Dave Slater Mystery Novels Box Set Three

by P. F. Ford

  ‘But I thought you got on so well.’

  ‘We do,’ said Slater, ‘but he still used to drive me to distraction with his untidiness. And, I suspect if I’m working with you and it comes to a chase, there would be two of us running after the fugitive, right?’

  ‘Well, yes, of course.’

  ‘So that’s another thing, Norm didn’t do running.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Watson, ‘so if you chased someone down and got into a sticky situation—’

  ‘I’d be on my own,’ finished Slater.

  ‘That’s not so good,’ admitted Watson.

  ‘Norm’s name should be on Bradshaw’s list,’ said Slater, fondly. ‘His brain works fine, but the rest of him? Well . . .’

  ‘I see,’ said Watson.

  ‘I don’t ever want to hear you comparing yourself to anyone I’ve worked with before,’ said Slater. ‘It’s a pointless exercise because we can’t turn the clock back, and even if I could, I wouldn’t want to. I took this job knowing I was going to be working with you, and I’ll have you know I’m very happy with the way things are working out.’

  ‘Oh, right, I see.’ A faint blush was creeping across Watson’s face once again.

  ‘And when it comes to brainstorming,’ said Slater, ‘experience isn’t always a blessing. Sometimes it gets in the way.’

  ‘But without evidence, it’s all guesswork anyway, isn’t it?’

  Slater laughed. ‘Ha! Sometimes it’s guesswork even with evidence. But you’re right, guesswork and a bit of luck comes into it far more than anyone cares to admit.’

  Watson fished in her bag and produced her notebook and pen. ‘Right,’ she said, opening the book, ‘so what do we need the team to look out for next? Maybe we can get lucky through them.’

  ‘Let’s start with the Randalls’ bank statements for 2000 and 2001,’ suggested Slater.

  ‘How about any cases Diana worked on at Flipton that might have involved someone who is suspected of trafficking people?’

  ‘Yep, that’s a good one,’ agreed Slater, ‘and get them to find Diana’s medical records. Let’s see if Alan was telling the truth about her not being able to have kids.’

  ‘Anything else?’ asked Watson, picking up her mobile phone.

  ‘Yes, ask them to chase up Colin Norton’s phone records!’

  A couple of minutes later, Watson ended her call and turned to Slater.

  ‘A copy of Colin Norton’s phone records will be in your inbox when you get back,’ she said. ‘Apparently there’s one number he calls rather a lot. They’ve traced it back to a mobile owned by Diana Randall.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said Slater. ‘Now we’re beginning to get somewhere.’

  ‘And they’re going to see if they can track her by her mobile phone.’

  Chapter 35

  It was obvious from Colin Norton’s phone records that he had called Diana Randall less than fifteen minutes after Slater and Watson had last spoken to him, and three more times since. ‘I would suggest that’s how she knew we would be coming back,’ said Slater.

  ‘But he can’t know how much we know,’ said Watson, ‘so I wonder what he’s told her?’

  ‘All he knew was that we were investigating the body found in the ditch and we’d linked it to David Hudson,’ said Slater. ‘But Hudson came to town after Diana had left, so why would he need to tell her anything about it?’

  He studied the list of calls. ‘Now this is interesting. He called Diana on 22 October.’

  ‘That’s the day the police got the tip-off. Do you think he called to tell her about that?’

  ‘It’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it?’

  ‘D’you think we need to pay him another visit?’

  ‘I think so, don’t you?’ said Slater. ‘We could go back to the hotel via his house. You weren’t doing anything tonight were you?’

  Watson pretended to consider her options for a minute before replying. ‘Well, I was going to wash my hair, but that will have to wait, I can’t turn down an offer like that!’

  * * *

  Colin Norton lived in a dingy basement flat. He wasn’t best pleased when he opened his front door to find Slater and Watson on his doorstep. ‘Oh, God, what do you want now?’

  Slater gave him a humourless smile. ‘Good evening, Colin, nice to see you too. I’m so pleased we caught you at home.’

  ‘Yeah, I bet you are,’ said Norton. ‘But I’m going out soon, so you can clear off.’

