Page 70 of The Chapel of Bones

‘I don’t think Dale ever knew.’ Baker paused for a moment. ‘He wondered whether he’d taken it onto Dartmoor and released it in some isolated place because he couldn’t bear to kill it.’

‘If that’s what happened, it was incredibly irresponsible,’ said Wesley.

‘Dale’s dad, Jacob Gadson, was a rich man because his own father had made a fortune during the war. Dale’s mother was Jacob’s first wife. His second wife, Carla’s mum, had two kids and then was killed in a car crash. Jacob married for a third time, but Dale didn’t have much to do with his new stepmother because he was in his twenties by that time. But he did tell me that the two younger kids hated her. She wasn’t much older than Dale, you see, and he reckoned she’d only married Jacob for his money.’

‘Have you got a name for this woman?’

‘Dale just called her the wicked stepmother. When he got back from the States, he was told that she’d killed Carla’s dog and that was why Carla . . . did what she did.’

‘What became of the stepmother?’

‘She walked out on Jacob a few months after Carla died and went to live abroad.’

‘And what about Dale’s surviving younger sibling?’

‘His half-brother. No idea. He’d gone off to work abroad by the time Dale got back from the States. Dale never saw him again. He was almost ten years younger than Dale and they’dnever been that close. In fact Dale said he’d never had much to do with him. Or Carla for that matter. So then it was just Dale and old Jacob – and the animals.’

‘What was the brother’s name?’

Baker frowned as though he was making a great effort to remember. ‘Something beginning with J. John? Jules? Not sure. Dale never spoke about him.’

Now that the suspect was in a more talkative frame of mind, Wesley decided to ask the question that had been on his mind since his interview with Penny Worksop.

‘Ever heard of a house called St Julian’s? It was owned by a bookseller called Ethelred Bingley.’

Baker considered the question for a few moments. ‘Yeah, I know it. I lived there for a short while. I’d just left a toxic relationship. Girl who sucked all the creative life out of me. Anyway, I met a guy in a pub in Morbay and he said he was renting a room in this big house and was looking for people to share the cost. I went there to have a look round and I ended up staying for a couple of months.’ A smile played on his lips. ‘The landlord sold up around the time my girl came back on the scene and I moved back into her place. Perfect timing. Although the relationship didn’t last.’

‘The man you met in the pub – what was his name?’

Wesley saw a wariness appear in Baker’s eyes. ‘Something Italian.’

‘Carlo Lanzani?’

Baker looked surprised. ‘Yeah, that sounds right. How did you know?’

‘We’ve seen a list of former tenants. What was he like?’

‘He was a strange guy. Bitter.’ He looked away as though he found the memory of his former housemate disturbing.

‘You paint strange beasts. Mythological,’ said Gerry. ‘Ever heard of a lanzani in that context?’

There was a long silence, and Wesley noticed that the solicitor looked puzzled. This wasn’t the way he was expecting the questioning to go.

‘Yeah,’ Baker said quietly after a while. ‘I’ve heard of it. A lanzani is a creature that lives to attack anything that’s not of its own kind.’

‘This Carlo Lanzani you met – what did he do?’

‘He was a student. Morbay Uni, I think. He said he was a writer too, but I never saw much evidence of that. Look, Carlo was getting a bit heavy. Full of hate, you know. As soon as the landlord sold the place, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.’

‘Why was that?’

Baker looked down as though he found his hands fascinating. It was clear he didn’t want to answer the question.

‘Do you know where Carlo Lanzani is now?’

He shook his head.

‘Someone else was living in the house at the time,’ Wesley said. ‘Aphrodite – had a partner called Apollo.’