Deep Water by Peter Corris Page A

them.’
    â€˜And?’
    â€˜Tell you when I finish.’
    She was wearing a bandanna around her head. I pointed to it.
    â€˜How’s the wound?’
    â€˜Healing. My swim cap covers it and protects it neatly. Faint scar maybe. Doesn’t worry me. Could be sexy.’
    â€˜Funny,’ I said, ‘I’ve never found that to be true.’
    â€˜You’ve probably got too many.’
    I went into Hank’s office and asked him what he was doing.
    â€˜Cleaning up a few things and working on getting some inside dope on Tarelton.’
    â€˜How?’
    â€˜I’ve located the guy who installed their computer network.’
    â€˜That’d be a shocking breach of confidentiality.’
    â€˜Wouldn’t it? I like our client. She says she’ll back us all the way.’
    I nodded. ‘Question is, how far will we get?’
    â€˜Think positive. What’re you doing?’
    â€˜Working on a hunch.’
    â€˜Oh, yeah? Be secretive. Secretive is good.’
    My notes had not looked wrong-headed in the morning. Rather the reverse. I phoned Josephine Dart.
    â€˜Mr Hardy. I’ve seen the reports about Henry. Do you have any other news?’
    â€˜I’m afraid not, but I’d like to see you. Today, if possible.’
    She sighed. ‘I anticipated that. Yes, you can come here, now if you wish.’
    I thought I might’ve been met with reluctance, but not so. She sounded almost relieved, and I had a feeling that perhaps I was making some progress as I drove to Dover Heights again. She met me at the door as before but her manner was very different. Defensive? Apprehensive?
    The flat had the same appealing lived-in look with a touch of neglect at the edges. Josephine Dart was dressed as before, simply and elegantly, but with strain showing in herface. I wasn’t offered coffee. We stood in front of those windows full of blue sky and grey-green sea.
    â€˜You know, don’t you?’
    â€˜I’m only guessing.’
    â€˜I gave you something to guess with, didn’t I?’
    â€˜Secrets are hard to keep and they don’t always do you any good. Just a few things you said had me wondering.’
    â€˜It’s a relief, actually. So just a few words steered you in the right direction?’
    â€˜Not really,’ I said. ‘When I sat down to think about it, Henry McKinley came across as just too good to be true.’
    â€˜He was my lover.’
    I nodded. ‘Did your husband know?’
    She smiled. ‘Oh, so you’re only halfway there.’
    She turned away from the window and walked across to a drinks tray I hadn’t seen on my last visit. She dropped ice cubes into two glasses and poured solid slugs of scotch. She held the drink out towards me in a hand that barely shook.
    â€˜Have a drink,’ she said. ‘Yes, Henry was my lover and Terry knew because they were lovers, too. And there were others.’

part two

12
    It all came out in a rush. The Darts and McKinley had been involved in a ménage à trois with a difference, in that McKinley was the lover of both partners in the marriage. The arrangement had started almost ten years before, she said, and had continued happily right up until McKinley’s disappearance.
    â€˜Are you shocked, Mr Hardy?’
    â€˜Nothing shocks me except reality television and house prices.’
    She smiled. ‘A man of the world.’
    â€˜You said there were others.’
    â€˜Yes, occasionally. Another man, or another woman. I wasn’t going to have both hands tied behind
my
back, if you follow me.’
    â€˜And no friction, ever?’
    â€˜Scarcely ever, and then it was quickly overcome.’
    â€˜I don’t mean between you three. I meant from the others.’
    â€˜Only once. A few years back. A man Henry met somewhere. He joined us a few times but he became … possessive.’
    â€˜Of who?’
    â€˜Of me. Terry and Henry