SECRET CRIMES a gripping crime thriller full of suspense (12 page)

Melsom looked disappointed.

‘I’m not really into men, Jimmy. Sorry.’

‘Ah, I thought there was something about you.’

‘Could you keep it quiet, though? You’re the only person I’ve told, and I’d rather it wasn’t spread around.’

* * *

Burton Cliffs are world famous. The highly-layered sandstone of the cliffs glows gold when sunlight strikes it. It wasn’t glowing now. A force four westerly wind was driving dark rain clouds in from the Channel. Sophie and Barry Marsh were facing into the wind as they trudged along the shingle beach towards a forensic tent below the eastern end of the cliffs at Burton Bradstock. Sophie pointed to the top of the cliff.

‘It’s almost directly under the clifftop viewing area. There’s a lane that ends there. You can get a car close to the edge at that point.’

Marsh didn’t answer. He was trying to pull up the zip on his jacket, but it had reached its limit. He settled instead for sinking his hands deeper into his pockets. They reached the edge of the crime scene zone and identified themselves to the uniformed officers on duty. They made their way to the tent.

‘Hello, Benny,’ Sophie said. ‘Anything useful for us?’

‘As you can see, my dear lady, the body has been really bashed around. So there’s not much I can tell you just yet. This one’s going to have to wait until I do the post-mortem back at base.’

‘Can we have a look?’

‘Be my guest. But don’t complain to me if you don’t like what you see. It really isn’t a pretty sight.’

The face was shapeless and unrecognisable. Only the clothes retained any colour.

‘Any idea of how long it’s been here?’ Sophie asked.

‘For a few days, I’d guess, tangled up in this rubbish among the rocks. It’s spent some time in the water, but I can’t tell you how long at the moment.’

‘How could it lie here undiscovered for so long?’ Marsh mused.

‘It’s autumn and the weather hasn’t been particularly good, so there won’t have been a huge number of people along here. And since that tragic death under the rock fall recently, people are probably wary about walking along too close to the cliff edge. It happened just a few hundred yards further along,’ Sophie answered. ‘And Benny’s right. If it’s been tangled up in that bit of old fishing net and the sea-weed, people could have walked by and just not noticed it. The smell of the sea-weed would have helped to mask the stink.’

‘Were you hoping for someone in particular?’ Benny asked.

‘Hoping but not expecting,’ Sophie replied. ‘That way I’m never disappointed.’

‘You have too wise a head on those slim shoulders, O golden-haired one. You are in danger of being set apart from the rest of the human race.’

‘Stop talking nonsense, Benny. I’m not in the mood.’

He shrugged. ‘Okay. I’ll send you a message about the post-mortem once I clear a slot for it.’

‘Sorry, Benny. I didn’t mean to be rude.’

‘I know. See you soon, then.’

‘But I do think it might be linked to our case.’

The pathologist stopped packing his bag. ‘Really?’

‘It’s the shirt, Benny. Red corduroy’s a bit uncommon, isn’t it?’

‘So I will be seeing you again soon. I’ll bear it in mind.’ He gave Sophie a hug, then left.

‘What is it between you two?’ Marsh asked.

‘We were at university together and shared a house with a couple of other students. It was Benny who introduced me to Martin. He always claims it was the worst mistake of his life but he’s just teasing when he says that. At least I hope he is. He was the best man at our wedding.’

‘Ah, I understand. It’s puzzled me for a long time. Should we take a look around while we’re here? I know the search team has already been over the area, but I’d like to get a feel for the place. We’ve only got about twenty minutes of daylight left.’

They spoke to the uniformed sergeant, and then walked beyond the scene. Sophie kept looking back at the cliff top, trying to judge the distance and angle.

‘He said it was almost directly under the car-turning area and viewpoint on the cliff top,’ she said. ‘I want to go up there. Let’s get back to the car.’

Several squad cars were parked at the end of the cliff top lane, with police tape barring access to the cliff edge. The constable on duty informed them that the area had been searched thoroughly, but nothing suspicious had been found. The two detectives looked down on the temporary tent below. Even though the sea was beginning to calm, the noise of the surf and grinding shingle carried up to them.

‘What do you think, Barry?’

‘It’s an ideal place to dispose of a body. I did wonder if it could have been carried here by the tide from further along the coast, even from Peveril, but I’d guess that’s unlikely. The currents are all wrong and it would have to have been pulled round Portland Bill, then come back close into the shoreline here. How likely is that?’

‘Not very, but what do I know? Maybe we’d better check with an expert before we ditch the idea completely.’ She looked out to sea. ‘There’s some deep water out there, isn’t there?’

