Page 87 of Vengeance is Mine

‘You don’t happen to know the reg plate, do you?’

‘No. It’s not brand-new though.’

‘Last year, she was driving a shitty Golf that didn’t look like it could get out of second gear without bursting into flames.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I… just know,’ he said. ‘What I’m saying is, how can she afford a newish car, when she’s on a trainee paralegal’s salary, lives on her own and has several thousand pounds’ worth of university debt hanging over her?’

Kyra thought for a moment. ‘Maybe her mother helped her out.’

‘Her mother runs a florist’s. She’s hardly Alan Sugar.’

‘Maybe her dad bought it for her out of his compensation claim.’

‘Along with the large TV in her flat.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with a father buying his daughter gifts. My dad bought me a slow cooker for Christmas.’

‘What if he didn’t buy them for her? What if she asked for them? What if she laid on the guilt trip, saying he owed her after not being in her life from day one? What if she asked for more, and he said no?’

‘You don’t think Dawn killed her own father, do you?’

‘She doesn’t have an alibi. She got home in the small hours on the first and spent most of the day in bed, recovering.’

‘As did a large majority of the country.’

‘But we only have her word for it. Look, go and see her, find out exactly who she was with on New Year’s Eve and see if their stories match.’

‘Really?’ Kyra asked, with a screwed-up face. ‘You’re really considering her as a suspect?’

‘Dominic Griffiths isn’t your normal victim. I don’t believe this was a burglary gone wrong. I believe someone wanted him dead for what he did twenty years ago, and they succeeded. That could be anyone: his neighbours who took against him living on their road, his colleagues, his own daughter, her mother, even his own father.’

‘And what about the Whites?’

‘Sorry?’

‘Harry and Barbara. If we’re talking motive, they have the best one of the lot. Are they suspects too?’

It was a while before Terry replied. ‘Yes,’ he said, matter-of-factly. ‘Although I have spoken to them, and they have an alibi for the night of the first.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. They were home together,’ he lied. But it reminded him he needed to check up on whether Harry was at Lavender House like he claimed.

‘Not much of an alibi, is it? Each other.’

‘Come on, Kyra, they’re in their sixties, for crying out loud.’

‘So? Sixty isn’t old. Matthew’s dad’s in his late sixties, and he still runs marathons. Milly Preston is in her eighties, and she’s off to Cancun at the end of the month with her friends.’

‘Harry and Barbara aren’t the running type. They’re not the jet-setting type, and they’re certainly not the killing type either,’ he said harshly.

‘I’m sorry, sir, but they’re exactly the type. He murdered their daughter, cut her up, and he was rewarded with a million pounds. Putting myself in their position, I’d want Dominic dead.’

They sat in silence, both of them contemplating the implications.

Terry had known Harry and Barbara his whole life. Surely he would be able to detect a change in their behaviour that would reveal they’d just killed a man. But Harry was a detective, too. He’d know what Terry would be looking for and would know how to hide it.