Waiting for Wednesday

and swallowed it. And I had a shower and just stood there for ages and nothing
seemed real.’
    ‘Did you feel guilty?’
    ‘What about?’
    ‘About having an affair for ten
years.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Although you’re
married.’
    ‘I never felt guilty,’ he
repeated. ‘I knew Elaine and the boys would never know. It wasn’t hurting
anyone.’
    ‘Did Ruth feel guilty?’
    ‘I don’t know. She never said
she did.’
    ‘You are certain your wife
didn’t know?’
    ‘I’d know if she
knew.’
    ‘And Ruth’s husband, Russell
Lennox? Did he know anything or have suspicions?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Did Ruth Lennox tell you
that?’
    ‘She would have told me if he’d
suspected, I’m sure.’ He sounded uncertain, though.
    ‘And that day, did she seem any
different?’
    ‘No. She was the same as
always.’
    ‘And how was that?’
    ‘Calm. Cheerful. Nice.’
    ‘She was always calm and always
cheerful and nice? For ten years?’
    ‘She had ups and downs, like
anyone.’
    ‘And was she up or down on that
Wednesday?’
    ‘Neither.’
    ‘Just in the middle, you
mean?’
    ‘I mean she was fine.’
    Yvette looked at Karlsson to see if he had
any further questions. ‘Mr Kerrigan,’ said Karlsson. ‘Your
relationship with Ruth Lennox sounds oddly like a marriage to me, rather than an affair.
Domestic, calm, safe.’ Placid, he thought, almost dull.
    ‘What are you saying?’ Now he
looked angry. His hands curled into fists.
    ‘I don’t know.’ Karlsson
thought of Frieda: what would she ask this man, who was sitting passively in front of
them, his shoulders slumped and his big hands restless? ‘You do understand this
alters everything?’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘You aren’t stupid. Ruth Lennox
had a secret. A great big secret.’
    ‘But nobody knew.’
    ‘You knew.’
    ‘Yes. But I didn’t kill her! If
you think that – look, I swear to you, I didn’t kill her. I loved her. We loved
each other.’
    ‘Secrets are difficult to keep,’
said Karlsson.
    ‘We were careful. Nobody
knew.’
    Karlsson took in Kerrigan’s sad,
uneasy face. ‘Is it possible that she was going to end it?’
    ‘No. It’s not possible.’
    ‘So nothing had changed.’
    ‘No’ His face was swollen with
misery. ‘Will they have to know?’
    ‘You mean her husband? Your wife?
We’ll see. But it may be difficult.’
    ‘How long?’
    ‘For what?’
    ‘How long do I have before I have to
tell her?’
    Karlsson didn’t answer. He looked at
Paul Kerrigan for a few moments, then said musingly, ‘Everything has a
consequence.’



TWENTY-FOUR
    When Rajit Singh opened the door, he was
wearing a heavy black jacket. ‘It’s the heating,’ he said.
‘Someone was meant to come today to fix it.’
    ‘I’ll only be a minute,’
said Frieda. ‘I won’t even need to take my coat off.’
    He led her through to a sitting room in
which every piece of furniture, the chairs, a sofa, a table, seemed to jar with
everything else. On the wall was a picture of the Eiffel Tower in brightly coloured
velvet. He noticed her expression.
    ‘When I was an undergraduate, I stayed
in the residence that was right in the West End. Everything’s sorted for you,
where you sleep, where you eat, who you become friends with. But once you’re doing
your postgraduate work, you’re left to fend for yourself. I was lucky to get this,
believe it or not. I’m sharing it with a couple of Chinese engineering
students who I never see.’
    ‘You live all over the place,’
said Frieda.
    ‘Me?’ said Singh. ‘I just
live here.’
    ‘No, I mean you and the rest of you.
Seamus Dunne, the one who came to see me, he lives in Stockwell. I saw Duncan Bailey at
his flat in Romford. Later I’m going to Waterloo to see Ian Yardley.’
    Singh sat in the armchair and gestured at
the sofa. Frieda preferred to stand up so she could move around. Even though it was
sunny in the street outside, it was icy in the house.
    ‘We’re not a gang,’ he
said. ‘We don’t exactly hang out together.’
    ‘You’re just Professor
Bradshaw’s students.’
    ‘That’s right. We’re the
ones who volunteered for his clever experiment. The one that seems to have got under
your skin.’
    ‘Which therapist did you
see?’
    Singh’s face tightened. ‘Are you
trying to trap me?’ he said. ‘Are you going to sue us?’
    ‘No,’ said Frieda. ‘This
is all for my benefit. Let’s just say I’m curious.’
    ‘Look,’ said Singh, ‘we
didn’t have anything to