"One of us?" Rose echoed. "What would the police find easier to believe?" Sara continued. "That he was killed by his daughter, by an old family friend, by a trusted colleague? Or by a suspicious stranger like me or you?" "But we didn't even know him," Rose protested. "They'll only have our word for that." "And we haven't got any reason to kill him." Sara laughed bitterly. "Oh, haven't we? Isn't there anything in your life? Some dark secret that you wouldn't want revealed?" She tossed a couple of framed snapshots onto the table. "These fell out of your bag when you dropped it, Dr Shaw, and I picked them up. Perhaps you'd like to say who they are?" Liz's face settled into an expression of despair. "There's no point in my telling you lies," she said. "You'd only have to show that picture to anyone at the Ministry of Defence. That's Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. I worked with him a year or two ago. Our relationship was strictly professional -- but there were rumours. There always are." "Grist to a blackmailer's mill," Sara said. "But perhaps he had something even more scandalous to threaten you with." She indicated the second snapshot: an attractive young woman wearing subfusc. "That's Jean," Liz said. "My best friend at university. She died very young." "I'm sorry. But I must ask this: Was she merely a best friend, or something more?" "Does it matter?" Liz took the pictures back, and put them in her bag. "The fact that I'm carrying her picture would be enough grounds for suspicion. One hint that I'd been-- close-- to another woman would end my career in an instant. Does anybody mind if I smoke?" Not waiting for approval, she pulled out her pipe and lit it, keeping her eyes firmly on the flame of the match and away from her colleagues. "Now we come to Miss Tyler," Sara said, sounding as calm and unmoved as ever. "Oh, yeah?" Rose looked troubled by the demolition job Sara had done on Liz, but still sounded as confident as ever. "What have you got on me?" "For the last six months you've been all over the fashionable papers: the glamorous heiress of Peter Tyler, self-made drinks magnate. But before that? You might have come from nowhere. Where did he keep you? Or did he even know you existed?" Rose opened her mouth, and closed it again. "Well?" "Yeah," Rose admitted. "You're right. He didn't know about me until we met by accident. He wasn't married to my mother. He was married to someone else... it's complicated. I was just a shopgirl. He didn't find out who I was until after his first wife died. But he *is* my dad," she added. "And I love him." "I'm sure the /News of the World/ would pay well for the details of that story." Sara turned to Tegan. "And what is your shameful secret, Miss Jovanka?" "Who says I've got one?" Tegan asked. Sara gave a her brief, one-sided smile. "What did I tell you about drumming your fingers on the table?" "Oh, rabbits." Tegan looked heavenwards. "There was a passenger on the Melbourne to Southampton run. A girl about my age. She'd lost all her family. She was so lonely. I felt sorry for her." She shrugged. "Staff aren't supposed to fraternize with the paying customers, but I couldn't just leave her all by herself. Then a piece of her jewellery went missing. Everyone decided it was me. It wasn't, I'd never have done anything to hurt her. Her guardian spoke to me. I think he believed me. Somehow it was smoothed over. But if the full story ever came to the Company's ears, I'd be out on the streets." She blinked back tears. "I wasn't allowed to see her, ever again." Rose put her hand on Tegan's. "I'm sorry." "Thanks." Tegan looked angrily back at Sara. "And what about you?" Sara was wearing her best poker face. "Me?" "You don't have any secrets?" "Earlier on I asked you if you'd had anything to do with the police. I'm positive you did. Perhaps you were married to a policeman, or you had a relative on the force? Somewhere out in the colonies, where law's a rough and ready sort of affair." "My brother was a policeman," Sara said. "We were in Kenya." Rose released Tegan's hand, and looked Sara in the eye. "What happened?" she asked gently. "I shot him. There'd been stories for days of some stranger creeping about, breaking into people's houses. I saw a shadow on the verandah just after dark. I had my gun. I fired. Then when I went to see who it was, I saw... He was supposed to be up-country, but a bridge had been washed out. He was going to see if I had a spare bed for the night." Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. "The jury at the inquest said I'd made a terrible mistake, nothing more. Maybe they were right. But the last time we met, we'd quarrelled. People talked. I couldn't stay there." Liz took a drag from her pipe. "You've made convincing cases against all of us," she said. "But they all rely on Mr Gilbert being a blackmailer. Do we have any evidence that he was?" "I think we should ask Mrs. James about that. She seems to have made some generous investments in his company over the years." "Yeah." Rose came suddenly to life. "That was worrying me, earlier. You know, when I said I had this feeling about her? That story about investing money to help out an old friend. I think there's something more there." "We'd better talk to her again, then," Tegan said. "I'll do the honours." Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8
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