Waiting for Wednesday

under his eyes and deep grooves bracketing his mouth, which
was slack, like that of an old man. He was unshaven, the collar of his shirt grimy, and
one of the buttons was undone so that his stomach showed through, shockingly white and
soft. Sitting in the interview room, he had a lumpy, defeated air. The skin under his
nostrils was red and he kept sneezing, coughing, blowing his nose. Karlsson asked him
once more about his movements on Wednesday, 6 April, when Ruth Lennox had beenmurdered. He had a large white handkerchief that he buried his entire
battered face in.
    ‘Sorry,’ he spluttered. ‘I
don’t understand why you’re asking me this again. I’ve just been in
hospital, you know.’
    ‘I’m asking because I want to
get things clear. Which they are not. What did you do when you left Ruth
Lennox?’
    ‘I’ve told you. I went back
home.’
    ‘What time?’
    ‘Late afternoon, early evening. I had
dinner with Elaine.’ He wrinkled his jowly face. ‘She made a pudding,’
he said slowly and clearly, as if his meal was his alibi.
    ‘You weren’t there until quite
late that evening, Mr Kerrigan.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Your wife has told us that you
didn’t return home until nearly eight o’clock.’
    ‘Elaine said that?’
    ‘Yes. And that you had a shower and
put your clothes in the wash.’
    Paul Kerrigan nodded slowly.
‘That’s not right,’ he said.
    ‘We just want to know what you did
between the time that Ruth Lennox left the flat and the time that you returned home
several hours later.’
    ‘She’s angry with me. She wants
to punish me. You must see that.’
    ‘Are you saying she’s lying
about the time you came back?’
    ‘Everything’s ruined,’ he
said. ‘Ruth’s dead and my wife hates me and my sons have contempt for me.
And she wants to punish me.’
    ‘Do you know what contraceptive Ruth
Lennox used?’ Karlsson asked.
    Paul Kerrigan blinked. ‘Contraceptive?
What are you talking about?’
    ‘You were sleeping with her for ten
years. You must have known.’
    ‘Yes. She had the coil
fitted.’
    ‘You’re telling me you knew she
was using contraception.’
    ‘That’s what I just
said.’
    ‘Yet your wife found condoms in your
bicycle pannier.’ Karlsson looked closely at Kerrigan’s swollen, flushed
face. ‘If your wife is no longer fertile and Ruth Lennox had an IUD, why would you
have condoms?’
    Now there was a long silence. Karlsson
waited patiently, impassively.
    ‘It’s complicated,’ said
Kerrigan, finally.
    ‘Then you’d better explain it to
me.’
    ‘I love my wife. You won’t
believe that. And we’ve had a good marriage, until now. Ruth didn’t alter
that. I had two parallel lives and they didn’t touch. If Elaine hadn’t found
out, none of this would have mattered. I just wanted to keep my marriage safe from
harm.’
    ‘You were going to explain about the
condoms.’
    ‘I don’t know how to say this
out loud.’
    ‘But you’re going to have
to.’
    ‘I have needs that my wife can’t
meet.’
    Karlsson was starting to feel almost queasy
but he had to proceed.
    ‘Which was what Ruth Lennox was for, I
suppose.’
    Kerrigan made a hopeless gesture. ‘She
was at first. But then it became like another marriage. I liked it, in a way. But I
needed something else.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘There’s been someone else. For
a while.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘Do you need to know?’
    ‘Mr Kerrigan, you don’t need to
worry about what I need to know. Just answer my questions.’
    ‘Her name’s Sammie Kemp.
Samantha. She’s done some casual admin work for my company. That’s how we
met. It was just fun.’
    ‘Did Ruth Lennox know of your
relationship with Samantha Kemp?’
    ‘It wasn’t exactly a
relationship.’
    ‘Did she know?’
    ‘She may have suspected.’
    ‘You should have told us this
before.’
    ‘It’s got nothing to do with
anything.’
    ‘Did she confront you about
it?’
    ‘What did she expect? She knew I was
being unfaithful. She knew I was sleeping with my wife. So …’
    Karlsson almost laughed at that.
‘That’s really quite a clever way of almost convincing yourself. But Ruth
Lennox didn’t see it like that?’
    ‘It’s not as if she didn’t
know things had run their course.’
    ‘You were going to leave
her?’
    ‘Not according to her,’ Paul
Kerrigan said bitterly, before he could stop himself. A flush spread over his face.
    ‘Let me get this clear. You were
having an affair with another woman, Samantha