The Darkest Deed: A Gripping Detective Crime Mystery (The DI Hogarth Darkest series Book 3)

by Solomon Carter

  “You’re putting me on the spot here, Hogarth… what are you getting at exactly?”

  “There’s one thing I have in mind…”

  “I’ll have a look, but I doubt I’ll find anything more than I did before, and if I don’t, my verdict will remain the same. Aimee Gillen’s death was an accident.”

  “Then I’ll have to keep my fingers crossed.”

  “But what am I looking for exactly?” said Quentin.

  “Ever heard of Liquid Ecstasy, Ed?” said Hogarth. But he was in a hurry, and didn’t wait for an answer. “Run the test again, and please focus on those traces, will you.”

  “Oh, it’ll be a pleasure,” said Quentin, in a deadpan tone.

  “Great. Speak to you soon,” said Hogarth.

  “No doubt you will.”

  The call ended, and Hogarth looked to Palmer. “You told me you wanted to help. So, are you up for a late shift?” said Hogarth.

  “I think I can handle that.”

  “Good. Because I’m knackered. You can do the driving.” He tossed Palmer his car keys.

  “Where are we going, guv?” she said.

  “Back to the X-L building.”

  “Not to the studio again,” said Palmer.

  “No. Not this time…” said Hogarth.

  Twenty-six

  Hogarth walked into the lobby of the X-L building. But for the first time since the case began, he turned left towards the great glass atrium of the ocean-blue X-L gym. He walked through the polished glass doors, half expecting a loud klaxon alarm to expose his abysmal lack of social status, or chronic lack of fitness. Thankfully, no such alarm went off. They had to let Darryl Regent in, after all. Hogarth felt the mix of serenity and decadence in the air. In another life Hogarth could have gotten used to coming to a place like this, but in this life, he didn’t fit. Hogarth would have been a rusting square peg in a platinum-plated round hole. And the luxury went so far as the two pretty receptionists smiling at him as if they actually meant it. Hogarth did his best to return the smile with a crumpled version of his own, before he gave it up as a dead loss. He walked close to reception and looked around the upper and lower levels. The floors above had glass balcony barriers providing a good view of reception and the floors below them. Swishy dance music was being pumped through hidden speakers at just the right volume. Not too annoying, not too quiet. Creeper plants and tall palms nestled beside faux white Roman pillars dotted around the place. Hogarth was impressed. The white-washed pillars lacked taste, but in every other respect the X-L gym was simply top of the line. It oozed wealth and glamour.

  “Good evening,” said one of the receptionists. “How can we help?” She was a young faced blonde with a fringe that hung low over her eyes. The second girl, dark skinned with curly hair, looked at them curiously from the other side of the reception desk.

  “Yes, good evening. I’m Detective Inspector Joseph Hogarth, and this is Detective Sergeant Palmer. We’re from Southend CID. We’re investigating an incident in the neighbouring film studio, and as part of the investigation, we’re going to need a look at some of your files.”

  “Our files? In the gym?” said the receptionist.

  “Yes,” said Hogarth. “There’s an overlap. One of your ex-staff now works in the studio…”

  Hogarth looked at the young women hopefully. They looked young, so perhaps they would be malleable enough to give him what he needed without questions. The girls looked as young as Chrissie Heaton. To help with persuasion, Hogarth showed them his badge and police ID card. The receptionists still seemed uncertain.

  “Files?”

  Hogarth shook his head. “Yes. Staff files are the ones we need.”

  “I think you’d best call Jody,” said the girl with curly hair.

  “Jody?” said Hogarth. At least Regent wasn’t still around, he thought.

  “Yeah. Jody is one of the duty managers. We’d have to ask her about this.”

  “Of course you do,” said Hogarth, with a grumbling tone.

  The girl with the fringe put the call in to her manager, but while they waited, Hogarth didn’t waste any time. He tried to talk to the other one. Divide and conquer, and all that.

  Hogarth’s eyes dropped to the girl’s name badge. “So… Lizzie…? How long have you worked here?”

