The Eye in the Dark

by Katherine Pathak

“Perhaps that’s exactly why they didn’t.”

  Rhodri nodded in solemn agreement. “Yes, I can see that.”

  “But there was something else they kept from you?”

  Rhodri snapped out of his reverie. “Yes, Betsy mentioned she’d been abroad for a while, before Autumn was born. When they were back in Scotland together and had their daughter, they were living in the Highlands. I never knew that about them. I was always discussing my academic postings abroad, when I was still with my wife and the boys were young. My life was an open book to them.”

  “It’s something I could look into; the Carlisle’s past addresses must be easy enough to find on the database. But to be honest, professor, I’m not sure how it would connect to their daughter’s death? Autumn Carlisle was killed down in London. The DCI seems to reckon it had something to do with her job at the airline. I don’t see how her parents’ lifestyle choices several decades ago can have much of a bearing on it?”

  Rhodri shook his head of unruly hair and tutted in self-admonishment. “You’re quite correct, of course. I shouldn’t let my own vanity affect my judgement. The Carlisles clearly held back certain aspects of their lives from me, as is their prerogative.” He stood abruptly, the plastic chair scraping across the tiled floor behind him. “I’ll be awaiting the arrival of the file, Inspector. Then I will give the notes my full attention.”

  Dermot rose to see the professor out of the station, thinking what an odd character he seemed to be.

  Chapter 19

  The departure gate was busy. An aircraft on the tarmac outside was ready to board. The sun was beating through the tall glass windows. Dani felt the sweat tingle between her shoulder blades.

  “Is this the right place?” The DCI had been to the scene of Kathy Brice’s murder once before, but she found the endless carpeted corridors and waiting areas all looked the same.

  “Yep, it’s number 52,” Nate replied confidently.

  Dani glanced at one of the screens suspended from the ceiling. “This plane is heading for Rome.”

  “On the afternoon of Kathy’s murder, a Lomond Airways flight to Ciampino Airport in Rome, had departed at 5.45pm. But by 6pm, her estimated time of death, the area would have been quiet. The next flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until after 8pm.”

  “What about the flight manifest for the quarter to six departure? Did it reveal any names of interest?”

  “According to the print-out we were given, there were 32 passengers on the flight. There were a handful of families, several single fliers and a few business people. Rome isn’t a typical destination for a package holiday, it’s more a city-break kind of location.”

  The screen above them began to flash and the passengers seated nearby gravitated to form a long line in front of a desk, where a Lomond Airlines representative in a smart uniform was examining their travel documents. Nate moved over to take one of the vacated sofas. He gestured for Dani to join him.

  The DI summoned up a list of names on the screen of his phone. “These are the people who were in this lounge on the afternoon Kathy was killed. Trudy has contacted them all, none has a connection to the victim. The cabin crew on the aircraft that day didn’t notice anyone acting oddly either before or during the flight.”

  Dani chewed her bottom lip. “What about Kathy herself? How often had she worked out of this particular departure gate?”

  Nate deftly flicked to another screen. “Three times in the past year. She tended to work on short-haul flights, so this one featured on her schedule. But she didn’t use it any more than any other on her itinerary.”

  Dani sighed. “There doesn’t seem to be any good reason for Kathy to come down here on the day she was killed.”

  As the snaking line of passengers slowly disappeared through the boarding gate, the waiting area fell eerily quiet.

  Dani glanced at the screen. “There’s not another departure for an hour.” She gazed around her at the area, now devoid of people. “It must have been like this when Kathy went into the toilets. No wonder there are no witnesses.”

  Nate tutted as he observed the clutter of cardboard coffee cups and crisp packets that had been left on the tables by the sofas. He was about to sweep them into the bin when the creak of a trolley signalled the approach of one of the cleaning staff, making a beeline for gate 52.

  Dani shot her colleague a meaningful glance. “The cleaning team must be primed to arrive after a gate has cleared of passengers. They must tidy away their detritus before the next lot arrive.”

