Waiting for Wednesday

flawed. Maybe the
timing on the CCTV wasn’t right.’
    ‘Fine,’ said Karlsson.
‘Check it out. If you can break his alibi, you’ll be a hero. Now, back in
the real world. Remember when we first saw the body, all those days ago? I wondered who
would kill this nice mother of three. Now the queue goes out the door. Who shall we
start with? There’s Russell Lennox: betrayed husband, drink problem, tendency to
violence.’
    ‘We don’t know it was him who
beat up Paul Kerrigan.’
    ‘No, but I’d lay a bet on
it.’
    ‘And he didn’t know about his
wife’s affair,’ said Munster.
    ‘You mean he
said
he
didn’t.’
    ‘His print was on the cog along with
Billy’s,’ put in Yvette.
    ‘Because he owned it. But, still, that
sounds most likely. Confronts his wife, picks up that cog thing. There’s the
awkward matter of his alibi, of course. So let’s keep leaning on him. Their
children were at school and they’re children. But now we’ve got Judith and
her every-parent’s-nightmare boyfriend. Ruth discovers about him. Arranges a
meeting at their house. Threatens him with the law. He picks up the cog. I don’t
like Zach Greene. I don’t like him at all. Which unfortunately isn’t
evidence. Any comments?’ He looked around. ‘Thought not. But we should lean
on him some more. Where did he say he was that afternoon, Yvette?’
    Yvette turned pink. ‘He didn’t
actually say,’ she muttered.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I asked him. But, now you mention it,
he didn’t give me an answer. He went on about them being consenting adults or
something. He distracted me.’
    Karlsson stared at her. ‘Distracted
you?’ he repeated pleasantly, coldly.
    ‘Sorry. It was stupid of me.
I’ll get back to him.’
    He stared down at his papers for a moment.
He didn’t want to shout at her in front of Riley and Bradshaw but it took an
effort.
    ‘Moving on. We have the Kerrigans. He
wants to break off with her. Or she discovers about his office affair. Confronts him. He
picks up the cog.’
    ‘Would she do it at her house?’
said Yvette. ‘Wouldn’t the flat be more logical?’
    ‘She might have threatened him at the
flat,’ said Bradshaw. ‘She could have said she would inform his wife. For
him to confront and kill her in her own home would be a tit for tat. Exposing her in her
own family home.’
    Karlsson frowned at Bradshaw. ‘I
thought your theorywas that the murderer was a loner, of no fixed
abode, that he had no family connections, that the murder was a kind of love.’
    ‘Ah, yes,’ said Bradshaw.
‘But in a real sense Kerrigan was a loner, estranged from his family, and because
of this rented flat, he actually was of no fixed abode and the murder was, arguably, a
last, desperate expression of love, the end of love.’
    What Karlsson really wanted to do was to
lean across, take Bradshaw’s smart-phone and hit him over the head with it
repeatedly. But he said nothing.
    ‘And then there’s
Kerrigan’s wife, Elaine. Humiliated wife. Finds out about Ruth, confronts her,
picks up cog.’
    ‘But she didn’t know about the
affair,’ said Yvette. ‘Or Ruth’s name. Or where she lived.’
    ‘Maybe she did know,’ said
Munster. ‘They always do.’
    ‘What do you mean,
they
?’ Yvette glared at him.
    ‘Women.’ Munster was wary at
Yvette’s sharp tone. ‘You know, when their husbands are unfaithful. They
know. Deep down. At least, that’s what some people say.’
    ‘Crap,’ said Yvette,
decisively.
    ‘Anyway, we suspect that someone
knew,’ said Karlsson. ‘Someone might have pushed that cut-up doll through
the Lennox letterbox as a warning.’
    ‘That could just be
coincidence.’
    ‘In my world,’ announced
Bradshaw with a modest smile, ‘coincidence is another word for –’
    ‘You’re right,’ cut in
Karlsson, decisively. ‘It could be coincidence. It might have been Dora’s
charming schoolfriends persecuting her. Did you talk to her again, Yvette?’
    Yvette nodded. ‘She said she’d
assumed it was for her. And she thinks it arrived around lunchtime. She got distressed.
But she didn’t want to talk about it really – apparentlythings
are better at school since her mother was killed. Everyone wants to be her friend
suddenly.’ She made a grimace of disgust.
    ‘OK. So, the doll’s either a
clue or it isn’t. Maybe we can talk to the head teacher and see if she can throw
any light on it. Moving on, what about the sons?’
    ‘Josh and Ben Kerrigan?’