Love You Dead (33 page)

‘On these spending patterns, did you find the same shops being used repeatedly, Kelly?’ he asked.

‘Yes, sir, there was recent expenditure in France and New York and in and around Brighton, Sussex. The same shops and the same merchandise on the cards that were used. The same brands of
hair and beauty products, as well as tampons. Similar wine and food items. Cat food. And rather curiously, perhaps, repeat purchases from a reptile food specialist supplier.’

‘Reptile?’ He felt a beat of excitement. ‘Can you email me over the details of that, urgently?’

‘Right away, sir. And it might be interesting for you to know that one place where her credit cards have been used regularly is at the Asda superstore in Brighton Marina. Also on one card
there is expenditure in France for a coffin and a number of transatlantic and internal American flight tickets.’

‘Bloody hell!’ Grace said. ‘That’s very interesting. Brilliant work!’

‘Thank you, sir.’

‘What address has this woman put for these applications, Kelly?’

‘Well,’ she said, sounding doubtful, ‘that’s where the trail runs cold. The mail for each application address seems to have been forwarded to PO boxes at mailbox
companies. The direct debit to pay them comes from a company with nominee directors based in Port Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles.’

‘How cooperative is the Seychelles, Kelly?’

‘Unfortunately she’s chosen well, sir. At the moment, all the financial links end up in the Seychelles. It’s a notoriously secretive country and any request for information
would have to go via NCA – the National Crime Agency – which could take some considerable time.’

‘Good work. Have you any more information that might lead us to her?’

‘Not yet, sir.’

He thanked her again and was about to hang up when the financial investigator said, ‘The second thing, sir, may be a more tenuous link, but I have a feeling it could be significant.
There’s a connection between these three cards and a fourth card being used in the name of Jodie Danforth in the Brighton area.’

‘Jodie Danforth? Shit! Can you spell it?’

She replied, ‘D-A-N-F-O-R-T-H.’

He was thinking hard. Jodie Danforth. The name that Michelle Websdale had given him of the Brighton widow whose husband had died on a cruise from a snake bite.

‘OK, Kelly, as a priority action find out all you can about Jodie Danforth and come back to me as soon as possible!’

He ended the call and immediately rang the Coroner’s Officer’s mobile.

‘Michelle,’ he said when she answered. ‘It’s Roy Grace. Listen, what’s the process from now with Rowley Carmichael’s body?’

‘It’s at Brighton and Hove City Mortuary until the Coroner agrees to release it for the funeral.’

‘I’ve got some significant new information. Can you ask the Coroner not to release it until I give you the OK?’

‘Sure, I’ll inform her.’

‘Thanks. It might be really important.’

After finishing his call to Michelle Websdale, Grace, feeling parched, debated whether to make himself a quick coffee. But he was already late, so he hurried on. Entering the
conference room he saw the whiteboards set up, and all his team members, minus Glenn Branson and Norman Potting, seated around the oval table.

Pinned to one whiteboard was a blow-up of the photograph Lesley had flagged in the
Argus
. An elderly man, handsome and distinguished-looking, if a little portly, in a white tuxedo with
a black bow tie, the woman in a long evening dress, her hair in ringlets, with mesmerizing blue eyes. He immediately recognized her from the CCTV images Lanigan had sent.

She sported an enormous, sparkling rock of an engagement ring. But although they were standing together, the man’s arm affectionately round the shoulders of his bride of just a day or two,
her body language told Grace everything. She was angled very slightly away from him, and there was too much of a gap between them. Whilst he had a proud, happy smile on his face, her smile looked
more like it was put on for the camera – her eyes were very definitely not smiling.

Grace sat down at his place, laying the newspaper, his policy book and his briefing notes in front of him, then began by bringing his team up to speed on the information he now had on the death
of Brighton resident Rowley Burnett Carmichael.

Next he reported on the information he had just received from Kelly Nicholls. ‘What may be highly relevant is the Asda in the Marina. So far as I’m aware it’s the closest
superstore to the Roedean area of the city. The location where the geo-mapping puts the blurred photograph on the whiteboard, the one taken almost certainly accidentally by Shelby Stonor. The
post-mortem confirms Stonor died from a saw-scaled viper bite. Jodie’s new husband has just died from a saw-scaled viper bite. And she has been buying products from a reptile food supplier.
Since there is no reported death from a snake bite of a Brighton resident since records began over sixty years ago, I’m viewing this as significant. One question still unanswered is how
Shelby Stonor got bitten. Is it possible the house where the photograph was taken was a burglary? Had he broken into Jodie’s house – somewhere in this city – and been bitten in
the process?’

