by Lee Wood
“If you’re paying, I’ll take a double malt whiskey.”
Chapter Forty-Three
The following morning, James walked into the Albion Hotel and found Belinda who usually worked in the office sitting on reception.
“Hello, Belinda. How are you today?”
“Good, thank you, Mr Sheldon.”
“If you’re not in the middle of something I wonder if it would be possible to use the computer for about five minutes.”
“Er, yes. Of course Mr Sheldon. I've got some paperwork I can do in the back office but if any guests come to reception, could you give me a call?”
“Of course, not a problem.”
James sat down at the computer and clicked onto Google. Then he held down the control button and pressed the ‘H’ key. In the search box that appeared he typed ‘Peter Winston-Moore’ and watched as a list of seven searches appeared. He noted every one of them had been made on the same date. James went through the list one at a time, making notes. Then, in the search box he typed in the word 'Picasso' and this time it revealed a list of nine searches. Again, these had all been made on the same date. James clicked on each one in turn and made further notes. When he had finished, he deleted any trace of the search he had undertaken and returned the computer back to the previous screen.
He popped his head round the door of the back office. “Thanks, Belinda. I've finished.”
Chapter Forty-Four
James Sheldon had arranged to meet Eden Gold along with DS Carla Parsons at the Albion Hotel. When they arrived he took them through to the office of Jonathan Atkins, the hotel manager who was currently away on holiday.
It was a large office with a desk and filing cabinets and set over by the window a round meeting table with room for up to six people.
“Hello, Eden, Hi, Carla, nice to see you again. As I told you on the phone. I think I’ve worked out exactly what happened with Peter Winston-Moore. I’ll go through it with you point by point and then it’s up to you to decide.”
Over the next forty minutes, he shared all the information he had accumulated. “That’s everything. Now it’s up to you to decide on what course of action to take.”
“Based on the evidence you have presented I’m in no doubt. What about you, Carla?”
“It makes sense to me. I know the DCI thinks it was Norman Gentle but based on this I’d say we’ve found the real killer.”
“In that case, as we’re here I think we should get this over and done with.”
“James. I think we should have someone neutral and supportive around, don’t you?”
“I agree. Leave it with me for a minute and I’ll get it sorted.”
James had given instructions under no circumstances were they to be disturbed. He walked from the office and through to reception.
Two minutes later, he walked back with two members of the hotel staff.
As they entered the office and approached the table, Eden got to his feet and indicated where he wanted the pair to sit.
"Hello, and thank you both for coming. The reason for asking you here is to go over what we have discovered over the past few days as we've unravelled exactly what happened at the hotel regarding the murder of Peter Winston-Moore. As you are probably aware we arrested his partner, a gentleman called Norman Gentle. However, since then we have found a number of things that lead us to believe he was not the person responsible and the real culprit is a little closer to home. We believe it is someone associated with this hotel.”
The two staff members looked at each other and then back to DI Gold.
He continued. “The theory has been that Norman found his lover with a younger man and the motive was jealousy and as he is the only beneficiary in the will, to get his hands on the victim’s money. However, our findings lead us to believe the real reason he was killed was quite different. And in all honesty, knowing what I know, if it had been me I might not have been able to resist taking revenge on Mr Winston-Moore. Having seen what he’s done to a great number of people I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did. Even though the things he did make him out to be a real scumbag, he's now a dead scumbag and we need to bring his killer to justice.
Eden looked up at the two members of staff. Both were staring back at him with intensity.
So here is what we know.
“Two years ago, Mr Winston-Moore came to Trentbridge after sending out leaflets door to door and promising to pay the highest prices for items. He managed to purchase a number of paintings from private individuals. One of the paintings he was offered had been given to a teenager, who at the time was staying in the south of France. This young man saved someone from drowning and as a way of saying thank you his father gave the teenager one of his paintings to take home, knowing in the future it would be worth a considerable amount of money. He even wrote a special note of thanks and attached it to the back of the painting.
“The man the teenager saved from drowning was called Claude and his father was the famous artist Pablo Picasso. And of course, nowadays an original Picasso is worth a fortune. The teenager came back to England, met a young lady, fell head over heels in love, and moved to Trentbridge to be with her. They got married and had a daughter whom he always referred to as Dee.
“Sadly, the man died unexpectedly in a car accident in 2003 so he wasn't able to tell anyone just how valuable the painting might be. I'm sure he meant to at some point but he simply forgot about it and the painting remained in the loft until years later his wife found the leaflet dropped through her letterbox at a time of need. She called the phone number on the leaflet and the art dealer came to see her.
“Mr Winston-Moore knew a lot about art and instantly recognised the painting and understood what the note on the back said. He could have been in little doubt when he bought the item it was an original and he certainly had some idea of its true worth.
