by J. P. Carter
She had clearly been hit hard by her niece’s murder, but Anna wondered if she was also feeling a weight of guilt on her shoulders for not having told her sister about Holly’s secret affair with Wolf. If she had then perhaps Rebecca might have persuaded Holly to end it ages ago and the girl wouldn’t now be lying dead in the mortuary.
They followed Freya into a spacious kitchen/diner where her husband was flipping through a selection of Sunday papers spread out on the breakfast bar.
He was so shocked to see them that his voice shuddered when he said, ‘What’s going on? Why are you here?’
‘Don’t panic, Mr Gregory,’ Anna said. ‘We just want a chat with you and your wife. I’m going to update you on where we are with the case and then ask you a few questions about Holly that will hopefully help us with the investigation.’
Anna chose to delay getting to the point of the visit so that she could find out a bit more about the couple first.
They moved into the living room and sat around a large rectangular glass coffee table.
The couple held hands and listened intently as Anna told them how the investigation was going.
‘Nathan Wolf is still in custody pending further enquiries,’ she said. ‘And I’m sure it won’t come as a huge surprise that he continues to deny killing Holly.’
‘But of course he bloody well did it,’ Robert said, and Anna could hear the impatience in his voice. ‘I can’t believe he didn’t make a mistake somewhere along the line. Have you searched his car and his house for clues?’
‘You know we have, Mr Gregory, and you also know that I’m not at liberty to go into details about what, if anything, we found.’
She had already decided not to mention the driving licence. That was something she intended to ask Holly’s mother about.
‘We’ve also interviewed Holly’s ex-boyfriend, Ross Moore,’ Anna went on. ‘He insists he’s not the killer.’
‘Is it true that he tried to kill himself?’ Freya asked.
Anna was surprised she knew. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘I heard it on the radio that he was rushed to hospital after a suspected overdose.’
‘I see. Well, I can’t discuss his condition with you or the circumstances surrounding his hospitalisation, as I’m sure you can appreciate.’
‘I’ll take that as confirmation that he did try to top himself then,’ Freya said. ‘But do you know that he threatened to do it before when Holly refused to take him back?’
‘We are aware of that, yes,’ Anna said. ‘Your husband told me earlier that you encouraged Holly to end the relationship with him.’
‘I did. He was out of her league and he knew it. He hated the fact that other men found her attractive. It made him jealous and possessive. And he was always smoking cannabis and we were worried that he’d get Holly hooked on it.’
‘Did your sister share your opinion of him?’
‘Not really, but only because it was me that Holly poured her heart out to. Rebecca didn’t take that much of an interest in Holly’s life. She’s always been totally absorbed in her own career, first as a police officer, then a politician. And since she decided to run for London Mayor everything else has taken a back seat. Unfortunately now that Holly is gone Rebecca bitterly regrets it. She told me yesterday that she’s consumed with guilt for not having been a better mother. She even confessed to resenting me for being there for Holly when she wasn’t. That really hurt.’
The woman was shaking with emotion now, so Robert put an arm around her shoulders.
‘I told you earlier that since we don’t have kids of our own Freya was like a second mother to Holly,’ he said. ‘We always thought it was something that Rebecca was happy with.’
Anna leaned forward, elbows on knees, and seized the opportunity that had presented itself.
‘I’d like to remind you of something else you told me earlier, Mr Gregory,’ she said. ‘I asked you if Holly had ever confided in your wife about her relationship with Wolf. You said she hadn’t and that the first you heard about it was when Rebecca told you, which was the day after Holly let her parents know that she was going to sell her story to the Sunday Mirror.’
Robert cocked his head to one side and frowned. ‘So what has that got to do with anything?’
‘Well, we’ve since discovered that it isn’t true.’ Anna fished out her phone as she switched her attention back to Freya. ‘On here I have an exchange of text messages between Holly and yourself, Mrs Gregory. Your niece starts it by referring to a conversation between the pair of you in which she’d apparently revealed that she was falling in love with Nathan Wolf. She pleaded with you not to tell her mother. You responded by promising to keep her secret.’
