The Birdwatcher by William Shaw Read Free Book Online Page A

there too.’
    Poor woman. South wanted to reach out and take her trembling hand and hold it. ‘Have they found something?’ she asked.
    ‘Too early to say,’ Cupidi said.
    ‘Oh.’ Gill seemed to be considering this.
    South stepped forward. ‘My name is William South. I knew your brother. I liked him.’
    She examined him. ‘He talked about you a lot,’ she said.
    ‘Did he?’ said South.
    ‘He always said he found you a very interesting man.’
    Cupidi stepped in before South had a chance to say anything else. ‘William has a house up the road. Perhaps we can go there and have a cup of tea?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I would like to interview you about your brother.’
    ‘But I already spoke to a woman at the station. I need to go home. I’m very tired.’
    ‘I’m part of the investigation, Miss Rayner. I realise it’s difficult . . .’
    ‘Do what you have to, I suppose.’
    South noticed that her accent was very different from her brother’s. His had been BBC English, the kind you’d expect from a public school teacher; hers was more estuary: Kent, or maybe Essex. Bob would have grown up speaking like her, he assumed, but disguised his roots as he grew older. Maybe that was another reason they had hit it off so well. Birders were practised at concealing themselves.
    The three of them walked up the road. The grey clouds forming out at sea had a diagonal haze beneath them. Rain was coming.
    ‘I’m very sorry about your brother,’ said South. ‘He was a very good man.’
    The woman gulped air, but didn’t speak. She looked fragile, as if she would fall to the ground at any moment, or the wind could blow her down. He reached over and took her arm and guided her towards the house, feeling her weight leaning into him for support. Beneath the wool of her jacket, he could feel her shaking, and he felt her immense sadness passing into him and, like her, just wanted to be alone with it. But he was a policeman; he was working.
    Back at South’s house, the ground coffee had arrived. Cupidi returned with two cups. ‘It may have a few bits in it,’ she said. She had improvised with a pan and a tea strainer.
    ‘I don’t suppose I’ll sleep anyway,’ said Gill Rayner, taking one.
    Out of her shapeless woollen coat, she was surprisingly slim. She was one of those women who dressed to hide their looks, rather than accentuate them. They sat on dining chairs in his bare front room, Gill Rayner staring up at the cramped bookshelves. ‘I see why Bob and you got on,’ Gill Rayner said, looking at his books.
    DS Cupidi said, ‘What else did he like?’
    ‘DS Cupidi is not a bird lover,’ said South.
    ‘I need to know what kind of person Mr Rayner was.’
    Gill Rayner was sitting very straight in her chair. She said, ‘I don’t know what to say.’
    ‘He was a teacher, apparently,’ said Cupidi. ‘What did he teach?’
    ‘English literature. The classics. Some maths too. And he is a science teacher too. Was.’
    ‘Good. Where?’
    ‘At a preparatory school in Eastbourne. I told this to the other policewoman already. I’m very, very confused and tired. I just want to go home now.’
    Cupidi reached out and took her hand. ‘I’m sorry. I’ll let you go in just a minute. You visited him here regularly?’
    ‘I visit him every fortnight.’
    ‘Had you spoken to him over the last few days, to make arrangements about your visit? Had he mentioned anything out of the ordinary?’
    ‘We didn’t speak. We didn’t need to. It was an arrangement.’
    ‘I know that this is hard for you, but can you think of anyone who would have any reason to use violence against your brother?’
    She shook her head hard, then wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
    ‘Think about it in your own time. Anyone with a short fuse?’
    South watched Gill’s hands shaking gently. She looked destroyed.
    ‘Had he expressed any concern about anything? Any money troubles?’
    ‘He was OK for money. He never borrowed.’
    ‘Do you