“I’ll keep that in mind,” Edward told him.
Janet and Edward watched as Harold walked back down to his car. He waved and then climbed in and drove away.
“He didn’t mention the watch,” Janet said as the car disappeared from view.
“No, he didn’t. I’m going to assume that he doesn’t realise that I’ve been speaking to Clive about the case,” Edward replied.
“He doesn’t want the case solved.”
“I suspect he’s simply too busy with other things and isn’t eager to have to drive back and forth to Doveby Dale for this case, not when the chances of solving it are so slim.”
“Are they really, though? The date on the watch has narrowed down the possible victims considerably.”
“Except the dead man’s watch might have been broken days, weeks, or even months or years before he died. Or the watch may not have even belonged to the dead man. We’re doing not much more than guessing at his identity at this point.”
“Does that mean you don’t want to go out and look for our missing men today?” Janet asked, feeling disappointed.
“Oh, no, not at all,” Edward replied, his eyes twinkling. “I’d like nothing better than to discover the identity of our skeleton. Telling Harold what we’d accomplished would give me great pleasure.”
Janet laughed and then let Edward lead her out to his car. “You don’t care for Harold?” she asked as he started the engine.
“I think he’s given up too easily. I want to prove him wrong,” was Edward’s reply.
“Where are we going?” Janet asked a short while later.
“Our first stop is to see Trevor Abbey, Trent’s son. He lives in Derby, and he’s agreed to talk to us if we can be at his house before ten.”
Janet glanced at her watch. “We won’t have much time with him.”
“I don’t think this will take long. I probably could have had the conversation over the phone, but this is more fun.”
Half an hour later, Edward stopped his car in front of a large semi-detached property. “Let me do the talking,” he told Janet as they walked to the door.
“Ah, yes, you’ll be the person who rang,” the man who answered the door said. “I’m afraid I wasn’t totally clear on who you work for?”
“Sorry about that,” Edward said. “I assume you’re Trevor Abbey. I’m Edward Bennett and this is my assistant, Janet. We were going through some of the files down at the station and discovered that your father, Trent Abbey, is still listed as missing. We’re hoping to close a few cases, you understand.”
Trevor nodded. “Yes, I see, but, well, I mean, my father left in the late eighties.”
“And you haven’t had any contact with him since?” Edward asked.
Trevor shrugged. “Have you spoken to my sister?”
“Has she had contact with your father?” Edward shot back.
“The thing is, well, I mean, it’s complicated,” Trevor said with a sigh. “I don’t know the whole story or anything.”
“I should make it clear that we won’t be causing your father any trouble,” Edward said. “We simply want to ascertain whether he is still alive and well or not.”
“Oh, he’s alive,” Trevor said, his tone bitter. “I don’t know about well, but that’s another story.”
“I’m sorry,” Janet said softly.
He looked at her and then shrugged. “I didn’t really blame him for leaving. Mum was, well, difficult to live with, let’s say. I just wish he would have taken us with him.”
“So he has been in touch,” Edward said.
“He rang when Mum died five years ago. We talked for a few minutes, but I didn’t have much to say to him, really. I believe my sister has stayed in touch, though. She has children and she wants them to know their grandfather.”
“I’ll ring her later,” Edward said. “Thank you for your time.”
“No problem,” Trevor replied, looking surprised.
“He was expecting a lot more questions,” Janet suggested as they got back into the car.
“I got what I needed, which was confirmation that the man is still alive. He isn’t our skeleton. I don’t need to know anything else.”
“Weren’t you curious, though? Where’s the man been? How has he stayed hidden for all these years? What actually made him leave?”
Edward chuckled. “In this business, you need to stay focussed on the prime objective and not get sidetracked by anything else. We could have spent an hour with the man, getting answers to all of those questions, but then we would have missed our appointment with George.”
“George? Simon Harris’s lodger?”
“That’s the one.”
“We don’t want to miss talking to him.”
“No, we don’t. Again, I’m fairly certain he’s had some contact with Simon since the man disappeared.”
“If he has, why hasn’t he told the police and cancelled the missing person report?” Janet asked.
“That’s one of the questions I’ll ask him,” Edward promised.
The house in Doveby Dale was small but well maintained. The stone path from the road led to the front door, but there was a path of worn grass around the side of the house that presumably led to a back door. Edward knocked on the front door.
“Ah, hello.” The man who answered the door looked younger than Janet had been expecting. His hair was short and his eyes were all but hidden behind large dark glasses.
“George Jackson?” Edward asked.
“Yes, that’s right. You must be the man who rang about Simon.”
“I am, yes,” Edward agreed.
“Come in, then,” George suggested. He stepped back to let them both into the house.
The door opened into a small sitting room. It was immaculate, and Janet suspected that it was rarely used.
“I never come in here,” George said, glancing around. “Simon doesn’t mind if I use the space, but I prefer my own room.”
“When did you last speak to Simon?” Edward asked as he and Janet sat down on the couch.
