Gary phoned early.
"I've got news for you, Cleo," he said, sounding
rather smug.
"I’ll be with you by 10. Julie and Colin are about to
leave for town and can give me a lift.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” said Gary.
“I’d like to take a look at the carpet again before we drive
to HQ,” said Cleo. “Julie can advise me.”
“See you then,” said Gary and rang off.
***
Robert joined them for the inspection of the damage to the
carpet They were all suitably impressed and genuinely horrified.
“I’m glad it wasn’t you, Cleo,” said Julie.
“So am I,” said Robert.
"I should get someone to clean the carpet in my office
while I'm in town," Cleo told them all. "I can't work there till the
blood stains have gone. What would people think?"
"They might ask themselves why the first thing a
private investigator had to do was deal with a corpse someone left in her
office," said Robert, making his escape.
"We'll drive you around if you like, Cleo," Colin
offered.
"That would be a great help, Colin. You’ve seen the
state of that carpet. But we’ll have to postpone that until I’ve been to HQ.
Gary Hurley is interviewing Jessica. I need to be there."
Gary saw her getting out of Colin’s car and dashing into HQ.
"When are you going to get a car, Cleo? You need to be
mobile."
"I know that. We’ve had no time to see to it."
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“Better not, Gary. I’ll wait until Robert has time.”
“Don’t say I didn’t offer.”
"Come and eat with us again this evening, Gary. Sausage
and mash. Robert tells me it's standard British cooking tradition."
"Sorry, I'm child-sitting. My wife plays Badminton on Wednesday
evenings."
“You could get a sitter, Gary.”
“You’re right. I’ll do that.”
Colin and Julie drove round the block and decided their
curiosity was too great to allow them to miss out on that interview with
Jessica, although they had not been invited.
They arrived back at HQ and drove into the alcove so that
Julie could get out and Colin would find a parking space for the car. Colin
immediately had a huge row with one of the road menders in front of HQ, who
seemed to have set himself up as a traffic warden. He eventually parked round
the back of the police building and they hurried up the two flights of stairs
to Gary’s office
Colin looked around Gary’s office door.
"Now you're here, come all the way in," said Gary.
"That blasted road worker would not let me park."
"I saw that from up here," said Gary. "I can't
tell you how many times a day that guy shoos people off. He's even been known
to call the police out – on his mobile."
"Maybe he thinks someone's watching through one of your
one-way windows, Gary," said Cleo.
"He does and we do, of course watch him - for amusement
only. He's so blasted officious you could swear the police had put him
there!"
"Are your rooms all equipped with spy mirrors?"
Colin wanted to know.
"Not all of them. The one behind you is linked to this
one via two-way glass and a loudspeaker system."
Colin was impressed.
“But we can watch the interview with Jessica, can’t we?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Gary. “It might even tell us
more about her true identity.”
“Inside HQ the security seems quite good,” said Colin.
"That’s because we have to look after our own safety
and stay in charge here. Supposing some cut-throat or other got as far as this
office and started bandying a knife around or got to the arrest cells to rescue
his mate?"
"Surely you are over-dramatizing, Gary," said
Cleo.
"Unfortunately not."
"Is there an alarm button?" Julie wanted to know.
"Of course. It's under my table and I can press it
upwards with my knee in the hope that someone will react fast. You had better
go into the observation room now. It’s nearly 10 and that’s the time when the
interview is scheduled.”
Gary’s mercurial part-time assistant, Nigel, who was still
obliged to be on the traffic corps rota, was out on some mission or other, so
he would not be available to hand-write notes on the interview.
Colin took a small notepad out of his jacket pocket. He
found it less conspicuous than using a tablet, though it was more convenient.
"Mind if I make a few notes for my records, Gary?"
“Rather an antiquated method, Colin. Nigel does it the same
way.”
“Technology frightens some people,” said Colin.
"Don’t quote me on anything will you?"
"Of course not. I just need background information in
case I write a thriller one day. Soak in the atmosphere. That sort of thing."
“Would you like to borrow a tablet, Colin?”
“No thanks I’m fine with pen and paper.”
Colin and Julie went to the next office and made themselves
comfortable.
"So what's your news, Gary?" said Cleo.
"Forensic has analysed all the evidence they gathered
in the Finch case. The courtyard was checked the day after you discovered the
corpse. There was a cigarette-end just under the window of your utility, room,
Cleo. The DNA belonged to Bontemps. He must be quite a heavy smoker because we
found dozens of his discarded fag ends in the yard."
"Did you search the garages?"
"We did. They were suspiciously empty except for a few
harmless boxes and some white powder on the floor of one of them."
"Don't tell me," said Cleo. "It was cocaine."
"The drug was stretched almost homoeopathically. About
90% flour. Forensics tested an empty coke bottle that had been thrown into the
gutter. It was Gareth Morgan's DNA."
"And where did you get his DNA from, Gary. Surely he
hasn't been interviewed by the police."
"Not for this case, but we had to record his data so
that we could eliminate him during the business of the lead stolen off the
church roof. He was quite amicable about it at the time."
The idea that Mr Morgan could have clambered onto a roof and
helped himself to lead was so absurd that Cleo burst out laughing.
"You can't have suspected him, surely? He's an absolute
wimp of a guy."
"So was Napoleon, Cleo. And no, he was definitely not a
lead stealer. But let’s get back to the report."
