At Your Door

by J. P. Carter

  ‘You do not have to say anything,’ she said. ‘But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’

  ‘I want to call my lawyer,’ he said.

  Anna nodded. ‘I’ll let you do that on the way to the station. But is there anything you would like to get off your chest before we go?’

  He thought for a moment and said, ‘No comment.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  ‘My client is in no fit state to be interviewed this evening. That should be strikingly obvious to you, Detective Tate.’

  So said Nathan Wolf’s lawyer, a sharp-suited man named Gavin Peake who turned up at headquarters soon after Anna arrived back with the MP.

  ‘I actually agree with you, Mr Peake,’ she said. ‘It’s why I’ve arranged for him to see the on-call doctor. Mr Wolf is clearly in a state of high anxiety. We believe he had a panic attack which has left him confused and somewhat disoriented.’

  ‘So can I assume that after he’s seen the doctor he can return home?’ Peake said. ‘He will of course undertake to report back here tomorrow so he can be interviewed then.’

  ‘You know that won’t be possible,’ Anna said. ‘Your client is suspected of murdering the young woman he was having an affair with. He will have to remain in custody until we’re able to question him, and I’m hoping that will be first thing in the morning. It’ll give you plenty of time to talk to him.’

  ‘Well, if that’s your position I would like to know what evidence you have against Mr Wolf other than the fact that he was in a relationship with the victim.’

  Anna pursed her lips. ‘For one thing he threatened Holly when he went to her flat. He told her she would regret it if she sold the story of their time together to the Sunday Mirror. Then, less than an hour ago, during the search of his house, we found Holly Blake’s driving licence in the pocket of one of his coats. There are specks of what appear to be blood on it so it’s been sent for forensic analysis.’

  The lawyer’s face twisted into a frown and Anna could almost see the questions swirling around inside his head.

  She herself had no problem with delaying the interview. It gave the SOCOs time to come up with further evidence from the search of Wolf’s home in Kensington. At the same time Devon police had just gained access to his property in Somerset and his Land Rover would shortly be subjected to a thorough examination by experts. Plus, she was hoping that by morning she would know if the stains on Holly’s driving licence were actually her blood.

  Among the questions for Wolf would be: did he mean to keep the licence or did he forget that he put it into his pocket after he stripped her and dumped her body on the common?

  Anna and the lawyer had been speaking in her glorified pigeonhole of an office while his client was being processed through the custody suite. But at this stage there was only so much they could say to each other so she was glad when the call came that Wolf was ready to see his brief.

  Before leaving the office, Peake told Anna that he had applied for an injunction to stop the Sunday Mirror from publishing the story about Holly and Wolf.

  ‘It’s the last thing he needs,’ Peake said. ‘And I believe it will be grossly unfair to him and to Holly’s family.’

  But Anna didn’t think he had a hope in hell of stopping publication, not unless Wolf was charged with her murder before the paper went to press tonight, and that wasn’t going to happen.

  From her window she could see the media pack down below, gathered on the steps in front of the building.

  Anna had used the back entrance to bring Wolf in, but he’d been filmed and photographed getting into their car outside his house. Anna knew from checking her phone that those images of a member of the British Parliament being arrested had already set social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook on fire. It was big news and it fed into the public’s insatiable appetite for political scandals and crimes involving public figures, especially politicians.

  Wolf wasn’t the only person associated with the case who was currently in the building waiting for Anna to talk to them.

  Robert Gregory had been brought in an hour ago after being arrested at Rebecca Blake’s house in Pimlico.

  He had already admitted that he had punched Nathan Wolf and had been told that he was going to be charged with common assault. And he’d said to the officer who’d collared him that he did it because the man had murdered his niece.

  Anna knew that because of the extenuating circumstances, and the fact that Wolf wasn’t seriously hurt, he would likely receive just a fine. But she was in no mood to reassure him of that when she entered the soft interview suite. He had already been questioned by another detective and had made a statement, but Anna wanted to talk to him off the record before he was formally charged and granted bail.

  ‘What you did to Nathan Wolf was stupid and reckless, Mr Gregory,’ she said when she was seated opposite him.

  He nodded. ‘Maybe so, but I couldn’t help myself. And don’t bother telling me that he might not have killed her. We’re all convinced that he did and from what I hear so are you. And even if he didn’t he still deserves to suffer for making my niece his sex slave. And we all know that’s exactly what she was to him.’

  ‘That’s all beside the point, Mr Gregory. You can’t take the law into your own hands.’

  ‘You’re just repeating what the other detective told me,’ he said. ‘I know what I did was wrong in the eyes of the law, but I’m only sorry I didn’t land a few more punches before that woman turned up.’

  ‘Is that why you stopped hitting him, because of the woman?’

  ‘Of course. I had no idea who she was but I could see that she was shocked and upset so I walked out. It was that bastard I wanted to hurt. Nobody else.’

  ‘How did your sister-in-law react when you told her what you’d done?’

  ‘She thanked me. And so did Theo. They were in a real state when they got back from the mortuary and they were glad I’d done it.’