Freya’s face paled. ‘How did you …?’
‘We got access to Holly’s phone records,’ Anna said. ‘That exchange took place nine months ago.’
Her husband started to speak, but she held up a hand to stop him.
‘I’m solely to blame,’ she said. ‘Robert wanted to tell you but I wouldn’t let him. If my sister finds out that I was aware all this time of Holly’s affair she’ll never forgive me.’
‘So have you known about it from the start?’ Anna asked.
‘No. She told me after they’d been seeing each other for several months. She swore me to secrecy and I kept hoping it would fizzle out. But it didn’t, and the longer it went on the more I came to realise that I’d made a mistake in not letting Rebecca know.’
‘Was Holly frank with you about the nature of the affair?’ This from Walker, who had been the one taking notes.
Freya shook her head. ‘She told me nothing about the sex stuff. Only that Wolf was paying her rent and would often turn up unexpectedly. That was the excuse she gave for not inviting me or any of the family to the flat after the first few weeks. But I now suspect that it was really because she didn’t want anyone to see what was going on there.’
Walker then asked Robert when he learned about the affair.
‘About six months ago,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t happy about keeping schtum, but I was given no choice. And I’m really sorry that we didn’t tell you. I hope you can understand why.’
‘It will destroy my relationship with my sister if it comes out now,’ Freya said. ‘She’ll hold me responsible for Holly’s death and with good reason. If Rebecca had known about the affair she would have done her best to break it up and Wolf wouldn’t have gone on to kill her.’
‘We still can’t be sure that he did,’ Anna said.
‘You might have your doubts, detective, but we don’t.’ Freya could no longer hold back the tears and they ran down her face as she spoke in a voice that was frail and tremulous. ‘That man ruined our lives and we need each other to get through this. That’s why I’m begging you not to reveal what you know to my sister. It would break her heart and serve only to compound her suffering.’
‘I don’t intend to tell her,’ Anna said. ‘But I really can’t promise that it won’t come out during the course of the investigation.’
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
‘I was put in that same awkward position once myself,’ Walker said when they were back in the car and heading towards Pimlico. ‘I was out drinking with my brother one night when he let slip that he was having an affair. He made me promise on pain of death not to tell my wife or his. Keeping his secret for months was a nightmare, so I can sympathise with Freya Gregory.’
‘Did your brother get rumbled?’ Anna asked.
‘Eventually he did, and his wife divorced him. When my wife asked me if I’d known he was being unfaithful I lied and said I hadn’t. I felt ashamed of myself but it saved a lot of aggro.’
Anna knew what he meant, but it wasn’t Freya she felt sorry for. It was her sister, Rebecca. The poor woman’s only daughter had been murdered. Dealing with that was going to be painful enough. But there was now every chance that she would soon be reeling from two more devastating blows – her husband’s infidelity and her
sister’s long-held secret.
Anna swore to herself that she would do all she could to stop Rebecca from finding out about either, at least during the course of the investigation. But she knew it wouldn’t be easy, especially since she had no control over how events were going to unfold.
‘It’s funny how the secrets and lies within a family start to unravel when there’s a crisis or a tragedy,’ Walker said. ‘Since Holly Blake’s body was found we’ve learned that she was having an affair with an MP, that her father is cheating on her mother, and that her aunt turned a blind eye to a situation that resulted in her embarking on a course of action that might well have led to her death.’
‘That’s true enough,’ Anna said. ‘And I’m wondering now what other secrets are waiting to be unearthed, and if they’re in any way relevant to Holly’s murder.’
‘Well, one way to find out is to have a closer look at all the family,’ Walker said. ‘And that includes her parents.’
‘But you don’t seriously believe that they could have had anything to do with it?’
