by Carol Wyer
‘And Alex headed the business alone?’
‘Not exactly alone. He was the MD, but he employed people to negotiate placements and product purchase. As you know, I handle Corby International’s accounts, and Digby Poole deals with legalities, especially overseas contracts. We three would meet regularly to ensure the smooth running of the company.’
Morgan stopped writing and asked, ‘When did you all last meet?’
‘A couple of weeks ago. I only needed to go through some figures and Alex wanted to talk to Digby about the India contract, so once I was done, I left them to it.’
‘How did he seem then?’ said Kate.
‘He was . . . simply Alex . . . that’s to say, professional. He was dedicated to the company. Did everything by the book. He was one of my best clients . . . the best. Nobody else comes close to matching him for thoroughness.’
Kate kept up the line of questioning. ‘Have you worked for him for long?’
‘Since he started up Corby International.’
‘What about his personal finances? Did you handle those too?’
‘Yes.’
‘And were they healthy?’
‘Very.’
‘He hadn’t run up any debts?’
‘None.’
‘What time did you ring Alex yesterday?’
‘Nine thirty.’
‘How did he seem?’
‘Okay, but—’
Kate cocked her head. ‘But what?’
‘Well, he was working from home because he couldn’t face going into the office. He was having issues with Lisa.’
Morgan looked up from his notepad. ‘His secretary?’
‘His ex-secretary.’
Kate ignored the look Morgan threw her at this sudden revelation and pressed on. ‘He’d fired Lisa?’
‘That’s correct. Alex dismissed her on Tuesday.’
‘This would have been Tuesday the first of June?’ said Kate.
‘Yes.’
‘Why did he sack her?’
‘I have no idea. He didn’t wish to discuss it with me.’
‘Did he mention Lisa yesterday morning, when you spoke to him?’
‘Only that he’d spoken to Digby and everything was in hand, but he was taking the morning off while Lisa cleared out her desk.’
‘And you know no more than that?’
‘Sorry, no.’
Once the interview ended and Mark had left the room, Kate addressed Morgan. ‘Lisa again. Why didn’t she tell us she’d been fired?’
Morgan shrugged. ‘She spoke so highly of him, too.’
‘You know, I’m already heartily sick of this woman. Have we got Digby Poole’s contact details?’
Morgan rummaged through his paperwork and handed them over. Kate dialled both his mobile and landline and shook her head. ‘I can’t get hold of him. We’ll have to follow this up.’
‘Fine by me. I take it you don’t want to wait until morning?’
‘No, I don’t. That’s not a problem, is it?’
‘Not for me.’
‘Okay, bring Emma up to speed and find out everything you can about Lisa Handsworth. I’ll ring DCI Chase and then we’ll head over to her house.’
‘What if she’s in bed?’
‘We wake her up,’ said Kate, rising in one swift movement.
‘Fair enough.’ Morgan picked up his notebook and scooted off to find Emma, leaving Kate to make her call.
Jazz music was playing in the background, and William laughed when she enquired if she was disturbing a dinner party or get-together. ‘No, I’m home alone. There was nothing on the television so I thought I’d put on a CD and read for a while. How can I help you?’
Kate explained where they were in the investigation. She ran through her findings and thoughts about the individuals who were giving her cause for concern – Lisa Handsworth and Alex’s father-in-law, Bradley Chapman. ‘So, although I intend to follow up on these individuals, I’m not convinced at this stage that either one of them has strong enough motives to commit murder, especially in such a brutal fashion.’
‘Listen, Kate, I have complete confidence in you. I know you’ll get to the bottom of it. Superintendent Dickson will be delighted you are making as much progress as you are.’
‘I’m not sure how much actual progress we’re making yet. We have a suspect who has lied and kept information from us and another who disliked the victim. We’re a long way off charging anyone.’
‘Nevertheless, Kate, you are on track. See where these lines of enquiry lead you and follow your instincts. They’ve never let you down before.’
