The Scent of Death--A Sukey Reyholds British police procedural

by Betty Rowlands

  Harry whistled. ‘Don’t tell me they were having it off in the vestry!’ he exclaimed.

  ‘Oh no, it wasn’t quite as bad as that. She does the flower arrangements; she doesn’t drive so he takes her there, waits while she does her stuff and then brings her home. Apart from the convenience it gives them a bit of time together, but I can’t believe anything improper goes on in the church.’

  ‘It must have scared the pants off him when you walked in.’

  Sukey managed a chuckle. ‘It gave him the shock of his life; the look on his face had to be seen to be believed. I said I wanted a word with him in private so we went to a quiet spot at the back of the church, leaving Mrs F to get on with her flower arranging. But curiosity got the better of her and she managed to overhear me challenging him about his whereabouts on the Friday evening Rainbird was killed.’

  ‘I think I can guess what’s coming next,’ said Harry. ‘She realized he needed an alibi so she said he was with her.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘Do you think she was telling the truth?’

  ‘It’s hard to say. I asked her if she’d be willing to swear to it and she said she would. He begged her not to and assured her he had nothing to do with Rainbird’s death, but she wouldn’t budge. I took her details and said I’d be reporting to my superiors and they’d both be hearing from us again.’

  ‘From what you’ve told me about Grayson he’s a pretty self-righteous bloke,’ said Harry. ‘I’ve never met him, but I’m inclined to think he deserves to get his comeuppance.’

  ‘He was all but wailing and gnashing his teeth,’ said Sukey. ‘It was quite pitiful; he was alternately apologizing to her and then saying “I’m ruined” and “Whatever’s to become of me?” Oh, and at one point he said “God be merciful to me, a sinner”. I should have felt compassion for him, but I couldn’t help feeling it was a bit of rough justice. I felt sorry for her, though. She obviously adores him and seemed as concerned for his reputation as he was. She asked me for assurance that it wouldn’t get into the papers, but of course I couldn’t give it.’

  ‘Do you know how the affair started?’

  ‘Grayson and her late husband used to play golf together and when her husband died he used to visit her from time to time to take her out shopping, bring her to church to the services and every so often to arrange the flowers and so on. He confided in her that his own marriage was on the rocks so they used to console each other. One day they somehow ended up in bed, and it went on from there.’

  ‘I take it you’ll be feeding all this back to Rathbone?’

  ‘Of course, but what I need now is a nice strong cup of tea. I’ll call him when I’ve had that.’

  Harry switched on the ignition. ‘Right, let’s go back to Greenings.’

  Rathbone’s reaction to Sukey’s report was the most positive since the day he was forced to admit there was insufficient evidence to charge Justin Freeman with Rainbird’s murder.

  ‘Well done, that was a smart piece of work,’ he told her. ‘I’m not too optimistic about the hair and the handkerchief; lots of women use perfume and it seems unlikely that there’ll be a match between any of the hair in Rainbird’s flat and that of anyone known to be at Dallington Manor when he was killed. We might have more luck with his laptop. Go back to his flat and pick it up. I’ll get the techies on to it first thing on Monday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.’

  ‘Thanks, Guv. He sounded almost pleased,’ she told Harry as she ended the call and told him what Rathbone had said.

  ‘Do you want to go and pick up the laptop right away or shall we leave it till the morning?’

  ‘Let’s do it now so we have tomorrow free.’

  As they reached Rainbird’s flat Mrs Fellows opened her door. ‘I saw your car outside,’ she said. ‘Have you any news?’

  ‘We’ve been getting on with our enquiries,’ said Sukey, ‘and my Inspector has instructed me to collect something from Mr Rainbird’s flat.’

  ‘Oh!’ She sounded surprised. ‘Mr Rainbird’s lady friend was here a little while after you left. I heard her go into the flat.’

  ‘Did she say why she was there?’

  ‘I didn’t actually speak to her. I had a telephone call from my daughter; it went on for quite a long time and I think she must have left by the time I finished because I never heard her go.’

  ‘Well thank you for telling us, Mrs Fellows. We apologize for disturbing you.’

