Ramsay 04 - Killjoy Read Online Free Page B

I’m sorry. I should have realized. Just to the Ship in Anchor Street for a sandwich. But I walked. I didn’t take the car.’
    ‘And on the way out did you notice that your car was in its usual place?’
    ‘No,’ Lynch said. ‘Not specially. My space is at the end of the car park, under the trees. I wouldn’t see from the front door or the street.’
    ‘Do you usually go to the pub for lunch, Mr Lynch? Was that a normal daily routine?’
    ‘Yes,’ Lynch said with some irritation. ‘ I suppose so. If I’m here. I have other commitments, of course. Radio. Local TV. But if I’m here I like to go to the pub, get some fresh air.’
    ‘When was the last time you looked inside the boot of your car, Mr Lynch?’ Ramsay asked.
    Lynch answered immediately. ‘This morning. Before I left home for work. There was a programme I’d been working on. I put that in the boot.’
    There was a pause.
    ‘Would that be a bulky manuscript?’ Ramsay asked at last.
    ‘Bulky?’ Lynch seemed astonished. ‘ No, of course not.’
    ‘Wasn’t it unusual then,’ Ramsay asked, ‘to open the boot specially? Wouldn’t it be more normal to take the paper into the car with you, to put it perhaps on the passenger seat?’ He paused again. ‘Unless of course you had a passenger with you.’ He looked up from the notes he was making. ‘ Do you live alone, Mr Lynch?’
    ‘Yes,’ Lynch said sharply. ‘ Of course.’ There was a silence which he seemed to need to fill. ‘I have been married, Inspector. When I was a drama student. We were both very young. It didn’t work out and we parted, quite amicably, twelve years ago. Since then I’ve lived alone.’ There was another pause before he continued. ‘My wife was a rather jealous woman, Inspector. She couldn’t cope with my success.’
    Perhaps he expected then a question about his career in television because he seemed quite surprised when Ramsay said: ‘Tell me about Gabriella Paston.’
    Lynch shrugged. How can I tell you anything, he implied.
    ‘How long has she been a member of the Youth Theatre?’
    ‘For four years. Since she was fourteen.’
    ‘You must have learned something about her in that time.’
    ‘Look, Inspector, we’re not friends, me and the kids. I never meet them socially. I run a workshop session every Monday night and then they go home. There’s no time to chat.’
    ‘You don’t meet for a coffee afterwards?’
    ‘No,’ Lynch said. ‘ The kids usually meet up in the cafeteria but to tell you the truth I’ve had enough of them by nine. I’m knackered and I want to get straight home.’
    ‘But not tonight?’ Ramsay interrupted.
    ‘What do you mean, not tonight.’
    ‘You didn’t go straight home after the workshop finished tonight. You were still here, in your office at nine thirty when Miss Paston’s body was found. What was different about tonight?’
    ‘I had a visitor,’ Lynch said reluctantly. ‘One of the trustees, Amelia Wood. She descends on me occasionally to make sure I’m running the place efficiently. The trustees think I need help with the administration.’
    ‘Was she still here when the body was found?’
    ‘I’m not sure. She might have been downstairs. She’d left my office by then.’
    ‘And there’s nothing more you can tell me about Gabriella Paston?’
    ‘You should ask one of the others, Inspector. Her aunt works in the cafeteria here. Her landlady’s my assistant. But I’ll tell you something about Gabby, I liked her. She was fun.’
    During the interview Hunter had remained uncharacteristically unobtrusive. There was no fidgeting, no theatrical sigh to show that he thought the witness was a blatant liar. The stillness was unusual and Ramsay wondered what was the matter with him. He would have been surprised to discover that Hunter was thinking, with some regret after all, about Gabriella Paston.
    He thought he had probably seen her three or four times in the night club in Otterbridge. Hunter went there