  ‘This will only take five minutes,’ said Slater.

  ‘Well, go on, then, ask away,’ said Norton.

  ‘Aw, come on, Colin, it’s starting to rain out here.’

  ‘Well, that’s your bad luck. Don’t say I didn’t offer you the chance to ask your questions.’ He started to close the door, but Slater stepped forward and planted a foot firmly in place to stop it. ‘Now, now, Colin, you can let us in and we can make this a pleasant chat, or we can go down to your nick, in front of your mates, and take all night. Take your pick.’ He finished with his crocodile smile.

  Norton looked like he was mulling it over. It occurred to Slater that Norton was unlikely to have any mates down at the station.

  ‘You’ve got five minutes and that’s it!’ he said eventually, opening the door.

  ‘That will be plenty of time, Colin,’ said Slater. ‘We’ve only got a couple of questions.’

  They followed him down a dark hallway and into a living room with decor that had obviously been inspired by the dampness and decay that was a feature of Norton’s home. The musty odour of mildew seemed to be everywhere.

  ‘Oh, this is nice,’ said Slater, with heavy sarcasm.

  ‘Take a seat,’ said Norton, ignoring Slater’s jibe.

  Slater looked at the seats on offer then looked at Watson. Her expression told him exactly what she thought of that idea.

  ‘I think we prefer to stand,’ said Slater. ‘Mildew’s a bugger to get off your clothes.’

  ‘I don’t choose to live in this shit-hole,’ said Norton. ‘When your ex-wife is taking almost every penny you bring home in the name of child support, you have to live where you can.’

  ‘You’re divorced?’ asked Slater, trying to sound surprised. ‘That’s a shame, can I ask why?’

  ‘It was just one of those things,’ said Norton. ‘People grow apart sometimes.’

  ‘It was adultery wasn’t it?’ asked Slater.

  Norton looked daggers at him.

  Slater shrugged his shoulders in apology. ‘Lucky guess,’ he said, ‘I heard a rumour, you see, about you and a DS you used to work with years ago.’

  ‘You don’t wanna believe everything you hear,’ said Norton. ‘People often put two and two together and end up with the wrong answer.’

  ‘That’s true enough, but sometimes they get the answer spot on,’ said Slater. ‘We have a witness who claims you and Diana Randall made a habit of going missing if you were on duty together.’

  ‘That’s cobblers,’ snapped Norton. ‘Anyway, that was twenty years ago. Even now you can still hit patches where there’s no signal.’

  ‘D’you still keep in touch?’

  ‘Now and then,’ conceded Norton.

  ‘Would you say you were good friends?’ asked Slater.

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘Yet when her son went missing, you were there the very next day volunteering to join the searches. That suggests you were a very good friend.’

  ‘We worked together. Anyone normal would have done the same,’ explained Norton.

  ‘Anyone normal who wasn’t a good friend would probably have lost touch after six years,’ said Slater, ‘yet Diana called you and told you her son was missing.’

  Norton licked his lips, eyes darting between Slater and Watson. ‘I saw it on the daily bulletin, missing persons.’

  ‘Oh, right, of course, I didn’t think of that,’ said Slater. ‘So what happened then, did you ask for leave there and then?’

  ‘Yeah, that’s right,
’ said Norton, seeming relieved that Slater had given him a way out.

  Slater nodded to Watson who opened her bag and withdrew a sheaf of paper.

  ‘What’s this?’ asked Norton.

  ‘Your mobile phone records,’ said Slater, watching the colour drain from Norton’s face as he realised he’d been caught out. ‘What? Did you think we’d be too stupid to check your phone? It seems you make more than an occasional phone call to Diana Randall. I would say you call her a lot, wouldn’t you?’

  ‘So? We’re friends and we keep in touch. There’s no law against that, is there?’

  ‘Not at all,’ said Slater. ‘Can you tell me why you called her on 22 October?’

  ‘I can’t remember. Probably just for a chat, see how she was, that sort of thing.’

  ‘So, there was no specific reason?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Norton, carefully.

