The Coffin Trail

by Martin Edwards

  She stretched out her legs. ‘Okay, Marc. I’m listening.’

  ‘You’re always so calm,’ he said, in a tone of nervous wonder. ‘What must be going on in your head?’

  ‘Not a lot,’ she said. ‘It is late. But like I said, I’m listening.’

  He took a breath. ‘There’s a reason why Dale and Leigh were stressed-out by the interviews today.’

  ‘Other than brutal police interviewing techniques?’

  Ben would have fumed, but she couldn’t resist scoring a cheap point; it helped release the tension. Marc waved a hand, a tired gesture of surrender.

  ‘I’m sorry about earlier on. Forget what I said. I was overwrought, okay?’

  Hearing him say sorry so often was a novelty. She’d never known him give the impression of being fearful of her. She was in charge, but it didn’t feel good.

  ‘Carry on.’

  ‘After Gabrielle Anders was killed, I told you a lie.’

  She fought to keep her voice from trembling. ‘What did you lie about?’

  ‘I was out in Brackdale on the day of the murder. But I told you that I walked the Horseshoe. It wasn’t true. I made a detour and went down the coffin trail and into the village.’

  Her gaze didn’t flicker, but her thoughts were jumping. Had he seen something relevant to the murder inquiry and kept his mouth shut?

  ‘I headed straight for The Moon under Water.’ The booze must have given him courage; the story started tumbling out like a stream in spate. ‘Dale was in charge of the cleaners there. Sometimes she took advantage and invited a boyfriend round. If a room wasn’t occupied, she could make use of it. She said Joe Dowling didn’t know, but thinking it over, I’m not so sure. The slimy toad had his eye on her and I bet he knew what she was up to. She never admitted it to me, but I’d lay odds that he made sure there was a payback. Probably that’s why she stopped working there.’

  ‘Go on.’ Hannah scarcely trusted herself to say any more.

  He coughed. ‘Anyway, on this particular occasion, I was the one she invited.’

  After a long pause, she said, ‘But we were seeing each other at the time.’

  ‘I know.’ His face had aged with misery; it had lines and flaws that she’d never noticed before. ‘I shouldn’t have said yes. But you’d just started working with Ben Kind…’

  ‘And you were jealous?’

  ‘Yes!’ Tears brimmed in his eyes. ‘I can’t help it, Hannah, it’s the way I’m made. I hate it when men fancy you, but it’s even worse when you fancy them.’

  It was a mistake to respond, but she couldn’t let it pass. ‘Are you suggesting that I fancied Ben Kind?’

  ‘I don’t want to argue about it,’ he said thickly. ‘Deny it if you want, that’s fine. But I thought you did.’

  ‘So you decided on tit for tat?’

  ‘You could say…’

  ‘And when the chance of a quick shag came along, you couldn’t say no?’ Her voice was getting louder.

  ‘I’ve regretted it ever since.’

  ‘Not as much as I regret it! Oh shit, Marc, how could you do this?’ She was almost choking with anger and despair. ‘When we started going out together, you told me you and Dale were finished. Over. Done.’

  ‘It was true!’ he insisted. ‘And then I bumped into her one evening when you were working and she was lonely and so was I and – things got out of hand.’

  ‘How many times?’ she demanded.

  She’d seen the same hunted expression on the faces of a hundred criminals. The panicky arithmetic: what’s the least I can get away with?

  ‘Twice that week,’ he said eventually. ‘That’s how often we made love. I would close the shop and make my way to Brack. You and I were passing strangers, Ben Kind had you running errands all over the place for him. I’m not making an excuse, just trying to explain. Of course, that afternoon was the end. I swear it. Dale was as upset as me. Imagine how she felt when she heard that Gabrielle Anders was dead. She’d spent part of the day in question in bed with the boyfriend of one of the detectives investigating the murder. Wouldn’t you be scared stiff?’

  ‘How would I know? I’ve never been in that situation.’

  ‘She swore she’d never do anything to mess up my relationship with you, and she meant it, she kept her word.’

  ‘By lying to the police?’

