‘Excuse me,’ Alex said to the woman’s back.
‘Wait if you want,’ Miller said, walking away. ‘But if I were you, I’d leave and call before you come back again. Chief Inspector O’Reilly’s a busy man and he’s not available.’
Miller wore street clothes, Alex noted as the other woman walked out of sight, which probably meant a change of job. A promotion? A perverse charge of dislike – which was pointless but empowering – had Alex making for one of the chairs under the windows. If nothing else, she might become invisible to the officers coming and going. Darla Crowley, that must be who Miller had alluded to on the phone. The police had taken Darla Crowley’s husband in for some reason and the man had got away from them. If there was more to know about that, Alex wanted to hear it. Excitement made her breathe more rapidly and she’d like to call Tony only she couldn’t risk drawing attention to herself.
The constable she’d seen when she arrived returned to his desk and his computer with only a brief glance in her direction.
She settled, wishing she’d brought a book – except that would interfere with watching the door for Dan and keeping her ears trained for more useful information. If the police had taken in Darla Crowley’s husband and he had managed to get away from them, what did it mean? Why would they want him unless … unless Darla had been murdered. Could they be interested in him for Darla’s murder, or even think he had something to do with what happened to Lance Pullinger? Alex didn’t imagine for a moment that anyone would willingly answer any questions on those subjects.
LeJuan Harding reappeared at a run and pulling on his coat. Barry Trafford was beside him. Men intent on a mission. They didn’t look at Alex.
It took only seconds, and no reluctance, for her to leave the parish hall and hurry to her Range Rover. She gave the two detectives a couple of minutes’ head start and followed. Harding and Trafford had been alerted by the failure to get in touch with O’Reilly or Lamb. And the escape of Darla Crowley’s husband was an emergency. She was sure of it. Alex wanted to see where the action was. Besides, what harm could there be in taking the same route as the detectives in front of her and driving rapidly through Folly?
‘I don’t think it will be long before Hill sends troops to find out what we’re up to out here,’ Dan said. ‘This doesn’t seem like a big deal but it could turn out to be. Someone’s lying. Probably not Hill, but someone with something to hide.’
Bill squinted around. ‘This is a lie for a start. They said they were renovating the place and they aren’t.’
‘Easy enough for them to explain away,’ Dan responded. ‘They didn’t know how far the renovations had gone. Typical construction delay. It won’t be hard for them to slide out of any questions we raise on that front.’
‘Then we’d better come up with something else,’ Bill said, his face set.
Dan liked his partner when he showed spine. ‘You’re right. We’d better do that.’
Stairs, or open stair treads anchored into the wall, rose to a loft room closed off with sliding panels of thick etched glass. Dan decided to start by looking up there and climbed the unsubstantial-feeling flight.
Behind the glass panels lay a simply furnished, comfortable bedroom with a slick bathroom. Over the windows, electric blinds of some fine metal mesh would close out the light on brighter days or retract to give views of the night sky from anywhere in either room.
Dan soon found the reasons for LeJuan and Barry’s conclusions. A couple used this place all right. Expensive lingerie filled the top two drawers in a chest. Women’s outdoor clothes consisted of a couple of pairs of trousers and some blouses in the closet together with a cardigan and jacket. A few items of underclothes and a jumper were in a bottom drawer. The rest of the closet and storage space was taken up with a man’s clothing. In the bathroom, most of the toiletries were masculine except for a few feminine items.
Bedside drawers were empty but for condoms in one.
There was no paperwork.
He went over every space again and when he’d finished, stood with hands on hips, trying to make sense of what he now understood; the bed was newly made with new sheets fresh from their shop packaging. The lingerie appeared unworn, as did every item of clothing in the place. The box of condoms was unopened and toiletry items had yet to be used.
A set-up. Furious, he went back downstairs working on what it all meant. For a moment he watched Bill going through a shelf of books, taking out each volume and shaking it, searching for anything of interest.
‘Is there a desk or anywhere to store bills and papers?’ he asked Bill.
