Death Watch

by Deborah Lucy

  It had been a long day and in company with Kelly, Temple read through the recent statements they had obtained.

  ‘The new one, boss, from Michael Cooper is interesting. It mentions a van down beside the lane next to Wedwellow House,’ said Kelly.

  ‘What kind of van?’ asked Temple.

  ‘A blue transit. The house-to-house might pick something up. He might have been just passing and sitting up to take a break in his journey, but Cooper suggests he was a bit too far down the lane for that.’

  ‘We need to trace it,’ said Temple. ‘We still need to find who took the photos in Savernake Forest and it could be this guy.’

  ‘The Hi Tech guys have also finished with the iPads from the house too,’ said Kelly.

  ‘What took them so bloody long?’ said Temple.

  ‘We were at the back of the queue, the Swindon job took priority. It seems that Greta had a Facebook page but wasn’t too regular a user. Neither did she have a Twitter account. She used her iPad mainly to email and FaceTime Caroline Black and Maxwell. There was nothing untoward found on it. The computer found in the study had accounts on it, which have been passed to the Financial Team. Again, nothing of note, no porn or anything extreme,’ reported Kelly.

  ‘OK, put these statements into the Holmes inputter.’

  ‘When you read all the statements, boss, the picture of Greta’s life is emerging …’ ventured Kelly.

  ‘When you read the statements, Kelly, it tells you that people are lying. The information from Dianna Forrester and Caroline Black suggest that Greta was being manipulated by the men in her life. Ashton-Jones now has two dead wives which stinks. Caroline is our star witness at the moment and I don’t think she’s telling us all she knows. Everyone’s holding back. They’re all withholding information.’

  The peace in the room shattered as the office door banged loudly against the wall and Sloper entered.

  ‘I see you’ve made the local papers,’ said Sloper throwing the Wiltshire Daily Record onto a table.

  ‘I haven’t spoken to a rag,’ said Temple.

  ‘You’ve been verballed then. We’ll be lucky to keep this out of the nationals. “Sex Murder Riddle”, they’re calling it,’ said Sloper. ‘And believe me, you don’t want them breathing down your neck.’

  Temple picked up the paper to see the banner headlines on the front page. He was quoted and misquoted.

  ‘That’s fucking de la Hay. Everything I said to him and things I didn’t. That would be Rob Carroll’s input,’ said Temple, referring to the editor, who wasn’t known for his pro-police stance or respect for the truth. Locals had expressed their ‘shock’ and ‘horror’ at the murder, amongst the comments about Greta and Maxwell described as being ‘a lovely couple.’ Carroll stoked public concern by continuing with a two-page spread, containing a timeline of events.

  ‘Who gave him all this information?’ asked Temple, as he looked at the coverage.

  Sloper pulled a face and shrugged.

  With hacks on the trail, Temple knew he now had to step up the pace of the inquiry. He had to keep ahead of the press in terms of information. He had to make a further arrest soon, or the hacks would publicly crucify him in the absence of a suspect and the desire to show their investigative superiority over the police. And enjoy doing it in the process. He had to get the DNA results and make some real progress soon.

  Temple suspected it was also only a matter of time before he was expelled from the inquiry by Harker, courtesy of Sloper’s reporting back on the lack of progress. Yet so far, Harker had left him there. His eyes went to Greta’s picture on the whiteboard again. Piecing together her life and last moments of it was now all consuming. He wanted to bring her killer to justice. And he had to do it before the press used him like a punch bag and offered him up to Harker on a plate.

  ‘How did you get on with the house-to-house?’ Temple asked Sloper.

  ‘Greta was my kind of woman, I wish I’d met her.’

  ‘Like she’d have given you a second look,’ said Kelly under her breath.

  ‘I heard that. Like you wouldn’t have had a go too, given half the chance,’ Sloper shot back.

  Kelly looked at him with loathing; she hated it when people thought they had a right to comment on her love life. He was getting on her nerves, just his presence was starting to annoy her. There were times when he stood way too close to her and she didn’t like it.

  ‘Fuck off,’ she spat.

  ‘Now, now,’ taunted Sloper, ‘you can’t tell me you wouldn’t have fancied her?’

