Unnatural Wastage (28 page)

‘So tell me how it was,' said Rathbone, ‘and try telling the truth for a change.'

‘I need to use the toilet first.' Rathbone nodded to the uniformed officer, who escorted Ellerman out of the room.

As soon as they returned Pollard said, ‘Sergeant Rathbone, before we go any further I wish to confer with my client. May I also remind you that my client has had very little to eat this morning and he is still feeling slightly unwell. I therefore request a break from questioning so that he may take a rest and have some nourishment.'

‘Very well, Mr Pollard,' said Rathbone. ‘Interview suspended at twelve o'clock.' He switched off the tape. ‘We'll resume questioning your client in three hours' time.' He left the room, accompanied by Sukey and Vicky.

‘He's going to be a tough nut to crack, by the looks of it,' said DCI Leach after he had listened to Rathbone's report. ‘Uniformed are going over his flat with a tooth comb,' he went on. ‘So far, none of the shoes they found appear to match the impression taken from the crime scene, but he takes the same size so he probably disposed of the ones he was wearing the day he killed the cleaner. We've got his toothbrush and one or two other personal items for DNA samples to be compared with DNA taken from the dead woman. It'll take time for the results to come through, of course – the Super will no doubt put in the usual request for fast-tracking – so if we can't get a confession out of him within a reasonable time we'll simply have to bail him again.'

‘We're doing our best, sir,' said Rathbone. ‘We know from past experience that Pollard's a wily old bird and given half a chance he'll play the sympathy card – accuse us of bullying a sick man.'

‘Sick?' queried Leach.

‘He was well and truly hung-over, sir,' said Sukey.

‘He had to go to the loo to throw up,' Vicky added, ‘and then used body language in an attempt to rouse sympathy.' She gave an impromptu impression, to which Leach responded with a slightly raised eyebrow. ‘It was really quite funny, sir.'

‘I hope you didn't let your amusement show, or that would give him another excuse to have a go at us,' said Rathbone in some alarm.

‘It's all right Sarge, we did keep our faces straight,' Sukey assured him.

‘DS Rathbone has a point so just be on your guard, all of you,' said Leach. ‘Now, we have to do everything possible to contact the dead woman's relatives. I've spoken to Doc Handley and an actual mug shot, even after she's been cleaned up, might be distressing, so I'm sending an artist round to the morgue to produce a recognizable impression without showing the effects of decomposition. That should be ready to release tomorrow, so I'll talk to the press in the morning and bring them up to speed. And naturally we'll ask them to publicize our appeal for anyone who can help with ID to come forward.' He turned to Rathbone. ‘Make sure you get more details from him of his so-called project . . . the name of the company he's claiming Maxworth's might be interested in and what work he's done on it. It's possible that's something he's dreamed up on the spur of the moment to account for coming home during the day. And send a couple of your DCs to check whether he's telling the truth about leaving the office without explanation on Wednesday.'

Rathbone made a note. ‘Will do, sir.'

‘I've arranged for one of our whiz-kids to check his computer.' Leach glanced at his watch. ‘You'd better go and grab some lunch before you tackle Ellerman again.'

‘D'you reckon he did it?' said Vicky as she and Sukey sat down to a sandwich lunch in the canteen.

‘It's funny you should ask,' said Sukey. ‘Common sense and logic tell me that having eliminated Carla Seaton from suspicion of committing the two previous murders – which was a pretty long shot anyway – Ellerman is the only one with motive and opportunity. I feel as if we're in a dark room and pressing all the right buttons but the lights won't come on.'

‘You're right.' Vicky bit into her tuna sandwich and chewed thoughtfully for a moment. ‘But if he didn't do it, who did? We've interviewed scores of witnesses and haven't come across a single lead pointing to anyone else who might have a motive for killing Fenella Tremaine. We're fairly confident that the Fiddler's Patch victim is Aggie, but supposing she isn't?'

‘In that case,' said Sukey despondently, ‘we're back to square one.'