"There's more?" said Colin, who had scribbled
everything down word for word.
Yes Mr….”
“Peck, but aren’t we on first name terms?”
“Of course. Sorry. To continue: Because there was white
powder on the garage floor, there were also footprints. They might come in
useful."
"May be they are from Bontemps," Cleo said, and
reported the conversation she had had with him at his shop. "After all, his
garage is also in that yard. I'm surprised the forensic team weren't curious
about it before now."
"They follow instructions.”
“OK. So you weren’t even curious?”
“Ouch for that,” said Gary. "The garages were allotted
indiscriminately, I think.”
“I don’t think so,” said Cleo. “The owner of the supermarket
sometimes parked there. Traders got most of the garages. That's how Robert got
his and Mr Morgan has it now. Bontemps got in because his employer lives
somewhere warm. I thought I’d told you that."
Gary felt a bit put out. He had not thought much about the
garages, but they were gaining in relevance by the minute. Cleo moved the
discussion along.
“I thought I'd scared Bontemps into confessing, and I had,
up to a point. He admitted defacing Robert's shop window, so you could hold him
on that charge."
"The problem is that any move we make in Bontemps
direction will warn the Norton brothers. Even if they aren't guilty of murder,
the drugs squad will want to talk to them about the cocaine."
“But the Nortons must know that you’ve questioned Bontemps.”
“I’m sure they do.”
"Did you talk to Jessica at all last night?"
"No. Shirley had gone home and I really needed to have
a female chaperone while I talked to her in case she decided to accuse me of
abuse. I could have phoned around for someone, but even if Jessica Finch had
said something relevant, I couldn't have done anything about it. I was updating
the Norton file, so I had enough to do, and I wanted you here, as well. You
know that."
***
“You have a massive case on your hands, Gary,” commented
Colin.
“It’s getting more and more complicated, Colin,” said Gary.
***
"The report states that Jessica's fingerprints were on
the handles of both the lawn mower and the secateurs. That makes her a prime
suspect in the Jason killing."
"There must be a better explanation Gary. What about the
meat tenderizer."
"They’re still working on the results of their
investigations, Cleo. I can’t hurry them.”
“Were there other fingerprints on the secateurs?”
“Apparently not.”
"What about Laura’s murder, Gary? Surely you don't think
Jessica was mixed up in that too?"
"I'm not ruling anything out."
"But she'd need accomplices."
"That's true. She could never have managed on her own."
Witnessing this conversation, Julie was quite shocked at how
dramatic it all was. Colin scribbled notes. This was the real thing. They could
talk about them, but it was all just theory.
"There were tiny traces of Laura Finch's blood on the
window ledge,” Gary read. ”Luminal showed the blood up, but she was presumably
still wrapped in the metal foil blanket."
"That's the metal blanket they wrap accident victims in
to keep them warm," Colin explained to Julie. “I have one in my first-aid
kit.”
"Of course, corpses go cold eventually, no matter what
you wrap them in,” said Gary. “I assume that the foil was in the first aid box
in someone's car and the first available cover."
"So you might be able to identify him from it?"
Cleo was hearing something useful at last.
"It's possible, though many people have them for
emergencies these days."
"But if a blanket is missing from a first aid box it would
point to it having been used, wouldn't it? I don't suppose you can fold it up
small enough to put back in the box after it's been unpacked, so you'd probably
throw it away."
"Brilliant, Cleo, brilliant!" praised Colin.
***
Shirley Temple arrived. Gary hadn't thought of the foil from
that angle, but he could not confess that Cleo had again been quicker on the draw.
Despite his attraction to her he was not ready to budge an inch on his conviction
that he was bound to know more than an amateur.
"You should pull the Norton guys in and take a look at their
first-aid boxes," said Cleo.
"All in good time," said Gary, resenting the
advice.
"Now Jason is dead and Jessica cleared off, she's a
major cog in the wheel."
“You are rubbing salt in the wound,” said Gary.
“I’m only trying to help, Gary,” said Cleo.
That guy might be a tremendous lover, but he’s an arrogant
macho, she decided.
***
A siren interrupted the dialogue. Almost simultaneously Gary's
phone rang and what he was told made him turn white with anger.
"I'll have to break this meeting off," he said
through his teeth. "There's pandemonium downstairs."
Colin burst into Gary’s office.
“What the hell was that?”
"Something's gone wrong with security and I'll have to
sort it out. Jessica has absconded again. You can't hang around here now. I'll contact
Cleo later."
"What about dinner?" said Cleo.
"Keep me a sausage or two in case I can sort this new
mess out."
Cleo, Julie and Colin made a quick exit.
***
Cleo was consoled by the fact that they could at least get
the office carpet sorted out. Rather a trivial thought, if one of the prime
suspects had escaped. And very careless of security. Colin thought Gary had
swanked too much about safely. He had left out the human element.
“Gary very often leaves out the human element,” Cleo
commented.
“But you’re in love with him, aren’t you?” said Julie. “It’s
OK, Cleo. I won’t tell my dad. He’s a dry old stick compared to Gary.”
“I’m confused. Julie. I love Gary despite myself, but I
don’t like him very much, especially when he rubs in the amateur status I have
as a detective. I like your father for his kindness and friendship, but I don’t
love him.”
“Sounds like you have a problem, Cleo,” said Colin. “We’d
better concentrate on the office carpet.”
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