  ‘Now what would the mysterious lady friend be so anxious to retrieve?’ said Sukey as they entered Rainbird’s flat. ‘At least it wasn’t the laptop, it’s still here,’ she added, opening the door to the small room he used as an office. ‘Perhaps it was something she didn’t want anyone else to see, like a diary or some letters.’

  ‘But why leave it for a week after her lover died to come and look for whatever it was?’ said Harry.

  ‘Maybe she hadn’t realized she’d lost it. Or maybe it was the first opportunity she had to come here without her husband knowing.’

  ‘You think she’s married?’

  ‘The fact that the visits seem to have been quite infrequent makes me think that’s more than likely,’ said Sukey. ‘Anyway, we don’t know what she was looking for or whether she found it, but as we’re here it might be worth ferreting around a bit more.’

  After several minutes of fruitless search they were about to give up when Harry said, ‘I’ve just had a thought. I mislaid my wallet a couple of months ago and I was going bananas trying to find it. Guess where it was?’

  ‘You tell me.’

  ‘It was under my bed. It had fallen on the floor and I must have kicked it out of sight and I suddenly remembered …’ He was already on his knees by the bed, groping with the fingers of one hand. ‘Got it!’ he said as he got to his feet and brandished a small notebook that he was holding between his thumb and one finger.

  ‘Well done!’ said Sukey. ‘It looks like a diary; with luck it will give us a serious lead. Be careful how you handle it; just drop it on the bed.’

  ‘You’re thinking of fingerprints?’

  ‘And DNA. If they prove this belonged to the owner of the scented hanky and the hair, and we can somehow find her, she might possibly mention the name of someone who might have a motive for killing her lover. It’s a pity those two old dears couldn’t give a decent description between them.’

  ‘There may be other residents in the house who’ve noticed this woman’s comings and goings,’ said Harry. ‘Maybe one of them could remember enough for an E-FIT.’

  ‘You’re right.’ Sukey glanced at her watch. ‘What time does Mrs Greening serve dinner?’

  ‘Eight o’clock. We’ve plenty of time to ring a few more bells if that’s what you’re thinking.’

  ‘I’ll just put that in an evidence bag,’ said Sukey, indicating the little book. ‘Luckily I still have one left.’ Having dealt with that she put the laptop into its carrying case and handed it to him saying, ‘I think it’d be better if you wait in the car. This shouldn’t take long.’

  There was no one in at number four, but a woman of about fifty answered their knock at number three. ‘Mr Rainbird?’ she said in reply to Sukey’s question. ‘Yes, Mrs Fellows told us he’d been murdered and how the police had been asking her questions. She’s a bit cross with herself for not being able to help.’

  ‘How well did you know Mr Rainbird?’

  ‘Hardly at all, really. We used to meet in passing of course and exchange greetings, but we didn’t stop to chat or anything. He was always very pleasant and polite, but he did keep himself to himself.’

  ‘Do you remember anything special about him?’

  ‘He had a very nice voice,’ she said. ‘I saw him come in once or twice with a lady,’ she went on after a few moments’ further thought.

  ‘Could you describe this lady?’

  The woman closed her eyes. ‘Let me think. She had light brown hair, quite short but beautifully cut, a slim figure, good features, n
ot a lot of make-up. Oh, and she wore a rather nice perfume; but I’m afraid I don’t know what it’s called.’

  ‘Did you ever hear Mr Rainbird calling her by name?’

  ‘I’m afraid not.’

  ‘But you’d recognize her if you saw her again?’

  ‘Oh certainly. Poor thing, she must be very upset.’

  ‘I’m sure she is,’ Sukey agreed. ‘Thank you, you’ve been very helpful.’

  ‘Any luck?’ asked Harry as she got into the car.

  ‘A bit, I think. The woman at number three gave quite a promising description and could possibly give enough detail for an E-FIT if DI Rathbone thinks it’s worth doing. And I’m sure she’d recognize the perfume on the hanky. Anyway, I think we’ve done more than enough for today. Let’s go back to Greenings and freshen up for dinner.’

