This Dark Place: A Detective Kelly Moore Novel

by Claire Kittridge

  She turned back to Avery. “How did your fingerprint wind up on the gun, Avery?”

  “It’s not mine,” Avery said.

  “It may just be a partial print, but it’s still a match, and as far as our forensics team is concerned, you two were the only ones in that room,” Dunne said.

  “Was Roane cheating on you with Priscilla?” Kelly demanded.

  “No…” Avery looked down at the table. “They didn’t get back together.”

  A vibration in Kelly’s pocket dragged her attention away. At the same time, Dunne reached into his coat pocket. It was a message from Joshi asking them to meet her in the observation room ASAP.

  Kelly stood. “Excuse us for a moment.”

  Peter Ames glared as she and Dunne walked out.

  “Sorry, but this couldn’t wait,” Joshi said as they walked into the observation room.

  “What’ve you got?” Dunne looked at Joshi’s laptop and the stack of papers alongside it.

  “Forensics just called—Roane’s house wasn’t exactly clean,” Joshi said.

  Dunne laughed. “Not a surprise there.”

  “There was a woman’s outfit—as well as her trainers—stashed in his closet. It tested for blood, bits of bone, and other tissue matter.”

  “What size was the clothing? Whose DNA was on it? Was it more than one set?” Kelly fired off the questions like a jackhammer.

  Joshi laughed. “Easy, tiger. The clothes are size twelve—that’s size eight US—about Avery’s size, and they match her style. DNA is going to take a little while to get back to us, but it’s top of their list. They sent photographs in an email and I printed them out for you.”

  Dunne glanced at the video monitor, watching Avery sulk as Ames talked with her lawyer. “Let’s hear what she has to say now.”

  25

  Kelly’s heart sank a little as she and Dunne walked down the hallway. Things weren’t looking good for Avery Moss. But even with these photos, it didn’t quite add up.

  Was it a crime of passion? Had Avery walked in on Priscilla and Roane? That would explain Priscilla’s lingerie, and the whole webcam scenario. But then why would Roane have Avery’s bloody clothes?

  “I don’t know what else I can tell you,” Avery said as they returned to the interrogation room.

  Dunne pulled a sheet of paper out of the yellow folder in his hand, placing it in front of Avery. “Well, you might have something to say about this.”

  Avery paled. “I... I don’t know.” Her voice was unsteady.

  Ames stood up quickly, his face flushed red. “What’s all this about?”

  Kelly ignored him and looked at Avery.

  “Why were your blood stained clothes in in the bottom of Roane’s closet? Were going to find out, Avery, whether you tell us or not.”

  Ames looked shocked, his mouth frozen in a pained grimace. Kelly could see the struggle between his feelings for Avery and the loss of his daughter. It erupted into anger as he lashed out at the detectives.

  “Now you’re cooking up more evidence against her!” He shook his finger and bits of saliva flew from the edges of his lips. “This is not why you are here, Ms. Moore.”

  “Mr. Ames, it’s time for you to leave the room,” Dunne said, standing up and meeting his gaze directly.

  “I’m not going anywhere until this charade ends and Avery goes home.”

  “Mr. Ames,” Avery said in a soft voice. “You should go. I need to talk with the detectives alone.”

  Ames froze for a moment as Avery spoke, his face drained of color. He looked at Avery, still staring at the photo, then at the lawyer who nodded silently. He grabbed his overcoat, almost knocking over his chair, and stormed out of the room.

  “Understand, Avery,” the lawyer said, “that you do not have to answer any questions here today. I advise you to remain silent until any formal charges are brought.”

  Avery shook her head. “No, I need to tell them what happened.”

  Tears began spilling down her cheeks.

  “She was playing Russian roulette. I walked in and she was lying on the couch, practically naked, with a gun in her hand. A gun!” Avery’s eyes widened. “At first I thought... I don’t know, that she was scared, that maybe she wanted to kill me.” Avery sniffled. “But then I realized she was pointing it at herself. She had her laptop set up on the table. I asked what she was doing. She said it was none of my business, that she had to do it.” Avery shook her head. “Nothing was that bad in her life. I told her to put it down, that we would work out whatever was wrong, just like we always do.” Avery dropped her head into her palms.

