Cradle to Grave

by Rachel Amphlett

  ‘I thought I heard voices.’

  Barnes took a step back and raised his gaze to the top of the stairs to see a man in his forties running his hand along the banister as he walked down.

  He matched Patricia Wells’s description perfectly, his brown eyes sweeping from Kay to Barnes and back. ‘I’m presuming you’re the police?’

  ‘Detective Inspector Kay Hunter. My colleague, Detective Sergeant Ian Barnes,’ said Kay. ‘Can we have a word in private?’

  ‘Of course. Come through here – there’s a meeting room we can use. Do you want coffee or something?’

  ‘We’re fine, thanks,’ said Barnes.

  He hung back and watched Lavender as the man led them through a side door and into a room that must have once been a living room when the building had been a home.

  A high ornate ceiling hung above plain-coloured walls that continued the company’s branding theme with landscape photography depicting scenic views across vineyards around the world.

  Lavender adjusted his cufflinks, then gestured to the oval table in the middle. ‘Please, take a seat. I’ve already provided a statement to the uniformed officers who were here last week. Now, if there’s anything further I can do to help, just––’

  ‘Before you continue, Mr Lavender, I do have to tell you that this is going to be a formal interview so we’ll run through the caution first,’ said Kay. After she finished reciting the words, she paused. ‘Do you have any problems with that? Would you like to have a solicitor present?’

  Lavender smiled. ‘No, that’s fine. I have no problems speaking with you.’

  ‘Good. Why did you go to Kenneth Archerton’s house this morning?’

  ‘What’s that got to do with––?’ He paused, then: ‘Sorry. I suppose you have to ask about everything, don’t you? I went over there to get him to sign off some urgent paperwork. You know he only comes into the office once a week? This couldn’t wait until Tuesday.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘It was the payroll documentation for Melissa Lampton’s redundancy payment. Ken’s health might be failing, but his mind isn’t. He’s the only one who can sign off anything financial for the company.’

  ‘When we spoke with Mrs Wells, she seemed quite shaken by your visit.’

  Lavender reached up and loosened his tie. ‘God, sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten her. She can be infuriatingly protective of Ken. I was frustrated that I had to go there in the first place, to be honest. I’ve tried telling Ken that he needs to start letting me take on some of the monetary aspects of the day-to-day business activities if he can’t do it. I mean, he could set a limit on the level of spending if he’s worried I might make a financial decision he disagrees with, but it can’t go on like this. That’s why I had to drive over there this morning.’ He leaned back in his seat. ‘Look, I didn’t deal with having to let Melissa go in the best way, and I feel bad about that, really I do. So, I figured if I could get her final salary organised as soon as possible, it’d go some way to apologise for that.’

  ‘Whose decision was it to make her redundant?’

  ‘Mine. Not an easy one, either. I know she’d worked closely with Ken and Robert these past few years and I’m the new guy, right? I can imagine how it felt, but it wasn’t a decision taken lightly. I’d gone through all the financials with Ken when we found out about Robert – Ken’s had a crisis management plan for the company ever since he was diagnosed with MS, just in case something happened to him and he took a turn for the worse, but he didn’t factor in his key sales manager being murdered, or the subsequent media interest. It made some of our clients uncomfortable. So much so, that our ability to negotiate deals to import wine and then sell it here has diminished in the past few days. We had no choice but to make the decision not to recruit a replacement for Robert until such time as the business stabilises. And that’s why I made Melissa redundant as well.’

  ‘How closely did you work with Robert Victor?’ said Barnes.

  Lavender shrugged. ‘Not that closely. We ran separate accounts. He had his clients, I had mine. Same with suppliers. It’s the way Ken set up the business. He didn’t want us to be in competition with each other, only other wine merchants.’

  Barnes slid across a copy of the map Gavin had used to depict Robert’s movements in the final days before his murder.

  ‘What’s here?’ he said, tapping the page.

  Reaching out for the map, Lavender spun it around. ‘Looks like industrial units, or the sort of thing you see small businesses using. I’ve got no idea. Where is it?’

