Strange Beginnings: The Freeman Files Series: Book 13

by Ted Tayler

  “Was there anything else?” asked Gus.

  “Eyewitnesses saw Marion Reeves talking to the driver of a pick-up truck on Friday after she’d withdrawn the cash from the bank.”

  “We need their names,” said Gus. “Did Billie Wightman ask whether any of them saw Marion hand something to the truck driver?”

  Kenneth Truelove glanced through the report.

  “The driver was stopped in traffic on the opposite side of the road to the bank. He was leaning out of the cab window. If Marion Reeves had wanted to hand over an envelope, she would have had to step off the pavement, walk into the street, and offer the money up to the driver’s window. You can check, but the conversation might not be relevant. The driver could simply have asked a pedestrian for directions.”

  “We’ll still ask the eyewitnesses whether it looked as if the two knew one another,” said Gus. “Who else did Wightman and Price speak to?”

  “They interviewed and eliminated everyone who worked at the Churchfields Industrial Estate or visited premises there on Monday morning.”

  “They covered an awful lot of people,” said Geoff, “uncovering no meaningful clues.”

  “Did anything turn up at the autopsy?” asked Gus.

  “The attacker struck from the passenger seat,” said Kenneth. “With the number of knife wounds the coroner recorded, Marion’s killer had to be covered in blood.”

  “Why didn’t anyone see them after they got out of the car at ten o’clock?” asked Gus.

  “Was Theo Reeves ever a suspect?” asked Geoff. “I know the marriage sounded idyllic, but based on Gus’s assessment of DI Wightman, she would have looked at the husband first.”

  “Theo was in a meeting when the murder took place,” said Kenneth. “Half a dozen colleagues confirmed he hadn’t left the building since arriving at work. Wightman ruled out Theo Reeves early doors. One set of fingerprints recovered from inside the car briefly gave credence to the possibility of an affair. They belonged to a neighbour, Simon Turner. He was a twenty-six-year-old primary school teacher at Manor Fields. Theo confirmed Marion picked him up on his way home one evening the previous week. Simon’s car wouldn’t start when he left school, and he decided to walk the two-and-a-half miles home. Marion picked him up after he’d covered half the distance. He had a classroom of school kids to offer an alibi for his whereabouts on Monday morning.”

  “That was everything, was it?” asked Gus.

  “I’m afraid that’s all I’ve got time for, Freeman,” said Kenneth, handing Gus the case file. “I suggest you read the file for yourself, but we’ve covered the salient points. Six weeks after Marion Reeves’s murder, DI Wightman and DS Price transferred to another team working on a spate of aggravated burglaries.”

  Gus spotted Geoff Mercer shrug his shoulders. The recently elevated Chief Constable was already out of his chair and heading for the door.

  They had suffered the first casualty of the new regime. The three friends could no longer give a case the once-over as they had in the past. Gus always found those musings beneficial.

  “The Crime Review Team are in at the deep end,” said Geoff.

  “We’ll do our best as always,” said Gus.

  Gus collected a cream slice from Kassie in the dark corridor leading to Geoff Mercer’s office. He glanced at the brown paper bag on the passenger seat as he set off for the Old Police Station office. Change was continuous, but you didn’t have to like it.

  CHAPTER 3

  “What was the Chief Constable’s office like, guv,” asked Neil Davis as Gus emerged from the lift forty minutes later.

  “The same as it was when the previous Chief Constable occupied it, Neil,” replied Gus. “Kenneth Truelove brought his family photographs across the mezzanine with his chair. Apart from that, every expense was spared. The fixtures and fittings aren’t important. It’s the change in responsibilities that will have the greatest ramifications.”

  “You look troubled, guv,” said Luke. “Has the Chief Constable handed us a stinker of a case this time?”

