Chapter Five 

Philips looked at Harper's stony face. No help there. He turned to the Inspector, "Do I need a lawyer?" 

"I don't know sir," replied Martin blandly, "Do you? We're not here to arrest you if that's what you're asking." 

Not yet. The unspoken words hung in the air. 

Philips wondered if he was making another mistake in not requesting to see a lawyer before he said another word, but he decided to go ahead anyway. He would tell them the truth this time. 

"Let's start this again," he said rather desperately. "I admit some of that is true. I was there on Saturday night for about half an hour, but I didn't kill her and I was certainly not in any kind of relationship with her. Either your witness or Toni herself was making that part up." He looked up as Harper gave a snort of disbelief, Inspector Martin however seemed to be regarding him more impartially. They're playing "good cop-bad cop", don't get sucked in, Philips told himself. But he couldn't seem to stop talking now he had started. 

He spoke to Martin. "Let me tell you what happened. Toni rang me up Saturday morning and told me that she'd found her great uncle's army pistol from the first World War stored in some old boxes that her aunt had asked her to sort through. She said she'd heard I had a collection of antique weapons - well a lot of people know that after that article about me in the Weekly - and would I like to come round and have a look at it? She suggested that evening and I agreed to come round after dinner. It was hard to tell much from her description, but it sounded well worth a look." 

"When I got to the shop she let me in and took me upstairs to her room. I admit I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable as I had expected her aunt to be there, and then she made a half hearted pretence of looking for it. Then she told me that her aunt must have changed her mind and taken it back. I was just asking her what was going on when someone grabbed me by the throat from behind," he rubbed it unconsciously in remembering and Martin made an interested note. "And, well, the next thing I remember I was on the floor, twenty minutes had gone past, and there was Toni ... dead. I admit that I panicked. I raced out of there as fast as I could." 

"Why didn't you call the police?" asked Martin, his face non-committal. 

Philips hesitated, then said slowly, "To be honest, when I came to, I didn't remember what had happened. All I knew was that there were twenty blank minutes I couldn't account for, and there was Toni, murdered on the bed. There was absolutely no doubt she was dead, it wasn't as if I could have saved her," he continued, more as if to convince himself than the other two. "I just panicked," he repeated. 

"You mean you thought you had killed her?" 

"Only for a moment, while I was still disoriented. When I had time to think, I knew I hadn't. For one thing I could remember the hands on my throat, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a bruise there." He held his breath for their reaction. 

"Well now, that's a very interesting story sir," said Martin. 

"Yes," interrupted Harper, "It covers all the angles doesn't it?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"Well when we can't find this mysterious assailant, you have a nice mental blackout or brainstorm to plead, haven't you?" 

"So you've already made up your mind that I did it?" Philips was incredulous; Harper at least should have believed him. 

"If you look at it from our point of view, you're the one who has lied to us. Why should we disbelieve part of a witnesses' statement - especially when the rest of it is true - and believe you?" 

"We'll need a statement from you," said Inspector Martin. "We'll take it down at the station now if you like." 

"I don't really have much choice, do I?" 

The detectives were silent. 

XXX 

Carol sat nervously in the office. The chair was comfortable but she sat stiffly on the edge of it, waiting for the Inspector to come back. They just wanted to go through her statement again he said. He and that other detective...the good looking one - Harper. She had nothing to fear, she told herself, she had spoken the truth and no-one could get her to say different. Harper came into the room, followed by Inspector Martin, and studied the girl thoughtfully. Small figure, dyed reddish blonde hair ... nice looking girl, though perhaps a bit sharp for her own good. The type to err more on the side of outspokenness rather than deceit, he would have thought. 

"Hullo Carol," he said pleasantly. "Sorry to drag you down here again, but there's just a few points we'd like to clarify." 

She nodded. 

"Now you stated that Toni told you Philips was coming to visit her on Saturday night to have sex with her?" 

Carol flushed at the blunt words but nodded. 

"I see, and what did she think about that?" 

