Murder in Room 346

by Phillip Strang

  The bed in the rear room was unused, the occasional favour from one of the women to Knox missing. A better class of women, a better return on the investment, but no more late-night romance.

  Knox was pleased with the way the business was going; he was not pleased with the man sitting opposite.

  ‘He said he knew you,’ Doug said as he let the man into the office.

  ‘Did you check him out?’

  ‘He showed his ID.’

  After Doug had left, Knox turned to Isaac. ‘Are you here to ask questions? I’ve told you all I know.’

  ‘Not all.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Ben Aberman’s ex-wife. What can you tell me about her?’

  ‘She never came in here, and besides, when I took over, Aberman was with Helen.’

  ‘You used to go to the parties out at Aberman’s house before you took over here.’

  ‘Sometimes. I was running another club. He invited me as a courtesy. I’d return the favour.’

  ‘Did you have parties?’

  ‘Not me. I didn’t have that sort of money, but we swapped girls at the clubs. If one of them was off ill or absent or overdosed, we’d send one of ours over.’

  ‘The parties at Aberman’s house when his wife was there, what were they like?’

  ‘The later parties were better.’

  ‘Regardless, what were they like?’

  ‘Plenty of alcohol, plenty of women.’

  ‘Did his wife take part?’

  ‘Not that I saw. Mind you, I was always busy.’

  Yet again, Isaac realised that the ex-Mrs Aberman was somehow involved. She had always given the impression of non-involvement in her husband’s business affairs, yet she attended the parties, even turned a blind eye to the shenanigans.

  ‘Aberman used to throw a lot of money around. These parties couldn’t have been cheap.’

  ‘That was Aberman. He always liked to put on a show. I never understood how he did it, but I was glad of the invite.’

  ‘You went to every one?’

  ‘Not all of them. We weren’t that friendly, it was just business.’

  ‘Gerald Adamant, what can you tell me about him?’

  ‘Not much, apart from him marrying Helen. After she left here, nobody heard from her for a few months, and then, all of a sudden, she’s being squired around the town on Adamant’s arm. The first time Daisy saw her picture in a newspaper, she was in here showing me.’

  ‘Daisy, was she surprised?’

  ‘Daisy and Helen, they’d been sort of friends in the club, although, with Helen, you never knew if she was a friend or whether it was something else.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I’m not sure how to explain it. She came to the club, got up on the stage, and she was a great performer. She knew how to excite the men, and then she’d finish for the night, get dressed in regular clothes and walk out of the door.’

  ‘What else?’

  ‘Before she moved in with Aberman on a semi-permanent basis, no one knew where she went after she left the club.’

  ‘You know a lot about this woman,’ Isaac said.

  ‘Not me, but there she is with Adamant, and then she marries the man. There was plenty of gossip about her. Most of the girls here on that pole, they’re looking for the knight in shining armour, ready to take them away from all this and into a life of luxury, the loving husband, the house in the country. Normal childhood dreams, but with them, they carried on into adulthood. It’s the life they lead, I suppose.’

  ‘Do you want out?’

  ‘A regular job, plenty of money? Of course I do. What do you think I’m doing here, living on the edge, wondering when the next gangster is coming to knock on the door, to tell me my number’s up?’

  ‘Is that likely?’

  ‘Who knows. We’re strictly legal here, but our protection comes at a cost.’

  ‘Who owns this club? It’s never been explained.’

  ‘As I’ve told you before, a consortium of businessmen.’

  ‘But you must have met them?’

  ‘Not me. I’ve met the man who put me in this job, but apart from that, I haven’t, and that’s the truth.’

  ‘I’m interested in Gerald Adamant. How did he come to know Helen?’

  ‘I’m not sure. Some of the women said he used to come into the club.’

  ‘Gus?’

  ‘He said he did, but I wouldn’t place too much credence on him.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Gus only sees the people of a night time when it’s dark.’

  ‘I need to meet this consortium,’ Isaac said.