  Sunday was warm and sunny. Harry and Sukey enjoyed a trip on the London Eye followed by a river cruise before crossing the Millennium Bridge and visiting Tate Modern, where they browsed for a while before having lunch in the restaurant. All too soon it was time to go back to Greenings and collect Sukey’s case. Harry took her to Waterloo to catch her train.

  ‘Thanks for a wonderful weekend,’ she said.

  ‘It was wonderful for me too. We must do it more often.’ He put his arms round her and held her close. ‘I’ll keep in touch; let me know if you want me to do any more sleuthing.’

  When Sukey arrived at work on Monday morning she was eagerly greeted by Vicky.

  ‘How did it go?’

  ‘It was really interesting. I found out Luke Grayson has been telling porkies again. You’ll never guess what that holier-than-thou humbug has been getting up to.’

  ‘I’ll wait to read your report. Tell me where you went with Harry.’

  ‘All right, we stayed in a nice private hotel near Richmond and we had a great time in between sleuthing. Look, I haven’t time to talk about it now; Sir will want a full report.’ She switched on her computer. ‘See you later.’

  ‘Not unless Sir sends you down to Dallington Manor,’ said Vicky. ‘We’re all off there to go over the grounds with a toothcomb. If what you’ve found out about Grayson were to open up a new lead it would give us something to get our teeth into. We haven’t dug up anything new here.’

  TWENTY-THREE

  Sukey was about to sit down at her work station when Rathbone summoned her to his office. She handed over Rainbird’s laptop and the four evidence bags.

  ‘You only mentioned three items,’ he commented.

  ‘I found the diary – at least, that’s what it looks like – when I went back to Rainbird’s flat to pick up the laptop,’ she explained. ‘The woman in the opposite flat heard my key in the lock and popped out to tell me that his lady friend had also been to the flat that afternoon, after my morning visit. That struck me as odd and my first thought was that she’d come to pick up his laptop, but fortunately it was still there. Then I got to wondering whether she’d been looking for something else – something compromising, perhaps, something she was afraid might betray her identity if it fell into the wrong hands.’

  ‘Her husband’s, for example?’ suggested Rathbone.

  ‘Yes, Guv. Thinking it might have been something like letters, I had another search in the bedroom and this time I found the diary. Maybe that was what she was after, but it was out of sight and she obviously didn’t think of looking more closely.’

  ‘And you did. Good work; where was it?’

  ‘I happened to remember something a friend once told me; he’d mislaid a wallet and couldn’t find it anywhere. Then he remembered he was by his bed last time he had it and wondered if he’d dropped it and kicked it under the bed, which is what happened. So I groped around under Rainbird’s bed, and there it was.’

  ‘Have you read it?’

  ‘No, Guv. I thought it might be worth checking for prints and DNA before a close examination. I’m not even sure it’s a diary,’ she added, peering at the little book in its evidence bag, ‘it might be just an address book.’

  ‘You were right not to handle it; we can’t be too careful. I’ll get forensics to check it over. Anything else?’

  ‘While I was there I took the opportunity to speak to another of the residents, on the off-chance of getting a better description of Rainbird’s visitor. I struck lucky – or at least I got a more promising description than Mrs Fellows and her friend could rustle up between them. It might be worth sending an artist to do an E-FIT.’

  ‘I’ll think about that when I’ve read your full report, but first I’d like to know if you’ve had any further thoughts about this woman who swears Grayson was with her on Friday night. You seemed fairly sure at the time that she was telling the truth, but you say she’s a devout Christian, so would she really be prepared to take the oath if she was just covering up for him?’

  ‘She said she would, but maybe she was taking a chance that I’d accept her word and it wouldn’t actually come to that. She did ask me if I could keep the affair out of my report, but of course I had to say that wasn’t possible. She seems absolutely besotted with Grayson, but I can’t think why.’

  ‘I take it you haven’t a very high opinion of him then?’

  ‘It’s occurred to me before that his so-called devout Christianity didn’t altogether ring true. Now it seems nothing but sheer hypocrisy; all he seems to be concerned with is the damage to his own precious reputation. He did offer her some sort of apology for having got her into a mess, but I could tell he was thinking mainly of himself.’

