by Joy Kluver
‘Beginning of September. It was a Wednesday evening. Harriet had gone to yoga. The girls were in bed. I came upstairs just as Rosa came out from the bathroom after having a shower. She had a towel wrapped round her. I apologised for seeing her like that but she just smiled. She went to her room and… smiled again. She left the door slightly open. I should have just gone to my bedroom to get the book I was planning on reading but instead I went to her door and pushed it open. She was completely naked, the towel was on the floor. I’m very ashamed of what I did… of what we did.’
‘Was that the only time?’
‘No. It happened about three more times, always on a Wednesday evening. Sometimes we’d shower together and have sex in the bathroom or in her room. Never mine and Harriet’s. Rosa, well, despite her age, she was very experienced. She did things that Harriet would never dream of doing.’ He wiped his face with his hand and sniffed. ‘I sound like a pervy old man, don’t I? Mid-life crisis maybe. Should have bought a Porsche.’
Yes. Bernie waited. She knew Fox wanted to say more.
‘Rosa suggested we film one of our sessions. I really wasn’t happy about that but she said she would delete it after we watched it back. And I saw her delete it. But there must have been another camera because a few days later, I received an email with an attachment. It was a video of us but filmed from a different angle. And there was a demand for money. I was going to have it out with her but it was the same day Harriet found her with another man in her room. And Harriet sent her packing immediately. When Harriet couldn’t find her rings, I guessed what had happened.’
‘And that’s why you didn’t mention Rosa’s name in the initial report and said the window was open.’
Fox nodded. ‘I couldn’t risk her sending the footage to Harriet. I thought it best to let her keep the rings as payment.’
‘Did you see or hear from Rosa again?’
‘No, nothing.’
‘And where were you last Thursday and Friday?’
‘At work during the day – Fox and Turner’s Surveyors. And at home at night. Harriet was there. And the girls.’
‘Do you still have the email containing the footage?’
‘No. I deleted it. Twice.’
‘What kind of email address do you have?’
‘Google.’
‘Did you delete it online as well?’
Fox stared at Bernie. ‘No. I didn’t think of that. I just got it off my laptop.’
‘Then we’re going to need your laptop and access to your email. It may be possible to retrieve it. We need to see if we can trace the address.’
He seemed to visibly shrink.
‘What else are we going to find on your laptop, Mr Fox?’
His eyes were down again. ‘It’s all adult stuff but… Harriet wouldn’t approve.’
‘OK, Rupert. We’re going to stop there for the moment. The time is seventeen twenty-five hours.’ Bernie pressed stop on the recorder. ‘If you can wait here for a few minutes, please. I’m going to send another officer in to stay with you. Would you like anything to drink?’
Fox shook his head.
‘So what do you think?’
Bernie and Kerry were sitting at Bernie’s desk, going over Kerry’s interview notes.
‘Gut reaction… he didn’t do it,’ said Kerry decisively. ‘He would have taken the rings back. However, until we see the footage from the email and what else is on his laptop, we can’t completely rule him out.’
Bernie nodded. ‘I agree, he wouldn’t have left the rings unless he was disturbed. That email is crucial and we’ll have to see if Harriet can provide an alibi, work colleagues too. And we need to get in contact with the au pair agency to get next-of-kin details. I guess the family will be in Italy.’
‘That’ll be right up Anderson’s street, being half-Italian,’ said Kerry. ‘I guess he can speak it fluently.’
‘He’ll probably ask to go over. Give the news in person,’ said Bernie. ‘To be fair, he may have to. If we can’t get a good enough sample from Rosa’s room, we’re going to need DNA from her parents.’ She shook her head. ‘What a mess.’
‘I hear you’ve brought someone in? Can I put this out to the press?’
Bernie turned round. Jane Clackett was standing in the doorway of the main room for MCIT.
‘You’ll need to check with DCI Worth about that. As you’ve said before, the press is “not my thing”,’ said Bernie.
‘Ouch! Did I really say that about you?’