  ‘We didn’t see any alternative. It seemed to be for the best. No one saw us, Joe Dowling was out. Dale didn’t harm the investigation. When the constable questioned her, she told him she hadn’t seen Gabrielle since breakfast time. Perfectly true, as it happens. The room we used was on the same corridor as Gabrielle’s and we didn’t see her on the way in or out.’

  Hannah said nothing.

  ‘The truth is,’ Marc said, ‘Dale and I have both moved on. We’d pretty much forgotten what happened.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’

  ‘Honestly, I swear it. Then your team re-kindled the investigation and Dale found herself being quizzed again. She panicked. How could she know whether you knew or had guessed about her relationship with me?’

  ‘Did Leigh Moffat know that you two were sleeping together at the time of the murder?’

  He shook his head. ‘They look out for each other, but Leigh has enough sense not to be her sister’s keeper. Over the years, she’s learned that there are some parts of Dale’s life it’s better for her not to know about and that suits Dale. Leigh’s obviously aware of our original relationship, when we were kids. But the first she learned about The Moon under Water was this afternoon. Dale didn’t have anyone else to turn to.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Leigh was bloody furious with both of us. Most of all, she wanted to protect our relationship. You have to believe that.’

  ‘At this precise moment, I’m inclined to believe anything of the Moffat sisters.’

  ‘Hannah, please. Leigh is so honest, it’s painful, but she doesn’t want our lives to be wrecked by an old indiscretion. She didn’t want me to tell you, but it’s not simply a matter of protecting me. She hates the thought of me hurting you.’

  Hannah considered. ‘Is that it?’

  His eyes widened. ‘Isn’t that enough?’

  ‘Anything else you want to tell me? Additional offences to be taken into consideration?’

  He tried out a tentative smile and reached towards her, but when she flinched, he thought better of it. ‘I’m so sorry, Hannah. What more can I say? I wish we’d never…it was wrong. Better for you not to know. But with a root and branch cold case review…’

  ‘You were terrified I might find out anyway?’ Hannah interrupted.

  ‘Well, yes.’

  She stood up. ‘Thanks for telling me.’

  He stared at her. ‘Don’t you want to say – anything else?’

  ‘Not right now. It’s late and I’m dog-tired and tomorrow will be as busy as today. Unlike you, I don’t have the option of putting up a ‘closed for business’ sign whenever the mood takes me. Or whenever I’m made an offer I can’t refuse.’

  ‘I suppose I deserved that.’ He gnawed at his lower lip. ‘Do you still want me to sleep in a separate room?’

  ‘Right now, Marc, I don’t give a fuck what you do.’

  She strode out of the room and headed up the stairs. As she reached the top, she heard him calling from the hallway.

  ‘There’s more. I have to tell you.’

  If he’s slept with anyone else, that’s it. I’m out of here.

  ‘Don’t you think you’ve said enough?’

  She could hear him breathing hard. When she turned, he was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Tears filled his eyes.

  ‘No, these are things you should know. Not about me.’

  ‘Go on, then.’

  ‘When Dale was questioned, it brought so much back.’

  ‘I bet.’

  He blew his nose. ‘You need – the police need – to have this information. I don’t know it it’s relevant…’

 
; ‘Tell me.’

  ‘Two things. First, Gabrielle Anders slept with Joe Dowling. At least once, maybe more often. Dale opened Gabrielle’s door once and saw her with Joe. She was lying on her back on the bed, letting him climb aboard. They were so engrossed they never knew they’d been seen.’

  ‘You never mentioned this before.’

  He hung his head. ‘At least now you can understand why. Besides, I thought everyone agreed, Barrie Gilpin killed Gabrielle. There didn’t seem any point in complicating things.’

  She said coldly, ‘And the second thing?’

  ‘Gabrielle had a lot of cash in her possession, but it seems to have vanished after she was murdered.’

  ‘How do you know this?’

  ‘Dale surprised her in the room one morning. This time Gabrielle had remembered her do not disturb sign, but Dale didn’t notice it in time.’

  ‘Oh really?’

  ‘So she told me. Anyway, Gabrielle had all this money spread out over the bed. Dale didn’t have the chance to count it before she made her apologies and left. When she came back to clean the room, the cash had vanished. But she reckoned it was thousands.’

