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“Tansy Bestigui definitely witnessed Landry falling past the , though, didn’t she? Because Wilson reckons he heard the body fall right before Mrs Bestigui started screa”
“Maybe she saw it, but she wasn’t having a pee She was doing a couple of lines of charlie in the bathroom We found it there, cut and ready for her”
“Left some, had she?”
“Yeah Presu past theput her off”
“The ’s visible from the bathroom?”
“Yeah Well, just”
“You got there pretty quickly, didn’t you?”
“Uniforht minutes, and Carver and I were there in about twenty” Wardle lifted his glass, as though to toast the force’s efficiency
“I’ve spoken to Wilson, the security guard,” said Strike
“Yeah? He didn’t do bad,” said Wardle, with a trace of condescension “It wasn’t his fault he had the runs But he didn’t touch anything, and he did a proper search right after she’d juht”
“He and his colleagues were a bit lazy on the door codes”
“People always are Too ”
“Bristow’s interested in the possibilities of the quarter of an hour when Wilson was in the bog”
“We were, too, for about five ui was a publicity-mad cokehead”
“Wilson mentioned that the pool was unlocked”
“Can he explain how a ot into the pool area, or back to it, without walking right past hi as the one I’ve got at yround fucking parking Flats done up withfive-star hotel”
The police his head very slowly over the unequal distribution of wealth
“Different world,” he said
“I’m interested in the middle flat,” said Strike
“Deeby Macc’s?” said Wardle, and Strike was surprised to see a grin of genuine warmth spread across the policeman’s face “What about it?”
“Did you go in there?”
“I had a look, but Bryant had already searched it E properly”
“Is Bryant the one who knocked into the table and sement?”
Wardle snorted
“Heard about that, did you? Mr Bestigui wasn’t too chuffed about it Oh yeah Two hundred white roses in a crystal vase the size of a dustbin Apparently he’d read that Macc asks for white roses in his rider His rider,” Wardle said, as though Strike’s silence inorance of what the ter rooht you’d know about this stuff”
Strike ignored the insinuation He had hoped for better from Anstis
“Ever find out why Bestigui wanted Macc to have roses?”
“Just sch, isn’t it? Probably wanted to put Macc in a film He was fucked off to the back teeth when he heard Bryant had ruined the the place dohen he found out”
“Anyone find it strange that he was upset about a bunch of flowers, when his neighbor’s lying in the street with her head smashed in?”
“He’s one obnoxious fucker, Bestigui,” said Wardle, with feeling “Used to people ju all of us like staff, till he realized that wasn’t clever
“But the shouting wasn’t really about the flowers He was trying to drown out his wife, give her a chance to pull herself together He kept forcing his way in between her and anyone anted to question her Big guy as well, old Freddie”
“What was he worried about?”
“That the longer she bawled and shook like a frozen whippet, thecoke Hearound sohted to have the Met co in So he tried to distract everyone with a tantruement
“I read so her I’ around hiious bastard; he can’t have enjoyed all the attention he got after Tansy shot her mouth off The press made hay while they could Rehashed old stories about his They say he paid his last wife aabout his sex life in court He’s pretty well known as a prize shit”
“You didn’t fancy him as a suspect?”
“Oh, we fancied hiot a rep for violence It never looked likely, though If his wife knew that he’d done it, or that he’d been out of the flat at theshe’d have told us so: she was out of control e got there But she said he’d been in bed, and the bedclothes were disarranged and looked slept in
“Plus, if he’dit, and gone up to Landry’s place, we’re left with the probleot past Wilson He can’t have taken the lift, so he’d have passed Wilson in the stairwell, co down”
“So the tis rule him out?”
Wardle hesitated
“Well, it’s just possible Just, assuht faster thanthe moment he pushed her over But there’s still the fact that we didn’t find his DNA anywhere in the flat, the question of how he got out of the flat without his wife knowing he’d gone, and the small reed she didn’t like hiui’s the kind of man who’d hire a killer if he wanted someone taken care of He wouldn’t sully his own hands”
“Another one?”
Wardle checked his watch
“My shout,” he said, and he a around the high table fell silent, watching hireedily Wardle threw thelanced over at him as he resumed the bar stool beside Strike
“How d’you think Wilson shapes up as a possible killer?” Strike asked the policeman
“Badly,” said Wardle “He couldn’t have got up and down quickly enough to round floor Mind you, his CV’s a crock of shit He was e ex-police, and he was never in the force”
“Interesting Where was he?”
“He’s been knocking around the security world for years He ado, and he’d just kept it on his CV”
“He seems to have liked Landry”
“Yeah He’s older than he looks,” said Wardle, inconsequentially “He’s a grandfather They don’t show age like us, do they, Afro-Caribbeans? I wouldn’t’ve put him as any older than you” Strike wondered idly how old Wardle thought he was
“You got forensics to check out her flat?”
“Oh yeah,” said Wardle, “but that was purely because the higher-ups wanted to put the thing beyond reasonable doubt We kneithin the first twenty-four hours it had to be suicide We went the extra ”
He spoke with poorly disguised pride
“The cleaner had been through the whole place that h with a duster—so the day’s prints stood out good and clear Nothing unusual”
“Wilson’s prints were in there, presumably, because he searched the place after she fell?”
“Yeah, but nowhere suspicious”
“So as far as you’re concerned, there were only three people in the whole building when sh
e fell Deeby Macc should have been there, but…”
“…he went straight froain, a broad and apparently involuntary grin illues the day after she died Massive bloke Like you,” he said, with a glance at Strike’s bulky torso, “only fit” Strike took the hit without dester He’s been in and out of the nick in LA He nearly didn’t get a visa to get into the UK
“He had an entourage with his on every finger, tattoos on their necks He was the biggest, though One scary fucker Deeby’d be, if youun”
The police the conclusion that Eric Wardle, CID, was, in this case, as starstruck as Kieran Kolovas-Jones
“Wasn’t a long interview, seeing as he’d only just got off a plane and never set foot inside Kentigern Gardens Routine I got hin his latest CD for h he could not help hiht the house down, he loved it The …”
Wardle stopped talking with an air of having given away a little more than he had intended As
“What about Evan Duffield?”
“Him,” said Wardle The stardust that had sparkled over the policeone; the police “Little junkie shit He pissed us around froht into rehab the day after she died”