Gone to Ground

by Rachel Amphlett

  Carys slowed as they approached the doors and frowned as she read the signs on the side of the building, each pointing in a different direction. ‘Which way is the archery course, anyway?’

  ‘It’s round the back, over to the left. Come on, it’ll be quicker to go around the outside than fight our way through this lot.’

  She fell into step beside him, and Gavin held back a tendril of unruly wisteria as they moved along a narrow pathway beside the hotel.

  ‘Thanks. Have you heard anything about the new DS?’

  ‘No, you?’

  ‘Nothing. Not since Kay and Sharp interviewed those candidates last week. I got the impression it didn’t go too well.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Two were from other areas, and one had a crush on Kay.’

  Gavin laughed. ‘Bet that went down well.’

  ‘Yeah. It’ll be weird with someone else coming on board, though won’t it?’

  ‘After all we’ve been through, you mean? Yeah, it will.’ He paused as they reached the edge of a large turfed area at the end of the path and turned to face her. ‘You weren’t tempted to apply?’

  Carys’s brow creased. ‘I was, but I had a long hard think about it, and I don’t reckon I’ve got enough experience under my belt yet. If I apply for something like that, I want to know I’m in with a good chance, do you know what I mean?’

  He nodded. ‘Makes sense. Full credit to you for making that decision. I know how much you want to make this job a long-term career. I don’t know if I’d want the extra responsibility to be honest.’

  ‘Ah, see what you think when you’ve been a DC for another couple of years. You might change your mind.’

  ‘Maybe.’ He squinted in the bright sunlight, then pointed across to where a low barn-like structure rose above the turf at the far end. ‘That must be the archery centre.’

  Carys glanced to each side of where they stood. ‘Think it’s safe to walk across?’

  ‘There are no targets out. Tell you what, you go in front and if I see any arrows flying, I’ll tell you to duck.’

  ‘Very funny.’

  As they drew closer, Gavin spotted a figure moving within the gloom of the building’s main door, his face in shadow while he worked.

  The man straightened when they approached, his dark eyes taking in the two detectives before he pushed a mop of corn-coloured hair from his eyes and nodded.

  ‘You’ll be the police, then?’

  Gavin made the introductions. ‘I can see you’re busy, Mr Craig, so we won’t take up too much of your time. Just some routine questions about one of the guests that was staying here a week ago.’

  Craig shifted his weight, then turned and hung the bows he’d been holding on a rack to the right of the door. ‘No problem. What did you want to know?’

  Carys held out a photograph of Clive Wallis. ‘Do you recognise him?’

  Craig peered at the picture but didn’t take it from her. ‘Yeah, I do. Him and a bunch of others spent an hour here during the middle of the week. Wednesday, from memory although I’d have to check the bookings. Some sort of team building thing going on.’ He took a step back and frowned. ‘What’s he done?’

  ‘He’s dead,’ said Gavin.

  ‘Bloody hell. I mean, sorry. When?’

  ‘That’s what we’re trying to ascertain,’ said Carys. ‘Did you spend much time with him?’

  Craig rubbed his chin with a grubby hand. ‘Only as much as the others. A couple of them had tried archery before, so I could spend more time with the rest of the group getting them up to speed. Probably only spoke to him individually a couple of times.’

  ‘What did you think of him? Did he seem concerned by anything?’ said Gavin.

  ‘No – not really.’ He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. ‘We keep a refrigerator here for drinks and the like. Licensed, of course being on the hotel premises. Your chap didn’t seem that interested in the activities. Seemed content to drink beer and chat with his colleagues. Mind you, it’s a shame – he looked like he could do with a bit of exercise. Big bloke. Didn’t look too healthy, although the women in the group seemed to like him enough.’

  ‘Oh?’

  He smiled. ‘I think he fancied himself as a bit of a ladies’ man. Certainly had them enthralled. It was all I could do to get them to shoot some arrows.’

  ‘Any problems with anyone else in the group?’

