“Is there a point to all this?” asked Josh.
Stocky slowly turned his gaze on the young man. “We’re trying to find your mother. Do you have something to add?”
Josh shrugged, sat forward in his chair. “She probably just went to visit a friend or something. Had a few drinks and decided to stay over.” He turned to his father. “I don’t see why you had to bring the cops in on this.”
“Because your mother’s missing, Josh,” said Royce. “She’s not answering her phone, it’s going straight to voicemail. If she’d gone to a friend’s last night, she would have called to tell me or left a note. Something. She would have let me know. I know you don’t give a crap about other people, but your mother does. She would not disappear like this without an explanation.”
“Yeah, well, I think it’s bullshit.” Josh got up and tried to leave, but Cooper blocked his way.
“We haven’t finished,” said Cooper.
Josh puffed out his chest in an effort to make his small frame as big as possible. “Are you going to arrest me for something?”
“No-one’s going to arrest you, Josh,” said Stocky. “We just want to hear from you what happened last night. In your own words.”
“I wasn’t here. There’s nothing I can tell you,” he replied, not taking his eyes off Cooper, who stood strong in the doorway. Cooper had seen the type a million times, and wondered what this particular kid had to hide. Probably drugs.
“You’re here now,” Stocky pressed. “What time did you get home?”
Another shrug. “Dunno. After two.”
“And when you came in, did you notice whether your father was asleep on the lounge?”
Josh finally turned around to face Stocky. “I went into the kitchen for a drink, walked right past him. He was snoring, couldn’t miss him. So, yeah, my Dad was asleep on the lounge last night like he said he was. Is that it? Can I go now?”
“For now. We might want to question you again later.” Stocky nodded to Cooper, who stepped aside just enough to allow the teenager past. Josh gave him a glance and an evil little smile on the way, and Cooper made a mental note to watch Josh Gilmore very closely.
2
“So, Royce, you slept on the lounge last night,” Stocky continued. “Did you wake through the night at all? Hear anything? The kids coming in, for instance?”
Royce shook his head. “Nothing. I’d had a few beers, like I said. I usually sleep pretty soundly. Was no different last night.”
“What time did you wake this morning, then?”
“It was pretty early. Around six, though there’s no clock in here so I don’t really know. I went into the kitchen, made myself a coffee and some toast.”
“Was anyone else awake at that time?”
“No, the house was quiet. I decided to go outside and do a bit of work in the garden.”
“At six in the morning? In the middle of winter?”
Royce ran his hands over his face, and for the first time Cooper noticed dirt caked under his fingernails. “Yes, at six in the morning in the middle of winter. Why are you asking me all this? You’re treating me like I had something to do with it. Do you really think I’d have called you so soon if I’d done something to hurt my own wife?”
Stocky leaned back in the chair, making himself comfortable. It was a moment before he said anything, and Cooper knew it was Stocky’s trademark move to unsettle his suspect. Because Royce Gilmore was exactly right — he was, at this point, suspect number one. The husband always is.
“Royce, we need to ask these questions. No-one’s accusing you of anything. We just want to get a clear picture of all you can remember. Sometimes in cases like these something people think is irrelevant actually ends up being the break we need.”
Royce folded his arms, and Cooper noticed a tiny tear escape from the man’s left eye. Either what Stocky said about his wife’s disappearance being a ‘case’ had just hit home, or he was a good actor. Cooper had seen plenty of both in his time.
“I’ve been meaning to get those garden beds dug up for a while,” Royce continued, “and it wasn’t that cold out. I had the beginnings of a hangover, you know, and I thought the fresh air would do me good.”
“Did you change your clothes first?” Stocky asked. “I mean, if you came in from the pub and slept on the lounge, I’m assuming you were still in your clothes from last night.” Stocky waved a hand to indicate Royce’s current attire. “Are these the same clothes?”
Royce looked down, as if to remind himself of what he was wearing. “No. I mean, yes, I gardened in the same clothes I wore to the pub. They needed a wash anyway, and I didn’t want to go in the bedroom and disturb Rebecca so early in the morning. Plus it was cold, being the middle of winter, as you said, so I put on an old coat I keep in the garage over the top. But these aren’t those clothes.”
“So you’ve changed since then.”
“Yes. When I finished I went into the bedroom to take a shower. We have an ensuite, and by then it was eight o’clock and Rebecca’s normally up. So I went in, and she wasn’t there. The bed was made, so I figured she’d got up and gone into the kitchen or something. I had a shower, got clean clothes, and came back out. I couldn’t find her anywhere. I couldn’t find her handbag or her phone, and her house keys were missing. That’s when I realised she must have been out all night.”
“She couldn’t have just gone out early this morning? To the shops, or something?”
Royce shook his head. “No. She wouldn’t go out without telling me, without at least saying good morning or something. No way. Rebecca isn’t like that.”
Stocky paused to take some notes, and Cooper took the opportunity to study Ashley. He couldn’t get a read on her face. She looked frightened, but then, her mother was missing. There was something else, though, and Cooper thought it was worth a separate chat.
