‘So you think that will be the last I’ll hear from Jones?’
‘I do. Now can you tell me if you saw Yvette last Saturday evening? Did you arrange to meet her, sir?’
He dabbed his bloody nose again. ‘No, I didn’t. I’d learnt my lesson by then. I could see what game they were playing. I wanted to get myself together. String them along a bit. I didn’t want to keep paying.’
‘I still want to know your movements for that evening, Mr. Berkley. I gather you must have been feeling pretty bad. Evil in fact over the demands she was making on you. How much were they asking? Five grand, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes. And I said I wouldn’t pay. On Wednesday that was. And that was the last time I spoke to her. I think she was afraid of Jones.’
‘So where were you on Saturday night, sir.’
‘If you must know, I stayed away from the pub. My wife went to the theatre and I picked her up afterwards. She was rehearsing for the Mikardo. She plays Katisha. Why don’t you look further into Jones’s affairs? And what he was doing on Saturday night?’
‘We shall do. You had a key, Mr. Berkley, to Yvette’s room.’
‘Yes I did. What of it?’
‘You visited it early Sunday morning and turned it over?’ Kent silenced his attempt at denial with his hand. ‘What were you looking for, sir? The letters you wrote her? I should imagine that this was the hold she had over you. Or was it some naughty pictures perhaps? Did Cliff take some compromising ones of you two together, was that it?’
Berkely’s face showed his anger again. ‘Yes he did. I was all kinds of a mug. I didn’t know he was behind it all. Not till then. So, Sunday morning, I went to Yvette’s bed-sit to beg her to let me have them. I was feeling pretty desperate. But she wasn’t there. So I let myself in. And - I went kind of crazy. I lost my head completely. I admit that. I wanted to ruin everything for her. I was good and mad. Can you blame me?’
‘You were taking a risk, weren’t you, sir? Judging by the injury you received from Jones today.’
‘I thought she’d gone with Jones. She told me she was going away for the weekend with that lout. She taunted and laughed at me in the pub when she told me on Wednesday.’
‘You had a long time to brood over the wrong she’d done you. And you didn’t ask her to meet you on Saturday night at the chapel?’
‘No. I did nothing of the kind. I didn’t contact her, Inspector.’ Berkley looked shocked. ‘I swear I didn’t. I didn’t even know the girl was dead when I let myself into her place. I wanted to find the letters and the films. Jones must have them the bastard.’
‘More than likely. If he demanded money from you this morning.’
‘Perhaps he killed her. I wouldn’t put it past him. The swine. He used her to get at me. He didn’t need her any more once he had the films. What kind of man lets his girl sleep with a man to get his money, I ask you?’
‘A pimp? You admit it then, Mr. Berkley? You seduced Yvette. You were having an affair with a girl younger than your daughter. No wonder you didn’t want your family to find out.’
‘Yes. But it’s all water under the bridge now,’ he said still dabbing his nose with the tissues. ‘I must have been crazy. But she came on to me. I was flattered. Any full bloodied man would be. Wouldn’t you?’
‘It depends on how much you cared for your wife and family, doesn’t it, sir?’
29
‘Dare I ask how you got on today?’
He stopped half way on the stairs, looked down at her anxious face in the hall way and sighed. ‘You can. Not good, I’m afraid. The only light at the end of the tunnel is that her parents identified her.’
‘And...’
‘The M.E. gave us the same information as with the other girl. She was taken care of by using the same method. The bloody sick bastard,’ he ground out the last words under his breath.
Viviane could sense the tension building up in him. ‘Do you want a beer? Something stronger to take up to bed with you? Or a cup of tea?’
‘I’ve got beer. But I’ll take you up on the latter, Viviane. A cup of tea would do me nicely. I’d like to ask you something. If you’ve got time to spare.’
‘Yes. What is it?’ she said leading the way in the kitchen where Beazy viewed him with a yawn and a sardonic grin from the fridge as he sat [down PE].
‘Tell me, Viviane, have you had much to do with your Mayor? Blast it, I’ve got a sneezing fit again.’ He sneezed several times. ‘I-I thought I’d finished with it.’ He sneezed again.