Storm Force: A chilling Norfolk Broads crime thriller (British Detective Tanner Murder Mystery Series Book 7)

by David Blake

  ‘What – for every case we’re working on?’

  ‘Obviously not. Just the ones relating to our investigation.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t allow you to go through any of the files on our system, whether they’re related to your investigation or not. Apart from it being highly inappropriate, you simply don’t have the authorisation. Even if you did, had they been in the files you’re referring to, we’d have found them a long time before now.’

  ‘But – there must be something I can do?’

  ‘I’m afraid you’re just going to have to be patient,’ the man continued, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. ‘But don’t worry, they’ll turn up soon enough. They’ve just been misfiled, that’s all.’

  ‘You don’t seem to understand. We have a man sitting in a holding cell who we believe murdered at least two people, maybe more. If we don’t find those results in – what…’ Tanner glanced up at a large white clock marking the time against the wall, ‘…two and a half hours he’s going to walk free, at which point it won’t matter even if you did find them. Even if we had the opportunity to arrest him again, they’d be completely useless to us.’

  ‘I’m fully aware of the law, thank you, inspector, but I’m afraid there’s nothing more we can do. All I can say is that we’re working as hard and as fast as possible to find them for you, and your presence here is only holding that process up. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to re-join my colleagues in attempting to find them.’

  Tanner let out an exasperated sigh as the man spun around to disappear back through the door he’d entered through.

  Unsure what to do next, he reached inside his sodden jacket in search of his phone.

  ‘Vicky, it’s me. I’m at the forensics lab.’

  ‘Any luck?’

  ‘Nothing. They wouldn’t even let me look. They said I don’t have the authorisation, despite the fact that I’m the bloody SIO.’

  ‘OK, so, what now?’

  ‘I guess we’re just going to have to keep our fingers crossed that they find it in time. Any luck with that search warrant for Sanders’ boat?’

  ‘Not yet, but in fairness, I’ve only just submitted the application.’

  ‘I suppose time isn’t such an issue with that one, as long as he doesn’t do a runner out into the North Sea, of course.’

  ‘In this weather, I doubt it. Speaking of which, we’re not headline news anymore.’

  ‘Really? How come?’

  ‘The MET Office has just upgraded the storm to a category four. They’re saying the worst is yet to come, advising everyone to stay home and to travel only if absolutely necessary.’

  ‘Did they say anything about driving around in a thirty plus-year-old Jaguar XJS whilst trying to solve multiple murder investigations?’

  ‘Not that I heard.’

  ‘Shame. I could have had the day off.’

  ‘It is beginning to look pretty serious, though. Loads of trees have come down, one person died when a wall fell on top of him, and most of the shops in Norwich have already closed. Half the schools didn’t even bother to open today.’

  Tanner stopped to stare absently out at the trees thrashing wildly about in the gale force wind outside.

  ‘Are you still there?’ Vicky questioned, her voice nothing but a distant echo.

  ‘Half the schools or all of them?’ Tanner eventually asked, his attention returning to the room.

  ‘Er…I’ve no idea.’

  ‘Do you remember that girl we saw, walking past the car near Sanders’ boat?’

  ‘The one looking for her flying dog? Yes – why?’

  ‘I’ve got a nagging feeling that I’ve seen her before, inside the cottage next to the lighthouse. I could be wrong, but I think she was the owner’s daughter.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but what would his daughter have been doing wandering about during in the middle of what is now being classed as a category four storm?’

  ‘I’m not sure, but when her father called me earlier he said she was at school. That’s why we couldn’t go round to interview her.’

  ‘Maybe her school was one of the ones that decided to stay open.’

  ‘And maybe it wasn’t. Do me a favour, will you?’ he asked, digging out his notebook to begin rifling through its pages.

  ‘What, another one?’

  ‘Give her school a call for me? It’s St Martins in Stalham. Find out if they were open today, and if they were, was Alice Chapman there.’

  ‘OK, no problem.’

  ‘Whilst you’re doing that,’ Tanner continued, his gaze returning to the storm raging outside, ‘I’m going to see if I can get hold of her father.’

  CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE

  FINDING CHAPMAN’S NUMBER, Tanner dialled it to begin pacing up and down, listening to it ring endlessly before finally being sent through to voicemail. With the slim hope that he’d simply not been able to make it to the phone in time, he tried again, only for the same thing to happen a minute later.