  ‘None that I recall. Quite an easy bunch to work with to be honest. Wish they were all like that.’

  Gavin turned and took in the grounds to either side of the shed. ‘This all looks new. How long have you been here?’

  ‘About two weeks. We used to have our shed over there – further into the woodland. There’s a glade through there, really nice.’ He shrugged. ‘Anyway, the hotel’s doing so well, they’ve decided to expand it – you see all that construction work? They’re clearing the ground between the far end of the existing building up to where the woodland finishes here, and then they’ll extend it. I heard they were putting in a heated pool and spa, as well as a wedding venue.’

  ‘How long have you worked here, Mr Craig?’

  ‘About two and a half years. They’d just opened when I got the interview and were keen to offer different activities for guests, and I’d done this before over near Gloucestershire. As soon as they had the outbuildings and everything ready to go, I started.’

  ‘All right,’ said Gavin. ‘I think that’s everything for now. Thanks for your time.’

  The archery teacher raised his hand in farewell and returned to his work, and Gavin led the way back towards the hotel.

  ‘Hungry yet?’ said Carys.

  ‘Starving. But, let’s have a look at that construction site first.’

  Twenty-Six

  Kay rose from her seat, stretched her arms above her head and stifled a yawn before calling over her shoulder to Debbie.

  ‘Will you be okay here for a bit? I’m going to grab something to eat and get some fresh air.’

  ‘No problem.’

  ‘I’ll make sure the caterers bring in something to keep you going – the way some of those constables were eyeing up the spread out there, you’d think they hadn’t eaten for a month.’

  ‘I wondered that myself. Just don’t put any of that cake on my plate, okay? I’m trying to be good – I’ve only got a month until my holiday.’

  Kay pushed open the door into the corridor and assessed the spread of food that had been arranged on a second table next to the soft drinks and hot water urns.

  She’d agreed with Sharp that they’d spend some of their allocated budget on catering for the investigative team at the hotel rather than send them away to get their own food.

  It helped to keep the focus on getting through the interviews over the course of the day, and the team would be less inclined to take a longer break than necessary.

  She saw one of the hotel staff approaching and, after ensuring Debbie would be well looked after, she grabbed a plate for herself and piled it with a selection of sandwiches and pieces of fruit.

  ‘Budge up, some of us are starving.’

  She glanced over her shoulder at the sound of Barnes’s voice, and smiled. ‘How has your morning been going?’

  ‘Not bad.’ He lowered his voice as he reached out for one of the cake slices. ‘Want to sit outside? Less chance of being overheard.’

  He jerked his head towards the staff member who was still hovering, and she nodded.

  ‘Lead the way.’

  At the end of the corridor, Barnes pushed open a fire exit door to his right and held it open for her.

  She stepped into a shaded courtyard garden at the back of the hotel that gave them an uninterrupted view of the golf course.

  Shrubs and ferns filled the flower borders against the plain brickwork of the building, and newly-planted saplings swayed in the breeze and provided a little shade over a group of tables and chairs that clustered together in one corner.

  ‘Perfe
ct.’

  ‘Yeah – I thought so, too. Spotted it while we were talking to one of the groundsmen.’

  He pulled out a metal chair for her next to a round table, and they began to devour their food.

  ‘God, this is great,’ said Kay. ‘I hate to think how much they’re going to charge Sharp for this.’

  ‘Best we make the most of it then. Could be the last time he does it.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘What do you make of this case then, guv?’ he said, wiping his fingers with a paper napkin.

  She sighed. ‘Sharp keeps reminding me that it’s early days and that I shouldn’t get frustrated, but I can’t help feeling it’s going to be a long slog. The press are going to have an absolute field day if we don’t solve this one quickly, Ian.’

  ‘Don’t panic yet – we’ve only recently found out who our first victim is. Once Harriet and Lucas can identify the second victim, we’ll be in a better position to see if there’s a link between the two.’

  Kay dabbed her lips then scrunched up her napkin onto her plate and sighed. ‘What a horrible way to go. And Clive Wallis – he had no-one who cared about him. It all seems rather sad, doesn’t it?’