‘Nope, guv. But if you want wine or champagne, or any kind of spirits you can think of, you’ve arrived at the right place. All you’ve got to do is take the seal off something. No glasses, though, which is strange.’ He pointed to a table where limp chrysanthemums bent toward the sides of a tall glass jug. ‘They’re only just starting to go over. If I was trying to convince someone a place wasn’t used, I’d get rid of those.’
‘Right,’ Dan agreed. ‘And I’d get everything else packed up in here. Unless I had another agenda in mind, in case people like you and me showed up. Upstairs is just the way LeJuan said. A nest built for two only our eagle-eyed pair didn’t notice no one’s moved in yet, could be no one ever has spent time here. Is that what we’re supposed to assume. We’re going to figure out what they really want us to think and why. Dammit, Bill, I think they’re sinking themselves, or I hope they are. Everything upstairs is new, untouched. We need to find out who staged this. They don’t expect us to swallow the scene they’ve arranged here – they can’t. But they could think they’re making it impossible for us to get at the truth.
‘Hill thinks Pullinger’s been away from the place for some time. He believes that. And I believe him when he says it. And I don’t think he’d send us down here to look if he knew it was kitted out like this. If Pullinger was here with a close friend, it couldn’t have been too recently, but I’m damned if I’ve got the faintest who decided to gussy this up for anyone who got in here before they could do a complete clean-out and get renovation work going. And I do think if we’d been a couple of days later, this would have looked like a demolition site.’
Bill narrowed his eyes. ‘It’s only days since Pullinger’s death, but if Hill knew what the man used this for when he was here – essentially sex and general good times – he could have arranged to get any stuff that was here bagged up and disposed of just in case. If Hill wanted to save his friend, Lance’s, reputation for some reason, it would be easier to explain a failure to start construction work than having nothing at all in here. I just don’t get why it would be a big deal for a single man to entertain women. They’ve made too much out of it.’
Thoughtful, Dan rubbed a thumb back and forth over his mouth. Then he said, ‘You’re on the ball today, Bill. What someone’s done is overkill. These people are so used to getting their own way they didn’t think we’d actually insist on coming out here. But they covered their arses anyway. Not that they really needed to unless we can connect this cover-up to the murders. That’s my take. Still, I can’t imagine anyone with a brain could have known it had been left like this. It’s like some practical joke. No, no, I can’t figure Hill for this effort.’
Bill rubbed at his crew cut, sandy-colored hair, sending little drops of water flying. ‘I wouldn’t mind these digs myself, guv. One of these days I’ll find the time to look for something better than that miserable flat.’ Bill was divorced and hadn’t tried to find a good place to live.
‘Right.’ Dan had heard about the house Radhika was having renovated but thought better than to mention it. ‘Any other ideas about why we were discouraged from coming here?’
‘I’m still in the mulling phase, guv,’ Bill said. ‘Things could be getting close to gelling, but you know me, not one for rushing in till I think I’m sure.’
‘For now I’m sticking with the idea of protecting Pullinger. Not because of the affair with Cr
owley, though,’ Dan said thoughtfully. He paced. There was no scene to protect for forensics. ‘Could be Pullinger had more than one lady friend. That is another thought. Or why couldn’t there have been someone else using this – someone other than Pullinger?’
Bill’s pale blue eyes moved in Dan’s direction and his face took on the strangely passive appearance that went with his brain being in top gear.
Dan made ‘give-it-to-me’ motions with his right hand.
‘Well, I could be grabbing for straws. But how about the son, Grant? I’ve only seen him a couple of times but he’s got a big ego, that one. And he’s mouthy. Too sure of himself. He obviously thinks he’s the brightest bulb around.’
‘And you know all this, how? Just from watching him?’
Bill’s wince suggested he recognized how thin his deduction might be. ‘You’ve got me there but I’d pit my visual observation against a lot of so-called evidence.’
