by P. F. Ford
Glossop stared at Slater, a sheen of sweat on his brow.
‘Now listen to me, Mr Glossop,’ said Slater. ‘You seem to think this young woman’s death should be of no interest to anyone, that it’s some sort of joke. I bet you’d be interested in her if she was in this room and you thought you could get your dirty hands on her, wouldn’t you?’
‘Now, listen here,’ said Glossop, indignantly. ‘You can’t talk to me like this.’
‘You think I’m wasting your time now,’ hissed Slater. ‘Well, let me tell you, I haven’t even started yet. I bet if we went through your business we would find all sorts of fiddles going on, and as for that computer, well, I would be willing to bet there’s enough porn on there to keep all your mates in prison happy for a long, long time.’
‘What? What mates in prison? I don’t know anyone in prison.’
‘Not yet,’ said Slater, ‘but by the time we’ve finished you’ll have the opportunity to make friends with a whole prison-full.’
‘You can’t. You’ve got no grounds to do any of that.’
‘D’you want to try me?’
Slater stared hard at Glossop who swallowed hard and looked away. ‘But why do you think I can help?’ he whined.
‘Because she was supposed to be coming to live in Trillington around the time she went missing,’ said Slater. ‘She and her husband-to-be had leased one of your cottages.’
‘Can I just stop you there,’ said Glossop. ‘I think I would remember if one of my tenants had gone missing. This is a reputable business, you know. We look after our tenants.’
‘I take it you keep records?’ asked Slater.
‘What, back to 2000? I don’t think we’ve still got that stuff,’ said Glossop confidently. ‘It would have been destroyed years ago. I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. It’s not that I don’t want to.’
Slater knew Glossop was trying to rush him out through the door, so he obviously had something to hide, and it wasn’t just the porn on his computer. He hoped Watson was doing what he thought she was doing. Slowly and reluctantly, he allowed Glossop to talk down to him and usher him to the door. As Glossop followed Slater through the door into reception, Watson and Rosemary Glossop looked up. They were both behind Rosemary’s desk, studying her computer screen.
‘It looks like Mrs Glossop knows a bit more about the business than Mr Glossop realises,’ said Watson. ‘And she thought it might be prudent to computerise all their old records before they were destroyed.’
Slater turned an icy smile towards Glossop, who had stopped dead in his tracks, mouth gaping in shock. ‘Perhaps you’d better sit down before you fall down, Mr Glossop,’ he said, pointing to a couple of chairs off to one side. ‘So, what have you found?’ asked Slater as he walked across to the desk.
‘According to this, a Mr and Mrs Hudson paid a month’s rent in advance as a deposit and took a lease on a cottage in Trillington. The lease started from 20 October 2000, but then on 20 November 2000, a Mr Higgs took over the lease.’
Slater turned to Glossop. ‘Does that ring any bells? If she was there, what happened to her stuff?’
Glossop pointed a finger at Rosemary. ‘She’s made a mistake,’ he said. ‘She made a good little wife, but she’s as good as useless with paperwork.’
‘It all looks pretty good to me,’ said Watson. ‘I think the problem’s more likely to be your attitude, not your wife’s abilities.’
‘Mr Glossop?’ asked Slater.
‘I told you, I don’t remember.’
‘Well, I suggest you start remembering,’ said Slater.
‘Now, wait a minute—’
‘No, you wait a minute,’ said Slater. ‘You’ve been treating this like a joke up until now, but I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in. We have a murder victim who disappeared within two days of taking out a lease with you. In our book, that makes you a murder suspect.’
‘This can’t be happening,’ said Glossop, in disbelief. ‘You can’t do this.’
‘It looks like we are doing it,’ said Slater. ‘It’s just a question of where. You can either start remembering here and now, or we can call the local nick and have you dragged off to a cell until we find time to question you.’
‘Yes, please,’ muttered Rosemary Glossop, loud enough for everyone to hear.
‘You’re supposed to be my wife,’ Glossop said angrily. ‘What happened to family loyalty? You’d be lost without me!’