“Even though the lady told him she was desperate to raise £50,000 for the medical treatment of her granddaughter, he still only paid her £4,000 for the painting when he could have paid the full amount and still have made millions. However, it seems he was a greedy man with no feelings for others. As they couldn't raise enough for the treatment the lady and her daughter used the money to give the little girl, whose name was Kim one last fabulous holiday at Euro Disney.”
Eden looked across the table at the two people; he noticed one of them looking at him rather uncomfortably.
He continued. “In the meantime, Mr Winston-Moore took the painting to Sotheby’s auction house and arranged for it to be sold in New York. We assume he thought selling it in the US would attract less attention and therefore no risk of his underhand deal being exposed. From the day he purchased the painting until the day it was sold was less than a year. In March last year, Peter Winston-Moore stood in Sotheby’s auction and watched the painting he had paid just £4,000 for, sell for $5.3 million.
“By coincidence on the same day, the twenty-seventh of March, a grandmother and mother said goodbye to a young child who might have been saved if they had been able to afford the £50,000 for her much-needed treatment.”
Eden stopped speaking and remained silent for a few seconds. He looked at the two ladies sitting at the table. One was looking directly at him with a look of surprise. The other was holding a tissue with tears streaming down her face.
"Before I go on, I'd just like to say to the mother of that child that I am so sorry for your tragic loss, but to murder Mr Winston-Moore has its consequences. I'm sure you probably thought it would simply remain unsolved. You didn't think we would arrest and charge someone with the murder. But these things have a habit of coming back to bite us, don't they, Dawn?”
Dawn Waterman looked up. "You don't have any proof it was me."
Diane turned her head towards her friend at same moment her mouth was on the verge of saying “What?”
"Oh, I think we do, Dawn. Let's go over things one step at a time, shall we.
Two weeks before he arrived, Peter
Winston-Moore phoned and booked the Trinity Suite. He had stayed here the previous two years in a normal room when he was less affluent. You were on reception that afternoon and took his booking and for whatever reason, possibly from what you told us, you were bored or maybe simply curious, whichever it was, you decided to Google his name. You told us you don’t have a computer at home so this was your only chance to check up on him.
“You see we undertook a search of the front desk computer. The one you sit at when you work in reception and use to order your groceries and surf the internet when you’re bored. Every website or page you visit, even from months ago is stored in the computers history and can be found if you know what you’re doing.
“He had wanted to keep the surroundings of buying the painting a secret. He didn't want word getting back to your mum. But with his new art gallery in London’s Shoreditch he was getting noticed and his ego got the better of him and when a well-respected antiques trade magazine wanted to interview him, he couldn’t resist. One of the things that came up during the interview was the story of the painting and his story of discovering the Picasso in a junk shop in Trentbridge. It’s the same story he told to all the antique dealers he knew.
“Maybe you wanted to know which junk shop or maybe you suddenly had a suspicion about the painting but from the search history on the reception desk computer for the afternoon of the second of May, the day he made the booking, you also did a search for the painting.
“It couldn't have taken long for you to find the photo of the painting and the note that was attached to the back and you recognised it instantly as being the one your father had shown you. The same painting your mum had sold to the so-called respectable London Art Dealer. The handwritten note on the back was probably the final confirmation. And you knew from his details this was the same man that you had just booked into the hotel.”
Diane sat with her hands covering her mouth. She looked like she was in total disbelief of what she was hearing.
“It must have been so painful for you to realise if he had paid even £50,000 your daughter might still be alive today. And if he had been a fair man your life and that of your family would be much better than working for minimum wage and having to work extra hours just to get by.
“So you decided to take revenge. You knew which room he would be in. And I’m guessing here, but to me it looks like you decided to stab him once for every year of your daughter’s life. Hence the ten wounds to his back.
“I imagine when you saw him book in with a young man you probably thought your chance had been taken away. However, then you witnessed the argument between Mr Winston-Moore and his partner and then a few minutes later, you saw the young man leave with his suitcase. So you decided to go ahead with it. I assume you knocked on his door and he recognised you as the housekeeper and under the pretence of a problem with his room, even though it was very late at night he trusted you and let you in.
“As his body was found lying in the doorway of the bathroom maybe you told him there was a flood from the toilet or the bath or a burst pipe. So he had his back to you and you took your chance and stabbed him. Once for each year of Kim’s life. Poetic justice for a man who let her die.
“During our interview you said you felt sorry for Diane discovering the body with an eight-inch knife in their back. How could you know the length unless you had seen it? The police held back on the details and that information wasn’t released to the press.
Diane reached across to Dawn, who was crying and put an arm around her shoulder.
“I’m also guessing that from being on reception until 8.30 on Thursday you thought the room opposite to the Trinity Suite would be empty. You had taken the master key to use it to change because either from your own knowledge or from listening to Diane and her obsession with TV shows like CSI you realised if you stab someone you would be covered in their blood. You didn’t want to risk any of the guests coming out of their room and seeing you. So you needed somewhere close by to change clothes.
