No Hiding Place: An edge of your seat mystery/thriller. (DI Sally Parker thrillers Book 2) (12 page)

“I understand. We’ll have a
word with Roger, see if he can shed any light on what went on last
night. I hope Julie recovers soon.”

“So do I, Inspector. She’s all
I’ve got since her father passed away last year. If I lose
her…”

“Hopefully, it won’t come to
that. Just keep thinking positively, Mrs. Smith. Do you need a lift
to the hospital?”

“No, I have a car. Just promise
me you’ll get the sick individual who did this. All we hear
nowadays is the amount of unsolved crimes there are. Please don’t
let Julie be added to those statistics.”

“We’re doing our best. Don’t
give up on us, Mrs. Smith.”

Sally and Jack left the house.
“Is it worth chasing up the ex?” Jack asked as they climbed into
the car.

“I wouldn’t have thought so. I
think we should drop by Roger’s place, however, and ask him what
went on last night.”

Before Sally could start the
engine, Jack’s mobile rang. He glanced her way and frowned. “It’s
Donna.”

“Well, answer it. Don’t keep
her waiting. You know she never disturbs you at work.”

“Hello, love.”

Sally saw Jack’s eyes widen.
“What is it?” she mouthed.

Her partner shook his head and
ran a hand through his short, greying hair. “All right. Calm down.
Is the ambulance on its way? Okay, I’ll meet you at the hospital.”
He hung up, looking distraught. “It’s Teresa. Donna thinks she’s
gone into labour.”

“What? Crap, you better get
over there.” Sally pulled away from the kerb and drove back to the
station.

“It’s too soon, Sally. She’s
only eight months gone.”

“It might be all right, love.
Not that I know anything about this sort of thing, of course.”

“A sixteen-year-old going into
prem labour—I can’t see there being a positive outcome to
that.”

The rest of the journey was
conducted in silence. She dropped Jack off at his car. “Good luck,
matey. Ring me later if you get the chance. Love to Donna and
Teresa.”

“Thanks, boss.”

Sally locked the car then stood
and watched her partner drive away, as the squeal of tyres
accompanied his exit from the car park. “Please let both mother and
child be okay,” she murmured, then went up to her office, where she
decided to write down a plan of action for the day. At the top of
the list, she put Roger Wilson’s name. She would get one of the
other members of the team to track him down to get a statement.
Time was marching on, and she needed to leave some time free so
that she could make her rendezvous with Taylor Hew at two o’clock.
She was aware that she would need to take a partner with her in
case things kicked off there, too. Then she needed to return to the
station at four for her arranged interview with Colin Whiting. With
everything in place, in her mind at least, she walked into the
incident room and relayed the plan of action to her team.

“Okay, listen up, folks. We’ll
be a man down this afternoon as Jack received an urgent call from
his wife. No point asking what it was about—that’s up to him to
tell you, not me. Anyway, he’s left me with a pile of jobs to get
through, so I’m going to delegate some of them out to you guys, all
right?”

The team nodded, each of them
wearing a puzzled frown.

“Jordan, I’d like you to track
down a Roger Wilson. He accompanied Julie Smith on her night out,
but they separated earlier than expected. We need to get a
statement from him ASAP. The priority needs to be if Roger saw
anyone taking interest in Julie before they split up. Also, see if
she had any admirers at work who we should be looking at.”

“Yes, boss. Is it all right to
tell him what state the victim is in?”

Sally nodded. “Within reason.
Just tell him that at present, she’s unconscious. I think he’ll
probably know that fact by now from her mum.” Looking at Stuart,
she said, “Stu, you’ll be joining me this afternoon. I’ve set up a
meeting with Taylor Hew under the pretence of picking his brains
about property development.”

“Wow, and he fell for that? I
waited and waited outside his home but eventually returned to base
empty-handed. Sorry to let you down, boss.”