  Kelly rose to the bait. ‘You don’t know anything about me.’ She stood up to confront him.

  ‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that,’ said Sloper, ‘you and your little girlfriend who works up at the bank. I can just imagine what you get up to … in fact, I do imagine.’

  ‘You’re like something out of the fucking Dark Ages, I bet imagine is all you do these days—’

  Before Sloper could retaliate, Temple cut in. ‘All right you two, enough.’ Kelly sat down.

  ‘So, who would like to hear what I have found on house-to-house?’ said Sloper, as if their spat hadn’t happened.

  ‘Come on, Si, don’t fuck about,’ said Temple.

  ‘Well, I went back to the scene. I went outside, into the garden, by the pool. And looking up, you can just about see the top bedroom window of the nearest house next door to the left. That’s right in direct line with the poolside. So I went to the house on the left and spoke to a nice couple who let me in. I went upstairs to their back bedroom and lo and behold, there was a pair of bins on the window shelf. They’d been watching all the activity going on in the inquiry. On speaking to the husband though, on his own, he told me that on sunny days, he’d catch a peek at Greta laid out by the pool. The incentive for him was that she would often sunbathe topless.’

  ‘I don’t suppose he was out twitching last Friday, was he?’ asked Temple.

  ‘Oh yes. He’s retired, and knowing Greta’s habits, he knew that twenty-two degrees would fetch her out to the pool and sunbathing. He actually said that about the temperature. Brings a whole new reason for listening to the weather forecast in the morning. Twenty-two degrees and he knew he was on for a peek,’ chuckled Sloper.

  ‘Anyway, more to the point, he’s seen Greta and James having more than a step-motherly peck on the cheek. According to him, they were more likely to have their tongues down each other’s throats and hands all over each other. And more besides, I wouldn’t mind betting. Seems they were more like boyfriend and girlfriend. A real wicked stepmother.’

  CHAPTER 22

  RIGHT THEN TEMPLE’S mobile rang.

  ‘Hi, boss, its Jackie. Just thought you’d like to know we had a negative DNA result for Michael Cooper and a result for Maxwell Ashton-Jones.’

  ‘And?’ he asked, hanging on her every word.

  ‘Negative.’

  ‘Negative on all counts?’

  ‘Yes, no familial, including the foetus,’ she replied.

  That should also put James Ashton-Jones out of the picture in terms of DNA, thought Temple. So, Greta was carrying another man’s child, or would have been, if she’d lived.

  ‘OK, thanks, Jackie.’

  Temple updated Kelly and Sloper. He looked at his watch and rang the Telecommunications office to request mobile phone data.

  ‘I need some inquiries done around four names in my case – Brett Forrester, Jonathan Silvester, Maxwell Ashton-Jones and James Ashton-Jones. I’m interested in activity between them a week prior to the murder and since and where Maxwell Ashton-Jones is concerned, a list of calls he made two months prior to the murder.’

  ‘OK, we’ll identify the service providers for each, put a priority one on them and request the information.’

  ‘How long do you think it’ll take?’ Temple asked.

  ‘Well, once we get the superintendent’s sign off, depending on who the providers are, could be twenty-four hours or two to three days.’
/>   Temple knew he had no choice but to wait while his colleagues conducted the inquiries he had requested of them. He knew that the lack of DNA evidence meant he would need to cast the net wider, but he remained convinced that the murderer would have been known to Greta.

  ‘Doesn’t the fact that we couldn’t match Maxwell’s DNA rule him out?’ said Kelly.

  ‘All that tells us is that Maxwell wasn’t one of the two men who last had sex with Greta, neither was he the father of her child. The fact that she was carrying another man’s child gives him a motive,’ said Temple.

  ‘He was still abroad when she was murdered so how can he have done it?’

  ‘For all we know Greta could have told him she was pregnant when she found out. Maybe he worked out that he couldn’t be the father. We have to be absolutely sure that he could not have come back from his stopover in Singapore. Si, can you make inquiries with BA? I want to know if it’s possible for someone, a member of staff, to get aboard a plane without appearing on any inventory or booking system. Whether it’s just possible to slip back into the country under the radar.’

