EVIL CRIMES a gripping crime thriller full of twists

by MICHAEL HAMBLING

  ‘When was this?’ Barry asked.

  ‘About a year ago,’ she replied. ‘But we didn’t have much in common, apart from our work. I like a bit of liveliness, and he was kinda withdrawn. At least that’s what I thought.’

  ‘You don’t know if he made any new friends recently? Any relationships?’

  She shook her head. ‘He wasn’t one for small talk. That was one of the problems when we went out together. Maybe he was the archetypal computer geek. Most of us aren’t like that, despite what people think. We can party with the best of them. Well, I sure can!’ She took a swig of coffee. ‘I did see him on campus recently, arm in arm with a woman. He looked quite animated which was unusual for him.’

  ‘Was this very recent?’

  ‘Probably about a month ago? I couldn’t tell you much about her except that she was quite young, pretty striking and had long red hair. Probably a student. If so, he was on dangerous ground. That kinda thing is pretty much a no-no these days. I’ll tell you one thing though, she wasn’t from this department. I’d have recognised her.’

  * * *

  The two detectives returned to the station having gained little further information.

  ‘Apart from his American colleague, no one had much to say about him,’ Barry reported to Sophie. ‘He was a bit of a solitary individual and didn’t chat much but they all thought he was a nice guy. I’d guess it was a tragic accident, ma’am. No one seemed to think that he was depressed or suicidal.’

  ‘He was registered with a doctor on campus, ma’am,’ Rae added. ‘No record of any depression or anxiety issues. His only appointments were about treating his asthma, and even that wasn’t too serious.’

  ‘And no one knew of a young woman with long hair? That report we got from some of that ramblers’ group? A coincidence?’

  ‘There was one report, from his ex-girlfriend, the American woman he went out with a couple of times last year. She was pretty clear about it. And it was fairly recent.’

  ‘I’d say she was reliable,’ Rae added. ‘The woman had long red hair and was fairly young, and the two of them were very engrossed in each other. We checked around, but no one could identify her. It would be needles and haystacks in a place like that. There’s thousands of students and many of them change their hair colour every month. It’s the latest thing to do, isn’t it?’

  ‘Okay, Barry. Out with it.’ Sophie had been watching Barry Marsh. He’d been running his fingers through his ginger hair, a sure sign that something was troubling him.

  ‘I’ve got this uneasy feeling that I’ve heard something like it before somewhere. It’s probably just me being paranoid as usual, but something’s ringing a bell. It happened earlier as well, when Rae brought that book from his flat. Something a bit familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I still can’t. This time it was the hair colour.’

  ‘Well, if it helps, two of the ramblers might have had a brief glimpse of a young woman on the coast path, about half an hour before they spotted the body. They didn’t get a good look because she was a few hundred yards above them on a different path. The trouble is, one of them is our old friend, Pauline Stopley. I didn’t speak to her, just to the group leader. Maybe it won’t be necessary to see her, but I may have to steel myself.’

  ‘Do you want one of us to do it?’ Barry suggested.

  ‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,’ Sophie replied. ‘Thanks for the offer, Barry, but it will probably have to be me. I’d already decided that I needed to update her about Polly Nelson’s enquiry in Bristol. I bumped into Polly in Oxford, and she told me that they’ve found no evidence to implicate Pauline in the death of her husband’s first wife. In fact they’ve discovered no evidence at all. It was all too long ago. It might have been him acting alone. It might have been the two of them acting together. But it’s all too circumstantial, and they’ll probably end up putting the case back into cold storage.’

  ‘She’ll be pleased,’ Rae said. ‘It must have been playing on her mind. Isn’t she planning to marry that vicar?’

  ‘Tony Younger? The mind boggles. I can’t get my head round it. I keep imagining possible headlines in a gossip magazine. Seductress extraordinaire marries respectable vicar.’

  ‘I actually liked her, ma’am,’ Rae added.

  ‘Well the thing is, Rae, so did I.’

  Chapter 6: Exeter

  ‘You’re sure you don’t mind me taking you to Exeter, Jade? I’ve got to go anyway so it seemed sensible to do it today when you’ve got your interview.’