“You haven’t let me down, Stu.
There’s more than one way to flush out a rat from its sewer. Of
course, he might be innocent in all this, so we still need to tread
carefully. I’ve also been in touch with the media. Both cases will
be on the TV news tonight and in the local paper either today or
tomorrow, depending on whether Phil can write up the story before
the deadline. So we need to be ready for an influx of calls over
the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Joanna, I’ll leave you
in charge of that. Can you also keep checking regularly with the
hospital for me, to enquire about Julie? The sooner we can question
her about the incident, the better. It might send the case off in a
whole different direction.” Joanna smiled and bobbed her head.
“Right, the other major thing clogging up my agenda today is the
arrival of Colin Whiting at four o’clock, if he shows up. He
better. Otherwise, I’ll yank his arse in here so quickly, he’ll
burn the rubber off the soles of his shoes.”

Joanna chuckled while Jordan
and Stuart let out full belly laughs.

Rarely did Sally say anything
she wasn’t prepared to follow through on. “Okay, let’s get this
show on the road. Ready, Stu?”

***

“Are you set?” Sally asked her
temporary partner when they pulled into the parking space close to
the arranged meeting place.

“Yep. There’s a guy sitting
outside, messing about with his mobile. Do you think that’s
him?”

“There’s only one way to find
out. Just be ready to pounce on him if he tries to do a runner,
okay?”

“Sure thing, boss.”

They exited the vehicle and
casually walked over to the man. He took an age to look up at them,
even though their frames cast a shadow over his phone as he was
texting.

Sally coughed. “Mr. Hew?”

He completed his text and
stabbed a button to send it on its way. “That’s right. Miss Parker,
I take it.”

Sally flashed him a smile,
along with her warrant card. “That’ll be Detective Inspector Sally
Parker of the Norfolk Constabulary. You’re a hard man to track
down, Mr. Hew. Mind if we take a seat? Oh, this is my partner, DC
Stuart McBain.”

He shrugged, no significant
expression showing on his face. “Be my guest. What’s this
about?”

“First of all, I’d like to know
where you were two nights ago.”

His head tilted, he picked up a
pen from the table and tapped it against his chin. “Ah, yes, I
remember. I went for a drink. Is that against the law, Inspector?”
His gleaming smile displayed perfectly white, even teeth.

“Not at all. Can you tell us
where?”

“The Red Lion. Why?”

“Did you speak to anyone that
night?”

He tutted and inhaled a large
breath. “I speak to people all the time. I don’t understand what
the problem is.”

“Can you remember talking to
any
female
friends that night?”

“No.”

“Really? We have CCTV footage
which disputes that. Would you like to take a moment to rethink
your answer, Mr. Hew?”

His mouth turned down at the
sides. “No. Your question was: did I talk to any of my female
friends that night. My answer remains the same. That’s a negative,
Inspector.”

Sally’s eyes narrowed at his
smart reply.
I’ve got my work cut out with this one.
“Okay,
let me rephrase my question then. Do you recall speaking to a
female two nights ago?”

“Why, yes. I certainly do
recall that pleasant event.”

“Did you catch the lady’s name
you were having a conversation with?”

“Let me think.” He clicked his
fingers after a few moments’ pause. “Gemma. I’m pretty sure she
said her name was Gemma.”

“Thank you for admitting that.
Can you tell us what the conversation entailed?” Sally asked, her
heart pounding against her ribs. She locked gazes with him.

“Life.”

“Is that it?”

“We chatted about life in
general. Nothing major really. It was just to fill in the time. I
was standing at the bar and watched her go outside. She was an
intriguing character.”

“So your intention was to
chat
her up?”

“Hardly. She was wearing a
wedding ring, not that it seems to count for much these days. In
fact, married women can be worse than single girls for leading men
on, in my humble opinion.”

“Thanks for that insight. So,
you spoke about life. Can you give me some idea how the
conversation went?”

“Well, when I followed her into
the children’s play area, she appeared to be staring off into
space. I startled her when I spoke; I didn’t mean to scare her. She
seemed fine after the initial interruption. She told me that she’d
recently lost a friend to breast cancer and was contemplating her
life.”

Sally turned to Stuart. “Get
this down, constable.” Her partner’s cheeks flared up, and he
rummaged in his jacket pocket for his notebook and began to take
notes. “Go on. Did she speak about her marriage at all?”

