Page 126 of Fire Must Burn

‘But you continued to see Lonsdale.’

‘Like I said, the lovemaking was good,’ she said, shrugging. ‘Spectacularly good. And a girl can date more than one man at a time, you know.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me this when I interviewed you after the incident?’

‘I was scared,’ she said, looking down. ‘I hadn’t taken Kenny seriously, so when poor Tony was attacked, I thought you’d somehow think I had something to do with it. I’m sorry. I should have told you.’

‘You should have,’ agreed Parham. ‘You should also have told me your true name.’

‘My what?’ she exclaimed, startled.

‘Your true name,’ he repeated. ‘Miss Charlotte Cater, is it not?’

‘I’ve never heard that name before in my life!’

‘You are the younger sister of Bruce Cater, who died fighting in Spain in 1937,’ he said. ‘He was a classmate of Mr Danforth, who your family blamed for persuading your brother to join that fight. Your entire family, including you.’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ said Lowle.

‘What about this afternoon, Miss Cater?’

‘My name is Evelyn Lowle,’ she insisted.

‘You tried to kill Mr Danforth by means of a hypodermic syringe filled with enough morphine to cause a fatal overdose.’

‘I don’t know anything about that,’ she said.

‘Miss Sparks saw it happen.’

‘She’s mistaken. It was probably left in the room by one of the nurses.’

‘And you made statements to her at the time—’

‘Then she’s lying,’ said Lowle, her expression contemptuous. ‘She came in and attacked me out of the blue. She had to come up with some story to justify that.’

‘You also struck a police constable.’

‘I was defending myself from Miss Sparks,’ she said. ‘Everything was in the heat of the moment. I didn’t realise I had hit him.’

‘She’s good,’ commented Gwen as they listened.

‘She’s been trained,’ said Iris glumly.

The interrogation went on for over an hour. Lowle never broke or deviated from her story.

‘He still doesn’t know about her Intelligence role,’ said Gwen. ‘The operation. That could help him connect the dots.’

‘We can’t tell him about it,’ said Iris. ‘Not without permission. We’ve skated perilously close to the edge as it is.’

The door opened, and Parham came in.

‘I don’t know if I can charge her for the first attack,’ he said wearily. ‘She paints a plausible picture of Mr Lonsdale as a jealous lover. Not that I believe it for a second, but a jury could. It would be her word against Sparks for the second attack.’

‘What about the constable who came into the room?’ asked Sparks. ‘Surely he saw or heard something to support the charges.’

‘He was too involved in breaking up the fight between the two of you to notice whether or not she had the syringe. And once he had been hit in the throat he was down, choking and trying to breathe again. He didn’t hear what was being said in the room during that.’

‘There’s still my word,’ said Sparks.