D
espite being subjected to several more hours of ­questioning by successive teams of detectives, Ellerman refused to change his story. As there was no possibility of seeking further information either from his colleagues at Maxworth Engineering or from Mrs Shilling at the cleaning agency until their respective offices reopened on Monday morning, DCI Leach had no option other than to order that he be detained pending further enquiries. Jason Pollard put in a strong plea for bail, pleading that his client was unfit to spend a night in the cells and insisting on a doctor being summoned. After a considerable delay a somewhat disgruntled doctor appeared, examined Ellerman and said that in his opinion there was no medical reason why he should not remain in custody overnight. Pollard's request was therefore refused and the team was told to go home and report for duty as usual the following morning.

It was a little after eight o'clock when Sukey returned home. She had been indoors barely ten minutes when Harry rang her bell. ‘I didn't think it'd be long before you showed up,' she said resignedly as she opened the door. ‘I suppose you'd better come in.'

‘Well, there's a nice way to greet your beloved,' he said reproachfully. He held her close for several moments before releasing her and saying, ‘What you need is a stiffener.'

‘Oh yes, please.' She sank into an armchair and shut her eyes. ‘This case is an absolute nightmare; we're ninety-nine per cent sure we've got our man but we haven't been able to nail him yet. He's as slippery as an eel; we've all been having a go at him in relays for several hours and getting nowhere. Thanks love,' she added as he put a glass of wine into her hand and sat down beside her. ‘And now I suppose you're going to try and winkle some extra information out of me. I wouldn't bank on it . . . as it is I've already said too much.'

Harry chuckled. ‘Your problem is you just can't resist my winning personality. Do I take it the slippery customer you're referring to is Doctor Marcus Ellerman?'

‘No comment.'

‘All right. Let me tell you what I have found so far and you can fill in the blanks.'

‘In your dreams!'

‘We'll see. Now, I and my fellow news-hounds already know that your people have, shall we say, shown a lot of interest in Marcus Ellerman ever since the discovery of Fenella Tremaine's body. No, we haven't had any leaks and my editor would cut off his right arm rather than pay for info,' he assured her as she was about to interrupt. ‘Just the same, we do have a very effective bush telegraph and we're pretty sure that your sergeant's recent visits to Ellerman weren't social calls.' He broke off for a moment to take a generous mouthful from his own glass of wine. ‘Right, fast forward to yesterday afternoon when a woman's body – as yet unidentified so far as we know – is found on a patch of waste ground not much more than a mile from where Ellerman lives. Am I right so far?'

‘Since the media flew to the scene like wasps to a picnic there's no point in denying it,' Sukey admitted. ‘I take it you were there?'

‘I'm asking the questions. What about the ID or lack of it?'

‘I suppose there's no harm in answering that,' she said after a moment's thought. ‘A description of the dead woman will be given at tomorrow's press briefing and you'll all be asked to appeal for information from anyone who thinks they may know her identity. An artist's impression will be circulated as soon as it's been made.'

‘No mug shot; I imagine that means the face has been beaten to a pulp or she's started to decompose,' said Harry.

‘No comment,' said Sukey. ‘Look, I've just said you'll get more information first thing tomorrow. Can't you wait till then?'

‘I haven't finished telling you what I already know,' said Harry.

‘All right, clever clogs; get on with it.'

‘You think the dead woman is Marcus Ellerman's cleaning lady who hasn't been seen since she went to his flat as usual on Wednesday. He was there at the time, contrary to his usual ­practice, and he's been at HQ all day helping with your enquiries into her disappearance.' He could not resist a smirk of triumph at Sukey's look of mingled astonishment and dismay, at which she gave him a thump on his free arm.

‘How the hell did you figure that out without inside info?'

‘Easy – I followed a hunch and went round to Sycamore Park after leaving Fiddler's Patch. It was pretty obvious something was afoot, what with CSIs going in followed by uniformed making off with a load of stuff including a laptop – Ellerman's no doubt since there is now a seal on his flat – and curious onlookers hanging around gawping and chattering. They were falling over themselves to tell me what one of the residents had seen from her window. The neighbourhood watch network at Sycamore Park is pretty slick, I can tell you.'

