Origami, Odium and Old Sins (Paper Crafts Club Mystery Book 7)

by Emily Selby

Certain. He completed it in front of me. He had a blank contract printed and just wrote my details and dates. What do you reckon? A match?'

  Jack pulled the stapled contract out of the sleeve and inspected the handwritten parts, comparing it with the paper slip. 'I'm not a graphology expert, but it does look similar to me. The same large letters, written with a heavy hand. I'll see what our experts make of it. And, of course, we'll check the fingerprints on both documents, if you don't mind lending me your contract.'

  'That's fine,' Katie replied.

  'Why are you carrying it, by the way?' Jack asked, giving her a curious look.

  Katie shrugged. 'I was going to use it to force him to pay my salary.'

  Jack's forehead furrowed. 'He still hasn't paid up?'

  'I need to check my bank account, but I'd be surprised.'

  'You need to talk to him.'

  'I already have,' Katie replied with a sigh. 'I think I'll talk to his daughter next time. Or maybe his wife,' she added, remembering the conversation with Linda.

  Moira, the influencer...

  Jack's eyes glinted. 'Why with his wife? She's got no active role in the management of the hotel, or so I was told.'

  'From what I’ve gathered from the local intelligence, she may have no formal role, but her informal influence is quite significant.'

  'Hm...' Jack said quietly. 'I might have misread the situation then. I wonder how Mr McBride would react if I interviewed him with his wife.'

  Katie considered the scenario. 'Given that she keeps him on the straight and narrow, as the grapevine says, it may be an interesting interview, indeed. How much money did you find in the safe?' Katie asked, pushing aside the bitter taste rising in her throat.

  Jack pulled another plastic bag with a pile of banknotes, held together with a paperclip. 'Two packets, £350 each.'

  'Each of them with the note?'

  'One only. But otherwise, both packets look identical.'

  'So, Mr McBride gave her the money. But why?' Katie said twirling the rogue strand of hair. The confusion had formed into a thick fog and looked set to stay.

  'I was going to ask you exactly about that. Apparently, you heard Amanda making a comment about Mr McBride cooking books?'

  'Yes, but...' Katie hesitated. The events were unclear in her mind. 'I'm not sure if I heard it correctly. Amanda mumbled the words to herself. I was upset at the time and might have misheard her.'

  'Yes, but then, didn't Amanda deal with the hotel accounting?'

  'Just some night auditing.' Katie paused. 'Oh, I see what you mean. Are you going to check the hotel financial records?'

  'I may need to. This case is getting much more complex than I ever thought,' Jack replied.'

  The recent conversation with Zuza played back in Katie's mind. She chewed her lower lip, which was beginning to hurt. She needed to pay more attention to her conversations with people!

  'I don't have any evidence to support this,' Katie said watching Jack carefully, 'so you may need to do some thinking or digging,' she added. Honestly, with all the confusion and the information overload, she didn't have the energy to track back her thinking process. Jack would have to deal with her hunches.

  'Okay, fire away,' Jack replied, his jaw tensing.

  Tough...

  'My immediate assumption is that Amanda must have discovered something in the financial records while doing a night audit. She confronted Mr McBride about it and asked for...' Katie paused, reluctance pushing the next word back into her throat.

  'Money,' Jack finished her sentence. 'You mean she blackmailed him?'

  Katie exhaled. 'It's an obvious conclusion, but I don’t think it fits in with Amanda's personality. Even if we assume she was, as Zuza described her "a survivor," maybe a streetwise person - oh, that's a good term,' Katie carried on, restlessness growing in her chest. 'I'm not defending her because she was my friend. I could imagine her taking advantage of a loophole, but not doing something outright illegal. She might have been opportunistic, but she wasn’t a liar or a cheat. If she needed money and, according to what I've heard from Zuza and Angie, she did, she could have stolen it from the hotel cash register. She could have used customers' credit cards. But she hadn't. There are a lot of opportunities for theft in the industry. That's why they have systems of checks in place. But if she'd ever attempted, someone would have noticed. If not Mr McBride, Ellen wouldn't have missed it. You need to talk to Ellen.'

