Chapter Nine

While Collins was inserting Regent into the interview room, Phryne pulled Jack aside.

"Jack, I know he can call her if he needs her, but I think Diana should be told he's here. From what she told me this morning, I don't think she has the slightest idea what's been going on, and we might get more out of him if she's around," she whispered.

"But if she does know, it will just give them the chance to get their stories straight," he objected.

"She doesn't, Jack. I'm sure she doesn't. She brought me in because they're not keeping her in the loop," Phryne insisted. "After all, if you were trying to keep a murder quiet, would you invite in Melbourne's most brilliant private detective?"

"Now who's head's swollen?" he riposted. "All right, then, but don't bring her into the room until I say so."

She nodded briskly and went to commandeer the telephone in his office. He watched her go, wondering idly why the idea of using the one on the front desk hadn't occurred to her; then added it to the list of Miss Fisher Mysteries, to be solved at a later date over a glass of wine.

Regent was nervous, there was no doubt.

"So, tell us about the van we found in your warehouse," asked Jack.

"It isn't my warehouse."

"Then why were there several empty crates there, marked with the name of your winery?"

"We were renting the space there. That's all."

Jack sighed. It had already been a long day.

"You therefore had control of the space for the period of your lease. You had every right to be there. Why did you run away?"

Silence.

"Who was the man inside the van?" Jack tried again.

"I've no idea," said Regent sulkily.

"Good, I'm glad we've established that you knew there was a man inside the van," replied Jack, grasping at straws. Regent paled further, and rubbed his face with his hand.

"A lawyer," he muttered. "I want my lawyer."

"By all means," said Jack, rising to his feet. "If you'll come this way, I'll show you to the telephone."

He opened the interview room door and preceded the prisoner to the front desk. As Regent was lifting the receiver, though, the front door burst open and Diana Regent erupted into the police station, Phryne scampering eagerly behind. There had, it seemed, been something of an unorthodox briefing undertaken on the pavement outside.

"William, what in heaven's name is going on?" shouted Diana. "What's this about a murder?"

Phryne leaned over her shoulder. "Two murders" she whispered helpfully.

"TWO?!" shrieked Diana. "I knew I should never have trusted you. Bad enough if you're running the business into the ground, but KILLING people?"

"I didn't…" Regent mumbled fearfully.

"Didn't what?"

"I didn't kill the girl. Schutz did. Bloody fool."

"Shall we continue this in the interview room?" suggested Jack, on the off-chance that public dirty-linen-laundering wasn't in line with the Regent Fine Wines brand.

He was flatly ignored.

"And who is Schutz?" demanded Diana. "Some goon almost as stupid as my brother?"

"He took the wrong girl! He was supposed to take you!" William yelled back. "I bloody wish he had!"

"Ohoh, you wanted me dead?"

"I didn't want anyone dead! I just wanted you out of my hair. Scared. Prepared to listen to reason. You were going on and on about the cost of the champagne venture, so I thought a fake kidnapping would send you back to the safety of the vineyards and leave me in peace. But then when that fool Schutz took the wrong girl, and she saw me, and recognised me – what else could I have done?"

"Oh, I don't know," mused Phryne, with a carefully blank expression. "Perhaps admit your mistake, let the innocent girl go, allow your sister to attend board meetings and take your chances that your ideas were good enough to stand up to scrutiny?"

He looked at her, nonplussed.

She turned to Diana. "You went to the beach yesterday, you said? He sent you?" The girl nodded. "What were you wearing?"

Diana glanced at her, brow furrowed. "My swimsuit, of course. And pyjamas on top."

"Were the pyjamas grey, by any chance?"

"Well, yes. Dove grey. Beautiful. Silk."

Phryne looked at William. "So you got some thug, who Diana wouldn't recognise, to kidnap her on the basis of a description of a blonde in grey pyjamas?"

Diana rolled her eyes. "And you worry that I don't have a head for planning."

Jack decided it was time to get some facts straight. "So, on the basis of a limited description, we have one failed abduction of Evangeline Stubbs; one successful abduction of Muriel Maitland, and one intention to abduct Diana Williams. When did you discover the mistake?"

"About four in the afternoon. Schutz rang to say that he'd got the girl. I was literally on the telephone to him when Diana walked in the door – so I knew he'd got the wrong girl." Now that the dam had burst, Regent was flooding them with the story. "I went straight over there, but when he opened the door to the van and she saw me, she said my name. God knows how she knew."

"She knew, because she'd been in several meetings with you, Mr Regent," explained Jack.

"What? Nonsense. We don't have women in our meetings," he blustered.

"She was the secretary for the glass bottle company you used," said Jack quietly.

"And you didn't even notice her?" asked Phryne. "Don't' you find misogynistic blinkers a little cumbersome, Mr Regent?"

He stuck his chin out belligerently. "I'm a busy man. I can't help it if people take notice of the important person in the room."

"If they hadn't in this case, an innocent woman might still be alive," remarked Jack coldly. "So you shot her because she'd recognised you?"

"I didn't! Schutz did. It was horrible. Then he said it was going to be up to me to get rid of the body. He wanted out, but I couldn't let him escape and leave me to carry the can. I tried to fight him, and he struggled, and the gun went off."

"There were three bullet wounds," Jack pointed out. "Must have been quite a struggle."

Regent had slumped on the bench at the side of the office. "He didn't die straight away. He was looking at me. I wanted him to stop looking at me." His shoulders shook, and he started to cry.

"So you fired another couple of shots, just to be sure that he wouldn't recover from the first," said Jack flatly. "I think we've heard enough. Take him to the cells, Collins."