‘So without further evidence, there’s no case against Freeman,’ said Sukey. ‘Not that I ever really thought he did it anyway, and after meeting him it’s more than just a hunch.’
‘Do you still think Rainbird’s death could have been an accident, then?’
Sukey shook her head. ‘On the contrary, I’m convinced he was attacked and left unconscious in the water to drown. Someone had a grudge against him. The trouble is we know so little about him.’
‘So what do you suggest we do about it?’ Vicky persisted. ‘I can’t see Sir granting us another day’s leave to go to London to probe into Rainbird’s social life. Mr Ashman didn’t seem to know anything about what he did in his spare time; on the contrary he described him as a very private individual. That goes some way to confirming what Barbara said – although he didn’t work in the same office so he wouldn’t have picked up anything the women said about Lance’s sexy voice and so on.’
‘I guess we’d better do our reports on today’s interviews and then go home,’ said Sukey. ‘It will be interesting to see what Sir’s reaction is when he reads them. If you’re right and he insists we keep digging for evidence against Freeman perhaps we should poke around in his private life.’ Privately, she was working on another idea that had just come to her – an idea she was not prepared to share with Vicky for the moment, and certainly not with DI Rathbone.
When Sukey reached home she found a message from Harry. ‘Where have you been? I’m pining for a sight of you,’ he said. ‘Please call.’
She picked up the phone and punched in his number. ‘It’s only been a couple of days since we saw each other,’ she said.
‘So what? I want to see you every day. What about now? Have you eaten yet? Dad and Freddie have suddenly decided to fly up to Scotland to meet some friends for a few days’ golf so I’m languishing here alone. Shall we go out, or how about a take away?’
‘I’d rather eat in if you don’t mind. I’ve got plenty of stuff in the freezer; I’ll take something out and we can have a drink while it’s defrosting. It so happens I was going to call you anyway. There’s something I want to talk to you about.’
‘With you in no time.’
He arrived within five minutes. His first words, when he was free to speak, were ‘Are you very hungry?’ He nuzzled her ear. ‘How about defrosting whatever it is on the lowest, slowest setting?’
‘Not all that hungry,’ she whispered. ‘The defrosting can wait.’
An hour or so later, when they were in the kitchen with a glass of wine while a casserole defrosted in the microwave, he said, ‘You said you wanted to talk to me about something.’
‘I want to run an idea past you.’
He was instantly alert. ‘Something tells me you need my help on the Dallington Manor murders. Ah, I see I’m right,’ he added, noticing her raised eyebrows. ‘It’s been obvious for days that your enquiries have run into the sand. DI Rathbone’s pet suspect hasn’t been charged yet and the body count is rising. What do you want me to do? My investigative skills are at your disposal.’
‘Harry, you’re absolutely right, we’re getting nowhere. The PM result has only confirmed what we already knew and potential witnesses are dying off like flies. All DI Rathbone can think of is looking for more evidence against Freeman, but the more Vicky and I ferret around, the more I’m convinced that he didn’t kill Lance Rainbird or either of the others. Harry, you will swear to treat what I’m going to ask you to do – and anything you manage to dig up – as completely off the record until I give you the go ahead to tell your editor.’
‘You know you can trust me,’ he said, putting a hand over hers. ‘What do you have in mind?’
‘You mentioned a few days ago that you’d be covering the trial of the six people who’ve been accused of running a cannabis farm in a Gloucestershire village.’
‘That’s right – the case against them opens tomorrow. It’ll probably last for days and my boss has decided it’ll be cheaper for me to stay in a B and B during the week rather than drive to town and back each day and charge mileage. But I don’t understand your interest – surely you don’t think Rainbird’s killer is somehow mixed up in the cannabis farm case?’
‘No, of course I don’t. It’s just that I was wondering if while you’re in town you could find time to do a spot of research for me.’
‘What kind of research?’
