by Ford, P. F.
As soon as she saw them enter the reception area, though, Millie Gibson shook her head.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘If you’re looking for God’s gift I’m afraid he’s out for the day. You should have called first.’
‘Yeah,’ said Norman. ‘I know, but this wasn’t really planned. It was a sort of last minute decision to call in on the off chance.’
‘There is something you might be able to help us with, though,’ said Slater. ‘Do you keep a record of people’s movements.’
‘You mean a diary of who’s in and out, and where they are?’
‘Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean,’ he replied.
‘I have to,’ she said. ‘There’s so much coming and going here I’d be putting calls through to people who aren’t here, and that wouldn’t be very professional, would it?’
‘Could we have a look at it?’ asked Norman.
‘I’d be walked out of the door if anyone came in and saw you doing that. But I could copy it and email it to you. Just don’t let on where it came from.’
Her smile suddenly changed to a frown.
‘Oh, look out,’ she said. ‘Here comes Frosty.’
Slater looked over his shoulder in time to see Celia Rowntree pushing her way through a door into the reception area.
‘There’s an email address on that card I gave you,’ he told Millie, quietly.
‘Alright,’ she said, out of the corner of her mouth. ‘I’ll do it later.’
‘Gentleman,’ called Celia Rowntree, as she approached. ‘I’m sorry, but you’re not welcome here. I must insist if you want to speak to anyone here again, you make an appointment, through me. Now, if you wouldn’t mind leaving.’
‘That’s okay,’ said Slater. ‘We’re just leaving anyway. Miss Gibson has just told us Rossiter’s not here and it’s him we wanted to speak to.’
‘And we wouldn’t want to stay where we’re not welcome,’ added Norman.
‘I’m glad you understand. Now, if you wouldn’t mind leaving...’
‘He told us about his affair with Diana Woods,’ said Norman. ‘But then I’m sure you already knew all about that.’
She stared impassively at him.
‘So how does that sit with your company’s family values and terms of employment?’ he continued. ‘It seems to me it’s against company policy, and as the HR director-’
‘When I want your advice about company policy, and how to do my job,’ she interrupted, ‘I’ll call you. Now, I’ve asked you to leave, but you still seem to be here.’
‘We’re going, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be back, welcome or not,’ Norman said. ‘And next time we’ll have a search warrant and perhaps a forensic accountant or two. You might want to discuss that with your company directors. I’m sure there’s a whole host of things you’d rather we didn’t find.’
He had definitely ruffled her feathers with his warning, but she stood firm and didn’t back down.
Slater and Norman made their way back outside. The shortest way back to the car park was to the right, but a path led off to the left as well.
‘Are you feeling nosey?’ Norman winked.
‘Oh dear,’ said Slater, heading off to the left. ‘We seem to have taken the wrong turning back to the car park. Never mind, this will probably take us all the way around the building to the car park, anyway.’
‘Do you think she’s watching us on CCTV?’ asked Norman.
‘I’m sure she’ll be watching us every step of the way,’ said Slater. ‘But she asked us to leave, and we’re leaving. What’s she got to complain about?’
‘Yeah, I didn’t see any sign that said we couldn’t come this way, did you?’
They followed the path around to the back of the building where they found an access road with a turning circle outside a pair of double doors, which allowed access for deliveries. Opposite the doorway, on the other side of the turning circle, was a small block of four garages with roller shutters. Three of the shutters were closed and padlocked, but the end shutter was raised. As they approached from the side they could see further and further inside, and more and more of what was parked inside.
‘Well, well,’ said Norman as the inside of the garage was revealed. ‘Would you take a look at that!’
‘I’ll do better than look,’ said Slater, fishing his mobile phone from his pocket and switching it on.
He focused the camera and took three photographs.
‘This is one for the album,’ he said.
‘Hi, Jane,’ said Slater into his phone.
‘Where the bloody hell are you?’ she said. ‘I’ve had Murray down here raising merry hell. How do you think it makes me look when he asks me where you are and I don’t have a clue?’
