At Your Door

by J. P. Carter

  She typed in Anna Tate’s name and sure enough, up popped news stories spanning the last ten years. Each headline made Sophie’s heart jump.

  Husband of London detective abducts their baby

  Distraught mother appeals for husband to bring back their daughter

  Girl, two, victim of parental abduction

  Heartbroken mum steps up search for her stolen child

  Police officer sets up Facebook page in desperate bid to find missing daughter

  Sophie checked out the FindChloe Facebook page. It had thousands of followers and there were a dozen or so photos of baby Chloe and her father, including an age progression image of each of them. It alarmed Sophie that they were both so accurate.

  She then came across various stories relating to Tate’s exploits as a police officer. Sophie now remembered that she had seen her on the TV news just a couple of weeks ago after those nine children were kidnapped from a London nursery school.

  Detective Tate had fronted a press conference and given several interviews and …

  A flash of memory took Sophie’s breath away suddenly. She pictured herself and Alice on the sofa in the living room. They were idly watching an early evening news bulletin on the BBC when the nursery story grabbed their attention. During it Detective Tate appeared before the cameras and made an emotional appeal to the kidnappers to free the children.

  It had prompted Alice to say, ‘That’s so horrible, Mummy. I do hope that lady finds them and that they haven’t been hurt.’

  The flashback made Sophie feel sick. Alice had actually laid eyes on her real mother. The shock of it rammed home to her the awful dilemma she now faced.

  Did she bring an end to Anna Tate’s ten-year-long nightmare and accept that it would mean losing Alice?

  Or did she seek to preserve the life they had and the love they shared by taking steps to avoid being found out?

  It was a decision she didn’t want to make, but knew she would have to.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  It was a full house for the seven o’clock briefing. There were detectives, civilian support staff, cyber technicians, forensics officers and a couple of reps from the Media Liaison Department whose job it would be to construct a strategy for dealing with the press and TV news operations.

  The discovery of a woman’s body on Barnes Common dominated online news outlets and had made it onto the front pages of the morning papers.

  Now that Holly’s name was known the story had really taken off and was dominating the breakfast TV shows, even though she hadn’t been formally identified. It was no surprise to Anna, though. Holly was a pretty young model who happened to be the only daughter of Rebecca Blake, distinguished London politician and a former senior officer in the Met Police.

  Anna knew that it was only a matter of time before Nathan Wolf, MP, was drawn into it. So far the editor of the Sunday Mirror had kept that bombshell connection close to his chest.

  Anna had already been in the office for a couple of hours. She was dog-tired but pretty sure that she’d be feeling a whole lot worse if she hadn’t popped home for a shower and change of clothes.

  She had spent the time preparing for the briefing by typing up summaries of the interviews they had conducted with Rebecca and Theo Blake and Nathan Wolf. She’d also pulled together her notes on what Holly’s landlord had told them about Ross Moore.

  Anna had kicked off the meeting by reminding everyone how sensitive this case was and issuing a stark warning that she wouldn’t tolerate leaks.

  ‘I don’t want any of you talking to the media unless you’ve cleared it with me or the press office,’ she said. ‘If you’re tempted to, then just pause to think through the consequences. If I found out then you’d be looking for other jobs.’

  She announced that a search team had moved onto Barnes Common at first light. At the same time officers were pulling in CCTV footage from roads close to the common, plus various other locations including Holly’s flat and Nathan Wolf’s house.

  ‘At the moment both her ex-boyfriend Ross Moore and Nathan Wolf are in the frame. But Holly’s stepfather Theo Blake is also at this early stage a person of interest to us for two reasons. He went looking for Holly after she stormed out of their house and claims he didn’t find her so went to the pub. And Wolf alleges that Holly hated Theo because he once tried it on with her.

  ‘It means we already have three potential suspects, although Wolf is at the top of the list given that Holly had set out to destroy him. And we know he threatened her because the neighbour heard him and he’s admitted it. However, Ross Moore has to be close second since the landlord thinks he saw him loitering outside Holly’s building on Tuesday evening. I gather we’re still trying to find out his current address.’