  ‘I take it you were close to your niece, Mr Gregory,’ she said.

  ‘We all were. She was a sweet girl and would frequently come over to see Freya and me. You see, we were never able to have children so my wife treated her like her own daughter rather than a niece. Holly would often tell her things she wouldn’t tell her parents.’

  ‘Such as?’

  His nostrils flared as tears gathered in his eyes.

  ‘When she went to university her plan was to become a teacher. But then she decided she wanted to be a model and it was Freya she sounded out before she dared mention it to her mum. My wife, who’s a teacher herself, told her she should follow her heart and that’s what she did. And she didn’t regret it. And it was Freya who told her that she should dump Ross Moore. He was a crap boyfriend and he made Holly unhappy, but she kept hoping he would change.’

  ‘What was his problem?’

  ‘He wasn’t good enough for her. He was lazy, dependent and possessive. A right scumbag.’

  ‘But Holly never confided in your wife about her relationship with Nathan Wolf?’

  He shook his head. ‘That’s why it came as such a shock when Rebecca told us the day after Holly broke the news to her and Theo. It’s hard to believe it was going on for so long and none of us knew.’

  ‘Why is that if you’re such a close-knit family?’

  He used his knuckle to wipe a tear that had escaped from his left eye.

  ‘I suppose because we were all wrapped up in our own lives,’ he said. ‘Holly was all over the place on modelling assignments. Rebecca was busy with her political career and campaign to become Mayor. Theo spent most of his time in court. And Freya and I had our jobs. We got together, of course, but not as often as we should have.’

  ‘Where do you work, Mr Gregory?’

  ‘I’m a partner in an estate agent’s based south of the Thames in Mortlake. I’ve been in the property business for fifteen years
.’

  Anna paused while Robert dabbed at his watery eyes with a hanky. Then she asked him how he and Freya got on with Rebecca’s husband. His reaction was not unexpected.

  ‘We get on fine with him,’ he said testily. ‘He’s a great bloke and was a good stepdad to Holly. As you heard from Rebecca, it took time for Holly to accept him, but she did eventually. It’s bloody obvious that Wolf is lying when he says that she told him she hated Theo. It’s a way of diverting attention away from himself. And you’d be mad to fall for it.’

  ‘So you don’t believe that Theo tried it on with her?’

  ‘She either imagined it or she …’ He stopped himself and shook his head.

  ‘She what, Mr Gregory?’

  He sighed. ‘I was going to say that she might well have made it up. At the time she was unhappy and angry so it’s something I’ve always suspected, but never mentioned to Rebecca.’

  ‘Have you asked Holly about it?’

  ‘Freya did once, but naturally Holly denied it. I was never convinced, though, because back then she was always slagging Theo off, and urging her mum to dump him. Things got out of hand one Christmas when the family got together and Holly had a pop at Theo. He reacted angrily and told her she was a liar. It was the first time I’d seen him fly off on one and they ended up having a fierce argument before she left in tears. After that things calmed down, though it was always obvious she held a grudge. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say she hated him.’

  By now he was struggling to keep the emotion out of his voice, and Anna sensed that he was on the verge of either breaking down or losing his temper. She didn’t want that to happen so she pushed her chair back and stood up.

  ‘There’s something you might as well know because you’ll find out as soon as you leave this building,’ she said. ‘We’ve arrested Nathan Wolf and he’ll be formally questioned in due course. We’re also in the process of searching his homes and examining his alibi for when we believe Holly was murdered. If he did kill your niece then I can assure you that we will find out.’

  He glared at her as fresh tears made tracks down his face.

  ‘And I can assure you, detective, that if he fools you into believing him then he’ll have me to answer to. Next time I get my hands on that pervert he won’t be walking away with a couple of bruises on his face.’

  Back in the office, Anna called DCS Nash with an update. He was at the Yard meeting the Commissioner and other senior Met officers.

  He had already been told by phone about Wolf’s arrest and had been given the salient details. In turn he had alerted the Media Liaison Department and the Home Office.

  When Anna got through to him she was put on speaker so that all those with him could hear what she had to say.

  Relief flooded through her when the Commissioner himself told her that she had made the right call in arresting Wolf. She explained why she wouldn’t be formally interviewing him until the morning and warned them to expect the hysteria around the story to grow after the Sunday Mirror hit the streets.

  ‘I’ve been told they’re running TV promotions this evening and the reporter and editor who spoke to Holly are being lined up to give interviews,’ Anna said.

  ‘The paper has approached the PM and Conservative Central Office for quotes,’ the Commissioner told her. ‘And we understand that Holly had sent them a photograph of the room in her flat where all the action took place. It just shows how determined she was to stitch Wolf up.’

  ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,’ Anna said.

  ‘Never a truer word spoken,’ the Commissioner replied.

  While Anna had been busy with Wolf’s lawyer and Robert Gregory, DI Walker had started briefing the team. He’d filled them in on the interview with Ross Moore and the search of Wolf’s house, including the discovery of Holly’s driving licence. He had also explained why the MP wasn’t going to be interviewed until Sunday morning.