  'I will, Katie,' Jack reassured her. 'And I'll ask for the hotel financial records. I see you care about Amanda's being treated fairly, and I agree with your approach, but we also need to keep our minds open. Maybe she wouldn't have done anything illegal, unless pushed beyond her limits. And she appeared frightened, stressed only a couple of days before her death.'

  Katie rubbed her nose. Her eyes were itching again. 'How about this phone you've found?' she said, hopeful. After all, Jack was a specialist in cybercrime. 'Are you going to try to access the information or are you sending it to the lab?'

  'I've got some equipment with me, so it may be faster if I give it a try. '

  'What about New Zealand police? Have they been helpful?'

  'They have, but it's hard to find someone, without knowing her name or other personal details. "Amanda Jones' mum?" is not exactly a very detailed description, is it?'

  'Her birth certificate?'

  'Requested.' Jack rested a hand on her shoulder. 'We're doing our best, Katie. We really are,' he said and smiled sadly. 'Your friend left very little trace of her existence, but we're following whatever comes up. We'll get there.'

  The wave of sadness tightened Katie's chest. Tears filled her eyes again. Yes, Jack and Chris were doing their best, and she was helping as much as she could. They were drowning in information, some of which didn't make sense and seemed deliberately supplied to confuse them. Including the snippets of information Amanda, herself had left behind.

  So far, it didn't look like a very successful investigation.

  16

  Katie retreated to her office and busied herself with mundane work, leaving Jack to deal with the technology. Just before midday, her phone beeped with a text message from Zuza.

  "Hamish is back for lunch. In the pub, now."

  Katie's heart accelerated. A trail to follow!

  Katie sneaked out to the staffroom, which was empty. Jack's laptop and his jacket were gone, too.

  Where had he gone? Wasn't he supposed to work on Amanda's other phone, getting useful information from it?

  Katie made a mental note to check in with Chris as well. He was supposed to investigate the burglary of Angie's flat, and she hadn't seen him all day.

  But for now, she had to catch up with the mysterious Hamish. She rushed out of the door.

  When she arrived at the Royal Oak, Zuza was behind the bar.

  'They are sitting over there,' she said, pointing so vigorously with her perfectly shaped chin, her blond locks spilled on her shoulders. Katie's eyes darted towards the table in the far corner. Two men — one taller, with dark hair, the other a little shorter, fair-haired – were leaning over their dinner plates.

  'Are you going to call the police?' Zuza asked. Katie shook her head slowly. She'd worked with Jack long enough to know it wasn't an option. She needed some information first before the police could act on it. And she had to use ingenuity to collect it.

  'Can you just keep an eye on the situation and help when I wave at you or whenever you think I need help?' she asked, her heart hammering in her throat.

  'Okay,' Zuza replied. 'Don't get in any trouble. My boss doesn't like fights, and he will call the police.'

  Katie wasn't going to get into a fight, no way! But provoking the men could work in her favour. No, she had promised Jack, and Julia, long time ago she wouldn't endanger herself. Her knees trembling like a gelatine cake, Katie approached the table.

  'Hi, are you Hamish?' she said, trying to keep her voice steady.

  'It depends who's asking and why?' the da
rk-haired man replied, eyeing her up and down.

  Katie suppressed a shudder and forced her trembling lips to smile.

  'My friend, Amanda Jones,' Katie said calmly watching the dark-haired man. His face drained of blood, and his eyes narrowed.

  'What the –' the man beside him squeaked. The dark-haired man, who Katie guessed was Hamish nudged him.

  'What do you want?' Hamish asked.

  'Nothing.' Katie shrugged. 'I was just wondering if you knew about Amanda's death. She talked to me about you.'

  'So what?' the other man snapped. Hamish put his hand up in front of his friend's face, clearly wanting him to stop talking. 'Leave it to me, Adam,' he murmured.

  'Who are you?' Hamish asked, glaring back at Katie.

  'Just a friend,' Katie replied, buckling her knees. Her head was buzzing. Was that it? The end of her crazy attempt at gathering information?