  “Here?” The girl looked at them both and plucked the hair from her eyes.

  “Working at the X-L gym,” said Hogarth.

  “For a while,” she said.

  “And how do you find it?”

  Hogarth smiled at her, but the girl seemed hesitant. Her smile flickered from the strain.

  “It’s good here. I like it…”

  Her reply was a little too robotic for Hogarth’s taste. The corporate rules about no-contact seemed as rigid at the gym as they were next door.

  “And how old are you?”

  The girl blinked and smiled. “I think we’d better wait for Jody,” she said.

  “Okay. I see. Don’t like talking about yourself, eh?” said Hogarth. “Then maybe you can help me with something else. Did you know a girl called Chrissie Heaton? Do you remember Chrissie? She used to work here.”

  The girl shook her head slowly, but Hogarth wasn’t convinced.

  “Jody’s on her way,” said the blonde as she hung up the phone.

  “Then what about you, eh… Kylie?” said Hogarth, repeating the name badge trick. “Do you remember when Chrissie Heaton worked here?”

  The blonde smiled, but her eyes looked troubled. “We should really wait for Jody.”

  “Yes. Let’s all wait for Jody then,” said Hogarth, grimacing. “I can’t wait.”

  It didn’t take long for Jody to appear. A woman wearing the corporate turquoise fleece and navy leggings appeared at the top of an escalator on the upper floor. The woman had long, straight pale brown hair, and looked pretty in an unmade-up kind of way. But Hogarth saw the wary look about her. Unlike the receptionists, she didn’t bother to smile. Jody reached the ground floor and walked towards them.

  “Jody Castleton,” she said. “I’m the duty manager here. And I hear you’re from the police.”

  “Yes,” Hogarth handed across his ID. “From Southend CID.” The woman looked at it briefly then handed it back. Hogarth had the woman down as in her early thirties.

  “I see,” she said. “So… what can we do for you?” she said. At last, a prim smile made a brief appearance on her face.

  “Have you heard about the investigation next door?”

  “We’ve heard a little.”

  “Then you’ll know it’s a serious matter. A woman died in there and the cause of death is still a matter of doubt.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” said Jody Castleton.

  “We’ve been looking at the background of a number of people next door, and it seems that one of them, a Miss Chrissie Heaton, used to work here too.”

  “Chrissie…?” said the woman. She looked at them, and her gaze lasted a fraction too long.

  “That’s right,” said Hogarth. “You knew her then?”

  “Yes. Chrissie was a very good member of the team. We were very sorry to see her go. But I guess there’s always a time to move on.”

  “Hmmm. And why did she leave…?”

  “That’s an HR matter, I’m afraid.”

  “An HR matter. Of course it is. And do you have an HR department that I could contact?” said Hogarth

  Jody Castleton stiffened and hesitated.

  “No. We have an administration department and they deal with the HR issues.”

  “So it’s not an HR matter. It’s an admin matter. Then I think we’ll need to talk to them.”

  Jody Castleton frowned, before adjusting her face with a smile.

  “I’m a member of the admin team. As a manager, of course. I might be able to help you.”

  Hogarth looked her in the eye. “But you said I was asking an HR question? I thought you couldn’t help.”

  “That’s because
HR matters are confidential. I can’t just discuss employee information like that.”

  Hogarth wondered if the woman was the bureaucratic type, or whether there was another reason for her evasiveness.

  “How many people work here, Miss Castleton? You can answer that, I take it.?”

  “Thirty-two,” said the woman.,

  “Thirty-two employees and you still have your own HR in house?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Curious,” said Hogarth, looking at Palmer.

  “Not really. Human Resources agencies cost a great deal of money and they don’t have the on-the-ground insight that we have. I think it was a good business decision.”

  “It’ll certainly be beneficial for us,” said Hogarth. “You should have exactly the files we need to look at.”

  The woman was beginning to look strained. “And what is it that you’re after?”

  “Chrissie Heaton’s employee file. We’re looking at her background.”

