PI Kate Brannigan Series Books 1-3: Dead Beat, Kick Back, Crack Down. Val McDermid

      Maggie walked over to the window and stared out at the silent rain falling on the grey roofs. ‘Let’s get one thing straight, Kate,’ she observed. ‘I am not going to discuss my feelings with you. I have friends for that. I’ll tell you anything I can about what happened after she left with you that night, but our feelings for each other and the way I feel right now is nothing to do with you.’

      ‘That’s fine by me,’ I said, feeling like I’d been reprieved. After Jett’s histrionics, I didn’t know how much more I could take.

      She turned back into the room and sat on the other sofa, as far from me as it was possible to be. ‘I suppose Jett’s hired you to discover I did it?’ she challenged.

      ‘I’m working for Jett, but he hasn’t pointed the finger at anyone. I think he’s still too upset to have given it much thought. It was him who found the body, you know.’

      ‘I didn’t know,’ she sighed. ‘You should never have tried to find her. If Jett had let the past rest in peace, she’d still be here now.’

      I couldn’t deny it. And I saw no point in trying to justify my own part in the process. ‘Suppose we go back to the beginning and work forward?’ I asked. ‘What happened after I took her over to see Jett?’

      Maggie sighed again. She pulled a small tin out of her pocket and with trembling fingers rolled a cigarette. ‘She rang the morning after. She said that she and Jett had had a long talk.’ A half-smile flickered across her lips as she went on. ‘She’d learned the hard way not to take any prisoners. She went in there with an agenda, and she wasn’t prepared to make any compromises. She said she’d work with him on the songs for his new album, and if that worked out, then she’d consider future collaborations. But that was it. No going back to their old relationship. She wanted a room of her own, all the back royalties that were due to her, and a new deal for the new album. She wanted a percentage share of the profits as well as her songwriting royalties. After all, he’d be doing well out of it too.’ Maggie paused, looking to me for a response.

      ‘It doesn’t sound unreasonable to me. I’d guess that Jett could afford it,’ I agreed.

      ‘Jett was over the moon, according to Moira. He said she’d have to work out the money details with Kevin, but it was fine by him. She was laughing, you know? She said he’d got into all this New Age stuff, and kept telling her they were soul mates and must be together. She’d told him that only extended to work and he could forget sex. Then he went all huffy and started on about spiritual love. She was very funny about it all.’ Memories overwhelmed Maggie suddenly and she looked away.

      Awkwardly, I said, ‘I liked her sense of humour, too. Maggie, did she say anything about the reactions of the others at the manor to her arrival?’

      Maggie relit her cigarette and took a deep drag. ‘Not then. But she had plenty to say later. Only Neil seemed really pleased that she was there. He seemed to think she’d be able to fill in any gaps from the early days. I know he talked to her about what it was like before Jett hit the big time. She said Gloria was always trying to bust up their conversations. She wanted to come across as the only significant person in Jett’s life. Pathetic, really.

      ‘Tamar hated her on sight, of course. Her and Jett have been having this on-off relationship for a few months now, and I guess she saw Moira as a threat. Moira couldn’t stand her, thought she was just a stupid bimbo, and she told me she used to wind her up by flirting with Jett when Tamar was around. But there was nothing in it. She told me that, and I believe her. I trust …’ she gulped. ‘I trusted her.’

      ‘What about Kevin? How did he take it?’ I probed.

      ‘She said he wasn’t thrilled, but that she wasn’t surprised because the idea of parting with any money, even if it’s not his own, gives him a physical pain. She said if he gave you his shit for fertilizer he’d want the roses. And there was a lot of money coming to her. All those years of royalties from the first three albums.’

      ‘Did she get the money?’ I suspected I knew the answer before I asked the question.

      ‘Not yet. Kevin said it was tied up in some account where he had to wait three months before he could get access to it.’

      I’d been right. Moira had died before she’d cost anyone a penny. I wondered if anyone would ever be able to untangle things now she was dead. ‘Do you happen to know if she left a will?’ I asked.

      Maggie’s mouth twisted into an ironic smile. ‘Jett tell you to ask that? Yes, she left a will. We both made wills in favour of each other about two months ago.’

      ‘Do you mind if I ask you why?’

      ‘Because a friend of mine was killed in a car crash and she hadn’t left a will. The house was in her name, and her family kicked her lover out on the street the day before the funeral. Gay couples don’t have any rights. We have to make our own. That’s why we made the wills. At that point, Moira didn’t even think she had anything to leave,’ Maggie said bitterly.

      But when she’d died, it had been a different picture. I knew I’d want to come back to this, but I needed to hear more from other people before I’d have any useful leverage. So I changed the subject. ‘Surely Micky was pleased? He must have been happy that they were all working together again, just like the good old days?’

      ‘You’d have thought so, wouldn’t you? But not according to Moira. She said he was always nit-picking. She thought he wanted to take all the credit for Jett’s great comeback album – they hadn’t worked together for the last four, you see.’

      ‘I’m beginning to wonder why she stuck it,’ I remarked.

      ‘I wondered myself. But she really enjoyed the work she was doing with Jett. She loved the writing. And she was even doing some of the backing vocals. She kept telling me that when the money came rolling in, I could give up work and we’d go and live in the sun somewhere.’ Maggie’s face crumpled and she pulled a soggy handkerchief out of her pocket. She blew her nose. ‘If she hadn’t been doing it for us, maybe she’d never have been tempted to stay.’

      ‘Had you seen her much in the last few weeks?’ I asked.

      ‘Not really. She hasn’t been home at all. We had a couple of weekends in a hotel in Manchester. Jett had gone to Paris with Tamar, and he’d given her some money and told her to show me a good time.’ Her eyes lit up, then the light died. ‘We had a good time, too,’ she said softly.

      ‘Why did you go to Colcutt this week?’ I asked.

      She looked at me in surprise. ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘I saw you. I was driving the car that nearly ran you over in the early hours of the morning. The landlady at the Colcutt Arms told me you’d been staying there. I just wondered, you know? With you two not having seen very much of each other lately.’ I let my words hang in the air. Maggie was no fool. She must have realized it would only be a matter of time before the police would be at her door.

      ‘Now I see why you wanted to talk to me,’ she accused. ‘You really are trying to pin it on me.’

      I shook my head. ‘Maggie, I’m not trying to pin it on anybody. I’m trying to find Moira’s killer.’

      ‘If that’s true, you’d be better off back in Colcutt,’ she said angrily. ‘Someone there had it in for her. That’s why I went over to see her, to try to persuade her to come home with me.’

      ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. My antennae were quivering. I had the feeling we were really getting somewhere at last.

      ‘Someone there wanted her dead. They’d already tried once.’

Chapter 17

      I took a deep breath and said very slowly, ‘What do you mean, they’d already tried?’

      ‘I