Ten Guilty Men (A DCI Morton Crime Novel Book 3) (22 page)

‘Is h-half an hour enough?’

‘It might have been. We think Ellis was asleep at midnight, so for her to have been murdered in the half-hour window she must have woken up. Otherwise, how did she get down to the pool?’

‘The k-killer could have carried her?’

‘Both our suspects are women. Neither is particularly stocky. I know our victim is pretty small, but a dead body isn’t exactly ergonomic. The coroner didn’t report any scrapes or nicks that would have occurred if she’d been dragged.’

‘B-but there were scrapes.’

‘From the side of the pool, yes. But nothing directional to suggest dragging. It’s much more likely that our victim was killed in the pool area. Let’s say she woke up exactly when Paddy left–’

‘What if he s-slammed the window?’

‘The door,’ Morton corrected automatically. ‘Plausible. OK. Two minutes to come downstairs. Then either she got changed, or the killer swapped her into a bikini, presumably to make us think she drowned. That’s another five minutes at least. Dressing a body is no small task. Let’s assume she changed voluntarily.’

‘OK.’

‘Then we’ve got a window of about twenty-three minutes to commit murder and get out. Ellis died from a single blow to the head. She could have been gone in a minute.’

‘So she didn’t expect to d-die.’

It was true. She had to have been faced away from her killer. That made an argument followed by a murder unlikely, again suggesting premeditation.

‘Right you are. Do we think Brianna could have returned in that window?’

‘Y-yes. What if she came in through the k-kitchen?’

‘Through the door that Barchester left unlocked? Or perhaps she has a key. They are sisters after all. It seems unlikely, though, that Brianna could have returned without Gabriella noticing it.’

‘Unless she was outside s-smoking?’

‘Did we find cigarettes outside? I’m guessing we didn’t look. If she’d gone out and chain-smoked, she could have got through a couple, which might explain the timing. Or there’s the second window after Paddy left. We know Brianna doubled back. Gabby could have too. Was the CCTV footage of the taxi high enough resolution to get a number plate from?’

‘It’s part h-hidden.’

‘Then check the bit that is in frame against the list of authorised taxis. It can’t be a very long list. I also still need you to get the footage from Kew Gardens. If I drop you at the Hub, do you think you could sweet talk British Transport Police into getting us the footage today? Bribe ’em if you have to.’

‘O-OK, boss.’

‘Excellent. ‘

***

‘Morton, what the hell do you want?’ The voice of Dr Larry Chiswick sounded less than pleased to have his Saturday afternoon interrupted.

‘Is that cheering I can hear in the background, Larry?’

‘Yes, it damn well is. You know this is an emergency number, don’t you?’

‘Hang on. Are you watching the match with Kieran? He took you on my ticket?’

‘So what?’

‘So since when have you two been close?’

‘Are you forgetting that I’m a lawyer as well as a doctor? We lawyers tend to stick together.’

‘Git.’

‘What do you want, David? It’s almost half-time, and I’m dying for the loo.’

‘Our victim. Could a woman have carried her in your opinion?’

‘Theoretically, yes. In this case, no. The evidence doesn’t support that. Is that all?’

‘One more thing.’

‘Make it quick.’

‘Our victim slept through most of the evening,’ Morton said. ‘Why? And what would it have taken to wake her?’

‘Booze and drugs. Nembies are barbiturates. It wasn’t that long ago we used a similar formula for common sleeping tablets. They probably just wore off.’

‘Thanks.’

The coroner clicked off without saying goodbye.

Chapter 44: Three Down, Two to Go?

Monday April 21st – 09:00

Sunday had flown by for Morton in a whirlwind of chores. He barely stopped to put his feet up for more than five minutes before suddenly it was Monday morning and he found himself back at work once more.

They were two weeks into the investigation, and the pressure to solve the case was getting worse. Ellis’ murder was still hot gossip on the Internet, and both Kallum Fielder and Aleksander Barchester were facing ridicule left, right and centre.

They had two suspects. Both could have been in the house at or around the time that Ellis died.

It was almost as if they had two halves of one prime suspect. Brianna had motive, but couldn’t be definitively put in the house. Gabriella was definitely in the house, but had no reason to kill Ellis.

Mayberry’s trip to the Hub had proved fruitful. Brianna left the district line service, as Morton predicted. She had alighted at Kew Gardens using a second Oyster, which was a pay-as-you-go card.