  “What happened then?” Dunne’s voice was direct, but his tone was gentler than before.

  “She told me it wasn’t something that could be worked out, nothing that we could fix. Then she lifted it to her head. I panicked. I grabbed her arm and tried to jerk it away, but… The gun.” Her tears started to fall harder. “It went off before I could grab it. The sound was… Deafening. And I… I just stood there looking at the blood on the wall and ceiling. She looked alive, but she wasn’t moving. I looked down and there was the gun in my hand. I thought maybe it wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real.”

  “And how did your clothes get into Roane’s closet?” Kelly asked. “Was he there?”

  “He came in just after. He had a key. I dropped the gun, and he saw the blood on my clothes. He said I needed to get cleaned up and give him what I had on. Once he left, I called the police.” Avery looked at Kelly, then Dunne. “But, I don’t know how he died.”

  “Did you kill Roane Davies?” Dunne said.

  “No! He loved me, was trying to protect me. He even told me he wanted to intimidate Detective Moore—try and get her off my trail, but I told him not to. I told him it wasn’t a good idea, over and over.” Avery’s voice broke. “I didn’t kill him, I didn’t. I swear.”

  Kelly looked at the chair where Ames had been sitting. “Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?”

  Avery was nearly hysterical by now. “Priscilla wasn’t a bad person. She was my best friend. Her father doesn’t deserve to hear what she was doing. Have her name dragged through the media. They’ll say she was a whore. But they’re already doing that anyway. So what does it matter...”

  “You said she was in front of her computer,” Kelly said. “What was she doing?”

  “Yes, her computer was on, and so was the built-in camera. She had been working online sex chat rooms. She had told me about it, even asked me to do it with her. But I turned her down. That’s not acting. She seemed so lonely, had become so distant.”

  “Was she doing it for the money?”

  “No, she didn’t need money. She said it was fun. That it made her feel powerful. Toying with a bunch of middle-aged creeps online. But, it wasn’t fun.” She drew in a deep breath.

  “If it went as you said, Avery, why would anyone want to kill Roane?”

  “I don’t know. I really don’t. I can’t even imagine it. I’ve lost all the things that matter, and now everything is closing in on me.” Avery began to sob uncontrollably.

  The lawyer handed her a finely laundered handkerchief. “I believe you’ve heard enough for now, detectives,” he said.

  Dunne pushed himself to his feet. “Thank you, Avery. We’ll let you compose yourself. In a few minutes, an officer will bring you back to the holding cell.”

  26

  “What do you think?” Kelly asked.

  “Could be she’s telling the truth,” Dunne replied. “But when those clothes come back with Priscilla’s DNA all over them, it’s going to be difficult for her to prove that she didn’t pull the trigger.”

  “Yeah... It looks suspicious, but I think we heard it from her straight,” Kelly said. “We need to talk to Superintendent Frame when she gets back.”

  They entered the empty incident room. Dunne lowered his voice. “I don’t think so.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ve been going over it in my head,” Dunne
said. “It pains me to say it. I’ve been working for the Super for fifteen years, and she’s always been a straight shooter. But this case has gone sideways. Brickmat is getting information before we even have it at times. It’s possible it’s coming from her.”

  “Shit,” Kelly said.

  “Let’s keep this between us for now. I’ll go through the proper channels once we’re more certain. We’ll be more… Selective about what information we send upstairs.”

  Kelly nodded. “It’s a plan.”

  27

  Kelly stood outside the station, people-watching as the evening was turning into night. The two days in London already felt like a week. This is why people smoke, she thought.

  Back inside, Blevins was at the front desk eating a salad.

  “Looks like an actual healthy dinner, JB,” Kelly commented dryly as she walked by. “I think that is the biggest salad I’ve ever seen.”

  “Got to keep these muscles up.” He stood up straight and flexed his right arm.

  Kelly laughed. Blevins was about her size, and she could have taken him easily in a brawl. She found herself with a growing affection for the guy.

