‘No - not till identification is made official.’
Blast it he was making it as difficult as possible. Although she couldn’t entirely blame him. She seemed to be spending a good bit of time lately here on police business.
‘Surely you can tell me,’ she crooned. ‘I promise I shan’t release it till I get permission. DS Handley wouldn’t be so mean. Where is she by the way?’
It could be just intuition but she’d felt a sense of uneasiness fill her up since she’d seen the blank look creep over Sergeant Bennett’s face when she’d asked to see Linda. And now - now she really wasn’t feeling good about this and - her stomach contracted quickly. Oh - God! Was it going to be what she didn’t want to hear? She caught her bottom lip with her teeth, sharply tasted blood and grimaced as she did so.
‘It – it’s Linda, isn’t it?’ she said and was rewarded immediately by the harsh truth written on Farmer’s bleak face. She felt like a cold fist was closing tight over her heart. She tried desperately to take control, swallowed hard and said slowly, ‘Linda ... Linda was my oldest and my dearest friend. You’ve got to tell me what happened to her, Inspector.’ She put away her spiral and gestured quickly to the young photographer standing beside her. He was looking anxious. ‘Keep this under your hat, Bill, for now - please. Wait for me outside.’
He nodded. ‘Okay, if you say so. What shall I tell the boss, Mel?’
‘He’ll find out soon enough.’ She choked back a sob, blinked the threatening tears out of her eyes and tried to cover up her weakness quickly. ‘Off the record, Farmer, can we talk? Now? Please?’
His eyes made a swift study of her anguished face. He nodded to a door alongside. ‘Okay. In there. Can’t spare you long though.’
‘Thanks.’ She followed the detective into his office.
He sat down behind the desk and motioned to a chair. ‘So - what can I tell you?’
‘How?’ She blinked back her tears again, drew in her breath sharply and said, ‘How was she killed? I know that she was found near the rocks, naked and beaten up. Got that much from my uncle.’
He leaned forward over the desk, and studied his folded hands for a second or so then cleared his throat before speaking, ‘You know about as much as we do, Ms Goring. Is that your name by the way? You’re married, aren’t you?’
She frowned. So he’d been checking up on her. ‘I was. It’s Carmichael. I use Goring for my work,’ she said defensively. ‘I want to know how Linda was killed. Can you tell me?’
‘You’ve heard all I can tell you so far.’ He opened his hands wide again. ‘So - what more do you want me to say? You know how it goes. We can’t release anything till we have more to go on. Linda could be the victim of a bad sexual assault that became a killing...’
‘No! She knew how to take care of herself better than most women I know.’
He shrugged his broad shoulders dismissively. ‘We’re as much in the dark as you are.’
‘Was she working undercover? I know we’ve got problems, big problems here with drugs. Was Linda involved in any work on that?’
‘You can hardly expect me to answer that.’
He chased a lead pencil across the desk top with a long forefinger.
‘She never blabbed anything to do with her police work to me. But I’ve heard whispers about the Kaufman brothers...’
He tightened the lines of his generous mouth and frowned back at her but said, ‘No comment, Ms Goring.’
‘Come on now. Since the Kaufman brother’s opened their Casino here you’ve had more crime incidents, haven’t you?’ She pressed on ignoring the keep-your-mouth-shut look in his keen grey eyes.
‘And you say that she never confided in you,’ he said with those eyes pinning her nicely in place.
She grimaced and pushed a curling frond of hair out of her eyes. ‘I’m not that stupid. I didn’t need to be told anything. I’ve done my own investigation on that pair.’
Farmer frowned again and moved the pencil across the thick folder of notes on the desk in front of him.
‘They’re not down here for their health on the coastline, are they? In the last five years they’ve opened up a highly lucrative Health farm, and the Orchid Club Casino.
‘They could be personally responsible for one - the many drug problems you have here; two - increased prostitution; and three - easy means for laundering money.’ She ticked these off on her long fingers. ‘Am I right?’
