by Carol Wyer
Emma, her mobile phone tucked into her chin, gave a thumbs-up. Kate picked up her bag and moved back into the corridor. Nobody was about and she hoped she could exit the building before anyone she knew stopped to speak to her. The foil packet in her coat pocket scrunched satisfyingly as she wrapped her fingers around it, and hesitated. The urge to pop a couple of pills was strong. She’d taken one of the bottles of water solely for that purpose, but Morgan’s solid footsteps behind her made her reconsider. She didn’t want Morgan to see her. Somehow it felt shameful to reveal her reliance on them.
She gave them a squeeze for reassurance and tried to focus her attention on what she’d say to Alex’s secretary. Pills would only hamper her judgement. She’d take a couple later, when her body screamed for them, and not before.
CHAPTER THREE
FRIDAY, 4 JUNE – AFTERNOON
The weather suited Kate’s mood. Dark clouds had descended, compressing the skyline and creating an air of claustrophobia.
‘Not far,’ said Morgan. ‘It’s always a nightmare getting about at this time on a Friday. Bloody traffic. I reckon half this lot are trying to get away for the weekend.’
Kate looked at the car in front of her, the rear loaded with three bicycles on a rack. In front of it was a campervan, and behind the squad car, one with a roof box. Morgan was right. People would travel miles for forty-eight hours by the seaside, far away from their homes and stresses of ordinary life. She couldn’t remember when she and Chris had last taken a weekend break.
‘It’s along this road.’ Morgan had turned into a street close to the town centre lined with parked cars, and they crawled forward, searching for Lisa Handsworth’s house, reading off numbers of the identical Victorian semi-detached residences, all requiring attention and repairs. Number 58 was no different to the other houses in the street, and parking in the only available spot several metres away, they walked to it. The rusty hinges of the front gate protested loudly as Morgan pushed it open and marched up the cracked, weed-filled pathway. The dingy red paint on the door had peeled away in places to reveal flashes of brown and yellow underneath. The doorbell repeated a mournful wail several times before they heard bolts being drawn sharply back.
Lisa peered myopically through a face-sized gap and, after scrutinising both ID cards, she opened the door fully to reveal a grey tiled floor and dark hallway. A fat ginger cat sitting on a blue rug caught sight of the visitors and fled up the stairs before they’d fully entered the property.
‘That’s Butterscotch,’ Lisa said. ‘He doesn’t like many people.’
She walked them into the far room: a kitchen, where she busied herself scraping plates into a bin, then piling them into a dishwasher. ‘Sorry. The place is a bit of a mess. I’ve not been able to do much since—’
‘I’m so sorry about Mr Corby,’ said Kate, smoothly. ‘I’m sure it was a terrible shock to discover him.’
Lisa pulled at a dark strand of hair that had escaped her Alice headband. Whilst certain A-list celebrities like Paloma Faith or Rachel Weisz might be able to carry off the eighties look, the plum velvet accessory stuck up on the secretary’s head looked vaguely ridiculous. She gave up tidying her hair, pulled a tissue from the sleeve of a baggy cardigan and blew her nose.
Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke. ‘It was horrible. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.’
‘Come and sit down,’ said Kate.
Lisa left the washing up and did as instructed, head lowered.
‘Do you feel up to talking to us about it?’ Kate was met with a nod. She continued, ‘We appreciate your cooperation and silence. It helps give us a head start in the investigation. Can you tell us exactly what happened yesterday – why you went to the house, the lead-up to you going there – anything you think might be relevant?’
Lisa’s fingers worried the edges of the tissue, her words ponderous. ‘Alex rang me first thing yesterday morning to say he wasn’t coming into the office and was going to work from home. A contract we’d been waiting for turned up in the morning’s post so I phoned him, and he said he’d come in early afternoon to collect it.’
Kate interrupted her with, ‘What time did you ring Alex about the contract?’
‘I think it was around ten thirty. The post arrives between ten and ten thirty most days, and I checked through it as soon as it was brought up to the office.’