  ‘Hmm, you’ve given me quite a bit to think about,’ said Rathbone. ‘As soon as I’ve seen your full report I’ll have a word with DCI Leach and we’ll decide if there’s any mileage in taking it further. The big question of course is motive. Maybe the laptop will yield something useful so I’ll get the techies on to it right away. Go now and get on with your full report. When you’ve done it,’ he added as she got up to leave, ‘you can drive down to the hotel and give Vicky and the lads a hand. She’s organizing a fingertip search of the grounds; the cigarette stub wasn’t any use by the way as there was no DNA match to anyone who was there at the crucial time, but I’m convinced there’s some hard evidence around somewhere if only we look in the right place.’

  ‘Let’s hope you’re right, Guv.’

  Sukey entered her report in her computer, saved it and sent it to DCI Leach and DI Rathbone with copies to the rest of the team. She then went to her car and drove to Dallington Manor, where she found Vicky, Mike and Tim taking a coffee break.

  ‘I’ve been told to report to you for orders,’ she said. ‘I gather we all have to go round on our hands and knees looking for evidence.’

  ‘It’s a question of leaving no stone unturned and no bit of exposed earth left unexplored,’ said Vicky with a grimace.

  ‘At this rate we’ll all end up with back problems,’ grumbled Tim, ‘and every time we start poking around in a flower bed the gardener nearly has a nervous breakdown.’

  ‘Get your girlfriend to give you a nice soothing massage,’ said Vicky. She finished her coffee and stood up. ‘Right, back to work.’

  ‘So where would you like me to start searching, Sarge?’ asked Sukey.

  ‘It’s time someone checked the rubbish skips; they’re all hidden away round the back of the hotel, close to the kitchen door. You can give me hand with that.’

  ‘Surely they’ll have been emptied since the murders?’

  ‘That’s where we’re in luck. They should have been emptied last Wednesday, but the rubbish disposal people were on strike all last week so the stuff has been piling up. Chapman’s been on to the Council whingeing about a health hazard and the possibility of a plague of rats. The strike has been settled but the stuff hasn’t been collected from here yet and I’m making sure it isn’t until we’ve given the entire area a thorough going over.’

  ‘Including going through all the smelly stuff?’ said Sukey.

  ‘I’m afraid so. Just think f
or a moment; if you had some small item you wanted to get rid of without the risk of it being found, where would you hide it?’

  ‘Somewhere you hoped no one would think of looking,’ said Sukey. ‘I see what you’re getting at.’ She pointed to the food bins.

  ‘Right, so let’s put on some gloves and masks and make a start.’ Vicky spread a large plastic sheet on the ground and they began their unsavoury task. They worked well together and the time passed surprisingly quickly; needless to say Vicky took the opportunity as they carefully inspected every scrap of the rotting waste to quiz Sukey about her weekend with Harry.

  ‘It was brilliant,’ Sukey said. ‘He was a great help; in fact he found one piece of evidence that I’d have missed – only I had to be careful not to tell Sir that he was there with me. I wonder …’

  ‘Thought of something else?’ said Vicky as Sukey left the sentence unfinished.

  ‘Yes, but I don’t think it had anything to do with the case. It was on the Saturday morning; we’d just woken up and Harry said how nice it was to be in a double bed. And then he said, “As I matter of fact I’ve been thinking lately,” and then he broke off. I asked him what he’d been thinking, but he just said, “Never mind, we can talk about it some other time”, but he’s never referred to it again.’

  ‘You know what?’ said Vicky. ‘I think he’s going to ask you to marry him – or at least to shack up with him.’

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Sukey. ‘I’m not sure I’m ready to think about that just yet. Let’s try and get this job over before lunch.’

  After two hours of back-breaking work they completed their task without finding anything significant. Vicky said, ‘Thank goodness that’s done. Let’s bag it all up and get some lunch.’

  ‘I’m not sure I fancy food after wading through that lot,’ said Sukey.

  ‘You’ll feel better after a clean up and a drink,’ Vicky, assured her.

  When they reached the bar Tim and Mike were already there. ‘Where’s Penny, by the way?’ asked Sukey.