She caught sight of her reflection in the blackened window – tall and thin, so thin she was bordering on undernourished. She ran a hand through her limp hair. She looked a mess, and hardly a good example to lead such an important investigation. She needed to pull her socks up. William had been chatting affably and she’d not caught all his words, only the end of a phrase: ‘. . . and I’ll arrange search warrants for Lisa Handsworth.’
She’d always been open with William, never holding back any information, yet something had changed recently. His attitude; the unwarranted false praise. Of course, her instincts had let her down before – the day she almost took out an innocent passenger on the train journey with Superintendent John Dickson. Why was William behaving this way? And why would he be keeping Dickson fully informed when they had nothing concrete to offer him? She thanked him and ended the call. There it was again; anxiety tightening its knot in her stomach. Something about all this didn’t feel right. She had to tread carefully. Very carefully indeed.
CHAPTER NINE
FRIDAY, 4 JUNE – LATE EVENING
It was after ten by the time Kate and her officers gained access to Lisa’s house and began searching. Her friend Sam, a young woman with a buzz haircut, pierced upper lip and a sour attitude, shot daggers at Morgan as he exited the sitting room with Lisa’s laptop under his arm.
‘Why are you treating her like a criminal? She’s not done anything wrong,’ Sam repeated for the umpteenth time. She’d arrived five minutes after Kate and her team, and Lisa had fallen into her arms in floods of tears.
Sam patted her friend’s shoulders. ‘It’ll be okay, hun. Don’t let them push you about. I’ll stick by you.’
‘You can stay in the room if Lisa wants you to, but only if you remain silent.’ Kate’s eyes glittered. She was in no mood for histrionics from either woman. ‘Lisa, I need you to tell us exactly what happened between you and Alex on the afternoon of Tuesday the first of June.’
Lisa blubbed and snuffled even more loudly. She lifted red eyes and shook her head.
Sam spoke up. ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake. Leave her alone. Can’t you see she’s upset?’
‘I asked you to keep quiet. If you can’t, you can leave.’
Sam pulled Lisa into a tighter embrace.
‘Lisa, what took place on Tuesday for him to suddenly fire you?’
Lisa blew her nose and sat up straight, shaking off Sam’s hand as she did so. She swallowed and began, her voice strained and jerky. ‘He didn’t fire me. I quit. Alex called me into the office, immediately after lunch. I thought it was to take notes, but he had a tumbler in his hand and invited me to join him in a celebration because he’d had confirmation the India contract was signed and on its way. He invited me to sit down on the settee and poured me a glass of whisky. I’m not used to alcohol, especially early afternoon. I felt woozy. I couldn’t finish the glass so I told him I had some emails to send. He insisted I finish my drink and’ – her lips began to tremble – ‘he sat down next to me, so close his thigh was pressed against mine. He kissed me on the lips. I pushed him off and jumped to my feet and told him I couldn’t . . . I wouldn’t. I reminded him he was a married man . . . and he flipped. He accused me of being a prick-tease. He grabbed me and forced me back down and—’ Her final words were obliterated by soft sobs. Sam was slack-jawed at this admission.
‘Are you s
aying Alex Corby raped you?’ Kate asked, her tone appropriate to the situation.
‘I couldn’t fight him off. I tried. I begged him to stop. He wouldn’t. Then it was over and he flipped again – back to the old Alex. He said he was truly sorry, that he’d had too much to drink and he’d misread how I felt about him and he shouldn’t have forced himself on me. He kept repeating how sorry he was. I felt . . . dirty and used. I couldn’t move. I sat and cried. He went down on his knees and begged me not to tell anyone, and promised it would never happen again. I can’t explain how I felt. I didn’t know how to act. I didn’t know what to do. He suggested I took the rest of the day off, to decide whether I’d want to continue working for him. I was numb, completely numb. I went home, ran a hot bath and stayed there for over an hour. I had to get clean. I threw away all the clothes I was wearing. I dumped them in the rubbish. I couldn’t think straight. I wasn’t sure I could face him again.