‘So would I,’ Dan agreed, only slightly grudgingly. ‘I suggest we get out of here with a minimum of chit-chat – at least until we know more about the son, or anyone else who could have been shacking up here. If he’s the one using it, there would be no shortage of people around ready to cover for him. But I’m still sure his father didn’t know. Again, though, we’re looking at pointless overkill.
‘The staff seem strangely absent – did you notice that? You can be certain there’s plenty of them in a place this size and they’ve been told to stay out of our way. Less risk of a careless comment that way. You’ve got to keep wondering where that phone call Hill got came from. For all we know it was someone in another room in the house.’
Bill nodded. ‘Could be.’
‘But the staff would run interference for their employer’s son to protect their jobs,’ Dan continued. ‘Or maybe that’s not fair to some. A lot would.’
‘Wouldn’t be the first offspring to take advantage of a parent they didn’t trust, or a parent they were afraid of.’
‘Have you been reading those damn psychology books again, Lamb?’
Bill grinned. ‘Could be. And by the way, my butler has orders to get lost when company calls.’
‘Mine, too.’ They both snorted.
The door at the back of the building crashed open.
Dan swung around to confront Barry Trafford with a pistol in his right hand.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Bill snapped, keeping his voice down. ‘Get in here quietly and put that damn thing away. What made you think you’d need a firearm?’
With a sheepish expression on his Nordic features, Trafford holstered the gun beneath his jacket. Through the front door, quieter than Trafford but a deal more threatening, came LeJuan Harding, firearm in hand.
‘Good grief,’ Dan said through his teeth. ‘What’s the matter with you two? You knew we were here and why we were here. If you had a problem, you should have called.’
He met Bill’s eyes and grimaced. ‘Yes, well, sorry about that. We turned off our ringers to avoid attracting attention before we were ready to leave. We didn’t expect to be so long.’
‘We decided we’d better be prepared for an ambush,’ LeJuan said. ‘That’s why we checked out firearms.’
Dan crumpled up his forehead. He massaged the scar on his jaw, something he rarely did these days unless he was stressed – big time. ‘Tell me you got permission from someone other than the super.’
The blank expression on LeJuan’s face gave way to the smirk he was trying to hide. ‘Why would we do that? You authorized them, boss.’
Dan moaned. ‘You’ll get us all fired yet, Balls.’
‘We had to find you, boss,’ Barry Trafford said, surprising everyone. ‘There was a call from Gloucester. Vince Crowley took off – well, he wasn’t officially under arrest, of course – but he went to the men’s room and they think he got out of a window.’
‘Why the hell wasn’t someone keeping a close eye on him?’ Dan exploded. ‘That man may have murdered his wife and you know what he’s been doing to her for years. Seems likely he was the one giving her cigarette burns anyway, doesn’t it? Even if we can’t prove it. He could be out there finding another victim to punish – especially if he’s in a rage, which he is.’
‘Guv,’ Bill said quietly, ‘we’d better get moving.’
‘Longlegs Liberty is organizing the search, boss,’ Harding said, completely serious now. ‘That man’s a peach and he’s wasted, but we might as well make the best use of him.’
Dan gave him a thoughtful look. Harding would go far. He had an eye for sizing people up and he wasn’t threatened by competition. He summed up people as well as the best … ‘Harding,’ he said, remembering. ‘How come you and Trafford didn’t notice everything in this place is new. The clothes are unworn, everything else is unused. This is just a set-up meant for us, or so Bill and I believe. What we don’t know yet, but we will, is why someone went to so much trouble. If you two had kept your eyes open yesterday, we wouldn’t have lost a day getting started on a new angle. And in case you haven’t noticed, we aren’t exactly buried in good leads.’
Both sergeant and constable had the sense to stay silent.
‘We’re looking at Grant Hill for the set-up. Bill’s idea. We don’t know why he’d do it, but he’s convenient. For all we know some of Pullinger’s things were here and now they’ve been disposed of. We don’t think Robert Hill would be foolish enough to pull a stunt like that and expect to get away with it. Let’s get back to Gloucester and find out how Crowley got away.’