  “We have a cold case from seven years ago,” said Gus, “where a forty-four-year-old wife and mother got stabbed to death near Wilton. A murder with no witnesses, despite taking place on a busy industrial estate. The detective team interviewed one hundred people and eliminated every single one from the investigation. After six weeks, they had no useful leads to follow and definitely no suspects. There could be more detail in the murder file, but I haven’t read all of it yet. The boss had to dash off to a meeting with the Police and Crime Commissioner.”

  “I don’t suppose Mr Truelove will spend as much time with you as he has in the past, guv,” said Blessing.

  “The PCC made the right choice in promoting the ACC into the top job,” said Gus. “We’ll just have to make the best of things. The PCC is only concerned with getting a superb administrator and a safe pair of hands. That’s exactly what the county needs after the last two characters in the post. The downside is that, unlike many other senior officers who climb to the top of the greasy pole, Kenneth Truelove is a proper copper. His astute analysis of the dozen cases we’ve handled thus far has undoubtedly helped this team to hit the ground running. DS Mercer said we’d been thrown in the deep end for the first time.”

  “Then it’s up to us to avoid sinking, guv,” said Lydia.

  “Exactly,” said Gus. “We’ll need maps covering Salisbury and Wilton on the walls, please. The photos from the murder scene are horrific, but keep them in a prominent position on the main whiteboard. I don’t want us to lose sight of why we’re hunting for the killer of Marion Reeves.”

  “Did you have anything to do with this case, guv?” asked Alex.

  Gus shook his head.

  “I’d need to check what I was working on back then, Alex. The Chief Constable mentioned aggravated burglaries were a hot potato by the beginning of May. That’s when the detectives working on the Reeves murder switched their attentions elsewhere. I remember those crimes. Wiltshire is way down the list on national statistics for violent crimes, so something like that sticks in the memory.”

  Lydia leafed through the murder file on Gus’s desk, searching for the crime scene photos.

  Neil and Blessing found the relevant street maps covering Wilton and Salisbury.

  “Do you have a list of all the people interviewed in the original investigation, guv?” asked Luke Sherman.

  “It’s in the file, Luke. To start with, I want to talk to the victim’s husband, Theo Reeves. He will be sixty-five this year. He may have retired. We’ll need to speak to the daughter, Stephanie too, wherever she is. She was eighteen and due to sit her A-levels. After seven years, Stephanie, if she went on to university, could live and work anywhere in the world. Or she could be married and living in Salisbury. Good hunting, Luke.”

  “Were there any other children, guv?” asked Luke.

  “The victim’s son from her first marriage,” said Gus. “Martyn Street. He’ll be thirty now. No idea if he still works at Wilton House, but that’s a good place to start. The other two on my priority list are Stuart Milligan and Derek Preston. You should find them listed under MP Builders Limited. They ran the firm renovating and extending the Oakley Road property for Theo and Marion Reeves.”

  “Who was in charge of the case, guv?” asked Luke.

  “DI Billie Wightman and DS Matt Price from Bourne Hill nick in Salisbury,” said Gus.

  “Close colleagues, guv?”

  “Matt Price was a good copper, Luke.”

  “Do you want to speak to them?”

  “When we have questions that only they can answer,” said Gus. “Until then, we’ll plough our own furrow.”

  “Understood, guv,” said Luke. “It’s not as long a list as on our other cases, is it?”

  “Ah, there’s the rub, Luke,” said Gus. “Wightman and Price spoke to the best part of a hundred people and got nothing. We could ask a fresh set of questions of those people and get the same result. Maybe on
e person they spoke to told them a pack of lies. I don’t want to waste time going over the same ground the original investigation covered. We’ll look for people with a connection to the victim. If the killer sat next to Marion Reeves in her car for several minutes before plunging a knife into her time and time again, two things stand out. First, the killer was someone Marion Reeves knew. Second, the motive was personal.”

  “If that person was someone interviewed by Wightman and Price, they missed that personal connection, guv.”

  “Possibly, Luke,” said Gus. “Talking of personal connections, see if you can find the victim’s first husband. The Chief Constable didn’t mention a name, nor did he explain why the marriage ended. Theo and Marion married in 1991. Martyn Street was only three years old. How long was Marion married to this man? How soon after the couple separated did Marion meet Theo?”