‘Oh, please,’ she said, scornfully. ‘I’ve been running this business for the past five years. How do you think everything gets done when all you do is drool over that damned computer all day long?’
‘I do nothing of the sort!’
‘Yes, you do,’ she said. ‘I’ve seen the websites you’re logged onto. I’m not the idiot you think I am.’
‘But I’ve got a password—’
‘Yes, but you haven’t got the wit to use anything worthwhile. How long do you think it took me to work out it was my name and your birthday? I know why you won’t tell the inspector what happened to the girl’s belongings. It’s got something to do with that Jacko, hasn’t it?’
‘Shut up, you stupid bitch!’ Glossop shouted.
Slater fished his mobile phone from his pocket and turned to him. ‘Who’s Jacko, Mr Glossop? Or, would you prefer it if I make the phone call?’
‘It’s not what you think.’
‘So, tell me what it is,’ said Slater. He waited a few seconds as he searched his contacts and then pressed the dial key and raised the phone to his ear.
Glossop stared at Slater, his mouth hanging open.
Slater heard the call connect in his ear, and the familiar voice began to speak. ‘At the third stroke . . .’
‘Hello,’ he said into the phone, ‘this is DI Slater.’
Glossop held up his hands. ‘All right, I’ll talk,’ he gasped. ‘Just, please, don’t make me spend a night in a cell.’
Slater gave him that icy smile again and ended his call. ‘There, that wasn’t such a hard decision to make was it? Now, why don’t we all sit down and then you can tell us all about it.’
‘Good idea,’ said Rosemary. ‘I can’t wait!’
Watson took a seat at Rosemary’s desk so she could take notes, and Slater pulled three more chairs over. ‘There,’ he said with an evil grin once he was happy with the setup. ‘Isn’t this cosy?’
Glossop slumped miserably into one of the chairs. ‘It was a long time ago,’ he said. ‘I can’t promise I can recall all the details.’
‘Don’t start making excuses before you’ve even started, ‘said Slater, ‘because if I think you’re giving us a load of crap, I’ll make that call again, but this time I’ll finish it.’
‘No, no,’ pleaded Glossop, his face a picture of misery. ‘I promise I’ll tell you everything I can remember.’
‘Right then,’ said Slater, ‘let’s start with the lease.’ He nodded to Watson, who read from the computer screen.
‘It says here the Hudsons were due to move in on 20 October, and the lease was for a minimum term of six months.’
‘That would be correct,’ said Glossop. ‘That’s how we’ve always worked. The first six months is like a trial period, but as long as a tenant pays up on time and takes reasonable care of the property, they can stay for as long as they want.’
‘So what happened with the Hudsons?’ asked Slater. ‘If you re-let the cottage on 20 November that means they weren’t even in there for one month.’
‘They paid a month up front as a deposit, and then they were supposed to pay monthly starting on 30 October.’
‘And?’
‘And nothing. They never paid.’
‘So you kicked them out?’
‘No, I went round to find out why they hadn’t paid.’
‘Did you know Mr Hudson was in the army?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you could have gone to his CO and complained he wasn’t paying. You know what happens then,
don’t you? The CO would kick Hudson’s arse all over camp and then arrange for you to be paid before he even got his wages. The army don’t approve of that sort of thing, it gets them a bad name.’
‘I had heard something like that, but it never got that far.’
‘Did you know the young woman, Kylie, had just had a baby and was going to be moving in and living on her own for the first couple of months?’
‘Like I said, I knew he was in the army, but they didn’t tell me she was moving in on her own.’
‘Did they tell you they weren’t actually married yet?’
‘No, they didn’t, nor that she was pregnant.’ He managed to sound indignant.
‘Would that have been a problem if you had known?’
‘No, it wouldn’t,’ said Rosemary before he could answer. ‘He’s a hypocrite if he says otherwise. I only married him because I was foolish enough to get pregnant.’
Slater looked at Glossop. ‘Well?’
He shrugged unhappily. ‘No, I don’t think it would have been a problem.’
