Benton couldn’t resist the temptation to break in. “Why did she need to tell it all again? We already had her statement about Boyton’s suspicions and her decision to string him along.”

Kate said, “It’s as if she needed to record it on the tape. And she spends more time on describing how Boyton died than she does on Rhoda Gradwyn’s murder. Is she trying to divert attention from something far more damaging than Boyton’s ridiculous suspicion about the freezer?”

Dalgliesh said, “I think she is. She was determined that no one should suspect forgery. That’s why it was vital for her that the tape should be found. To leave it in the car or on a heap of clothes on the beach would have risked its loss. So she dies with it clamped in her hand.”

Benton looked at Dalgliesh. “Are you going to challenge this tape, sir?”

“To what point, Benton? We may have our suspicions, our own theories about motive, and they may be rational, but it’s all circumstantial evidence and none of it can be proved. You can’t interrogate or charge the dead. Perhaps it’s arrogant, this need to know the truth.”

Benton said, “It takes courage to kill yourself with a lie on your lips, but perhaps that’s my religious education intruding. It tends to at inconvenient times.”

Dalgliesh said, “I have this appointment tomorrow with Philip Kershaw. Officially, with the suicide tape, the investigation is over. You should be able to get away by tomorrow afternoon.”

He didn’t add, And perhaps by tomorrow afternoon the investigation will be over for me. This one might well be his last. He could have wished that it had ended differently, but at least it still had a hope of ending with as much of the truth as anyone other than Candace Westhall could hope to know.

Chapter 7

7

By midday on Friday, Benton and Kate had made their farewells. George Chandler-Powell had gathered the household together in the library, and all had shaken hands and either muttered their farewells or spoken them clearly with, Kate felt, varying degrees of sincerity. She knew without resentment that the air of the Manor would feel newly cleansed once they had departed. Perhaps this group goodbye had been arranged by Mr. Chandler-Powell to get a necessary politeness over with a minimum of fuss. They had had a warmer farewell from Wisteria House, where they were treated by the Shepherds as if they had been regular and welcome guests. In any investigation there were places or people which remained happily in memory and for Kate the Shepherds and Wisteria House would be one.