  “I’m still not sure if I can provide you with that information. I’ll need to check first.”

  “But you’re a manager, aren’t you, Miss Castleton? Don’t you have say over who can see it?”

  “Please,” said Castleton, as she stepped away. “Just allow me to check, will you?”

  “Check with who?”

  “With Darryl Regent – the owner.”

  Hogarth watched as the woman turned away. He smiled at the girls behind reception and muttered to Palmer under his breath. “Darryl Regent? If she checks with humpty we’ll be bloody lucky to get anything at all.”

  While Castleton made the call, Hogarth tried again with the receptionists.

  “And how long have you been here? You two?”

  But the girls weren’t biting. They looked at one another before giving Hogarth an awkward smile. Hogarth looked at Palmer and shook his head. The rules really were ingrained.

  Castleton returned to Hogarth with the phone handset still raised in her hand.

  “Mr Regent wants to know why you would need to see Chrissie Heaton’s employee file?” she said.

  “Because her background is of interest to us. She works next door and she worked here. It’s a procedural matter, that’s all. Chrissie Heaton knew the deceased.”

  Castleton put the phone to her ear and relayed Hogarth’s reply to Regent.

  “Okay,” she said. “Mr Regent asks if you have a warrant…” she said. Hogarth raised an eyebrow at Palmer.

  “No, we don’t. But you can tell Mr Regent that helping us with this request would go well in his favour. If we can access this file tonight, that would be the end of it. Or I could obtain a warrant, come back in during peak hours tomorrow and cause him some friction. And I do know how much Mr Regent hates friction. It’s bad for business, and all.”

  Hogarth felt Palmer at his side. He was lying about the warrant and he knew she knew it. There was little or no chance of a warrant just on his whim, especially on his present form.

  Castleton relayed the information to Regent, and he was slow to reply. Hogarth and Palmer couldn’t hear a word of what was said, but they watched Castleton nod and make affirmative noises for the best part of a minute before the call was done.

  “Of course, Mr Regent,” said Castleton, before she hung up.

  “What was all that about?” said Hogarth.

  “Mr Regent says you can see the file. But he also said he’ll be speaking with your superior first thing in the morning.”

  “Of course he will,” said Hogarth.

  “Come with me please,” said Castleton

  The woman led them up the escalator, giving them a bird’s eye view of the interior landscape as they slowly rose to the top floor. The three floors below were busy, and yet still quiet. Banks of silver and grey running machines, elliptical trainers and bikes were mostly empty. The weights room had a sprinkling of well-dressed meat-heads working-out hard behind glass walls. Hogarth counted the visible members of staff as they climbed. From what he saw, beside one guy in a turquoise top, the other six staff on site were all young women.

  “You recruit a lot of young women in here. Is that a company policy, Miss Castleton?”

  “Mr Regent believes in giving youth a chance,” said the woman. “Everyone who comes through here gets an accreditation in fitness training and can become personal trainers if they want to There’s a lot of options for career progression.”

  “Or they can go and work next door in an X-rated film studio, like Chrissie Heaton.”

  “Excuse me,” said Castleton “One girl’s choice doesn’t represent everyone else. Chrissie’s move was her choice.”

  “And she’s been the only one to make that move? Across the building to Harry King?”

  “I can’t comment on that. That’s HR business.”

  “But you said you manage all HR business.”

  “And like I said, it’s confidential – under the data protection act. If you have any more questions on the matter, I think you’ll need to address them to Mr Regent himself.”

  “If that’s necessary.”

  “I think so, don’t you?” she said.

  Jody Castleton smiled but kept quiet. She led them to a wide white-walled office on the top floor. The office contained four black desks, and all were neat and empty apart from one. It seemed Jody Castleton was the only member of admin staff working the shift. “Please take a seat, will you? I’ll be back in just a moment.”

  Hogarth and Palmer took a seat at the edge of the office and watched as Jody walked to the cabinets behind the desks.

  “I’ve just got a couple of things to do, then I’ll fetch you Chrissie Heaton’s file.”

