Nasty Bitch

by K Leitch

  All the joy had gone out of the day. Duncan drove on to Goodwood and picked up the tickets, but not even the beauty of the surrounding country side could lift his spirits…he was furious. That total bastard, cheating on Maggie, he couldn’t believe the audacity of the man. Who in their right mind if they had been fortunate enough to win Maggie would risk it all by cheating on her. It just didn’t make any sense to Duncan, but what was worrying him most was whether he should tell her or not. Obviously as her friend, his loyalties were to her, but was telling her the right thing to do? She was so wrapped up in her wedding preparations, he wasn’t sure she would thank him for putting a spanner in the works…and after all he might have misinterpreted what he had seen…ha like fucking hell he had, that bastard was playing away...so what to do, what to do?

  These thoughts kept running round and round in Duncan’s head all the way back to the pub and he was still no nearer a solution later that evening when he went down to the bar to relieve Hank, who had a night off. Luckily it was pretty quiet in the pub that evening, although the restaurant was fully booked and Poppy, his head chef, and her staff seemed run off their feet.

  Poppy was getting more and more adventurous with her menu; when Duncan had first employed her she had been more than happy to stick to her traditional simple fare, sausage and mash, liver and bacon, steak and ale pie all cooked to perfection and thoroughly enjoyed by the punters, but Poppy had since been on a cordon bleu cookery course at the local college and was starting to include a few quite ambitious dishes into her menu.

  Some of which had gone down a treat, pan fried monkfish with a stilton and white wine froth, had been very popular whereas, lamb shank slow cooked in chocolate liqueur, hadn’t been anywhere near as well received. She was trying so hard though that Duncan didn’t like to discourage her too much…they were scheduled to meet later after the late service in the restaurant so he was trying to think of a diplomatic way of getting the lamb off the menu, when Thomas Fellows walked in.

  Duncan wasn’t terribly surprised to see him, he was aware that Thomas had realised that he had been spotted, he decided to play it by ear and let Thomas bring the subject up which he was sure he would.

  ‘Evening Thomas,’ he said calmly, ‘what can I get you?’

  ‘Oh I’ll have a pint of ‘Hob Goblin’ thanks Duncan,’ Thomas said with a smile, ‘and whatever you’re having mate.’

  ‘Thanks mate,’ said Duncan, ‘I’ll put it in the charity box if that’s ok with you?’

  Thomas smiled his agreement and the two men stood in awkward silence for a moment while Duncan poured Thomas’s drink. Thomas shuffled about for a bit, obviously not quite sure how to broach the subject. Duncan was determined not to make it easy for him so he waited, with a bland smile on his face, for Thomas to speak.

  ‘Seems quiet in here tonight,’ he began eventually, ‘no Hank?’

  ‘No it’s his night off,’ was all Duncan said still waiting for Thomas to come to the point.

  ‘Ah…Duncan I was hoping to have a quiet word with you,’ he said at last, ‘I know you saw me earlier, in the pub in Copborne, and I expect you are thinking all sorts of things about what you saw…you know, me and Melanie, Dr Sharp I should say, she is one of the new interns at the hospital. Anyway what I wanted to say was that it’s not what you think…I know what it must have looked like but…’

  ‘Oh come on Thomas, don’t treat me like a fool; it looked like what it was…you were kissing a girl in a pub garden behind your fiancé’s back. And as your fiancé happens to be a personal friend of mine that has put me in a fucking awkward position…’

  ‘You can’t tell her!’ said Thomas desperately; Duncan just gave him a look of distain.