  'Mind your own business,' Hamish growled. The other man's mouth twisted. He bared his teeth.

  'I will,' Katie said calmly, turned on her heel and walk back towards the bar. When she was out of the earshot of the two men she turned around again and pretended to drop something. She ducked around a corner and hid behind a flowerpot stand in the corner, behind the table where the men were sitting.

  '... don't know who she is, but she obviously knows too much.' Katie heard a whisper.

  'Maybe we should help her keep quiet?' said a different voice, a bit louder.

  'Hush,' the first voice said. It was probably Hamish. 'Keep quiet. And don't be stupid. We don't want to get into any more trouble, do we? Aren't you enjoying your freedom?'

  'Yeah, bro.'

  'Everything's okay, gentlemen?' Katie heard familiar voice. Zuza! She took it as a prompt to leave. She tiptoed quickly a few steps back, towards the door.

  'Yes, chick,' Hamish replied, in his normal voice. 'The only way you can make this better, would be if you accepted my offer to join us for a coffee.'

  Zuza laughed. 'I'm at work, gentlemen.'

  As Katie headed towards the door, she caught Zuza's eye. She waved her friend a thank-you and left. Once she was out of the door, she fished her mobile out of her handbag and texted Jack.

  "Found Hamish. Nasty piece of work. If you hurry, you find him in the Royal Oak."

  Her finger hovered over the send button. Jack wasn't at the station. He might have gone to Carlisle or even Newcastle to take Amanda's second phone to the lab. She pressed the Call button.

  'How are you, Katie?' he answered the phone almost immediately. 'Sorry I had to leave, I had a meeting to attend.'

  'A meeting?'

  'Yes, about ... my situation.'

  Katie's heart flipped. 'You mean, about you going back to your original team, in Manchester?'

  How could she have forgotten?

  'Yes.'

  'And?' she asked, trying hard to ignore her tightening throat.

  'We've just finished. It was okay. We talked only about the interrupted leave and the current case. They told me I could take the remaining time off later if I wanted.'

  'Was that your choice?'

  'Yes,' he replied. 'I definitely want to wrap this case up first. I was wondering if we could maybe spend some time together once it's finished.'

  She swallowed. Her mouth tasted of backing paper.

  'When?'

  'Whenever you're free. I was thinking of going away for a weekend. Some warm place, South of France, maybe. It should be warm and nice by now.

  Katie inhaled sharply. They'd been spending more and more time together but mostly locally. This would be their first trip together.

  'That would be great,' she replied, for the first time feeling no pressure to consider the decision. Had she finally committed to their relationship? 'But what about afterwards?' she added. This issue had been troubling her for some time. ' Did they talk about you needing to go back to Manchester?'

  'They said it depended on me.'

  Katie's heart broke into a gallop. 'And what did you say?'

  'I said I needed time to think about it.'

  'How much time do you need?'

  'However much it takes to convince you.'

  Could her heart go really that fast?

  'Convince me to do what?'

  'Decide where you want to study.' A lighter note crept into Jack's voice. Was he enjoying this exchange? Katie rolled her shoulders back. Honestly, she should have seen it coming and prepared better.

  'You seem to be assuming that I do want to study.' She deliberately chose to focus on the easy question rather than the underlying, unspoken one.

  'Don't you want it?'

  'I think we need to talk about it,' she said. They did need to talk about it. She needed to think about it. Over the previous few weeks, Jack had tried several times to get her to talk about her future plans. To talk about their future together. Even though Katie was quite happy in the relationship, and definitely committed, she still found it difficult to move into anything that would make it harder in case things didn't work and she had to backtrack. She could guess that's the question Jack was really asking what's not so much about where she wanted to study but if she wanted to move with him to Manchester or consider them living together here. The whole conversation about Manchester versus Newcastle university courses were really about the next step in their burgeoning relationship. Because even though obviously she could move to Manchester and find a place to live there and he could rent a flat in Newcastle or Carlisle, sooner or later it would really be about them moving in together.

  'But maybe not now,' she added and cleared her throat. 'I've found Hamish,' she said deliberately changing the subject.