It seemed to Morton an absurd loophole. To buy an Oyster card, the traveller simply paid a small deposit. Transport for London offered a form to register a card, which was quite handy, as it meant it could be cancelled should it be lost, but registration was never required. It was entirely optional.

Morton supposed it came down to privacy, or the illusion thereof, not that Londoners really enjoyed much privacy. For a city where everyone lived in cramped shoeboxes, travelled on sardine-like public transport and flocked en masse to the few green spaces as soon as the sun came out, Londoners seemed to love the illusion of being alone.

Even on the tube, with a carriage packed heel-to-toe, Londoners were notoriously staid. Heaven forgive the poor tourist that smiles at another human being on the Northern line. Morton rarely took the tube as his badge let him park pretty much wherever he wanted.

The worst part was that isolation makes for poor witnesses. With everyone so focussed on what they are doing at any given moment, they tend not to notice what others are doing.

Morton paced up and down, pausing to stare at the exhibits photographed on the Incident Room wall. The crime was a contradiction. Nothing that could have been used as a weapon was left. But none of the suspects could easily have brought such a weapon with them.

‘Unless...’ Morton muttered to himself. He quickly flicked through the printouts of the crime scene photographs. She’d died on her birthday. What if the murder weapon had been a birthday gift?

Nothing jumped out at him. It was almost like it hadn’t even been a birthday party. There was no evidence of gift wrap, though they had found a small assortment of greetings cards in Ellis’ room.

The door creaked as it opened, and Ayala came in.

‘You’re late,’ Morton said.

‘Sorry, boss.’

‘Why are you late?’

‘I overslept. It won’t happen again.’

‘Damn right it won’t.’ Morton felt his temper rise suddenly.

‘Whoa. What’s up with you?’

‘What’s up with me? I’ve got a murder to solve, and my team can’t make it in for nine o’clock. Where the hell is everyone?’

‘I saw Mayberry on the way in. He’s gone down to Computer Crimes. He said he’d found something interesting in our victim’s emails.’

‘What did he find?’

‘She’d booked herself into rehab. She was planning on going the moment she finished her New York trip.’

‘Nobody mentioned that,’ Morton said. ‘Perhaps they didn’t know.’

‘If she was getting clean... then why throw a party with so many temptations?’ Ayala asked.

‘One last blowout? Or perhaps she was intending to tell them that night? The fight. Did you ever believe it was over money? That she’d stolen two hundred pounds?’

‘No, boss.’

‘Now it seems even more ridiculous. If she was getting clean, she wouldn’t be stealing money for drugs.’

‘She had nembies in her system,’ Ayala said.

‘She did... I guess it doesn’t prove much. She wanted to give up. So what? Don’t most druggies want to? It’s doing it that’s the difficult part. This doesn’t add up.’

‘Boss. What if she split up with Kal? He’s an addict too. If she really wanted to quit, maybe she wanted him gone.’

‘Or she wanted him to quit with her. Plausible. But we’ve ruled him out.’

‘Could either Brianna or Paddy have been affected by the decision to quit?’

Morton stroked his chin thoughtfully. ‘Absolutely. We know she had to get her drugs somewhere. Paddy says he didn’t supply her.’

‘And drug dealers never lie,’ Ayala said sarcastically.

‘Not when they’re offered blanket immunity. He could have told me about it, and been off the hook. This way he doesn’t get immunity because he didn’t disclose. I think someone else was her dealer. Think for a second, where have we been that we could have found Pentobarbital?’

‘The veterinary clinic! Brianna!’

‘Exactly.’

‘You think Brianna was her dealer, then?’

‘I do, and I think the £2000 a month we saw Ellis transferring to her sister–’

‘Was payment?’ Ayala said.

‘Yep, and if I were her then I wouldn’t want that money to stop. Would you?’

‘Nope. I wouldn’t. I can’t say I’d kill for it though.’

‘But it isn’t killing for the £2000. It’s killing for the whole estate. People have killed for far less,’ Morton said.

‘But we already knew about the estate. What is Mayberry looking at down at Computer Crimes?’

‘Let’s go find him and find out.’

Chapter 45: The Dungeon

Computer Crimes had a different vibe to the rest of New Scotland Yard. Where Morton’s floor was staid, practical and authoritative, the Computer Crimes guys had Red Bull and comfy chairs. Monitors ran the length of every available space, often two to a computer.