  “Got this business sorted out yet?” Blevins asked.

  “Not quite,” Kelly said. “There are a couple of pieces here that we’re missing. Something is definitely out of place.”

  Blevins took a big forkful of lettuce into his mouth. “Isn’t that how it always goes?” he said as he chewed. “Sure you don’t want a bite?”

  “No, thanks,” she replied, and held up her empty cup. “I’ll have more coffee.”

  Joshi was sitting alone in the incident room when Kelly walked in. She was sipping tea, her gaze unfocused. She looked exhausted. An earthy smell permeated the air from Joshi’s steaming cup.

  “I should really start drinking tea,” Kelly said. “In the afternoon, at least.”

  Joshi smiled warmly at Kelly. “I keep some teabags in my desk upstairs. Mint and lemon, Ceylon, English Breakfast, too. If you ever want any, help yourself. They’re in the top drawer.”

  “Thanks. I might take you up on that.”

  Dunne and Rodgers were talking as they walked into the incident room and sat down. The day had turned to night and the adrenaline rush of Avery’s interrogation had passed, leaving the team feeling depleted.

  Dunne set down a stack of papers on the table in front of him and pulled out a photo of Avery’s clothes in the bottom of Roane’s closet. He tacked it onto the wall between a picture of Priscilla lying dead on the couch, and another of Roane’s body at the side of Regent’s Canal.

  He turned to Rodgers. “What did you pick up from Avery’s interview?”

  “Playing devil’s advocate, let’s say she’s lying—she’s studying acting, right? So, she pulls the trigger, and Roane covers for her. Then the next day, she has time to think about it and realizes that she can’t count on him. That he won’t keep his mouth shut and she’ll end up taking the fall. Avery knows that he’s out stalking Kelly. So she follows him. She waits ’til he’s by the canal and smashes his head, tossing him in when she’s done. The only problem from her angle is that she thought he’d chucked her bloody clothes away, but now they’ve turned up.”

  “Would she be strong enough to take on Roane like that?” Joshi interrupted. “He was no bodybuilder, but I’d say he had twenty-five pounds and a good three or four inches on her.”

  “By the looks of her, no,” Rodgers agreed. “But we’ve all seen people do some surprising things.”

  “Yes, but why would Avery want to kill Priscilla?” Kelly threw in.

  “Good question,” Rodgers replied. “Priscilla slept with Roane again, and she’s jealous. Roane didn’t want to see Avery get locked up, so he decided to help her out.”

  “Or,” Joshi chimed in, “without Priscilla in the picture, Avery is next in line for Peter Ames’ fortune. She and Roane were in on the murder together.”

  “Okay. And if she’s telling the truth?” Dunne asked.

  “If she’s telling the truth,” Kelly interrupted, “and I think she is, then we’re looking for another murderer. Someone who had reason to want Roane out of the way.”

  “Why would Roane be a threat?”

  “It could be unrelated to Priscilla’s death,” Kelly answered.

  “Let’s assume it’s related,” Dunne said. “What if Roane knew something about the circumstances of Priscilla’s death, something that Avery doesn’t. We found Priscilla’s underwear in his pocket, but not his phone or keys.”

  “Could have to do with the online sex aspect,” Rodgers suggested. “Avery says she never participated, but maybe Roane did.”

  “Then we need to find out more about what Priscilla was doing online, and with whom,” Dunne said. He looked at Joshi, who nodded.

  “The gun is another trail. Where’d she get it?” Kelly asked.

  “Jenny Hooks is looking likely. Maybe she wanted to get rid of Roane?” Joshi replied. “Although why? And while the evidence is circumstantial, it’s all pointing to Avery right now.”

  Kelly took a deep breath. Dunne was going to be angry with her for not revealing the text messages earlier. It was the right thing to do, though, to tell the team. Especially since the messages had stopped after the death of Roane Davies.

  “There’s one more thing,” Kelly said. “I’ve received two text messages that seemed linked to the case since I got here.”

  “When? What did they say?” Rodgers asked.

