Maggie was woken by Jack’s mobile phone alarm, which he had set for 6 a.m. He almost fell out of bed trying to cancel the alarm, tripping over the tray from the previous night’s hot drinks and falling backwards onto the bed.
‘My God! What are you doing, Jack?’ Maggie sat bolt upright.
‘Sorry, I’ve got a meeting at seven and I really need to get going!’
By the time he had taken a shower and shaved, Maggie was down in the kitchen cooking breakfast. Jack checked his watch as he went downstairs and was pulling on his leather jacket as he went into the kitchen.
‘I have to go, I’m sorry. First, I wake you last night, then I fall on top of you this morning! Can you put a coffee in the Thermos for me so that I can have it on the way to work?’
‘Where on earth are you going at this hour? It’s only six thirty?’
Jack grabbed a piece of toast from the toaster and began to lather butter over it. Maggie poured some freshly made coffee into the flask that was always left on the side of the draining board as he rarely remembered to take it with him.
‘It’s top secret . . . I promised I wouldn’t mention it to anyone, but . . .’
Maggie didn’t seem to be listening. ‘I was thinking last night . . . I was counting how many nights it’s been since we last had sex . . .’ Maggie was seductively licking the spoon from the pot of jam.
Jack grinned. ‘You just give me the nod tonight . . . I promise you we’ll make up for lost time!’
Jack finished his slice of toast, gave her a quick kiss, then dashed upstairs to grab his briefcase and mobile phone. Penny was just carrying Hannah out of her bedroom.
‘I love you both, but I have to get going otherwise I’m going to be late . . .’
By the time Jack was back in the hall, Maggie was standing, hand on her hip, holding up the flask. He gave her a crushing hug before he opened the front door.
‘I’ll call you later . . . and I won’t forget my promise about tonight!’ Jack closed the front door behind him and ran towards his pea-green monstrosity, then stopped abruptly, realising he had forgotten his car keys. When he turned to go back, Maggie was at the front door in her dressing gown, dangling them from her index finger. He ran back towards her as she tossed them for him to catch, smiling and shaking her head.
‘You’re always so hopeless early in the morning, Jack. It had better be something important, or are you having an affair with someone on night duty?’
Jack unlocked the driver’s door and tossed his briefcase onto the passenger seat, dropping the flask onto the driveway. He just managed to stop it from rolling under the car and was about to respond, but she had already gone back into the house and closed the front door.
Maggie hurried into the kitchen as Penny was heading down the stairs with Hannah.
‘Breakfast is ready. Scrambled eggs and crispy bacon for you, Penny, and for Hannah I was going to make some eggy bread.’
‘Jack was in a big hurry this morning. I wanted to remind him about my bingo tonight,’ Penny said.
Maggie said she would remind him and served out breakfast whilst Penny settled Hannah in her highchair.
‘Hopefully there won’t be any emergencies, so I should be home by then as well.’
‘I have some shopping to do, so I won’t have time to make dinner for you both.’
‘Don’t worry. We can always order in a takeaway. Right, I’m going up to have a soak in preparation for the panic that will no doubt greet me as soon as I walk into work.’
Maggie hesitated, wondering if she should mention the money but decided against it.
By the time Maggie had bathed and dressed for work, Penny had cleaned the kitchen and was getting Hannah changed for nursery. Maggie was able to spend a few minutes with Hannah, who was fighting against wearing a pair of woolly tights and rolling around on her bed. Maggie gave her a goodbye cuddle and Hannah tried to make her stay.
‘Mummy no go . . . mummy stay.’
‘Mummy will be here later, to make you a special yoghurt and raspberries. Be a good girl for your nana . . . bye, bye.’
Maggie hurried out before Hannah could make any more fuss. She often felt a tinge of guilt that she was so dependent on Penny and wasn’t able to spend as much time as she should with Hannah. But the truth was they needed both of their wages to run the house and pay the mortgage. She just hoped she could take some of her long overdue time off soon.
*
Jack left the pea-green Micra in the John Lewis car park and walked down the small slip road towards the Turk’s boat house. He reached the waterfront and looked out for Ridley. It was just after seven, so he continued walking past the closed ticket office.
Ridley seemed to appear from nowhere.
‘Morning. I’ve got a flask of hot coffee,’ Jack said affably.
‘Let’s just walk for a while,’ Ridley said. ‘There’s a bench further along . . . behind the fences.’
They walked in silence until they reached the bench, which was in shadow and partly hidden from the road above them. Ridley was wearing a heavy grey trench coat, old cord trousers and crepe sole boots with a woollen hat pulled down low. Jack undid the flask and poured a coffee into the Thermos cup as Ridley removed his fur-lined leather gloves. He took a sip and grimaced.
‘My God, this is sweet!’
