by M A Comley
“I take it I’m going to like what you’re about to tell me, Karen.”
“I think so, boss. The victim’s name is Maurice Barratt.”
Lorne frowned and tilted her head. “And we know this, how?”
“Jenny from missing persons just rang to say that late yesterday afternoon a Mrs. Tina Barratt called to list her husband as missing. Jenny asked the woman to send a recent photo via email, and bingo! She made the connection right away.”
“Right away, and yet it’s taken her until now to inform us?”
Karen rolled her eyes. “She apologised for the delay, said she got caught up in a meeting with her head of department not long after the news came her way and forgot all about it until now.”
“Well, that’s not very helpful, is it? I guess I’m used to being surrounded by super-efficient, conscientious coppers. It hits home hard when people don’t live up to your standards.”
Karen smiled. “Thanks for the compliment, boss.” She stepped up to the desk and slid a piece of paper towards Lorne. “Tina Barratt’s address.”
“Thanks, Karen. I’m virtually done here. Ask Katy to be ready to leave in five minutes, if you would. Do me a favour and while we’re out, can you delve into Barratt’s background for me?”
Karen nodded and left the office.
Lorne finished looking over the letter and set it aside for later. She unhooked her jacket from the back of the chair and heaved a sigh. Time to get the unpleasant task out the way, I suppose. Katy was waiting by the door when she entered the incident room. “Let’s get this over with.”
Katy pulled open the door, and together, they descended the stairs. The twenty-five-minute journey to Canary Wharf took place in relative silence. It wasn’t until they pulled up outside a large block of flats that they spoke.
“Not looking forward to this,” Katy mumbled, unhitching her seatbelt.
“Me neither. Especially if there are kids involved. Do we know that yet?”
“I don’t think we do. We’ll soon find out, eh?”
They rode the lift up to the seventh floor. Lorne’s nose twitched at the horrendous smell inside that was emanating from a pile of takeaway rubbish sitting in the corner. “Would it really hurt for people to clear up after themselves?”
Katy didn’t get the chance to respond before the doors eased open. They stepped out, and each took in a lungful of fresh air… as fresh as it got in the centre of London anyway.
Lorne rang the bell to the third flat they came to along the narrow balcony.
A woman in her early thirties opened the door. She had tear-stained cheeks, and her black hair was in a mess, as if she’d just got up and hadn’t had time to run a brush through it yet.
“Hello, Mrs. Barratt? I’m DI Lorne Warner, and this is DS Katy Foster. We’re from the Met police.” Lorne flashed her warrant card at the woman.
Mrs. Barratt stood behind the door, allowing them access to the hallway. “Go through to the lounge at the back. Excuse the mess.”
Lorne went first and was confronted by a plethora of toys strewn across the floor of the living room. She deduced that half the toys seemed to be for a young girl, the other half for a boy of a similar age. “Are your children at school?”
Mrs. Barratt dropped into a well-worn brown sofa. “Yes, truth be told, I couldn’t wait to get them out of my hair this morning. They’ve been driving me nuts since Maurice…”
“I can understand that. When was the last time you saw your husband, Mrs. Barratt?”
“Friday of last week. We had a slight tiff on the phone. I thought he’d taken umbrage and was teaching me a lesson by not coming home at the weekend. I rang his firm yesterday when he didn’t come home on Monday, and they told me they hadn’t seen him since Friday. That’s when I rang the missing persons hotline.” Her eyes began to fill with tears.
Lorne inhaled and exhaled a large breath and looked over at the large wedding photo of the couple hanging on the wall. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Barratt. It’s with regret that I have to tell you that your husband has passed away.”
Her hand covered her mouth. She dropped it after a moment or two and whispered, “What? How do you know that?”
“My partner and I were called to a scene two days ago. We’ve been trying to identify your husband ever since. He had no ID on him when his body was discovered.” Lorne pointed at the picture on the wall. “I recognise him from that photo. I’m truly sorry for your loss.”