  ‘Of course not, Mum. Stop worrying about it. It’s a heck of a lot easier getting a lift from you than trying to get there by train. I’d have needed two changes and it takes well over three hours. You’re saving me hours of sitting in cold and draughty stations, so why would I mind?’ Jade was almost eighteen and in the midst of interviews for university.

  Sophie was in the hallway of the family house in Wareham, putting on her coat. Jade, now a good two inches taller than her mother, was waiting by the front door, already in her jacket and pink woollen hat.

  ‘That spirit of independence you possess in such abundance, maybe?’

  ‘It does sometimes have its drawbacks, Mum. I’m quite happy to give up the stroppy-teenager attitude when it suits me. Like now.’

  ‘Well, let’s be off. I’ll only need an hour or so to find out what I need, so maybe we can find somewhere nice for lunch once you’re finished. There’ll be plenty of buses from the campus into the city centre. You can text me when you’re done. Pub? Café? What would you prefer?’

  ‘Let’s make it a café. I don’t want you anywhere near a beer pump, not if you’ve got to drive me back home safely.’

  ‘If you’re going to get cheeky, I might just change my mind about that lift.’

  ‘Sorry, Mum. Won’t upset you again. Anyway, the medical school isn’t on the main campus. It’s at St Luke’s, which is closer to the city centre, so I can walk to wherever we’re meeting for lunch. How about the cathedral refectory? It’s meant to be good.’ She paused. ‘Oh, by the way, I’ve got an interview at Oxford next month, at Keble.’

  Halfway through the front door, Sophie stopped dead. ‘What? You never told me. Why didn’t you let us know you were applying there? You are just so infuriating, Jade.’ She dropped her bag, turned and hugged her daughter. ‘But I love you, and I’m so proud of you. We both are. You have no idea what that bit of news means to me.’

  ‘Well, if I didn’t before, I do now,’ Jade replied. ‘And I didn’t tell you because you seemed happy for me to have Bristol as my first choice, because of Granddad. I’ve always secretly wanted to go to Oxford, but I never told you. The thing is, Mum, I’ve always wanted to copy you, even more than the Granddad thing. I’ve got my role models but none of them can ever match you.’ Jade was watching her mother’s startled face. ‘Now, hadn’t we better be off? I don’t want you breaking the speed limit and getting pulled over by the traffic cops. That would be so embarrassing.’

  * * *

  Sophie pulled the book out of her bag, extracted the till receipt and handed it over to the bookshop manager.

  ‘I wondered why the receipt was for ten per cent less than the price on the book’s sticker, and that was already a good bit less than the official cover price.’

  The manager examined the slip for a moment. ‘It’s our standard student discount. Any book that’s on a university set book list gets discounted to students who produce a current card.’

  ‘So this is a set book?’

  ‘It’s not one of the main texts but it’s on the supplementary reading list for the ancient history degree. The date’s a bit strange, though. Late June’s an odd time to buy a reader like this, just after exams are over. Autumn, January, even mid-spring are the usual times, well before the end of the exam season.’

  ‘I think I know the reason for that. It was probably a birthday present. The guy who had it, his birthday was in early July. These other two books
are also of interest but they weren’t on that till receipt. Could they have come from here?’

  The manager picked the books up. ‘Quite possibly, though they look older and more used. They’re also standard readers for the course.’

  ‘Your staff member who sold the first one, would he or she still be here?’

  The manager examined the slip again. ‘No. Daisy was a student herself and only worked here on Saturdays. That’s her code at the top. She graduated in the summer and left. She went to London, I think. She wouldn’t remember one sale, anyway. Student sales would have dropped off by then but it’s the height of the tourist season. We swap one type of customer for another. Look, it was late morning. We’d have been swamped.’

  Sophie thought for moment. ‘What degree was Daisy doing?’

  ‘Economics, I think. I can check if you want. My assistant manager was often on the same desk as her.’

  * * *

  Sophie sat in the cathedral refectory looking at the artwork on the walls. This place was an oasis of peace, like the cathedral close itself, set on the fringe of the busy shopping and commercial centre.