‘We know very little about Rainbird’s background. He wasn’t exactly a social animal; something of a loner in fact, and it’s been suspected that he had some kind of personality disorder although another suggestion is that he had some traumatic experience as a child. We do know that he was what someone described as “a devout atheist” who’d been accused of blasphemy by one of his colleagues, who’s a committed Christian. What we – Vicky and I – found particularly interesting is that one of his female colleagues describes him as “sexy in an odd sort of way”, and one or two witnesses mentioned that he had what one of them described as a “mellifluous” speaking voice.’
‘You’re wondering if he had a love life and you want me to do a little poking around for you. I take it he lived in London?’
‘Yes, in Richmond. He owned quite a large house there; it was pretty run down and he managed to get a bank loan and have it renovated and divided into flats. He lived in one of them and the rest are let.’
‘That suggests he was quite well off,’ said Harry. ‘You mentioned colleagues, so I presume he had a full-time job as well?’
‘He worked for a very well known firm of accountants. He’d been with them for five years and one of the partners, it seems, took him under his wing and acted as his financial adviser.’
‘What’s the name of the firm?’
‘I don’t think you need to know that,’ said Sukey. ‘We’ve visited their head office and spoken to the people who knew him. As far as DI Rathbone is concerned there’s nothing further to be gained from any further enquiries there and I don’t think for a moment that he’d authorize another trip to London to probe into Rainbird’s social life. All he’s interested in is getting evidence to support his case against Justin Freeman.’
‘Who, I take it, you don’t think is the killer?’
‘No I don’t, but it seems obvious I’m the only one who believes his version of events.’
‘Which is?’
‘Sorry, you don’t need to know that either.’
‘You’re not giving me much to go on,’ Harry grumbled. ‘I take it I can claim expenses if I undertake your commission?’ he added.
She punched his arm and then gave him a kiss on the cheek. ‘I’ll pay you in kind,’ she whispered. ‘Will you do it? It might lead to the biggest scoop of your career.’
‘With such an inducement, how could I refuse?’
‘You’re a star.’
‘I’m a very hungry star,’ he complained. Surely that casserole must be ready by now.’
She jumped to her feet. ‘Of course – I was forgetting. Give me a few minutes to cook the vegetables.’
There was very little conversation over the meal. When they had finished, Harry said, ‘Are you working next weekend?’
‘No, it’s my weekend off. Why?’
‘Come to London and spend it with me. We can do some sleuthing together – when we’re not otherwise engaged.’
SEVENTEEN
On Thursday morning Rathbone, together with DS Vicky Armstrong and DCs Sukey Reynolds, Mike Haskins and Tim Pringle, were summoned to DCI Leach’s office.
‘No prizes for guessing what this is about,’ Leach began when they were all assembled. ‘Dallington Manor; we seem to be getting nowhere with this case so treat this as a brainstorming session. I’ve received all your reports; I know they’ve been circulated round the team and I hope you’ve got all the details at your fingertips, but just to bring everyone up to speed I’ll run over the story so far. Come in and sit down everyone,’ he added with a touch of impatience as the group stood in a clu
ster just inside the door.
When they were all settled, Leach resumed. ‘I spent most of yesterday reading and rereading your reports,’ he began. ‘Nothing jumped out at me, but it’s obvious we’re missing something. Of the three deaths that occurred over the weekend, only one – that of the young waiter Reg Law – was unmistakably murder. We suspect that Lance Rainbird’s death was not an accident, but the PM didn’t throw up anything to either confirm or kill off our suspicions and our enquiries seem to have run into the sand. As to the fatal accident to John Grayson’s van; it’s been established that it was caused by the brakes failing on a particularly dangerous stretch of road because the pipe carrying the brake fluid had become detached, but we don’t know if it came adrift by accident or was due to sabotage. Is everyone with me so far?’
There was a general nodding of heads and replies of ‘Yes, sir.’