The woman covered her face with her hands and began to sob. “How?”
Lorne swallowed the liquid filling her mouth and explained, “His body was found in a derelict warehouse. I’m sorry to have to tell you that he was murdered.”
Mrs. Barratt’s head shot up to look at her. “What? Why? Maurice had nothing, we’ve got nothing that anyone could be envious of.”
“We’ve yet to ascertain the motive behind the killing. Our investigation was delayed until he could be identified.”
“How was he killed?” Mrs. Barratt asked hesitantly.
“I’d rather not go into detail, for your sake, but it would appear that he was tortured before his death.”
“In what way was he tortured? Does that type of thing really happen? I thought it only took place in movies for dramatic effect.” She shook her head in disbelief before more tears dripped onto her cheeks.
“For your sake, I’d really rather not divulge how he was killed. It would be better for you to remember him the way he was.”
“Oh my, that doesn’t sound good at all.” She fell silent before running a shaking hand over her face. “My God, how am I going to tell the children? They thought the world of their father, naturally.”
“Do you have a relative you can ring for support to help you through the next few days? It’s going to be tough for you.”
“My mum lives around the corner. Should I ring her now?”
Lorne nodded. “It might be a good idea.”
The woman searched the sofa and the nearby coffee table for her mobile. She punched in a number and waited for the call to be answered. “Mum… it’s me. Can you come over…? Yes, now! The police are here… see you soon.” Tina hung up the phone and looked up at Lorne and Katy. “I didn’t want to tell her over the phone in case she has an accident on the way. She’s setting off now.”
“That’s good. Would you mind answering some questions in the meantime, or would you rather wait until your mother gets here?”
She pulled a tissue out of the box on the table in front of her and dabbed at her eyes. “I think I’d rather answer without Mum being around, if that’s all right. What do you need to know?”
“First of all, we’d like to establish if your husband had any enemies?”
Tina shook her head as she thought. “Not that I know of. He was always down the pub with friends.”
Lorne detected a note of bitterness creeping into the woman’s tone. “Did that cause problems between you as a couple, Tina?”
“Yes and no.” She flung herself back in her chair, covered her face again and sobbed.
Lorne left her seat and sat down on the edge of the sofa beside the woman. She placed a hand on her arm and squeezed it. “It’s all right. Please be honest with us.”
“I mentioned we had a tiff before he went missing. It was more than that. My last conversation with him consisted of me telling him that I was leaving him. Oh God, I’ll never be able to forgive myself, ever!”
Lorne looked over at Katy and raised an eyebrow. She turned back to Tina. “Why were you leaving him? Was that truly your intention, or was it merely a threat?”
She rubbed her cheeks with her hands and wiped away the tears. “Sam, our four-year-old son, was ill. I had a doctor’s appointment on Friday evening. I rang Maurice to ask him to take me, and he told me he was working late. I knew he was lying. He goes to the pub with his mates every night after work, whether we can afford it or not. He was so damn selfish… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
/> “Men can be at times. Looking around, it doesn’t seem your kids want for anything.”
Tina shook her head. “I’ve paid for this lot out of my child support. There’s nothing new here. It’s all second-hand. Of course I wash everything thoroughly, disinfect it properly. I never want to see my kids go without, the way I did when I was growing up because Dad walked out on Mum when I was a toddler. I swore that would never happen to my kids…”
“So it was just a threat then? You had no intention of leaving Maurice really?”
She threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t know. He pushed the boundaries so many bloody times. Where the hell would I go if I did leave this place? I don’t have money of my own, and I certainly couldn’t move into Mum’s one-bed flat with the kids. Oh God, this is all a mess. Why couldn’t he have just come home on Friday?”
“There are so many questions we need to find answers to. Do you know who your husband was with on Friday?”
“No. He told me he was at work, so no, I couldn’t tell you.”
