‘Did you ever meet her?’
‘Alice? Once or twice. Annette came into the office with her if they were in town to meet Robert for lunch. Lovely kid. Will she be all right, do you think?’
Carys thought of the interview currently being conducted by the ABE officer at the station, and forced a smile. ‘We hope so. Are you sure there isn’t anything else you can think of? Something that might help us understand why Robert was killed?’
‘I don’t think so, no.’
‘Okay, thanks for your time. We’ll get out of your way.’
Disappointed, Carys inclined her head towards the door, her thoughts turning to the questions they would have to put to Kenneth Archerton, and followed Gavin back along the hallway.
‘Detective?’
Carys turned on the step, her hand on the door frame. ‘Yes?’
Melissa held on to the door as if she was steadying herself. ‘There – there was something. I wondered yesterday whether I should’ve phoned you when I realised.’
‘Realised what?’
Melissa bit her lip. ‘I gave your colleague the wrong itinerary.’
‘Pardon?’
‘Robert’s itinerary. For his trip to France. I was in a rush once our computer system was up and running properly on Monday when I printed out the itinerary. I didn’t realise. I only read the front page, because that was the same, and didn’t bother checking it. I was going to read the rest before I emailed it to you, but I got talking to Sharon and forgot about it. I left it at reception – there was a panic on regarding a delivery of Chablis that was running late and I was the only one around to sort it out. She must’ve put it in one of her trays to give back to me and it slipped her mind until your colleague turned up demanding a copy late Tuesday afternoon. She assumed that’s what it was there for – to pass on to him.’
‘I don’t suppose you can remember what was different about the one you were meant to give us?’
‘Originally, he was meant to be visiting a vineyard a few miles from Vallaire for the last two days. He phoned me to cancel that part of the trip the Sunday night before he flew out. I had to dash into the office early the next day to make his excuses to the owners and arrange for him to go back next month to meet with them.’
‘Did he say what he was going to do those last two days he changed his plans?’ said Gavin.
‘Only that he had some personal things to sort out and that he’d catch the same flight back to Gatwick I’d booked for him.’
‘Why didn’t you mention this to us before?’ said Carys.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t think of it at the time.’
Carys bit back her frustration. ‘Just one more question. Was the itinerary amended in any way after Robert’s death?’
The woman frowned. ‘No. Not that I know of, anyway. Why would it be?’
‘No matter. Thanks for your time.’
‘You can’t tell anyone you’ve been here, all right? I don’t want them to know you’ve spoken to me.’ Her eyes widened. ‘I need that redundancy pay – I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to find another job if they don’t give me a reference.’
‘We’ll be as discreet as possible,’ said Carys.
Forty-Three
‘Wow – nice place,’ said Gavin as Carys drove through the wrought-iron gates and up the driveway towards Kenneth Archerton’s house.
‘Every time I see a house this big, I wonder how much time it takes to keep it clean,’ she said. ‘What a nightmare.’
‘If you can afford this, you can afford staff. He’s got a carer, hasn’t he? Wonder why he answered the intercom?’
‘Probably just passing when I pressed the button. I mean, it’s not like she’s waiting on him hand and foot, is it?’
‘Kay said to use the side door. Apparently the front one is locked again because of the reporters who were at Annette’s place.’
‘The road’s silent now though, isn’t it?’ Carys checked her rear-view mirror. ‘I didn’t see anyone.’
‘It’s old news now that Alice has been found. I heard the Chief Super pulled the pin on the patrols here and at Annette Victor’s house earlier today, too – not enough staff on roster to provide cover.’
‘Jesus.’
Climbing out the car, she gazed up at the top floor windows, blue sky and white clouds reflected in the sparkling glass, and then blinked at movement at the far end of the house. A face appeared at one of the downstairs windows – eyes glaring at her from under bushy eyebrows that contrasted with his thinning hair.
She raised her warrant card, and the man nodded.
‘He’s not taking any chances,’ said Gavin as he followed her along the path.
‘I don’t blame him. It’s going to be as bad, if not worse, when this goes to trial.’
Carys didn’t bother knocking when they reached the door – she could hear Kenneth Archerton unlocking the solid mortice lock, and stepped back as he opened it.
‘Yes?’
‘DC Carys Miles, Mr Archerton. This is my colleague, DC Gavin Piper. We wondered if we could come in, please? We have a few more questions we’d like to ask as part of our ongoing enquiries.’
‘Of course. Has he said anything yet?’
Archerton moved to one side and beckoned them in.
‘I’m afraid I can’t comment on that.’ She waited while he relocked the door.
‘Come this way.’
He shuffled towards the kitchen, the soft thud from the base of his sticks echoing off the tiles as he crossed to the worktop.
‘Patricia is out at the moment, but I can offer you coffee,’ he said, gesturing to a state-of-the-art machine that gleamed under the bright lights.
‘Thanks, but we’re okay, Mr Archerton,’ said Carys. ‘Would you like to sit down?’
‘I would, as much as I hate to admit it. Bloody disease.’ He grimaced, then gestured to a long table that had been constructed from a single tree trunk, the whorls and eyes left in situ. Eight chairs were placed around it, and he gravitated to one at the head of the table before sinking into it with a groan then balancing his sticks against the chair beside him. ‘I thought you were talking to Alice this morning?’
