Murder On Account Page 12
“I can sense these things. Who is he?”
“No one. Just someone I bump into occasionally when I take the dog in the park.”
“What’s he like?”
“Posh, at least according to my Grandma Vi.”
“Has she met him?”
“No, but he comes from Canterbury. That’s enough for her to pass judgement.”
“So, come on, spill the beans. What’s his name?”
“Graham.”
“What does he do for a living?”
“What’s with the Spanish Inquisition?”
“I like to keep abreast of these things. If things work out between you two, don’t forget I can get you a discount off any of our stock.”
“Jeez, Sonya. I haven’t even had a drink with the guy yet.”
***
When I arrived at the Sidings, there was a police car in the car park. Who were they delivering bad news to this time?
“Good morning, Kat.” DCI Menzies was waiting for me outside my offices; Constable Sharp was with him. “Can we go inside, please?”
“What’s this all about?”
“It would be better if we spoke inside.”
I unlocked the door, and led them through to my office.
“I heard on the grapevine that you intend to keep this place going.” Menzies smirked. He seemed to do that a lot in my company.
“That’s the plan. What’s this all about?”
“Do you know a man called Ray West?”
“Westy? Yeah, he used to do some work for Roy.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“He came into the office earlier this week. Tuesday, I think.”
“What did he want?”
“He reckoned Roy owed him money for work that he’d done, and he expected me to pay him.”
“Did you?”
“No. I told him to sling his hook.”
“Ray West is known to be a violent man. I can’t imagine he reacted well to being told he wasn’t getting his money.”
“Is that a question?”
“Yes. How did he react when you said you weren’t going to pay him?”
“He wasn’t best pleased.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“He might have. I wasn’t really paying attention.”
“And you haven’t seen him since then?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I was supposed to meet him yesterday afternoon at Rita’s Café in Bloomsbury, but he didn’t show up.”
“Why were you going to meet him?”
“I’d told him that I was going to give him his money. That’s the only way I could get him to agree to see me. It was a lie, though. I just wanted to talk to him about the cases he’d been working on for Roy. Do you want to tell me what this is all about?”
“Ray West was murdered yesterday afternoon.”
“What? Where?”
“We can discuss that back at the station.”
“Are you arresting me?”
“Of course not. We’d just like you to answer a few questions.”
“And if I refuse?”
“I wouldn’t advise that.”
***
Although, technically, I could probably have refused their request to go down to the police station, to do so would no doubt have come back to haunt me eventually. It’s not like I had anything to hide, and I figured I might even learn something to my advantage.
After a couple of hours of going over and over the same ground, I was beginning to regret my decision to cooperate.
“Tell me again why you were going to meet West yesterday.” Even Menzies was starting to sound bored by his own questions.
“As I’ve said three times already, I wanted to find out what cases he’d been working on for Roy.”
“Surely your ex-boss would have kept his own records?”
“You’d have thought so, wouldn’t you? But there’s no sign of them in the office or in Roy’s house.”
“You’ve been in Roy King’s house since he was murdered?”
“I’ve already told you that. Why are you asking me the same questions over and over again?”
“Humour me, please. I want to make sure we have your story correct.”
“Roy’s daughter gave me permission to look around his house. I was trying to find the books.”
“And did you?”
“For the millionth time, no. They weren’t there.”
“Where do you think they are?”
“I don’t know. Maybe in his car.”
“There was nothing like that in Mr King’s car. We searched it from top to bottom.”
“I have no idea, then. Maybe Westy had taken them. Have you searched his house?”
“As far as we can ascertain, Mr West doesn’t appear to have had a permanent residence.”
“Where did he live, then?”
“We’re still trying to establish that. Do you know?”
“I’ve no idea. He always used to drop by the office to collect his money.”
“And you asked him to meet you in Bloomsbury because you owed him money?”
“Don’t put words into my mouth. What I said was that Westy reckoned Roy owed him money, and he thought because I’d taken over the business, the debt should pass to me.”
“But you didn’t agree?”
“Of course I didn’t. He wouldn’t even tell me what the payment was supposed to be for.”
“His death is rather convenient for you, isn’t it? It wipes out your debt.”
“Are you suggesting I knocked off Westy to save myself a grand?”
“People have killed for less.”
“This is a joke.” I stood up. “Unless you have any new questions for me, I’m leaving.”
“You haven’t asked how Mr West was killed.”
“I assumed you wouldn’t tell me.”
“Or you already know.” He walked over to the door. “Okay, you can leave, but we may need to speak to you again.”
His unfounded insinuation that I knew something about Westy’s murder wasn’t lost on me, but I decided to let it go. I just wanted to get out of that place.
***
There was no offer of a lift back to the office, but then I would probably have refused it anyway. While being questioned, I’d had my phone on silent. A quick check showed I had several missed calls from Zero. There was a WhatsApp message from him too. It read simply:
Where are you, Kat? Call me.