  Anna was standing between two whiteboards. One contained photographs of Holly and the crime scene. On the other were photos of Nathan Wolf and a large map with black markers indicating Barnes Common, Holly’s flat in Camden, her mother’s home in Pimlico and Wolf’s house in Kensington.

  Anna ran through what they’d learned about Holly’s movements from her parents and landlord. She then referred to the briefing note she had circulated on the interview with Wolf.

  ‘Wolf claims he spent Tuesday in Somerset and then drove back to London in the evening, arriving home about midnight,’ she said. ‘It means he doesn’t really have a foolproof alibi, assuming Holly was killed that evening. So we need to trawl as many CCTV and ANPR cameras as we can. He reckons traffic was heavy on the M4 so start there.’

  Anna invited the team to provide her with updates. First up was one of the techies from the cyber unit who said they had managed to gain access to the laptop and tablet found in Holly’s flat. They had started to sift through the documents and history, along with her social media accounts.

  DS Prescott said he was going through the personal belongings taken from the flat. Bank statements confirmed that she’d been receiving a monthly payment from Nathan Wolf of £2500 – enough to cover the rent and leave her with a thousand pounds to spend on other things.

  ‘Her income from modelling wasn’t regular,’ Prescott said. ‘Without Wolf’s money she would have struggled to get by. She had no savings, but expensive taste in clothes and champagne.’

  ‘No wonder she was prepared to let him rough her up,’ someone said.

  But Walker shook his head. ‘I got the impression that for most of the time it was the other way round. He likes to be the submissive and enjoys being spanked and poked and humiliated. And you can bet that’s what Holly was going to say to the Mirror.’

  Anna told the team that a post-mortem would be performed on the body later in the morning.

  ‘The pathologist will get to work after her mother has formally identified her,’ she said. ‘I’ve just made the arrangement with the FLO who’s with Rebecca Blake. Max and I will be going to her house after this to ask a few more questions and then we’ll take her and her husband to the mortuary.’

  Anna paused the meeting to take a call from the Commissioner, who had decided to bypass DCS Nash.

  ‘I thought you ought to know that the Home Secretary has been on the blower to me,’ he said. ‘Nathan Wolf woke him by phone in the early hours.’

  ‘I suspected he might, sir,’ Anna said. ‘He told me they were pals.’

  ‘Well, I’ll be surprised if that friendship lasts beyond today. Wolf confessed to his affair with Holly Blake and tried to play it down. However, he told the Home Sec to expect some nasty stuff to come out in the papers. But he emphatically denied killing her.’

  ‘Well, that’s hardly a surprise, sir.’

  ‘DCS Nash told me about the threat he made and about the kinky stuff you found in the girl’s flat. Do you think he’s guilty?’

  ‘There’s a good chance he is, sir, but we haven’t got enough to bring charges. We’re still checking his alibi. He had a strong motive, though. Holly had made it clear that she wanted to ruin him because he’d ended their relati
onship.’

  ‘I think she might have succeeded in that respect,’ the Commissioner said. ‘The Government, and by extension his party, will want to distance themselves from this. And the Opposition will try to turn it into a full-blown scandal, which, from what I already know, won’t be difficult.’

  ‘Did he say anything else to the Home Secretary?’ Anna asked.

  ‘He did make a point of saying that he’s going to lodge a formal complaint against you. He claims you turned up at his house to break the news about Holly and then proceeded to accuse him of murder. When he told you he had nothing to do with it you threatened to take him into custody. He described your actions as aggressive and unprofessional.’

  ‘I can assure you that we didn’t—’

  ‘Save it, Detective Tate. I don’t for a second believe that there’s any substance to his allegations. He’s just trying to salvage some dignity whilst putting building blocks in place for his defence.’

  ‘I’ve applied for a warrant to search his homes here and in Somerset,’ Anna said. ‘Will there be a problem with that?’

  ‘There shouldn’t be in view of the salacious revelations about his private life. I’ll see if I can fast-track it.’

