No Hiding Place: An edge of your seat mystery/thriller. (DI Sally Parker thrillers Book 2) (7 page)

He opened another can of lager
and took a long swig. “I bet I know who told you that, too. That
bitch of an ex-wife of mine. Am I right?”

“We have had a conversation
with your ex-wife this morning. However, it was your son-in-law who
told us about an incident which occurred the last time you visited
his home.”

His chin hit his chest. “I
regretted that as soon as it happened. I should never have hit the
child.”

“Then why did you?”

“I snapped. Gemma didn’t leave
me much option to say no to baby-sitting the child. Children and
their care ain’t a forte of mine. When I came home to tell Gina,
the wife, she went ballistic. We rowed for days. In the end, I told
her to fuck off out of my life. I never thought she would take me
up on the bloody suggestion. Now, every time I try to contact her,
she hangs up. Look at this place—she should be here, clearing up
after me. It’s her job.”

“Really? You make the mess and
expect other people to go out of their way to clear up after
you?”

“Oh, fuck off, bitch. Get off
your high horse and cut the crap about women having rights. A
woman’s place is in the home, looking after her man.”

Sally felt the colour rise in
her cheeks. She could see the man had an arrogant streak running
through him not dissimilar to her ex-husband’s. She was glad to see
that Gina Lord had the sense to stand up to the pitiful excuse for
a human being before he’d caused her irreparable damage. “You keep
telling yourself that, Mr. Lord. While you’re doing that, look
around you at your home and ask yourself if it degenerated into
resembling a pigsty before or after your wife left you.”

He flung an arm in the air,
batting away her suggestion. “Whatever!”

“Okay, now that you’ve opened
the floodgates as to how you regard women, I need to ask if your
daughter has contacted you this week.”

He folded his arms and glared
at Sally. “No, I’ve already told you that.”

“Then I need to ask if your
daughter ever confided in you if someone was treating her
poorly.”

“Treating her poorly? What’s
that supposed to mean? Do you think one of the family did this? Is
that what you’re getting at?”

“We don’t know yet. It’s been
suggested to us that might be a genuine possibility. I need to ask
if you have any witnesses as to your whereabouts last night.”

He launched himself off the
chair and stormed toward Sally.

Jack stood between them and
forced Lord to retreat. “Back off, buddy. Just answer the question
without the aggressive stance, okay?”

Lord paced the room. “And what
if I don’t have a witness or alibi for last night? Huh? What
happens then?”

Sally shrugged. “Then we will
ask your neighbours if they heard or saw you in the house, and if
nothing comes from that, then we’ll take you in for
questioning.”

“As a suspect? Are you effing
mad? This is my daughter we’re talking about here, not some
low-life prostitute.”

“Your estranged daughter, Mr.
Lord. I’m baffled by your reference to her being a prostitute,
unless you’re trying to tell us something.”

“That’s it! Twist my effing
words inside out and upside down. That’ll make a change, won’t
it?”

“I’m doing nothing of the sort.
You raised the subject. I’m just following up on what you
said.”

He threw himself onto the sofa
again. “If I get my hands on the animal who did this…”

Sally could see the man was
genuinely upset. Feeling a sudden pang of guilt, she tempered her
off-handedness towards him. “Hopefully, we’ll find the person
before you do. I need to ask you again if Gemma ever hinted at
someone showing her any kind of affection that they shouldn’t
have.”

“In the family?”

“Not necessarily. Anyone at
all?”

Lord shook his head in defeat.
“No, not that I know of, but then, I don’t suppose she’d ever
confide that sort of information in me. Did you ask her mother the
same question?”

“I did. She gave us a list of
possible suspects to question.”

“Shit! I’m assuming that my
name was at the top of that bloody list. Oh, don’t bother
answering. Why else would you be here? It’s written all over your
face that you think I’ve got something to hide.”

“I’m sorry if that’s how it’s
coming across, Mr. Lord. All I’m doing is trying to ascertain if
someone was carrying a grudge against your daughter and could have
hated her enough to want to kill her. I’m sure you can understand
that, yes?”

