with it.’ She paused and returned to Joe’s