‘He rang me the following morning. He wanted to make it up to me and said if I went into work we could discuss the matter. I went in and he apologised again, but I’d thought about it overnight and I told him I didn’t want to talk about what had happened, and it would be best if I looked for another job. He insisted on providing me with compensation and a glowing reference. I said I’d think about it, and then went to town because I felt safer in a crowd. I didn’t want to be in the office alone with him ever again.’
‘Yet you went into work on Thursday.’
Lisa nodded. ‘I rang him to say I’d accept his offer and asked him to stay away from the office so I could collect my belongings. He agreed and said he’d head to the bank while I was there, to arrange a cash sum for me as a settlement. He asked for one last favour: if the contract for India arrived, I was to bring it with me when I went to collect my money from him.’
‘How much was he going to give you?’
‘Fifty thousand pounds.’
Sam shook her head in bewilderment. ‘You were willing to keep quiet for money? He raped you! No amount of money is ever going to make that right.’
Lisa’s eyes filled again. ‘I know, but I can’t explain how I felt. It was like I was on autopilot. I wanted it to go away. I just went along with him. It was the easiest thing to do. Who’d believe me? He’s so powerful and important. How could I prove he’d done anything to me?’
‘If you’d reported him, the police would have helped. We have specialist teams, doctors, staff – all experts in this field, and they could have treated you and gathered evidence to use against him.’ Kate studied Lisa’s face, searching for the truth. Her story didn’t quite ring true. It was all too convenient: the alleged rape, the pay-off, going to Alex’s house to collect the money and finding him dead. There was one question still bothering her. ‘You agreed to go to this man’s house alone, even after he’d raped you?’
Lisa gulped. ‘I know it sounds reckless, but I took precautions: a pepper spray and my mobile in my hand. I was never going to cross the threshold. I was going to take the money from him on the doorstep, give him the contract and walk away.’
‘It still sounds reckless to me,’ said Kate.
‘He owed me the money. It wasn’t going to make things better, but he owed me something – the bastard – and I was going to take it!’
‘You should have reported him,’ Kate insisted.
‘And what would the police have done? I’d have been dragged through courts and my version of events challenged. I couldn’t face it. I didn’t want anyone to know. You can’t possibly imagine what it feels like when something like this happens to you. It changes you. You want to hide. I thought the world of Alex and yet he treated me like shit, and did that to me. You can never understand how I feel.’
Kate watched as fat tears fell down Lisa’s cheeks. The truth was, she did comprehend. She’d met other women who’d had similar experiences.
Her stepsister had been one such victim when she’d been in her teens. Tilly had been in complete denial of what had happened to her. She’d refused to discuss the attack but at night she’d suffered nightmares, waking in tears, and Kate had been the person who’d comforted her. She’d soon understood that, in spite of Tilly’s protests, she was struggling mentally to accept what had occurred. Tilly hadn’t wanted to be reminded of the incident and was fearful of all men for some time afterwards, so what Kate couldn’t grasp was Lisa’s willingness to visit her attacker, knowing he was home alone – money or no money.
Emma, who’d been searching the house while Kate interviewed Lisa, rapped lightly against the wooden door jamb. Kate’s head jerked up.
‘Boss.’ Her tone was quiet but urgent. Kate left the women and joined Emma in the hallway so they were out of earshot. ‘We found a bag of clothing in the dustbin outside – blouse, skirt and underwear. They’re fairly new, show hardly any signs of wear and they smell like they’ve been laundered.’
Kate groaned. ‘If they’re the clothes she was wearing when Alex attacked her, we’re not likely to find any DNA evidence on them then, are we? Anything else?’
‘Nothing unusual.’
‘We’ll have to treat her claim as serious. Check with Ervin. See if he found fifty thousand pounds in the safe. If not, it might have disappeared with the killer.’
