Kay scrolled through a long list of search engine results on her phone while Barnes drove the pool car out of Maidstone town centre and into one of the more affluent suburbs.
Since re-joining her team, she was keen to attend at least one of the interviews arranged for that afternoon before driving Adam to his hospital appointment, and determined to find out more about Sebastian Groves.
Barnes had been right – the man proved to be elusive, with only newspaper reports from two years ago about his parents’ tragic deaths turning up in the search strings she keyed in.
‘I wish I could be a fly on the wall while Gavin and Laura are speaking to him,’ she said, stuffing her phone into her handbag with a resigned sigh.
‘You can’t do everything, guv,’ her colleague chuckled.
‘I know. Okay, tell me more about who we’re on our way to see.’
‘According to the background checks we ran, this Damian Beech we’re meeting has a clean record – no driving offences or anything like that. He’s twenty-seven years old and runs a gaming development company. Unlike Felicity, he’s doing well – his company was incorporated two years ago and from the news reports Debbie emailed to me, there’s talk of a potential buy-out from an American-based finance company. That’s the rumour, anyway. Mr Beech has, of course, denied it.’
‘Which in turn will fuel the rumours even more.’
‘And that won’t hurt him by way of publicity, either.’
Drumming her fingers on the arm rest, Kay stared through the window for a moment before turning back to her colleague. ‘I want to see what he divulges about this group of his and its members, Ian. At least that way, we’ll find out whether our research correlates with the current member list, or whether there are others we need to speak to about Felicity and Gary.’
‘Sounds good to me, guv.’
Fifteen minutes later, Barnes pulled up in front of an unassuming semi-detached house bordered by five identical properties arranged around a cul-de-sac.
A low stone wall separated the front garden from the pavement, and as Kay climbed from the car and made her way along the short driveway to the front door, she noted the lawn had been replaced in favour of decorative gravel. Terracotta pots were dotted along the borders, their contents straggly and abandoned over the colder months while tentative shoots pricked the surface of the soil in others.
A single garage door faced the street, abutting the side of the house and when she raised her hand to shield her eyes from the glare off the front window, she saw a man’s figure hovering in the shadows as if he had been waiting for them.
He neared the window, held up his hand and then disappeared from sight.
Moments later, the front door opened.
‘Hello,’ he said, his eyes curious. ‘I saw you pull up.’
Kay took in his rumpled T-shirt, faded jeans and days-old stubble, then held up her warrant card.
‘Damian Beech? Detective Inspector Kay Hunter, and my colleague, DS Ian Barnes. We wondered if we could ask you a few questions about Felicity Gregor.’
He exhaled. ‘Poor Flick. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the news last week. Come in.’
Kay stepped into a sparsely decorated hallway and waited while Damian closed the door and gestured for them to follow him through to a large living and dining area.
She paused at the threshold, taken aback by the trestle tables filled with gleaming screens and enormous desktop computers, the whirr of fans and machinery creating a white noise that penetrated her skull.
Barnes tugged at his tie and unbuttoned his jacket.
‘Hang on, I’ll open the patio door,’ said Damian, a shy smile crossing his lips. ‘It does get hot in here with all of this equipment. I tend to forget – I’ve got used to it after all these years.’
He walked to the far end of the room, wrenched open the floor-to-ceiling window and moved a large ammonite fossil with the toe of his sneaker to prop it open.
Kay immediately felt a chill breeze sweep into the room and breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Is this where you run your business from?’ she said, running her gaze over the computer screens.
‘It beats paying for an office.’ Damian crossed to where she stood and gestured to the various displays. ‘This is where I do all of my development and testing.’
‘What about staff?’
‘They’re based all over the world. Some of my best programmers live in Bangladesh and the Philippines.’ He shrugged and crossed his arms. ‘I manage their workload remotely and we have a catch-up via video link every week or so, depending what’s going on with a project.’
Kay caught Barnes’s gaze as he walked around the room peering at different certificates and photographs framed on the walls.
‘Never thought about buying a bigger place?’ he said over his shoulder.
‘Not really. I get on well with the neighbours, and it’s safe here – I’ve never been burgled, and no-one really knows what I do.’ Beech dropped his arms. ‘Listen, I’m in the middle of a complex fix at the moment for one of the updates I’m working on. Did you want to ask me something specific?’
‘How long had you known Felicity Gregor?’ said Kay.
‘About a year. I met her in a bank of all places – one of the ones on the High Street in Maidstone. She was trying to negotiate an overdraft – badly, I must say. I felt sorry for her.’ He lowered his head and stared at the swirls in the carpet for a moment. ‘She was all enthusiasm and no business sense back then. Anyway, I took pity on her after the bank manager sent her away with a resounding “no”. I caught up with her outside and told her I thought I might be able to help her.’
‘In what way? Did you bankroll her business?’
His head shot up. ‘No, nothing like that. No – I suggested we go for a coffee, and I told her about this small business group a few friends and I had set up. We help each other out – no money’s involved, it’s just information sharing. Best practices and things like that. If one of us has a problem, we brainstorm it and try to come up with a solution.’ He paused and waved his hand at the computers. ‘I mean, after all, most of us work on our own. We don’t have any support from colleagues to talk to or peers. Being an entrepreneur is all very well, but it can be a lonely existence, detective. It’s not like you can talk to your family about this sort of stuff.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because they wouldn’t understand.’
‘Are you aware that Gary Lovell was found dead at the weekend?’
‘Sebastian told me, yes.’
‘What’s your relationship with Gary Lovell?’
Damian frowned. ‘There is was no relationship. He did his thing, I do mine. That’s it. I never met him outside of the group.’
‘Did you know that he and Felicity were regular drug users?’
‘I didn’t, no.’
‘Where do you meet, this group of yours?’
‘We use a function room at one of the smaller boutique hotels in Maidstone. It’s a breakfast meeting arrangement so we all try to get there for seven o’clock, chat for an hour or so and we’re usually done by about nine o’clock.’ He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. ‘Works well for me because by then the worst of the commuter traffic has gone. It’s a pain in the arse to get through Larkfield at the best of times.’
Barnes opened his notebook. ‘Can you confirm the names and contact details for the other participants?’
‘Why?’
‘It’s standard procedure in an investigation of this nature to speak to everyone,’ said Kay.
Confusion swept across Damian’s face. ‘But I thought Flick killed herself?’
‘Again, just standard procedure. The names, please.’
‘Hang on.’ Damian pulled out a mobile phone from his pocket and scrolled through the contacts list, reciting a list of six names and numbers.
‘Is that all?’
‘We like to keep the group small. My brother turns up from time to time but he’s not a full-time member.’
‘Did he ever meet Felicity Gregor?’
‘Once or twice perhaps.’
‘What’s your brother’s name?’
‘Xander Beech.’
‘He’s not on this list.’ Barnes looked up from his notebook and raised an eyebrow at Damian.
‘Like I said, he isn’t a full member.’
‘We’ll need his number as well.’ Kay waited while the games developer read out the details. ‘Anyone else?’
‘No. That’s it.’
‘Did any of you socialise outside of your breakfast meetings?’
‘Very rarely. I didn’t see the need.’
‘Any idea why Felicity would kill herself?’
Damian blinked. ‘I haven’t got a clue. I still can’t believe she did it.’
‘Thank you for your time, Mr Beech.’ Kay beckoned to Barnes and turned for the door. ‘We’ll be in touch if we have any other questions.’