  Hannah hushed the mutterings in the briefing room and said, ‘During the original investigation into Gabrielle Anders’ murder, the initial focus was on finding Barrie Gilpin. That isn’t to say that other lines of enquiry were neglected. Ben Kind took care to keep an open mind about the case, even though the ACPO wanted a quick result.’

  Her throat was dry and she took a sip of water. Apart from coffee and the maximum dose of paracetamol, she’d had nothing all day. She’d woken up with a fierce headache, and the thought of eating even toast and marmalade was enough to make her heave. She couldn’t have felt worse if Marc had clubbed her on the skull. Come to think of it, he had.

  ‘We all know two things, don’t we? One, we don’t need to prove a motive to secure a conviction for murder. But two, if we can’t figure out the why as well as the who, we may struggle when the case comes to court. Juries look for complete narratives. They want to know whydunit, before they decide on whodunit. So Ben looked at several angles. For instance, was the site where the body was found significant?’

  ‘The possibility of pagan ritual.’ Gul Khan wasn’t quite licking his lips, but he did sound hopeful. He preferred his work to be enlivened by a touch of the bizarre.

  ‘We couldn’t find any evidence to support any meaningful link to witchcraft or Druids or any of that garbage. The likeliest scenario involved Barrie Gilpin’s well-documented fascination with the legends of Brackdale. The smart money was on his having a warped idea of sexual fulfilment. Maybe that caused him to lay out his victim’s corpse on the Sacrifice Stone.’

  ‘Gabrielle wouldn’t be the first young woman to be murdered because she led a man on and then turned him down,’ Nick Lowther said.

  ‘Sure,’ Hannah said. ‘But Ben Kind didn’t leap to the conclusion that nobody other than Barrie could have killed her. Joe Dowling’s wife was away that night and there was nobody to back up the story that he took to his bed because of illness. Tom Allardyce, we’ve spoken about. His wife gave him an alibi, although her disappearance is a cause for concern. Has there been a rift between them? We need to speak to her urgently.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Gul said. ‘Marital discord doesn’t half give us some opportunities.’

  Hannah cringed inwardly. In her flattest, least emotional tone, she explained that fresh information had come to light. Joe Dowling and Gabrielle might have had a fling and a large and unexplained wad of cash had been seen in her room shortly before she died. No need to reveal the source of the leads at this stage, even though Dale would need to be re-interviewed. One thing was for certain: it wouldn’t be wise for Hannah to question her, even if she could bring herself to do so.

  ‘Could the killer have wanted to conceal his victim’s identity?’ Linz suggested. ‘Or did he think she was someone else?’

  ‘We didn’t devote much time to those possibilities,’ Hannah said. ‘There wasn’t any doubt who she was. Plenty of people had talked to her during her few days in Brackdale. And despite the damage done to her face, once she was tidied up, she was still recognisable. Tash Dumelow didn’t have any trouble in identifying her.’

  ‘What about Gabrielle’s previous life?’ Maggie asked. ‘Anything in it that might cast light on her murder?’

  ‘Tash Dumelow helped us to build a victim profile. The long and short of it was, Gabrielle Anders was a drifter. A sexy drifter, but a drifter all the same.’

  Les Bryant said, ‘Which is why I thought we should take a fresh look at her past. We don’t have anything new on her time in the States and I can’t believe it would help us anyway. But her years in Leeds – that’s another story.’

  ‘As I mentioned yesterday,’ Hannah said, ‘Les has been speaking with colleagues in West Yorkshire. This morning, he’s come up with something fresh. Over to you, Les.’

  He joined her at the front of the room and cleared his throat. ‘Tash Dumelow was a good friend of Gabrielle, and for a couple of years she seems to have been closer to her than anyone. But she had to admit that Gabrielle was less successful with acting than with taking big money from rich businessmen in city centre hotels.’

  Linz said, ‘You’re not suggesting all this cash she had was payment for services rendered from Joe Dowling?’

  ‘Unlikely,’ Hannah said. ‘He’s famous for his tight fists. I can’t believe he’d part with his life savings, however good she was. Free board and lodging would be closer to the mark.’