Walker took his eyes off the road to look at her. ‘I really think we need to consider every possibility, guv. For instance, what if Holly found out that her stepdad was playing away? Maybe she confronted him, and threatened to tell Rebecca. He might have flipped and taken extreme action to stop her blabbing. I know it sounds far-fetched, but most domestic murders are anger-related and not premeditated.’
Anna reached for her phone. ‘You’ve got a point, Max. I’ll get the team to do some digging. They can start by accessing the phone records and digital footprints of every member of the family.’
She called the office and this time it was DS Prescott who answered. She told him what she wanted done. He then told her that he had an update on Charlene Hamilton, the barmaid Theo Blake had been seeing.
‘She arrived home a short while ago and DC Flynn managed to have a word with her,’ he said. ‘She confirmed what we already know – that they’ve been having an affair behind his wife’s back. She also said that she wasn’t expecting to see him on Tuesday night. He phoned her just before ten and asked her if he could come over. He then turned up at the pub and they went back to her place.
‘But he was in a foul mood apparently and told her about the bombshell his stepdaughter had dropped. He then said he wouldn’t be able to see her for a while because of all the publicity Holly’s kiss-and-tell story would generate. She wasn’t happy and they had words. He then left in a huff.’
‘And what time was that?’ Anna asked.
‘According to Charlene it was about eleven.’
‘But by his own admission he didn’t arrive back home until after midnight. And when he got there his wife was in bed so for all we know it might have been much later.’
‘I suppose so, ma’am,’ Prescott said.
Anna hung up the phone and told Walker what Charlene Hamilton had said.
‘So there’s quite a gap between when he left his mistress and when he finally got home,’ Walker responded.
Anna nodded. ‘And we need to ask him where he went and what he did during that time.’
The media pack was still hounding Holly Blake’s parents, despite the appeal for them to let the couple grieve in peace.
The crowd of reporters, photographers and television crew members now numbered about thirty. A couple of uniformed officers were preventing them from entering the mews so they were gathered on either side of the main road, where they could see who entered and left the house.
Sue Bond, the FLO, was waiting at the front door to greet Anna and Walker. Once they were inside, she told them that Rebecca and Theo were still in a state of shock.
‘They’re both finding it really hard to cope,’ she said, her voice low so the couple wouldn’t hear. ‘They’ve stopped answering the phones and they’ve withdrawn into themselves. I’ve tried to persuade them to let me arrange for a doctor or a bereavement counsellor to visit, but they’re not interested.’
The couple were sitting on the sofa in the living room. The television was on and tuned to one of the rolling news channels, but neither of them seemed to be paying much attention to it.
Rebecca was in a dressing gown with her hair gathered up and pinned. She had no make-up on and her face was swollen with crying. The sight of her caused Anna to catch her breath, and a surge of sorrow rose within her.
Theo was wearing jeans and a black shirt that wasn’t tucked in. His face was firm, stoic, and when he saw the detectives he sat up straight and said, ‘We were told to expect you earlier than this.’
‘We had to make a stop on the way,’ Anna told him. ‘But we’re here now and if you don’t mind we’d like to bring you up to speed with the investigation and ask you a few questions.’
As Anna talked them through what had been happening she maintained a gentle, benevolent tone. They both leaned forward and hung onto her every word, but neither of them spoke. She explained that Nathan Wolf and Ross Moore were continuing to be questioned and told them that officers were sifting through hours of CCTV footage.
‘We still don’t know where your daughter was going when she left her flat,’ she said. ‘So can you possibly shed any light on it? Ross Moore is claiming that he saw her get into a taxi, but we haven’t yet established if it’s true.’
‘Well, isn’t that a question you should be asking Nathan Wolf?’ Rebecca said. ‘He either arranged to meet her somewhere or she went out to one of her usual late night haunts and he followed her, then at some point managed to get her into his car.’