When Kate returned to the sitting room, Sam was still hugging Lisa, who continued to sob.
‘Lisa, can you tell me why you washed your clothes and then threw them out?’
The woman lifted her face, blotchy with angry red patches on her round cheeks. ‘I wasn’t thinking clearly. I wanted to erase the memory of what had happened, but even when they were clean and dry, I knew I’d never wear them again. I shouldn’t have washed them, should I?’
‘It would have been better if you hadn’t.’
‘I know. I know. I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t worry about that now. Let’s go back to Thursday. When you were in the house, did you happen to see any money lying about?’
‘No. I only saw Alex. I didn’t kill him.’
Kate persisted. ‘Listen, it’s crucial you level with me. Did you spot the money and take it because you felt it was yours?’
‘No. Of course not. I wouldn’t steal.’
‘It would be understandable. After all, he’d treated you badly.’
‘I didn’t! I’m not a thief.’
‘No one is suggesting you are. We’re trying to find out who murdered Alex. Did you tell anyone at all about him attacking you?’
Lisa shook her head. ‘I was too ashamed to tell anyone.’
‘You should have told me, hun,’ Sam said. ‘I’d have looked after you.’
‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to question you more about this, Lisa.’
‘I can’t. Please. I’m . . . so . . . tired.’
‘All right then, I suggest we do it in the morning. Try and get some rest. Sam, can you stay over?’
‘Definitely. I won’t leave her. I’ll drive her to the station first thing tomorrow.’
Emma was waiting outside for her in the car and spoke as soon as she clambered in. ‘Ervin says there was nothing in the safe other than house insurance documents and about a thousand pounds’ worth of euros. No other money.’
‘Either Lisa made up the whole story, or she saw the money lying around and took it herself, or the killer absconded with it.’ Kate glanced at her phone. It was well after eleven. ‘We’ll call it a day. Has Morgan headed back to the station?’
‘Yes, he said he wanted to make a start on Lisa’s laptop.’
‘It can wait. We all need some time off. We’ll run ourselves into the ground at this rate.’ She instructed Emma to drop her off at her house, then rang Morgan on the way and ordered him to go home, too.
Emma was quiet the rest of the journey. Kate remained lost in thoughts about the case. She couldn’t fit the pieces of the puzzle together. Man’s appetite for violence never failed to astound her. She shut her stinging eyes and, for a second, she could once again hear t
he rattling of the train as it sped along and could make out the outline of the man in the carriage. She shook herself free of the hallucination. It would be back. It would return to haunt her when she was on the verge of slumber and, no matter how much she concentrated on this investigation, she would not prevent it from happening.
Back home, she took a couple of pills and headed straight for bed. As she began to doze off, she heard, ‘Hi. Where’ve you been?’
‘I went back to work today. John Dickson asked for me.’
‘Did he? Did he indeed? That’s interesting.’
‘I’m investigating the murder of one of his friends.’
There was lengthy pause. She knew he was going to urge caution. ‘How far do you trust Dickson?’
‘I really don’t know. First he ordered me to take extended leave because he thought I couldn’t cope and then he specifically asked for me to head this case.’
‘Exactly. And who passed over the investigation in January to a London crime unit?’
‘He did.’
‘You should have been the SIO on it.’
‘I know.’
‘And why do you think he didn’t want you to lead it?’
‘We’re on unsafe ground here, Chris.’
‘Hear me out. He deliberately had the case transferred to London so it was out of your hands and away from your patch so you couldn’t find out what was going on. He claimed you weren’t up to the task when we both know you were. Then, in March, he took you along to a meeting in Birmingham by train, not only by train but upgraded you to first class. He knew what he was doing. He waited for you to screw up, used it to send you on leave and then insisted you return before the three months was up.’
‘He wants me to screw up again, doesn’t he?’
‘That would be my take on this, and why would he want that?’
‘It might be because I tried to get some answers about the Euston incident.’
‘Might be?’