Road Closed by Leigh Russell Page A

glistened on her pale cheeks as she stood crying silently.
    ‘Mrs Cliff, is this your husband? You can indicate your answer with a nod.’ Sophie Cliff didn’t respond. She didn’t need to. Geraldine lowered her voice. ‘Would you like to be left alone with him for a minute?’
    Sophie Cliff looked up. Geraldine was startled by the sudden harshness in her eyes. ‘A minute?’ Geraldine felt embarrassed by her clumsy offer of a moment alone with the dead man when Sophie Cliff had lost her whole future with him. There was a rustle of movement as the widow walked out of the room.
    ‘I’m sorry, Mrs Cliff,’ Geraldine said, catching up with her in the corridor. ‘We’re doing everything we can to find out what happened.’
    Sophie Cliff spoke in a furious whisper. ‘I want to know who did this to my husband.’
    ‘I’m not sure we can say anyone’s to blame –’
    ‘I want to know who’s responsible. Tell me when you find him.’
    Geraldine frowned. ‘We’re doing what we can,’ she repeated helplessly. Sophie Cliff turned and strode away down the corridor, her feet falling silently on the scrubbed floor.
    Geraldine sighed and made her way back to the police station to type up her report but she found it hard to settle. She kept thinking about the widow’s eyes glaring wildly in her pale face, like the eyes of a trapped animal. That was what grief looked like, Geraldine thought with a guilty pang; she hadn’t even cried at her own mother’s funeral.

12
    Widow
    ‘You’ve all read the Fire Investigation Team’s initial findings on the damage at 17 Harchester Close. The gas leak wasn’t caused by defective equipment.’ The DCI flipped through the report. ‘The kitchen was almost new, but not new enough to have teething problems. The appliances were installed by an accredited experienced gas fitter ten months ago. DC Hargreaves spoke to him and the fitter was adamant he followed correct procedures and the paperwork was in order to show everything had been properly fitted and tested. There was no evidence of any fault. The gas tap had been functioning fine since the kitchen was installed. There’s no reason for it to suddenly malfunction and the FIT have found nothing to suggest it did. They’re positive we’re looking at human error. Which opens up the possibility that we’re dealing with a crime scene, if the gas was left on deliberately, a possibility the FIT raised from the start. Polly.’ She nodded at the detective constable who had been talking to Ian Peterson that morning.
    ‘The victim took out a life insurance policy ten months ago,’ the constable said. ‘His life was insured for a million pounds.’
    ‘There’s nothing remarkable in that,’ the DCI took over again, ‘considering the victim got married two years ago, and they bought their house three months later. The property is currently valued at nearly a million pounds, and they’re making substantial mortgage repayments. It’s quite in order for him to have insured the house against his death. It was insured against his life only, not hers. That’s not unusualexcept that she was earning more than her husband which makes it slightly odd that they took out insurance on his life and not hers.’
    ‘Perhaps they were thinking of starting a family and she planned to give up work?’ someone suggested.
    ‘Yes, they might’ve been thinking of starting a family. The widow’s not that young. Late thirties.’ Geraldine felt herself blush and looked down. The room suddenly felt hot and stuffy.
    ‘So now the house is paid off.’ Peterson said. ‘She could sell up and walk away with millions.’
    ‘A million,’ Geraldine corrected him.
    ‘Let’s not get sidetracked into speculation,’ the DCI snapped.
    ‘It’s motive, not speculation,’ the sergeant mumbled audibly.
    Gordon ignored him. She turned and tapped at a photograph on the Board before looking round the room again. ‘The victim’s wife.’ She didn’t say