‘Right,’ said Slater, ‘so did they, or at least did Kylie, move in on 20 October?’
‘I suppose she must have.’
‘What do you mean “I suppose she must have”?’
‘Well, I left the place unlocked and keys inside, so I didn’t actually see her move in, but I know she must have.’
‘You’re sure about this?’ asked Slater, patiently. ‘Only this is very important. Up until now, we only have Mr Hudson’s word that she had moved in, and of course, he couldn’t know for sure because he was in Kosovo.’
‘I know she did because when I went round there to get my money, there was no sign of her, but her stuff was there.’
‘You’re sure about that?’
‘Yes.’
‘So what happened to her stuff? Only the people who moved in after her said the place was empty.’
‘Of course it was empty,’ said Glossop, testily. ‘I couldn’t let a property with the previous tenant’s belongings still there, could I?’
Slater studied Glossop for a few seconds. ‘I don’t think you’re in a position to start getting stroppy with me, Howard. You should be aware you’ve just told us you had a motive for murdering Kylie, so if I were you, instead of trying to piss me off, I’d start thinking about how you could make me happy.’
Glossop looked stunned at the idea that he could possibly have a motive for murder.
‘She owed you money,’ explained Watson. ‘You went round there, got angry, and killed her.’
‘You can’t think I would do that!’ said Glossop.
‘Of course we can,’ said Slater.
‘It’s one possible scenario,’ added Watson. ‘Why don’t you give us another one? Tell us your version of what happened.’
‘But she wasn’t there,’ he pleaded. ‘I thought she must be out so I went back the next day, and the next, but she was never there. This went on for about a week, but it was obvious she wasn’t using the place. I looked in the fridge and there was nothing to eat. I looked around, but most of her stuff was still in boxes. I couldn’t find anything that told me what was going on. I asked the neighbours, but no one had seen her. They didn’t even know she had moved in.’
‘So what did you do, go to the police?’
‘Well, no,’ he said, sheepishly. ‘I just assumed she’d changed her mind and run off. You know how flighty these young people are.’
‘Did you ever meet her?’ asked Slater.
‘Well, no.’
‘Yet you’re able to judge her character?’
‘Err, well, I just thought—’
‘Yeah, right, you just thought. Didn’t you tell us earlier you looked out for your tenants? You don’t seem to have looked out for young Kylie, do you?’
Glossop bowed his head but said nothing.
‘So what did happen to her stuff? And who’s this Jacko? What does he have to do with it?’
‘Jacko buys and sells stuff,’ said Rosemary, glaring at her husband’s bowed head. ‘I bet you sold her stuff to him, didn’t you?’
He looked up at her and nodded his head slowly.
‘Oh, wonderful,’ said Slater.
‘There were clothes and shoes and things. And lots of baby stuff. It was worth a few quid, you know. I was just trying to get back what I was owed.’
‘You had a deposit!’ shrieked Rosemary, angrily. ‘I can’t believe you. You’ve gone too far this time!’
‘So, you sold all her stuff without ever wondering what might have happened to her,’ said Slater, shaking his head in disgust. ‘Oh, Howard, what a caring person you are. Well, here’s something for you to think about. While you were busying scraping a few quid together from her belongings, which is theft by the way, the poor girl hadn’t had second thoughts and run off. She was lying at the bottom of that bloody great deep ditch just outside the village. She’d been hit by a car. It’s possible she might even have still been alive at that point.’
‘Oh, God help us, Howard, what have you done?’ whispered Rosemary.
Slater got to his feet. ‘Come on, Sam, I think I’ve heard enough, let’s get out of here.’ He turned to Rosemary Glossop, ‘I’m sorry, Mrs Glossop.’
‘No, Inspector, I’m the one who’s sorry.’ She glared at Howard. ‘And him,’ she spat. ‘I’m so very, very ashamed of him.’
Watson got to her feet and followed after Slater, but before she got to the door she turned back. ‘One more thing, Mr Glossop, did the local police ever speak to you about this matter. If not at the time, then maybe a couple of months later?’