  Jade came in and sat down.

  ‘How did it go?’ asked Sophie.

  ‘Fine. I liked it. It’s meant to be the most forward-looking medical school in the country, and that really appeals to me.’

  ‘The main campus is gorgeous, Jade. I came down a few times to visit a friend who was here when I was at Oxford.’

  ‘Jamie’s putting it down as his first choice, for computing,’ Jade added, with no further explanation.

  Sophie wondered where this was leading. Better to be noncommittal. ‘So, does that make it a more likely choice for you?’

  ‘Not sure. The thing is, Mum, I really like Jamie. He’s been my first serious boyfriend. But he can be a bit shallow and I’m starting to have doubts about us in the long term. Trying to talk about serious issues with him and his pals is just impossible. It’s all football and computer games. We don’t really have much in common and that worries me a bit. What do you think?’

  ‘Let’s get some lunch and talk it over. My brain works better with food.’

  They were both well into their quiche and salad when the conversation resumed.

  ‘It might be just a phase he’s going through, Jade. You’re both the same age, and isn’t it a well-known fact that girls mature quicker than boys? And at about your age? Maybe in a few months’ time he’ll have caught up with you.’

  Jade made a face. ‘It’d be nice to think so, but I doubt it. It isn’t just an age thing. I never told you, but he poked fun at my involvement in the anti-FGM campaign. Some of the other boys could see the importance and even got involved themselves, but Jamie refused. He told me I was wasting too much time on it. But I wasn’t. I was still spending loads of time with him. Last Friday night he wanted me to go to a party at the football club with him, but I’d agreed to be on the discussion panel at the FGM exhibition in town. He’d known about it for ages, but he still thought I should pull out. I told him I could come along later but he got into a strop about it.’

  ‘So are you still together?’

  Jade shrugged. ‘I don’t know. The thing is, Mum, if he was the one for me, shouldn’t I be feeling all weepy? Well, I’m not. I feel a bit betrayed and angry at his attitude but I don’t feel upset, not deep down. So maybe it was coming to an end anyway. And in that case, do I really want to be at the same university as him? That’s if he gets in anyway. They’ve given him an offer of an A and two Bs, but I don’t think he’s going to get the grades. He just doesn’t take his work seriously enough, and I worry about that too.’

  ‘Well, Jade, you know your own mind. Neither your dad nor I would want you to settle for second best, but we’ll support you whatever decision you make.’

  * * *

  By late afternoon Sophie was back at Dorset police headquarters, talking to Barry and Rae.

  ‘I didn’t learn much, and I’m not sure we should spend any more time on it. Apparently the book is a standard background reader for ancient history courses. I’d imagine it’s available from most academic bookshops, certainly those in university towns. By the way, Stu Blackman phoned. Apparently Phil McCluskie has had a relapse and is back in hospital. He started boozing again and his liver’s packed up.’

  Barry frowned. Then he slapped his hand on the table. ‘That’s it! Stu Blackman. I knew something rang a bell. It was back in September, ma’am. You were away at a conference and Blackman phoned asking for advice. I drove up to Dorchester to see him. There’d been a suicide, a middle-aged woman if I remember right. She’d left a diary with a lot of references to someone called H.’

  ‘There are lots of people whose names start with the letter H, Barry.’

  ‘Yes, but this H might have driven her to suicide, that’s the implication of what she wrote in her diary. That’s why Blackman contacted me. He wanted advice about it. But the other thing was, ma’am, there was a small collection of books on history in the house. And one of them had a similar message in it. “Love from H,” or something like that.’

  ‘What was her job? The dead woman, I mean?’

  ‘I think she was a senior midwife. In fact I’m sure that’s what Blackman said.’

  Sophie sat thinking for several moments. ‘I think this needs a bit more time on it. Barry, you contact Blackman again and get all the facts. Rae, you can try and trace this Daisy person who sold the book in Exeter. I managed to find out from the assistant manager where she’s working in London. The chances are pretty remote that we’ll get anything useful from her but it’s worth a try. It’s possible that this H, whoever she is, was or still is an Exeter student, so one of us may need to pay another visit. It’s probably nothing more than a huge coincidence, but we need to check.’