If Lisa was right with her timings, they’d established Alex was alive and well then. ‘Thank you. Please continue.’
‘He didn’t come in as promised and at lunchtime I rang his mobile again, but it went through to the answering service, so I left a message to say I’d drop the contract off at his house in the afternoon, unless I heard back from him before then.’ Lisa blinked away some tears. She’d abandoned the tissue and worried a loose thread of cotton on the bottom button of her cardigan. ‘I left the office at half one or so. When I got to his house, the electric gates were open, so I figured he was at home and expecting me. I rang the doorbell, but nobody answered and I thought he might be in the orangery, at the back of the house, and hadn’t heard the bell. I went through the side gate and past the dining room, which overlooks the garden, and I don’t know what made me look inside, but I did . . . and then I wished I hadn’t. Alex was tied to a chair and it was . . . horrific . . . his face was covered in blood and . . . I panicked. The attacker could have still been in the house so I ran like crazy, back to my car, got inside, locked all the doors and then dialled emergency services. I drove down the lane to the road, where I waited for the police.’
Her version tallied with what Kate already knew. The call to the emergency services had come in at 2.25 p.m.
‘Did you see, or think you saw, anybody else in the house?’
‘No. Everything happened so quickly. One minute I was calling out for Alex and then I spotted him, and then . . . I was shit scared. I dashed for my car.’
‘It’s okay. Yours was a normal reaction. You were frightened. It’s understandable. I understand how hard this is for you, but can you think of any little detail that might help us, even if it doesn’t seem important?’
‘No.’
‘And nobody came after you when you drove away?’
Lisa shook her head.
‘You didn’t see anyone drive past you while you waited for the police?’
‘Sorry, no,’ Lisa whispered. She suddenly leapt to her feet and dry-heaved into the sink. After several attempts she groaned loudly. ‘This is awful.’
Kate explained. ‘It’s most likely delayed shock. Have you eaten today?’
‘No.’
‘Then you must. We have officers trained for this sort of situation. Would you like me to send one across?’
Lisa rested her hands on her hips, drew several breaths, and replied, ‘I’ll be okay. My friend Sam will be over later. This is such a shock. I’ve worked so closely with Alex for two and a half years. He was more than just a boss.’
Kate digested this information. ‘Were you ever more than—’
‘No.’
‘But you’ve been to his house before? You knew he worked in the orangery.’
‘Sometimes, when he was working from home, he’d ask me to join him there.’
‘Do you know his wife and children, too?’
‘Not as such. I arranged birthday cards, presents, surprises, restaurant bookings, trips to theatres and so on, all on Alex’s behalf. I have all the relevant dates in my diary. I can tell you a great deal about Fiona, including her clothes sizes, favourite perfume and taste in music or food.’
‘You’d say he was a good employer?’
‘He was. I liked him a lot. We got on so well and were . . . friends. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like without him.’ Her mouth turned down and her eyes watered again.
‘I expect it’s interesting work.’
‘When I tell people I’m a secretary, they assume I type letters or emails all day, but they’re wrong. Of course, I do some of that and take
calls, arrange meetings, Skype calls and other secretarial duties, but there’s lots more to the position. I used to travel abroad with him and stayed in some pretty amazing hotels – places I’d never have seen if I hadn’t worked for him. We met one client in a casino in Monaco!’
‘You spent a lot of time together then, in hotels?’
Lisa shook her head at Morgan’s question. ‘Not together. It was purely work.’
There’d been no sign of any masculine presence in the house, no shoes or coats in the hallway they’d passed through. Morgan spoke again, ‘Are you in any serious relationship?’
‘I was living with somebody, but we split up about a year ago.’
‘Because of the hours you worked?’ Kate said, aware of a sudden twitch that had developed in Lisa’s left eye.
‘Jealousy. He thought I was having an affair with Alex.’
‘But you weren’t.’ Kate observed the fresh tugging on the cardigan button.