  Nate got to his feet as a middle-aged man in a blue overall, pushing a trolley stacked with brushes and mops reached them. He brought out his warrant card. “We’re investigating the suspicious death of a Lomond Airline employee that occurred here on late Wednesday afternoon last week. Did you happen to be on duty at the time?”

  The man furrowed his brow. When he spoke, his accent was eastern European. “I was working on the main concourse when it happened. Some of my colleagues were questioned by the airport police about it. I think it was Margaritte who was on duty in this area when the girl was killed.” He scratched his head. “She saw nothing, mind you.” He threw his hand up to indicate the length of the glass-flanked corridor. “We cover a wide area. She wasn’t anywhere near the toilets when it happened.” The man pulled on a plastic glove and began depositing the rubbish in a bin bag, a sign he had no more to add.

  Nate nodded. “Thank you for your time.”

  The detectives made their way towards the exit. “So much for thinking we may have stumbled upon a witness.”

  Dani shot him a look. “There may not have been an airport cleaner in the area when Kathy was killed, but it might explain how our murderer was able to move about unchallenged in a high-security area.”

  Nate stopped walking. “If he or she was dressed like a cleaner, you mean?”

  Dani shrugged. “It’s possible. If a cleaner entered the toilets after Kathy, she probably wouldn’t have been suspicious about their presence.”

  “It’s definitely worth checking out. The staff who work on this side of passport control must have identity passes and have undergone rigorous security checks.”

  “But if someone possesses the right equipment and looks the part, is anyone going to scrutinise their credentials that hard?”

  Nate squared his broad shoulders. “I’ll have a word with the airport security manager. If your theory is correct, our perp may appear on CCTV images from other areas of the airport. If their appearance doesn’t match photos from current personnel files, we’ve got our killer.”

  Dani sighed. “But that’s one hell of a job. Heathrow covers thousands of square feet, if our perp was a pro, they’d know how to obscure their features when passing a camera. If it was me, I’d wear a baseball cap.”

  Nate shrugged. “Well, right now it’s our only lead for Kathy Brice’s murder. If my boss allows me more man-power I think it’s worth a try.”

  *

  Denny Lomond’s secretary, Diane Martin, was talking to the detectives whilst she arranged envelopes on her desk. She appeared stressed. “We have our own cleaning personnel, but they work only on our aeroplanes. All airport areas are covered by Heathrow.”

  “Might one of your cleaners have clearance to enter the main airport? Could they gain access to secure areas?”

  Diane finally glanced up. “I wouldn’t have thought so. Our domestic staff have different uniforms to the ones used at Heathrow. We live in a post 9/11 world, Inspector. Airport security is extremely tight.”

  Yet, Nate knew that human error was always a possibility, even with the strongest security. The focus at airports was always placed on passengers rather than staff. Uniforms had an uncanny ability to make people invisible.

  Dani stepped forward. “We will need a list of your cleaning staff, along with their contact details.”

  Diane sighed theatrically. “I’ll let the Operations Manager know, he’s got a database of information. He is extremely efficient.” She ha
d begun stuffing letters into the envelopes.

  “Mr Lomond is keeping you busy, I see?” Nate commented lightly, knowing this would annoy the secretary.

  “I’m always busy, Inspector. But on top of my usual duties, I also find myself at the sharp end of an industrial dispute. These letters set out the final pay agreement with our pilots.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Let’s hope it sees an end to all this nonsense.”

  “Are the cabin crew involved in these negotiations at all?” Dani enquired, genuinely interested. “Didn’t they have any issues over pay or conditions?”

  “No, thank God. We could certainly do without that on top of everything else.” She met Dani’s eye for the first time. “Autumn Carlisle was a good appointment in that respect. As a manager, she kept Mr Lomond very well informed about the needs of her crew. If there were any complaints, she would have told us about it before things ever reached a crisis point. Unlike this current mess with the pilots. I just hope her replacement will be as capable.”

  “Did Ms Carlisle spend a lot of time with Mr Lomond, then?” Nate kept his tone neutral.

  “She came to his office once a week, on a Friday morning at 10am. I made a pot of coffee and brought in some nice pastries from the French café on the concourse. Mr Lomond insisted on it.”

