SECRET CRIMES a gripping crime thriller full of suspense (5 page)

A second doorway from the hall led to a brightly painted kitchen-diner. All the utensils and crockery were neatly stacked inside cupboards and drawers. A window looked out over a small, shared garden area where several whirligigs, some encased in plastic covers, stood sentry over the little patch of lawn. Sophie glanced at the bills and letters pinned to a corkboard fixed to the wall. She asked the local Portsmouth detective, DC Phil Barber, to examine the cupboards in the hallway. Marsh finished looking through the drawers, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

The two detectives went into the main bedroom. The room, like those downstairs, was well-lit and colourfully decorated. The furniture was simple and contemporary.

‘No pastel shades here, ma’am. She liked her colours.’

‘It matches her personality, from what we’ve been told. We’ll just have a quick look through the units to see if anything stands out.’

Nothing seemed amiss. Clothes, jewels, books and possessions were exactly the kind of items Sophie would have expected from an educated, middle-aged woman. She glanced inside the rattan laundry basket and under the bed. They walked through to the small second bedroom, which doubled as an office. In addition to a single bed tucked against one wall and the small wardrobe and dressing table, a small desk stood in front of the window with an office chair in front of it. A single shelf of folders and books stood to one side. Sophie looked at the laptop lying on the desk. There was a small laser printer beside it.

Marsh looked under the desk, and opened the single drawer. He took out several memory sticks and slid them into a plastic bag, then turned to the forensic officer, who had followed them upstairs, and pointed at the computer.

‘Can we switch the laptop on?’

‘The decision’s yours,’ came the reply. ‘But it might be better to take it back to your computer forensic team. The chances are it’s absolutely fine, but just occasionally we’ve come across one that’s been rigged to bugger itself up if someone tries to log on. You know, it’s been booby-trapped with a clean-up program and all the important stuff gets wiped. It depends who you’re up against.’

‘Leave it, Barry,’ Sophie said. ‘We’ll take it with us. We don’t really know who we’re investigating, so we’ll get an expert to do it. If we phone ahead maybe someone can be there waiting for us. I don’t want to be waiting for days to find out what it contains.’

They took one last look around the room and returned to the lounge. A second forensic man held out a plastic bag containing two booklets.

‘An address book and a diary for last year. Only one person’s prints on them, and I’ve made a record. There’s no diary for this year, by the way.’

‘She probably had it with her, although it hasn’t turned up yet. But these will be very useful. We’ll examine them back at our place. You have my number. If you find anything unusual, please let me know right away.’

She turned back to Marsh, who was inspecting Sarah’s music collection. ‘It’s a bit odd, ma’am. They were at a blues festival, but none of the CDs here are remotely linked to blues or jazz. It’s all fairly middle-of-the-road stuff. Seems a bit peculiar, doesn’t it?’

‘Maybe. Although some people use the festivals as a way of finding new partners. They may not be interested in the music at all.’

‘In that case, why not use an internet dating service? It’d be a helluva lot easier.’

‘I take your point. Is there nothing at all?’

‘No. She might have mp3 files on her laptop, but there’s no player anywhere here. She might have stuff stored on a smartphone and, from what you say, that probably vanished from her bag, but it’s a bit curious.’ He paused. ‘I’m beginning to agree with your idea, ma’am. The blues festival just provided a convenient pretext. If they were up to something, you know, from what that roadie told us, then it’s possible none of them, at least the three we’re interested in, were attracted there by the music. Remember what Rosemary told us? And Ed Wilton? He said the band playing last night was something really special. Yet Mrs Sheldon and this Derek guy didn’t show any interest. They spent the whole hour canoodling. According to them, even Shapiro didn’t take much notice of the music. We assumed they were looking for romance. But what if it was something else?’

‘Maybe when we start going through her address book and contacting people we’ll start seeing the bigger picture. Anyway, let’s finish off here for now.’