‘No, but my dumb ex-boyfriend didn’t believe me and I couldn’t be bothered to try and convince him otherwise. He left. Not heard from him since.’
Kate changed the subject. ‘What’s your relationship with Alex’s wife like?’
‘Okay.’
‘Did she ever go away on trips with Alex and you, or was she involved in the business in any other way?’
‘Why are you asking me about her? I thought you were here to ask me about Alex.’
‘We’re trying to gather information from everybody who knew Alex, and you were close to him.’
‘Excuse me,’ said Morgan. ‘Would you mind if I used your toilet?’
Lisa shook her head. ‘It’s upstairs. The door straight in front of you.’
‘Thank you.’
He meandered away and Kate resumed the questioning. ‘Did Alex ever talk about his wife to you?’
‘He didn’t discuss his personal life with me.’
‘Did he seem anxious about anything recently?’
‘Not especially, but Alex was nearly always wound up about something or other – all work-related. Actually, he was worried last week about a new start-up venture in India. The lawyers have been struggling to sort out the contract for weeks and he was concerned the company would pull out of the deal. That’s how I knew the contract was important and why I took it around to his house.’
‘Can you remind me what time you left the office at Corby International yesterday?’
‘About one thirty. I can’t be sure of the exact time.’
‘Did anyone see you leave?’ Kate asked.
‘Our office is on the top floor and there’s a back staircase that leads directly to the staff underground parking area. I used that and I didn’t see anyone down there. That’s bad, isn’t it? It means I can’t prove what time I left.’
Kate pulled out her notepad and pen. ‘Give me your vehicle registration and we’ll run a check on surveillance cameras. I’m sure your alibi will stack up.’
‘But there aren’t any cameras at the car park.’ Lisa’s fingers returned to the button on her cardigan, and worry had crept into her voice.
‘There’ll be cameras along the road you took: speed cameras, automatic number plate recognition cameras. The roads are filled with them.’
‘I didn’t travel on any main roads. I took the country lanes, via Milford and along the B5013 toward Admaston and the reservoir. I’ve never seen any cameras along them. You won’t be able to verify my story.’
‘Camera locations are not usually made public knowledge and there’s every chance your car will have been picked up en route, no matter which way you went.’
Lisa’s fingers wound the loose thread into a minuscule ball as she gave out her Fiat 500’s registration.
Kate jotted it down and asked, ‘Do you have any keys to Alex’s office? We’d like to look around it.’
Lisa stood up and reached for a fuchsia-pink Ted Baker tote bag with a gold bow affixed to the front, left on the floor under the table. She delved inside and extracted a silver heart-shaped keyring, which she handed to Kate. ‘This is the key to my office,’ she said, pointing at the smaller of the two brass keys, ‘and the other’s for Alex’s office. Those are filing cabinet keys.’ The four other keys were so small they resembled bracelet charms. ‘Do you want me to come with you? I can show you where everything is.’
‘It’d be better for you to stay here and keep as low a profile as possible for the moment. Take some time to get over this. If anyone from the press tries to contact you, don’t divulge anything. I can’t stress how important it is to keep this as quiet as possible for as long as we can.’
Lisa's eyelids fluttered and she lowered her head to examine the button she’d been pulling at.
Kate couldn’t shake the feeling the woman was hiding something. ‘Can you think of anything else at all? Maybe something Alex told you in confidence?’
The ‘no’ that followed was little more than a puff of air.
‘One last thing. What did you do with the contract?’
Lisa’s head jerked up and she blinked several times in confusion. ‘Contract?’
‘Yes, the contract you took to Alex’s house.’
Lisa blinked again and produced a rapid, high-pitched yapping that stopped as abruptly as it had begun. ‘Shit. I don’t remember. I must have dropped it somewhere near the house. I was in such a state, you understand . . . after I saw Alex . . . I can’t think what happened to it. Is it that important?’
Kate extracted a business card from a slim plastic box in her back pocket. ‘Let me know if and when you find it. I’d like to take a look at it. My mobile number’s on this. Call me if anything else comes to mind. We’ll return the keys shortly.’