“Okay. In that case, you better tell us who he worked for.” Lorne saw Katy withdraw her notebook in her peripheral vision.
“Harris Homes. They’re building a new estate not far from here. He was lucky to get the job.”
“Oh, why’s that?”
Tina sighed heavily. “Usually, when you work for a big firm like that, they expect you to travel. He pleaded with his boss that if a vacancy came up on-site close to home to be considered for the role. One of the guys had a bad accident, and the boss rang him, asking him to fill in for Joel while he was off sick.”
“I see. So, it was good having Maurice working close to home in that case.”
“Yes and no. He seemed to think it gave him more of an excuse to go down the pub every night, you know, not having travel costs to meet. Men are so illogical in their thinking at times. Don’t you agree? Not that I’m speaking ill of the dead. I’ll miss him, but he was still a frustrating man all the same.”
Lorne chuckled. “Aren’t most men?” She reflected on her life with her ex-husband. Tom had worn the crown for being the king of frustration from what she could remember.
“I don’t really know. I’ve never had anyone else in my life but Maurice. We were childhood sweethearts and got married in our early twenties. Life has been a real struggle over the years, especially when I had to give up work to look after the kids.”
“Whose idea was it to have the children?”
“It was a joint decision, although he barely lent a hand around the house. He played with the kids when he came home from the pub, not for long, though. Crap, I can’t believe he’s never going to walk through the door again.”
The doorbell rang.
“Want me to get that?” Katy asked, rising from her chair.
Tina and Lorne both nodded.
“Hello? Where’s my daughter?” Lorne heard the woman shout in the hallway. It wasn’t long before the woman appeared in the doorway, her eyes wide with anger. “What the hell is going on here?”
“It’s all right, Mum. Don’t be angry. I haven’t done anything wrong. These police officers have come to tell me that…”
“Spit it out, child. What’s wrong?”
“It’s Maurice, Mum. He’s dead!”
The older woman’s legs gave way. Thankfully, Katy was quick to react and reached out to support the woman. Lorne leapt out of her seat and helped to ease the woman into one of the leather easy chairs.
“Oh my! When? Why? How? Oh goodness! Those poor kiddies are going to have to grow up without their father now…”
“Leave it a minute to sink in first, Mum, before I answer all your questions. Not that I know much.”
Lorne smiled at Tina’s mother and shook her head. “The thing is, we don’t have a lot of answers ourselves. Your daughter reported her husband missing only yesterday. On Monday of this week, we discovered Maurice’s body in a warehouse. He’d been tortured. I’ll spare you the details. We were just asking your daughter if her husband had any enemies that she can recall.”
Tina’s mother shook her head. “He was a likeable lad. Not sure why anyone would want to torture him. How despicable. I hope you’ll keep that snippet of information from the children, Tina. They’ll have nightmares otherwise and who could blame them? What type of animal does that to another human being? Was it to do with money?”
Lorne sighed. “We’ve yet to source the motive. The investigation will begin in earnest once we get back to the station.” Turning to Tina again, Lorne asked, “Is there anything in Maurice’s recent past that we should know about? Did he gamble? Have debts with a loan shark?”
Tina contemplated the questions for a while. “I’m sorry, my head is all over the place. I’d have to say no at this point and get back to you in the future if I think of anything.”
Lorne pulled a card from her jacket pocket and placed it on the table next to the box of tissues. “My number. Please, if you need me, ring me day or night.”
“Thank you. Can I see him?” Tina asked quietly.
“Of course. I can probably arrange for you to see him this afternoon. I’ll need to run it past the pathologist first.”
“I’ll place the call,” Katy volunteered.
“Thanks, Katy.”
The three of them fell quiet as Katy left the room. Lorne watched the two women stare at each other, disbelief etched into their faces.
“I hope you string up the bastard who did this,” Tina’s mum demanded vehemently.