‘She’s being interviewed by a specialist at the station at the moment, Mr Archerton. I doubt they’ll be much longer.’ Carys ran her eyes over her notes. ‘Did Greg Victor have anything to do with your business interests?’
Archerton frowned. ‘No, nothing at all.’
‘Had you met him?’
‘A few times, like I told your colleague. Since he moved down here, I’ve probably seen him once or twice over at Annette and Robert’s during the summer.’
‘Has he ever been here?’
‘Not as a guest, no. Perhaps a couple of times to collect Alice when he’s been looking after her for Annette. And, before you ask, it never occurred to me that I should invite him. We weren’t what I would call “close”.’
‘What about Robert – how did you get on with him?’ said Gavin.
Archerton ran his fingers over the whorls in the table. ‘I liked him. I liked him a lot. He cared so much for Annette and Alice. He couldn’t have been a better father.’
‘Did you have any problems with him at work?’
‘Not that I can recall. He was someone I found I could confide in – we’d work through negotiations together, issues that might crop up, that sort of thing. He’s irreplaceable. I don’t know what we’re going to do without him.’
‘Were there any issues between him and your clients that gave you cause for concern?’ said Carys.
‘No.’ He rubbed a hand across his chin. ‘Do you think Robert was killed because of something to do with my business?’
‘That’s what we’re trying to ascertain,’ said Carys. ‘His movements in France seem to be erratic. He changed his itinerary to cancel meetings at short notice, and the two places the rental car show him visiting on the GPS are nowhere near known vineyards.’
; Gavin passed him a photocopy of a map that had been marked up with the two streets in the towns identified by the GPS. ‘Do you have any business interests in either of these two locations?’
Archerton took the map from him, pushed his glasses up his nose and squinted at the page. ‘They’re nowhere near any vineyards, as you say, so why would I?’
‘What was your daughter’s marriage like?’ said Carys. ‘Did you see or hear anything that worried you?’
‘No. Robert was a good father to Alice, he was easy to get along with, and he was an asset to my business.’ Archerton’s face fell. ‘I don’t know what Annette is going to do without him. I’ve mentioned to her that perhaps she should sell the house and move in with me. The place is big enough, after all.’
‘How was Alice last night?’
‘Happy to be here. Confused by her father’s absence, and why she can’t see her uncle.’ His top lip curled. ‘Annette told her last night after dinner. That her father wasn’t coming home. Poor mite.’
Archerton reached out for his sticks, slowly got up and shuffled across the tiles until he was looking out of the window to the landscaped garden beyond.
‘Alice is so sad at the moment, I just want to see her smile again.’ He sighed. ‘Hopefully the specialist she has to see on Monday will agree, but I think she ought to start school as soon as possible. At least it’ll give her some sort of routine in her life while we work through this mess.’
Carys turned the page of her notebook, letting a silence descend on the kitchen for a moment, and then leaned forward.
‘Why did John Lavender make Melissa Lampton redundant yesterday?’
‘Why? Has she made a complaint?’
‘Not at all. We went over to the office to speak to her, and were surprised to find out that she no longer works for you.’
‘It wasn’t an easy decision,’ he said. ‘But John and I – he’s my other business sales manager – went through the figures on Monday night, and what with Alice’s kidnapping, and Robert’s murder… well, let’s just say some of the sales we’d built into our cash flow for the next six months probably won’t eventuate. We’re losing clients because of Greg Victor, detective. That means I’m losing money. With Robert gone, I can’t afford to hang on to a personal assistant who is now an assistant to no-one. A couple of years ago, I would’ve been able to keep her out of a sense of duty, but these days my sense of duty is to my business. Otherwise, I’ll have nothing to pass on to Annette and Alice when I’m gone. Of course, once the business stabilises again, I might be able to consider inviting Melissa to join us once more.’
‘Are you saying your decision was purely a business one?’ said Gavin.
‘I am, yes. Look, I’m not proud of myself for it, and that’s why her redundancy pay is several months more than I’m required to give by law. At least she’ll be able to finish the renovations on her house while she’s looking for work.’
Carys pushed back her chair. ‘Thanks for your time, Mr Archerton. We’ll let you get on.’
‘Not a problem, detective.’ His face contorted into a grimace as he shifted the sticks in his grip.
‘We’ll see ourselves out, Mr Archerton,’ said Gavin.
Forty-Four
Later that afternoon, Kay took one look at the exhausted faces of her investigation team and walked over to Debbie’s desk.
‘Can you order a dozen pizzas to be delivered?’ she said, handing over her debit card. ‘I have a feeling I’m not the only one who’s going to need some carbohydrates to get through the briefing.’
The police constable grinned and picked up her phone. ‘At least that way you’ll get their attention.’
‘That’s what I’m planning on.’
Movement by the door caught her eye and she nodded to Carys and Gavin as they moved towards their desks. She’d let the team collect their thoughts and update their notes into the HOLMES2 database, and then start.
‘How did Alice’s interview go?’ said Sharp, pausing by her desk with a cup of coffee in his hand.
