The Scent of Death--A Sukey Reyholds British police procedural

by Betty Rowlands

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘On Saturday, the day after the body of Lance Rainbird was found.’

  ‘Did he come back to you?’

  ‘No. I wasn’t bothered. Like I said, I didn’t take him seriously anyway.’

  ‘The phone call that came during dinner,’ said Sukey. ‘I have a feeling it wasn’t good news.’

  ‘You’re right. The call was from one of his friends.’ Harry took a deep breath. ‘Reg’s body was found near the lake at Dallington Manor a couple of hours ago.’

  ‘Oh no!’ Sukey sat down and put her hands over her eyes. ‘You know, when Vicky and I said goodnight, she said there was plenty of time for another death. She was joking, of course, but …’

  ‘There’s many a true word spoken in jest,’ Harry finished. ‘Only this is no jest, is it?’

  ‘What time did you get that call?’

  ‘It was a little after ten. Keith – Reg’s pal – said they were waiting for the police and a doctor.’ He clapped a hand to his forehead. ‘Oh my God! Maybe if I’d told you straight away he’d still be alive.’

  ‘You mustn’t blame yourself,’ said Sukey. ‘My guess is that his killer overheard him making that call to you and decided then and there that he had to be silenced as soon as possible. You said he’d gone down for a smoke the night Rainbird died – maybe the killer had noticed that was his habit. We’ll probably be hearing from DI Rathbone ere long to tell us to go straight to Dallington Manor tomorrow. Hang on a minute, I’ll check my phone. Yes, there’s one missed call.’ She listened for a moment then switched off. ‘It’s being treated as a crime scene and will be guarded by uniformed until we get there in the morning.’

  ‘What was the cause of death?’ he asked. ‘Not that I expect you to tell me, even if you know.’

  ‘As it happens, I don’t know. No doubt there’ll be plenty of your lot sniffing around by the time we get there.’ She shook her head in bewilderment. ‘The more we investigate this case the more complicated it gets. And tomorrow we have this chap Ashman, who—’ she drew a sharp breath and put a hand over her mouth. ‘You can just forget I said that.’

  ‘Not a chance,’ Harry teased her, ‘but I’m not going to try and pump you now. You need some sleep.’

  ‘You’re right.’ She leaned against him and shut her eyes. ‘It’s been quite a frustrating day, but this evening was a real treat.’

  He put his arms round her and held her close, then kissed her gently and said, ‘It was lovely for me too. Goodnight my love. Sleep well.’

  A thought struck her; she pulled away from him and said, ‘Harry, you will be careful won’t you? We’re looking for a very dangerous person who’s killed at least once and won’t hesitate to kill again.’

  ‘I might say the same to you,’ he said. ‘I hope that pesky DI of yours won’t send you into some dangerous situation on your own.’

  ‘I’m sure he won’t do anything of the kind,’ she assured him.

  DI Rathbone was already there when Sukey and Vicky arrived at Dallington Manor. They found him near the point where they had stopped for a while during their tour of the lake following the discovery of Rainbird’s body. The area had been taped off and several uniformed officers and an ambulance driver stood by awaiting orders.

  ‘There he is,’ said Rathbone, pointing. Slumped on the wooden seat within the alcove formed by the golden cypress was the slight body of a man in a waiter’s uniform of white jacket and black trousers. ‘Strangled – manually – and the killer probably wore gloves. His name’s Reg Law. He’s worked here for about six months according to Chapman. He was found by another waiter called Keith Gunn. He’s in a state of shock; we haven’t interviewed him yet but apparently when he reported finding the body he was pretty incoherent. All he kept saying was that Law had told him he thought he might have done something stupid but didn’t say what. He wasn’t fit to go home so they found him a bed in the hotel and rang his parents to say why. They’re not much more than kids, the pair of them. They’re friends; they started work here at the same time. Chapman’s tearing his hair out … talking about sending everyone home and shutting the hotel down until all this is sorted. Needless to say I’ve told him no one can leave without our say-so.’

  Sukey and Vicky stood for a moment staring down at the victim. There were livid bruises round the slight neck and a scattering of broken blood vessels round the wide-open eyes. ‘There’s not much of him,’ said Vicky. ‘It wouldn’t take a heavyweight to throttle him.’