He glanced at his notes for a moment. ‘This is an important line of enquiry but we do need to keep an open mind. The newly-wed Carmichaels were in a part of India where I’m told
these snakes are commonplace and kill many thousands annually.’

DS Cale raised her hand. ‘Boss,’ she said. ‘I have something that may be significant here. Two hours ago I received a phone call from a Mr Harvey Dexter, a retired consultant
radiologist, who lives in Eastbourne. He said he’d just been reading the newspaper – the one you have a copy of in front of you – and he believes he recognizes the woman in the
photograph.’ She pointed at the whiteboard. ‘He is convinced he stood opposite that lady in a cable car in the French resort of Courchevel a month ago – he was wearing a GoPro
camera on his helmet.’

‘Nice life,’ Guy Batchelor commented. ‘Skiing one month, cruising the next.’

Ignoring him, Grace said, ‘And his point is what, Tanja?’

‘Well – he said his career helped him become extremely analytical of photographs. He said that even though she and the man she was with both had ski helmets on, he’s convinced
she was the same lady as in this photograph in the
Argus
. But his GoPro video is of a man who’s not Rowley Carmichael, but Walt Klein – the disgraced American financier who
fell to his death over a precipice in Courchevel.’

‘So this is eye-witness evidence that the woman on the slopes with Klein is the same person as Jodie Carmichael,’ Grace said.

It was more confirmation of what he already knew.

‘Look on the bright side, Walt Klein did better than the next bloke she had her claws into,’ Guy Batchelor commented. ‘He only lasted four days!’

Some of the team laughed.

‘Two dead lovers in a month?’ Grace questioned.

‘To lose one may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two looks like carelessness,’ DS Exton said. ‘In the words of Oscar Wilde!’

‘I think Wilde was referring to
husbands
, Jon,’ Tanja Cale said.

Grace remembered an Oscar Wilde play he and Sandy went to see in the city’s Theatre Royal. ‘I think the line was about
parents
, actually, Jon and Tanja. But I get your
drift.’ He turned to Tanja Cale. ‘How certain is this Harvey Dexter character?’

‘Absolutely adamant, sir.’

‘Does he still have the footage?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘We need to get him interviewed, and get a copy of the video.’

‘I’m seeing him straight after this briefing, sir. I’m going to his house.’

‘Nice work.’ He turned to DS Batchelor. ‘Any progress on what I gave you, Guy?’

‘Not much I’m afraid, boss. I’ve looked up everyone in the local area who might have a licence to keep a saw-scaled viper and there’s no one. But that doesn’t mean
much, I’m afraid. I’ve also spoken to one of the country’s leading experts on venomous snakes – a herpetologist called Mark O’Shea. He’s the Consultant Curator
of Reptiles at the West Midland Safari Park, and a well-known broadcaster. He told me that although we have strict rules about keeping venomous snakes in the UK, under the Dangerous Animals Act,
anyone can buy them over the counter at the regular snake days at reptile fairs in Hamm, Germany, and in Houton, Holland, where no licence is needed and no questions asked. Saw-scaled vipers cost
around one hundred and fifty euros, and you can take them away in a plastic container the size of a sandwich box. You can also walk through UK Immigration with a bunch of these in a bag completely
legally – although you are supposed to register them within forty-eight hours.’

‘Seriously?
Supposed
to?’

‘Hardly anyone does.’

‘This is incredible!’ Grace said. ‘You can’t bring a harmless poodle into the country without a whole raft of veterinary certificates, but you can walk straight in with
any number of creatures that can kill within hours?’

The detective sergeant raised his arms in a gesture of despair. ‘Yep. Unless a particular creature falls under CITES – the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
– where they require what’s called either an Appendix 1 or Appendix 2 permit, no one is breaking any law by bringing creatures like this into the country. You could bring in cobras,
black mambas, trapdoor spiders, scorpions, anything.’

‘Great,’ Roy Grace said grimly. ‘So we’ve no idea how many of our citizens have venomous reptiles in their homes?’

