Stone Killer by Sally Spencer Page A

asked.
    â€˜None.’
    â€˜But surely, in a violent attack of that nature, there would have been bloodstains on her clothing?’
    â€˜If they’d been the clothes she was wearing when she committed the murder, yes.’
    â€˜But you don’t think they were?’
    â€˜Ã‰lite Catering issues all its employees with a uniform. It consists of an overall, a pair of light, washable canvas shoes, and a plastic cap of the sort people use in the shower. Judith Maitland always carried a set of these clothes with her – nobody disagrees about that – but there was no sign of them in the van.’
    â€˜So you think that was what she was wearing when she allegedly killed Clive Burroughs?’
    â€˜Exactly.’
    â€˜And that she dumped the uniform somewhere, shortly after leaving the scene of the crime?’
    â€˜Just so.’
    â€˜But you never found it?’
    â€˜No, we did not.’
    â€˜There’s something that’s rather puzzling me here,’ Monika Paniatowski said.
    â€˜And what’s that?’ Baxter wondered.
    â€˜I’ve only skimmed through the transcript of the trial, but I don’t remember finding any reference at all in it to her overall.’
    â€˜No, you wouldn’t have, because there isn’t one,’ Baxter said.
    â€˜And why is that?’
    â€˜It wasn’t
necessary
to include it in the evidence. We had a strong enough case without it.’
    Woodend lit a cigarette and took a thoughtful drag. ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you start this conversation by sayin’ that you were goin’ to put all your cards on the table?’ he asked.
    â€˜Yes, I did,’ Baxter agreed. ‘And I’ve done just that.’
    But though his voice was still steady enough, he did not look exactly comfortable with the assertion.
    â€˜Now that
is
interestin’,’ Woodend said.
    â€˜What is?’
    â€˜I’ve been wrackin’ my brains for some other example where the investigatin’ officers deliberately excluded some of the evidence from the prosecution’s case because they’d decided it wasn’t really necessary. An’, do you know, I can’t come up with a single one. In Whitebridge, we normally throw everything but the kitchen sink into the evidence, just to make sure we’ve got as watertight a case as we possibly could have.’
    â€˜Normally, we’d do that in Dunethorpe, too,’ Baxter agreed, his evident discomfort growing by the second.
    â€˜So what happened in the Burroughs case?’
    Baxter took out a knife and scraped the bowl of his pipe before speaking again.
    â€˜I liked Judith Maitland,’ he said. ‘I really did. I think you would have done, too, in my place.’
    â€˜Go on,’ Woodend said.
    â€˜And I’d done some checking on Clive Burroughs. It wasn’t a very edifying task, because Judith Maitland wasn’t the first of his little flings – not by a very long chalk.’
    â€˜That may be so, but I still don’t see where you’re goin’ with this,’ Woodend admitted.
    â€˜I felt sorry for the woman,’ Baxter admitted. ‘I know I shouldn’t have, but I did. So I asked the prosecutor if we could present the case as a crime of passion, and he agreed.’
    â€˜I understand that, but—’
    â€˜In court, the prosecutor argued that Clive Burroughs and Judith Maitland had a blazing row, and that in the midst of it she picked up a hammer and caved in his skull.’
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜But I don’t think it happened quite like that. I’m sure the row did actually occur, but I don’t believe she was wearing the overall at the time.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜Because no woman ever goes to meet her lover wearing her working clothes.’
    â€˜So what you’re sayin’ is that she decides to kill him, then goes out to her van, puts on her overall,