  “Either way, the courtship didn’t last long, guv,” said Luke. “Marion had had a child in 1988, and Theo married Marion in 1991, just three years later. Perhaps it was Martyn that caused the rift?”

  “An unwanted pregnancy,” said Gus. “Now, there’s a fresh idea for us to follow.”

  “And we’ve only had the file for a matter of minutes, guv,” said Luke.

  Gus left the team to get on with setting up meetings, preparing their digital files, and familiarising themselves with the contents of the murder file.

  He reflected on this afternoon’s meeting at London Road.

  Gus knew that as Chief Constable, Kenneth must regularly explain to the public the actions of officers and staff he commanded. Kenneth was now responsible for keeping the county’s communities safe and secure. As well as being responsible for the officers and staff under his control, he was also accountable to the public and the PCC. Although not necessarily in that order.

  A Chief Constable had to answer to the courts that apply the law for how police powers get used. Kenneth answered to the PCC on delivering efficient and effective policing and how resources and spending were managed. Gus recalled the conversation he had had with Geoff Mercer when considering whether to come out of retirement.

  Geoff talked of the strategy and aims set out in the PCC’s police and crime plan. There were budgets to consider. It all seemed a lot of hard work to Gus. Geoff had used a more derogatory term.

  It was the modern way. The words and pictures the public received had to conform to a language that Gus and his mentors didn’t recognise. Villains weren’t villains these days. They were stakeholders.

  “What about this pick-up driver, guv,” asked Neil. “Is he worth a look?”

  “How will you identify him, Neil?” said Gus. “There might have been CCTV coverage of the street opposite the bank back in 2011, but the records got wiped years ago. The police only hang onto ANPR records for two years. It’s a long shot, but according to the Chief Constable, Wightman and Price did interview eyewitnesses from the scene. So, keep your fingers crossed they recorded the names. Maybe one witness has a photographic memory and can recall a vehicle registration or the name of the company written on the side of the truck.”

  “If we could find the driver,” said Blessing Umeh, “we could determine whether he was one of the connections you mentioned to Luke, guv.”

  “We should give thought to how we get a list of those possible connections,” said Gus. “Where to start, anyone?”

  “The husband, guv,” said Alex.

  “Theo Reeves may never have been a suspect,” said Gus, “but how can we trust that he was aware of everyone Marion knew? His view of their marriage will colour his list of names. Theo believed everything in their relationship was fine. Marion died in a vicious assault, so that has to get called into question.”

  “The killer could have been someone Theo was unaware of, guv,” said Lydia. “Someone Marion knew through her work or from her first marriage. What do we know about that period of her life?”

  “Very little,” said Neil. “I found a footnote in the murder file that mentioned Graham Street, Marion’s first husband. He was much older than her and will be in his early seventies now. Graham Street was wealthy, sophisticated, and mixed with people at the top of the social tree. Marion’s family came from a working-class background.”

  “Well, there’s an angle we can pursue,” said Gus. “Neil, you can follow up on that footnote. We need everything you can dig up on Graham Street, how he met Marion and their relationship.”

  “Got it, guv,” said Neil.

  “We’ve got the names of the staff at the printing firm, guv,” said Luke. “DI Wightman interviewed them seven years ago. We could look closer at how they interacted with Marion Reeves outside of work. Perhaps, we can uncover connections with clients and businesses the firm used. It’s unlikely the detective team interviewed people from outside the company.”

  “Marion could have met that pick-up driver she talked to that day, guv,” said Blessing. “He could have visited her firm and made deliveries or collections regularly. Nobody suspected Marion of conducting an affair, but it wouldn’t be the first time a wife kept secret assignations from a husband.”