  Slater gave Norton a cold, hard stare, but it only seemed to succeed in making him more stubborn.

  ‘We haven’t got the records all the way back to the time Sonny Randall went missing yet,’ said Slater, ‘but I think we’re going to find a lot of calls between you and Diana around that time, don’t you? That seems to be a bit odd, considering you weren’t really good friends, don’t you think?’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re getting at,’ said Norton. ‘Diana and Alan had lost their son and I tried to help find him. What’s wrong with that?’

  ‘Oh, so it’s Diana and Alan? You’re friends with both of them? Does Alan know you were having an affair with his wife?’

  ‘We were not having an affair,’ snapped Norton.

  ‘My witness seems pretty convinced you were.’

  ‘Well, your witness is mistaken.’

  ‘Do you recall when her son was born?’ asked Slater. ‘As a family friend, I expect you knew all about it.’

  Norton had looked uncomfortable from the minute they had arrived, but now he looked distinctly concerned. ‘No, I didn’t know all about it,’ he mumbled. ‘I didn’t find out until some time after.’

  ‘But I thought you were a family friend?’

  ‘When they moved up to Flipton I lost touch for a while. It was two or three years before we got back in touch.’

  ‘I expect she missed your dazzling wit and repartee,’ said Slater, but the comment went straight over Norton’s head unnoticed.

  ‘Were you surprised when you found out she had a baby?’ asked Watson.

  ‘I was surprised when she gave up her job to look after the boy. That was supposed to be Alan’s job, he was the one who wanted a kid so badly.’

  ‘So Diana didn’t want a baby?’ asked Watson. ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because she was a career girl, heading for the top! Now, you’ve had your five minutes and I’m supposed to be somewhere, so if you wouldn’t mind?’

  ‘Fair enough,’ said Slater. ‘But don’t leave town, we’re going to want to speak to you again.’

  ‘I’ll look forward to it,’ said Norton.

  Chapter 36

  When Slater woke next morning, he still hadn’t heard from Jenny, but he had decided if she wanted to play games, that was up to her. Whatever she was up to, she wasn’t going to distract him from doing his job.

  Something important was nagging away at him, but he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly it was. By the time they got to the office, it had become an itch he just had to scratch, but the problem was, he had no idea where to start. In the end, he decided to begin at the beginning. Sonny Randall’s disappearance was the first file they had collected, so he started there.

  He skimmed through the reports once again, and then turned his attention to the various photographs. He got to his feet and spread them out on the longest worktop. Then he stepped back and took a long look at each one in turn, finally coming back to the photograph of Sonny’s bike. His intuition had told him this photograph was important, and he tried to focus everything he had upon it, but for the life of him, he couldn’t see what he was looking for.

  ‘Sir?’ called Watson.

  ‘Mmm?’

  ‘I think you need to see this. The team have got hold of Diana’s medical records.’

  ‘They haven’t managed to find her, have they?’ he asked as he turned to join her.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘It seems her mobile phone is switched off.’

  ‘Yeah, she’d know we could track her with it,’ said Slater. ‘How about using the ANPR system to try and track the car?’

  ‘They’re moving on to that next,’ said Watson. ‘I’ve got her photo everywhere but so far no sightings.’

  Slater was looking over her shoulder now. ‘So what have they found in the medical records? Was Alan telling the truth about her not being able to have kids?’

  ‘Not according to this,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing to say she couldn’t have children. In fact, there’s evidence to prove the exact opposite. She had an abortion in March 2000!’

  ‘What? Are they sure that’s right?’

  ‘Colin Norton said she was a career girl.’

  ‘But Alan Randall said she wanted kids but was unable to have any. Now why would he tell us she couldn’t have kids if she could?’

  ‘Maybe she told him that, and he believed her. She did seem to be the boss.’

  ‘But why would you have an abortion if you wanted kids?’

  ‘She was a career girl,’ repeated Watson. ‘Maybe she felt the time wasn’t right to put her career on hold. Don’t forget, she won her promotion at the end of that year. You said yourself, she wouldn’t have got it if she was pregnant.’

