John leaves Lucy at the station chasing BT for phone records and checking James’s alibi at the hotel. To his relief, it has cooled down a bit and a light summer drizzle mists the windscreen as he drives down Bramall Road. He parks the car a little way down the street and sits in it for a moment listening to the wipers squeaking as they move across the windscreen. Up ahead, he can see the area around number six thrumming with activity and there are now about ten or fifteen people watching the proceedings from behind the tape. There isn’t much he can do about that, and he knows it will only be a matter of time before the press get hold of the story.
He walks down the middle of the road, lifts the tape and approaches DC Karen Williams, who is standing sentry outside the house.
‘Morning, Williams. What’s happening here?’
‘Morning, guv. The pathologist arrived an hour or so ago and the photographer should be finished by about four.’
‘That’s good. Anything else?’
‘They’re busy searching the bins and front gardens, but nothing’s turned anything up so far.’
‘Never mind, it’s early days and the bins aren’t emptied until Monday; we’ve got plenty of time.’
As they speak, a figure appears at the front door and waves. John and the pathologist, Peter Byrne, have known each other for over ten years and, although John wouldn’t exactly describe him as a friend, he likes the man and they have developed a good working relationship. Pete is of medium height and wiry and, despite his young age – he’s in his early forties – is prematurely bald, which makes him look much older than John. Standing there in his protective suit and heavy black-rimmed glasses, Pete looks like some sort of eccentric spaceman.
‘Pete, how’s it going?’
‘Me or inside?’
‘Both.’
‘Well, I’m knackered. Up half the night working on that Tube stabbing. Did you hear about it? Pumped full of drugs and alcohol – I’m surprised he didn’t die from an overdose before he got knifed.’
‘What can you say?’ John shrugs. ‘And in there?’ he asks, gesturing towards the house.
‘It’s a bit early to say what happened exactly. It looks like her body was moved to make it seem as if she had fallen down the stairs, but that’s definitely not how she sustained the head injury. I’ll be able to tell you more once we get her to the lab.’
‘That’s good enough for the moment. Let me know if there’s anything else.’
Pete retreats into the house and John walks up and down talking to the scenes-of-crime-officers, or SOCOs as they are called, who are busy searching the immediate area. This same team will go into the house as soon as the pathologist and photographer have finished up. So far, they have turned up very little – some cigarette butts from the side of the road opposite and a sample of some dog excrement that someone had trodden in outside number six. John silently thanks Irene Hall for breaking the law by not cleaning up after her dog. If nothing of interest is found in the dustbins or front gardens within the sealed-off zone, John has decided to extend the area to the rest of the road and, if necessary, neighbouring streets.
‘Call me once Pete has finished,’ he shouts to Karen Williams, and he gets into his car.
*
Lucy has a frustrating time dealing with BT. The woman they normally deal with is off sick, and the replacement is decidedly unhelpful. He tells Lucy that they are inundated with requests and the likelihood of getting any results before Monday afternoon are virtually zero
‘This is a murder enquiry,’ she tells him for the third time, ‘it’s extremely urgent.’
‘They’re all urgent,’ he replies. Lucy keeps her temper knowing that, if she loses it, her request will go straight to the bottom of the pile.
‘I realise how busy you are, but I’d really appreciate anything you can do to speed this up for us,’ she ends up saying.
‘I’ll do my best,’ he replies, ‘but I can’t promise anything.’
‘I bet you can’t,’ Lucy mutters under her breath as she replaces the receiver.
Lucy’s next call, to the Oak Lodge in Bournemouth, is more rewarding. The receptionist, Ashley Price, remembers James clearly and goes out of her way to be helpful. From the animation in her voice when she describes him, Lucy guesses that she probably fancied him.
‘How many nights was Mr Scott booked in for?’ Lucy asks.
‘Just two, Wednesday and Thursday, but he asked for an early check-in on Wednesday because he wanted to drop off his bags before he went to a conference.’