‘Let's hope they'll be as helpful in getting an ID for the Fiddler's Patch victim,' said Sukey. She drained her glass and held it out for a refill.

‘Oh, I'm sure they'll be a great help,' he said as he topped up both their drinks. ‘By the way, has Ellerman been freed on bail or banged up for the night? The
Echo
has a reporter hanging about outside HQ and he'd like to know so he can go home.'

‘I'm afraid he'll just have to hang about . . . and I wish it was a snowy night in winter instead of mid-August,' said Sukey with feeling.

‘You hard-hearted woman. What happened to the milk of human kindness?'

‘It's curdled . . . and I'm not saying another word – except that I'm ready for some food.'

‘Me too. Why don't I go out for some fish and chips? Or would you rather have a pizza?'

‘Fish and chips please.'

On Monday morning, as soon as the press briefing was over, the team were given their orders for the day. In view of Ellerman's intransigence DCI Leach decided to lead the first session of questioning himself, with Rathbone's support and DC Penny Osborne sitting in to observe. DCs Mike Haskins and Tim Pringle were sent to the Clean as a Whistle agency in search of further information about Aggie, while Sukey and Vicky were instructed to go to Maxworth Engineering and interview Ellerman's PA.

On returning to headquarters at lunchtime the team were once again summoned to DCI Leach's office. ‘You will not be entirely surprised,' he began, ‘that we have been unable to shake Ellerman; DS Rathbone and I did our best to trip him up, but we got nowhere. He insists that on arriving home on Wednesday he merely exchanged a couple of words with “the girl” and went straight to his study to work on his project. He's already agreed that she seemed what he called “a bit jumpy” when he walked in, but simply put it down to the fact that she was surprised to see him. So,' Leach continued wearily, ‘unless any of you have come up with something to justify applying for an extension, we'll have to bail him again. It seems our only hope at the moment is for his DNA to be found on the woman's body or clothing, but barring a miracle it will be days or even weeks before we get a result. Tim and Mike, I'll start with you. How much was Mrs Shilling able to tell you about Aggie?'

‘Quite a lot, sir,' said Mike. ‘She was a bit cagey at first and waffled on about confidentiality as if she was Aggie's lawyer, but when we told her why we needed the information and gave her a description of the Fiddler's Patch victim she was horrified and only too willing to help us in any way she could.'

‘You think she recognized Aggie from the description?'

‘Undoubtedly, sir. Her full name is Aghami Hussein; she's been working for Clean as a Whistle for about three months and all the clients speak very highly of her. She told Mrs Shilling when she signed on that she didn't want any of her family – or the police – to know where she was, which explains why Mrs Shilling hesitated at first about giving us any more information.'

‘So I take it she went ahead and answered all your questions?'

‘Yes, sir. She began by confirming that Aggie didn't have any more jobs after she'd finished at Ellerman's flat so she assumed she'd gone home. When a client rang on Thursday morning to complain that she hadn't turned up Mrs Shilling thought she must be ill as she'd never missed a job before. It wasn't until the same thing happened on Friday that she became concerned; she called Aggie on her mobile but there was no answer.'

‘If she was so concerned, why didn't she say so when you went to see her on Saturday?'

‘It's a quite complicated – and all too common, I understand – situation among some immigrant families, sir. Aggie comes from a Muslim family who settled in this country – quite legally, it appears – when Aggie was about twelve. She went to the local comprehensive school where she made friends with a girl from a Catholic family and secretly became a Christian, but of course didn't dare tell her own family. When she was fourteen her father told her he'd arranged for her to marry his cousin, a very wealthy man much older than her. She didn't dare defy her father, but she was revolted by the idea because she knew the man and found him repulsive. The next day at school she told her friend and begged her for help. The friend told her own parents; knowing that forced marriages are illegal in this country they wanted to contact Social Services in the hope that they could arrange for her to be taken to a women's refuge, but she was terrified at the suggestion; she had brothers who were strict Muslims and would, she knew, be determined to seek her out and force her to return home. And if they knew she'd become a Christian she was certain they would kill her.'