  ‘They’ll not talk to you, even if you can find them.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘They’re secretive.’

  ‘Why are they secretive? You’re legal.’

  ‘Social stigma. Businessmen are after a good return on their money, and these clubs can be money in the bank, only it doesn’t look good on their financial returns. It won’t help their reputations, their being involved in strip clubs, prostitution, drug dealing.’

  ‘You said there was no prostitution or drugs here.’

  ‘There isn’t, but people always associate these places with crime and sin.’

  ‘How do you see it?’

  ‘A night out with the boys, a chance to get drunk, to have a laugh and a look at the women. We’re entertainment for the grown-ups.’

  ***

  Back at Challis Street Police Station, Isaac called the team into his office. Chief Superintendent Goddard came as well, although he did not stay long. He gave the obligatory words of encouragement and left hurriedly, another meeting, another chance to press the flesh.

  ‘Wendy, anything more?’ Isaac said. He was sitting upright, his arms resting on his desk.

  ‘I’m not sure I understand Ben Aberman’s widow. Before, at her house in Chelsea, she was pleasant. Now, out at Bray, there’s a hardness in her. She’s fallen out with the next-door neighbour, accused her of prying.’

  ‘Was she?’

  ‘Probably.’

  ‘You think the ex-Mrs Aberman is hiding something.’

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  ‘Bridget, what do we have on her?’

  ‘Christine Aberman, married to Ben for fifteen years, no children. Originally trained as a nurse, although she’s not worked for the last twenty years. She’s from London, the same area as Aberman. She divorced Aberman, moved in with William Ecclestone, a bank manager, although she still uses Aberman as her surname. The house in Chelsea is beyond a bank manager’s salary.’

  ‘It was part of the divorce settlement, according to her,’ Wendy said.

  ‘It was. I have a copy of it, as well as the division of the assets,’ Bridget said. ‘There was no money owing on the house.’

  ‘Could he have made this amount of money with Dixey’s and two other clubs?’ Larry said.

  ‘His tax returns indicate he could not, although I assume there’s a lot of black money.’

  ‘Would he be subject to a tax audit?’ Wendy said.

  ‘Unlikely,’ Isaac said. ‘He’d use smart accountants to head them off, and his records would be meticulous.’

  ‘They are,’ Bridget said.

  ‘And the house in Bray?’

  ‘Yet again, paid off.’

  ‘It’s still suspicious,’ Isaac said.

  ‘He may have inherited money.’

  ‘Would Aberman’s ex-wife know?’

  ‘Maybe. We could ask her.’

  ‘Wendy, set it up. I’ll go with you,’ Isaac said. ‘Before we wrap up, what about the consortium that took over Aberman’s assets?’

  ‘I can’t make the connection to anyone. Slater was their mouthpiece.’

  ‘He’s dead, but the clubs are still running. Who are they reporting to?’

  ‘Barry Knox would know,’ Larry said.

  ‘It’s possible, but he’s not talking, or he’s scared.’

  Chapt
er 24

  Christine Aberman did not appreciate the visit by Isaac and his sergeant so soon after the previous visit. She was in the garden. As Wendy walked out to meet her, she glanced around at the house next door. She was sure the curtains had moved in the window that Mrs Hawthorne used for spying.

  ‘You’ve ended up a very wealthy woman. Why have you kept both houses?’ Wendy said.

  ‘Good fortune, I suppose,’ the woman said as she got up from her sitting position on the ground.

  ‘It’s more than that. The men who took your husband’s clubs would not have hesitated to take this house. We’ve always assumed it was because Helen Langdon had some relationship with them, but it could be you.’

  ‘I resent your aspersions. I was a loyal wife to Ben, even when he bought the first club. I didn’t approve back then, I don’t approve now. If this house and the one in Chelsea are the results of those places, then some good has come of them, but that’s all.’

  ‘Was Gerald Adamant at the parties more than the one time?’

  ‘I told you I saw him here the one time.’

