Stone Killer Read Online Free PDF Page B

her notes. ‘Twenty-nine years old. Until recently, she ran a very successful catering company in partnership with a man called Stanley Keene.’
    â€˜In
partnership
?’ Woodend said quizzically.
    â€˜It’s not what you might think,’ Paniatowski said. ‘There was nothing going on between them.’
    â€˜You’re sure of that, are you?’
    â€˜Absolutely. Nobody’s come flat out and said it in so many words, but everyone I’ve talked to has left me with the distinct impression that when Keene gets in the horizontal position, he’d much rather it was a man lying under him than a woman.’
    â€˜You’re so tactful you could almost be a chief constable,’ Woodend said. ‘Tell me more.’
    â€˜Keene was essentially the officer manager. He did the ordering, balanced the accounts, that kind of thing. Judith was what you might call the field operative. Whenever the company catered an event, she was there on the spot, supervising it. All of which meant that though the company was based in Whitebridge, she didn’t actually spend much of her time here.’
    â€˜How does her husband, the Major, fit into all this?’ Woodend wondered.
    â€˜Judith met him two years ago, at a function for the Territorial Army that she was catering in Bolton. Maitland was the guest of honour. It appears to have been something of a whirlwind romance. They were married just two months after that first meeting. They had a brief honeymoon touring in France, then he was posted overseas, and she carried on running the business.’
    â€˜Tell me about the man she’s supposed to have murdered,’ Woodend said.
    â€˜His name was Clive Burroughs,’ Paniatowski said, consulting her notes again. ‘He was a couple of years older than Judith Maitland. He lived in Dunethorpe, where he ran a builders’ merchant’s business which he’d inherited from his father. He was killed in his own office – his head smashed in with a hammer. According to the officers who investigated the crime, Judith did it.’
    â€˜Motive?’ Woodend asked.
    â€˜If we’re to accept the word of the Dunethorpe Police, it was one of the oldest – and most boring – in the book. He was a married man with two children, and he was having an affair with Judith. They had a disagreement of some kind – the police think he’d probably told her he’d decided to end their relationship – she lost her temper, and killed him.’
    â€˜How long had this affair been going on?’
    â€˜Judith claims there
was
no affair—’
    â€˜Well, she would, wouldn’t she,’ Woodend said dryly.
    â€˜But the general consensus seems to be that they were seeing each other for nearly a year before Burroughs was killed.’
    â€˜How did they first meet?’
    â€˜In the same way she met her husband. Judith was catering a party for the Dunethorpe Chamber of Commerce. It was a family occasion. Burroughs was there – and so was his wife.’
    â€˜She
knew
he was married, then, did she?’
    â€˜I assume so.’
    â€˜So he couldn’t have lied to her – said that he was unattached. Which means that if she
did
have an affair with him, she must have known exactly what she was gettin’ herself into, doesn’t it?’
    â€˜Ah, now I see where you’re going with this!’ Paniatowski said, an angry note suddenly apparent in her voice.
    â€˜I’m sorry?’ Woodend said, mystified.
    â€˜You mean, you’re wondering whether she
set out
to be a home-breaker? You’re wondering if she embarked on the affair already knowing full well that someone was bound to get badly hurt? In other words, you’re asking yourself if she was a heartless bitch—’
    â€˜Monika!’
    â€˜â€¦ like me!’
    â€˜That’s not right, and it’s not
fair
, Monika!’ Woodend said sternly. ‘In