He leaned back in the leather office chair. You’re keeping things from me, you devil. She had called his bluff she thought but his eyes were inscrutable as they met hers. He was not about to give anything away. If she’d hit the mark, he’d keep her guessing. She wasn’t on his team. He needn’t think she was letting up on it. No way. She would be doing her own digging into the Kaufman’s murky trade.
It was perhaps a sheer whim for her part when as a teenager she’d decided not to join Linda in the police force after all. She’d decided that she wanted to be a good investigative journalist instead. Only her need to look after her small son, Jack, had kept her home based here so far. Places to live in London were too damn expensive to buy or rent, and he was happy enough at the local primary school with his grandparents and friends living close by.
Farmer was lecturing her. ‘My advice to you, Ms Goring, is to watch it. Stick to the local news. Garden shows and jumble sales, they’re much safer.
‘And keep that pert nose of yours out of the Kaufman’s filthy back yard. You could dig up some shit and sleaze there that’ll get you into real trouble. It’s our business to deal with them. Not yours. Linda would tell you that,’ he added caustically.
He stretched his lean frame upwards and gestured with his hand to the door. The talk was over as far as he was concerned; he’d emptied the bullets out of her automatic, or so he reckoned. But if anything it had made her even more determined to deal with the Kaufman’s personally.
‘Thanks for your time, Farmer.’ She stood up reluctantly to leave. ‘Would it be in order for me to visit her flat later? When you’ve quite finished with it? I have some personal things I’d like to pick up.’ He was wearing a frown again now. ‘We lent each other books frequently. I’ll ask permission from her parents first though. Oh - God! They must be devastated. They’ve been told?’
‘Yes.’ He opened the door for her. ‘Mr Handley is due to identify Linda shortly. Understandably they are in shock. As we all are.’
‘Of course...’
He studied her steadily and could hardly miss the flood of vivid colour in her cheeks and the tear filled eyes that this close inspection revealed.
‘I can sympathise with you. Good friends are hard to find, especially those we’ve known for years.’
‘Thank you.’ She looked into his eyes and saw with surprise that the sympathy in them was genuine. ‘I can’t promise you that I shall take note of your warning. But I promise that I will try not to interfere with your work.’
His next words were harsh. ‘You’d better keep to that, Ms Goring, or you and I will have cause to talk again. And next time I won’t be so easy on you.’
Four
Tom Handley walked slowly into the small bare white walled room where his daughter’s body lay. He recalled briefly how happy she’d been at her cousin’s wedding only two weeks before. She’d reached up and caught the wedding bouquet and laughing turned round to her mum holding the flowers against her lilac bridesmaid’s dress. She’d looked so pretty. He brushed the tears from his eyes quickly.
The attendant lifted back the white sheet gently. Tom Handley closed his red-rimmed eyes for a moment, blinked, breathed in deeply, and nearly choked on his tears as he looked down at the bruised, battered face. His mouth twisted with anguish and he swallowed hard to clear his throat before he said in a lifeless monotone, ‘Yes - this is my daughter.’
‘Thank you, Mr Handley. We would like to offer you our most sincere sympathy from her colleagues and myself. Linda will be sadly missed but you must know tha
t already. Please take your time to recover before leaving. Can we offer you a cup of tea or coffee perhaps?’
He shook his head slowly, made a visible effort to pull himself together, and said in a voice made thick with tears, ‘Thank you - no. I must get home. Our son Paul is with my wife Eileen. She was just coming off her hospital shift, when we got your phone call.’
He paused and turned his head to glance back again at his daughter and wiped his eyes quickly with the back of his hand. He’d said his goodbye but he didn’t want to leave his dear girl lying alone in there. Yes, he had sometimes wondered how he would behave if Linda was injured or killed doing her job but he had never truly been prepared for it and found it hard to accept.
He shook his head slowly. ‘I still can’t believe it’s happened to our girl. Eileen’s a ward nurse in the children’s ward at the local hospital. She’s made of much stronger stuff than me but it has hit her badly. I must get back to her.’