  ‘North of Le Mans. It’s where Robert went after cancelling his meetings for the Wednesday and Thursday of his trip.’

  ‘That doesn’t make sense,’ said Lavender. He pushed the map back to Barnes. ‘Why would he do that?’

  ‘Where were you last Friday?’ said Kay.

  ‘Here. Working.’

  ‘Until what time?’

  ‘I left here about seven o’clock. I had a late telephone conference call with a vineyard in California – it’s the only problem about being tasked with our American and southern hemisphere accounts,’ he said. ‘Late nights, or early mornings with the time differences.’

  ‘Where did you go when you left here?’ said Barnes.

  ‘Home, and then I got changed and met some friends for a few drinks down the pub. We went for a curry at a new place that’s just opened.’ He frowned. ‘I told the two policemen who took my statement all this. I left the restaurant at half ten and went home.’

  ‘How much had you had to drink?’

  ‘Too much to drive, detective, so if you’re insinuating I had anything to do with Robert’s death, you can think again.’ Lavender’s jaw clenched. ‘I went home, watched television for an hour or so, and then went to bed. First thing I heard about Robert was when Ken phoned me on Sunday morning with the news.’

  Kay turned to a clean page in her notebook and shoved it across the table to Lavender. ‘We’ll need names, addresses, and phone numbers for the friends you say you met with on Friday night.’

  He pulled a pen from his shirt pocket. ‘I thought you might.’

  Forty-Eight

  Barnes eyed the contents of his desk with a sigh, then flipped his thumb through the paperwork Debbie had stacked in the top filing tray.

  Deciding that none of it was urgent, he ran a hand over tired eyes.

  Kay had left for Headquarters as soon as he’d parked behind the police station, summoned by the Chief Superintendent and accompanied by Sharp, who was tasked with providing an update regarding the murder enquiry.

  Barnes wished he had more help to give her.

  He gave himself a mental shake and swept remnants of his sandwich off his desk before logging in to his computer. He spent the next half an hour responding to various requests and clarifications in response to his enquiries, and was relieved to find out that the main suspect in a spate of burglaries across the north of the town had been sentenced that morning.

  At least he was getting results somewhere.

  His gaze moved from the computer screen as a man moved into his line of vision.

  ‘What’ve you got for me, Parker?’

  ‘Results from our calls to John Lavender’s friends,’ said the police constable. ‘They all said the same thing – John was at the pub from seven forty-five, and then they went to the curry place. He was there all night with them, they left around ten-thirty, and he went straight home. One of them – Mark Price – lives four doors up from John and says he picked up a bottle of red John had promised him before he headed off to his place. He reckons he left there about eleven o’clock.’

  ‘Which doesn’t give Lavender enough time to drive over to East Farleigh and confront Robert,’ said Barnes, and tossed his glasses onto his keyboard. ‘Okay, thanks.’

  ‘You all right, Ian?’ Laura handed him a mug of tea, then flopped into a spare chair next to him. ‘You don’t look happy.’

  ‘Thanks for the tea.’
He took a slurp, and set it to one side. ‘I’m frustrated, that’s all. Same as we all are. I thought we had something earlier, but it turns out it’s nothing.’

  ‘What happened this morning?’ said Carys as she joined them. She pulled out Kay’s chair and sipped her tea.

  He told them about the trip to Kenneth Archerton’s, and the subsequent interview of John Lavender.

  ‘The thing is,’ he said, ‘I sort of felt sorry for the bloke after we left. There he is, trying to keep Ken’s business going for him, but Ken won’t let him do it. You’d have thought with his health in decline he’d have handed over some of the financial responsibility.’

  ‘Maybe he was thinking of doing that with Robert,’ said Carys. ‘You know – keep it in the family as it were.’

  ‘Maybe not,’ said Gavin. The younger detective constable leaned against Kay’s desk. ‘Sometimes that’s the worst thing you can do with a business, isn’t it? Think of the number of times you’ve heard about family feuds wrecking successful businesses over the years.’

  ‘I’d imagine Ken’s the sort of person who would set up something like that so it’s legally bombproof,’ said Carys. ‘After all, he’s made it quite clear in his statements that it’s his intention to leave the business to Alice. Even Annette told me this – she admitted to me she’s got no interest in it.’