Lucy is really only interested in James’s movements on Thursday and moves Ashley along quickly.
‘What about yesterday?’
‘He had breakfast in the dining room and I saw him leave at around nine. He got back at sixish that evening.’
‘Is someone sitting in reception all the time?’
‘Until midnight, when we lock the doors, and then from six in the morning, when we open them, there’s someone at the desk all the time. Between those times, guests have to press the buzzer at reception if they need to go out or ring the bell outside if they come back late.’
‘If he had gone out between six when he got back and midnight, is it likely that the receptionist would have seen him?’
Ashley pauses again. ‘I left just after seven-thirty and I definitely didn’t see him go out before that. I’ll have to check with Carol, who was on night duty.’
‘What about this morning?’
‘Yes, I saw him quite early, maybe around seven-thirty, I hadn’t been in long and he wanted to know where he could go jogging. He was in a tracksuit,’ she added, needlessly.
‘How did he seem?’
‘In what way?’
‘Well, was he calm, acting normally, or did he appear agitated in any way?’
‘He seemed calm and he was very friendly. Nothing out of the ordinary.’
‘Anything else you can think of?’
‘While he was out running, he had a call. The lady said it was very important and I took a message.’
‘Do you remember what the message was?’
‘Just to ring Lisa urgently.’
Everything she says is tying in with Lisa’s and James’s accounts, Lucy thinks, but she knows better than to rush to a conclusion. There is something about James Scott that unnerves her and, while all the evidence they have so far is pointing towards his wife’s unknown visitor, experience has shown her, again and again, that things are very seldom what they seem.
‘Did you give Mr Scott the message yourself?’ she asks.
‘No, I put it under his door. That’s what we are told to do.’
‘Did you see him again?’
‘Yes, but only when he checked out at around ten.’
‘How did he seem then?’
‘He was a bit agitated then,’ Ashley concedes. ‘He seemed to be in a rush.’
‘Thanks, Ashley, that’s very helpful. One last thing: do you have a record of any phone calls he made or received?’
‘Yes, we should have.’
‘Can you fax them to me along with his bill?’
‘I’m sure that’s fine, but I’ll just have to check with the manager.’
‘And can you get back to me once you have spoken to Carol – or, better still, can you ask her to call me?’
Lucy leaves her details, and hangs up. She writes a few notes on her pad and is about to get up from her desk when the phone rings. It’s Carol, the other receptionist and she sounds uneasy.
‘There’s nothing to worry about, Carol. We’re just asking a few routine questions about James Scott. I gather you’ve been on night duty for the last couple of evenings.’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘I wanted to check if you saw Mr Scott leave the building while you were on duty, either on Wednesday night or last night.’
‘No, he didn’t go out while I was there.’
‘How would you have recognised him?’
‘There weren’t that many guests and Ashley had described him to me.’ Carol giggles nervously.
‘Did she now? So you never actually saw him?’
‘I did actually. He came down on Wednesday evening and asked me where the bar was.’
‘And last night, did you see him then?’
‘No, he didn’t come down.’
‘Ashley told me that you lock the doors at midnight, and then what do you do?’
‘There’s a couch in the back office where we’re allowed to rest. If the guests want anything they press a buzzer and we come through to reception.’
‘Is there any way he could have gone out between the hours of midnight and six this morning?’
‘Not at all. I would have had to open up for him.’
‘Is it possible that he could have gone out earlier without you seeing him?’
‘That’s very unlikely as I sit there all the time.’
‘So you never leave the desk?’
‘Just to go to the bathroom, but that’s all.’
‘Did you go to the bathroom last night?’
‘I went once, but I was really quick, just two or three minutes.’
‘Okay. Well, thanks for calling me back, Carol, and let me know if you think of anything else.’
Lucy puts the phone down and looks across at Matt.
‘Any excitements?’ she asks.