‘Yeah, sorry about that, it’s my sweet tooth. I should have remembered you don’t take sugar in your coffee.’
Ridley nodded but continued to sip the hot coffee. Jack watched three swans glide past, along with a couple of rowers.
Jack nodded towards them. ‘They’re shifting fast.’
Ridley finished his coffee and handed the cup back to Jack as he pulled on his gloves. He sighed, then turned to look at him.
‘Trying to think where to begin, but thanks for coming to meet me.’
‘Well, as you always advise, why not start at the beginning?’
Ridley nodded. ‘OK. This isn’t easy, though. You know after the cancer diagnosis when I got the all-clear and started looking after myself . . . I’d lost weight and began eating better and was going to the gym. Anyway, to cut to the chase, a while back I contacted a dating agency. I obviously didn’t use my own name, but it was a reputable organisation with solid recommendations, aiming at the middle-age bracket. I had a couple of dates with very nice women, but they were a few years older than their photographs.’ He gave a soft, mirthless laugh.
‘Not that I’m a big catch! They were very pleasant, but it was only a glass of wine in a pub. Then, a few months ago, I met Sandra.’
Jack had filled the same Thermos cup to drink his own coffee, trying not to reveal that he was taken aback. He could hardly believe what Ridley was telling him.
‘She was in her mid-forties, a very attractive blonde, well dressed and charming. We had a couple of drinks and then a couple of dinners. It was all very straightforward, and like I said, she was very attractive and intelligent. As we got to know each other a bit more, I told her I was with the Met. Sandra found it amusing, especially the fact that I was using a different name. She was single, had never been married but had been in a long-term relationship that had ended badly. She said she was a junior accountant in a top-level accountancy company. I never checked it out, and by then we had become intimate and she was visiting me at home.’
Jack nodded and finished his coffee, still hardly able to believe that this was the Ridley he had known for so long, though his private life had always been a mystery.
‘Four weeks ago, I had a date with Sandra. We were due to meet in a pub in Farnham. I had never been to it before – she had chosen it because it had a good restaurant. I arrived at about eight as agreed, but she didn’t show. I called her mobile but got no answer. I had a couple of drinks at the bar whilst I waited, but as I was driving, I didn’t have any more.’
Ridley pulled at the fingers of his gloves, then leant forwards, and almost whispered.
‘That’s all I remember. I have no recollection of anything after that, of how I got home, but I had one hell of a headache when I woke up the next morning. My car was missing, so I had to have been brought home. I called the pub and they said that my car wasn’t there. It was all very confusing. I called Sandra’s mobile several times, then I called the company she said she worked for. They told me that there was nobody of that name working there. I was getting ready to go into work and was going to report that my car had been stolen when I had a visit from Essex CID.’
Jack could feel the tension as Ridley drew in a deep breath.
‘No easy way to explain the next bit. My car was found abandoned, and Sandra’s body was in the boot. She had been strangled. Obviously the shit hit the fan, and I was interviewed by the Professional Standards Directorate. They took my mobile and I was immediately suspended and given leave of absence. The mobile phone she used was a burner, and there was no known address for her. And, as I said, she had lied about her employment.’
‘Bloody hell!’ Jack didn’t try to disguise his shock.
‘I can only assume I was drugged at the pub, but I have no idea by whom. I also have to assume that Sandra set me up, or someone else used her to get to me, and then killed her. They have been trying to discover her real identity, and meanwhile I am the prime suspect; not only is my career about to go down the toilet, but I could be charged with murder.’
Jack swallowed, not knowing what to say.
‘I am not allowed access to any of my files, or to even enter the station. I am virtually under house arrest, and they have been searching my home for weeks. But as far as finding out who she really was and who might have killed her, they’ve got nowhere.’
He sighed and plucked at the fingers of his gloves. ‘I’m not that impressed with them, to be honest. They’re very slow – my car has been with their forensic team since her body was found in it, for instance. We have to assume it must be connected to something in my past, but I can’t think what it could be or who would want to do this to me.’
He opened his coat, taking out a plastic bag. ‘I had a short time to gather as much evidence about the whole nightmare before they took everything. I’ve also made some notes. The main problem will be the fact that the Essex team will be monitoring everything, so you cannot on any account use the computers at the station, as they’ll uncover the link to you. You need to use a new laptop and burner phone that can’t be traced. There is one person I trust that can help you, and his contact details are in here, but I obviously can’t reach out to him; just getting out of the house with this bag was difficult enough.’
Ridley hesitated before passing the bag to Jack; then Jack took it from him. ‘I really don’t want you taking any risks, so be careful. The last thing I want is for you to jeopardise your career.’
Jack nodded. ‘Just tell me what you want me to do.’
Ridley bowed his head, his voice barely audible. ‘Help me, Jack.’