  Cursing quietly to himself, he left a brief message, asking him to call, before phoning Vicky back.

  ‘Any luck with the school?’ he asked, the moment she picked up.

  ‘There was no answer.’

  ‘Shit.’

  ‘How about you?’

  ‘Same thing.’

  ‘I’m just taking a look at the school’s website,’ he heard Vicky continue. ‘There’s no mention anywhere about them having been closed for the day. If they had, I’d have thought they’d have posted up something about it.’

  Tanner thought for a moment. ‘Sod it,’ he eventually said. ‘I’m going to have to go over there to find out.’

  ‘Is it really that important?’ came Vicky’s enquiring voice.

  ‘If Chapman has been saying that the reason his daughter can’t speak to us is because she’s at school, when the school in question has been closed all day, then there has to be a reason, and I’m beginning to get an idea as to what that might be.’

  ‘I assume you’re thinking that they’re the ones behind the blackmail letters?’

  ‘If they’d seen three men dumping the body of a young woman over the side of a boat, then they’d have been in a very strong position to.’

  ‘Then why would the father have walked into the middle of Wroxham Police Station to tell everyone what they’d seen? If you’re attempting to blackmail someone, surely the idea is that you know something nobody else does, making the idea of telling the entire Norfolk Constabulary about as sensible as murdering the people you’re endeavouring to coerce the money out of.’

  ‘If you remember, it was over a week after the girl disappeared before Chapman stepped forward to tell us, by which time they only had one blackmail victim left, Iain Sanders, his other two friends having turned up dead. And maybe he was refusing to pay up, saying they had no proof. With nobody from CID knocking on his door asking awkward questions about what happened that night, Sanders could have easily thought his secret was safe enough. Chapman telling us at least part of what they’d seen may have been their way of increasing the pressure on him to cough up the money. After all, if they were the only witnesses, it would be easy enough for them to say they’d be willing to stand up in court, their hands resting on a bible, to swear it wasn’t him they’d seen, on the condition that they received the sum being demanded, of course.’

  ‘But that doesn’t tie in with what the letters said,’ Vicky continued, her tone still edged in doubt, ‘at least not the one we found at Toby Wallace’s house. “Leave fifty thousand in cash at the base of Happisburgh Lighthouse by midnight tonight, or else I’ll be doing unto you as you so kindly thought you’d done unto me.” That sounds more like the blackmailer was the aggrieved victim, a living one at that, not a father and daughter duo who’d watched them murder someone through the end of a telescope.’

  Tanner’s gaze drifted out of the window, his mind deep in thought. ‘You know,’ he eventually said, ‘it could be that that was their in
tention.’

  ‘Sorry, I’m not with you.’

  ‘To make them think that the girl whose body they thought they’d disposed of in the middle of the North Sea had somehow survived, and that Chapman has been using his daughter, Alice, in an effort to convince them. That’s why the letter found at Wallace’s house had “by hand” written so clearly on its envelope. That could also be why we saw her making her way towards Sanders’ boat in the middle of a category four storm, only to veer away when he caught sight of her. The problem is, I think they may have done too good a job at trying to convince him.’

  ‘How d’you mean?’

  ‘If Sanders now believes the woman they threw over the side of their boat is still alive, then it’s possible that he doesn’t only think she’s been trying to blackmail them. He may think she must have murdered Sir Michael and Wallace as well, possibly after they refused to pay-up, or simply to exact vengeance. If that was the case, then it would be logical for him to conclude that he was next on her rather short list.’

  ‘You think Sanders has been killing those women because he thought one of them was the girl they’d thrown over the side of their boat?’

  ‘I think it’s possible, especially in light of the way Sir Michael had his heart cut out of his chest whilst he was still alive. If he thought for one moment that she was planning on doing that to him, I can understand why he’d be just a tad keen to make sure he didn’t end up suffering a similar fate.’

  ‘OK, I suppose I can understand why he may have killed the first woman – Claire Metcalf,’ Vicky continued, ‘being that Sir Michael’s housekeeper told the national press that she’d allowed her to walk in through the front door, not long before he was murdered, but why the other two?’

  ‘He must have reached the conclusion that he’d killed the wrong person. That must have been why he came into the police station yesterday, trying to find out if Wallace had been murdered, and at what time. Don’t forget, they all worked at the Riverside.’

  ‘The missing girl didn’t,’ stated Vicky.