  ‘Thank you, sir.’

  ‘Meanwhile, keep me informed. And be circumspect about what you release to the media. I don’t want Rebecca Blake to suffer any more than she is.’

  Anna resumed the briefing, which lasted for another thirty minutes. She was about to wrap it up when she was told that the editor of the Sunday Mirror had sent over the audio recording of part of the initial conversation the paper had with Holly Blake.

  The recording arrived on a flash drive that Anna plugged into one of the computers, and the whole team gathered round to listen to it.

  In a note that came with it the Sunday Mirror editor explained that they hadn’t recorded the whole conversation, only a short Q and A session that was forwarded to the paper’s lawyers in order to alert them to what was to come.

  The person asking the questions identified himself as feature writer Dan Resnick, and he began by asking Holly to provide her full name and address for the tape.

  She spoke in a low, clear voice that made her words sound as though they had been rehearsed.

  Resnick: ‘Thank you, Holly. Now can you briefly explain why you are here today?’

  Holly: ‘I have a story to tell about the MP Nathan Wolf and I want you to publish it.’

  Resnick: ‘What is your relationship to Mr Wolf?’

  Holly: ‘We’ve been having sex on a regular basis for the past year or so and it began when his wife was alive. It took place at my flat, which he pays for.’

  Resnick: ‘Is it conventional sex that you have?’

  Holly: ‘No. He prefers S and M and he likes to be slapped and beaten. He also enjoys hurting me and has even gone to the trouble of creating a torture chamber in my flat.’

  Resnick: ‘Can you prove that you’re not making this up?’

  Holly: ‘Of course. I can provide documents and text messages. And I have photographs of the torture room.’

  Resnick: ‘So why are you doing this, Holly? You must know it will embarrass Mr Wolf and impact on his career as a politician.’

  Holly: ‘Because the bastard led me to believe that he loved me. I know now that he just used me and has entered into a relationship with another woman who knows nothing about me. He offered me money to go quietly, which shows what a scumbag he is.’

  Resnick: ‘Thank you, Holly. We will now make arrangements to do a full interview and carry this forward.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  The vultures had already started to gather outside Rebecca Blake’s mews house in Pimlico. There were five photographers, three reporters and a TV news crew from the BBC.

  Anna was pleased to see two uniformed officers standing either side of the front door. But their presence was unlikely to stop the hacks and snappers from making a nuisance of themselves.

  Anna and Walker pushed through the media scrum, ignoring the questions that were thrown at them. They flashed their IDs at the uniforms and rang the bell.

  A man Anna didn’t recognise answered the door. He was forty-odd with cropped, iron-grey hair and a muscular frame beneath a checked shirt that was tucked into his trousers.

  After Anna introduced herself, he told her his name was Robert Gregory.

  ‘I’m Rebecca’s brother-in-law,’ he said. ‘My wife Freya and I came over last night. This is so shocking. I can’t believe it’s happened. Have you arrested that bastard Nathan Wolf?’

  ‘We have spoken to him, Mr Gregory, but right now we’d like to come in and speak to Rebecca and her husband. And as you probably know we’ve made arrangements to take them to the mortuary for a formal identification.’

  ‘They’re both smoking in the back garden with Freya and the Family Liaison Officer,’ he said, stepping aside. ‘Rebecca is in a terrible state. She’s told us what Holly said about Wolf. He’s obviously the one who did it to her.’

  ‘Well, that’s still to be determined, sir,’ Anna said. ‘But please be assured we’re doing all we can to find out exactly what happened.’

  Before he could respond, Anna walked past him and strode along the hall to the living room. From there she saw the group gathered outside on the patio.

  Rebecca and Theo were sitting on a rattan sofa and another woman she assumed was Freya Gregory was sitting opposite them on a matching chair. She was short and plump with straight blonde hair. She was wearing jeans and a tight yellow top, and she bore little resemblance to her sister. She’d clearly been crying and dark shadows hung beneath her eyes.

  Standing to one side of them was the familiar figure of Sue Bond, the FLO, whom Anna knew quite well. She appeared to be the only one not smoking.

