Strange Blood Read Online Free Page B

in the fridge!’ She gave Megan a rueful grin.
    â€˜It’s okay, really,’ Megan said, smiling in spite of herself. ‘I couldn’t have eaten anything anyway. Crime scene photographs, you know…’
    â€˜Ugh, I can imagine.’ Delva pulled a face. ‘When did Steve Foy get hold of you? He said something about you being in Dublin…’
    â€˜Yes, I didn’t get the message till the plane landed. Anyway, he came round to the house and he brought a recording of the interview.’ Megan took a sip of wine and laid the glass down on the coffee table. ‘What was he like, this Richard Ledbury?’
    â€˜Well,’ Delva said, folding her long legs underneath her in the armchair opposite, ‘He was a complete mess at first. I didn’t even think we were going to get him out of the car. He’d been very much against the idea of being interviewed anyway, and it was only when Terry Bond – you know, the press officer from West Mids HQ?’ She paused and Megan nodded. ‘It was only when he suggested a pooled interview that Richard agreed,’ Delva went on. ‘I was the one they chose to do it and the agreement was that the other channels would get to use the footage. Anyway, Richard insisted we do the interview at his house. When Terry Bond told me I thought it was a really bad idea. I mean, we’d offered him a studio at BTV or one of the interview rooms at Tipton Street nick. We even offered to go to his mother’s house,’ she leaned across to top up Megan’s glass, ‘But he wouldn’t budge. The police said it would be okay because the SOCOs had finished, but I was sure he’d crack up when it came to the interview.’
    â€˜But he didn’t?’
    â€˜No, that was the amazing thing. He was the original one-take wonder.’
    Megan took another mouthful of wine. ‘When you were talking to him did you get the impression there was any kind of trouble in the marriage?’ She looked at the glass in her hand, rolling the stem between her finger and thumb. ‘I mean, before the interview started, did he say anything that made you think that stuff about how wonderful his wife was might be a bit bogus?’
    Delva thought for a moment. ‘He didn’t say a lot beforehand,’ she said. ‘It was like treading on eggshells. I was just making small talk, really.’ She frowned and looked at the carpet, running the images of the morning through her head. ‘He showed me a wedding photo and pointed out a sundial that she’d bought him as a present. He said it was their wedding anniversary last week.’
    â€˜Last week?’ Megan’s eyebrows furrowed.
    â€˜Yes. Why? Do you think it’s significant?’
    â€˜It could be.’ Megan looked at Delva. ‘Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, New Year, you know what it’s like – people take stock, don’t they?’
    Delva nodded slowly.
    â€˜If Tessa Ledbury had been having an affair,’ Megan said, ‘She might have decided on their wedding anniversary that she couldn’t go on pretending any more. Perhaps she told Richard.’
    â€˜But he can’t have done it!’ Delva protested, ‘I mean, physically, it couldn’t have been him. He left the house at ten past eight and she was still alive at ten to nine. Loads of people saw her when she dropped her kids at school…’
    â€˜I know, I know,’ Megan said. ‘I’m not saying that. What I meant was she might have decided to end her affair. To save her marriage.’
    â€˜Oh, I see!’ Delva said. ‘You think the lover did it?’
    â€˜Well, that’s the point. I don’t even know if there was a lover. The police certainly don’t think there was. But it could have been the sort of affair she wouldn’t even tell her best friend about. That’s why I wondered if you’d picked anything up from