‘What do you mean by late night haunts, Mrs Blake?’ Anna asked.
‘I mean the West End clubs she used to frequent. Holly suffered badly from insomnia. It was a big problem with her as a teenager and the doctors said it was a symptom of her depression. Quite often when she couldn’t sleep she would go clubbing. The fact that she didn’t have a nine-to-five job meant that she rarely had to worry about getting up early.’
‘Do you know which clubs she frequented?’ Anna said.
‘She gave me a few names over the years but I can’t remember them. And she didn’t like to talk about what she was getting up to because she knew I would disapprove.’
Anna and Walker exchanged a glance. This was a nugget of information about the victim’s lifestyle that they hadn’t been offered before now. It made the possibility that she’d been abducted and murdered by a stranger – perhaps a black cab driver – all the more credible.
While Anna was turning this thought over in her mind, Walker told the couple that one of Holly’s personal possessions had turned up.
‘It’s her driving licence,’ he said. ‘I can’t tell you where it was found, but I can tell you that it had traces of her blood on it.’
Rebecca gasped and put a hand over her mouth.
‘Do you happen to know where Holly kept her licence?’ Walker asked. ‘Was it in her bag, her purse, or did she keep it somewhere else?’
Rebecca looked at Theo, and Anna studied his reaction, but it told her nothing. He seemed as genuinely shocked and confused as she was.
‘As far as we know she kept everything in her purse,’ he said. ‘Credit cards, store cards, cash. And she still hired cars from time to time so I’m sure she would have carried her licence with her.’
Rebecca stiffened suddenly and gave Anna a hard look.
‘I want you to tell me where you found it,’ she said. ‘Was it in her flat or in someone’s car?’
‘You know I’m not able to say.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Detective Tate. Holly was my daughter, and I want to help you catch her killer.’
‘You need to leave that to us, Mrs Blake. I can assure you that we are doing everything we can.’
‘Leave it out, please. I used the same spiel myself on countless occasions during my time on the force. You can bend the rules when it suits you and if you won’t this time for me then I’ll go over your head.’
‘I would value your i
nput under any other circumstances, Mrs Blake,’ Anna said. ‘But as the mother of the victim there is no way I can involve you. It wouldn’t be right, and it certainly wouldn’t make things any easier for you and your husband.’
Rebecca opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. At the same time the fighting spirit that had briefly flickered in her eyes was blinked away and her face crumpled.
‘I’m really sorry,’ she sobbed. ‘I should know better. It’s just so frustrating not being able to do anything.’
‘That’s understandable,’ Anna said, and she could almost feel the woman’s pain.
Rebecca got to her feet, tightened the belt of her dressing gown. ‘Look, I need to go outside and have a cigarette. If you have more questions you can ask my husband.’
As Rebecca walked out of the room, Anna signalled for Sue Bond to go with her.
‘My wife is really struggling,’ Theo said as he shoved a hand through his hair.
‘I can see that,’ Anna said, while taking Rebecca’s place next to him on the sofa. ‘But I’m glad she’s left us alone because I think it best that she doesn’t hear what I’m about to ask you.’
Theo drew his eyebrows together and deep lines appeared on his forehead.
‘I’m listening,’ he said, his voice low but firm. ‘Ask away.’
Anna cleared her throat and said, ‘Will you please tell me where you really went on the night your stepdaughter was killed, Mr Blake?’
‘I’ve told you already. I got a taxi to her flat and because she wasn’t in I came back but stopped off at a pub on the way.’
‘So far so good, Mr Blake. But you didn’t stay in the pub, did you? You simply went there to meet Miss Charlene Hamilton, your mistress. Then together you walked to her place, and you only stayed for a short time before leaving there. So I want to know where you went then.’
Theo’s jaw dropped and his eyes suddenly widened. He looked from Anna to Walker and back again.
Then he slumped against the back of the sofa and said, ‘Shit. I was hoping you wouldn’t find out.’