Bernie raised her eyebrows by way of an answer.
‘I might have said it before we were friends,’ Jane conceded. ‘Where can I find the DCI?’
‘He stayed at the house to oversee Forensics.’
‘Really? That doesn’t sound like him.’
A thought flashed through Bernie’s mind. Jane was right. Worth never did anything himself if he could delegate it to a junior – he didn’t even drive himself, for God’s sake. Why had he been so keen to go to the house instead of Kerry?
‘No, it doesn’t, does it?’ she said.
She picked up her phone to call Matt. She’d sent him to Salisbury to help.
‘Hi, Matt. Are you at the house?’
‘Yes. I’ve just arrived.’
‘Can you tell DCI Worth to come back please? Tell him you’ve come to replace him and that we need Rupert Fox’s laptop.’
‘What? I can’t tell a senior officer that.’
‘Yes, you can. Tell him I sent you so that he can come back to headquarters. Decisions need to be made back here.’ Bernie paused. ‘And have a look to see which CSIs are at the house. If Lucy is there, discreetly ask her if Worth did any of the searching.’
She hung up before Matt could say anything else. ‘Kerry, we’re going back to Rupert Fox to ask a couple more questions, off the record. Jane, hold fire for the moment.’
Jane smoothed back her jet black bob and smiled. ‘You’re the boss. But be careful. You don’t want to get done for witness intimidation.’
‘I’ll be careful,’ said Bernie as she marched down the corridor back to the interview room. Anger bubbled up. She threw the door open, much to the surprise of Fox and the officer inside.
She looked at the PC. ‘If you could leave us for a minute, please.’
Kerry scuttled in, trying to keep up with Bernie. She sat down opposite Fox but Bernie began to pace. She pointed to the recorder.
‘I’m not going to put this on for a moment. I have a few more questions for you, off the record. Do you know DCI Worth? Have you ever met him before today?’
He shook his head but his eyes said something else.
‘Do you belong to any clubs, Rupert?’
‘Umm, well, I… go to the gym and I’m a member at the golf club.’
Rupert looked startled. Bernie wasn’t sure if it was her sudden arrival or her questions. Still standing, she placed her hands on the table and leaned forward towards Fox.
‘Mr Fox, do you understand how close we are to arresting you for the murder of Rosa Conti?’
Rupert swallowed and began to tremble again. Bernie thought he might be sick.
‘You… you don’t have any proof.’
‘Maybe not yet. But we do have one hell of a motive. You’d better hope to God that Forensics don’t find your DNA on her body.’ Bernie pushed herself back up from the table. ‘Finish your tea, Mr Fox. We’ll be back later after we’ve had a look at your laptop. It’ll be in your interest to give us full access to it. Perhaps you could write down your login details, with passwords, please.’
Kerry pushed the notepad towards Fox and gave him a pen. He eyed it warily.
‘If you want to go home this evening then you need to write it down. Otherwise, I’ll just pass your laptop over to our tech guys and they will hack into it and go through every single file and all your search history. Am I making myself clear?’
Rupert Fox picked up the pen and began to write. ‘I’m willing to cooperate with you but I’d r
eally like my solicitor now.’
Bernie’s phone buzzed as she and Kerry walked back to MCIT. She pulled it out and saw it was a text from Matt.
Spoke to Lucy. She said she saw Worth looking at the laptop in Fox’s study. He closed the lid down quickly. Said he was checking to see if it was on. Does that help?
‘Yes! Well done, Matt.’ Bernie tapped back her thanks.
‘What? Has he found something at the house?’
‘Sort of.’
Bernie pulled Kerry into the ladies’ toilets and showed her Matt’s text.
‘I think I know where you’re going with this but you need to be careful,’ said Kerry. ‘What are you going to do about it?’
‘Not sure yet. It’s standard practice to check if devices are still on. If I can’t prove Rupert Fox knows old Worthless, and that Worthless only came with me to have the chance to tamper with the evidence, then I have nothing. And if the DCI has any sense then he won’t have wiped everything, if he has touched the laptop.’