  ‘Maybe he saves up for the little treats that girls like Gabrielle can provide,’ Bob Swindell suggested.

  ‘And the money was never found?’ Maggie looked up. ‘Could we have stumbled across a different motive for murder here?’

  ‘Good question.’ Gul was eager. ‘All along, we’ve assumed this is a sex crime. The nature of the killing, the place where the body was found, everything points in that direction. But what if someone killed her for the cash and then laid a false trail?’

  ‘Did she have a criminal record?’ Linz asked.

  ‘Of course we made a routine check at the outset,’ Hannah said. ‘Only to draw a blank.’

  ‘I blame the bloody Data Protection Act,’ Les said. ‘All this European shit about human rights and civil liberties. People are scared stiff of putting anything down in black and white. Everyone’s afraid the written records will come back and bite them when the bureaucrats find out. Result: you have to rely on word of mouth. So I talked off the record to people who worked in vice ten years ago and more, just to see if the name meant anything to them. Guess what? A DS I used to work with remembered her vividly.’

  ‘That’s the trouble with being drop-dead gorgeous,’ Bob Swindell said. ‘Too memorable. No use for undercover work. Aren’t you glad you’re not a blonde, Linz?’

  Linz stuck her tongue out by way of reply, but when Les glared at them, they shifted uncomfortably and shut up.

  ‘Now then,’ he said. ‘Gabrielle was seeing a crooked businessman by the name of Webber. He was half-Jamaican, half-Tyke, and he had his finger in various pies, if you’ll pardon my French. Including a brothel in Bradford and a night club in Leeds. He made his money as a small-time builder and he kept the business going mainly as a convenient way of laundering drug profits. He was implicated in a number of serious assaults and at least two murders of business rivals, but there was no evidence. Surprise, surprise, the CPS wouldn’t dream of prosecuting without being presented with a cast-iron case and the CID would never have found anyone willing to testify. People used to wet themselves at the prospect of crossing Eldine Webber.’

  He paused for effect, building suspense like a Yorkshire Hitchcock. Linz shuffled her feet impatiently, prompting Maggie to frown a rebuke.

  ‘And then one day, Vice got a lucky break. Webber was found dead in his penthouse near City Square. A cocktail of booze and drugs had done for him. Sad to say, he choked on his own vom
it.’ A melancholy smile. ‘The verdict was accidental death, but the circumstances of Webber’s passing were a tad mysterious. He was alone when he was found, but rumours began to surface that Gabrielle had been seen with him on the night he died. By the time of the inquest, she’d disappeared.’

  After the team had digested this, Gul asked, ‘So did she murder her sugar daddy?’

  Les shrugged. ‘Everyone had their own conspiracy theory. She’d killed him deliberately, she’d killed him accidentally, he’d died during a sex game and there’d been a cover up. One suggestion was that his enemies had paid her to kill him while his pants were down.’

  ‘West Yorkshire never got to the bottom of it?’ Bob smirked.

  Les’s dour expression didn’t flicker. ‘Let’s just say, not many tears were shed about his passing.’

  ‘Simon Dumelow is in the property business too, isn’t he?’ Maggie asked.

  Hannah nodded. ‘These days he plays the local squire. Opens the village fete and pays for the bouncy castle at the primary school sports day. His buildings win awards and he has a high ranking in the North West rich list. It wasn’t always that way. Construction’s a rough industry and most people in it get their first leg up the ladder by breaking a few rules. Occasionally a few heads. But Dumelow’s never been convicted of anything worse than speeding.’

  ‘That’s a hanging offence, mind, if some chief constables are to be believed,’ Bob muttered.

  Linz said, ‘Any connection between him and Webber?’

  Hannah said, ‘There’s no evidence whatsoever to suggest it, but then we didn’t know about the rumours of Gabrielle’s involvement with Webber’s death. Simon Dumelow maintained that the first time he met Gabrielle was when she turned up on his doorstep to renew her acquaintance with his wife. At the time we had no reason to doubt that. And his wife gave him an alibi for the night of the murder.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘But she was ill in bed with flu, so how watertight was that alibi? Worth our taking a closer look at Mr Dumelow, especially in light of what we’ve learned about his movements yesterday. Maggie?’