"She was very keen on him, but she said she wasn't sure yet whether she'd let him ... Oh, Mr Harper, I warned her! I told her he might get mad if she stalled him, but she reckoned she knew how to handle him. She just wouldn't listen, and I think that's what happened. He probably didn't mean to kill her as well." 

Harper bit his lip, "Perhaps. We've spoken to Philips and he agrees he was at Toni's house between eight thirty and nine o'clock. He also says there was a third person there. Did you see anyone else go in?" 

"No sir. No one from when Mrs Gordon left to when he went in, I was watching all the time." 

"You didn't get up for a drink or anything?" 

"No sir." 

"Did Toni have any boyfriends her own age? Or anyone other than Mr Philips?" 

"No sir. She would have told me if she had, the way she went on about him, 'Richard this and Richard that!' Every time she saw him she'd tell me." Harper felt a sudden twinge in his stomach and put it down to indigestion. 

"You're sure she was telling the truth about him? She wasn't romanticizing and trying to impress you perhaps?" 

Carol hesitated. She had wondered about that herself ... but well, it was wrong to speak ill of the dead. And he had come as Toni had said, and Toni had screamed and she had done nothing. The least she could do now was help to convict her killer. 

"Yes, I'm sure she was telling the truth. Toni didn't lie like that." Carol's eyes met Harper's clearly. 

"Alright, the girl might be telling the truth as far as she knows it." Waiting while the stenographer typed up his statement had given Philips his first free minutes to try and reason out what had happened. "Toni could have convinced her it was the truth, but I never even thought about her in that light. The girl was probably a bit lonely and bored in that shop all day and when I came in, a bit of a local celebrity, she began to weave a fantasy about me. That pistol, which I am beginning to doubt ever existed-" 

"It didn't," interrupted Harper. 

"- was just a ruse to get me there Saturday night so she wouldn't lose face before her girlfriend Carol." 

"Think a lot of yourself, don't you?" provoked Harper, unable to help himself ... a man defying a blackmailer who could ruin him. Philips flinched. Harper was being a real bastard. 

"It's happened before that people have been attracted to me without me returning the feeling!" he retorted. 

Harper flushed crimson. Horrified, Philips realised that the other man though his general comment was directed at him. 

"I didn't mean that!" he protested quickly and Inspector Martin switched his gaze from Philips to his superior. What was going on here? 

"What about the other man in the house?" Philips tried desperately to change the subject. 

"None of the neighbours saw him enter or leave," put in Martin. 

"Would they have seen him if he came in the back?" asked Philips. "He was probably her real boyfriend, who thought he'd caught her two-timing him with me." 

Martin was looking thoughtful but Harper demanded in a rough voice, "Why don't you skip the charade and admit it was you who attacked the girl?" 

Philips went rigid with hurt, angry resentment. "You've convinced yourself it was me Bill, without even listening to my explanations, let alone giving me the benefit of the doubt. Are you trying to punish me or something?" 

Harper stared at him without moving for a long time then got up and left the room without a word. Martin frowned and followed him out. Philips sank back wearily in his chair and put his head in his hands. Why was Harper so much against him? It was if he wanted him to be guilty, as if he hated him. Did he blame him for what had happened after the party? Surely it hadn't been Harper who was Toni's mysterious boyfriend? It seemed ridiculous, particularly in light of that night. His friend's attitude upset him almost more than anything else. 

Outside in the corridor, Harper turned to his junior, suddenly looking very tired. "I think he might be right. Certainly I should never have taken on this bloody case! Take over for me Jack will you? I'll go and speak to the Super about it." He strode off without waiting for an answer. 

Inspector Martin looked after him, still frowning. He had been aware of the undercurrents of tension in that, and indeed in previous interviews, but he'd been unable to discover the cause. There had certainly been no need to worry that Harper would go easy on Philips, even if unintentionally, in fact he'd almost been too down on him. Why had he agreed with Philips that perhaps he was trying to 'punish' him? What had Philips done to Harper to warrant it? Thrown over a girl who was important to the detective perhaps, a family member maybe, someone who 'had been attracted to Philips without him returning the feeling'? There was certainly something odd going on here. He was relieved that Harper had taken himself off the case before he'd had to raise the issue himself.

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