‘Just trying to get hold of the CCTV footage for Stockwell Tube, but it looks like we have to wait in line. There was a stabbing on the Tube last night.’
‘Same with BT,’ Lucy says with a frown. ‘It seems like everyone is out to frustrate us.’
*
It’s lunchtime and Lucy goes out to buy a sandwich for John and herself, which they sit eating in his office while bringing each other up to speed. She wishes she hadn’t chosen tuna and tomato because there’s now a distinct smell of fish wafting around. Lucy notices that John is wearing a clean shirt – he must have nipped home and changed on his way back from Bramall Road.
She produces the fax that Ashley sent through with James’s bill and a list of phone numbers.
‘He didn’t make many calls,’ Lucy says, between mouthfuls. ‘This number is Lisa Meyer’s.’ She points at the page. ‘There was one outgoing call to that number last night and two incoming calls this morning. James also made two calls to his brother’s number last night. We’ll only have the full picture once we get the records from BT and the mobile phone company.’
‘Bloody nuisance about BT – is it worth me calling them and pulling rank?’
‘I shouldn’t think so. He was an odious little creep and probably hates men even more than he hates women.’
‘Hmm, okay, I’ll take your word for it. What about Maria Butler, have you heard anything?’
‘Yes, both she and Nicky’s brother, Colin, have been informed. He called me just now and was pretty distressed. He asked if his mother would be allowed to see the body.’
‘What did you say?’
‘I said it would be possible, but not until tomorrow morning at the earliest. He says they are coming up this afternoon anyway and he gave me the details of where they’re staying.’
‘There’s not much more we can do this afternoon until the house is clear. Let’s just go over what we have so far.’
John takes a slurp of his cold coffee and continues.
‘Right, then. Since we have established there was no sign of forced entry, either Nicky Scott let the person in or they had a key. As far as we know, only three people had keys – Nicky, Michael Scott and the Halls over the road. Michael Scott is in India, apparently, so once that’s confirmed we can eliminate him. From what James said, I can’t imagine the Halls had anything to do with it, but stranger things have happened so we need to keep an open mind on that.’
Lucy nods and makes some notes. John continues.
‘Irene Hall said she noticed a light on in the house last night, which, based on what Lisa Meyer told you, must have been Nicky. And then Mrs Hall saw a man entering the house at nine-thirty or thereabouts. He arrived on foot from the Stockwell direction. She saw the lights were still on when she went to the bathroom at around one. The woman at number eight observed a dark-coloured car parked outside the Halls’ house late yesterday evening and noticed that it had gone when she looked out again at six this morning. Thank God for nosey neighbours! You say that James’s story checked out?’
‘Yes, pretty much,’ Lucy says. ‘The receptionist on night duty says she only left the desk once for just a few minutes to go to the toilet, so, unless he slipped out then, he’s in the clear. The doors were locked from midnight onwards.’
‘We can’t dismiss that possibility, though. Why can’t anything ever be cut and dried?’
Lucy laughs. ‘Because that would make our work much too easy.’
‘Yeah, right. Okay, so let’s concentrate on Nicky’s visitor for the moment.’
‘I would guess he came from Stockwell Tube unless he caught the bus, so we should look at the CCTV footage. It’s – what? – about a five-minute walk from the station, so if we check from eight-thirty onwards that should be plenty time enough. I’ve already got Harvey onto that.’
‘He told me, but he’s not having an easy time getting hold of it.’
‘It’s always like this to start with,’ John says. ‘It’ll all come together soon enough.’
He looks at his watch.
‘Shit, I need to go and brief the Super,’ he says, picking up a file from his desk.
Just before he leaves the room he turns back to Lucy.
‘What are your feelings about James Scott?’ he asks.
‘I think his distress is genuine, but there’s something about him that hits a wrong note – I can’t quite put my finger on it. I don’t think he’s a cold-blooded killer, though, if that’s what you’re asking.’
‘My thoughts exactly, but I have been known to be wrong occasionally.’