  ‘Actually I can tell her Thomas; I believe she has a right to know that the man she is committing herself to is cheating on her and…’

  ‘But I’m not!’ shouted Thomas, ‘cheating on her I mean…listen Duncan mate, this Melanie bird she had been following me around with puppy dog eyes for ages now, I’m not kidding the girl just won’t leave me alone. So I decided I would take her somewhere, have a quiet word with her you know, let her down gently. Everything was going fine and then, before I could stop, her she has got her mouth plastered against mine…that must have been when you saw us. Honestly Duncan there is nothing in it, if you’d hung around longer you would have seen me pushing her away and giving her a talking to. Please mate, don’t mention this to Maggs, why cause her any pain…especially when there’s nothing in it…’

  Duncan looked at Thomas for a while, he didn’t for one minute believe what the man was saying…that was not at all what he had seen, ‘I know what I saw Thomas so cut the crap…it was obvious that you were romantically involved with that woman. Now I don’t know how serious it is or how long you’ve been seeing her, but…’

  ‘Okay, okay I admit it I have seen her a couple of times,’ said Thomas holding his hands up, ‘I’m not made of stone after all and she just kept coming on to me so…fuck it Duncan, don’t you stand there looking all sanctimonious, don’t you pretend you would turn that down…you have to admit she is pretty hot. So yes I gave in to temptation a couple of times…I’m not a fucking saint…but it means nothing! It’s Maggie I love…and if you tell her this, it will break her heart and I know you wouldn’t want to do that…would you?’

  ‘Well no I wouldn’t,’ said Duncan quietly, ‘but you have to promise me that you will stop seeing that girl Thomas. For Christ sake you must need your head examining, why would you risk what you have for an afternoon quickie…fucking hell man, you’re marrying Maggie in a few months time, surely that’s enough for you…for any man?’

  ‘I know Duncan, I know…and it is of course it is, but sometimes it just all seems so intense, what with all the wedding stuff…and I don’t know…I feel like I’m being smothered, can’t breathe you know. But you’re right of course and I will get rid, I promise…it’s not worth risking Maggie obviously. So you won’t say anything?’ he finished looking at Duncan anxiously.

  ‘No…not this time,’ Duncan began, Thomas grabbed him by the hand and shook it, ‘Thanks mate, thank you so much and I promise you…’

  ‘Let’s get one thing clear Thomas,’ said Duncan removing his hand from Thomas’s grasp, ‘I am doing this for Maggie not you…I think you are a snivelling little cheat and you definitely don’t deserve her, but Maggie seems to love you and I wouldn’t hurt her for the world. I will be watching you though Thomas ‘mate’, you screw up again and I will tell her, no matter what the consequences…got it?’

  Thomas looked as if he would have loved to punch Duncan’s lights out, but he just smiled and said through gritted teeth, ‘Okay I get it, thanks again Duncan,’ and left the pub.

  Duncan watched him go with a cynical smile on his face, he was a right tosser that one…what the hell did the beautiful, flamboyant, talented and seriously funny Maggie ever see in him?

  ‘Well I suppose he must be fucking amazing between the sheets,’ thought Duncan bitterly, but then decided that he wasn’t comfortable with that train of thought, so he turned his attention to Poppy and the chocolate lamb debacle, a much safer topic.

  CHAPTER 25 – CARLA

  Trying to find out if the murdered men had been on any dating sites before they were killed, was not as easy as it sounded, especially as three of the men had been killed in the USA. For a start there were just so many sites, ‘Match.com’, ‘Harmony’, ‘Plenty of Fish’, ‘Getmeaman.com’ or its partner company, ‘Getmeawoman.com’ and they were the more well known ones. There are hundreds of them, some specialising in gay matches, some for people that just wanted a sexual partner, even some that were targeted at married people that wanted to have an affair, but the one thing that they all seemed to have in common was a reluctance to give out any information about their members.

  Jay had started phoning some of the people that had been spoken to immediately after the bodies in Florida had been found, relatives of the victims
etc, asking them a different set of questions. About their hobbies and interests and also if they had at anytime mentioned that they had been using a dating site, and so far he had had some modest success.

  Glen Rodgers, the first man that had been discovered in Fort Meyers, had, according to his daughter Katy, been registered with a dating agency for quite a while and had had quite a few dates, but she couldn’t be sure whether he had been dating at the time of his death. Jay was also liaising with his colleagues back in Fort Meyers PD, to get the information from the victim’s computers, which were still being held at the police headquarters and was waiting to hear back from them.