  ‘It’s a bit far-fetched. He’d still have to get through passport control and get back to Singapore to carry on the next leg of his journey,’ said Sloper, thinking that Temple was becoming increasingly desperate. He’d look forward to his next conversation with Harker; he felt sure he’d pull Temple off the inquiry once he told him of his latest thought processes.

  ‘I know, I know, but maybe that’s what Maxwell wants it to look like. I just think we need to make the inquiries before we can discount it and until it becomes an absolute impossibility, it’s still a possibility. I want someone to tell me it’s impossible.’

  Sloper shrugged.

  ‘If he knew about the pregnancy, he could also have put someone else up to it, commissioned it, while he was out of the country,’ said Temple.

  ‘But I thought you said he didn’t seem to know she was pregnant,’ said Kelly.

  ‘That’s how it seemed to me but maybe I’m wrong,’ said Temple. ‘We’re going to need DNA samples from Jonathan Silvester. I’ll need to question Brett Forrester again and we’ll need to find out exactly what Maxwell’s involvement was with Curtis Coleman. We’ll also need a DNA sample from Brett Forrester.’

  ‘What, her own father?’ questioned Sloper, thinking he’d have to ring Harker sooner than he anticipated.

  ‘Yes, they were close, according to Greta’s mother, too close. She suspected them of having a sexual relationship although her psychiatrist didn’t confirm it. Perhaps they were and that relationship was still ongoing,’ replied Temple.

  The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that the answer lay with the men closest to her. They were all covering something up.

  *

  In the morning, Temple instructed Kelly to go and see Antonia Peronelli at Windsor. He also knew he needed to try and break into the close relationships of Ashton-Jones and Silvester.

  ‘Si, can you ring Maxwell and make an appointment to see him and James this afternoon? We need to time this right. I’m going to see Forrester this morning and I want you to see them at 12.30, no later. Can you see if you can arrange that and ring and let me know?’

  Temple had received a text message from the force press office. The media interest in the case was ramping up and the local news station wanted to do a piece to camera. Temple met the crew outside the Headquarters building and finished in one take, before driving off to see Brett Forrester.

  Sloper rang him en route.

  ‘The meeting is set up for 12.30 as you asked. What are you up to?’ asked Sloper.

  ‘None of them are being as forthcoming as they should, they’re all hiding their own bits of information about Greta. And they’re very tight. I want to shake things up a bit. None of them have said they know about Greta’s pregnancy. I’m going to tell Brett Forrester when I get there. I suspect that he’ll be straight on the phone to Maxwell when I’ve gone. Now you’ve made your appointment, you’ll see the effect the news has on them when you turn up. Tell them you also want a DNA sample from Jonathan Silvester and James Ashton-Jones.’

  ‘But any familial DNA would have shown from Maxwell’s DNA sample,’ Sloper pointed out, thinking that now Temple really was going all over the place.

  ‘Just get it, please, Si,’ Temple instructed.

  ‘I’ll report back,’ said Sloper. He’d been watching Temple closely and now he was sure he’d lost the plot. Still, he was happy to follow his orders – it would help him inform Harker, give him more reason to drag Temple off the inquiry.

  It was 11.30 in the morning and Forrester met him at the door with a tumbler half full of Jack Daniels.

  ‘How are you, Mr Forrester?’ Temple knew he wouldn’t take kindly to any advice from him about staying away from the bottle. He needed him to be fairly sober if what he had in mind had any chance of working.

  Shown into his study again, Temple’s eyes went immediately to find the pictures on the wall that he’d seen previously. The wall was bare.

  ‘Coping, Inspector, just coping. Is there a break-through, are you here to tell me you’ve made an arrest?’

  ‘I’m actually after some more information to help us and to give you some information. As you know, we’re trying to build this picture of Greta, of her lifestyle, to help find her killer. Seems she led a more complicated life than one might expect. She was having a relationship with Jonathan Silvester that her husband knew about. Were you aware of this?’

  ‘Yes,’ he replied.

  ‘You didn’t say previously,’ said Temple, surprised.

