Chapter 10
The Broadcast Alibi
At eleven fifteen, Thomas Vale's voice was live across three counties.
He read a listener's question, mispronounced echinacea and announced the church clock. The recording appeared to clear him.
June listened again in the studio while the producer scrolled through the waveform. A robin sang beneath Thomas's introduction.
"There were no birds near the mobile van," June said. "The council generator was running."
The producer removed her headphones. "The gardening segment was prerecorded Friday. He hates outside broadcasts. We inserted it into the live show."
Thomas had been absent from the microphone for seventeen minutes.
Confronted, he admitted entering the potting room. He wanted Arthur's ledger deleted. Arthur had demanded a final payment for silence about a collision twenty-two years earlier.
"Was anyone else there?"
"I heard Beatrice arguing outside. I left through the greenhouse."
"Why foxglove on your cuff?"
"I climbed through the bed like an idiot."
His story was ugly and plausible. Then June noticed the studio clock was twelve minutes slow - the same as the greenhouse timer.
"Who maintains council clocks?"
The producer frowned. "Beatrice's assistant changed them for daylight saving."
Daylight saving was still two weeks away.