Mayberry was sat down at the back of the department. It looked like he’d resorted to writing down all of his conversation with the tech sitting next to him.

Mayberry waved Morton and Ayala over.

‘Gentlemen,’ Morton greeted them.

‘Morning,’ the tech said. ‘I’m Zane Lightbody.’

‘Poor you!’ Ayala said with a grin.

‘Now, now, Bertram. Play nice,’ Morton said.

Ayala’s grin dissipated.

‘What exactly are we up to, gentlemen?’

‘Your victim was trying to book herself into the Sparks Rehabilitation Clinic. It’s a lock-down rehab overlooking Windsor Park,’ Zane said.

‘We knew she’d emailed. How far did she get?’

‘She paid a deposit. The balance was to be paid on check-in. But get this: she contacted them about multi-person discounts.’

‘She wanted to take Kal with her,’ Ayala suggested.

‘Unless Kal is a woman, I don’t think so. Sparks is a women-only facility,’ Zane said. He brought up their website, and right there in bold it advertised the clinic as
‘The UK’s #1 Clinic for Women to Rebuild Their Lives’
.

‘That’s a bit of a mouthful. I’d be looking for a new marketing guy, or gal, if I were them,’ Morton said. ‘If not Kal then it’s got to be her sister.’

‘Or her best friend,’ Ayala said.

‘Right. We’re stuck with two options again. A pattern seems to be emerging. Did she email either of them about it?’ Morton asked.

Zane shook his head. ‘No emails. No texts either. If they talked about it then they did it face to face.’

‘No emails about rehab, or no emails at all?’

‘Nothing. Her email looks like it was mostly for business use, and a bit of online shopping.’

‘Stranger and stranger. There’s got to be a second phone. What about her landline?’

Zane pulled up Ellis DeLange’s laptop, and opened her e-billing account for Virgin Media.

‘Hang on, are we supposed to be able to do that? Go into a victim’s online billing account at will?’ Ayala asked.

‘Quieten down, Bertram. She’s dead. I think, in the circumstances, she’d rather we know how much her phone bills were than let her killer off the hook. Get a bit of perspective,’ Morton said. ‘Go ahead, Zane.’

‘Here we go. We’ve got calls to several numbers. One is a landline belonging to Kallum Fielder–’

‘No surprises there,’ Ayala said.

‘One is the number of the Wiles switchboard.’

‘That’ll be Aleksander Barchester then.’

‘And the rest are to mobiles. All pay-as-you-go. All unregistered.’

‘Damn. This lot do seem to operate under the radar,’ Ayala said.

‘That’s no surprise. We’ve got a model, a television presenter and a drug dealer. They’ve every reason to jealously guard their privacy. Do me a favour. Call the numbers, see if you can match up the voices to our suspects.’

‘W-we already d-did, boss,’ Mayberry stuttered.

‘And?’

‘V-voicemail answers get us nowhere. No custom r-recordings.’

‘Find a way then. Look up where the phones have been active, and see if the locations can be matched to our suspects. Ayala, I need you to call the management team at Sparks. They might well throw up doctor-patient confidentiality, but if you can I want to know who she was trying to book for. And find out what their standard rates are too. The place looks pricey, but Ellis wasn’t cash rich.’

‘You think she had funding elsewhere?’

‘She had to pay for it somehow.’

Chapter 46: Rehab

Monday April 21st – 15:15

Sparks Rehabilitation Clinic was a little over twenty miles from Richmond. It was situated on the eastern perimeter of King George VI Coronation Grove, and was technically within the parish of Englefield Green.

Its nearest neighbours were a golf course, a spa hotel and a tiny pub that served the locals. Morton wondered if it were wise to situate a rehabilitation clinic so near to a pub, but he suspected it was the kind which would fall deathly quiet should a stranger venture inside.

He needn’t have worried. Sparks was far enough from its neighbours to qualify as out in the sticks. Proper road gave way to gravel driveway and the crunch of stones under tyres as Morton approached.

The building was beautiful. It wasn’t as homely as Culloden Manor, but it was much bigger, with a front façade stretching many hundreds of feet wide.

The west wing appeared a little more modern than might be expected. A giant glass frontage had been added, as if part of the old building had been chopped away and rebuilt.