Close Your Eyes

by Rachel Abbott

  Tom was beginning to get a glimmer of where this was going.

  ‘You’re saying that if she messaged Genevieve from outside the house it had to have been transmitted via WiFi?’

  ‘Correct. The thing is, the only WiFi signal in the alley is from the Strachan house, if we discount the elderly neighbours who don’t even know their own password because their grandson set it up.’

  Tom said nothing, but he felt a tingle at the back of his neck. Martha had just said she’d never visited Niall’s home, so how would she know his password?

  ‘Bearing this in mind, sir, I took Ms Porter’s phone to the passageway myself. The Strachans’ WiFi showed up, as I expected, but I was denied access. Ms Porter’s phone doesn’t have their password stored. The iMessage could not have been sent via WiFi from that mobile phone.’

  ‘So how the hell was it sent, Keith? We know the message came from Martha’s number.’

  ‘We do, but the number is controlled by the SIM. WiFi passwords on this model are stored on the mobile itself – the actual handset. The only conclusion is that the message was sent using Martha’s SIM, but it wasn’t in Martha’s mobile phone at the time.’

  Tom’s head was buzzing. Someone must have taken her SIM and put it in their own phone. Someone who wasn’t Martha Porter. Not only that, whoever that person was, they must already have had the password to the Strachans’ WiFi on their phone.

  ‘Martha Porter has told us categorically that she had her mobile with her all night, Keith, and she switched it on in the morning. The SIM must have been in the phone then, and later when Spencer Johansson switched it on again.’

  ‘My thinking exactly, sir, but according to our digital team, a company like XO-Tech would certainly have the know-how to clone a SIM.’

  ‘Christ – it’s a tech company! It sounds bloody complicated to me, but it would be a piece of cake for them. Okay – let’s see if I’ve got this: either Martha is lying through her teeth – she has been to the Strachan house at some point and logged onto the Internet while there – that should be easy to check; or Martha left her phone in her desk overnight, although she said she didn’t, and someone whipped the SIM.’ Tom paused, because the last option was the big one, and probably the one most difficult to prove. ‘Or this murder was meticulously planned, and her SIM was taken some time prior to the event, cloned, and the original SIM replaced in her phone. Do you agree with those options, Keith?’

  ‘I do, sir. Except if it’s the first option, she must have deleted the password after she killed Genevieve, because it’s definitely not stored on her device. What do you need me to do?’

  ‘Get on to Niall Strachan and ask him how many members of his staff have visited his home, and how many of them would have been given his WiFi password. We know Elise Chapman has been there, but we don’t know who else. Get back to me as soon as you’ve spoken to him. If we’re right, whoever did this was very keen to frame Martha Porter for this murder.’

  As the call ended, the door to the interview room opened and Jenny and Rob came out.

  ‘Thought she needed a break, sir,’ Jenny said. ‘This fella –’ she lifted two fingers of both hands as if pointing twin guns at Rob ‘– is tireless. He could go on all day, but I need a cup of tea, and so does Martha.’

  Rob rubbed his hands together. ‘She’s a tricky customer. She won’t crack easily, but I’m waiting to show her the knife. That should be interesting.’

  ‘I’d like you to go back in and ask her a couple more questions, if you could. We need to know if she’s certain she had her phone with her on the night of the murder, and also if the phone has been out of her possession for any period of time.’

  Rob frowned. ‘What’s the thinking?’

  Tom quickly ran through the conversation with Keith, and Rob’s eyes opened wide. ‘That’s a fascinating twist! And it tells us for sure that our killer has to be someone known to the Strachans – close enough to have been given their WiFi password. Your tea will have to wait, Jenny.’ With that, he spun on his heel and headed back for the door.

  Becky could sense a new intensity in Tom as he walked back into the room. Something must have happened.

  ‘Why are Rob and Jenny going back in so soon? What’s going on?’

  Tom explained what Keith had told him.

  ‘Whoa – that’s interesting. So someone else could have had Martha’s SIM – or a clone – in their phone? God, that’s clever.’