They knocked at the other five flats in the block. The two who did answer could only say that Sarah had moved in less than two years previously. Sophie asked Barber, the local CID man, to call on the other neighbours early the following week in case any of them could help with background information.

Chapter 4: Tough Questions

Saturday evening

‘You can stay at my place again tonight, Rosemary. Honestly it won’t be a problem.’

Ed Wilton and Rosemary Corrigan were sharing a pot of tea in a small café on the High Street. It was late afternoon and the sky was darkening as rain clouds moved in from the west. Rosemary frowned and took another sip from her cup.

‘Ella’s still with me until tomorrow afternoon. She’s offered to cook something tonight and she’s said there’ll be plenty for three. And what else can you do? Your room will be off limits for days, surely?’ He glanced out of the window. No one had umbrellas up just yet.

‘Well, the hotel has offered me a spare room in the staff accommodation, so they have made an effort to look after me. They don’t have any other guest rooms because of the festival.’

‘That’s not surprising. Everywhere’s fully booked I expect.’ He looked at her tired eyes. ‘Well, the offer’s there if you want it. And to be honest, I just feel you’d be safer with us. My original plan was to go out again and see another couple of bands this evening, but I really don’t feel like it after what’s happened . . .’ His voice trailed off into silence.

‘Oh, Ed, I can’t even think straight. I just keep imagining what it must have been like for Sarah and what she went through last night. And I keep thinking, what if I’d been there as well? Would I be dead too?’ She finished her coffee and refilled the cup. ‘But in answer to your question, yes, please. I’d feel more secure at your place. But only if Ella is happy about it, and only if she stays too. And if the police are okay with it. I watch enough TV drama to know that both of us must be on their list of suspects. Anyway, they want to know where I am at all times. I think they want another interview sometime later, but I’m not sure what about. I don’t have many more clothes and I’m not allowed to remove anything from my bag in the hotel room until I get the go-ahead, and that could take days.’

Her mobile phone rang. When the call ended, she looked across the table at Ed.

‘It’s the police. Can they talk to us again this evening?’

He nodded. She told the caller they would be at Ed’s flat.

‘Let’s walk the long way back,’ he said. ‘I need some fresh air, and a walk along the front would be just right. We should make it before the rain starts.’

* * *

Rosemary Corrigan perched nervously on the edge of her chair. Sophie was facing her across a low table. Marsh sat to one side, notebook in hand. They’d asked Wilton to leave the room while they talked and Rosemary could hear him and his daughter clearing dishes in the kitchen.

‘You’ve told us that you met Sarah at a divorcees’ social evening, Rosemary. Can you expand on that? Think back carefully. How did you get talking?’

Rosemary chewed at her lower lip. She felt mentally and physically wrung out. ‘It had been advertised in the local paper. It was held in a room in one of the Portsmouth city centre pubs, midweek, I think, about eighteen months ago. I found it all very strange. Everyone seemed a bit overanxious. It wasn’t a very relaxed atmosphere and I wasn’t impressed by any of the men there. They were all trying too hard. By then I’d realised I really wasn’t ready for it anyway. I was debating whether to have another drink or just cut my losses and go home, when I turned and bumped into Sarah, and she spilled her drink. I apologised of course, being me, but it was just as much her fault as mine and she said so. I remember her saying to me that the evening was a bit crap and did I fancy going somewhere normal? I agreed, so we left and headed down the road to another place that she knew. We got chatting and we decided to meet up the next week for a meal out. And we hit it off. She started talking about these music festivals that she went to. I think I must have expressed an interest because the next time we met, she told me she’d booked the two of us in for a blues weekend at Hayling Island. I was a bit taken aback by the way she’d done it without checking with me, but I decided to go anyway.’

‘Did anything unusual happen?’

‘Not really. By the time we went, a couple of months had passed and we’d met several more times for evenings out. It became obvious that she was out for light-hearted flings, as she called them. Even so, I was a bit shocked by how easily she paired up with a man. She would flash that lovely smile at some poor bloke, and he’d be hooked. When we went to Hayling Island she didn’t appear back in our room until the middle of the night — well, more like two in the morning. It was all a bit of an eye-opener for me.’