  Carla and Frank were on their way to see Keith Mowbray’s only daughter, Sharon Kerr, at an address in Eynsford, somewhere near Dartford in Kent.

  The local police had already been to inform Mrs Kerr of the death of her father the day before, but because his body had been found in Carla’s territory she would be heading up the murder investigation.

  Frank let out an appreciative whistle as they pulled up outside the address they had been given. The place was a mansion. Tall iron gates opened up onto a long gravel drive that swept round to the front of the house. Faux Roman columns held up an impressive covered entrance porch that was covered in beautiful lilac flowering wisteria, and led to huge double doors with an entrance bell to one side.

  Carla pressed the bell and waited, a couple of seconds later a crackly voice said, ‘What?’

  ‘Hi,’ said Carla into the box, ‘I’m Detective Inspector Carla Right and this is Detective Sergeant Frank Hill, we’d like to speak to Mrs Kerr please, it’s about her father.’

  The door buzzed and Frank pushed it open; they found themselves in a huge hallway with a magnificent staircase that flowed up from both sides to a galleried landing above. An enormous chandelier, a modern concoction of steel and crystal hung down from the double height ceiling directly over a large round table polished to within an inch of its life that stood in the centre of the hallway. A bowl of bright yellow roses sat on the centre of the table, giving off an amazing scent.

  Carla and Frank stood awkwardly waiting for someone to come and greet them, and after a minute or so footsteps could be heard coming from the direction of what was presumably the living room, and soon after a small, rather elegant woman with long dark hair neatly pulled back into an Alice band and tearful eyes, appeared through one of the doors that led off the hall.

  She held out her hand to Carla, ‘Hi, I’m Sharon Kerr,’ she said in a low cultured voice, ‘I believe you wanted to speak to me…um about my father?’

  ‘DI Carla Right,’ said Carla shaking her hand, ‘and this is DS Frank Hill, we will be leading the investigation into your father’s murder Mrs Kerr. We’d just like to ask you a few questions if that’s ok?’

  ‘Yes of course,’ said Sharon as she led them through to an equally fabulous sitting room, with magnificent bay windows that overlooked a manicured lawn surrounded by beautiful shrubs. Sharon indicated for them to sit down and offered them tea or coffee which they readily accepted, she pressed a bell by the fireplace and sat down opposite Carla. ‘Now Inspector how can I help you?’ she said with a smile.

  Carla was having trouble pairing this very elegant and refined lady with what she knew of her father, Keith Mowbray. He had been a drug dealer and a pimp of the worst kind. Imprisoning young girls and forcing drugs onto them, making them so dependent on him that they would do anything for the next fix that he doled out to them, perform any sort of sexual perversion that was required of them and accept countless beatings from him. How had this gracious woman come from that animal?

  Whilst Carla was collecting her thoughts another woman had come in and Sharon ordered the teas and coffees.

  ‘We were wondering Mrs Kerr…’ began Carla, once the other woman had left.

  ‘Oh please call me Sharon, Detective Inspector,’ interrupted Sharon with a smile.

  ‘Ok Sharon, firstly can you think of anyone who would want your father dead?’

  Sharon burst out laughing, ‘Oh my god it would be easier to think of who wouldn’t want him dead,’ she said. ‘Please don’t think, Carla, may I call you Carla?’ Carla nodded, ‘Please don’t think Carla that I am unaware of how my father made his money, or why he was in prison for most of my youth, he was a monster…’

  Carla and Frank both looked shocked at her words.

  ‘Oh don’t get me wrong he was a good Dad when he was around…lovely actually,’ she paused obviously trying to regain her composure, ‘he really loved me you see. I think I was the only thing he ever loved, and he made sure that I had the best of everything. The best schools, the best pony, the best car when I was old enough. Mum used to pretend that Dad worked in the oil industry that was why he was never around, lots of trips abroad you see. I only found out about the real source of his income after I’d got married and moved out, I confronted him about it and he tried to deny it all, but I could see that it was true. I barely spoke to him after that…so you see there is really not much that I can tell you…oh good…tea, thank you Paula.’