  Robert crossed the room, pulled open the patio door, and said, ‘Detective Tate and her colleague have arrived.’

  The three smokers stood up, outed their fags in an ashtray on the table and stepped inside.

  Officer Bond followed them and Anna acknowledged her with a nod, pleased that someone with so much experience had been assigned to the couple.

  Rebecca looked dreadful. She wasn’t wearing any make-up, and the skin around her eyes was red and puffy. She clutched a hanky in one hand and held onto her husband’s arm with the other.

  As the couple sat down, Officer Bond gestured towards the blonde woman who remained standing and explained to Anna that Freya was Rebecca’s sister.

  ‘Hello, Mrs Gregory,’ Anna said. ‘I’m sorry we’re having to meet in these circumstances.’

  ‘I was Holly’s only aunt,’ Freya said, her voice low and quivering. ‘I loved that girl and I can’t imagine never seeing her again. None of us can.’

  Her husband put his arm around her but kept his eyes on Anna.

  ‘What I don’t understand is why that bastard Nathan Wolf hasn’t been arrested yet,’ he said. ‘What the hell are you lot waiting for? The man’s obviously guilty.’

  ‘It’s not as simple as that, Mr Gregory,’ she replied. ‘As I explained to you outside we have spoken to him but he strenuously denies killing your niece. He’s provided us with an alibi and we’re in the process of checking it out. It’s one of several lines of enquiry.’

  He was about to say something else but Rebecca got there first.

  ‘I want you to tell us what he said to you, Detective Tate. And don’t you dare feed me the line that it’s something you can’t discuss because the investigation is ongoing.’

  Anna sat down in a chair, took out her notebook and rested it on her knee.

  ‘It’s only fair to warn you that what you are about to hear will in no way ease your suffering,’ she said. ‘But you need to hear it because certain things will appear in the papers in the days ahead that will make for uncomfortable reading.’

  ‘Just get on with it,’ Theo said. ‘Nothing could be worse than what’s already happened to our daughter.’

&
nbsp; Anna began by telling them what they had discovered in Holly’s flat, including a description of the S and M playroom.

  They all reacted with total shock, and Theo said that Holly hadn’t mentioned any of that when she’d spoken to them about her relationship with Wolf.

  ‘Your daughter told the Sunday Mirror about it,’ Anna said. ‘They have her on tape making it clear that she was determined not to hold anything back.’

  Theo shook his head. ‘I can’t imagine Holly doing that stuff. Wolf must have forced her into it. There can be no other explanation.’

  Rebecca just stared into the middle distance, as though in a trance, while the tears boiled over in her sister’s eyes.

  Anna went on to say that Wolf had also been trying to contact Holly, but she stopped short of revealing the heated conversation between the pair that was overheard by the neighbour.

  ‘He claims he was in his Somerset constituency during the day on Tuesday,’ Anna said. ‘In the evening he drove back home.’

  ‘So how do you know he didn’t drop in on Holly or meet her somewhere?’ Robert shouted.

  ‘We’re looking into it, Mr Gregory. What we do know for certain is that after Holly left here she did indeed go home, but it took her an hour and a half to get there and she arrived about ten-thirty.’

  ‘Well, that explains why I missed her,’ Theo said. ‘I got to her flat at ten and left at quarter past.’

  Anna nodded, but she still wasn’t entirely convinced he was telling the truth.

  ‘Her landlord saw her go out again just before eleven,’ she said. ‘He told us he watched her walk off along the street. She was alone but he didn’t know where she was going.’

  Again, Anna decided it was best not to disclose the fact that the landlord thought he’d spotted the ex-boyfriend in the street earlier in the evening.

  ‘So how do you know she didn’t go straight to Wolf’s house?’ Robert said. ‘Or that she didn’t get into his car where he killed her?’

  ‘We’ll be exploring every possible scenario,’ Anna said. ‘And we’ll be talking to everyone who had links with Holly. That includes her friends, colleagues in the modelling world and, of course, her ex-boyfriend.’