‘We have established that Justin Freeman does not in fact possess the qualifications – namely degrees from certain American universities – that he claims on his prospectus. He eventually admitted under questioning that Lance Rainbird, who we know had an Open University degree in music in addition to his Oxford degree in maths, had discovered this fact and tackled him about it. It was put to him that Rainbird threatened to expose him as a fraud unless he paid substantial sums of money to keep quiet and that he killed him rather than submit to blackmail. He strongly denied the accusation but admitted that Rainbird had demanded, at a pre-arranged meeting in the hotel grounds, that he remove the bogus degrees from his prospectus and he’d agreed to do that. He also admitted that Rainbird wanted something else in return but he refused at first to say what it was. Eventually, under further pressure from DI Rathbone, he offered what was obviously a hastily thought-up story to account for the fact that Rainbird had requested a clandestine meeting.
‘We later learned that Rainbird had very strong views about religion which caused conflict between him and a colleague. Vicky and Sukey followed up this aspect of his character and uncovered the fact that he and John Grayson’s brother Luke were colleagues and that it was with Luke Grayson that Rainbird had some very heated arguments. It became evident that Grayson had been less than frank during earlier interviews so Vicky and Sukey made an appointment to see him at his office. Acting on one of Sukey’s famous hunches –’ a brief smile flitted over Leach’s features and he gave a sidelong glance in Sukey’s direction – ‘she and Vicky called in to see Freeman on their way to interview Luke Grayson. What Freeman said in response to their questions added very little to what we already knew about Rainbird, but since that visit Sukey has experienced further doubts about Freeman’s guilt. Would you like to add anything to that, Sukey?’
‘Not really sir, except to say that I was probably the only person to give some credence to Freeman’s story when he first told it, although I didn’t mention my doubts about his guilt to DI Rathbone at the time. My son did a degree in Business Studies; from time to time we discussed various topics covered by his course and one of them was taxation. I’m not claiming to be an expert, but it did seem to me that Freeman’s account was at least feasible. And when we visited him at his home his manner was very frank and open; he didn’t exactly apologize for his outbursts during his interviews but he did say he understood why he was a suspect while insisting that he had nothing to do with Rainbird’s death.’
‘So,’ Leach resumed, ‘the question is: where do we look that we haven’t looked before?’ He got up, indicated a flip chart standing beside his desk and picked up a marker. ‘Right, everyone – let me have some ideas. Yes, Mike?’ he said as DC Haskins raised a hand.
‘Well, sir, we interviewed all the staff at Dallington Manor after Rainbird’s death and questioned them about their movements at the crucial time. We also asked if any of them witnessed anything suspicious or that could in any way help to establish how he came to be in the water. As you know from our reports, sir, we didn’t turn up anything helpful there. However, speaking for myself, I didn’t ask any of them specifically if they had observed anything of particular interest about Rainbird’s relationship with any of the guests and none of them mentioned anything of that nature worth pursuing. Once they’d given satisfactory accounts of their movements we eliminated them from our enquiries. We know that at least one of the waiters – Mal Carter – has worked at the hotel long enough to be there during several of Freeman’s previous events. There may be others; do you think it’s worth having another talk to them?’
Leach turned to Rathbone. ‘What do you think, Greg?’
‘I think it’s a good point, sir. In fact, Vicky and Sukey have already put further questions to Carter.’
‘Yes, I have their reports, but it appears they were focusing on relationships between the attendees at Freeman’s party.’
‘That’s correct, sir.’
‘I agree; the point Mike makes is an interesting one,’ said Leach. ‘I think it might be worth pursuing. Right, any more ideas?’ He glanced round and DC Pringle raised a hand. ‘Yes, Tim?’
‘Well, sir, I see that Vicky – DS Armstrong – mentions in her report a comment by one of Rainbird’s female colleagues that he was “quite sexy in an odd sort of way” and suggested he might enjoy “a bit of nookie”. I was wondering whether it might be worth enquiring among his neighbours to try and find out whether any of them have noticed any regular female visitors, especially one wearing a wedding ring.’
Leach raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you suggesting that he might have had some sort of liaison with a married woman and that her husband found out about it and pursued Rainbird to Dallington Manor with the intention of murdering him?’
‘I know it does sound a bit far-fetched, sir,’ Pringle admitted. ‘I just thought a bit of house-to-house near his home might throw up some detail of his private life that could possibly give us a lead.’