  Barnes landed a gentle punch on her arm. ‘That’s why he’s got us. We’ll fight his corner for him, right?’

  She managed a smile, squinting in the bright sunshine. ‘Right.’

  Barnes followed her line of sight and shielded his eyes. ‘Blimey, those two are keen. Have they had a break yet?’

  Kay watched as Carys and Gavin walked around the corner at the opposite end of the hotel and headed towards a pile of rubble at the back of the building where three workmen were using shovels and pickaxes to break up an old pathway that led to a wooded area.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘They must’ve got back from the stables ages ago.’

  ‘Orienteering after that, and then archery wasn’t it?’

  ‘Yeah. How did you get on this morning?’

  ‘The chap who runs the golf centre was a bit useless, but I fared better with one of the groundsmen – Peter Radcliffe. He definitely recalls seeing Wallis on the Wednesday afternoon. Apparently, they only played nine holes because it was so hot and they arrived too late to do the full course. He says Wallis played fairly well, seemed to get on all right with his colleagues, and that he even remembered to thank him for the hire of the clubs afterwards.’ Barnes grinned. ‘Apparently, not all the guests are as polite.’

  ‘Did he mention whether he saw Wallis in the evening?’

  ‘No – I asked him, but he only works until six o’clock. He was running late clearing up after the last of the delegates had left the course, and he went straight home afterwards.’

  Kay reached over for the glass of orange juice she’d brought outside with her and took a sip. ‘I’m beginning to think we’re clutching at straws.’

  ‘Yeah, but you know what it’s like. We might hear something that will help.’ Barnes spread his hands expansively. ‘I mean, look at this place. If Wallis didn’t go to his room, he could’ve been anywhere.’

  Kay shrugged, conceding the point.

  ‘Okay, but where did he go?’

  Twenty-Seven

  Trudy Evans shuffled in the seat opposite Kay and twitched the hem of her skirt.

  ‘I’ve never been interviewed by the police before,’ she said, and gave a nervous laugh.

  Kay ignored the comment as she leaned against the desk and waited while Barnes turned to a fresh page in his notebook.

  She admired her colleague’s interviewing skills – Barnes was a formidable investigator. The pacing of his interviews made him appear calm and collected, even if Kay knew that under the façade the man was as eager as she was to get through the list of names and begin to extrapolate the information that might lead them to their killer.

  Rushing wasn’t an option.

  ‘Mrs Evans, how long have you been an employee at the hotel?’ said Barnes.

  ‘Oh, about three years. Ever since I moved here from Bristol. I’m only meant to be part-time, but there’s always something to do.’

  Kay said nothing when the woman smiled at her. It wasn’t her interview, and she didn’t want to shift the balance in the conversation.

  Eventually the woman turned back to Barnes, her smile fading.

  ‘What time did your shift start on the Wednesday?’ he said.

  ‘About ten o’clock,’ said Trudy. ‘There are usually two of us on reception, but Bettina was busy helping to set up one of the meeting rooms, so I was on my own until four o’clock.’

  ‘We understand that a business conference took place on the Wednesday and Thursday,’ said Barnes. ‘What time did the delegates start to arrive?’

  ‘From one o’clock.’ Trudy rolled her eyes. ‘I tell you – it was bloody busy. I didn’t even get a chance to use the loo until three o’clock, and that was only because Kevin covered for me for ten minutes.’

  Barnes swept an upturned photograph of Clive Wallis from the table between him and Trudy and spun it around to face her.

  ‘Do you recognise this man?’

  Trudy kept her hands folded in her lap but leaned across to peer at the image. ‘Yes.’

  ‘What about a name?’

  ‘Um, no – I can’t remember. There were so many of them.’

  ‘There’s no record of his registration on the accommodation listings for that day. Any idea why not?’

  The receptionist frowned. ‘Maybe he didn’t stay here?’