‘Fingerprints?’
‘He’ll have worn gloves. He’s not stupid. He’ll have left the email footage, I’m sure, but the other things that Rupert mentioned?’ Bernie shook her head. She felt like kicking the wall. Had Worth really been the only DCI available to take on the investigation? Or did he already know about the young woman in the woods? Bernie’s heart fluttered with unease. How could she do her job if she didn’t trust her senior officer?
15
‘So what’s the plan?’ Kerry asked.
They were back in MCIT.
‘Well,’ said Bernie, ‘we need to get someone in ready to look at the laptop when it arrives. Could you do that, please? Mick, can you look into the au pair agency, please? We’re going to need next-of-kin details. Where’s Alice? She’s been out all day.’
‘Sorry, ma’am, I forgot to tell you Alice rang in to say she had to go and pick up her baby from nursery. He’s sick,’ said DC Mick Parris. ‘But she has emailed some pictures of red dresses from Primark and one of them looks like a match. They said they serve hundreds of people a day so can’t pick out a particular customer who bought this outfit. Do you want to see?’
Bernie looked at the photo of the short red dress on a mannequin, designed to cling to a body. She swallowed slowly. She remembered something she had heard on a training session – find out how the victim lived and you’ll find out how he or she died. The clingy red dress and her behaviour, as told by Rupert and Harriet Fox, showed a possible side of Rosa. But was it the truth? Had the mystery biker chosen her outfit that night? Had she really suggested to Fox that they video their sex session or had there only been one video all along, designed to protect Rosa from him? Maybe it wasn’t as consensual as Fox was making out.
‘That looks likely. Send the photo to Forensics for comparison. Hopefully, as it’s Saturday tomorrow, Alice will be back in.’ Bernie paused before asking her next question. ‘Has DS Anderson been in contact at all?’
‘Not much. He called in about fifteen hundred hours and said he had nothing to report.’
‘I might just give him a ring.’
Bernie pulled out her phone and found his contact details. She hoped he was in a better mood.
‘Anderson, DI Noel. Just wondering how it’s all going?’
‘Yeah, still here but not much found. Apparently there was a big litter-picking campaign down the main pathway last weekend. One of uniform said his wife was involved. So anything of interest may have gone.’
‘They obviously didn’t go into the woods then. Probably just as well.’ An image of Craig Moffatt, the young lad who’d found the body, floated into her mind. She made a mental note to check up on him and see if he was out of hospital.
‘We’re going to stop at eighteen thirty and then I’ll come back. Anything happening your end, ma’am?’
Bernie thought of Rosa and the Italian connection. ‘Possible ID for our victim. Rosa Conti, Italian. Do you speak Italian?’
‘Parli italiano?’
‘I take it that’s a yes then.’
‘Of course. You don’t get away with having an Italian mother and not learn the language.’
‘Well, if it turns out Rosa is our young woman, then we’re going to need your linguistic skills to talk to the family. We’re working on next-of-kin details at the moment.’
‘We’ll talk about it more when I come back. Please don’t contact them before I arrive.’ He hung up.
‘I wouldn’t dream of it,’ Bernie muttered.
Anderson and DCI Worth arrived back at MCIT within minutes of each other. Bernie thought she knew what had taken the DCI so long but decided to keep her question for later. Now, Worth was asking for a full briefing.
‘So, where are you holding Mr Fox?’ Worth asked.
‘In an interview room. He’s currently only a witness, not a suspect,’ replied Bernie.
‘It’s not great we’re holding him at all. I’m assuming this hasn’t gone out to the press, Jane?’
‘No, sir. And if it did, I would phrase it as “a man helping us with our enquiries”.’
‘Hmm, might be better to say nothing at all.’
‘With all due respect, sir—’ Bernie started to say.
‘DI Noel, Mr Fox has alibis for the time period we’re looking at and no criminal record. Nor does he have a motorbike. I checked during the search,’ said Worth.