‘Ah. Umm, Yes. I’m sorry about that-’
‘You’re sorry?’ she snapped. ‘You damned well will be when you get back here.’
‘Aw, come on Jane. You know you love us really.’
‘You’re going to have to do a lot more grovelling than that. I can put up with a lot from you two, but this time you’ve really pushed your luck.’
He put his hand over the phone and turned to Norman.
‘Jane’s pissed off,’ he said. ‘She’s had Murray on her case, looking for us.’
‘Oh shit,’ said Norman. ‘I was so keen to keep you out of trouble I never even thought about him taking it out on her.’
‘Yeah, me neither. But he has, and she’s not very happy about it.’
He returned to his phone call.
‘Hello, Jane? Are you still there?’ said Slater. ‘Look we’re both really sorry. Norm says he’s going to buy you dinner to make up for it. What’s that? Yeah, I’ll make sure his wallet’s unlocked.’
He turned back to Norman.
‘She says she’s gonna put your wallet into shock,’ he said.
‘Yeah, right,’ said Norman with a grin. ‘Tell her I’m looking forward to that.’
‘He says you can spend as much as you like,’ Slater said down the phone. ‘And you can bring the family. He’ll pay for all five of you.’
‘I said no such thing,’ spluttered Norman. ‘Here, gimme that phone.’
‘Just drive. It’s against the law to use a mobile phone while driving.’
‘Anyway, Jane,’ he said returning to the phone call once again. ‘I need you to do something for me. I’m going to email you a photograph of a vehicle. I need you to check it out for me. Can you do that?’
‘Is she really pissed off?’ asked Norman when Slater had ended his call.
‘Seriously,’ said Slater. ‘Apparently he was doing a war dance, and there was no one else to take it out on so he gave her chapter and verse, at full volume.’
‘That’s not on. His argument is with us. He had no right to take it out on her like that. Now I’m pissed off with him.’
‘He has no right to treat anyone the way he does,’ said Slater. ‘I used to have a lot of respect for him, and he has helped me out of the shite a couple of times, but he’s just about eroded all that away now. But how do we stop him?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Norman. ‘Maybe they’ll grant his wish and make him redundant. That seems our best bet.’
‘When I first heard about that, I thought it was all wrong,’ admitted Slater. ‘I thought he’d been such a good servant it wasn’t right to be pushing him out of the door, but now I can’t wait to see the back of him. I wish we could hurry it along in some way.’
‘Yeah, that would be good. What we need is a bit of leverage, but he’s pretty much squeaky clean, isn’t he?’
‘It feels disloyal, talking like this.’
‘Yeah, I know what you mean,’ said Norman. ‘But there’s a limit to how much shit people can be expected to take, and he’s gone way past that limit now.’
Slater thought that was a pretty good assessment of the situation.
‘Can I ask a question?’ he said.
‘That’s what we do,’ said Norman. ‘Ask away.’
/> ‘Where are we going? We can’t just keep driving aimlessly around all day. We’re not going to solve anything that way.’
‘Come on now,’ said Norman. ‘Give me some credit. I’m not driving aimlessly around. I’m driving back to the crime scene. Maybe another look into Diana’s house will give us some fresh insight.’
‘Oh, right. That actually sounds quite convincing. ‘But what you really mean is if we stay away long enough the Old Man might cool down a bit.’
‘Well yeah,’ said Norman. ‘And that, too.’
Chapter 16
‘Crap,’ said Norman, as Diana Woods’ house came into view.
‘What?’ asked Slater.
‘How the hell are we going to get in? The guard’s been removed and we don’t have a key.’
‘How come the guard’s gone? Who authorised that?’
‘Can’t you guess?’ Norman smiled grimly. ‘As far as he’s concerned the case is solved, remember? So having a guard on duty here is a waste of resources.’
‘Oh, for frank’s sake.’ Slater shook his head in irritation.
‘Is that a new curse? I haven’t heard you use that one before.’
