by Anita Waller
She photographed the envelope, then put it in an evidence bag. It was time to talk to the man who had found the body, and send him on his way to get warm in the magnificent great house that was Chatsworth. It currently was dominating a somewhat grey skyline, but looking just as impressive as it did in beautiful sunlight.
She marked the spot where the bag had been found, and bagged it up, then handed it to DC Ray Charlton for safekeeping. ‘We’ll go through it when we get back to headquarters,’ Tessa said.
Tessa dropped down the hill, followed by Hannah. Suddenly she held out a hand as if in warning, and they stopped.
‘Hannah, how many men are sitting in my car?’
‘Four, boss.’
‘That’s what I thought. Any of them in uniform?’
‘No, boss.’
‘Well, that’s a relief. I haven’t got to bawl anybody out. Come on, let’s go and find out what’s going on. I need to get some sort of statement from… Harry… I think he’s called that.’
They slid down the slope and walked across to the car, both of them feeling grateful for the wellingtons they routinely carried in the boot. All four doors opened at the same time and the men climbed out.
Harry Hardy moved towards Tessa, then stopped.
‘DI Marsden, you met Davy earlier. This is my boss, Frank Norman, in charge of all the grounds staff here at Chatsworth, and this is his boss, His Grace the Duke of Devonshire.’
4
Tessa didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she watched the four men trudging over the hill, back towards Chatsworth House. She had come so close to eyeing up the two men who had been in the back seat of her car, and simply saying, ‘And you are?’, so close…
Thank God Harry Hardy had been decent enough to jump in with introductions. The Duke explained that he had waited to speak to her, because he wanted to offer them space at Chatsworth if they needed an operations room. It was no difficulty for her to address him as Your Grace, and she had thanked him for his offer. She explained that it still had to be confirmed as a homicide, but if it proved to be the case, they would take him at his word, and move into whatever accommodation he could organise for them.
It was bitterly cold, and she watched as her team intermittently edged down towards the newly arrived refreshments truck, eager for a cup of anything hot that would warm their hands, and then the rest of them, as they drank. The notice, hastily scribbled, said VISITORS TOILETS OPEN AT THE BIG HOUSE, and was placed prominently in the window of the truck. It soon occurred to everyone that it was quite a walk, and maybe they should limit their fluid intake. And peeing behind a tree in this locality could lead to them being arrested for murder.
The thoroughness of the search told them all that it was murder. So far nobody had said how she had died, but they were fingertipping as much as possible given the depth of the snow, and the area they had started to cover was all beginning to look like a grey smudgy blot on the pristine white landscape.
Eventually Martin Robinson gave the go-ahead for the body to be removed, allowing the inside of the tent to be searched.
‘Congratulations, DI Marsden, you seemingly have yourself another murder. I heard on the grapevine on my first day that you’d just cleared up a couple of issues before Christmas.’
‘My team did,’ she said with a smile. ‘I’m not Wonder Woman, I don’t do these things on my own. We had two girls killed on the same night, both from Castleton. Unrelated crimes, but one was soon solved. The other was a bit more complicated. I have an address to start off the investigation with this one, but apart from her name that’s all I have at the moment. I’ll check in later and see if anyone’s been reported missing.’
‘You’ll be at the post-mortem?’
‘Definitely. It helps. Gives me a stronger link, call it empathy, to the victim.’
‘And have they found anything, your team?’
‘Only the handbag. It was some distance away from the body, and under deep snow, so I suspect she was killed before the snow started, about midnight according to His Grace…’
‘His Grace? You saw our royalty? He’s been here?’
‘He was sitting on the back seat of my car,’ she said ruefully. ‘I was so close to demanding he get out, until the chap who found the body introduced us. The Duke’s lovely, really down to earth, offered us a room in Chatsworth as headquarters for the investigation. That will be a help, because trailing out from Chesterfield every day for the entire team is a pain, especially in this weather. Most of them live in Derbyshire, in one or other of the villages around here.’
He winked. ‘Shouldn’t worry, two days tops and you’ll have it solved.’
‘If only,’ she said. ‘Was there snow under the body?’
‘None under where her bum was, but snow had drifted under and around her legs because they were slightly bent. She was definitely killed before it started, but I can’t give you a precise time until we do the post-mortem.’ He bent and picked up his case. ‘It’s been nice meeting you, DI Marsden.’
‘Tessa,’ she said, and returned his wink.
‘You’re flirting,’ Hannah said. She appeared behind Tessa as she stood watching the tall man walk down to the road to get into his car.
‘Never,’ Tessa responded.
‘Can I have him then?’
‘Definitely not. I’m the boss, I get first dibs.’
Tessa was standing on the observation walkway when Martin Robinson waved to her to come down and join him in the autopsy room. Nicola Armstrong’s body was covered with a sheet but the ligature was still around her neck, awaiting more detailed analysis before it was removed.
Tessa felt slightly sick at the thought of being up close and personal to the victim when Martin made the Y incision down her body; Tessa had been quite willing to stand on the walkway and observe.