  “Did you ever suspect their relationship was more than just professional?”

  Diane dropped the envelope she was filling and looked surprised. “Not at all. They worked well together, but I never thought it was anything more than that.”

  “Before she was killed, Kathy Brice suggested to us there was more to the relationship, that Autumn may have been sleeping with Denny Lomond.”

  Diane rolled her eyes. “Well, I don’t wish to speak ill of the dead, but that girl was quite a gossip. I don’t tend to be ‘in the loop’ myself, being up here in Mr Lomond’s office most of the time, but a couple of the stewardesses told me in the canteen that Kathy was,” she cleared her throat awkwardly. “A shit-stirrer, was the exact term they used.”

  Dani smiled thinly at the expression, which didn’t sit easily on Diane’s lips. “We heard similar accusations during our interviews. But it doesn’t mean Kathy wasn’t sometimes correct in her theories.”

  The secretary took a step back from the desk, as if she’d been given an electric shock, her customary composure briefly slipping. “Yes, I suppose that’s right.”

  *

  Nate followed the slow traffic as it inched out of the short-stay airport car-park. “My team have got plenty of work to do. The airport police are releasing the digital recordings from thirty different surveillance cameras that were operating last Wednesday.”

  “You’ll also have the list of Lomond’s cleaning staff by the end of today.”

  Nate grunted. “You don’t fancy inviting some of your staff down from Glasgow to join the party, do you?”

  Dani laughed. She thought about Andy Calder and how he would be reacting to having Dermot Muir in temporary charge of the department. For a split second, she was tempted. “I don’t think it would wash with my DCS. But I’ve got a couple of people back home taking a look at Autumn’s mother for us.”

  “Yeah, I do appreciate that.” He gripped the steering wheel and gave an awkward grin. “I know you’re staying in that crappy travel hotel. I’d hate to think you were considering heading back north yourself. To be honest, I need your help on this case.”

  “I must admit, the food in the hotel bar could be better.”

  Nate swivelled in his seat. “You’re welcome to kip at my place. I’ve got a spare room that never gets used. I don’t cook, but you could have full use of my kitchen.”

  Dani smiled. “I’m grateful for the offer, but I promise you I’m quite comfortable where I am. You don’t have to worry, I’m as determined to solve this case as you are.”

  He looked relieved. “As long as you’re here, the bosses won’t take this out of my hands. I reckon my DCI thinks I’m out of my depth. He’s constantly checking up on my progress.”

  “It’s your case, Nate. I’m just assisting. Try to have more confidence in your policing.” Dani was irritated that she’d managed to end up bolstering the DI’s ego again. She resolved to say no more on the subject.

  “Right, I’ll drop you off at your hotel on the way back to Hammersmith. It’s been a long day, try to get a decent night’s sleep.”

  Dani relaxed back into the passenger seat, watching the dense traffic flowing on either side of them. She liked DI Lawrence, he was a compassionate and clever cop. But on a personal level, she wouldn’t deny he could be extremely hard work.

  Chapter 20

  Dani was woken in the early hours of the morning by the low rumble she had come to recognise as the first jets of the day landing at Heathrow. The hotel staff kept telling her it was something one grew used to, but the noise still grated on Dani’s nerves.

  For a few moments, when Dani’s body felt heavy with a yearning for more sleep, she briefly considered Nate’s offer of the use of his spare room. Was his flat in the flight path of the airport, she wondered? She quickly quashed these thoughts as it dawned on her she’d almost certainly be required to provide him with a daily pep-talk on his abilities as a police detective.

  Instead of dwelling on the prospect, Dani took a shower and woke herself up with a strong coffee from the hotel’s buffet breakfast. Knowing that Nate’s team would be tied up with the CCTV footage from the airport all day, she had requested the personal use of an unmarked car.

  When the officer from Hammersmith handed over the keys to a silver Mondeo estate in the hotel car-park, it wasn’t yet 8am. Dani took advantage of the clear roads to set the coordinates for Haywards Heath, West Sussex into the sat nav.