  ‘There’s another possibility,’ said Slater. ‘Alan Randall’s older than Diana, right? But he’s also loaded. What if she married him for his money but didn’t much fancy having sex with him? Don’t forget she’s got Colin the sex-machine for that. So she tells Alan she can’t have kids, and maybe even uses that as some sort of excuse for not having sex with him. But then she unexpectedly finds she’s pregnant. Alan’s going to know it’s not his, and anyway, she’s told him she can’t have kids, so she takes a few days off, visits one of those clinics, and Bob’s your uncle. And Alan never knows anything about it.’

  ‘Are you going to ask him?’ asked Watson.

  ‘Who? Norton or Randall?’

  ‘Well, both I suppose,’ said Watson. ‘But it’s going to be a bit difficult with Randall being three hours away.’

  ‘That’s the trouble with being mobile,’ said Slater. ‘We don’t really have the facilities for holding anyone, do we? DCI Lipton has offered to interview Randall for us, but I’d much rather we do it ourselves, if we can.’

  ‘What about Norton?’ asked Watson. ‘Are we going to question him about this?’

  ‘Yes we are, and I want to know more about why he called her on 22 October. Was it really a coincidence, or was there some reason she needed to know about the tip-off?’

  ‘So who’s going to be first?’ asked Watson.

  Slater thought for a moment. ‘Let me call Lipton and see what he says, and then we’ll decide.’ He turned towards his own desk. ‘Tell the team well done, won’t you?’

  As he turned away from Watson, his eyes were drawn back to the photograph he had been studying before. Now he could see what had been bothering him. ‘Have you got a minute, Sam? Come and have a look at this photograph and tell me what you see.’

  Watson spun her chair round and took the two steps across to where Slater had laid out the photos. He pointed to the photo. ‘This one here.’

  Watson looked at the photo. ‘I see a kid’s bike.’

  ‘What else? Give me a bit more detail.’

  She turned a confused look in his direction.

  ‘It’s all right, you’re doing fine,’ he said, to reassure her. ‘I didn’t see it at first. In fact, I’ve been staring at it for ages without spotting it, and then you called me, and when I came back I spotted it straight away.’

  She looked back at the pho
to again. ‘But it’s just a little bike, parked up on its stand, at the side of the lane.’

  ‘Exactly!’ said Slater. ‘It’s neatly parked at the side of the lane. So who left it like that?’

  ‘Well, Sonny, I suppose,’ said Watson.

  ‘But we’ve been told he was snatched. When kids are snatched, it’s a rushed job. There’s not time for either the kid or the kidnapper to worry about the bike, especially the kid, who’s terrified. The bike doesn’t get neatly parked, it gets tossed to one side, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, I see what you mean,’ said Watson. ‘If Sonny had time to park the bike at the side of the lane, up on its stand, that suggests he was in no great hurry.’

  ‘Right,’ said Slater. ‘I think he knew whoever took him, and went willingly with them. This wasn’t a random snatch – it was either planned by someone who knew the family—’

  ‘Or by one, or both, parents,’ finished Watson.

  ‘Right,’ said Slater, ‘so that’s another question for Alan Randall and Diana, when we find her. Let’s get up straight here, then go and see Norton. Maybe someone will have spotted Diana by then.’

  As Watson reached her desk, her laptop pinged to signal the arrival of yet another email. ‘This is interesting,’ she said, reading the message. ‘I thought it was highly unlikely Norton would have been able to book time off at short notice, like he claimed for when Sonny disappeared, so I did some checking. It appears our Colin is a creature of habit. He books the same weeks off every year and has done for as long as anyone can remember. He didn’t have to ask for time off when Sonny disappeared, he was already on leave.’

  ‘Christ,’ said Slater. ‘If he was on leave, he wouldn’t have seen the daily bulletin.’

  ‘So either Diana told him Sonny had been abducted, or he already knew!’ said Watson. ‘I wonder if Sonny knew him well enough to trust him? But why would he take him?’

  ‘Right, decision made,’ said Slater. ‘Let’s go and see Norton first. I can call Lipton on the way.’