  Hogarth nodded but kept his eyes on the woman’s movements. Castleton didn’t like answering questions, and he saw a hint of blush in her cheeks. Hogarth followed her hands with his eyes. He watched the woman unlock the drawer in a tall filing steel cabinet with a key, gathering a clutch of files into her arms, then she walked out of the office into the dark room beyond. She switched on the light. They could hear her fussing with the paperwork.

  “What’s all this about?” whispered Hogarth, under his breath.

  “They’re certainly making life difficult,” said Palmer. “Regent doesn’t seem to like you very much.”

  “These days who does, eh, Palmer?”

  Jody Castleton was gone for a long, full minute. When she returned, she wore a stiff smile. She came bearing one slim brown file. She handed it into Hogarth’s hands. He opened the file and saw a few flimsy stapled sheets. Looking at the centre crease of the card folder, it was obvious that it had recently carried a lot more paperwork than it did at present. Hogarth put on a tight smile.

  “Thank you very much. And this is everything… is it?”

  “Oh yes. It’s everything I can give you.”

  “Brilliant,” said Hogarth, noting the woman’s precise choice of words. He made a gesture of starting to scan the first sheet – a typed application form bearing Chrissie’s name. He read the sheet and handed it to Palmer.

  “This is what you asked for, isn’t it?” said the woman.

  “Oh yes,” said Hogarth.

  “Then I’m glad we could be of help then. When you’ve finished with the file, please leave it on my desk over there.”

  Hogarth nodded. “We will, thanks, Miss Castleton.”

  The woman nodded. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to be getting on with some other things downstairs.” The woman looked relieved to be getting away.

  “No problem. We’ll leave everything as we find it.”

  Jody Castleton walked out of the office.

  “What do you make of this” said Hogarth. He shook the empty file at Palmer.

  “It’s empty. There’s barely any details here apart from her old job description and her competency list. There’s a couple of work appraisals too, but that’s it. It’s useless.”

  Hogarth stood up and started walking.

  “Darryl Regent’s play
ing games with us. And to think, I once used to like the man.”

  “You said he’d gotten up to a few things in the past, guv?”

  “He was a tax dodger. But he got those scamming MPs worried too.”

  “You alluded that he’d done some other things.”

  “Rumours and whispers, Palmer. But I can’t remember the details, so it can’t have stuck. People always have something bad to say about the rich and famous.”

  “Could be worth checking though, guv? If he’s leaning on the commissioner, it could be handy to know something on him…

  Hogarth found a card divider behind the papers in the folder. He picked it up to see what lay behind it. But there was nothing. The other papers had been removed. “What?” said Hogarth, talking to himself.

  “Darryl Regent,” said Palmer. “It’d be handy seeing what else he got up to,” said Palmer. Then Palmer saw Hogarth wasn’t listening. “Guv?”

  “I bloody thought so! This file has been emptied,” said Hogarth. “Regent told that woman not to give us a damn thing.”

  Hogarth walked towards the back wall of the office.

  “Where are you going?” said Palmer.

  “Our Miss Castleton walked behind these desks, and she opened this drawer here,” said Hogarth. He tried to pull the top drawer of the filing cabinet open but found it locked. “She pulled out a bunch of brown files just like that one and took them through into that room back there. She was out there for a while, then when she came back in, she handed us that flimsy thing.”

  Palmer looked at Hogarth. “What are you saying?”

  “Come on, Palmer. You know exactly what I’m saying. They’ve emptied Heaton’s file. And they’re hiding others, too. You wait here. If you hear someone coming let me know.”

  She watched Hogarth walk through into the dark back office room where Jody Castleton had taken the files. Palmer heard the flick of a switch and saw the light buzz on. “Guv….” said Palmer as he disappeared, but Hogarth was in no mood for a warning.

  “It’ll be alright, Palmer. This must be done…” said Hogarth.

  But Hogarth’s words didn’t give her any comfort. The DI was going off the reservation in a big way and if he was caught, he was finished. Darryl Regent would ensure it.