‘DC Calder will drive you home and DI Farmer would like to ask you some questions later when you feel able to do so, Mr Handley.’
He nodded. ‘Thank you.’
‘She is going to be badly missed, Mr Handley,’ Calder said taking him out to the car. ‘We’re going to get whoever did this to Linda.’
Five
When Mel got back to her office her phone rang persistently. ‘Hello - Observer newspaper, Mel Goring speaking-’
‘Mel - I have to speak to you.’ She groaned inwardly when she heard the distinctive booming voice of her Great Aunt Laura Goring, Uncle Victor’s eldest sister.
‘You’ve obviously heard about your friend, Linda, by now. Victor was in touch with me earlier, and I have to tell you that she came to see me for a reading just two days ago. I was so worried when I saw what was in her cards for her. There was the Tower card for a start. And…that’s not a good portent for anyone to have.’
‘Stop! Stop it right now, please!’ Mel demanded. ‘Aunt Laura, I don’t want to hear it. Not now. This is not the time. ’
There was a snort on the line. ‘I didn’t tell the poor girl what bad things I could deduce from the layout of those Tarot cards she picked. I would never do that, Mel. I was naturally disturbed about what I saw laid out before me. But I just told her to be a shade more careful with her dealings at work, I wanted to say much more, wanted to warn her. I’m so sorry, I thought I had to tell you.’
Mel frowned. She believed that her elderly relative was a genuine psychic and like she said could not tell an untruth. ‘You won’t mention it to anyone else will you? It will only make things seem worse for her family if they hear about it.’
‘Of course not! But I have a feeling that I have read the cards recently for someone else who might soon be in trouble too. I saw something that worried me. And I warned the girl to be careful of any strange men she might be likely to meet - but...’ She sighed. ‘I doubt if she will take notice of what I said. The young seldom take notice of words of wisdom from the old.’
‘If you’re so worried about her can’t you at least tell me her name?’
‘I’m not going to, Mel, it’s a confidence I’m not able to break. And I don’t want to cause any fresh panic here at the hotel. I only did the reading because I was asked to. That silly old pair of Webster sisters that I have to contend with while I’m staying at the White Rock Hotel drive me barmy with their protests. They think that I do the devil’s work.’ Again the loud snort of derision followed her words. ‘And I like to tease them.’
Mel chuckled. ‘That’s a bit tough on them, isn’t it?’
‘Not a bit of it! You ought to have heard the fuss they made when I did a Tarot reading the other evening. You’d have thought I’d let a fox into their chicken run. They flapped and fussed about it so much even Mrs Wyatt had cause to ask them to leave the lounge if they didn’t approve.’
‘And did they?’
‘No - they decided to sit it out. And they seemed quite intrigued by my reading in the end. I’ll have ‘em eating out of my hand before I’m finished.’
‘You’re a naughty old woman. I bet you like to torment those poor old dears mercilessly.’
Laura Goring’s raucous laughter before she put the phone down told Mel that she was right.
Six
‘That was Mel Goring on the phone, Eileen. She sends her love.’ Tom Handley looked worried. ‘I hope it’s not going to be in all the newspapers. I suppose it will be on local TV news,’ he added quietly.
‘Sorry - it’s bound to be, Mr Handley. It’ll be big news here,’ Calder said.
‘Mel is not going to write anything up that will hurt us, love. She’s a good girl. She’ll use her discretion. But it’s got to be publicised. Linda would want her killer to be caught. Some other young woman’s life could be at risk,’ Eileen Handley said catching hold of her Paul’s hand as he joined her on the couch.
‘Thank you Brian for taking and bringing Tom home. And thank the rest of the team at the station. Please let us know of any new developments if you can, won’t you?’
Brian Calder finished his cup of tea and put it down on the tray. ‘Will do - thank you for the tea.’
‘I still think she shouldn’t have gone into the police force.’
‘Mum!’
‘I never wanted her to - she took far too many risks. She’d do anything for that job of hers.’ She dabbed her eyes with a damp tissue. ‘And now - now we’ll never see her again.’