‘Until we see the email, we don’t know anything for sure about Rupert Fox, sir. I’m assuming you’ve brought the laptop back with you.’ Bernie knew she was out of line but she held her ground. If she was right about Worth and Fox knowing each other, Worth would have to back down at some point. She saw his mouth twitch.
‘I did bring the laptop. I gather someone is setting it up for us as we speak.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Kerry. ‘Tom Knox. He’s recently started as a digital media investigator. Bit of a computer whizz, by all accounts. He’s connecting it to the interactive whiteboard so we can all see.’
‘Good, moving on then…’
And moving away from Rupert Fox.
‘…what about next of kin for Rosa Conti?’
Mick Parris raised his hand. ‘I’ve been dealing with this, sir. We have contact details for her grandparents. Apparently her parents died in an earthquake a few years ago and she’d been living with her paternal grandparents in Florence until the summer when she came here. When Rosa left the Fox household, the agency owner tried to contact them but she had problems getting them to understand. She said her Italian is a bit rusty but also the grandparents seemed a bit deaf. So—’
‘Don’t worry about that,’ said Anderson, ‘I speak fluent Italian and I’m happy to go over there if need be.’
I bet you are, thought Bernie. Free holiday, right? Or find that one bit of evidence that cracks the whole case.
‘Not sure we have the budget for that. Rather a lot has been spent already on Forensics.’ Worth looked pointedly at Bernie. ‘I’m sure our fellow Italian officers will do a great job of looking after the Contis and collecting the necessary DNA samples. Much better if you can do a call with the local police, perhaps even video.’
There was a tap at the door and a young man with short, wavy blond hair popped his head round.
‘Ah, are you Tom?’ Worth asked.
‘Yep, that’s me. Laptop is ready for whenever you want to see it, sir,’ he said.
‘Well, there’s no time like the present. Let’s see what this email has to offer.’
Everyone got up from their seats. Bernie still felt a niggling sensation about Worth and Fox. She tried to remember if there had been a flicker of recognition between them, anything at all. She held Jane Clackett back as the others left the room.
‘Quick question, the DCI did a slot for TV last night, correct?’
‘Yes, it was on the local news.’
‘What about the radio? Did he record something for that?’
‘No. It just went out as part of the normal
bulletin. I listened to it and then watched the TV. I always do to make sure everything’s all right. Why? Is there a problem?’
Bernie shook her head. ‘No, no problem. I just thought someone said they heard Worth on the radio – they must have meant the TV.’
Bernie let Jane go ahead of her out of the door. She smiled. Got you, Rupert Fox.
16
Bernie cringed at the grainy images on the screen. It was like watching a very bad porn film. Rupert Fox may have been genuine but Rosa was clearly playing a part. The other camera that Rupert mentioned could be clearly seen.
Wrong about that then. But it still could have been Fox’s idea rather than Rosa’s.
‘Sir,’ Mick Parris raised his hand, ‘could the wife have set this up to catch him out?’
‘It’s a possibility,’ said Worth.
Bernie forced herself to look closer. ‘No, I don’t think so. Look, freeze it there.’ The footage was paused. ‘See, Rosa is looking up at the camera. It’s only quick but she knows it’s there. And the look in her eyes is different.’ Bernie shook her head. ‘I’m not sure what. Unhappy? Fed up? But when she looks at Rupert Fox, she’s smiling. Carry on, although I’m beginning to feel I’ve seen enough.’
The clip continued. Bernie wanted to avert her gaze but knew she had to be on the lookout for clues.
‘You know,’ said Worth, ‘we’re assuming this is Rupert Fox but can we be one hundred per cent sure? Mrs Fox said she caught Rosa with another man. Maybe this is him.’
Bernie looked across at Kerry and gave her a knowing look before replying. ‘Rupert Fox was convinced it was him.’
Worth was tapping a pen against his mouth. Bernie wondered if it was a habit or stress-related. She noticed the nicotine-stained fingers and teeth but no smell of cigarette smoke. Had he recently given up smoking?