“However, what you couldn’t possibly have known about was the late arrival of Katie Tavistock. You expected room 109 to be vacant so it must have been quite a shock when you went in there and turned on the light and saw Ms Tavistock in the bed. Luckily she was fast asleep and her eyes didn't adjust quickly enough to recognise it was a woman entering the room.
“Everyone in the hotel thought you had gone home at eight-thirty when your shift ended but instead I think you went out to your car and collected your little dog and hid him in your bag and went back into the hotel and to room 119 at the back of the hotel which was currently being re-decorated and therefore none of the house maids would check it, so you hid in there until after eleven when you knew the hotel would be quiet and then you went and knocked on the victim’s door with some story about a problem and he recognised you and let you in.
“I can only assume when your little dog, Alfie saw you come back covered in blood he made was worried and made noises. This was what the guest in room 118 reported hearing. He reported ‘a sort of moaning’ sound and told the receptionist he thought the hotel was haunted.
“When you left the room in the morning, you forgot to take Alfie’s water bowl. Later in the day the police did a search of every room and Zoe showed them in and noticed it and put it in to lost property. Nobody claimed it but I checked and it's not there anymore. I guess you retrieved it and took it home. Diane being so organised not only recorded it in the lost property book, she also took a photo of it and printed a copy off and stuck it alongside the description.
“You also took the painting. Not to sell it but to throw the police off the scent and make it look like a robbery. You overheard him boasting about the new painting and as the person who cleaned his room you had seen it and would have had the chance to measure it. You realised you couldn't simply walk out of the hotel holding a painting.
So you decided to hide it inside something. The boxes used for toilet rolls were the perfect size. You guessed the police would check every room in the hotel but there was little chance of them discovering it hidden inside a box of toilet rolls in a store cupboard. Especially as you had re-sealed the box with sellotape. And the one with the painting inside you put at the bottom of the pile.
I assume you had hidden an empty one from the previous week’s stock. So, when Diane counted the boxes for the stocktake there was one too many.
“But what you didn't count on was Diane's regular highly methodical stock check. Normally of course, with staff members being tempted to take the odd roll home you’d expect there to be a discrepancy with too little rather than too much stock.
“When she realised and spoke to you about it you told her you would check. So you took the box with the painting out to the rubbish and probably hid the painting somewhere or maybe you put it straight into the boot of your car.
“Then you told her the stock was correct and tried to convince her she had made a mistake. But then she saw the empty box in the recycling bin and it made her wonder enough to mention it to us. Luckily it was rescued before the refuse collectors came. I’m positive once our lab has done their forensic examination the box will reveal small particles of old gold paint that’ll match the gold frame on the painting.
“I understand what this dreadful man did to you and your family and its unforgivable but to murder him in cold blood like that.”
Diane was looking on in total amazement. Finally she could stay silent no longer. "Dawn. Tell me it's not true. How long have we known each other? Tell them you couldn't possibly have done this."
Dawn looked at her. Tears had been running down her face for a while. "I'm sorry, Diane. He was responsible for Kim's death. If he had paid a fair price for the painting she could be alive right now. Because that bastard didn’t pay Mum what it was worth I've lost my beautiful Kimmy. He didn't deserve to be living a millionaire lifestyle when he knew. Mum had told him what she needed the money for yet he paid her a pittance and then made millions. He sold the pain
ting on the same day as my Kimmy died. How unfair is that. He could have saved her. I don't regret it. I'd do it again tomorrow. I felt sorry for his partner at first but then the newspapers said they had lived together for six years so he must have been in on it. So why shouldn't he go to prison. I hope they both rot in hell.”
Tracy spoke up. “Dawn. I'm guessing when we search your house we’ll find the painting and a set of knives with one missing that matches the murder weapon, and the dog bowl.”
After listening to what had taken place, Eden phoned his boss, DCI Andy Stone, and told him the gist of what had been said and asked if he was prepared to apply for a search warrant for Dawn address.
James, who had remained fairly silent throughout the entire process, turned to Dawn. "Dawn, I can’t begin to understand how much you have been through. If you’ll allow me, I'd like to help. I know a really good lawyer and I'd be happy to pay for him to represent you. I know what you did was wrong but I think you've been punished enough. I hope the lawyer will be able to help you get a reduced sentence."
"Thank you for the offer Mr Sheldon but I really don't care what happens now. To be honest, if I hadn't have got that call with his booking I might be dead by now. Life without my little girl is nothing. I don't live, I simply exist. I might have ended it before but I believe God gave me a chance to rid the world of an evil man.”
Tracy read Dawn her rights and then led her away to an unmarked police car. As she did Eden received a call from his boss. They would have a warrant within the hour and then be able to search her apartment.
Two hours later, they found the painting in what had been Dawn's daughter's bedroom. It was on the bed with a note attached saying 'A life for a life' along with a framed photo of Kim. In the kitchen they found a set of knives identical to the murder weapon with one missing. The dog bowl was also found in the kitchen.