“Ashley,” he said, “I didn’t get a chance for coffee this morning. Do you mind helping me make some?”
The girl got up without a word, and Cooper followed her into the kitchen.
“We’ve only got instant,” she said, pulling mugs down from a cupboard. “Will your partner want one?”
“No, he doesn’t drink it. It’s just me that needs the caffeine in the morning.” He helped by finding a teaspoon in a nearby drawer. “You said you were out last night as well? Where did you go?”
“I was just out with some friends. We went to a couple of bars in the city. I don’t remember the names of them, but I guess I could find out if you need me to.”
“What time did you leave?”
“About seven. Just after Josh. One of his friends picked him up, they were just pulling away when I went out to get in my car.”
“And was your mum home then?”
“Yes. I gave her a kiss goodbye.” Ashley’s eyes moistened. “I don’t know why I did that. I don’t normally.”
“What time did you get home?”
“Just after twelve.” Ashley filled the kettle and put it back on its pedestal to boil.
“Was your father asleep on the lounge then?”
She tried to busy herself with the business of making coffee, but everything was already in progress. She avoided Cooper’s gaze.
“Ashley? Was he here?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t look. He’s normally there, like he said. I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t have been. But I didn’t look. I went straight to bed.”
Cooper nodded, trying to make his approach reassuring instead of intimidating. He had a feeling she was holding something back. “That’s okay. Is there something else you want to tell me?”
The kettle was close to boiling, and she turned back to the bench and started rearranging the mugs. Cooper waited, giving her the time she needed. She poured the boiling water into three mugs, making coffee for herself and her father as well as him, Cooper suspected. He handed her the teaspoon.
“Do you want sugar and milk?”
“Just milk, thank you
.”
Ashley opened the fridge and stared into it for a long time. Eventually Cooper leaned in and got the milk out himself. He finished off his own coffee, and held the milk out for Ashley. She shook her head, so he put it back in the fridge.
There was a small table in the kitchen, and Cooper placed his coffee on it. “Why don’t we sit down here for a minute,” he suggested.
“I have to take Dad his coffee.”
“That can wait.” He gently guided her to a chair. “There’s something you want to tell me, isn’t there?”
Ashley nodded, but still she remained tight-lipped.
“You know why we’re here, don’t you?”
Another nod.
“So it’s very important we know everything we can about your mother. Look, Ashley, I’ll be honest with you. Thousands of people go missing in Sydney every year. We can’t make any promises that we’ll be able to find your mum. We’ve never met her, and we’ve just met your dad this morning. But you know them. You’ve lived with them all your life. So if there’s anything you can tell us that might help, now’s the time. Talk to me, Ashley. Tell me how to find your mum.”
Ashley wrapped her hands tightly around the mug in front of her. “I think Mum might be having an affair.”
3
Cooper relayed his conversation with Ashley Gilmore to Stocky as they drove. It had taken a second cup of coffee and a lot of coaxing, but Cooper had finally got the information they needed out of her. The young woman had at first thought something was wrong with her mother, and had confronted her about it three months ago. Rebecca had confided in her daughter that she’d had an argument with her best friend, Carmel Payne. Apparently Rebecca and this Carmel were quite close, and Ashley said it made sense that her mother would be upset if they’d had a falling out.
As much as she pressed her, Ashley couldn’t get Rebecca to tell her what the fight had been about. Ashley was worried, but she had her own life and university studies to get on with, so she let it go. Over the next month she witnessed a few phone calls between Rebecca and Carmel, and it appeared to her that the rift had been mended and the friendship was back on track. But something bothered her.
“What was bothering her?” Stocky asked, as he pulled the car to a stop at a red light.
“The phone calls. Ashley walked in a couple of times when her mother was on the phone to Carmel, and Rebecca immediately changed the conversation. Ashley got the feeling her mother was hiding something. She shrugged it off at first, but then there were calls late at night. Ashley said her mother hated it when people called her at late hours, she always used to say it was rude and never answered the phone. But lately Carmel had been calling late, and Rebecca answered as if she’d been waiting for the call.”
“But these are calls from her friend Carmel. How does that translate to having an affair?”
Cooper shuffled the papers in his lap. They were the last three-months-worth of mobile phone bills for the whole Gilmore family, given to him by Ashley.
“That’s where these come in,” he said. “Ashley was worried her mother hadn’t been herself, and she thought it had something to do with the phone calls. She got the pass code to her mother’s phone by watching her enter it one day, and when Rebecca wasn’t looking she accessed it. She checked the text messages, hoping to find something in there, but there was nothing between Rebecca and Carmel. So she checked the call list. There were maybe three calls between Rebecca and Carmel over the last three months, nowhere near enough to account for the number of times Rebecca said she’d been speaking to Carmel.”
“So who was she talking to?”
“Ashley says the majority of the calls went to Jack Payne, Carmel’s husband.”
Stocky turned a corner and almost ran up the back of a car stopped in the middle of the road. He braked and swerved, just managing to avoid the idiot as a pedestrian came out of a nearby shop and climbed in the car.
