Waiting for Wednesday

returned from Cardiff where he had been interviewing Josh
Kerrigan’s girlfriend, Shari Hollander.
    ‘Well?’
    ‘She just repeated what Josh Kerrigan
said: that he’d probably been with her, they’d spent practically every
minute of the day together since they’d started going out, she couldn’t
quite remember. But she was pretty sure that there wasn’t a time when he was away
for a large chunk of the day or night.’
    ‘It’s a bit vague.’
    ‘He didn’t use his credit card
to buy any kind of transport to London on that day. But he did take a hundred pounds out
in cash a couple of days before, so he could have used that.’
    ‘But he’s not looking very
likely, is he? Not that he ever was.’
    ‘I wouldn’t say that.’
    Karlsson looked at Munster more attentively.
‘What do you mean?’
    ‘There was something his girlfriend
mentioned that I thought might interest you.’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘She said Josh was furious with his
father. Spitting mad, she said. She said he’d had a letter, telling him his dad
was not the happy family man he set himself up as.’
    ‘So he knew.’
    ‘That’s what she
said.’
    ‘Good work, Chris. We need another
talk with him. Right now. And his little brother while we’re at it.’
    Josh Kerrigan had got himself a haircut –
or maybe, thought Karlsson, looking at the uneven tufts, he’d done it himself with
clippers. It made his face seem rounder and younger.He sat in the
interview room and couldn’t keep still, but drummed his fingers on the table,
twisted in his chair, tapped his feet.
    ‘What now?’ he asked.
‘More questions about my whereabouts?’
    ‘We spoke to Shari
Hollander.’
    ‘Did she say I was with her, like I
said?’
    ‘She said you probably
were.’
    ‘There you go, then.’
    ‘She also said that you knew about
your father’s affair.’
    ‘What?’
    He suddenly looked scared.
    ‘Is that true? Did you receive a
letter telling you about the affair?’
    Josh stared at Karlsson, then away. A
heaviness settled on his young face, making him resemble his father. ‘Yes. I got a
letter sent to me, care of my physics department.’
    ‘Anonymous?’
    ‘That’s right. So whoever sent
it didn’t even have the courage to admit who they were.’
    ‘Who do you think it was?’
    Josh gazed darkly at Karlsson. ‘Her,
of course. Who else?’
    ‘You mean Ruth Lennox?’
    ‘That’s right. Though I
didn’t know that at the time.’
    ‘Do you still have the
letter?’
    ‘I tore it into little bits and threw
it in the bin.’
    ‘What else did you do?’
    ‘I tried to put it out of my
mind.’
    ‘Nothing at all?’
    ‘I didn’t get on a train to
London, if that’s what you mean.’
    ‘Did you speak to your father about
it?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Or your mother?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Are you close to your
mother?’
    ‘I’m her son.’ He looked
down, as if he was embarrassed about meeting Karlsson’s eye.’ She’s
always put me and Ben before anything else – even when she had cancer, we were all she
thought about. And Dad,’ he added viciously. ‘She put him first,
too.’
    ‘But you didn’t tell her about
this letter?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Did you tell your brother?’
    ‘Ben’s a kid doing his A levels
in a few weeks’ time. Why would I tell him?’
    ‘Did you?’
    Josh pulled at a tuft of newly cut hair.
‘No.’ But he sounded stiff and uneasy.
    ‘Listen to me, Josh. We’re going
to talk to your brother, and if his account doesn’t agree with yours, you’re
going to be in even more trouble than you are right now. It’s better to tell us
the truth at once. Better for Ben, as well.’
    ‘All right, I told him. I had to tell
someone.’
    ‘Did you tell him over the
phone?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘How did he react?’
    ‘Like me. Like anyone would. He was
shocked, angry.’
    ‘Is that all?’
    ‘He thought we should tell Mum. I
didn’t.’
    ‘How did it end?’
    ‘We agreed we’d wait until I
came back for Easter, that we’d talk about it then.’
    ‘And did you?’
    He gave a wide, sarcastic smile. ‘We
sort of got overtaken by events.’
    ‘And you didn’t tell your
mother?’
    ‘Like I said.’
    ‘And Ben didn’t
either?’
    ‘He wouldn’t without telling
me.’
    ‘And you’re telling me that
neither of you confronted your father, however angry you were with him.’
    ‘I said, no.’
    ‘Why were you both so quick to believe
what the letter said?’
    Josh seemed taken aback. ‘I
dunno,’ he said. ‘We just