The Good Partner Read Free Page B

flight?”
    Banks explained. She started playing with the files again. “I’d appreciate it if you’d let us examine your camera, Ms. Cheverel.”
    â€œWhy on earth—­”
    â€œBecause the photographs we found on the coffee table at the scene couldn’t possibly have been taken by Kim Fosse’s camera. That’s why.” Banks explained what Sandra had told him, and what the result of tests earlier that morning had confirmed.
    Norma Cheverel spread her hands. “So someone else took them. I still don’t see what that’s got to do with me.”
    Banks glanced over to Susan, who said, “Ms. Cheverel. Is it true that you lost almost fifty thousand pounds on a land speculation deal earlier this year?”
    Norma Cheverel looked daggers at her and said to Banks through clenched teeth, “My business deals are no—­”
    â€œOh, but they are,” said Banks. “In fact, Susan and I have been doing quite a bit of digging this morning. It seems you’ve made a number of bad investments these past ­couple of years, haven’t you? Where’s the money come from?”
    â€œThe money was mine. All mine.”
    Banks shook his head. “I think it came from the partnership.” He leaned forward. “Know what else I think?”
    â€œWhat do I care?”
    â€œI think your cocaine habit is costing you a fortune, too, isn’t it?”
    â€œHow dare you!”
    â€œI noticed how jittery you were, how you couldn’t keep still. And then there’s the sniffling. Funny how your cold seems better this morning. How much? Say ten, twenty thousand a year up your nose?”
    â€œI want my solicitor.”
    â€œI think you were cheating the partnership, Ms. Cheverel. I think you knew you’d gone so far it was only a matter of time before Kim Fosse found out about it. You dealt with the accounting, you told us, and she was on the marketing side. What could have been better? It would take her a while to discover something was wrong, but you couldn’t keep it from your partner for ever, could you? So you came up with a plot to get rid of her and blame it on her husband. We only have your word for it that Kim Fosse was promiscuous. We only have your word that her husband was jealous enough to be violent.”
    â€œAsk anyone,” said Norma Cheverel. “They’ll tell you. Everyone saw her black eye after the last convention.”
    â€œWe know about that. David Fosse told us this morning. It was something he regretted very much. But the only person Kim confided in was you, which gave you every opportunity to build a mountain of lies and suspicion on a small foundation of truth.”
    â€œThis is absurd.” Norma swiveled and reached for the phone. “I’m calling my solicitor.”
    â€œGo ahead,” said Banks. “But you haven’t been charged with anything yet.”
    She held the phone halfway between her mouth and its cradle and smiled. “That’s right,” she said. “You can make all the accusations you want but you can’t prove anything. That business about the camera doesn’t mean a thing, and you know that as well as I do.”
    â€œIt proves that Kim Fosse didn’t take those photographs. Therefore, someone must have planted them to make it look as if she had been foolish as well as indiscreet.”
    She put the phone down. “You can’t prove it was me. I defy you.”
    Banks stood up. He was loath to admit it, but she was right. Short of finding someone who had seen her or her car in the vicinity of the Fosse house around the time of the murder, there was no proof. And Norma Cheverel wasn’t the kind to confess. The bluff was over. But at least Banks and Susan knew as they walked out of the office that Norma Cheverel had killed Kim Fosse. The rest was just a matter of time.
    8
    T HE BREAK TOOK two days to come, and it came from an