  Barnes exhaled. Reaching out for his mug of tea in the hope it had cooled enough to drink, amazed that Carys had almost finished hers, his eyes rested on the blue rabbit balanced on the top of his computer screen.

  He plucked it down from its all-seeing position and turned it over in his hands, wondering why someone would kill a little girl’s father.

  ‘What if someone didn’t want Alice to have the business?’ he said.

  Gavin wrinkled his nose. ‘I don’t see it. Robert wasn’t a factor in Ken’s plans for it, so killing him served no purpose at all in that respect. Alice would still inherit.’

  Barnes grunted, running his hands absentmindedly over the plush material, the tips of his fingers tracing the seams. Piper was right – Robert had no claim to the wine merchants’ business over his daughter.

  He frowned as his thumb caught on a rough surface.

  ‘Dammit,’ he said, and pulled his reading glasses from his shirt pocket. ‘Can’t see a bloody thing without these.’

  ‘Getting old, Ian?’ Carys grinned.

  He paused to stick up his fingers at her, smiled, and then stared at the back of the rabbit once more.

  ‘You beauty,’ he murmured.

  ‘What’s up?’ said Laura.

  He didn’t answer, and instead moved around to where Carys sat. ‘Out the way, Miles. I need to get into that drawer. I know Hunter’s got a pair of scissors in there somewhere.’

  Carys grinned and rolled her chair out of the way. ‘I’ll tell her.’

  ‘It’s an emergency.’

  He bent down, reached into the drawer, and plucked out a pair of needlework scissors he’d seen Kay using the previous month. Returning to his desk, he sat and began to cut away at the rough seam on the toy rabbit.

  ‘What are you doing?’ said Laura, a hint of alarm in her voice.

  ‘This has always been about Alice, hasn’t it?’ he said, pulling on a pair of protective gloves from a box between the desks. ‘Greg says he tried to protect her, and Robert saw something in France that scared him and he came racing back to her, only to be killed. So, what’s so special about her?’

  His colleagues stared at him in silence while he continued to snip away at the stitches. He swore under his breath as the scissors caught on his thumb, and then continued. ‘According to Annette, when Hazel showed her the photograph of the rabbit, Alice said her grandfather gave it to her. When I tried to give it back to her, she said that her dad told her to keep it safe before sending her away from the boat. So, why give it to me?’

  Carys shrugged. ‘Maybe she wanted you to have it because you rescued it out of the river after she dropped it. That’s what she told you, wasn’t it?’

  ‘That’s what I thought, but I was wrong.’ He smiled as the seam tore, then held up the rabbit and cupped his hand underneath it. ‘I think her dad knew about this.’

  Laura’s mouth fell open as a stream of pink tablets spilled from the soft toy and poured over Barnes’s hand onto his desk.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ said Gavin.

  Forty-Nine

  ‘What’s going on? Barnes – are you nicking stuff out of my drawer again?’

  Kay headed towards the group of detectives gathered around her and Barnes’s desks, then stopped and frowned when her joke fell flat amongst the cacophony of voices.

  ‘All right, what’s all the excitement about?’

  Carys turned to her, wearing a wide smile. ‘Barnes has only gone and cracked it.’

  Kay saw the obliterated toy rabbit lying on the detective sergeant’s desk, and frowned. ‘I don’t think Alice meant you to turn that into roadkill, Ian.’

  ‘Very funny,’ he said.

  Her gaze travelled over the pink pills that had spilled over the surface next to it.

  Both Barnes and Piper were crouching on the floor, picking up stray pills that had tumbled onto the carpet, their movements meticulous as they made sure they accounted for each one.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘It was the rabbit,’ said Barnes. ‘It’s why Alice wanted me to have it. Harriet’s team wouldn’t have known to look for this – there was no trace of any of this when this was found in the canoe.’ He rose to his feet and picked up the toy, holding it out to her. ‘Look, the inside has a waterproof lining. We might be able to get some prints off it. I only found it because the seam had been re-stitched and had a rough edge. It got me thinking, that’s all.’