He nodded reluctantly and
exhaled noisily. “I get that. But I repeat, I didn’t do it. I might
not have shown her when she was alive, but believe me, in my own
way, I loved my daughter and would never intentionally harm
her.”

“Physically anyway, eh?” Sally
corrected him after recalling how badly he’d treated Gemma over the
years.

Lord glared at her for an
instant then broke eye contact and nodded again. “I suppose you’re
entitled to your opinion. I’ll admit to not being the best father
in the world, but at least she understood me, unlike others I could
mention. She knew I would always be there if ever she truly needed
my help.”

“Like taking care of her
daughter when she left you in charge of the infant, you mean?”
Sally issued him an assassin-type smile attached to the allegation,
to keep him on his toes, just in case he thought he was steering
her in the direction of crossing him off her list of suspects.
Sally had no intention of doing such a thing until a full
background check had been carried out and she’d spoken to anyone
connected with the victim.

Lord remained silent and
crossed his arms.

“Okay, I think we’re done here,
for now, at least. Please don’t think about leaving the area, Mr.
Lord. I’d hate to issue a warrant for your arrest.”

“Can you do that? Force me to
stick around here?”

“Try me,” Sally stated
triumphantly and turned on her heel towards the front door with
Jack hot on her tail.

“Where to now, boss?” Jack
asked, slamming the door.

Sally narrowed her eyes,
contemplating their next move. “I’m dying to question Mark’s
brother, Colin, but something is telling me not to jump in too
quickly on that front. So let’s get back to the station and see
what we can dig up about the brother before we go and tackle
him.”

“Makes sense,” Jack agreed and
hopped in the passenger seat of the car.

The second Sally and Jack
stepped back into the incident room, she gathered the team to go
over what they had learned so far. Standing at the whiteboard,
Sally picked up the marker pen and noted down the names of interest
and their relationship to the deceased.

“So far, we’ve tentatively
questioned the husband, Mark. We’ll need to revisit him to question
him further once he’s got used to the idea of his wife not being
around. I’m not sure what to think about him, or his mother, just
yet.”

“How did things go with the
father, boss? Did the background check I sent over prove to be of
any use?” Joanna asked.

“It did, Joanna. Apparently,
his second wife has now thrown in the towel and deserted him.”

“You should have seen the state
of his house. We thought about calling in the fumigators before we
questioned him,” Jack added with a shudder.

Sally laughed. “He isn’t joking
when he says that, either. The place was a dump. Again, in spite of
his previous convictions, the jury is still out on that one for me,
too. Which at the moment, leaves us with one other family member to
interview and Gemma’s friends. I want to do a thorough check on
Colin Whiting first before we pay him a visit. Maybe Jack and I
should see Colin while someone else tracks down the friends and
questions them. Any volunteers?”

Jordan and Stuart both raised
their hands. Sally paused for a moment then looked at Joanna. “I’d
really like Joanna to go, and maybe one of you guys could accompany
her. Sort it out amongst yourselves, eh?”

Joanna nodded. “Fine by me.
Which of you lovely gentlemen wants to be my chauffeur for the
day?” She chuckled as the two men shook their heads.

“All right, I’ll do it,” Jordan
volunteered after a moment or two.

“Thanks. Right, that’s sorted.
Before you head off, I want us all to see what we can find out
about the suspects we have so far. Anything and everything, even
down to where they shop for their underwear—got that?”

“What about TV and press
coverage, boss? Do you want me to organise that before heading
off?” Joanna asked, ever the practical member of the team.

“I’d like to leave that for
twenty-four hours this time. Let’s see what the pathologist has to
report regarding the post-mortem first.”

Sally left Jack to supervise
the team as each of them hit their computers for the next few hours
while she sifted through her post and attended to the paperwork
cluttering her desk. Thankfully, she’d been fortunate to stay on
top of it for the past month. Sally rejoined the team midway
through the afternoon, her tummy grumbling because she’d bypassed
yet another lunch hour. “Right, what do we have?”

Jack approached the whiteboard
as the team shuffled into position with their notebooks to hand.
“First up is Colin Whiting. I went through any files we had on him
and came up with a sexual assault charge.”