  They were each served their tea by Paula, who never said a word and left the room as silently as she had entered. When they were all settled again Frank said, ‘Did you know if your dad was seeing anybody…romantically I mean?’

  ‘Well he was always ‘seeing someone’ if you know what I mean,’ said Sharon with a wry look. ‘He would always show up with some young thing hanging onto his every word…very good looking man my father, but now that you mention it I think he might have started seeing someone that he was quite taken with. My Mum has never lost contact with my Dad, despite their divorce they remained reasonably good friends, and Dad would phone her up for a chat now and then. She mentioned to me a few weeks back that he had said that he was seeing someone rather special, she sounded different from his usual fare…older for a start.’

  ‘How would he meet his ‘dates’?’ asked Carla.

  ‘Oh the usual way I suppose,’ said Sharon taking a biscuit and offering the plate round. ‘He would meet them at clubs or bars, he is…was…a very social man, always out somewhere.’

  ‘Did he ever use a dating website?’ said Carla through a mouth of biscuit.

  ‘Oh no I wouldn’t have thought so…never needed to, as I said he was a good looking man, he always had a woman on his arm.’ She turned and looked at Carla with tear filled eyes, ‘Please Carla I know you are not giving out details about the murder, but…was it quick, he didn’t suffer did he?’

  Carla nearly choked on her tea, how the hell was she supposed to answer that, Frank stepped into the breach.

  ‘We really can’t tell you anything much Sharon, but what I can tell you is that the cause of death was a single shot between the eyes.’

  Sharon’s shoulders seemed to relax, ‘Oh thank god, I’ve been having such nightmares. I know he was an awful violent man and the way he treated those girls…horrendous, ghastly…but he was my Dad and no matter what…well I loved him…and I couldn’t bear the thought of him suffering,’ she finished in a shaky voice.

  Carla patted her hand sympathetically, ‘I know this must be really hard for you Sharon, and I promise that we will be doing all we can to find whoever did this to your dad. Would you happen to know the names of these clubs he frequented, oh and also we may need to speak to your mother…if you could let us have her address that would be great?’

  ‘Well I could but you won’t find her there,’ said Sharon as they all rose and started walking to the hallway, ‘she always goes to Spain at this time of year, she has a place over there. I can let you have the phone number though.’

  ‘That would be great thanks,’ said Frank opening the front door.

  ‘When will we be able to bury him…my Dad I mean,’ said Sharon as they were leaving.

  ‘Just as soon as the coroner has finished with him,’ said Carla, ‘I’ll let you know Sharon, hopefully it won’t be too long. Thank you for your time, if you think of anythi
ng that could be relevant please let us know.’ As Carla was getting into the car, she suddenly remembered something she had meant to ask.

  ‘Oh Sharon,’ she called, Sharon’s head came back round the door, she raised her eyebrows enquiringly.

  ‘Your father didn’t happen to mention a woman called Vanessa Poole did he?’ asked Carla walking back to the front door.

  ‘God yes!’ said Sharon with a grim smile. ‘He absolutely hated the woman, blamed her for every bad thing that ever happened to him…threatened all sorts if ever he got his hands on her. But she left the country didn’t she? Last I heard she was in hiding abroad somewhere.’

  ‘So he never mentioned that he had any sort of dealings with her more recently then?’

  Sharon shook her head, ‘No, not to me anyway…if he was going to speak to anyone it would have been my Mum, so best ask her…but go gentle mind, she is devastated by my Dad’s death.’

  Carla nodded and waved goodbye as she got back into the car with Frank, he gave her a look.

  ‘What?’ said Carla, ‘there’s no harm in keeping that in the back of our minds; I still haven’t given up on the Vanessa theory even if you have.’