He smiled at her as she entered the room. ‘Good morning, DI Marsden. I thought you would be able to see better down here.’
She knew he was testing her.
‘That’s fine,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t have intruded, but thank you for the opportunity of seeing this at close quarters.’
He grinned. ‘You’re welcome. But if you’re going to faint, can you make sure it’s away from the autopsy table.’
‘I’ll try.’ She said nothing further and waited patiently for him to start.
The ligature proved to be some brand of washing line, sold universally, and wasn’t new. Martin confirmed it as cause of death, and estimated time of expiry to be between 22:03 and approximately midnight, when the snow began. ‘She was definitely placed by the tree before the snow started, because there was no snow on the ground where she was sitting with her back to the tree.’
‘22:03? That’s very precise.’ Tessa looked up from her notebook.
‘Her mobile phone was in her jeans pocket. She made a phone call at 22:03. There has been no further activity on it overnight.’ He passed the phone to Tessa, inside an evidence bag. ‘It’s okay,’ he said. ‘There’s no passwords or fingerprint recognition on it, you can get straight into it. It’s not exactly a state-of-the-art iPhone.’
‘No,’ she said, ‘but the one inside her handbag is.’
The autopsy went smoothly enough, and her fingerprints proved beyond doubt that she was Nicola Lynne Armstrong. She had a conviction for shoplifting dating back twenty years, and her prints were on file. Tessa sat at her desk and quickly scanned through the details on the report.
Nicola’s stomach contents showed that she hadn’t eaten for a few hours, but the alcohol in her blood was high. Very high. It occurred to Tessa that maybe it was too high for Nicola to have been able to retaliate.
Tessa made a call. ‘Martin… this alcohol level in Nicola’s body. Would she have been able to fight back?’
‘I doubt it. We got nothing from under her fingernails to indicate she might have struggled even a little. She had no weight on her, as you saw, a very slight lady. The alcohol at that level would render her
able to walk but with a definite wobble, I would have thought.’
‘That’s what I figured. Just needed it confirming, thanks.’
‘You’re very welcome. Tessa…’ he hesitated.
‘Yes?’
‘Oh, bugger it. Can I take you for a drink?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yes?’
‘Yes. You want me to say it again?’
‘No, I’m just a bit shocked you said it first time around. Tonight?’
‘That would be lovely, unless I get tied up in this. I’ll call you if it can’t happen, okay?’
‘Okay. My god, I love an organised efficient woman. I’ll text you my mobile number.’
‘You have mine?’
‘Oh, I do. Made a point of getting it from the duty sergeant.’
Her laughter rang down the phone. It would be all around the police station in two days that Martin Robinson had asked for Tessa Marsden’s phone number. ‘Okay, Martin. You don’t know what you’ve done, but I can handle it. I finish around six unless something crops up. That okay?’
‘Definitely. I’ll find your office.’
He put down the phone before she could say that wouldn’t be advisable, and then she grinned. It would be good to see her team’s faces when they realised what was happening.
She pulled Nicola’s old mobile phone towards her, and woke it up. Her own phone pinged with a message from Martin, as he sent her his number.
Nicola’s phone told Tessa very little. There was only one number in the contacts list, the number Nicola had rung at just after ten o’clock the night she died. Tessa was undecided. Should she send it through for the experts to try to find out who it belonged to, or should she just ring the damn number and risk alerting the owner?
Her door opened and Hannah’s smiling face appeared. ‘Hey, that dishy pathologist asked for your phone number.’
Tessa heaved a huge sigh. It definitely hadn’t taken two days. ‘I know. He hadn’t got it, and it’s always possible he’ll need it. Don’t forget he’s new here, he’ll be getting everybody’s mobile number.’
‘He’s not asked for mine.’
‘I’ll give it to him. Did you want something?’
‘Yes. You recovered from the autopsy?’
‘I have. As autopsies go, it wasn’t too bad. I’ve been to worse. This was found in her jeans pocket.’ She pushed the phone across to her DS.
‘Anything helpful?’ Hannah asked, as she picked it up.
‘Not really. Only one number in it. I was just debating whether to ring it or not, or let the techy guys have it to try to trace that number. If I ring it and it’s somebody we’d rather not alert to anything, we lose the element of surprise.’
‘You’re right. I say don’t ring it yet, not till the techs have done their thing with it. Are you ready for going to that address in Baslow?’
Tessa stood. ‘I am. Let’s hope there’s been some snow-clearing. We’ll do the Baslow visit first, then head to Chatsworth, to the incident room.’
The drive to Baslow was easier than the day before and the landscape was breathtaking. Field after field was covered in deep snow, trees bent almost to the ground with the weight of it on their branches. The sun was shining but with no warmth in its rays, and it turned the air into a crisp end-of-the-nose-freezing blanket of coldness.
Hannah drove carefully. The road had been gritted but it was clear very little traffic had used it. She guessed most people were taking a snow day.
‘I’d have liked a snow day today,’ Hannah said, ‘this is perfect sledging weather.’