  ‘Not that we know of, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t. She could have used a stage name, in much the same way Claire Metcalf did. Now that I think about it, that could explain why Sanders doesn’t know who she is – because the name she gave them wasn’t her real one, and also why he’s been going through their bags, looking for ID. Either way, we need to find out if Chapman’s daughter has been at school today. If she hasn’t, and Sanders is under the impression that she’s the girl they thought they’d left at the bottom of the North Sea who has already murdered two out of the three people who’d left her for dead, then there’s every chance she’s in real danger.’

  There was a momentary pause from the other end of the line. ‘What do you want me to tell Forrester?’ Vicky eventually asked.

  ‘Why? Has he been asking after me again.’

  ‘Not yet, but he’s currently staring at me through his partition window, no doubt wondering who I’m on the phone to.’

  ‘OK. If he does, you’d better tell him I’m still at forensics, helping to find that missing evidence. If you say that I’m off on what he’ll no doubt consider to be another pointless wild goose chase, he’ll probably have a cardiac arrest, which he’d subsequently blame me for. Worse still if I rock up to find the school’s been open all day, Chapman’s daughter has been there since half-past eight this morning and she’s currently up on the stage, rehearsing for their end of term play, just as her father said she was.’

  CHAPTER FIFTY SIX

  LONG BEFORE TANNER found himself driving past a sign warning him that there was a school ahead, it had become increasingly obvious that the storm had reached a new level of ferocity. The roads on the way were now strewn with broken branches, some of which were so large he was forced to steer carefully around, and he’d seen more than one ancient solitary tree ripped from its roots to lie twisted and bent on surrounding fallow ground, like fallen soldiers, left for dead by their brothers-in-arms.

  Following the signs for the entrance, he turned left off the road to find himself slamming on the brakes as a pair of green wrought iron gates loomed up in front of him, blocking the way ahead.

  ‘Well, it’s closed now,’ he muttered to himself as he stared about, looking for some sort of an intercom device.

  Spying one on the curb to his right, too far for him to reach, he contemplated the idea of stepping out to press the plastic button before deciding against it. Instead, he edged his car back out into the thankfully deserted road behind, spinning the steering wheel to bring it forward again.

  Opening his window just enough to squeeze his hand through, he pressed the buzzer and waited.

  With no response, he pressed it again.

  Still nothing.

  Unsure if the thing even worked, he was about to swing the car around to see if he could find some other way in when a metallic voice came blaring out from the machine.

  ‘School’s closed!’

  ‘I can see that, thank you,’ he replied, rolling his eyes. ‘Detective Inspector Tanner, Norfolk Police.’

  With no immediate response, Tanner found himself glaring at the machine. ‘Are you still there?’

  ‘I said, the school’s closed!’

  Tanner shook his head in quiet frustration. ‘I heard you the first time. I was just wondering if it would be possible for you to tell me when it did?’

  ‘I’m just the caretaker. I’m not responsible for when the school opens and closes.’

  ‘Unbelievable,’ Tanner muttered, a little louder than he’d meant to.

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘I’m trying to establish if the school has been open all day, as usual, or if it’s been closed, because of the storm?’

  ‘I don’t know about this morning, but there was no one around when I started.’

  ‘And when was that?’

  ‘Ten o’clock.’

  ‘What, this morning?’

  ‘No, last Tuesday,’ the caretaker replied.

  Tanner took in a breath. ‘If it was closed at ten, then it must have been closed all day.’

  ‘I suppose, but as I said, I wouldn’t know. I’m never here that early.’

  ‘OK, thanks for your help. Really appreciated,’ Tanner replied, just as sarcastically as he knew how.

  Winding his window up, he pulled out his phone to try calling Chapman again. ‘Where the hell are you?’ he said to himself, listening to the phone ring.

  Eventually being put through to voicemail, he hung up to call Vicky instead.

  ‘Hi, it’s Tanner. Any news?’

  ‘The search warrant for Sander’s boat still hasn’t come through. You?’

  ‘I’ve just been speaking to some idiot school caretaker. He says he doesn’t know if the school’s been closed today as he didn’t start till ten.’

  ‘What, at night?’

  ‘No, in the morning. As I think it’s unlikely they’d have opened for only a couple of hours before changing their minds, I think we can assume it didn’t open this morning. Even if it did, Chapman called me at around eleven to tell me that his daughter was in school when she couldn’t have been, so he was definitely lying. It must be them who’ve been writing those blackmail letters.’