  The sun was rising over the undulating countryside as Dani drove out of the urban sprawl of south London. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was obviously going to be another hot day. A haze of warm air already hung over the tarmac of the road ahead, a phenomenon which rarely occurred back home in Scotland.

  It was just after nine when Dani entered the town and scoured the road signs for directions to a car-park. She found one near the centre and displayed a ticket that gave her a couple of hours to look around.

  Dani knew Haywards Heath was the nearest town to the village of Mitchling, where Autumn Carlisle had lived for several years. She imagined the air stewardess would have spent a reasonable amount of time here. It would have been where she’d have used the supermarket and got petrol, picked up her prescriptions from the chemist, perhaps.

  The High Street was an attractive mix of old and new buildings. The place had the air of confident affluence to it. Dani stopped when she reached a café which was displaying local art and crafts in the window. She recalled Autumn buying a piece of art from the couple in Amsterdam and decided to go inside.

  The café had only just opened. The smell of freshly baked produce made Dani’s stomach grumble. She’d only had a coffee for breakfast. A small, balding man in a green apron beamed at her from the other side of the counter.

  Dani ordered a cappuccino and a home-made Danish pastry, lingering to examine the paintings on the walls whilst her order was prepared. Most of the images rendered within the neat, white frames were of the lush, gentle hills and skies of the South Downs, or the coastline which lay not far beyond. Dani paused when she saw a collection of watercolours depicting light aircraft; some of which were on the ground and others looping amongst fluffy clouds; all had been executed by a skilful hand.

  The man in the apron carried over the cappuccino and pastry on a tiny tray, placing them on the table nearest Dani. “They’re very good, aren’t they?” He commented affably.

  “Yes, they are. Is the artist local?”

  The man stood still and folded his arms across a portly chest. “The ones of the planes are by Arthur Keating. He lives in one of the nearby villages. He used to fly in the RAF, but he’s long retired. Those paintings are of the light aircraft o
ut at Colville.”

  Dani looked bemused. “What’s Colville?”

  “Oh, it’s an airfield. We’ve got a fair few in the area. We’re not just about Gatwick and the big Airbuses, you know.”

  Dani sipped her coffee and took a bite of pastry; it was crumbly, buttery and delicious. “I’ve spent quite a bit of time at big airports recently. To be honest, I could do without seeing another one for a while.”

  “Frequent overseas traveller, are you?”

  Dani nodded with her mouth full, not wanting to have to explain.

  “We have a lot of air crew who live here in town. They take the bus into Gatwick. It brings money to the area without a doubt and business to us cafés and restaurants. But the countryside is lovely. We dread the airport expanding like it will at Heathrow, although it feels like just a matter of time for us.” He sighed heavily.

  Dani sat up straighter in her seat. “Do you know a lady called Autumn Carlisle? She had a cottage in Mitchling and probably came into the town a lot. She was a stewardess for BA.”

  The man wrinkled his brow. “I don’t know the name, I’m sorry.”

  Dani fumbled in her bag for a copy of the photo of Autumn from her Lomond Airlines employee file. She folded it out flat and showed it to the man.

  He examined it carefully. “Goodness, yes. I know that lady. She has the most gorgeous red hair and was always beautifully made-up. I should have known she was an air stewardess.” He smiled wistfully. “But she’s not been in for over a year, at least.”

  Dani felt her heart beat quicken. “Was she a regular customer?”

  “Not like the folk who come in everyday for their cuppa. She was perhaps here once or twice a month. But like you, she was very interested in our artwork.” He narrowed his eyes. “In fact, I’m pretty sure she bought one of Arthur’s paintings. I recall it because I was surprised at her choice.”

  “Why was that?”

  “It wasn’t one of the pictures showing the aircraft in flight. I thought the piece she chose was rather dark. It was of a light aircraft that had crashed into woodland. There were no dead bodies in it, or anything gruesome like that. But the plane itself almost had the appearance of a dead animal; mangled and lifeless.” He shuddered. “I certainly wouldn’t have had it on my wall at home.”