  ‘If he was attending a two-day conference with business associates, do you know why he wouldn’t stay? Was there a problem with any of the rooms?’

  Trudy bit her bottom lip. ‘Not that I recall. I don’t know. Like I said, it was really busy. I had blokes flashing credit cards at me left, right and centre – they all arrived in groups of three or more at a time.’ She giggled. ‘Honestly, at one point I thought they were meeting in the car park and waiting until there were a few of them to make my life more difficult.’

  Neither Kay nor Barnes shared the joke, and the woman cleared her throat before pointing at the photograph.

  ‘Is there a problem? Has he done something wrong?’

  ‘What time did your shift finish?’ said Barnes.

  ‘Four o’clock, when my replacement arrived. We did a handover that took about ten minutes – he never turns up early, so the handover’s always done in my free time. I never charge them the overtime, though.’

  Trudy set her jaw, as if defying Barnes to challenge her work ethic.

  ‘What time did you leave the hotel?’

  ‘About six o’clock, I think. I stopped in at the bar for a drink and got talking to someone.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘A bloke. I think he might have been at the conference, I’m not sure.’

  ‘Did you drive home?’ said Barnes.

  ‘Yes. I wasn’t over the limit though. I only had one drink.’

  ‘What time did you get home?’

  ‘Before seven.’ Trudy sighed and leaned back in her seat. ‘My feet were killing me by then.’

  Barnes snapped his notebook shut. ‘That’s all, Mrs Evans. We’ll be in touch if we have any other questions.’

  Kay watched the woman leave the room and waited until she’d closed the door behind her, then turned to Barnes.

  ‘I don’t understand why there’s not a record for Wallis anywhere on their system.’

  ‘Like she said, she was busy. Maybe she didn’t enter his details correctly on the computer, and she doesn’t want to get into trouble?’

  ‘Maybe. Any luck with the hotel CCTV yet?’

  ‘Gavin’s waiting to hear from their head office. He’ll escalate it if they don’t have it authorised by the time we leave here today. He’s planning on going through the recordings with someone from uniform tomorrow.’

  ‘Okay, good.’ Kay checked her watch. ‘Who’s that Bettina she mentioned?’

  Barnes checked the list o
f names they’d been given by the duty manager. ‘Bettina Merriweather. She’s Trudy’s supervisor.’

  ‘All right. Let’s have a word with her before we do the debrief and see if she can shed any light on why Wallis’s record has gone missing.’

  Ten minutes later, an efficient-looking woman in a similar uniform to Trudy Evans’s sat in front of Kay and harrumphed as Barnes questioned her about the missing information.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘We’ve had problems with Trudy’s attention to detail under pressure before. I can only assume that with the number of people arriving all at the same time she was flustered and made a mistake.’

  ‘We understand from Trudy that you were helping to set up a conference room for the delegates. Is that normally part of your duties?’

  ‘It is at the moment. We’re so understaffed, you see. I think the hotel’s popularity caught the owners off-guard. They’re running a recruitment campaign at the moment, but you know what that can be like – by the time we’ve sifted through résumés to find candidates to interview, and then worked our way through those, it could be weeks before we’re sending out job offers.’

  Kay didn’t comment but having sat through a number of interviews in the past week she could empathise with the woman’s frustration.

  ‘Do you have another way to perhaps show that Clive Wallis stayed at the hotel that night?’ said Barnes. ‘After all, his employers were billed for the full contingent of delegates, so there must be a record somewhere for him?’

  The woman pursed her lips. ‘I’m afraid not. The invoices are sent out automatically. Unless the client contacts us to say someone isn’t coming and gives us twenty-four hours’ notice for catering purposes, we simply bill them the full amount regardless. It’s their responsibility, not ours. I mean, if he elected to pay for his room with his own personal credit card, that would be a different matter, but I don’t believe he did, did he?’

  ‘All right, Ms Merriweather,’ said Barnes. ‘Thank you for your time today.’

  She nodded, rose from her seat and hurried from the room, smoothing down her uniform as she disappeared from sight.