  When Anna joined them he was telling everyone that the next twenty-four hours were going to be full on.

  ‘We’ll know if the forensics teams have found anything else important at Wolf’s two homes,’ he said. ‘We’ll also have the results back on what look like specks of blood on the driving licence, and we should know if there’s any forensic evidence in the MP’s Range Rover. If Wolf did kill Holly then it’s likely he would have taken her to Barnes Common in his boot.

  ‘And speaking of the common, the search there has now been called off. Nothing of interest was found but the area where the body was discovered remains sealed off.’

  Anna listened as Walker said that the SOCOs had found no evidence to indicate that Holly was murdered at any of the three properties being searched – her flat, her ex-boyfriend’s flat and Wolf’s Kensington home.

  ‘The only blood that’s turned up so far appears to be on the victim’s driving licence,’ he said. ‘It means we still don’t know the location of the crime scene and that inevitably makes our job much more difficult.’

  On the CCTV front many hours of footage had still to be viewed and they hadn’t yet been able to chart the movements of Holly, Wolf, Moore and Theo Blake on the night of the murder.

  The briefing ended after Anna told them about her chat with Robert Gregory and reminded them that the Sunday Mirror would be publishing Holly’s kiss-and-tell story the next morning.

  ‘It’s time for those of us who’ve been on duty all day and most of last night to go home and get some sleep,’ she said. ‘We need to be firing on all cylinders when we come in tomorrow. And don’t forget I’ll be attending a press conference first thing at the Yard. So I would like you lot to—’

  She was suddenly interrupted by DC Sweeny, who held up her mobile phone and said, ‘I need to stop you there, guv. There’s been another development. Ross Moore has just been rushed to hospital. It seems he went straight home from here and tried to kill himself.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Anxiety clawed at Sophie’s chest as she walked along Shoreditch High Street on her way to pick Alice up.

  It was early evening and some of the shops had already closed even though there were still plenty of people about.

  The feeling that she was being watched had returned with a vengeance. She found herself looking around to see if the man who had wrecked her life had managed to find her again and was aiming to cause her more harm.

  She didn’t see him among the scores of pedestrians who crowded the pavements on either side of the street. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t nearby, waiting to pounce, waiting to remind her that he hadn’t forgotten what she did to him.

  She pictured Bruno Perez in her mind with unwelcome clarity. Not as he was when they married fourteen years ago, but as he was when he crashed back into her life following his release from prison. His kind, handsome face had become hard and brutish, his thick black hair had all but disappeared, his wide green eyes were like tiny windows through which she could see into his dark, malevolent soul. And it wasn’t just his face that had suffered in the seven years he’d been behind bars. He’d gained weight and had an ugly scar below his left eye.

  If he appeared now she knew she would recognise him instantly, just as she had that day three years ago when she’d spotted him following her after she’d picked Alice up from school.

  Her breath caught in her throat as the memory snapped into place. She remembered how desperation had crashed over her like a wave, how she had grabbed Alice by the hand and told her she had to hurry up …

  Three years ago

  ‘But what’s wrong, Mum? Why are you acting funny?’

  ‘Please just do as you’re told, sweetheart. We need to find your dad.’

  If she had her mobile she would phone the police, but she left it in the bar with her handbag, not thinking she would need it.

  Thankfully it will only take about five minutes to get to the bar where James will be waiting. But every time she looks back over her shoulder she sees that Bruno is still there and closing the gap
between them.

  Lisa had told her over the phone a month ago that he’d been let out of prison having served his full sentence. Her friend had been given the news by a mutual acquaintance in the UK. The Spanish police hadn’t informed Sophie because they had no idea where she was. Sophie had hoped and prayed that he wouldn’t come looking for her, and that if he did decide to he would never trace her to Puerto de Mazarron.

  But she should have known that he would use all the resources at his disposal to seek her out and make her pay for refusing to provide him with that false alibi. The promise he made is never far from her thoughts.

  ‘You can run and hide, bitch, but wherever you go I’ll find you eventually. And so help me, I’m going to make you suffer big time for what you did.’

  Myriad questions are tearing through her mind as they approach the bar.

  What is she going to tell James?

  Will there be enough time to summon the police?

  Will Bruno really try to hurt her in a public place?

  How the hell did he track her down?

  The door to the bar is open and she pushes Alice through ahead of her. The place is empty except for an elderly couple in the booth by the window.

  And James.

  He’s clearing glasses from one of the tables, and when he sees her panicked expression he flinches.

  ‘You need to phone the police,’ she yells at him. ‘And don’t ask me why. Just do it.’

  But there’s no time because Bruno enters the bar at that moment. His smile has turned into an ugly smirk and it causes Sophie’s heart to take a leap.

  ‘Stay away from me,’ she shouts at him. ‘You shouldn’t be here.’

  He stops just inside the door and looks around to see who else is in the bar. His eyes rest on James, who’s frozen to the spot, a glass in each hand.

  ‘You must be the bloke she’s shacked up with,’ Bruno says, his voice as rough as sandpaper.

  A flash of anger crosses James’s face.