Glossop slowly raised his tear-streaked face to her and shook his head. ‘No, never,’ he said.
‘Right, thank you,’ she said and then followed after Slater.
* * *
‘I’m sorry about that,’ said Slater, as he started the car.
Watson turned towards him. ‘About what? D’you mean the dirty old man? Don’t worry, I’ve had to deal with a lot worse than pathetic specimens like him. I was tempted to make use of the bionic knee and whack him in the balls, but he wouldn’t have been much use to us if I had. Besides, that would have meant touching him.’ She wrinkled her nose in distaste. ‘I’m afraid it goes with the territory, ask any woman. I suppose I’m even more of a grope magnet being a police officer. I suppose it must be double the thrill.’
Slater thought he would have quite liked to see how the bionic knee stood up to the test, but he didn’t tell her that. ‘Yeah, but it’s not right. You shouldn’t have to put up with that sort of thing.’
‘Don’t worry, boss, I can deal with it,’ she said, with a grim smile. ‘Besides, I think he’s just crossed a line where his wife’s concerned. I suspect she’s turned a blind eye for years, but he’s just humiliated her in front of us, and that was probably a step too far. She’s going to make his life hell for that.’
‘Let’s hope so,’ said Slater, as he pulled away. ‘Anyway, do we believe anything he told us?’
‘I think he was probably telling the truth because he was terrified we were going to take his computer and find all his porn.’
‘Yeah, that’s what I thought,’ agreed Slater. ‘And I think he’s too much of a coward to tell any lies we can easily check out, in case we come back and carry out the threat.’
‘Should we have found out who this Jacko is?’ she asked.
‘Maybe,’ he admitted, ‘but I think we’ve probably found out all we needed to know, and if we do feel the need to speak to that guy, we now know a man who can put us in touch.’
Watson pulled a face. ‘I suppose so,’ she said, ‘if we really have to. But if he tries that creepy stuff again—’
‘Then you have my permission to test the knee to the maximum,’ said Slater.
Watson looked at Slater in surprise.
‘Don’t look so surprised,’ he said. ‘If the guy took a swing at you, I wouldn’t expect you to just stand there and be assaulted. In my view this i
s the same thing. It might be a different type of assault in the eyes of the law, but it’s still an assault, and in that case you’re entitled to act in self-defence.’
‘That’s a refreshing point of view,’ said Watson, turning back to face the front.
‘I like to be different.’
‘I think we’ve definitely established that, sir,’ she agreed.
Slater smiled. ‘Good, I’m pleased to hear it.’
* * *
It was eight o'clock by the time Slater checked his phone, but there was nothing from Jenny. No missed call, no message, nothing. He thought about calling her, but then remembered what he had said in the last message he had left her. He decided there was no point in making the threat and then not carrying it out, so he put his phone down and turned on the TV.
Chapter 22
Slater dropped Watson off at the office next morning and drove off to attend to some personal things promising he would be back a little later. To his surprise, when he did get back, there was no sign of Watson, and there was no note to tell him where she was. He tried the MAFU lab, but she wasn’t there either, so he resorted to calling her mobile phone.
‘Where are you? I was beginning to wonder if I’d driven you away.’
‘If that’s what you’re trying to do, you’ll have to try harder,’ she said. ‘You said last night you were still waiting for Norton to produce his notebook, so I thought I’d try and speed things up.’
‘I bet he was pleased to see you.’
‘I didn’t waste my breath on him,’ she said. ‘I thought he’d probably just make another excuse to keep us waiting, so I went straight to the records office and asked them myself.’
‘Ha! I’ve been in one of those county headquarters vaults. I know what they’re like. I bet they told you it’s in there somewhere, but they have no idea where.’
‘Actually, Ramlinstoke keep their own records, and they do quite a good job of keeping everything in order. It’s taken me a couple of hours, and I’m covered in dust and grime, but I found what I was looking for in the end. I’m just going to the hotel for a shower and to get some clean clothes, and then I’ll be back.’