The rain had all but stopped but an evil wind tore at them while they made their way back toward the stand of cedars. They held their collars around their chins and went in silence – until Dan made a sudden stop.
‘What?’ Bill said.
The two younger men followed Dan’s close attention to the ground. ‘Stay where you are. All of you.’ He turned, bent over, and retraced their steps to a side wall of the carriage house. Then he walked carefully almost to the corner that turned to the front door.
Back he came again, passing the others. ‘Watch where you put your feet. Don’t move until I say.’ On he went until he stopped again, looking ahead. ‘OK,’ he called. ‘To the right of the path there’s a row of footprints with wet mud in the bottoms from the rain. They’re a mess but clear enough to tell me what happened. I think someone followed us to the carriage house and listened until they were afraid of getting caught. We don’t have an excuse for forensics and I doubt we’d find out who knows entirely too much about what we know. And they’d realized the footprints would be a trail that could lead us to them, so the footsteps stop. Too bad he had the sense to get to the path. We won’t catch up now, not that we had much chance anyway. Who knows when he left? What we do know is that eavesdropping on us was a risk worth taking.’
‘If this whole thing is just about no harm no foul, boss,’ Trafford said, ‘why run away?’
‘Because there is a connection here somewhere, at least to the Pullinger murder. Having us see who was here would put them in the picture.’
‘Tosser,’ Bill said flatly. ‘If I get hold of him, or her, they’ll wish they’d stayed away. Do you still think Hill’s clean, Dan?’
‘I think someone could be setting him up to take a big fall.’
TWENTY-FIVE
What harm have I done them? I’ve tried my best to make sure they never suffered, and even if they didn’t need help, I’ve had their backs, just in case.
If they keep digging, it could be all over for me. But I won’t be caught just to keep their cushy lives safe, not now, not anymore. OK, so I’ve made some mistakes, mostly because I’ve trusted people. And I thought, in time, the good I’ve managed to do for them would be obvious and they’d thank me for it.
That makes me a fool, but I never thought it would come to this.
I’ve warned them, given them time to see that if they keep trying to turn what I’ve done into a crime … What then? Don’t be a fool again. Think about yo
urself for once. If it looks as if I’m going down, they must go down, too. Not with me, but first. I will get rid of them and save myself. I have no choice.
Why should I be afraid now? There’s no justice and it makes me very, very angry. I warned that fool to do as she was told, but she was too weak to keep her mouth shut. I can’t risk waiting to see if they come for me. The time to get this rolling is now.
TWENTY-SIX
Kev Winslet had taken to smoking a pipe, or carrying one and assuming the country gentleman’s crossed arms, bowl of pipe between finger and thumb posture.
‘Good thing you can’t smoke that in here, old chap,’ Major Stroud said, as he’d said at least once or twice every time he’d seen Kev with his latest accoutrement. ‘Probably choke yourself to death and I’d miss you.’ Stroud guffawed.
Tapping the end of the pipe stem against his teeth, Kev gave the major a dismissive shrug that surprised Tony, who always expected fireworks when the two long-time sparring partners got going.
The bar wasn’t full. Hugh managed nicely on his own behind the counter. He folded his arms to lean and nurse a half pint of bitter. ‘Tell me to shut my mouth if you don’t like the question,’ he said, ‘but any idea what’s keeping Alex?’
‘She was up at her house. Probably trying to catch up with some of the stuff that never gets done when you’ve got several places to call … home.’
Hugh grinned. ‘There is that. Since I’m in a mood to get my block knocked off, when are you two at least going to get down to one house up there in the Dimple?’
Facing the man and lowering his voice, Tony said, ‘I’m working on it. I’ve been working on it a long time. Could be we’re getting closer. Could be that’s a dangerous statement to make. We’re both one-time losers and Alex is particularly skittish about trying again, I think. Not that I blame her.’
Whisper the Dead Page 18