Tom sat down. ‘Eileen - you know she loved what she did. She didn’t want to do anything else.’
‘Why didn’t she want to get married and have children like Mel?’
‘Because she wasn’t ready. She hadn’t met her Mr Right yet.’
They had always relied on Eileen for strength in any family crisis. Now she needed them, needed to be reassured. Paul was sitting beside her on the sofa, holding his mother’s hand, an arm around her shaking shoulders. Still only seventeen Paul had been an unexpected bonus; coming along when they’d resigned themselves to Linda being their only child.
They would have to sort out Linda’s affairs. Her flat on the seafront for instance; Linda had been so thrilled with it - she had spoken of little else for weeks before she moved in. Eileen had helped her with the colour scheme and the furnishings, pleased that she was asked.
Linda had been fiercely ambitious, worked hard to achieve her rank and had been good at it. Tom kept these thought in his mind and was proud of it. He hoped Eileen might feel that too in time. He spotted a baby picture of Linda lying on the coffee table and knew that Eileen had been looking at it. He wiped away fresh tears with the back of his freckled hand.
‘Do you want a cup of tea, Dad?’
Tom gestured with his hand. ‘Not yet, thanks, son. If I have another I shall be spending more time in the bathroom than down here. Make one for your Mum.’
Seven
Mel Goring sat at her desk, holding her aching head in her hands. Her face was damp with fresh tears. She had to try her best to write a good piece on Linda’s death, but she had been told only the barest details by DI Farmer and she remained disturbed still by Laura’s phone call. She wished she didn’t have to write up the case, but she didn’t want to be scooped by the rest of the media; it would have to be in print for their evening edition.
She was still in the dark about why and how Linda was killed. The cops were not going to give much away at present. It was in their best interests to keep quiet on the case. Especially when it was one of their own who was the victim. She could hardly believe it. She decided to ring Victor to see if he had remembered anything else.
‘Uncle Victor, I don’t like asking this, but did you manage to see what condition Linda was in when you found her? Did you take a good look at her?’
He breathed in deeply and was quiet for a second or so. ‘Shan’t ever forget it. It was bad, real bad, Mel. What else do you expect when you’ve had the crabs and shrimps to keep you company for a while? The quick glance I gave her told me
that she’d been badly battered about the face and head, strangled too by the look of her. She was in a bloody awful shape, poor girl. I’m glad it wasn’t my daughter, kid.’
Mel listened and felt terrible all over again. But she had to know everything. ‘So how was she identified on the beach? Do you know?’
‘I heard a young police officer identify her by the gold pendant she was wearing. I saw it myself glittering round her neck. Before I got sent away, I heard DC Calder, I think it was, say that it was an astrological sign of Cancer - you’d know all about that, right?’
Mel heard and felt her throat constrict tight and her mouth dry and clam up. She cleared her throat only with some effort and said huskily, ‘Yes, I should do. I gave it to Linda for her birthday. So, she was stripped naked and yet the killer left the pendant? Strange that.’ She heard him agree on the other end of the line. ‘Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything at all?’
‘I gathered from what I overheard them saying that she’d been sexually assaulted. So they’ll be looking for her clothes obviously and hoping that DNA will help suss out her killer, won’t they?’
‘Thanks. You won’t mind if I mention your name in the article, will you? It’ll give you some kudos in the Lobster Pot pub, won’t it, old man?’ She chuckled.
‘Less of the old man, girlie. Can’t say that I shall enjoy taking my part in it though. That poor girl didn’t deserve what happened to her. If I got hold of the bastard that did it, I’d garrotte him first with my fishing line and then I’d cut off his balls and feed ‘em to the fishes.’
‘Uncle Victor!’
Eight
Linda’s apartment was on the second floor of a four storey late Victorian building on the seafront opposite the pier. It had two good-sized bedrooms, a bathroom, open plan kitchen and a spacious sunlit front lounge, with high plastered ceilings and a small front window balcony filled with flowers in pots overlooking the sea front. It looked and smelt spanking new.
Dying to Meet You Page 2