  Chapter 7: Liar! Cheat!

  Harriet Imber suddenly pulled free from her partner’s arm and turned into the newsagents. She bought copies of a national newspaper and a local one that covered the southwest region, and walked back outside, scanning the contents.

  ‘What’s come over you, Hattie?’ Maria asked. ‘It’s not like you to take an interest in what’s going on in the world.’

  Maria’s skin was olive and her cropped hair was jet black, betraying her Greek origins and contrasting strongly with her partner’s long, chestnut-red locks. She tried to slip her arm back into Harriet’s, but Hattie was too engrossed in the local news. Nothing of note. What a relief. What was that saying of her mother’s? No news is good news? Well, it certainly applied to her own current worries. Maybe a celebration was in order. She slipped the papers into her bag and grabbed Maria’s arm.

  ‘Wine. I feel like having a toasted sandwich for lunch and a large red wine. Make that two large red wines. At least two. Come on, let’s get pissed.’

  Maria shook her head. ‘I can’t. I’ve got a key tutorial this afternoon. You know that.’

  ‘Why aren’t you any fun these days? Talk about a fucking wet blanket. Life’s for the here and now. We might see a couple of guys we can tease.’

  Maria looked worried. ‘I don’t like your games, Hattie. We’re together. Aren’t you happy with that? Why do you have to come on to these young men, when you only plan to run out on them once they get interested? Aren’t I enough for you?’

  Harriet laughed. She flung her head back so that her long hair rippled in the breeze. ‘Because it’s fun. Because I like to see them get hot and bothered when I talk dirty to them. Because I like to imagine their faces after I leave them high and dry. They’re men, Maria. They deserve it. Why should I worry about how disappointed they might feel? They’re all animals, just interested in one thing.’

  ‘You wouldn’t treat a woman like that.’

  ‘Wouldn’t I? How do you know? I can act the way I like with anyone I choose. I’m a free spirit. No one owns me. I’m not answerable to anyone. I’m as free as a bird.’ She pirouetted as she spoke.

  Maria was clearly upset. ‘B
ut me, Hattie. You love me, don’t you? Please say you do. I couldn’t bear it if you ran off with someone else.’

  ‘Don’t be such a wimp, Maria. Of course I do. Tell you what, go to your tutorial and come to my room afterwards. I’ll have a special treat for you, then we can go out celebrating tonight. We can postpone getting pissed until then. Okay?’ She gave Maria a long, slow kiss on the lips and ran her hand over her buttocks, then slapped her hard. ‘Time to go, Miss Goody Two Shoes. Run along.’

  Harriet watched her partner hurry away and wondered about strolling back to the campus herself, but she still felt like a bit of excitement and novelty. It was Friday. Almost a week had slipped by after the events of the previous weekend, and the newspapers had gone quiet. Now the thrill was fading she felt a little flat, and she needed a quick shot of excitement. She glanced into the open doorway of a pub, her attention drawn by the clamour of voices, some of them young. She went in, blinking her eyes in the dim light. Good. Several groups of students at the far end, beyond the business types clustered at the bar. Who should she target? She went up to the bar and there he was. The youngest of the businessmen, all suited and tied and about her own age. He had moved aside to make space for her at the bar and, as she ordered a glass of beer, he turned and gave her a shy smile.

  Ooh, easy pickings, she thought. She moved closer and pretended to be having problems opening the zip on her bag, giving her an opportunity to jab an elbow into his abdomen.

  ‘God, sorry,’ she spluttered. ‘I’m so clumsy. I haven’t spilled your drink, have I?’

  ‘No, no,’ came the reply. ‘It was my fault as much as yours.’

  She finally unzipped her bag and extracted some cash. ‘I haven’t been in here before,’ she lied. ‘It’s nice, isn’t it?’

  ‘Here, let me get that for you,’ he said. ‘I’ve just had a bonus at work. Not sure what else I’ll spend it on.’