  Kay pulled on a pair of gloves, and then turned over the rabbit between her hands. ‘Well, well, well – did you notice the label on its bum? “Fabriqué en France”.’

  Barnes nodded. ‘That’s what got me wondering.’

  ‘Bet that was made north of Le Mans, then,’ said Gavin. ‘It must have something to do with where Robert Victor went.’

  Kay handed back the rabbit and picked up her phone. ‘Have a look to see if there are any toy manufacturers in either of the two locations we know Robert stopped at. I’ll give Sharp a call to bring him up to date about all this. We’re going to need help from our colleagues over there now.’

  ‘Guv.’

  Gavin shot back to his desk and began to work, and she turned to Barnes.

  ‘Nice work, Ian.’

  ‘We might never have known,’ he said. ‘It was luck. I just couldn’t fathom why Alice would give a complete stranger her toy.’

  ‘Maybe she knew what was in it,’ said Carys. ‘Or, at least, that there was something wrong with it. And knowing you’re a policeman means that – given her age – she trusts you.’

  Barnes shrugged, a slight blush rising to his cheeks. He took off his glasses and polished them against his shirt before dropping them into his pocket.

  Kay walked a few steps away as her call was answered. ‘Guv, it’s Hunter. We’ve had a breakthrough on the Victor case, and I think you’ll want to see this. Okay, see you in fifteen.’

  She replaced the phone and, raising her voice, addressed the rest of the team in the room. ‘Briefing – now.’

  ‘What do you want me to do with all of these?’ said Barnes, gesturing to the pills. ‘Shall I bag it all up and send it off for analysis?’

  ‘Please,’ said Kay. ‘And tell them it’s urgent. I know they’ll say it always is, but tell them we believe it’s a strong contender for the motivation of Robert Victor’s killer.’

  She squeezed past two police constables and made her way to the front of the room, the team falling silent as she joined them.

  ‘Okay, so Kenneth Archerton gives his granddaughter the toy rabbit that’s been manufactured in France – are we assuming that the drugs were inserted prior to it leaving the country
, or once it arrived here?’

  ‘Before it got here,’ said Carys, tapping her pen against her chin as she stared at the whiteboard. ‘So either he went over there on the pretence of a business trip – hardly likely, given his health – or, someone brought it back with them.’

  ‘Robert, or John Lavender?’ said Kay.

  ‘John’s new to the company, and his background checks out,’ said Laura. ‘What if a third party – perhaps someone from the factory in France – brought it over, Ken gave it to Alice, and Robert found out? He’d be livid, but he’d want to see the set-up for himself before confronting Ken.’

  ‘Which is why he deviated from his planned itinerary.’ Kay nodded. ‘Good. Okay – so what’s going on? Why give the rabbit to Alice of all people?’

  ‘Maybe this is a test,’ said Gavin, taking a seat next to Barnes. ‘Perhaps they wanted to see if they could get that rabbit through customs without getting caught before sending over a bigger shipment? And then to avoid any suspicion, Ken could’ve given it to Alice for safekeeping. Only he would know what was inside it.’

  Glaring at the photograph of Kenneth Archerton that had been pinned alongside those of the rest of his family, Kay shook her head, then turned to face them.

  ‘He’s had us fooled, hasn’t he? We’ve only got his word that he’s ill.’

  ‘Guv?’ said Laura.

  ‘What evidence do we have to suggest he has multiple sclerosis? One, he told us. Two, we know he has a carer, Patricia Wells. Three, he uses sticks to get about. That’s it.’

  Barnes whistled under his breath. ‘And because he’s Alice’s grandfather, we’ve put him above suspicion. Christ, what a fu––’

  ‘I want Patricia Wells brought in now for questioning. Let’s see what she has to say about her employer’s health. Carys, Gavin – that one’s yours.’ She ran a hand through her hair. ‘Guess we’d better have another word with Greg Victor as well.’

  ‘He’s been moved to the remand wing at the prison until he appears in court next week. I’ll have to phone them to get an appointment,’ said Carys. ‘What about Ken Archerton?’