‘You go sledging?’
‘I like to take my nieces. My sister hates the stuff, so I jumped at the chance. It’s not often we get it like this though, there’s usually just a couple of inches. I’m not going to be their favourite aunty if this lot goes before the weekend.’ She slowed down for a sheep standing in the middle of the road. ‘Shouldn’t that be under cover somewhere?’
‘I refuse to investigate a sheep in the middle of a Derbyshire road. If it’s stupid enough to risk getting killed by standing there, then so be it,’ Tessa said, while swivelling in her seat to look back at the animal, hoping it would continue its walk to the other side of the road.
The satnav told them they had arrived at their destination, and both women took a moment to look at the house. It was big, double fronted, with a bright red door situated centrally between the two large downstairs bay windows.
They got out of the car, and headed through the unmarked thick snow towards the front door.
5
Luke arrived at work with a shovel, and cleared the snow from outside the office. Doris handed him a pack of salt, and he scattered it around before heading back into the warmth.
All four of them stood looking out of the window, sipping hot chocolates, hands wrapped tightly around the warm mugs.
‘I’ll be quite annoyed if it snows again,’ Luke said, casting his eyes skyward. ‘Quite annoyed.’
‘If it does,’ Doris mused, ‘our clients can take their chances. Luckily we have nobody booked in for today, so I’ve set up the entry-level course for you that we discussed. I suggest you crack on with that. It’s a very flexible kind of job, anything can crop up at a minute’s notice, so just go with it. Learn what you can from the courses, but I promise there will be hands-on stuff as well.’
‘And I’ve got something for you,’ Kat said. She disappeared into her office and returned with a fob.
Luke thanked her. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s to get in here. If you arrive earlier than us I don’t want you standing out in the cold.’
‘Cool,’ he said. ‘I promise not to have any wild parties in here.’
‘That’s good,’ Kat said, glancing around at the reception area that had shrunk considerably with the advent of Doris’s office. ‘It wouldn’t be much of a party in this tiny space, and all the other offices are locked. The code for entering into the keypad to raise the shutters is 3162. They then rise automatically. You okay with that?’
Luke took a sip of his hot chocolate. ‘I’m okay with everything. I’ll be glad when Christmas is out of the way properly, and people start living again. We need clients. I’m a receptionist with nobody to receive,’ he said with a laugh.
‘See,’ Doris said thoughtfully. ‘See what Luke did then? He said people start living again. That’s the attitude we want instead of all these dead bodies we end up being involved with. We need to make a notice for the window that says NO DEAD BODIES ALLOWED.’
Luke took a sip of his drink. ‘Kat, is Mrs Lester always a spoilsport?’
Kat grinned at him. ‘The problem with Nan is that she listens too much to DI Marsden. She always tells us not to find her any corpses, and we usually find her at least one. You ever seen a dead body, Luke?’
He shook his head before speaking. ‘No, can’t even say I’ve known anybody who died. My granddad passed just after I was born, so I didn’t know him, and everybody else is still here. Thankfully,’ he added. He didn’t want anybody thinking he wanted to kill some random member of his family in order to see a body.
They took their drinks and disappeared into their offices, Mouse to have a conference call with Joel and one of the other partners, Kat to start on her sermon before switching her head around to Connection work, and Doris to check into her emails.
Mouse had been taken aback by the strength of her feelings that seemed to be developing for Joel Masters. From the first second she had been introduced to him when she had given a presentation at his company, the attraction had been there. Even seeing him from the distance of a conference call was a boost to her day, and emphasised to her just how special Christmas had been.
Luke clicked on the icon for the course Doris had arranged for him, and quickly read through the information pertaining to the qualification. It briefly occurred to him it was like being back at school, but lessons had never been like this. He sipped on his hot chocolate as the first page o
pened up for him. He smiled.
‘I’m assuming that’s her car,’ Hannah said, as she knocked on the door of Nicola Armstrong’s house in Baslow for the second time.
‘Ring it in and get it checked once we get inside,’ Tessa said. ‘There’s also no footprints apart from ours in this damn snow. It’s a big house if it’s for only one person. We’ll give it a minute then go in.’ She fished around in her bag for the set of keys found in the handbag discovered in Chatsworth’s snow.
Hannah banged on the door for the third time, shouted ‘Police!’ through the letterbox, and inserted the key Tessa handed to her. They pushed against the bright red paintwork and the door swung open with a slight creak.
The hall was big, an enormously handsome jardinière taking up a section of it, complete with an aspidistra. The hall lights were lit, indicating that Nicola Armstrong had intended coming home the night of her death. The radiators were also on; definitely a welcoming house.
‘Check upstairs, Hannah,’ Marsden said, pulling latex gloves onto her cold hands.
Hannah pulled on her own gloves and climbed the stairs, not touching the banister; she didn’t want to smudge any fingerprints. She reached the top and turned to look back down the stairs and into the entrance hall. Marsden had disappeared, and nothing looked out of place.