‘Not sure. I know the area around Swanage has a lot of sudden variations in water depth. There are shallow reefs and ridges next to very deep holes. There’s an extremely deep hole right beside the Peveril ledges. But I don’t know about here. It’s too far west for me. Why do you ask?’

‘There’s always the chance that it came in from the sea, maybe from a boat. It might be nothing to do with us at all.’

‘Do you really think that?’ Marsh said.

‘No. I think it’s Derek. The height matches, so does the hair colour and clothes. And that deep red, cord shirt is a bit of a giveaway, isn’t it? And that means there was more going on inside that little group than we realised.’

‘If it is our man, when do you think it happened?’

Sophie shrugged. ‘He might have been killed at the same time as Sarah, but I think that’s unlikely. It would have meant that Shapiro had two bodies to get out of the hotel. So probably it was a while after. Maybe the next day, but not much later than that. He hadn’t changed his shirt. If he was a ladies’ man, he’d be careful about his grooming. Possibly there was a dispute. But this is all guesswork, and you know that baseless conjecture just isn’t my style. Let’s get back. You drive and I’ll phone in and set the wheels in motion.’

* * *

Jimmy Melsom and Rae Gregson were still in the incident room when the two senior detectives arrived back in the early evening. Rae looked up as they entered.

‘A phone call just came in from forensics, ma’am. They’ve sent you an important email.’

Sophie logged on to her computer, read the message and printed out the attached document.

‘How important is it, ma’am?’ Marsh asked.

‘Very. Traces of Sarah’s blood on the duvet taken from the hotel bedroom. And more on the chair back. The report says that the chair was a soft-cushioned one, a dark red colour. Does anyone remember that?’

‘Yes,’ Marsh replied. ‘It seemed a bit out of place compared to the other furnishings.’

Sophie glanced again at the paper in her hand. ‘There were also traces of blood in the U-bend of the bathroom basin. Also interesting, don’t you think?’

‘According to the post-mortem she had quite a deep head wound, ma’am,’ Marsh said. ‘That must have caused bleeding. And if she then had her head shoved in the sink to drown her, some of that blood would have washed off.’

‘We didn’t find anything in the room that could have caused that head injury, did we? So they took it away with them. It was something blunt and heavy . . . Unless she was kicked unconscious, then dumped temporarily in the chair. That might explain the midriff bruising as well. If someone was wearing heavy boots, well . . .’

‘God, that’s awful,’ Rae said. ‘So something happened to turn the men against her, after they’d had sex? Is that what it’s beginning to look like?’

‘It may only have been one of them,’ Sophie mused. ‘Particularly if today’s body turns out to be Derek, which is what we suspect. Maybe he didn’t like what was happening. That’s if he was murdered.’

‘What do you mean?’ Marsh asked.

‘There’s always the possibility that he just walked off that cliff, Barry, if he really felt something for Sarah. Maybe things in that hotel room got out of hand too quickly for him to do anything about it. Maybe he couldn’t live with himself afterwards.’

Sophie perched on the edge of one of the tables. ‘Now, Jimmy, tell us all about this important discovery you made at Sarah’s office. You were a bit incoherent on the phone.’

Chapter 10: Tainted Memory

Tuesday evening

The safe house Rosemary and Ed were occupying was situated in a quiet cul-de-sac in Wareham. It was a small, unremarkable house among other similar ones. They hadn’t been confined to the property, so they spent some time each day wandering around by the river. They had just come back from a circular walk around the ancient Saxon walls surrounding the town centre.

‘I’m not sure that was what I expected,’ Rosemary said as they hung their coats up in the hallway. ‘I thought some of it would be stone.’

‘I don’t think the Saxons were into stone ramparts,’ Ed replied. ‘But even though they’re earthworks, they’re still pretty impressive. It must have taken a lot of people a lot of effort to put them up.’

‘I suppose the world must have been a dangerous place to warrant all of that labour. It’s not productive, is it? It must have used up time that could have been spent on raising more crops or building better homes. And they wouldn’t have been stupid enough to build them for no reason. It must have been a violent time.’

‘According to Ella, we have a very violent history. Her boyfriend is doing a doctorate about violence in the middle ages. Just get him started on how people treated each other back then. The statistics are frightening. The newspapers are always saying we live in dangerous times now, but don’t you believe it. Modern life’s a picnic compared with what those people had to go through. Cruelty was just a fact of life.’

‘And murder, I expect,’ Rosemary added quietly.

‘Sorry. I should have spotted where that clever little speech of mine was likely to lead. It’s a weakness of mine, showing off the knowledge I pick up second-hand. I’ll learn to control it one day.’

Rosemary squeezed his hand. ‘Well don’t try to control everything, will you?’

* * *

In the middle of the evening they were snuggled on a couch in the lounge, sipping the last couple of glasses from a bottle of wine. Rosemary’s phone rang. When the call was over, she turned to Ed.