  “The first one was just after I got here. It said, ‘get out now before you’re in too deep’.”

  “And the second one?” Dunne asked. His voice was even, his words neutral, but even so, Kelly could tell that he was angry.

  “It was when I was running along the canal,” Kelly said. “It was very early, around 5 a.m. The text said, ‘watch your back if you want to find her’.”

  “What does that mean? Who’s ‘her’?” Rodgers asked.

  “My sister, Cass. She went missing nine years ago in the North of England,” Kelly said. “She was twenty-five. The case was never solved.”

  Dunne grimaced, “I’m sorry,” he said. And Kelly understood from the expression in his eyes that he was on intimate terms with loss.

  “Could Roane have known about your sister?” Joshi asked gently.

  “Unlikely, but there were news stories at the time. With a little research on the internet…”

  “Did you get the number?” Rodgers’ voice broke in after a moment.

  Kelly shook her head. “Blocked. There is a trace on my phone now, to track the location of any new messages, but I haven’t gotten any more.”

  Dunne looked at her curiously. “A trace? How?

  “I did it,” Joshi said. Her voice was quiet, but confident. “Kelly came to me earlier.”

  Dunne’s expression hardened. “DI Joshi, you should have told me right away.”

  He turned to Kelly. “Detective Moore, were there just those two?”

  “Yes,” Kelly said. She looked at Joshi, who didn’t appear that bothered by Dunne’s rebuke. She found herself liking Samantha Joshi even more.

  “Were you able to find out anything?” Dunne said to Joshi, focusing on the facts rather than the whiff of insubordination.

  She nodded. “BT should come back tomorrow, but I’m guessing it’s a burner phone. Hopefully we can trace it to the vendor. We might get lucky if they have CCTV. There may be footage of the person who bought it. If you’ll sign off on it all.”

  “Send me the paperwork once we’re done here. We’ll need to talk to Avery Moss again and see if she knows anything about the texts. I want you to look deeper into the dark sites. We need to see what Priscilla Ames was doing online.”

  Joshi nodded. “I contacted a tech specialist I know in Oxshott yesterday. He’s infamous in the world of cyber security for being able to get in where it seems impossible. He works alone out of his house. Charges a ridiculous fee.”

  “You know there’
s no budget.”

  “Yeah, but I know him from Oxford. I’ve helped him out of a jam once or twice,” Joshi said. “He said he’s willing to look at the data, so I sent it to him. I’ll call him back later this afternoon. He may be able to track which sites Priscilla was on before she died. Possibly even find recordings of what she was up to.”

  “Alright,” Dunne said, moving on. “What about the media? Rodgers, have you been keeping tabs on the coverage? Tabloids? Social media?”

  “Not looking good, Jack,” Rodgers said, looking at his monitor. “The tabloids are zinging with headlines about a love triangle. ‘Deadly Threesome,’ ‘Lady Avery Murders Best Friend and Lover,’ ‘She Had to Have It.’ That kind of thing. They’ve even got a picture that they say is Priscilla, Avery, and Roane all in bed together.”

  “A real shitshow,” Kelly said. “And once they discover that we found Avery’s bloody clothes in Roane’s closet—if Brickmat doesn’t already know—it’s really going to get out of hand.”

  Dunne surveyed the white board and the crime scene photos.

  “Rodgers,” he said. “While Joshi’s covering the tech angle, I want you to go through the archive, look back at the old case files. Flag anything gun-related that bears resemblance to Priscilla Ames’ death—murders and suicides. See if there’s a pattern that we’re missing.”

  “Let’s bring Jenny Hooks in, too,” Kelly demanded.

  “Agreed,” Dunne said. “She definitely has more questions to answer.”

  28

  Kelly looked across the table at the young woman. The room remained as it had been for Avery’s interrogation; gray and desolate. Jenny looked small.

  “Please state your name for the record,” Dunne began.

  “Jenny Hooks.”

  “Jenny?” Dunne asked. “Or Jennifer?”

  “Jenny,” she replied defiantly.

  “Thanks, Jenny, for coming in to talk with us,” Kelly said evenly.