George dropped heavily into a chair, a frown on his face. “It’s been a while,” he said. “It was probably around Christmas, maybe.”
“Just this last Christmas?” Edward asked.
“Yes, although it may have been earlier than that, maybe around October. I don’t pay that much attention to the passage of time. I’m retired, you know,” George replied.
“It couldn’t have been a year or more ago?” Edward checked.
“Oh, no. I’d have noticed if I hadn’t heard from him in a year or more,” George laughed. “He doesn’t ring often, but he does ring. It’s his house, after all. He wants to be certain that I’m taking good care of it.”
“You seem to be taking very good care of it,” Janet said.
George nodded. “I treat it as if it were mine,” he said. “I’ve never had a home of my own, and I’m really grateful that I’ve been able to stay here as long as I have. I was in and out of foster care when I was young and then I joined the navy, you see.”
“Do you have a phone number for Simon?” Edward asked.
“I wish I did, because I need to ask him about the roof, but I don’t,” George replied. “He rings me when he wants to speak with me. He told me once that he trusts me to take proper care of the house, but I hate to make costly decisions about the roof on my own.”
“It’s Simon’s house. He should be paying for any repairs,” Janet suggested.
“Oh, he will pay, once I tell him what’s needed. He’s very good about paying for things, really. I pay as much as my rent and then Simon sends me the rest when things cost more.”
“But you don’t have a phone number for him?” Edward asked again.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t. He moves around a great deal and he doesn’t care for mobile phones,” George explained.
“You do realise that he’s still officially a missing person,” Edward said.
George gasped. “Is he? I me
an, I know that I reported him missing when he first left, but I thought all of that was sorted when he came back.”
“He came back?” Janet echoed.
“Yes, he left for a few weeks and then he came back. One of his friends from his time in the military had rung and let him know that another of their friends didn’t have much time left, so Simon rushed down to see him. The dying friend held on for a few weeks, but after the funeral, Simon came back here.”
“And no one bothered to tell the local police that he’d returned,” Edward said.
George flushed. “I suppose I should have done that. I never actually told Simon that I’d filed a missing person report on him. Once he was back, well, I felt sort of foolish about it, really.”
Edward nodded. “I’m going to leave my card with you. Please ask Simon to ring me the next time you speak with him. Once I’ve had a chance to talk to him, I’ll be able to cancel the missing person report.”
“Does that mean that you’ve been looking for Simon for all these years?” George asked.
“Not actively, but the report is still on file and someone goes through the files at least once a year,” Edward told him.
“I’m really sorry I never told you when Simon came back. I hope I didn’t make too much extra work for anyone,” George said.
“It’s not a problem. As I said, just have Simon ring me, please,” Edward replied. He got to his feet and then held out a hand to Janet. She let him pull her up, trying not to blush as he held onto her hand much longer than was necessary.
“Thank you for your time,” Janet said in the doorway.
“You’re welcome. I am really sorry,” George replied.
“As I said, it isn’t a problem,” Edward assured him. “Once I’ve spoken to Simon, I’ll sort everything.”
“I’ll try to get him a message today,” George promised. “I don’t have a number for him, but I can try ringing a few of his friends. He left me a list in case there was ever an emergency.”
“I wouldn’t consider this an emergency, but I would like to speak to him,” Edward told him.
George nodded and then stood in the doorway, watching, as Edward escorted Janet back to the car.
“Do you think Simon is alive and well, then?” Janet asked.
“I do. I suspect I’ll hear from him by the end of the day.”
“So where does that leave us?” Janet asked.
“It leaves me hungry. Let’s get some lunch and then go and have a chat with Alice Zachery. If she knows where Wes is, then we’ll have to do some more digging in the missing person reports.”
“Am I a terrible person for hoping she hasn’t a clue where Wes is?”
Edward chuckled. “If you are, then I am as well. I really want to go back to Harold with the victim’s name.”
“Once we’ve found the victim, though, we’ll have to look for the killer,” Janet said with a shiver.
Chapter 9
They had lunch at a pub that was only a short distance away.
“I didn’t even know this was here,” Janet said when Edward pulled into the pub’s car park.
“The food is very good and the landlord is an old friend,” Edward explained.
“That was wonderful,” Janet said an hour later as they got back into the car. She was full of cottage pie and Victoria sponge.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. Now on to Alice,” Edward replied.
“Where is she living now?” Janet asked.
“She sold the house that she used to share with Wes about a year after he went missing. She has a flat in Derby now.”
“How could she sell the house if Wes was missing?” Janet asked.
“They’d put the house in just her name,” Edward explained. “I’m not certain why.”
“That seems odd,” Janet remarked.
“We can ask her about it.”
The building where Alice was living was not what Janet had been expecting.
“It’s very modern and enormous,” she remarked as Edward pulled into a visitor’s parking space in the car park.
“Alice is on the seventh floor,” he told her as they walked towards the building.
The lift whisked them to seven quickly and quietly. Edward checked the numbers that were discreetly displayed on the walls next to each door and then knocked on one of the doors.
