Bloody Valentine - James Patterson [18]
‘Sergeant Reece, get the porter,’ Amy ordered.
Chapter Sixteen
Amy and Ben left the search of the rubbish chutes and bins to Sergeant Reece. They returned to the office where they’d left Leila Barnes.
‘How was Zee murdered?’ Leila asked when they entered.
‘We’re not at liberty to divulge that, Miss Barnes,’ Amy answered.
‘I’m her sister-in-law,’ Leila protested.
‘We’ll get through this interview more quickly if you co-operate, Miss Barnes,’ Amy warned. ‘Where were you this morning?’
‘You can’t regard me as a suspect …’
‘Please, Miss Barnes, answer our questions.’ Ben flashed an insincere smile.
‘I left the building at eight thirty to take Mamie, that’s my younger sister, to school. I returned at nine o’clock. I wrote some letters on my return and didn’t go out again until about a quarter to one when I left for a charity committee meeting.’
‘Letters? You worked on a computer?’ Amy questioned.
‘Some of the time. I also drafted notes by hand for the meeting.’
‘Did you see or speak to anyone when you were in your apartment?
‘Obviously I didn’t see anyone. I made several telephone calls.’
‘Time of the calls?’
‘I can’t remember,’ Leila snapped angrily.
Amy watched Ben make a note to check Leila’s calls and computer log. ‘The name of the charity and place you met?’
‘St Anna’s Hospice. We use the conference room in the offices.’
‘Time?’
‘One o’clock. Several committee members work, so we arrange our meetings at lunchtime.’
Amy looked at the timeline Ted had given her. ‘Zee left her apartment just after eleven o’clock. She placed cards and roses outside your door.’
‘I saw them when I left.’
‘Zee didn’t knock on your door?’
‘If she did, I didn’t hear her, but I could have been on the telephone or in the bathroom.’
‘Would you describe your relationship with Zee as close?’
‘She’s more than twenty years younger than me. We have different interests.’
‘How would you describe your sister-in-law?’ Amy pressed.
‘In a word: devious. She wormed her way into Jack’s affections when he was grieving for his first wife.’
‘Your brother’s first wife died?’ Amy sat forward.
‘In a fire in a castle that Jack was renovating in Wales. Jack was devastated. Jodie – his first wife – was pregnant at the time. It was heartbreaking. Michael and I thought that was why Zee got herself pregnant so soon after meeting Jack. She knew he’d marry her if there was a child on the way. I only wish I could have been as sure as Jack that the child was his.’
‘What made you think Jack wasn’t the father?’ Ben asked.
‘Jack never said a word – to me or Michael – about planning to have a child with Zee. But Jack was besotted. He wouldn’t listen to reason once Zee announced her pregnancy. It worried Michael and me.’
‘Why?’ Amy probed.
‘Zee was fifteen years younger than Jack. Pretty enough, in a common way, but she’d barely been educated. She was neither a social nor an intellectual match for Jack.’
‘What caused the fire that killed Jodie?’ Ben was interested.
‘Faulty electrical wiring. The electrician was fined for negligence. Not enough, in my opinion.’
‘You said Jack was devastated,’ Amy reminded her.
‘I thought he’d have a breakdown.’
‘But he made a recovery?’ Amy prompted.
‘Once he started dating Zee, four months after Jodie’s death. He married her a week after she told him she was pregnant.’
‘You thought that was too quick?’ Ben suggested.
‘Yes, but Jack’s always been a womaniser. For all his insistence he loved Jodie, he couldn’t stop playing around with other women.’
‘Your brother’s first marriage wasn’t happy?’ Amy asked.
‘In my opinion, that was only because each ignored what the other was doing. As for Zee … well,’ Leila pursed her lips. ‘It’s not for me to speak ill of the dead.’
‘In what way?’ Ben enquired.
‘Ted Levett,’ Leila spat out his name. ‘I couldn’t believe it when Zee brought him here. Old school friend indeed—’
‘Yet Jack employed him,’ Ben interrupted.
‘Because Zee asked him to and