  ‘Poor kid,’ said Sukey. ‘What do we know about him?’

  ‘His parents are dead and he’s been lodging with Gunn since the pair of them started working here. According to Doc Hanley, death was somewhere between five and eight o’clock yesterday evening. I suggest you have a good look round and see if you can pick up anything the CSIs have missed. Then we’ll go indoors and carry out some more interviews. Mike and Tim are already here, by the way, but I think it best if you two talk to Gunn.’

  ‘Right, Guv.’

  TEN

  Sukey and Vicky spent some minutes examining the seat and the area surrounding it, closely observed by a couple of Crime Scene Investigators, Bill and Sid, who had lit cigarettes and were smoking them by the edge of the lake a short distance away.

  ‘It seems DI Rathbone reckons we don’t do our job properly,’ Bill observed, flicking ash into the water.

  ‘It’s nothing personal – he likes everything double-checked,’ said Vicky.

  ‘We’ve noticed he doesn’t do much checking himself,’ said Sid.

  ‘Not like he did before he got his promotion,’ added Bill.

  ‘Did you find anything useful?’ asked Vicky.

  ‘A half-smoked cigarette that was probably dropped by the victim,’ said Sid, ‘but of course it’ll have to go for DNA testing.’ He ambled across and bent down, pointing. ‘We found it there – and took photos. And there was a black thread that probably came from his trousers clinging to the underside of the front slat of the seat. Also recorded on photo, both items bagged up and labelled. And as you can see, the grass in front of the seat has been flattened in places.’

  ‘No doubt you’ve taken pictures of that as well,’ Vicky observed. Sid grunted and went back to where Bill was standing. Vicky bent down and gently took hold of one of the victim’s feet and raised it a few inches. ‘Look, there are traces of mud on the heel. The other one as well, as if he dug his heels quite hard into the grass – which he wouldn’t have done if all he did was sit down and light up.’

  ‘You’re right,’ said Sukey. ‘That would suggest he was taken completely by surprise.’

  ‘We came to the same conclusion,’ said Bill.

  ‘Not too difficult,’ said Sid.

  ‘What is this – a wind-up?’ said Vicky crossly. ‘Don’t get on to us – we’re only obeying orders.’

  ‘Never mind them,’ said Sukey. ‘Let’s try to visualize the action. He was sitting there, having a quiet smoke, when someone approached out of the shadows and grabbed him by the throat.’

  ‘He dropped his cigarette and most likely grabbed hold of the attacker’s wrists in an attempt to free himself …’

  ‘… didn’t have the strength to pull the hands away, but dug his heels into the ground, probably kicked out frantically at his assailant’s shins, first with one foot and then with the other – or maybe both at the same time; we’ve no way of telling, but when he stopped kicking the assailant probably let him go.’

  Vicky shook her head. ‘I think he’s more likely to have kept up the pressure until he was completely sure his victim was dead, and then he’d slip quietly away.’ She lowered the feet to the ground and stood upright. ‘I wonder if he managed to inflict some bruises on the attacker’s shins before he passed out,’ she said. ‘On second thoughts, though, those are very light shoes – I doubt if there’d be much in the way of bruising.’

  ‘We might find someone with mud on their trousers,’ said Sukey, ‘but of cour
se, they’ll have had plenty of time to brush or sponge it off. Do we know what time his friend found the body?’

  ‘Not until quite late, judging from the time DI Rathbone called us,’ said Vicky. ‘Well, I don’t think there’s much more we can do here. They might as well take him to the morgue. I suppose we’d better check with Sir first and then perhaps Reg’s pal Keith will feel up to answering a few questions. All right, guys, you’ve passed your test,’ she added with a jaunty wave to the two CSIs. ‘Enjoy your smoke but make sure you put the stubs in the box by the door.’

  Bill gave a mock salute. ‘Will do, Sarge.’

  They found DI Rathbone sitting in reception nursing a mug of coffee. ‘Freeman and his mob are still having breakfast,’ he said. ‘I’ve told him we’ve got to interview everyone all over again and he’s not a happy bunny. I have a feeling he and Chapman are of the same mind – for two pins they’d chuck in the towel and retire to the country to raise chickens.’