  ‘You didn’t ask,’ Forrester retorted. It was clear the glass of whisky wasn’t his first or his second that morning.

  ‘I think I asked you if you knew if she had any extra marital relationships and you said no.’

  ‘I don’t think I was actually thinking, Inspector. Yes, I knew about Jonathan, she confided in me.’ He ran his fingers through his hair and drank deeply from the glass.

  ‘What did she say about that relationship?’ asked Temple.

  ‘I don’t remember, Inspector,’ Forrester replied, clearly agitated with Temple’s questioning.

  ‘Did she say whether she was happy with the way he treated her, for example?’ Temple persisted.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Forrester walked away for a refill.

  ‘Meaning that Caroline Black has suggested Greta was under some duress to continue the relationship with Silvester. She suggests that he told Greta unless their relationship continued, he would tell Maxwell, when in fact, Maxwell knew all about their relationship.’

  ‘I, I didn’t know that. She never said that she was unhappy in her relationship with Jonathan,’ Forrester replied, walking slowly towards the door.

  ‘Did she say if it had ended?’

  ‘She said she didn’t see him so much anymore. Look, perhaps Caroline got the wrong end of the stick. She can be a bit highly strung.’ Forrester turned his back on Temple as he refilled his glass. At the rate he was going, Temple knew he had to speed things up.

  ‘The pictures that you had on the wall there, they’ve gone,’ said Temple, wanting his eye contact again. Forrester turned round.

  ‘Yes. I couldn’t bear it, I couldn’t bear to see her … so alive.’ Forrester looked at the empty wall, his voice now broken with emotion. ‘I had to take them down.’

  ‘I saw James Ashton-Jones yesterday, sir. James confirmed he had visited home on the Friday but was with friends on Saturday and the rest of the weekend,’ offered Temple.

  ‘I see.’

  ‘We have also had the results of DNA tests from Maxwell; they were negative.’

  ‘Well, I would have been surprised if they hadn’t been, since Maxwell was out of the country.’

  Temple tapped his pocket.

  ‘Excuse me, sir, my phone is vibrating. I’ll just take this call.’ Temple went out of the room and down the hallway. He feigned a quick convers
ation before going back.

  ‘I have to make my way back to the station, sir. Further developments. You said you would have been surprised to find Maxwell’s DNA at the scene? I also came here to tell you that Greta was nine weeks pregnant at the time of her death.’

  Forrester’s eyes widened. ‘She was pregnant?’ He wasn’t expecting this.

  ‘Yes, sir. As I say, I have to go back to the station.’

  Forrester was sufficiently distracted by the new information as Temple hoped he would be.

  The prospect of also losing a grandchild – Greta’s child – had suddenly completely overwhelmed his thoughts.

  Temple left and drove back to Marlborough Police Station where he met Sloper.

  ‘I think it worked,’ said Sloper. ‘What time did you leave Forrester?’

  ‘Quarter past twelve. Told him I had to come back here and left him having just told him about Greta being pregnant. He must have been straight on the phone to Maxwell as soon as I left.’

  ‘I arrived at 12.30 on the dot and the door was opened by some Rachel bird,’ replied Sloper. ‘I said I wanted to see James as arranged and she said she didn’t think that would be possible as he was upstairs with Maxwell. He was being sick.’

  CHAPTER 23

  ‘THEY KNOW SOMETHING,’ said Temple. ‘They all know something and they’re all covering up. Did you see James at all?’

  ‘No. Maxwell came down to see me in the hallway. He said that James had been violently ill, must have been something he ate.’

  ‘Where was Jonathan?’ Temple asked.

  ‘Apparently with James, in the bathroom. Maxwell looked grey. I asked him if he was all right and he said yes, but he thinks they all must have suddenly got a bug as he didn’t feel so good.’

  ‘They’re lying,’ said Temple.

  ‘I said I’d go back later, about five. I’ll take a buccal swab kit with me and get James’s DNA,’ said Sloper.

  ‘James must be involved for them to have told the kid and it’s turned his stomach.’

  ‘If he was your weakest link though, you’d have thought they would have withheld it from him,’ observed Sloper.