‘The DCI will be here in fifteen minutes. Apparently there’s been a couple of important developments today, although she wouldn’t tell me any details. Coffee, I think.’

Ed straightened the cushions and began tidying the room. ‘Why am I doing this?’ he asked. ‘Anyone would think it was my own home.’

‘Well, all I can say is, I’m glad your mother brought you up right.’ Rosemary laughed.

DCI Allen looked tired when she appeared at the door a little later. Rosemary and Ed watched her sink into an armchair and swallow the coffee in two mouthfuls.

‘More?’ Rosemary asked.

The DCI nodded. She gave them a short account of the day’s events.

‘So, is the name Paul Derek in any way familiar to you, Rosemary? Did Sarah ever mention that name?’

Rosemary nodded slowly. ‘She did mention the name Paul a couple of times, I’m sure of it. But it wasn’t often and I never asked her about him. I don’t remember the surname Derek.’

‘When was this?’

‘Maybe six months ago? A year at the most. It couldn’t have been much before that because I only met her eighteen months ago.’

‘What was the context?’

‘Just when we were out for a drink together, I think. Or maybe on the phone . . . Yes, that was it. We’d agreed to meet for an evening out together but she called to postpone it. She said she had a date. I think it was only a month or two after we met and before we went to the first music weekend together. I remember asking her how it went, but she was a bit cagey and didn’t tell me much.’

‘And what about the other time?’

‘That’s a hard one. I really can’t remember much about the detail. I think I asked her whether she had seen him again. She laughed and said, “of course.” But nothing else was ever mentioned.’

‘But no mention of the surname?’

‘No.’

‘So she didn’t talk to you in any depth about what was going on in her life? No girly gossip about relationships?’

‘I’ve always thought girly gossip was just something that happened on TV dramas. Sarah didn’t open up about it, and I didn’t ask too much,’ said Rosemary.

Sophie paused. ‘When you first met she wasn’t in her latest job. She started at the insurance company about a year ago. Did she talk about her reasons for moving to the new job?’

‘I don’t think it was a complete change. I mean, she wasn’t on the front desk at the bank — she was in admin. And her new job was also in admin. As far as I can remember, she just wanted a change, but I don’t know the full story. She wasn’t allowed to tell me any details about the new job. At least, that’s what she said. She was even a bit cagey about what company she worked for. I don’t know why and I never asked. I’m beginning to realise how little I really knew about her, and how little I must have wanted to know. I suppose it shows that we didn’t completely hit it off. I can’t have been really interested. I never realised that until now.’

Sophie turned to Ed Wilton. ‘When we spoke a couple of days ago I asked you for the facts about Friday evening. I didn’t ask you about your impression of Sarah. I’d like to get that now. Just give me your gut feelings when you first spoke with her.’

Ed stroked his chin. ‘My first impression was that she was lively and outgoing. She smiled and laughed a lot, chatted freely and seemed to have a very cheerful personality. She tended to dominate the conversation, so Rosemary here didn’t get much of a look in. But all that faded quite quickly. I got the impression that once she decided I wasn’t her type she stopped making an effort. That’s when I got to chat to Rosemary. This was all when I met them earlier in the evening. Later on, when they came in the second time, she was all over Derek and didn’t have time for anyone else. By the time we got to the end of the evening and were leaving the pub I wasn’t impressed with her at all. I’ve wondered since then if there was a reason for her attitude.’

‘What do you mean, Ed?’ asked Rosemary.

‘Well, sometimes there’s a reason why people behave in a very superficial way. Some kind of emotional trauma or a really serious let-down by someone, possibly well in the past. The surface cheerfulness masks an underlying problem. The whole thing is an act. They can only keep it up for a short while and only to one or two people at a time. It possibly indicates a feeling of inferiority. I’ve wondered if Sarah was secretly envious of your more stable personality.’

‘You haven’t mentioned this before.’

‘No. We’ve been a bit bound up in ourselves, haven’t we? It’s one of those things that you kind of feel, but don’t talk about unless it comes up. You were a bit envious of what you saw as her adventurous nature. But I think she could well have been even more envious of your calmness.’

Rosemary frowned slightly. ‘I don’t think so. And I knew her a lot better than you. I always felt that she pitied me slightly for my scruples.’

‘What about Derek?’ said Sophie. ‘What were your initial feelings about him? Again, don’t think too hard.’

‘I quite liked him,’ Ed replied. ‘He seemed an amenable sort, and I didn’t feel he was putting on any kind of show. But he soon became so busy canoodling with Sarah that he completely lost interest in the rest of us.’

‘I agree,’ Rosemary added. ‘He seemed quite upfront and pleasant. Unlike the other one, Brian. There was something about him that I just didn’t like, right from the start.’

