Malice Aforethought by J. M. Gregson Read Free Book Online Page B

kindly to having their private affairs exposed to a stranger, and however dispassionate she might choose to appear now, any marriage which had failed had its own saga of blazing emotions and scarred aspirations which were better not revisited.
    Lambert said, ‘Forgive me for saying so, but you do not seem to be overwhelmed with sorrow by your husband’s death.’
    ‘That’s my business!’
    ‘And mine, too. This is a murder inquiry, Mrs Giles.’
    He had ruffled her, for the first time, as he intended. Rage, like any other emotion, makes concealment more difficult. She said tensely, ‘All right. I see that. And you’re right. I ceased to love Ted — if I ever did — a long time ago now. The way he lived his life was no longer my concern. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want you to find the man who killed him.’
    ‘Or woman. We are assured that the method used requires no great physical strength.’ Lambert looked down at the hands which twisted against each other in the lap of her suit. Then he lifted his gaze to the now tense face above them. ‘You mention the way he lived his life. That is what we are trying to piece together, Mrs Giles, and perhaps you can help us. Do you know, for instance, if he had any serious relationships at the time of his death?’
    Sex: a tricky subject with an ex-wife. You left the orientation question open nowadays. There was nothing so far to indicate that Giles had not been heterosexual, but you mustn’t leap to conclusions. Sue Giles seemed to have no doubts. ‘There were other women. None serious enough to be regarded as a lasting partnership, so far as I’m aware. But I warned you: I kept out of his affairs.’
    ‘Nevertheless, unless some serious attachment had developed quite recently, you would probably have been aware of it.’
    She weighed the statement carefully: she was fast regaining her composure. ‘Yes. I think that’s probably fair. But, as I said, I was no longer interested in his actions, or his attachments.’ There was a little flash of contempt on the last phrase, and he wondered if she was really as detached as she pretended from the life of her late husband.
    ‘And if he had formed any serious attachment, that would not have upset you?’
    A flash of temper blazed for a moment in the blue-green eyes. To his disappointment, she controlled it before she spoke. ‘I thought I had made myself clear, Superintendent. My husband’s affairs were no longer my concern. I should have been delighted to hear he had found himself some liaison which was going to last.’ This time there was a contempt she did not trouble to conceal on the last assertion.
    ‘And yet you chose not to divorce him.’
    This time she could not control her emotion. ‘Who the hell gave you the right to say that? What makes you think I’m going to—’
    ‘I told you. This is a murder investigation. I have to find out how the victim lived his life. A man none of my team knows. A man none of us had even heard of until his body was found in a village churchyard. So don’t talk to me about rules, about what I can and can’t do, Mrs Giles. There are no rules to stop me seeking the knowledge we need about your late husband. For one thing, I owe it to him to find out who killed him. And we will find out, Mrs Giles!’ He spoke evenly, but with a passion which surprised even himself. The last assertion, he knew, was mere rhetoric, an expression of determination rather than of a real certainty that they were going to make an arrest.
    But passion convinced more than logic, as it often will. Sue Giles looked at him with widening eyes, then dropped her gaze before the intensity of his determination. ‘All right. I accept you need to know all about Ted. I just hadn’t realised that this was going to involve so much of my own life — I thought I’d done with him. But I accept that murder makes its own rules. I shall tell you whatever I can.’
    ‘Thank you. I was asking you why you were not