Page 54 of Murder in Shades of Fire and Ash

“Just in case,” Charlie repeated. He and Eddy waited until the customer left, then made arrangements to talk to the area manager, and for Brian to call them when he’d found the right bit of footage. It could be the same young woman who hadbought the hammers. Equally, it could be someone completely different.

Brian’s garagewas close to the pub where Huw Jones had claimed to be the night of Unwin’s murder, so Charlie said they’d go there next. The Pelican had a reputation, at least according to Eddy, of being a pick-up joint. “For straights,” he added. “If Huw Jones is hoping to do the dirty on his missus, then the Pelican is exactly where he’d go.”

“A kind of real-life dating site,” Charlie suggested.

“That’s the one,” Eddy said.

From the outside the pub looked pleasant enough, though the gloom and the rain didn’t do much to enhance its charms. Inside, it was all beams, dark panelling, a few semi-private nooks with sofas and low tables, and lots of room at the long bar. A couple were chatting in one of the nooks, and there was another couple at the bar buying drinks. Apart from that, the place was empty. Charlie waited for the couple at the bar to take their drinks to a table and showed the barman his warrant card. He asked if the barman had been working the nights of the two murders. The man nodded.

“We’re trying to check the movements of this man,” Charlie said, showing him a picture of Huw Jones.

The barman nodded again. “Huw, dunno his last name. Comes in a coupla times a week. Chats to whoever’s here. Makes out that he’s up for it with the women, but I don’t think he’s serious.”

“Could you be certain he was here on those two nights?” Charlie asked, but the barman shrugged.

“If he says he was, then probably.”

Eddy asked if the boss was around, or any of the other bar staff who had been working on those nights. The barman grinned and pointed to himself.

“I am the boss, temporary boss anyway. I can look up the rota, see who else was on, but most of them are new. Place has just changed hands. Lots of the old staff don’t like the new owners.”

They left with the names and phone numbers for three other bartenders, but little hope of getting a definitive alibi for Huw Jones. It was still raining--not hard, but persistently enough that Charlie was glad to get back into the car.

“Let me ring Will,” he said, “Maybe he’s getting somewhere, because we surely aren’t.”

Will had been busy.“Jones and company files all its accounts on time, which dodgy businesses almost never do,” he said on the phone. “They make modest profits, don’t make excessive payments to the directors, and invest heavily in property. The directors are Huw Jones, his father and mother, and his wife. Their accountant is local, which could mean they are best mates, and I can’t trust anything they say, or could equally mean that Huw Jones has nothing to hide. My gut feeling, for what it’s worth, is that he’s legit. I looked at the Land Registry as well.”

Charlie and Eddy heard that Huw Jones owned a lot of the town’s real estate, if not as much as the art college, and almost none of it was mortgaged. Jones and his family lived in an enormous house set in an equally enormous garden, with again, no mortgage. “Either I’m missing something, or this guy is both wealthy and prudent,” Will said. “The company could leverage all that property and buy a whole lot more. This doesn’t look like someone in financial trouble.”

It was true. “And there’s no obvious Josh connection,” Charlie said. “He’s too old to have been at school with them. I suppose they might share a hobby — golf or something. His alibi might even be true. On paper, this just doesn’t feel like our guy.”

Eddy nodded in agreement.

“We’ll talk to him again,” Charlie said.

“Mags has already set it up for tomorrow,” Will said. “Huw Jones, Corrine Bailey, and Megan to ask about buying the hammers.”

“Who did she talk to?” Charlie asked.

“Corrine Bailey, I think. She’s the manager.”

And suddenly, it all made sense.

Charlie turned to Eddy. “Get us back to Llanfair as fast as you like. Blues and twos.” He reached for his seatbelt and managed to fasten it before Eddy screeched out of the car park.

42

Wednesday afternoon

“What’s going on?” Eddy asked as he drove, flicking a glance towards Charlie, then returning to look at the road. Eddy was driving at least twenty miles an hour faster than Charlie was comfortable with, but Charlie told himself that Eddy had years in Traffic and knew what he was doing. Which didn’t stop him clinging on for dear life. He tried not to look at the rain slicked roads, or the sharp bends, or to imagine the heavily laden forestry wagons coming the other way.

Taking a calming breath, he said, “Megan told Gwenann in theEverything Shopthat her boss had sent her to buy the hammers. We assumed that she meant Huw Jones, who owns the firm. But Megan’s immediate boss is Corrine Bailey, the manager. We’ve told Corrine we’re coming to interview them all again. Megan will tell us who wanted the hammers.”

“You’re thinking that’s put Corrine on her guard?” Eddy asked.

“Or Huw, but I don’t think it’s Huw. Either way, I’m afraid we’ve inadvertently put Megan in danger, and the sooner we get back there, the better.” Charlie closed his eyes as the car went round a series of zig zag bends on two wheels.

“Shouldn’t you be sending Mags and Will to the estate agents?”

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