The woman who opened the door didn’t look a day over fifty. Her hair was brown, with carefully blended highlights that Janet was certain had been expensive. Her outfit was casual, but it had designer logos printed on it. She smiled broadly at Edward.
“Hello,” she said in a low voice. “I thought you sounded attractive on the phone.”
Edward chuckled. “Alice Zachery?” he asked.
She nodded. “But call me Alice, won’t you? Come in.” She stepped backwards, letting the pair into the flat.
She led them down a long corridor into a huge sitting room with a wall of windows that overlooked the city. Janet gasped as she took in the expansive view.
“It’s stunning, isn’t it?” Alice asked. “I fall in love with the view every time I come home.”
“It’s wonderful,” Janet agreed.
“I’m Edward Bennett,” Edward said. “This is my assistant, Janet. We’re following up on some of the missing person reports from the area and we came across the one that you filed for Wes. I believe he was your husband?”
Alice sighed. “Have a seat,” she suggested, gesturing towards several large couches.
Janet looked at the cream-coloured leather. It didn’t appear as if anyone had ever sat on the obviously expensive surface.
Edward sat down and smiled. “It’s very comfortable,” he said.
Janet lowered herself to sit next to him. He was right. The couch was incredibly comfortable.
“Paul prefers expensive things, but I prefer comfort. It isn’t often we can find something that suits both of us, but we worked hard to do that in this flat,” Alice told him.
“Paul is your partner?” Edward asked.
“Yes. We’ve been together for five years now. He has all of the money, of course, but he’s very generous with it. But you wanted to talk about Wes, didn’t you?”
“We did,” Edward agreed. “When did you last speak to him?”
Alice frowned. “That’s a difficult question to answer after all these years. We were living together but living separate lives. I spoke to him just before I went away on my holiday, but mostly we communicated by notes. I’d leave one telling him that there was something wrong with the washing machine, and he’d repair it and then let me know that he needed new shirts or some such thing. We both had certain jobs that we did to keep the house running and we mostly stayed out of each other’s way.”
“And when you returned from your holiday, he was gone?” Edward asked.
“He wasn’t home, put it that way,” Alice told him. “I wasn’t surprised, really, as he often stayed elsewhere. It wasn’t until his supervisor rang to ask where he was that I began to worry.”
“And that was on March tenth?” Edward checked.
“Was it? I don’t remember the date, really. It was a few days after I’d returned from my holiday. I was still catching up on things around the house and getting ready to go back to work myself. Wes’s supervisor had actually left a few messages for Wes on the answering machine, but I didn’t listen to them until after I’d been back a few days. We had separate telephone lines, you see, so I rarely listened to Wes’s messages.”
“And once you found out that he hadn’t been going to work, you rang the police,” Edward said.
“I did. Wes wasn’t always the most reliable person on the planet, but it wasn’t like him to miss work for that many days without ringing off sick or with some other excuse. He’d taken a week off while I was away, anyway, which was unusual for him. I was surprised to hear that he hadn’t gone back once that week was over.”
“And you’ve heard nothing from him since?” Edward asked.
“No, although I sold the house and moved not long after he disappeared. It was more space than I needed with the children and Wes all gone,” Alice explained. “I’ve moved about half a dozen times since Wes vanished. If he did want to get in touch, he might struggle to find me.”
“I understand the house was in your name alone?” Edward said, making the statement a question.
“I bought Wes’s share from him a few years before he left,” Alice explained. “We were talking about getting divorced. He had a girlfriend who wanted to get married and he was thinking about it. She got pregnant, or claimed she was pregnant, anyway, so he sold me his share of the house to make things easier if we did get divorced.”
“But you didn’t,” Edward prompted her when she fell silent.
“Oh, no, the girlfriend wasn’t actually pregnant, or Wes wasn’t the father or something. I never did get the whole story. Anyway, they split up, but we went ahead with changing the house into my name anyway. I didn’t really care either way, but it turned out to have been a good decision after he left.”
“Do you think he was planning to leave and that’s why he did it?” Janet asked.
Alice frowned. “I don’t know,” she said after a moment. “It’s the sort of thing he would have done if he had been planning to leave. He married me when I was seventeen, and we loved each other dearly. We simply grew apart, but that didn’t mean that we didn’t still care for one another. We did what we could to support one another. That’s why I think if he were planning to leave, that he would have told me.”
“Where might he have gone?” Edward asked.
“I wish I knew,” Alice sighed. “For the most part, I don’t let myself think about Wes. It’s just easier that way. The children are busy with their lives and they don’t ever mention their father when we talk. Paul never met Wes, and I’ve told him next to nothing about my marriage or Wes’s disappearance. When I do start thinking about him, it’s difficult. I can’t help but think that something awful must have happened to him. He would have stayed in touch otherwise.”
“You can’t think of any reason why he might have wanted to disappear?” Janet asked.
The Zachery Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Book 26) Page 7