  “What a delightful turn of phrase, Blessing,” said Gus. “I haven’t heard it described that way for years. But you’re right. We believe the killer was someone Marion knew well because she was happy to let them sit in her car. However, we also know that Marion was kind-hearted enough to stop on her way home to pick up that young schoolteacher. Simon Turner wasn’t someone she knew well. He was a near neighbour, a passing acquaintance. We will have to judge each connection on its merits. The killer could be someone Marion had known well for years or someone she was having a fling with that she’d only met through work in the recent past.”

  “What about the staff at the company where Theo Reeves worked, guv?” asked Luke. “We should check with Theo whether the couple met with his work colleagues on social occasions. That could throw up a connection Wightman and Price overlooked.”

  “Indeed,” said Gus. “Let’s consider other characters involved in the case. The children, for instance. Stephanie and Martyn are unlikely to add many names to our list. Is there anyone we’ve missed?”

  “Did Martyn attend the same school as Stephanie?” asked Lydia.

  “No idea,” said Gus. “What difference would that make?”

  “Well, Marion was more likely to attend those awkward sessions with Martyn, where the teacher discussed a child’s performance with a parent. Did Theo go along too? Did they both go to South Wilts Grammar for Stephanie’s appraisals?”

  “Martyn was working with his hands back in 2011,” said Gus. “I see which way you’re going now. Martyn could have left school at sixteen and not been good enough for Grammar School. How did Theo Reeves get on with his stepson? Nothing was made of their relationship by Wightman and Price.”

  “As soon as both their alibis checked out, they didn’t dig deeper, guv,” said Alex. “The detectives probably thought it irrelevant. What happened after Marion’s death? Did Martyn continue to live under Theo’s roof? That could tell us which way the wind blew.”

  “Another thing to add to your list of questions when you speak to Theo Reeves, guv,” said Luke.

  “I’m not complaining at this stage, Luke,” said Gus. “It’s when we don’t have a single question to ask that I get stressed.”

  “Is there anything else you need on the walls or whiteboards, guv,” asked Alex.

  “What were you thinking, Alex?”

  “You queried the time it took Marion Reeves to cover the distance between her home in Oakley Road and where witnesses saw her Lexus on the A36 that morning. It might not be practical to walk the various routes involved, but a detailed map could offer possibilities for where she may have stopped, which explained the twenty minutes that elapsed after leaving home.”

  “That’s not a bad idea, guv,” added Luke. “It could suggest how the killer arrived at the Churchfields Industrial Estate. Was it possible to get there on foot? Were they already close
by because it was where they worked? Did they drive there to meet Marion? Where did they park? Marion parked on a side street without anyone spotting her. If another car parked next to her, it increased the risk of discovery.”

  “If there was another vehicle,” said Blessing, “say, a pick-up truck, it wouldn’t have stood out given the nature of the businesses operating on the estate. Plus, it helps to explain how the killer left the area despite getting covered in blood in the attack.”

  “Okay, I’m sold on the idea,” said Gus. “To slightly amend a well-known phrase, we’re going to need a bigger map.”

  “If we take Wilton House as the centre of operations,” said Blessing, “we need something that covers Oakley Road and South Street to the west, Old Shaftesbury Drove to the south, and Netherhampton Road to the east. The Churchfields Industrial Estate is approximately three miles west of the country house. Marion Reeves drove along The Avenue from her home and joined the A36. She should have turned left and driven towards Salisbury.”

  “How far was it to the industrial estate?” asked Lydia.

  “A little over two miles,” said Blessing. “A six-minute drive.”

  “If we can get a map to cover all those aspects, then go for it, Alex,” said Gus.

  “I’ll contact the Hub, guv, and get one custom-made.”

  “Out of interest,” said Gus, “how big is the Wilton House estate?”

  “Fifteen thousand acres, guv,” said Luke.

  “No wonder they needed one hundred and forty staff back in 2011,” said Gus. “Do you have any meetings arranged for me tomorrow morning, Luke?”

  “Theo Reeves retired at sixty, guv,” said Luke. “He’s a keen fisherman and fair-weather golfer in his retirement. He still lives at the Oakley Road address. I’ve forwarded you the details. Theo can see you at ten o’clock.”