“We’ll definitely throw the book at him when we catch up with him. I can assure you of that. We’re going to head back to the station now, via Maurice’s place of work. Maybe his boss will be able to shed some light on whether Maurice was having trouble with anyone on-site.”
“Well, someone needs to start talking and giving you some answers,” Tina’s mother stated abruptly.
Katy entered the room again. “I’ve written down the address. The pathologist will be expecting you around two o’clock. I tried to avoid school kicking-out times.”
Tina took the note and smiled. “Thank you for thinking about my kids. Mum, can you pick them up today in case I’m not back?”
“Of course, love. I’ll nip home, pack a bag and stay with you for the next day or two.”
Lorne joined Katy at the door. “We’ll be off. I’ll keep you informed as the investigation progresses. Again, we’re truly sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. Please, find the person who did this, Inspector,” Tina said.
Lorne gave the women a reassuring smile and left the house with Katy.
“What’s up?” Katy asked before they got in the car.
“Not sure. Something is bugging me.”
“About Tina?”
Lorne opened the door and climbed in. “Maybe.”
Katy closed the door and clicked her seatbelt in place. “You’re thinking her response to the news was a little false?”
Lorne shrugged and turned the key in the ignition. “I can’t quite put my finger on it. Let’s just say her reaction wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”
“She cried. Maybe she’s not the type to rock back and forth when they receive bad news. I didn’t get the impression that she was trying to hide anything.”
“Okay, we’ll have to agree to differ on that one, for now anyway. Let’s go to the building site, see what his boss has to say.”
Chapter 3
On the way to their destination, they passed four other newbuild sites, all within spitting distance of each other.
“Blimey, I never knew there was so much demand for new properties, did you?” Lorne shook her head in bewilderment.
“It’s the housing shortage, I suppose.”
“Maybe, but this is London, remember? And these plots of land must have been an exorbitant price to begin with. I know damn sure I wouldn’t be able to afford the price of one of these babies.”
“Not sure I’d want one. Aren’t they
all supposed to be built out of MDF these days?”
Lorne laughed. “I doubt it, Katy.” The thought of a whole house being built in the material tickled Lorne. She sighed. “I sometimes wish I was still renovating houses. I miss getting my hands dirty now and again.”
“Maybe you and Tony can go down that route in the future.”
“We’ve spoken about it. My friend in Norfolk—you know DI Sally Parker—her soon-to-be husband and her father have just started up a business together renovating houses over there. Different ball game to what’s going on here. They’re patching up houses in need of repair, the bones of which are solid to begin with. Do you think these new houses would truly stand the test of time?”
“That’s a bit harsh, Lorne. They have standards to adhere to, don’t they?”
Lorne pulled into a parking space and switched off the engine. “You’re right, of course. Don’t listen to me. I’ve just got a downer on newbuilds going up and replacing houses that should be our nation’s heritage. Let’s go see what the boss has to say.”
Katy and Lorne walked into the showroom on-site and flashed their warrant cards at the young redhead behind the desk.
“Hello, there. How can I help?” Her beaming smile showed off super-white teeth that appeared to be highlighted in the glow from the lights above.
“Is it possible to see the site manager? Would that be his appropriate title?”
“May I ask in what connection? Are you looking to buy a house today?”
Lorne laughed. “Sorry, you can cut the sales patter. We’re here on official business. Is he around?”
The woman’s smile dropped as she reached for the phone. She swivelled in her chair and spoke quietly into the receiver. However, the person on the other end didn’t hear her, and she resorted to shouting to get her message across. When she returned to her proper position at the desk, her face was flushed with embarrassment. “He’ll be with you in five minutes. Can I get you a tea or coffee while you wait?”
Lorne dropped into the chair opposite the woman, and Katy followed suit. “Two coffees, milk and one sugar, would be lovely. Thanks very much.”
The woman smiled tautly, left her chair and walked across the carpeted room to the drink-making facilities at the rear.