  ‘Soon the pieces will fall into place. If we find out you’re lying, it will reflect badly on you. I suggest you tell us what you know before it is too late.’

  ‘Okay, Adamant sometimes came to the parties. I never saw him with any of the women.’

  ‘But Adamant is known as a philanthropist,’ Wendy said.

  ‘He wasn’t back then. Maybe he distanced himself afterwards, but he was up to no good when I met him.’

  ‘Tell us about him.’

  ‘He was a charming man, very polite. He’d come to the parties, not every time, and he and Ben would sit down and talk. Back then, they were friends, or they appeared to be.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Adamant had my husband killed.’

  ‘Are you certain?’

  ‘It’s the only explanation. I knew Ben had taken up with Helen and he was even considering marrying her.’

  ‘How do you know this?’

  ‘We were divorced, but we kept in contact. He phoned to tell me about Helen, told me she was a good woman.’

  ‘Did he tell you about her working in the club?’

  ‘He tried to explain that she was a free spirit.’

  ‘Did you believe him?’

  ‘I believed it was what he thought, but he was naïve. If she was wrapping herself around a pole with no clothes on, she was more than a free spirit.’

  ‘What did you think she was?’

  ‘I didn’t think anything. Ben was keen on her, and there’s no way I was going to dissuade him. Anyway, three weeks later, he’s dead.’

  ‘Do you believe that Gerald Adamant was involved with the group that took over Ben’s clubs?’

  ‘He was the group.’

  ‘This house?’

  ‘Slater phoned me, asked if I’d accept the house for not asking too many questions.’

  ‘And you agreed?’

  ‘Yes. I had committed no crime.’

  ‘Did you believe Ben to be dead?’

  ‘I was told he had gone overseas, and that he’d be back one day, but I didn’t believe it. I didn’t know he was buried in this garden.’

  ‘Why didn’t you move in?’

  ‘That was the deal. Helen would look after the place for Aberman, maintain the pretence that he was coming back. If I had moved into the house, it would have been suspicious, and one thing Adamant did not want was anything obvious.’

  ‘The philanthropy of the man?’

  ‘Gerald Adamant used his charitable causes as the perfect cover. The man enjoyed living on the edge, being smarter than the next man. And then Helen kills him, claims it’s self-defence, even got Adamant’s children to act as character witnesses.’

  ‘Who’s running Adamant’s criminal enterprises now?’

  ‘Why are you asking me? Talk to Barry Knox, he’ll know.’

  ***

  The revelations of Christine Aberman had cleared the way forward for Homicide.

  ‘Bridget, what do we have on Adamant’s children that we didn’t know before?’ Isaac asked.

  ‘Archie, the eldest. He’s forty-three. Then there’s Abigail, forty-one, and Howard, the younger son, the child of Gerald’s second wife, he’s twenty-nine.’

  ‘Discount Howard,’ Isaac said.

  ‘Any reason?’ Larry said.

  ‘Too young.’

  ‘But he’s smart. The man can achieve plenty with a computer.’

  ‘Okay. Leave him in for now. Let’s focus on Archie.’

  ‘Archie, short for Archibald, is a lawyer, practises in Paddington. He takes care of the family’s business interests.’

  ‘Any evidence that Archie could have taken over his father’s criminal interests?’

  ‘Is Christine Aberman’s testimony enough to convince us that Gerald Adamant was behind the takeover of Aberman’s clubs?’ Larry said.

  ‘It’s the missing link that ties Aberman and Adamant, and Helen to Adamant. Helen knew that Adamant ordered Aberman’s death. She knows where he is and she lays in a plan to snare the man.’

  ‘But why wait so long before killing him?’

  ‘Helen’s smart. She knows that if she had killed him before they were married, then it’s murder. If she married him, then killed him on their wedding night, then it’s the same. But she waits, redeems herself in society.’

  ‘It worked,’ Wendy said.

  ‘A remarkable woman,’ Isaac said.