  ‘Yes, but not clever enough. Our killer should have realised that their phone would default to a WiFi network if the password was on it. Having said that, I’m not sure I would have considered that if I’d been about to kill someone.’

  Becky laughed. ‘The idea of you killing someone is slightly beyond the scope of my imagination, so I wouldn’t start worrying about how you might get caught just yet.’

  Tom smiled vaguely, but Becky could see his mind was firmly on the case. Her eyes returned to the monitor. The two detectives had retaken their seats in the interview room.

  ‘Sorry about the cup of tea,’ Rob said. ‘We’ll sort that in a moment, but we have a couple more questions. Earlier, you told us you had never been to Niall and Genevieve Strachan’s home. Are you sure that’s the case? They never had a staff party at their house, for example? Summer barbecue, that sort of thing?’

  ‘If they had, I wouldn’t have gone. Sergeant, if you’ve been to the office and met my colleagues, you’ll know that I’m no one’s favourite person. I don’t consider them my friends. They’re people I work with, and the less they know about me, the better.’

  ‘You don’t like people to know who you really are. Is that it? Is that why you changed your name and lied about where you live?’

  Rob was going off script, but on the other hand it was the perfect time to ask the question.

  ‘I didn’t want people from my old life to find me. I’ve become adept at hiding everything about myself, and it made it much easier if I didn’t get too close to anyone.’

  Becky thought what a sad statement that was. To have no friends, to keep your distance because of something in your past.

  ‘Why would anyone be looking for you, Ms Porter? What is so terrifying that you needed to change your name and hide yourself away from everyone? Your father says he hasn’t seen you in nearly six years, and he’s never met his grandson before today. And yet you turned up here, asked him to take care of Alfie and then handed yourself in to the police. You have to accept this is difficult for us to understand.’

  For the first time Martha looked worried. ‘Don’t bring my son into this. Please.’

  Rob said nothing for a moment. ‘We’ll leave that for now and come back to it. In the meantime, you told us earlier that your mobile was with you for the whole of Monday night. Did you switch it on at all?’

  ‘As I told you before, only when I left the office, then immediately off again, and back on when I arrived on Tuesday morning.’

  ‘And your phone worked as normal?’

  ‘Yes, of course. I don’t know what you’re getting at, Sergeant.’

  ‘Has anyone else had access to your phone at any time in the last few weeks?’

  Martha’s eyes narrowed, and Becky leaned closer to the monitor. She could see that Martha was trying to work something out.

  ‘My phone had to be updated, so I was asked to hand it over for a day.’

  ‘Surely updates are done via WiFi?’

  ‘Usually, but the app isn’t live yet. It’s a prototype, so I guess it’s easier to upload revised versions manually. Not that I ever use it. I find it unnerving.’

  ‘And who asked for your phone?’

  ‘Elise. She said she had to take it to the tech team.’

  Becky sat back in her chair and looked at Tom. They both knew that Elise had been to Niall’s home. Had she used the WiFi when she was there?

  ‘Do you really think someone cloned the SIM in Martha’s phone, Tom? It sounds a bit far-fetched to me.’

&n
bsp; ‘More to the point, Becky, if someone did, and it wasn’t Martha who killed Genevieve, then someone went to great lengths to set her up. Who would do that? And why?’

  70

  Tom, Becky, Rob and Jenny crowded round the computer in the borrowed office. Keith was sitting far too close to the screen back in Manchester, and his face looked wider in the middle and narrower at the top and bottom. It was disconcerting, but Tom didn’t have the heart to ask him to sit back a bit.

  ‘I want to go through the evidence against Martha Porter with everyone. Let’s see what we’ve got,’ Tom said. ‘Start with motive. Our assumption was that Martha had formed a romantic, sexual or obsessive attachment to Niall Strachan, and she needed to get Genevieve out of the way so her path was clear. I’ve always thought it was a weak motive, but it’s not unheard of. It’s not that long ago that a woman was stabbed to death by her love rival – and not a million miles from Manchester either.’

  ‘Hang on a minute, boss,’ Rob said. ‘If I remember rightly, the evidence that solved the case was the ability to place the killer’s mobile phone at the scene. It was big news. If someone set Martha up, maybe that’s where they got the idea from.’