‘Did Derek ever mention his work?’ Sophie continued.

‘Now you come to mention it, he did. I think he said he was in IT in some way. But I didn’t follow it up,’ Rosemary said.

‘What about Brian? Did he talk about his work?’

‘No. Or if he did, I wasn’t listening. I was trying to ignore him, hoping he’d just go away.’

‘I got the impression he might have been in the security business,’ said Ed.

‘Why didn’t you mention this before?’ Sophie asked sharply.

‘I’ve only just remembered. It wasn’t mentioned directly in the conversation. It was when we were coming out of the pub. The doorway was a bit crowded with people leaving, and someone in front had forgotten something and tried to turn back. Brian said something about supplying bouncers to keep order in the pubs, but I was only half listening.’

‘Okay. This all helps. Please phone me if you remember anything else. I’d better be going. It’s getting late and I need at least some sleep.’

As she stood up Sophie noticed that Rosemary was biting her lip.

‘Is there something else, Rosemary?’ she asked.

There was a moment’s hesitation and then Rosemary nodded. Sophie waited.

‘I think she might have been taking money for sex. Sarah, I mean.’

Sophie sat down again.

‘It was our last weekend, the one at Gloucester. When she came back late in the night she thought I was asleep, but I woke up when she opened the door. I was still sleepy and didn’t say anything. As she dumped her bag on the bedside table an envelope fell out and a lot of banknotes slipped out of it. She counted them and slid them back. It looked like more than a hundred pounds.’

‘It could have been there all the time,’ Sophie said.

‘But it wasn’t. I’d watched her put stuff into that bag before we went out, and there was no envelope of cash. I can’t think of any other explanation. It worried me for a long time, but I never had the nerve to ask her about it. That was when I started to feel ambivalent towards her, and wondered if I should still be going away on these weekend trips. But she’d already booked this one.’

‘What did you decide?’

‘I couldn’t make my mind up. I thought I’d see how things went this weekend and then come to a decision. And then all this happened.’

Sophie nodded and stood up again. ‘You did the right thing to tell me, but I must also add that you shouldn’t jump to conclusions. There could be other, perfectly innocent explanations.’

‘Yes. It’s just that I can’t think of one.’

Wilton showed the DCI out, but she paused in the hallway.

‘I need to talk to Rosemary alone, Mr Wilton. Can you stay here or do something in the kitchen for a few minutes, please?’

‘Of course,’ he said and walked through to the back of the house.

Sophie returned to the lounge. She sat down opposite Rosemary and thought for a moment before she spoke.

‘I need to ask you something quite sensitive, Rosemary. I need to do it out of Ed’s earshot, although it doesn’t involve him.’

Rosemary sat forward on the edge of her seat.

‘Did Sarah ever make a pass at you? Or did she indicate in any way that she’d had relationships with other women?’

Rosemary’s face turned pink. She looked down at her hands.

‘Why didn’t you tell me, Rosemary? What happened?’

‘It was at Gloucester too, but earlier in the day.’ Rosemary spoke so softly that Sophie had to lean forward to hear what she was saying. ‘We’d had some wine at lunchtime and I was a bit tipsy. We got back to our room and she came on strong to me. We ended up in bed.’

There was a silence. ‘And?’ Sophie finally asked.

‘I was confused. It just felt so different. I really didn’t know how to deal with it. It was days before I could even begin to think about what had happened. I was kind of ashamed and excited at the same time. In the end I decided it wasn’t for me and I told her so. I only came to Swanage on the understanding that it wouldn’t happen again.’ She raised her eyes to Sophie’s. ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t mean I’m a lesbian, maybe just a little bit bi. I also think it was just her. She was so lovely. She had such a beautiful body. The thought of doing it again with a different woman appals me. Does that make sense?’

‘Of course. And I think your description of yourself fits Sarah as well. She clearly liked men but was willing to involve women if the context was right for her. I’m not condemning you or her, Rosemary. And this will stay just with me for the time being, so please be reassured. But I did need to know. Well, I’d better be off.’

In the kitchen, Ed was sorting through the contents of the fridge.

‘I guess you think I was a bit harsh on Saturday evening when we questioned you both in depth. But it had to be done, Mr Wilton. And everything you said checks out so far.’

‘Including the graze on my hand?’

‘Yes. We found traces of your tissue on the wall of the hotel, just as you described. So you can rest easy. At the moment, anyway.’

She left and Ed returned to the sitting room.

‘I’m feeling miserable now, Ed,’ Rosemary said.

‘You had to speak up about the money you saw her with. The police had to know, even if there’s nothing to it.’

‘I know. But I feel I’ve tainted her memory somehow.’