“Times like that I actually miss being in uniform,” he said, shaking his head.
Cooper smiled.
“So, to summarise,” Stocky said as he got the car back on track, “Rebecca’s been acting a bit strange, told her daughter she’d had a fight with the friend, seemed to make up with the friend, but then the daughter finds out there’s been late night secret phone calls between Rebecca and the friend’s husband.”
“Yeah, that’s about the size of it.” Cooper held up the phone bills. “These confirm there’s been a lot of calls between Rebecca and Jack, both his mobile and his office, and not too many between Rebecca and Carmel.”
“His office being the real estate office we’re heading to now.”
“Correct.” Cooper bundled up the phone bills and shoved them in the glovebox of the car for now.
“So what’s our feeling on this case?” Stocky asked. “Do you think it’s our guy?”
Cooper considered the question. Was the disappearance of Rebecca Gilmore the Adultery Killer’s work? “She doesn’t fit the profile. I mean, all the other women were slim, with long hair. Rebecca’s a little on the plump side, and her hair’s cut pretty short.” He pulled out the recent photo the Gilmore family had given them. It was a portrait shot of all four family members, the type of picture you see on the news when something happens to tear a family apart. This one would probably make this evening’s broadcasts.
“Yeah, that was my gut feeling too. Right up until the daughter mentioned a possible affair.”
“That’s a biggie. It must be hard to find an adulterous woman fitting a specific physical description, you know. Maybe he relaxed his requirements this year.”
“Maybe. What do you think of the husband as an alternative?” asked Stocky.
“There’s something weird about that whole sleeping on the couch arrangement.”
Stocky smiled. “Just ‘cause you’ve got marital bliss going on at your place, doesn’t mean everyone else is the same, you know.”
“Yeah, but…”
“I reckon it sounds sensible on her part. You’d get sick of someone climbing in next to you reeking of beer and snoring his head off. Why can’t he sleep on the lounge one night a week?”
“Particularly if she is having an affair,” Cooper added.
“Yeah. Let’s find out about that, shall we? This the place?” Stocky pulled into a parking spot reserved for customers of Payne Real Estate in Hunters Hill.
“Looks like it.”
They climbed the short flight of stairs, and a bell rang when they opened the front door. It was an open plan office, with four desks arranged so that they each had room for two chairs in front. There was a glassed-in office in the back corner, presumably Jack Payne’s. A kitchenette along one wall completed the small but functional and elegant space.
A woman sat at the only occupied desk out of the four in the main office. She looked up when they entered, then turned her attention to the man in the office. Both of them came forward to greet the detectives.
“Good morning,” said Stocky, holding out a hand in greeting. Cooper did the same, glancing up at the clock on the wall that indicated Stocky was only just correct. It was a couple of minutes before noon.
“Detective Sergeant Stockton. This is my partner, Detective Sergeant Cooper. You are?”
“I’m Jack Payne,” said the man. “This is my wife, Carmel. What can we do for you, Detectives?”
“We need to ask you both a few questions about Rebecca Gilmore.” Stocky turned to Carmel. “I understand the two of you are friends?”
“That’s right. Why? Has something happened?” Carmel flattened a hand against her chest.
“Mrs Gilmore’s husband reported her missing this morning. We’re following up with people who know her, anyone who might know anything about her disappearance. Mrs Payne, can you tell us, when was the last time you saw or spoke to Rebecca?”
There was a small, round table next to the kitchenette, and Carmel lowered herself into one of the four chairs surrounding it. The others joined her
.
“Um, let me think,” she began. “It’s probably a couple of weeks since I saw her. Yes, that’s right, she met me for lunch in the city early the week before last. Monday, I think it was.”
“And have you spoken to her since then? Any text messages, social media contact?”
“No, I don’t think so. We’ve been very busy here, haven’t we, Jack?”
Jack nodded then turned to Stocky and Cooper. “Can I make you some coffee?”
“No, we’re fine, thank you,” said Cooper. “Have you seen or heard from Rebecca recently, Jack?”
Carmel Payne didn’t give her husband the chance to answer. “What do you mean, she’s missing? What happened, exactly?”
“Like I said, Mr Gilmore reported her missing this morning. He believes she may have gone out somewhere last night, and didn’t return.”
“Is that so unusual?” asked Jack.
“Apparently it is for Mrs Gilmore. Mr Gilmore is adamant she wouldn’t have gone anywhere without letting him know, either last night or this morning. Her car is still at the house, but her house keys and bag are missing. Mr Gilmore believes something has happened to his wife.”
“Oh, God. Yes, that does sound unusual,” said Carmel. She folded her arms tightly across her chest. “Where would she go with her keys and her handbag, but not her car? There’s nothing really close by to their house, and she’s not the type to walk much. What about public transport?”
“We’re looking into that,” said Stocky, and Cooper made a note to follow up with the local officers who were checking public transport. The Gilmore house wasn’t near a train station, and he hadn’t noticed any bus stops in the street, but there’d be one somewhere. And there was always the taxi companies to check.
The Dark Series Page 2