  Tom nodded. ‘Good point, but let’s decide if we’re ruling Martha in or out first. Could there be any other motive?’

  ‘I think we should have the company’s finances fully audited,’ Keith said. ‘Maybe she was stealing from XO-Tech.’

  ‘But why kill Genevieve? Did she have access to any of the financial information that could have implicated Martha in theft or fraud? I doubt it, but it might provide a real motive. Going back to the love angle, do we believe Martha offered herself to Niall and became obsessed with him?’

  ‘I don’t,’ Becky said. ‘She’s so self-contained. We could get a forensic linguist to look at the messages to see if she wrote them.’

  ‘Excellent idea. Next, let’s consider opportunity. Rob, your thoughts?’

  ‘Chiropodist’s bike, maybe? She’d have had to leave Alfie unattended, but he’s not much of an alibi. Sadly, people do it all the time.’

  ‘Keith, what did Niall Strachan say about people who might have access to his WiFi password?’

  ‘He wanted to know why it mattered. I didn’t tell him, but he’s not stupid. I sensed unease, and I wish I’d been talking to him face to face instead of on the phone. He sent me a list of people who have been to the house. I can go through it now, if you like, but we’re looking into each of them back here.’

  ‘No need. Is Elise Chapman on the list?’

  ‘She is. But then so is everyone else we’ve talked to. Spencer Johansson goes round for marketing meetings, and Bao, the techie, regularly goes out to update Niall’s home system.’

  ‘It doesn’t narrow it down much,’ Tom said, his shoulders drooping. He glanced around at the members of his team and then back at the screen, where Keith was even closer to the camera. ‘I’ll talk to Detective Superintendent Stanley, but personally I think the CPS would throw out the case against Martha based on the evidence we have. For everything we can prove, there’s an answer. I’m not ready to release her yet, but we can’t charge her. We’ve got twenty hours left before we have to apply for an extension. Let’s use that time to see what else we can discover. Everyone agreed?’

  One by one the members of his team nodded slowly, disheartened that the case they believed they had closed with Martha’s arrest was now wide open again.

  Tom could feel their despondency; he needed to get this case back on track. ‘On a positive note, based on what Kirsten Carlson said, it seems Genevieve was planning to leave Niall on the grounds of boredom. She wanted to fleece him, and that gives Niall the perfect motive. Sadly we haven’t found a single piece of evidence that puts him in the frame.’

  Around him, the team began to theorise. Tom shut their voices out then stood up. ‘Rob, you’re with me.’

  Becky glanced at him with a question in her eyes.

  ‘We’re going back in to talk to Martha, and I want you listening and watching, Becky. If we’re prepared to accept that maybe she isn’t the killer – for now, at least – we also have to accept that whoever killed Genevieve wanted Martha to take the fall for it. The case against her was carefully constructed and only falls apart because of a WiFi password. If we accept that Martha didn’t offer herself to Niall – and I know you have a strong tendency to believe her – then someone wanted to make it seem she did, through the emails. Those emails demonstrated motive, and that took time to build. I think Rob’s right: they got the idea from the recent murder case in Lancashire. The mobile phone had to be the evidence.’

  ‘If Martha didn’t try to seduce Niall, why was he keeping his distance?’ Rob asked.

  ‘That was for show,’ Becky said. ‘I bet Niall tried it on, she rejected him and was seen running from the room. He couldn’t let the world know someone had turned him down, so he played the part of a man scared of being grabbed by the balls in his own office.’

  ‘Nicely put, Becky!’ Tom said. ‘And I agree he wouldn’t want to be seen as the one who was rejected. So, if anyone knows why Martha would have been set up, I think we know where to get the answer. Martha herself.’

  71

  MARTHA

  Their questioning has unnerved me. How do they have so much evidence that seems to point to me? I think back to the party and that awful moment with Niall in the kitchen.

  He’d stood behind me, talking about what a great boss he was and how he thought I should be kind to him, given everything he did for me.