“Not really. I asked her what
kind of career she had, and she informed me she was between jobs at
present. The thing that puzzled me was she didn’t seem downbeat
about that fact when she mentioned it. She said she used to be a PA
to a local businessman before she had her daughter. Like I say, it
was just an ordinary chat, and we went our separate ways soon
after.”

“Why didn’t you proceed with
chatting her up, if you already knew she was married? Was it
because she told you she had a child?”

“No. There really was nothing
in it, Inspector. She was a pretty lady. That’s about as far as I
was willing to go with her at the end of the day.” He frowned, and
his eyes widened. “Shit! Wait just a damn minute. Has she told you
otherwise? Am I being accused of doing something perverse with this
woman? Because I’m telling you now, I never laid a bloody finger on
her. Jesus, what is it with these women? The second a man shows
interest in them, they’re willing to scream ‘rape.’”

Sally shook her head. “Now
you’re putting words into my mouth. This is a general enquiry as to
what occurred the night before last when you spoke to Gemma
Whiting. If your guilty conscience is pricking you, then that’s
your problem, not mine, Mr. Hew.”

“It’s not. I’m sorry for
overreacting. It’s just you hear so many of these cases getting to
court, only to be dismissed by the judge as being lies told by the
women. So where is all this leading to then, Inspector?”

“One last line of questioning
before I reveal that, if you don’t mind?”

He threw the pen down. It hit
his coffee cup and bounced onto the floor. Ignoring it, he folded
his arms. “Go on, let’s get this over with.”

“Okay, we’ve established where
you were the night before last. Now I’d like you to tell me where
you were last night. My constable was at your house first thing
this morning, but received no reply. I’m assuming you stayed out
all night. Is that correct?”

He unfolded his arms and
applauded her. “Great deduction, Inspector. Don’t tell me—it’s an
offence for a single man to stay out all night. Am I right?”

“I could do without the
sarcasm, Mr. Hew. I’m investigating two very serious crimes, if you
must know. Now, please just answer the question.”

He flung his arms out to the
side. “All right. I got lucky.”

Sally’s interest was piqued,
and she raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Care to fill me in on your
conquest?”

“No. Not until you tell me what
all this is about. I’ve been more than fair with you so far. It
wouldn’t hurt for you to let me know where this is leading,
right?”

“
I
asked first. Just
give me the name of the lady you spent the night with, and I’ll
walk away from here without asking further questions.”

His eyes wandered the length of
the busy road before he answered. He ran a hand under his collar
and bit his lip nervously. “This is where it gets tricky.”

“Oh? How so?” The way he was
hesitating caused Sally great concern.

He fidgeted in his seat before
finally admitting, “I was a naughty boy.”

Sally sat upright. “Well, don’t
stop there, Mr. Hew. You’ve got my full attention.”

He leaned forward. “It’s hard
for me to tell you this. Okay, I’m just going to let it out, but
you have to promise me this won’t go any further,” he
whispered.

“That’s just it—I can promise
no such thing without hearing the facts. You’re going to have to
trust me.”

His eyes fluttered shut, and
his jaw moved from side to side as he contemplated his dilemma. “I
spent the night with a local dignitary’s wife.”

“Are you kidding me? Who? I
need to corroborate your story with the lady herself before I let
you off the hook. Name?”

“Jesus!” He scratched his head.
“Clarissa Morgan.”

Sally’s eyebrows knitted
together. “You mean, the local MP Patrick Morgan’s wife?”

“Yes. Now can you understand my
wanting—no,
needing
—to keep this quiet? He’s out of town all
week. She’s going to bloody murder me if you wind up on her
doorstep about this.”

“We’ll need to check your alibi
all the same. I’m sorry if the shit is going to hit for you and
Mrs. Morgan, but it’s a necessity.”

“Why? You have to tell me what
this is all about, Inspector.”

“For a start, a young lady is
seriously ill in hospital after being attacked last night.”

He gasped. “I would never harm
a woman. What’s that famous saying? Oh yes, ‘I’m a lover, not a
fighter’.”

“And I have to tell you from
the conversation we’ve had today, I’m inclined to believe you.”

“Thank you. What about the
other case? You mentioned there were two of them.”

“Unfortunately, I have to
inform you that the young lady you had a conversation with the
night before last, was found murdered.”