A Well-deserved Murder (Trevor Joseph Detective series) by Katherine John

evening.’ He pulled the damp tissue from his sleeve again and Trevor gave him a few minutes to compose himself.
    ‘How would you describe your life with your wife and family, Mr Howells?’
    ‘Normal. Kacy worked part-time; we have a nice house with no mortgage. I inherited half of it from my mother and bought my brother out of the other half. We have the children …’
    ‘Have you been married long?’ Trevor broke in.
    ‘Seven years.’
    ‘And your wife was –’ Trevor referred to the notes Sarah had made and given him. ‘Fifty years old. Nine years older than you?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Where did you meet?’
    ‘At work.’
    ‘You married when she was forty-three and you were thirty-four?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Did you live together before your marriage?’
    ‘For a few weeks. We’d only been seeing one another for a couple of months.’
    ‘Couple? Two, three?’
    ‘Three, I suppose,’ George answered.
    ‘That’s not long to go out with someone before marrying them.’
    ‘Kacy wasn’t getting any younger. She wanted children.’
    Trevor considered Peter’s opinion. If he had met George Howells in a pub, he, like Peter would have assumed he was gay. Something of absolutely no interest unless the person concerned was involved in a crime, where his or her sexuality might have a bearing. And given the number of sex aids in the Howells’ shed, Kacy and George’s sexuality was a factor to be considered in this investigation. He only wished he knew exactly where it fitted into the scenario.
    He made a mental note to check the date of the Howells’ marriage against the birth of their eldest child. Could Kacy have been having an affair with someone she didn’t want to – or couldn’t marry? And, as a result, on finding herself pregnant, targeted George as an economic option because he had a mortgage-free house?
    ‘Did you or your wife have any other long-term partners before your marriage?’ Trevor questioned.
    ‘What’s that got to do with Kacy’s murder?’ George flushed crimson.
    ‘So far, Mr Howells, we have a motiveless crime. Your wife was axed to death on a platform in your garden. She was naked …’
    ‘Naked? I don’t understand.’ George appeared bewildered.
    ‘Neither do we, Mr Howells. The pathologist who carried out the post-mortem found no evidence of sexual assault, which is why I asked about your wife’s previous partners. At this moment we are not discounting anything. Including an angry, possibly jealous, rage from a lover – or previous partner.’
    ‘I see.’ George stared down at the floor.
    Trevor thought it odd that George didn’t protest that seven years was a long time to nurse jealousy. ‘Did you have a previous partner, Mr Howells?’
    ‘No – no – not really.’ His face went from crimson to vermilion. ‘I mean I went out with other girls and all that … but nothing serious.’
    Trevor was tempted to ask him to elaborate on the “all that” but he persevered with his line of questioning.
    ‘And your wife?’
    ‘She lived with someone.’
    ‘For how long?’
    ‘Eighteen years.’
    ‘His name?’
    ‘John Evans.’
    ‘You know him?’
    ‘He works in the same department as us. In the civil service,’ George added superfluously.
    ‘Was the break between John Evans and your wife amicable?’
    ‘Not really. Kacy moved out of the house they’d lived in together. He gave her some money to cover her share. Not everything she was entitled to, but he’d made sure the house was in his name. She went to a solicitor but he said it was a difficult situation because John Evans had bought the house before they had cohabited. John even produced a rent book and tried to say that Kacy had never been more than a tenant in his house which was a blatant lie. People can be mean when it comes to making financial redress.’
    Trevor thought he could detect Kacy Howells’ voice in the complaint.
    ‘A few weeks after Kacy moved out of John Evans’s house he married