‘Bethany was brilliant,’ she said. ‘It’s the first time I’ve worked with her, and I was really impressed. Alice was a little trooper, too.’
‘Do we have enough to charge Greg Victor?’
‘I’d say we do for the kidnapping after the conversation I’ve just had with Jude Martin from the CPS.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘Not sure about the murder.’
‘Well, we’ve got him for a few more hours, thanks to the magistrate. Let’s see what we can turn up in that time regarding the murder. Otherwise we’ll charge him with offences relating to the kidnapping and keep working our way through what we’ve got,’ said Sharp. ‘Didn’t Alice hear anything?’
‘She said she heard a bang, but I think she’s too young to put two and two together.’
‘Damn. So, at the moment, we only have Greg’s word that he had nothing to do with his brother’s death?’
‘Yes.’ She jerked her chin to where Carys and Gavin sat at their desks, hunched over their computer keyboards. ‘Unless those two can shed any light on someone else having a motive.’
‘Well, we’ll see what comes out of this briefing, and then I think you and I should interview Greg again. Can you get someone to call his solicitor and have him here by five o’clock?’
‘Will do.’
‘I’ll join you for the briefing.’ Sharp blew across the top of his coffee. ‘I’ll just see what Debbie’s managed to sneak into my in-tray first.’
He winked, and crossed the incident room to his office, pausing to stop and talk to different team members as he passed.
Kay spent the next ten minutes at her desk, scrolling through the list of emails that had appeared since that morning and delegating what she could, and then looked over the top of her computer screen as Sergeant Hughes appeared at the door with a stack of pizza boxes balanced in his arms.
‘Bribing the troops again, guv?’ said Barnes.
‘It works, doesn’t it? You’re still here.’
He laughed, gathered up his notebook and phone, and began pushing his chair towards the front of the room. ‘I’ll see you over there.’
She locked her computer screen, wandered over to the whiteboard at the end of the room, and then cleared space on one of the tables beside it for the pizza boxes.
‘All right, come and get it while it’s still hot. Can someone grab some paper towels for napkins?’
Picking up a slice topped with ham and pineapple, she stepped to the side. As one, her team swarmed towards the food, their cheerful banter filling the air as they jostled for their favourite toppings.
The atmosphere had changed since Greg Victor’s arrest and Alice’s return, and although she sensed they were no less driven, she acknowledged that some of the fire had gone out from the investigation now that the urgency had subsided.
It would be up to her to maintain their focus in order to bring a compelling case to the Crown Prosecution Service, and she had no intention of abandoning Annette Victor and her daughter in their cause to find justice for what had happened to them.
Sharp towered over the last of the queue for the food, took his share and then leaned against the door frame to his office while he ate, his gaze wandering over the throng as they found seats or somewhere else to perch.
Kay finished eating, snatched up another slice before the whole lot disappeared, and set it aside on a paper towel on the table next to her before wiping her fingers.
‘Let’s get started, then.’ She gestured to the whiteboard. ‘Before I get to today’s tasks, I’ll give you a quick update about Alice’s interview this morning. Bethany spent just over an hour with her, and myself and Barnes were observing via video link. After creating a rapport with Alice, Bethany asked her about her relationship with her uncle. It seems that since he moved in with Annette and Robert, he’s spent a lot of time with Alice, collecting her from kindergarten from time to time and babysitting to give her parents some time off in the evenings. She s
ays he talked a lot about his own daughter, Sadie, and that she was keen to see her cousin again.’
‘Happy families, then,’ said Gavin.
‘Indeed. When she was asked about the boat trip, Alice became agitated – grumpy, rather than distressed though. She’d been looking forward to it, and said that Greg had promised to take her on a boat “all summer”. She confirmed what Greg said about stopping for lunch at the pub in Yalding, and that she played on the swings at the park – that’s the one near the Teston Bridge. Bethany asked her why she was cross, and Alice said that her dad spoiled it. When asked how he did so, Alice said that he turned up at the boat, and her uncle seemed annoyed to see him. She said they tried to be cheerful, but that she could see it was an effort for them.’ Kay paused and checked her notes. ‘When Greg was cooking dinner, he was “making a lot of noise, slamming cupboard doors and things”. After dinner, she was told to play with her toys, and the pair of them went outside on to the deck.’
‘Could she hear anything of their conversation, guv?’ said Parker.
‘No, not that Bethany could ascertain. After a while – Alice couldn’t say how much time passed – Robert came back into the cabin and told her that she had to go. He started throwing some of her clothes into a bag. She said she was upset because he was “scrunching stuff up instead of folding it” and that her mum would’ve been cross if she’d seen that. He told her to pick a toy to take with her but she couldn’t make her mind up fast enough for him, so he gave her the rabbit.’
Kay waited while her team caught up with their note-taking, and then continued. ‘Bethany asked Alice if her dad said anything to her before she left the boat, and she said that he told her she was a good girl, and gave her a hug. She said she told him she wanted to stay on the boat with him, but he crouched down and said that there was a bad man after him, and that she had to go with her Uncle Greg because he would take her away and keep her safe.’
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