“Really? That’s interesting.”
Sally filled the rest of the team in on what Gemma’s mother had
divulged about Mark’s brother. “I got the impression that she felt
Colin was intimidating Gemma. If he’s got that kind of rap sheet,
then she could be onto something. Do we know any more details about
that case, Jack?”

He wrote the information on the
board with the marker pen as he spoke. “It was a few years back.
He’d worked shifts alongside the victim for a few months at the
bakery.”

“Ugh… I take it we’re talking
about the graveyard shift. All kinds of freaks appear around that
time of night,” Sally stated. “What was the outcome?”

“He lost his job, and the girl
refused to drop the charges. He pleaded guilty and got an
eighteen-month sentence.”

“I suppose that’s better than
nothing. Hardly a deterrent, though, right?”

“Yep, my thoughts exactly.”

“Marital status, Jack?”

“He’s married a girl since the
incident. Not sure if he knew her before or not. I’m assuming he
didn’t.”

“Interesting. We’ll tread
carefully there when we question him.”

“Does he work now?”

“Yes, he found a job as a baker
in a small family-run bakery in Keswick.”

Sally looked up at the clock on
the wall—it was coming up to four o’clock. “Maybe we should shoot
over there now, see if we can catch him at home before he starts
his shift, if he’s working tonight.”

“Sounds like a plan. Want me to
add the other info I’ve managed to find or leave that until
later?”

“Depends if you’ve found out
anything significant, Jack.”

“Not really. I’m taking an
authoritative call and saying the rest of this can wait.
Questioning this bastard should be our priority.”

Sally nodded at her partner’s
enthusiasm. “Then I’m happy to go along with that. Joanna and
Jordan, why don’t you set off now, too? Let’s all meet back here at
six this evening to discuss our findings.”

Everyone agreed and departed,
leaving Stuart to man the phones.

“Okay, here we are. Let’s go in
nice and calmly. Give him the benefit of the doubt from the start
and go from there.”

“I’ll take my cue from you, as
always, boss. Two cars in the drive; looks like his wife is at
home, too.”

“Maybe. We’ll soon find out.”
Sally locked the car and joined her partner around the passenger
side of the car. Together, they walked up the gravel driveway to
the semi-detached house, which had a rounded bay window.

The door was opened by a tall,
slim man in his early thirties. “Yes?”

Sally flashed her warrant card
and introduced herself and her partner. “We’d like a quick chat
with you, if you don’t mind?”

“Concerning what, Inspector?”
Colin Whiting asked, his eyebrows knitting together.

“About your sister-in-law,
Gemma,” Sally replied, deliberately being evasive, trying to gauge
his reaction.

Colin took a step forward,
pulled the door closed behind him, and leaned in to whisper, “I
don’t understand. What’s Gemma been saying about me?” He gazed
nervously over his shoulder several times.

Sally had seen enough to know
that this man had a few secrets where his sister-in-law was
concerned, and she intended to uncover those secrets. She leaned in
and whispered back at him, “Let us in, and you’ll find out. Either
that, or we can carry out our interview down at the station.”

He shuffled his feet and closed
his eyes. Opening them again, he shrugged. “You better come in. My
wife’s at home, though.”

“That’s okay. We’ll need to
question her too.”

“You’re not making any
sense.”

Sally disarmed the man with a
smile. “All will be revealed once we’re inside, Mr. Whiting.”

He led them through to a
spacious, bright living room. A woman was sitting on a leather sofa
in the bay window, stroking a puppy. Sally smiled at the woman and
flashed her ID again. “I’m Detective Inspector Sally Parker, and
this is my partner, DS Jack Blackman, of the Norfolk Constabulary.
I take it you’re Mrs. Whiting?”

“Yes. I’m Leona.” She glanced
at her husband waiting by the door. “Colin, what’s this about?”

“Why don’t we all take a seat,
and we’ll fill you in. Cute dog. What is it?”

“She’s a shih tzu. Only eight
weeks old. Sleeps a lot and poos even more.” Leona laughed.

Sally sat on the other sofa,
alongside Jack, and looked up expectantly at Colin, waiting for him
to join his wife before she began talking.