‘Did the same thing happen the second night?’

She frowned. ‘We-ell . . . on the Saturday evening we saw a couple of bands, had a few drinks but stayed together. We’d almost got back to our building when she said she was heading off again. I guessed it was to see Roger, or whatever his name was. I thought it was a bit odd, because she hadn’t breathed a word of her plans until then. So I went in by myself. That was when she stayed out all night, and came back just before breakfast.’

‘Roger? Are you sure that was his name?’

‘No. I can’t be sure, but I think so. Although I haven’t seen him again. He wasn’t at the next one. At least, I didn’t spot him.’

‘Where was that?’

‘Gloucester, in July.’ Again the frown and the bitten lip. Sophie waited. ‘You know, I’ve just realised that the same thing happened there. On the Friday evening we went out and she met up with someone, just like before. She stayed out until well past midnight but came back in. On the Saturday night she made no attempt to hit on anyone. Once we were near our hotel, she disappeared again and I didn’t see her until the next morning. It was the same pattern.’

‘But not the same man?’

‘No. There his name was . . . I remember now. The second one’s name was Roger. That first weekend, the guy’s name was Jonathan. At least I think so. It’s so hard to remember.’

Sophie turned to Marsh. ‘Is there a way of checking the names of visitors to these festivals? What happens here in Swanage?’

‘Not easy, ma’am. Because it’s spread across most of the town’s pubs, there’s no ticket system. People can buy a wristband for the weekend, but it’s cash only. There’s no list kept, so we can only trace people via the hotels and guest houses. We’d miss out on any day visitors.’

‘The Gloucester one was like that,’ Rosemary added. ‘But the one at Hayling Island was in a holiday park, and we were in a chalet. I remember that we had to check in for that.’

‘So we might be able to follow up on that one. And in both cases you never saw who Sarah was meeting on the Saturday night? The assumption was that it was the same man as on the Friday, but you can’t be sure?’

‘No. And there’s something else that’s odd. She’d talk about the Friday night man over breakfast on the Saturday morning. She’d be laughing and giggling about it. But on Sunday morning she’d be more tight-lipped. I’ve never thought of that before.’

‘Let’s return to this current weekend. Think about the two men, Brian and Derek. Is it possible that you might have seen them before at one of the other festivals?’

‘I don’t think so. They’re certainly not the men Sarah picked up previously, and they didn’t look familiar. So, no.’

‘Take me back to yesterday evening, Rosemary. I know you gave us a potted account this morning, but I want to know why you left the first pub, the one where you’d been talking to Ed. Was it your idea or Sarah’s to go to the one up the road?’ Sophie asked.

‘Sarah’s. And something else has just occurred to me. Her behaviour yesterday was entirely different to the previous Friday evenings. Yesterday she didn’t act as if she was on the lookout for a man, despite what she told Ed. She was quieter. That’s until we walked into that second bar. Once Derek appeared she was back to being full of life.’

‘Did she get any phone calls earlier in the evening?’ asked Marsh.

‘No. But while I was talking to Ed, she got some text messages. It was just after one of those that she grabbed my arm and said we were going somewhere else.’

‘Was there any hint that they already knew each other? Sarah and Derek, I mean,’ Marsh continued.

‘I didn’t think so at the time, but the way she behaved with him was much more forward than I’d ever seen before. They were all over each other. I had to warn them to cool it because I was worried there might be complaints. You know, from some of the other people there, or from the staff. I was actually quite embarrassed.’

‘Could you describe exactly what you could see happening between them?’ Sophie asked.

‘Well, it didn’t take long before his hand went inside her jacket. He was squeezing her breasts. And it wasn’t so obvious because it was going on below table height, but her hand was inside his trousers. Honestly, she’d never gone that far in public before. Nowhere near.’

