LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

yeah. She lived there, at the Mount.’

      ‘So you must have had a relationship with her.’

      ‘Not really.’

      Hitchens sighed. ‘Would you say your relationship with Laura Vernon was one of friendship?’

      ‘No, she wasn’t friendly.’

      ‘But you weren’t complete strangers. You had met several times. You knew her name, she knew yours. You had spoken to each other.’

      ‘’Course I’d met her.’

      ‘So how would you describe that relationship, if it wasn’t friendly?’

      The youth frowned, struggling for the right sort of word to offer. He looked at his solicitor again, but Mr Nunn had no words to suggest. Sherratt rubbed his cheek with a broad hand, scraping the stubble.

      ‘She was a stuck-up little cow,’ he said at last. Mr Nunn jerked as if he had been kicked awake and looked at the cassette recorder.

      ‘Perhaps my client might like to reconsider that remark,’ he said.

      ‘Certainly,’ said Hitchens generously. It wasn’t an answer to his question anyway. ‘Let’s try another question. Why did you hate her, Lee?’

      Mr Nunn shook his head. ‘No comment,’ said Sherratt proudly, relieved to have been given a clear signal at last.

      ‘Did you like her?’

      ‘Detective Inspector, this line of questioning –’

      ‘I’m merely trying to establish the nature of the relationship between Mr Sherratt and the victim,’ said Hitchens genially. ‘Shall we agree, Lee, that if you thought Laura was a “stuck-up little cow”, then you didn’t like her very much?’

      ‘No, I didn’t like her,’ said Sherratt. His eyes fell again, and his chair creaked as he shifted his bulk.

      ‘Right. But did you fancy her?’

      ‘No comment.’

      ‘Come on, Lee, she was an attractive girl. Mature for her age, they say. Sexy, even. You must have noticed. Didn’t you fancy her? I’m sure other lads would have done.’

      ‘She wasn’t my type,’ said Sherratt, with a smirk.

      ‘Ah. I see.’

      Hitchens turned over a few sheets of paper. They were interview reports. He read a few paragraphs, taking his time as the tapes whirred.

      ‘According to Mr Graham Vernon,’ he said at last. ‘That’s Laura’s father, Lee, your former employer. According to Mr Vernon, you had been pestering his daughter. Trying to chat her up, he says. Ogling her. Spying on her in the house. Following her around. And, he says, you tried every chance you had to touch her. And that your attentions were unwelcome.’

      ‘It’s not true,’ said Sherratt, before Mr Nunn could decide whether to shake his head.

      ‘Why would Mr Vernon say things like that if they weren’t true?’ asked Hitchens, raising his eyebrows.

      ‘He’s weird,’ said Sherratt dismissively, as if it needed no further explanation. His eyes began to roam around again. He studied the clock on the side wall as if wondering how long he had to last out.

      ‘Weird, how?’

      ‘Well …’

      ‘Weird because he didn’t like you pestering Laura?’

      ‘No comment.’

      ‘Did it make you angry that he thought you weren’t good enough for his daughter?’

      ‘No comment.’

      ‘You were just the gardener after all, Lee. A servant. And not a very good gardener, by all accounts.’

      There was a flash of anger in Sherratt’s face now as he glared at Hitchens. ‘I worked hard,’ he said sullenly. ‘I’m as good as them. Why shouldn’t I be?’

      ‘Did Laura look down on you too?’

      ‘You what?’

      ‘Did she treat you like a servant, Lee?’

      ‘She was a stuck-up little cow.’ Sherratt looked defiantly at his solicitor. He was starting to get more confident now. Tailby saw the change in his manner and tapped Hitchens’s leg. It was time for him to come in, to change tack.

      ‘Some of these stuck-up cows like a bit of rough, don’t they, Lee? They’re desperate to get it from a proper man, aren’t they?’

      Sherratt turned round to face Tailby, a knowing leer slipping on to his face before he could think of controlling it. Nunn coughed and shook his head several times.

      ‘I bet you’re the man to give it to them, aren’t you, Lee?’

      ‘Chief Inspector, I don’t think that is a relevant question.’

      ‘Did you have sex with Laura Vernon?’

      ‘I didn’t,’ said Sherratt.

      ‘Just a bit of heavy petting, then.’

      ‘No.’

      ‘So how would you describe your relationship?’

      Sherratt leaned across the table. The veins stood out in his neck as his chin jutted forward. ‘I told him already. We didn’t have one.’

      ‘But you met Laura when her parents didn’t know about it, didn’t you?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘So her parents did know about it?’

      ‘What? No, I never met her.’

      ‘But you’ve already said, Lee, that you met her during the course of your job at the Mount.’

      ‘Well … yes.’

      Even the solicitor was looking confused now. Tailby leaned forward.

      ‘Now we’ve cleared that up, would you like to clarify your other statement?’

      ‘What was that?’

      ‘You’ve told us that you didn’t have sex with Laura Vernon. Would you like to change that statement?’

      ‘No. I didn’t do it with her. I told you.’

      ‘Lee, when you were taken into custody last night you agreed to provide samples for forensic examination and DNA testing.’

      The dark eyes wavered nervously. ‘Yes.’

      ‘Do you understand what a DNA test is? Do you understand that this will enable us to match those samples we took with evidence found at the scene?’

      ‘I wasn’t at no scene.’

      ‘For example,’ said Tailby, ‘I mean the used condom we found in the greenhouse in the garden at the Mount.’

      Sherratt blinked and his face went a shade of yellow under the dark colour. His solicitor shook his head.

      Tailby merely smiled, his eyes colder than ever. ‘A used condom contains semen. A good source of a DNA sample. Will we find that it’s yours, Lee?’

      

      Cooper called first at Dial Cottage. Before he could knock, the front door was opened by Helen Milner. She was looking over her shoulder, calling to her grandmother.

      ‘I’m off now!’

      She was taken aback when she saw him standing on the step. She was back in her shorts and a sleeveless cotton top, and her limbs seemed to glow in the brightness pouring through the doorway from the street.

      ‘Oh, hello, Ben.’

      ‘How

Скачать книгу