  ‘So exactly when did they hear about Law’s death, Guv?’ asked Sukey.

  ‘Not right away; by the time the guy who found him had pulled himself together and come rushing into the hotel to raise the alarm they were all upstairs for their evening sing-song. That would have been some time after eight thirty. The ones who went straight to bed after the evening’s programme probably didn’t hear about it until this morning, either when they looked out of their windows and saw the police or when they came down to breakfast this morning. The barman told the ones who went for their usual nightcap and of course they all went rushing out like a load of ghouls in the hope of seeing the body. Did you find anything?’

  ‘Nothing that the CSIs hadn’t spotted, but we made a couple of observations that gave us some idea of how things would have looked to an observer,’ said Vicky. ‘We’ll mention them in our reports. We’re wondering if this might be a good time to talk to Law’s friend – the one who found him.’

  ‘He’s been having breakfast in his room – that is, the room Chapman let him use for the night. I made it clear that he’s to talk to no one else until you’ve seen him. Chapman’s in his office – he’ll show you where he’s been stashed away.’

  Keith Gunn was sitting in an armchair in a small bedroom on the second floor. He appeared to be a couple of years older than Law and of a sturdier build. It crossed Sukey’s mind that had he been attacked he might have put up a better fight than his friend. He was clutching a mug of coffee; there was a tray on his lap bearing an empty glass that appeared to have contained fruit juice, a bowl of half-eaten cereal and some untouched toast and marmalade. When Sukey and Vicky entered he hastily jumped to his feet and put the tray on a table, spilling some of the coffee over his trousers as he did so.

  ‘Oh, silly me!’ he exclaimed. He ran to fetch a towel from the en suite shower room and dabbed at the stain. ‘You’ll have to bear with me – I’m still very upset. Poor Reggie …’ He put the towel to his eyes. ‘It was obvious he was scared of something and I begged him to be careful. There must be a serial killer about – is anyone safe?’

  ‘We don’t think for a moment that this was a random killing,’ said Vicky. ‘We think it’s possible that your friend saw the attack on Mr Rainbird and that the attacker knew and killed him before he could tell us. We want to find the person who killed your friend and we need your help. Do you feel up to answering a few questions?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I’ll do anything.’ Although he was evidently still in a state of shock it was clear that he was making a serious effort to control himself.

  ‘Just take your time,’ Vicky went on. ‘Finish your coffee.’

  ‘Oh, thank you.’ He drained the mug and put it on the tray. ‘I’m ready,’ he said.

  ‘Good man. First of all, we understand that when you were telling Mr Chapman that you’d found Reggie’s body you said something about him being worried and that he told you he “might have done something stupid”. Is that right?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘When did he say that?’

  ‘It was on Sunday, while we were setting up the tea things for the guests. They’d had a free afternoon and were due back about half past five.’

  ‘Is that all he said?’

  Gunn put a hand to his forehead. ‘I can’t remember the exact words, but the gist of it was that he thought he’d done something stupid and should have gone to the police instead of trying to be clever, and then he said, “Sorry, got to go,” and ended the call. I guessed it was because the guests had started to come back for their tea and I assumed he’d tell me later. And that was the last time I spoke to him.’ His voice trailed away and he covered his eyes.

  ‘All right,’ said Vicky, ‘we’ll leave it at that for now. About yesterday evening; tell us why you were by the lake.’

  ‘I went out for some air.’

  ‘What time would that have been?’

  ‘I can’t tell you to the minute, but it must have been some time after half past eight. I’d been serving the after dinner coffee; most of the guests had left the dining room so I and one of the other waiters were helping to clear the table and take the used cutlery and crockery into the kitchen.’

  ‘So having done that you went outside?’ He nodded. ‘Is this something you do regularly when you come off duty in the evening?’

  ‘Not regularly. Reggie always goes – went – out for a smoke and if we were on the same shift I usually went with him, but I don’t smoke.’ His voice faltered and he choked back a sob. ‘I can’t believe he’s gone.’