  ‘Do you think so?’ Bridget said.

  ‘To achieve what she did, even if it was murder. She kept focussed all those years, never once letting her guard drop, and then she killed the man who had killed Aberman.’

  ‘Do you think she loved him?’ Wendy said.

  ‘We’ll never know.’

  ‘We need to prove that Gerald Adamant was responsible for Aberman’s death,’ Isaac said. ‘Larry, we’ll go and visit his daughter. She may be the easiest to deal with.’

  ***

  Abigail Adamant, a woman who did little other than spend the family money on frivolities, had not been easy to find. In the end, Bridget found her through accessing her Facebook account; she was at a restaurant in Chelsea.

  ‘Miss Adamant, the death of your father’s widow,’ Isaac said once he and Larry had separated the woman from her friends.

  ‘Call me Abigail,’ she said. She was fashionably dressed, and also slightly drunk after lunch with her friends. One or two of them had looked over at the tall, dark and handsome detective chief inspector when Isaac and Larry had entered the restaurant. Isaac had seen the sniggering, the comments passed between the women. He had felt embarrassed. He was on duty and anxious to conclude the current investigations.

  ‘Abigail, was your father involved in crime?’

  ‘Are you accusing him?’

  Isaac realised his questioning was probably too direct for a woman unsteady on her feet. He ordered her a black coffee. He needed her sober.

  ‘We’ve received information that your father was involved in the takeover of Ben Aberman’s clubs.’

  ‘Ben Aberman?’

  ‘Are you saying you’ve not heard of the man?’

  ‘I read the news. His body was found in the back garden of his house.’

  ‘He was the former lover of your father’s widow. You must have known this.’

  ‘Not from Helen.’

  ‘We have to consider the possibility that Helen, a woman that no one seems to know fully, had married your father as a means of getting close enough to kill him.’

  ‘By why marry him? Why pretend to love him and to take an interest in his causes?’

  ‘Because if she managed to convince you and your brothers that she loved your father, you would all support her assertion that it was self-defence.’

  ‘But it’s absurd. No one could keep up that pretence for so long.’

  ‘She could. She had stripped in a club, yet came away unscathed, she had marri
ed your father, and then she fell in love with James Holden.’

  ‘Love?’

  ‘His widow believes she had fallen in love with her husband.’

  ‘Could it have been a pretence with James Holden?’

  ‘Did you know the man?’

  ‘He and my father were friends.’

  ‘If we prove that your father was involved in crime, what would you think of your father?’

  ‘Nothing would change. He did a lot of good with his causes.’

  ‘So did James Holden, and he was killed. There’s something else.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘We believe your father gave the order for Ben Aberman to be killed,’ Isaac said.

  ‘What right do you have to besmirch my father’s good name by such accusations?’

  ‘Ben Aberman and your father met on several occasions. Your father was far from the saint you would portray him as.’

  ‘I’ve not said he was a saint.’

  ‘Did you know Nicholas Slater?’

  ‘Yes, I met him once or twice. Father introduced me to him.’

  ‘He was an acquaintance of Ben Aberman, even went to his parties.’

  ‘My father went to one or two, I know that.’

  ‘Did you know what sort of parties they were?’

  ‘I never asked my father, but I can imagine. Alcohol and a good time.’

  ‘And women supplied by Aberman,’ Isaac said.

  ‘Good for my father, if that was the case,’ Abigail said.

  Larry observed Isaac going easy on the woman. ‘Abigail, if what we have been told is correct, it would destroy your father’s reputation,’ he said.

  ‘It wouldn’t concern me. I’m not filled with the need to help others. I’m a selfish person. My father helped a lot of people. My brother is trying to do the same, but he’ll not succeed as well as our father.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Our father had genuine compassion. He was charismatic, people instinctively liked him. You’ve met my brother. He can be blunt with people, and he doesn’t have the same level of commitment. My brother and I, we’re the generation that loses the money.’