Lisa peered at the name on the card and read, ‘“Kate Young”. I know you. I saw you on the news at the beginning of the year . . . the gunman on the train.’
Her voice rumbled on. Kate’s vision began to swim as she battled with the sudden surge of panic. Chris had prepared her for this. He’d told her that people would be naturally curious and want to know all the gory details. His advice had been to say nothing. She followed it and kept quiet while Lisa continued.
‘I read about it in the newspaper. All those dead people—’
Morgan’s voice interrupted the concerned dialogue. ‘Sorry to butt in, ma’am. We’re needed back at the station immediately.’
Kate excused herself and left as quickly as her leaden feet would allow her. Her fingers touched the foil packet again and she squeezed it hard.
‘That’s twice in one day you’ve rescued me,’ she said as Morgan unlocked the car door.
He shrugged. ‘DCI Chase told us we were lucky you agreed to work this investigation because you were still “fragile”. We were asked to make sure you didn’t get hassled.’
Fragile! Is that what they thought she was? Somebody who needed handling with care? Although she was exasperated, she was still grateful for Morgan’s interference. ‘I’m not as frail as DCI Chase might imagine, but thanks all the same for stepping in. In reality, I’ve been off for too long.’
‘Not a prob . . . guv . . . if you want to talk about any of what happened, I’m a good listener and I don’t gossip.’
‘Thanks, but I’m actually fine.’
Morgan threw himself into the driving seat. Kate released her grip on the pills. She could get through the day without them if she concentrated on what she’d learnt so far.
She slid into the passenger seat. ‘When we get back to the station, would you run a background check on Lisa? I’m under the impression she fancied Alex. Maybe more than fancied. She might even be behind his murder – unrequited love and all that. We can’t rule anything out at this stage.’
‘Will do. I confess I had a quick snoop about and didn’t spot anything to be concerned about, although her shelves are filled from top to bottom with romance novels, and quite possibly every soppy film ever produced on DVD.’
‘Quite the romantic, then?’
/>
‘Defo. And pink . . . so much pink . . . everywhere. Walls, cushions, teddies . . . even pink toilet paper.’ He screwed up his face.
Kate managed a brief smile. ‘I want to take a quick look at Alex’s office before we meet his wife.’
‘Sure.’
They joined another queue of traffic. The town seemed busier than usual and she couldn’t fathom why; then it struck her. It was the school half-term holidays. The place was undoubtedly full of families, searching for ways to occupy their children. A pang like a dull firework exploded in her chest. She’d always thought she’d have children by now, but her career had been all-consuming and the time had never seemed right.
She set aside the musings, stabbed out a number and lifted the mobile to her ear. Ervin picked up on the second ring. ‘Hi, Ervin. Did any of your team happen across a letter addressed to Alex Corby? It might be an A4-sized envelope, possibly post-marked India. It contains a contract.’
‘I’ll check with the chaps. I’ve been working another case this afternoon. I’ll get back to you, tout de suite.’ Kate could imagine him waving his elegant hands like a magician as he spoke with a perfect French accent.
Morgan rested his elbows on the steering wheel and stared at the queue of traffic ahead, indicators all blinking as they waited to turn right into the retail park. ‘I think Lisa was lying. It’s odd she doesn’t recall what happened to the contract.’
‘I agree. I’m also suspicious she went out of her way to take it to his house, especially as she knew his wife was abroad. Don’t contracts get emailed these days? Or, even if it was posted to the office, she could have scanned it and emailed it across to Alex. It seems fishy to me.’
‘I suppose she might have been having an affair with him.’
‘I wondered the same thing, even though she denied it.’
‘People will say all sorts of shit if they feel cornered. Can’t believe half of what they tell you.’
‘True.’ Morgan was right; people would go to all sorts of lengths to hide the truth.
CHAPTER FOUR
FRIDAY, 4 JUNE – AFTERNOON