‘It’s true we know virtually nothing about his private life,’ said Leach, ‘and whereas I’m not sure there’s much mileage in Tim’s initial suggestion, we haven’t paid a visit to his home which, as you know, is in London. We asked the local police to ask if anyone had noticed any suspicious characters hanging around the house but nothing of any interest emerged. I think perhaps we should have a look in his flat to see if there’s anything that might, as Tim suggests, give us a lead. Yes, Sukey?’ he added as she raised a hand.
‘It had occurred to me that Rainbird’s private life might bear investigation, sir. It so happens that I’m not on duty this weekend and a friend has invited me to London. I’d be willing to give up some time during my visit to call at Rainbird’s address if you think it worth while.’
‘That sounds a handy arrangement,’ said Leach. ‘You’ll have to clear it with the local police, of course. I presume there were keys among Rainbird’s possessions, Greg?’
‘Oh yes, sir – house keys and car keys. The hotel manager wants to know when his car can be removed and I’ve told him we’re waiting to make arrangements with his solicitor, a Mr Horace Nielson, who will come and collect it, together with his personal effects. Rainbird’s friend Mr Ashman kindly put us in touch with him; as you all know, it was through him that we learned of the connection with Luke Grayson.’
‘Excuse me, sir,’ said Haskins. ‘Do we know who stood to benefit from Lance Rainbird’s death?’
‘I understand from Mr Nielson that he’s left his entire estate to be divided between several well-known charities, so even if he was murdered – and don’t let us lose sight of the fact that we’re still not a hundred per cent sure – it wasn’t for his money. Right, we’ve turned up a couple of new avenues to explore. Any other ideas?’
‘Going back to the possibility that women found Rainbird attractive, sir,’ said Vicky, ‘one or two of the people in Freeman’s party hinted at the same thing. We already have all their names and addresses, but no phone numbers. We could easily get them from directory enquiries, of course, but as Freeman has expressed his willingness to cooperate we could ask him for
them, explaining that we want to ask the same sort of questions Mike has suggested putting to the hotel staff. I’m thinking particularly of the lady in the wheelchair, Charlotte. She gave the impression of being very observant; she was positive that Rainbird had something on his mind because he was unusually quiet over dinner. She was equally certain that he was murdered, but she wasn’t able to add to anything we already knew about people’s movements.’
‘Yes, that’s worth pursuing as well,’ said Leach. ‘It’ll be interesting to hear how Freeman reacts to the request; if he makes excuses about confidentiality it might indicate he’s not anxious for us to question them further.’ Throughout the discussion he had been making notes on a pad and he pressed the intercom. His PA came in and he tore off some sheets and handed them to her. ‘Run me off half a dozen copies of those right away, please.’
‘Certainly, sir.’
‘Right, I think that session has been worthwhile,’ he said as she went out of the room. ‘So, take your team back to the office, Greg, go through those notes, come back to me if anyone has anything further to add, otherwise allocate the tasks and tell them to get on with them. You can issue a statement to the press telling them we’re now treating the death of Lance Rainbird as murder; I’ll attend tomorrow’s briefing and take questions. Meanwhile, I’ll report to the Superintendent.’
As they left DCI Leach’s office Rathbone said, ‘If anyone wants coffee they can get it from the machine and bring it to my office in fifteen minutes.’
‘It’s OK for him; he makes filtered coffee in his own fancy machine,’ Vicky muttered in Sukey’s ear as Rathbone headed for his office. ‘No instant stuff in a plastic cup for Sir.’
As the team clustered round the drinks machine in the CID office, Mike Haskins said, ‘Any idea how he’s going to play this, Sarge?’
‘My guess is he’ll allocate the new lines of enquiry to those of us who suggested them,’ said Vicky. ‘With the exception of Tim’s idea, which Sukey seems to have bagged. You never mentioned you were off on a jolly to London this weekend,’ she added. Her tone invited further information and Sukey was aware of curious glances from the others, but she ignored them.
The Scent of Death--A Sukey Reyholds British police procedural Page 15