  ‘Would it be fair to say that the two of you were very close?’ asked Sukey.

  ‘Yes … very close,’ he whispered.

  ‘So tell us about last night.’

  ‘Last night it was warm in the hotel and as I said, I felt in the need of air. And I was concerned about him, wondering why he hadn’t come back to me …’ His voice trailed away. ‘Poor dear Reggie.’

  ‘You were concerned about what he’d said?’ He nodded. ‘So finding him like that must have thrown you into a state of shock. What did you do?’

  ‘I took his hand and called his name, but he didn’t answer so I thought he must have been taken ill … that is, I hoped that was all it was, but I think I knew straight away that he was dead. Anyway, I suppose I panicked and went rushing back to the hotel and told Mr Chapman.’

  ‘And that really is all you can tell us?’ said Vicky.

  He gave a deep sigh. ‘I’m afraid so.’

  ‘Well, if you think of anything else we’ll be around for a while. I guess you’d like to go home now.’

  ‘Thank you. Oh, I do hope you find who killed him. And the other gentleman, of course.’

  ‘We will,’ said Sukey.

  They went back downstairs and reported the conversation to Rathbone. ‘Do you know who interviewed Law after Rainbird’s death?’ he asked.

  ‘It was neither of us,’ said Vicky. ‘It must have been either Mike or Tim.’

  ‘Well, find out which of them it was. From what Gunn told you it’s obvious Law saw something suspicious – presumably the attack on Rainbird – but decided to use it to his own advantage rather than mentioning it to us.’

  ‘It certainly looks that way, Guv,’ said Sukey. ‘Ah, there’s Mike, he’s just finished questioning Millie.’ She signalled to DI Haskins as he was about to follow Millie upstairs. ‘Just a quick word – was it you or Tim who interviewed Law after the Rainbird death?’

  ‘I did,’ said Mike. ‘I wanted a chance to speak to you about him, sir.’ He opened the folder he was carrying and ran a finger down a list. ‘I remembered having some doubts about whether Law was holding something back or just so nervous and upset that he couldn’t remember anything clearly. He admitted being outside having a smoke; said he nips out whenever he has an opportunity because of course smoking inside the hotel is forbidden. What he couldn’t – or wouldn’t – say was exactly where he was at the time we think the attack took place. All he would say was that he couldn’t
be sure because he strolled about a bit. But he was adamant that he didn’t see anything suspicious.’

  ‘It’s pretty obvious he did see something, so the reason he decided not to tell us must have been so that he could screw some hush money out of someone,’ said Rathbone.

  ‘Which could only mean that he saw Rainbird being attacked – and recognized the attacker.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘So there were three people out there on Friday evening: Rainbird who said he was going out for some air but who we now believe had arranged to meet someone, probably the man who attacked him, the attacker himself, and Reg Law who witnessed the attack and thought he’d try a spot of blackmail.’

  ‘I’m wondering whether we should have another word with Eric Bowen, sir,’ said Sukey. ‘When Vicky and I spoke to him after Romeo’s accident he admitted that when he went down to check that his car was locked he’d seen two men talking together by the lake but didn’t recognize either of them.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Vicky. ‘Hugh Pearson told us how security conscious Bowen is and checked his car every evening to make sure it was locked. We asked Bowen why he hadn’t mentioned this and he said he must have forgotten.’

  ‘We warned him that if he was – or if the killer thought he was – a potential witness, then he could be in danger himself. He appeared shaken, but he didn’t say any more.’

  ‘So go and have another talk with him,’ said Rathbone. ‘All right,’ he said to Mike, ‘carry on interviewing the music lovers. I think maybe I’ll have another check on the staff.’

  ‘That means reading through the list of names while swigging yet another coffee,’ Vicky whispered to Sukey as they followed Mike upstairs to the Orchard Room. ‘We’d like another word with Mr Bowen,’ she said to Freeman. ‘It should only take a moment.’

  ‘Bowen’s not here,’ said Freeman. ‘He wasn’t at breakfast either. Maybe he’s ill.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Hugh Pearson. ‘He had breakfast in his room – a waiter had just put a full English on a tray outside his door when I came down.’