‘Looking back now, do you think they might already have known each other?’

‘Look, I just don’t know. They were whispering to each other, but I don’t know what they were saying. It was too noisy to hear a thing, what with the band playing and all the people crammed together, shouting at each other.’

‘What about when you walked back to the hotel? What was going on then?’

Rosemary thought for a moment. ‘I was in front, talking to Ed. Brian was trying hard to keep up with me. Sarah and Derek hung back a bit. It wasn’t far. It could only have taken us a couple of minutes. When we arrived at the hotel we made for the bar. It was so quiet compared with the pubs. I settled into a sofa and felt like going to sleep. I remember that the barman brought over a tray of liqueurs and brandies that someone had ordered. I think it was Derek. The next thing I knew was when Sarah nudged me awake and told me that we needed to visit the loo. It was a bit weird really.’

‘Why was that, Rosemary?’

‘When we got there she got quite bossy. She told me that she was going to spend the night with Derek, and that I ought to loosen up a bit and go back with Brian. Or Ed. It didn’t matter which, as long as I found somewhere else to go. It wasn’t a discussion. She made it very clear that I was getting my marching orders. Then she walked out. I followed, explained the situation to Ed and he invited me to stay here. That was when Brian left. I collected a few things from our room, said goodbye to Sarah and came out with Ed. I was tired, confused and angry and I let her know how I felt. I was beginning to ask myself whether I wanted to carry on being friends with her, but I didn’t say anything. I decided to wait to see how she behaved this morning, and whether she’d apologise. And that was it. I think you know everything else that happened.’

Sophie was silent for a few moments. ‘That’s fine, Rosemary. I think we now have a much clearer picture of your relationship with Sarah, and what happened yesterday. I just have a couple more questions. How did you get here from Portsmouth yesterday? Can you take us through that, please?’

‘We came in my car. I picked her up straight after leaving work at six. I’d normally be working later than that on a Friday, but I’d arranged for my deputy to take over from me for this weekend.’

‘Was that at her house?’

‘Yes. I texted her when I set off so she knew when to expect me. She was waiting in her front porch with her case. Nothing unusual happened on the drive across, as far as I can recall.’

‘You’re in retail management, aren’t you?’

‘Yes. I manage a medium-sized department store. Weekends are our busiest time.’

‘So you have a pretty responsible job.’

‘In a way, yes. But there’s not much room for manoeuvre, not for the individual store manager these days. All the important decisions are made higher up, at head office. We are just responsible for implementing them.’

Sophie nodded.

‘It took us about an hour and a half, maybe a bit longer, to get here. By the time we’d checked in and unpacked it was nearly eight. Sarah waited while I changed out of my work suit and touched up my make-up. Then we went out. We managed to get some food in the pub. That’s where we chatted to Ed. He was at the bar at the same time.’

‘Who chose that pub?’ Marsh asked.

‘Me. Sarah wanted to go to the Red Lion, but a band had already started playing and it was absolutely mobbed. And I was starving. I pulled her away from the door because I could see that the Swan was a bit quieter. We got some food there quite quickly.’

‘Did Sarah seem put out when you got her to leave that pub and go somewhere else?’ Marsh asked.

‘It’s difficult to say. Maybe for a very short while, but I did agree to go back with her later. She was happy with that.’

‘You said you changed into informal clothes at the hotel. Does that mean that Sarah didn’t need to? Was she already in her evening outfit when you picked her up?’ said Sophie.

‘Yes. She was in jeans and a sparkly top. And her leather jacket.’

‘But I thought she worked in a bank.’

‘I’d guess that she finished at five and had time to go home and change. That was what I assumed.’

Sophie changed the subject. ‘Did you see anyone you recognised from a previous weekend?’

Rosemary shook her head. ‘No. I think we were about the last to check in at the hotel. Most people had arrived earlier and already gone out. And no one at the pubs was at all familiar.’

‘What about late at night when you came back to the hotel’s lounge bar? Who else was there?’