‘Nope,’ Batchelor said. ‘I’ve found a helpful Met officer who keeps poisonous frogs as pets – his name’s Andy Gibbs. He said most collectors keep their
venomous snakes in secure vivariums – these are essentially glass cages with heaters and flora replicating the inhabitants’ natural environments. But as he said, there are some nutters
who keep them under the bed in cardboard boxes secured with elastic bands.’

‘Why would anyone want to keep any poisonous reptile?’ EJ asked.

‘All kinds of reasons,’ Tanja Cale said. ‘I read up on it. Some people are just plain fascinated by them. A few get a power kick out of it. It’s like those gun freaks in
other countries who get off on owning an arsenal of weapons.’

‘Or people who like bumping off their loved ones?’ said Alec Davies.

DS Batchelor went on. ‘I’ve checked Jodie Bentley’s mailing address – or at least one of them – at a specialist company called Brighton Poste Restante, which is
also an internet café, at 23A Western Road, and no one there has ever seen her. But there is something that may be of interest. I was told by the manager there that a strange guy turned up
on the morning of Sunday March 1st, around eleven o’clock, enquiring about Jodie – an American, who was quite bolshy. He was rude to her, then went away.’

‘Did she give you a description?’ Grace asked.

‘Not much of one. Said he was short and weaselly, wearing a padded anorak, a baseball cap and aviator sunglasses.’

‘Might have been someone on Walt Klein’s trail,’ Grace said. ‘An official or unofficial investigator from the States. But if it was official, we should have been notified
and asked for assistance. Have you got any CCTV?’

‘I’ve requested it, but it’ll be touch and go whether there’s any that hasn’t already been recorded over.’

‘Anything else, Guy?’

‘Yes, boss. We’ve checked the address that Jodie Carmichael gave to the Goan police, according to the Coroner’s Officer. It’s a flat in Alexandra Villas, near the Seven
Dials. There was no answer and the neighbours our outside enquiry team officers spoke to say they’ve not seen anyone there for many months. They believe it’s owned by a single woman who
lives overseas.’

‘Did anyone give a description of her?’

‘Yes. It sounds like our dear Jodie.’

‘Interesting,’ Grace said.

Batchelor smiled. ‘Something the guys here might want to know – I read it on the internet – some venomous snake bites have a very unpleasant side effect for
survivors.’

‘Which is?’ Grace quizzed.

‘It shrinks the male victim’s dick.’

‘Don’t let one near Norman Potting!’ Jon Exton said, lifting his head from his laptop. ‘Rumour is that it’s a bit small anyway.’

‘Thank you, Jon!’ Grace said. ‘Too much information.’

Grace made some notes in his policy book, then he looked up at the photo on the whiteboard obtained from Shelby Stonor’s mobile. ‘We urgently need to find the house where that was
taken. Guy, you said you recognized the style of window as mock Tudor, but unfortunately that’s one of the most common architectural styles in the city. It’s definitely not the style of
the Alexandra Villas area. I’ll give you the action of finding an architect and going with them to The Keep, where all the city’s architectural records are, to see if you both can find
the house from any of the plans they have there. An architect may be able to work out the room dimensions from what’s on that photograph, and see if there is anything corresponding to the
plans. I know it’s a big ask but it’s vital we find it.’

‘Yes, boss.’

Grace turned to Emma-Jane Boutwood. ‘EJ, I want you to take charge of viewing all the CCTV footage that Jack has asked for from 23A Western Road around eleven a.m., Sunday March
1st.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘I don’t imagine all snakes eat the same thing. Tanja, can you work with Guy to find out the diet of a saw-scaled viper and establish what that reptile food company was
supplying.’

‘Scrotes?’ someone proffered.

‘Endless supply of them in this city,’ Dave Green, who had been brought in as the Crime Scene Manager, retorted.

‘A bit indigestible most of them, even for a snake,’ Jon Exton added.

Grace turned to Alec Davies and Jack Alexander. ‘I want you two to arrange the organization of a house-to-house supervisor and a team to cover the Roedean area.’ He pointed at the
photograph of Rowley Carmichael and Jodie Bentley on the cruise ship. ‘See if anyone recognizes her, or knows of a neighbour who keeps reptiles. I don’t care how invisible she’s
tried to make herself, you can’t live in a city without someone noticing you eventually. There’s got to be a plumber, or electrician, or a builder who’s been to her home, for
God’s sake! She’ll be paying council tax; check the electoral register with all those different names. And the driving licence records. Has she ever had a parking ticket?’