Josiah snorted. “Neil, I lead a pretty frugal lifestyle. My salary has been sitting in my bank account for eight years, more or less untouched, but even I don’t have enough to buy Alex Lytton. Not even close. Not even if I sold my house and car and everything I own – I still wouldn’t stand a chance. What makes you think thatyoucould afford him?”
“Oh, I’d say you’ve wasted plenty on those fancy suits you parade around in.” Neil cast an accusatory look at Josiah’s blue-and-tan herringbone ensemble.
“True, but I’m not saving for the most expensive indie in the land. I could go to work in an old sack and live in a hovel, but I still wouldn’t save enough to buy Alex. Where does the money come from, Neil? Does it even exist?”
“That’s none of your business,” Neil snapped. “Why have you come here, Investigator Raine? To arrest me formaybestanding in your garden?”
“No, to find out where you were when Elliot Dacre was murdered,” Josiah said quietly.
Neil stopped short, his mouth opening and closing in surprise. Was that an act? Josiah couldn’t be sure. Neil was certainly hiding something, but was it murder?
“I didn’t kill Elliot Dacre,” he exclaimed. “Oh, I see. That’s what all this is about. You’ve come here to try and pin that stupid old fool’s murder on me. You want to get rid of me, so you can have Alex to yourself.”
“Hardly.” Josiah found Neil’s level of delusion confusing. On the one hand, he was clearly smart enough to have engineered that night with Alex at the show. On the other, his entire world view centred around this great love affair they were supposedly having, and he twisted everything to support that in a way that was frankly ludicrous. “I’m merely asking if you have an alibi.”
“I was working,” Neil said tersely.
“Doing what? Do you have witnesses?”
“I’m not going to tell you, and no.” Neil’s face crumpled. “But that doesn’t mean I killed Dacre.”
“Maybe not, but it would help your case a great deal if you could tell me where you were that day.”
“I didn’t kill him!” Neil yelled. He took a moment to recover from his outburst, blinking rapidly, then he collected himself. “I didn’t kill him,” he repeated in a calmer voice.
“You can understand how it looks, though,” Josiah observed. “You tried to buy Alex’s contract but were turned down. Then you tried to persuade Alex to escape with you but were turned down. So, by your own admission, you were desperate… What else was left for you to do? If you and Alex are meant to be together, as you claim, then what else makes sense but to kill Elliot and run away with Alex?”
“If that was the plan, then why didn’t I do it, you idiot?” Neil demanded. “Why didn’t I grab Alex after I’d killed Dacre and run off with him, if it was that simple?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you were expecting Alex to return home from the gym earlier than he did. He went for a long drive after working out. Or maybe you were startled by the arrival of the housekeeper and ran off.”
“I wasn’t there! Even if Ihadkilled Dacre, which I didn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to escape with Alex, because he was being followed everywhere by the black SUAVs.”
“What do you know about those SUAVs?” Josiah asked quietly.
“Only that Alex was afraid of them. He said they followed him everywhere, and he could never escape because of them.”
“Might it have been a crime of passion, then?” Josiah asked. “You’ve spoken heatedly about the passion you believe exists between you and Alex. It must have been hard for you to see him with Dacre, to watch them behaving like a couple.”
“Oh, I knewthatwasn’t real. No more than you and he are real,” Neil said scornfully. “I know how Alexreallyfeels. He was fond of Dacre, sure, but it was all pretence. It always is with Alex.”
“But not with you?”
“No, because with me he’s free to be who he really is. That’s not always very nice. It’s why we fight and hurt each other. But itisgenuine. You’re getting the sweet, loving, false Alex, but with me, he’s the real deal. He’s a spitfire – always has been. He likes to fight it out in the bedroom, scratching, biting, and bruising. You should have seen us as teenagers. We’ve always liked it rough.”
“I saw the wounds on his body after the show. It didn’t look like rough sex to me.” Josiah grinned and leaned in close. “I’vehad plenty of rough sex and I never left my partner looking like Alex did after a night with you.”
This pressed all Neil’s buttons and his nostrils flared furiously. “It’s how we are with each other,” he said tightly.
“Ah, yes. Which brings us back to the passion. If you’re like that with someone you love, then what’s to stop you putting a bullet into someone you hate, because of that same passion?”
“I can see you’ve made up your mind. Well then, why don’t you arrest me?”
“I can easily get a warrant for your arrest. I have reasonable cause,” Josiah said carefully.
“Then do it,” Neil snapped. “All you have is guesses, no actual evidence. You must be feeling very pleased with yourself to be getting rid of the opposition in this way. I’ll tell the press. I’ll say you want Alex for yourself, that’s why you’re arresting me. I’ve heard all the talk about you – they’ll believe me.”
“Oh, go ahead.” Josiah was genuinely amused by the threat. “The press love writing nonsense about me.”