  'You didn't do anything crazy, did you?' A serious note brimmed in Jack's voice.

  'I'm outside the pub,' she replied, avoiding answering his question. 'They're still inside.'

  There was a pause on the other end of the line.

  'I'm stuck here, waiting for someone to crack Amanda's phone,' he said eventually.

  'Shall I ring Chris?' she offered.

  'I've just asked him to interview Amanda's husband again, but I'll ask Celia to cover the interview and get Chris to follow those two men. I'll call them right away.'

  'Thanks,' she replied and disconnected.

  At least she didn't have to do anything stupid.

  She slipped her mobile back into her handbag and scanned the environment for a good place to hide. She wasn't going to let Hamish and Adam leave the pub without gathering as much information about them as possible. Having a choice of a phone booth, an outdoor table, and a gap between the pub in the house next door, she headed towards the gap. Even though Amanda was dead, Hamish and his jerky friend could still want to use the phone and Katie didn't fancy crawling under tables again. She slid into the gap in giggles. She hadn't done any spying since her daughter Julia was six or seven and they were playing hide and seek. She made a mental note to tell Julia about it. Obviously, she would give her the lighter version, because spying on dangerous criminals wasn't necessarily an activity she was proud of.

  Katie pulled up the zip of her jacket. The afternoon, although sunny with spring in the air, was still quite cold. After all, it was only March. She hugged her jacket closer. Judging by the state of their dinner plates at the time Katie approach them, Hamish and his friend would be finished with the lunch soon.

  Indeed, a few minutes later, the door to the pub opened, and the men walked out. Zuza was right, these two were not locals. The conversation she had with them at the table was too short to identify the accents, but the shorts together with flip-flops made them both stand out from the local crowd.

  Was that how New Zealanders dressed, even on a relatively cold spring day?

  The men crossed the distance between the pub door and the car park and climbed into a white camper van. Katie pulled her mobile out and called Chris, but he didn't answer. Hopefully he was driving. Unfazed, Katie fired off her camera and took a few snapshots as the van pulled out of t
he car park and drove away. Assuming they weren't going too far and not planning to hide, they should be easy to find. Fortunately, there was only one place in Sunnyvale where they could legally park a camper van. In the holiday Park near the Sunny Corner Hotel.

  17

  Chris arrived a couple of minutes later. Seeing the police car approaching, Katie emerged from the gap between the buildings and waved at him.

  'Where are they?' Chris asked, walking up to her.

  'Gone,' Katie replied, pointing in the direction the van disappeared into. 'I guess, to the camper van park.' She flicked through the photos on her phone looking for the one she’d just snapped. Fortunately, the registration number was clear. 'Here you go,' she said, handing the phone to Chris.

  'What am I supposed to do with it now?' he asked

  'I don't know.' Katie shrugged. 'Chase the criminals. You're the policeman.'

  Chris shot her a dagger of a glance and heaved a sigh. 'You're jumping to conclusions, lass. I mean, how am I supposed to approach them? What do I say?' he said. '"Hi guys, you're suspects in a murder enquiry, how about you come with me to the police station?"'

  Katie folded her arms. 'As I said, you're the police officer. I'm just a nosy woman. Can't you make up a lie about their van being seen at the crime scene or something?'

  Chris pressed his lips and shook his head slowly. 'I need a little more, unless you find me someone who'd seen their van at the hotel at the time of Amanda's death.'

  Katie bit her lip. She was out of ideas. How could she find more evidence that the men were implicated in the case?

  'Okay,' she said unfolding her arms. 'Let's see what we can do. Maybe together we can come up with something. What do we have to support the hunch? The name "Hamish" is one. The dark-haired guy responded to me calling him Hamish, and Zuza can probably testify, too. The letter Amanda passed on to me was signed by a Hamish, and it was threatening, wasn't it?'

  Chris scrunched teeth freckled face. 'No, I wouldn't say threatening. It was hinting at something, but when you read it another way, he's offering her protection.'

  'So, he's offered her protection,' Katie said, her head clearing. 'She is dead. He didn't protect her.'