‘I’m test driving it. It still means the same thing, but it doesn’t offend anyone.’
‘It might offend Frank,’ said Norman.
‘I’ll try and remember not to say it in front of him.’
Norman pulled up outside the house and they sat in silence for a moment.
‘Let me call Jane, see if she knows what’s going on,’ said Slater.
‘I’ll have a wander around the house,’ said Norman. ‘Maybe I’ll find a window open.’
‘But no breaking in. We don’t want to have to explain a broken window, alright?’
Norman grinned at Slater, but said nothing as he climbed from the car and wandered towards the house.
Slater was just about to call Jolly when he noticed a movement in the wing mirror. A small woman was making her way along the lane towards the car. A large, hairy dog, of indeterminate breed, walked obediently alongside her. He didn’t recognise her as one of the neighbours so he assumed she was just walking her dog and returned to his phone. He was just about to press ‘call’ when a rap on the window right next to his head made him jump. The small woman was glaring at him, so he wound the window down. The dog had sat down next to her, and he raised his head to take a sniff at Slater as the window came down.
‘Can I ask you what you’re doing here?’ she asked him in a lilting Irish accent. ‘And why there’s a fat man wandering around that house. Is he something to do with you?’
‘Police,’ he said. He rummaged in his pocket for his warrant card and showed it to her. ‘We’re investigating the death of Diana Woods.’
‘And that fat man’s police, too?’ she asked, eyebrows raised. ‘He hardly looks fit enough to chase any villains.’
‘He doesn’t do chasing, he uses his brain instead and out-thinks them.’
‘Well, I hope his brain’s sharper than his suit. Anyway, why is he casing the joint? He looks like he’s planning to break in.’
‘You ask a lot of questions,’ said Slater. ‘Anyone would think it was your house.’
‘That’s my house, next door,’ she said. ‘So anyone acting suspiciously in this area is of interest to me.’
At the mention of the word suspiciously, the dog shifted his position so he could see Slater more clearly and cut off any attempt at escape.
‘Is he going to tear my leg off if I get out of the car?’ asked Slater.
‘Only if I tell him too,’ she said with a grin.
Slater looked at the dog again. He didn’t look particularly vicious, but he seemed to have enormous teeth.
‘Where did he get those teeth? They’re not all his are they?’
‘Oh for goodness sake,’ she said. ‘What are you a man or a mouse? Sure, he’s as soft as you like, unless I tell him otherwise.’
Slater climbed gingerly from the car, all the while keeping a careful eye on the dog, which, in turn, kept a careful eye on him. It waited patiently until Slater closed the car door and couldn’t escape before he made his move. In one quick movement he was all over Slater, slobbering all over him, and giving his suit trousers a liberal coating of free hair.
‘There. See? He likes you,’ said the woman.
‘How come we haven’t seen you before?’ asked Slater.
‘We’ve been away on holiday, the dog and me. We only got back yesterday. It’s a pity I was away. I might have heard something, or seen something. I was shocked to hear what had happened. But, I’ll tell you one thing, that woman wasn’t the saint everyone around here would have you believe. I’ve lived here for years and during that time I’ve seen numerous men coming and going whenever Woody has been away. I often wanted to tell him, you know? He was such a lovely feller and she was treating him like shite all the time.’
‘So why didn’t you tell him?’ asked Slater.
‘How could I?’ she said. ‘He adored her. It would have broken his heart if he’d known, and he probably wouldn’t have believed me anyway. He was the worst one for thinking she was perfect. But when she started bringing this latest one round here at lunchtimes, I always thought it would only be a matter of time before he found out.’
‘Can you describe this man?’
‘He was a big, fat, man. A bit like your friend there, but taller, and not as scruffy.’
‘Can you hang on a minute?’ asked Slater. ‘I need my colleague to hear this, too.’
Norman was just heading back towards the car.
‘Hey! Norm,’ he called out. ‘You need to come and hear this.’
