‘You're new. What happened to that nice young Mr Martin who was here before?'
`He's in Scotland today, Mrs Davey,' said Brian Mackie.
‘He sends his apologies that he couldn't come in person, but Inspector McGuire and I are here on his behalf.'
`Well, no matter,' Laura Davey replied. 'How can I help y today?'
A couple of points have come up in the course of our enquiries that we need to ask you about. They're names; the names of people involved in the Reaper Missile controversy.'
Her face darkened. 'I wondered whether that would come up. So, whose are these names?'
`Martin Hugo?'
She looked blankly at him and shook her head.
‘Vassily Kelnikov?'
Something flashed across her eyes. She shook her head again, but briefly, without real conviction.
Are you sure about that, Mrs Davey?' asked Mackie gently.
She turned her back on him and walked towards the window. `That's a name I never wanted to hear mentioned in this house again. Yes, I've heard of Kelnikov. When I found the photograph that arrived in the mail, Cohn told me all about him.'
She turned to face the policemen again. 'When I saw Mr Martin, I told him that there were no other women in my husband's life. That was true. Unfortunately, in the past, there was the occasional man. I knew about it, but he had assured me that those days were over. I believe that to have been true. He had a healthy fear of AIDS. But then, that damn photograph arrived, on a day when Colin was away, and when I opened his post, as we always did for each other. It showed him naked, with a man. I won't say what they were doing… There was a letter with it. "From the desk of Vassily Kelnikov", was the heading. I remember every word. It said, "You probably remember this encounter with a young friend of mine, in Vienna, in 1987. Most certainly I do. To remove it from my memory, at least for the time being, I will expect the British Government to purchase the Reaper Missile from the Aerofoil Consortium, in which I have a personal interest." That was all.'
`What did you do with the letter, and the photograph?'
I gave them to Colin, of course, as soon as he returned home. I wasn't angry with him, I was sorry for him.'
`How did he react?'
'He broke down. He thought that his career was at an end.'
And when it didn't end?' asked McGuire, very softly.
Her back straightened, and she turned to look at him. 'I saw that he had done what had to be done, Inspector.'
`Do you know what your husband did with the photograph and the letter, ma'am?' asked Mackie.
I had assumed that he had burned them, but when I opened his safe, at the weekend, I found them, together with two other letters from Kelnikov, one thanking him for delivering the order, and the second, dated very recently, saying that there was some further business, involving a new anti-tank rocket, which he was sure they could do together.'
`What did you do with them, Mrs Davey?'
She glared at the tall, thin detective, down her long nose, as at first she had looked at Andy Martin. 'I burned them, Chief Inspector, I burned them. What else would you have expected me to do!'
`Nothing other than that, to be honest,' said Mackie. There’s no harm done. You've confirmed for us that Kelnikov had no interest in having your husband murdered. Rather his interest was in keeping him alive. Now, another name. Bryn Sawyer. Mean anything to you?'
She looked at him blankly once more and shook her head.
Okay,' said Mackie. 'That's all. I'm sorry that we had to raise this, Mrs Davey. I don't expect that we'll be bothering you again’
`Good,' she said sincerely. 'Nothing personal, you understand.'
She walked them to the door. 'What about that awful man Kelnikov? What will happen to him?'
It has already. His former organisation revoked his licence last week. He's out of business, for good.