  Everything he did for me? I worked for him, kept his financial secrets – and any others as and when appropriate. All I asked in return was to be paid a fair salary and to be left to get on with my job. I was good at it.

  Why did he choose me to try to seduce? I’m certain that half the women in the office would have considered it an honour. I was the exception, and I can only think that must have been his motivation. Perhaps I was a challenge.

  Unfortunately I was slicing lemons for gin and tonics when it happened, holding the knife that we keep for the purpose. Niall came up behind me, put his hands on my hips and nuzzled my neck as if we were already lovers. When he whispered his suggestion, a smile in his voice as if I was unlikely to refuse, I spun round with the knife in my hand. I had no intention of using it, but he looked at it in horror.

  ‘Jesus, Martha, I thought you’d be flattered!’

  Why? Why would I have been flattered? I dropped the knife and ran from the room, passing Spencer on the way. I can see how Niall was able to spin it to suggest I was the guilty one, but at the time I didn’t care. He wouldn’t sack me – I was too good at my job – but he had to make me look stupid in front of everyone else, which was fine by me.

  Then there was the argument with Genevieve. It was clear she had no idea how much XO-Tech might be worth, and she was the sort of woman who’d want facts and figures before showing her hand. She was a schemer, and there was little point filing for a divorce if Niall’s shareholding in the company was worthless. Timing was everything. It irked her that I wouldn’t give her the information she needed and told her to ask her husband, and she hated me for knowing she couldn’t. She’d turned nasty, saying she’d tell Niall to sack me.

  I don’t believe Niall had ever concerned himself with how much I knew until then. I’m fully aware of where he hides the money he’s been siphoning out of the business, and I know how he does it. He’s a clever man. If Genevieve was planning to fleece him – which was the only interpretation that made sense to me – then there was only one person who knew where the bodies were buried.

  Me.

  The tall, good-looking chief inspector and his energetic young colleague have come back into the room with yet more questions. I just want this over, because all I want to think about is Alfie – where he is, what he’s doing. I wanted to speak to Dad when I was arrested, but I only had the number for the B & B, and the woman who answered told me he’d gone ou
t. I hope that means they have just gone to the beach.

  ‘Ms Porter,’ the chief inspector says, dragging my mind back into the room. ‘Detective Sergeant Cumba and his colleague have been interviewing you about the murder of Genevieve Strachan, and there is considerable evidence against you. I’d like to put it to you that if you’re telling the truth, someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to set you up. Why would they do that?’

  I stare at him, unable to answer. My thoughts go first to Aram, as they always do. If he already knew about Alfie, what better way would there be to get me out of the way? But he couldn’t have done this. The questions have all been about emails I’m supposed to have sent to Niall and my argument with Genevieve. Aram couldn’t have set that up.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I tell him finally. ‘I can’t think of any motive. It can’t be jealousy. Everyone believes Niall rejected me. Maybe I was an easy person to set up because I have no social life, friends, partner – anyone to provide me with an alibi.’

  ‘You went to significant lengths to eradicate any trace that you’d ever been at XO-Tech, including wiping details of your mobile from the system. Why would you do that?’

  I shrug. ‘Habit. I remove all traces of myself from anywhere I’ve ever been.’

  The chief inspector leans forward. He doesn’t seem aggressive; he seems genuinely interested.

  ‘Why?’ he asks.

  ‘Do you know anything about Aram Forakis?’ I ask.

  I think I see a hint of compassion in his eyes as he answers. ‘We do.’

  ‘Since I escaped from Lakeside, Aram Forakis has been looking for me. If he’d found me, he would have forced me to return, and he’d have done everything in his power to take my son away from me.’

  ‘He’s the father?’

  ‘He is, but please don’t preach to me about a father’s rights. Alfie is not being brought up by that man. I won’t see him forced, as I was, to stand in front of everyone he knows and listen as his faults are exposed, as he’s told that he’s a burden on the community, that he is nothing but a hindrance to the happiness of his parents – who are no longer to be called Mum and Dad…’ I hear my voice rise. ‘You don’t know the half of it. And now he knows Alfie is close by. And I’m stuck here, unable to keep him safe.’