The woman waited while Norman puffed his way over to them. The dog gave him the slobber and hair treatment, and then, satisfied he’d ruined a second suit, he retreated and sprawled out across the lane.
‘There’s no windows open,’ said Norman.
‘D’you want to get inside?’
‘Well, yes,’ admitted Slater, reluctantly. ‘But we don’t have a key.’
‘I’ve got one,’ she said. ‘She gave me a key when Woody left. I kept an eye on the house for her when she was away. I’ve never had to use it but I don’t suppose I need to now, do I?’
‘This is, err, I’m sorry, I didn’t ask your name,’ said Slater.
‘Mary O’Connell,’ she said.
‘Mrs O’Connell lives next door. ‘She’s been away. That’s why we’ve not seen her before.’
He turned back to Mary.
‘Could you tell my colleague what you just told me about the man who comes here at lunchtime,’ he asked her.
‘Big, fat, man,’ she said. ‘Built like you, but taller. Always wears a smart suit. Sometimes they’d come in her car, and sometimes they’d come in this little white van.’
‘A van?’ echoed Slater.
‘It didn’t seem to be the right vehicle for a man like that,’ she said. ‘You’d think he’d be driving a Mercedes or something similar, but no, he had this little van. It used to amaze me he could fit inside it, the size of him.’
Neither detective wanted to stop her talking, so they waited patiently while she stopped for a moment’s reflection, but it was only a few seconds before she spoke again.
‘I’ve had to live here watching that lovely man gradually being worn down by her,’ she said. ‘Sometimes I wanted to slap him, he was so blind to what she was doing. But then I think maybe he did know what she was up to but he never wanted to face up to it.’
‘But all the neighbours say they’ve never seen anything untoward,’ said Slater.
‘Was Amanda Hollis one of those neighbours, by any chance? ‘She ought to worry about her own shite husband before she starts running down poor old Woody. Now there’s a man who could tell you all about Diana, but Amanda’s as blind as Woody when it comes to her husband and what’s going on right under her nose.’
‘You mean him and Diana were-’ asked Norman.
‘Y
ou’d have to ask him,’ she interrupted. ‘But I can tell you this – he’s done several little jobs around the house for her since Woody left, and he doesn’t do it for cash. And Amanda has no idea. She thinks he’s just being a good neighbour. But I suppose that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? We usually see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear, and miss what’s really happening.’
‘That’s pretty much how it is for a lot of people,’ said Slater. ‘It always amazes us how witnesses give different versions of things, but that’s exactly the reason why. It’s human nature to try to make events fit in with our beliefs and expectations.’
‘That’s exactly what I mean,’ she said. ‘If a small white van comes down the lane and turns into Diana and Woody’s drive, everyone expects it to be Woody coming and going because he’s been doing it for years. They assume it must be him, and because of that assumption, they don’t take much notice. The result is they miss the details.’
‘Such as?’ asked Norman.
‘Well, Woody’s van is a Citroen. The one that used to visit before Woody caught them at it was a Peugeot. They’re exactly the same van. Same shape, same style, same colour. It’s just the badges and logos that are different, but if you don’t look closely, you don’t notice these things.’
‘How come you noticed?’ asked Slater.
‘I like Woody a lot. I used to talk to him a lot. Every opportunity I got, to be honest. He told me about the difference last time he changed his van. He used to have a Peugeot you see, and I couldn’t see the difference when he first got this van.’
‘You talked about his new van?’ asked Norman.
‘I know. Sad, isn’t it? But, like I said, I liked him. A lot. I really miss him. It would have been much better if he’d kicked her out, but even after he caught her red-handed he couldn’t bring himself to make her suffer. She cheats and she gets to keep the house. How’s that right?’
‘But she’s dead now,’ said Slater. ‘Do you think that’s right?’
‘If you play with fire, you know you risk getting burnt,’ she said. ‘What’s happened to her isn’t right, but if Woody’s found guilty because of the crap she’s told everyone about him since they split up, that won’t be right either. She’ll not be going to heaven that’s for sure.’