Something was clearly amiss.
“Zero, it’s me.”
“Where have you been?”
“Never mind that. What’s wrong?”
“The woman in the flat has been taken away in an ambulance.”
“When?”
“About an hour ago.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Well, I think so.”
“What do you mean you think so? Weren’t you watching?”
“I’d just nipped down the road for a sandwich.”
“You did what?”
“I hadn’t had anything to eat all day. I was starving.”
“You should have taken something with you. When you’re on surveillance, you never take your eyes off the target. Tell me what happened.”
“I was only gone for a few minutes. Ten tops. When I got back there was an ambulance parked in front of the block of flats. I didn’t really think much of it, but when I got upstairs, a paramedic was coming out of the woman’s flat.”
“But you didn’t actually see them take her to the ambulance?”
“No, but I did ask the paramedic if the person they’d taken to the ambulance was the woman from the flat. He said it was.”
“Did you ask which hospital they were taking her to?”
“No, sorry. I didn’t think to do that.”
“Okay. Never mind. You may as well go back to the office, and I’ll meet you there.”
***
&
nbsp; I’d been back at the office for half an hour before Zero showed up.
“I screwed up, Kat. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone for a sandwich.”
“No, you shouldn’t, but you’re new to the job, and it’s not like you’ve had any training. You’ll know better next time, right?”
His face lit up. “You’re going to let me do it again?”
“I don’t see why not. You’ve seen how things are around here; I need all the help I can get. There are a couple of conditions, though.”
“Okay?”
“First, you still have to be able to cover calls to this office.”
“That’s easy enough. There aren’t any.”
“Hopefully, that won’t always be the case.”
“What’s the other condition?”
“That you take a snack with you, and you develop a strong bladder.”
“I can do that. Where were you when I tried to call?”
“You’d better sit down, and I’ll bring you up to speed.”
I spent the next few minutes telling him about Westy’s murder and my interrogation at the police station.
“I’ve never known anyone who was murdered before,” he said.
“You didn’t exactly know Westy.”
“No, but I spoke to him just a few days ago. It’s just as well my mum doesn’t know what I’m doing here. She’d have a fit.”
“What does she think you’re doing?”
“I just told her I was working in an office.”
“You should have told her you worked at BuyVrator.”
He blushed. “Have you seen inside that place?”
“Yeah. Sonya, a friend of mine, works there. She often pops down here for a chat. She mentioned that you’d dropped in there to hand in your CV. She also said she’d never seen anyone leave so quickly.”
“Can we get back to talking about Westy?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” I lied. “I guess my original theory is well and truly blown out of the water.”
“Which was?”
“I had Westy down as the main suspect for Roy’s murder. I figured he’d lost patience because Roy hadn’t paid him.”
“It’s back to square one, then?”
“Not necessarily. The police seem to be treating the two murders separately, but what if the same person is responsible for both?”
“Is that likely?”
“It’s more likely than a burglary gone wrong. What if the murderer is connected to one of the cases that Westy was working on for Roy? Maybe one of them upset the wrong person.”
“But according to the paperwork that I saw, Westy wasn’t working on any cases when he was killed.”
“He must have been. Why else would he have been demanding payment?”
“How can you find out what he was working on?”
“If we could find the books, that might give us a clue. The only other possibility is if Westy had some paperwork that we haven’t seen.”
“I don’t suppose you’ll be able to check his place. The police will have it sealed off, won’t they?”
“It’s worse than that. According to the police, he doesn’t appear to have had a place.”
Chapter 15
Zero had made me a cup of tea. At least, I think that’s what it was.
“How do you mean, Westy didn’t have a place?” he said. “Was he homeless?”
“I doubt it. More likely, he was living off the grid. If I was guessing, I’d say that our Mr West didn’t pay any taxes. As far as I can gather, Roy always used to pay him in cash.”
“He must have been living somewhere?”
“Yeah, but the chances of our finding out where that was are pretty slim. Wherever it was, I’ll wager he was using a false name and paying in cash. Somewhere where no questions are asked. He probably moved around a lot too.”
“What do we do now?”
“We have to find those accounts. It’s the only chance we have of finding out what Westy was working on. The only other sniff of a lead I have is the guy with bushy sideburns.”
“You haven’t mentioned him before.”
“He was hanging around Roy’s house. The next-door neighbour said he did a runner when she tried to talk to him. He also turned up at my local pub, asking for me.”
“And you have no idea who he is?”
“None. It’s Roy’s funeral on Tuesday. Maybe he’ll show up there.”
“What do you want me to do about that flat in the Isle of Dogs?”
“There isn’t much else you can do. There’s no point in staking out the place if no one is living there. I’ll just have to wait until Ralph tells Christine he’s working late again, and see where he goes then.”
“I could follow him if you like. You did say that he might recognise you.”
“Maybe, but for now I’m more concerned about the Mike Dale case.”
“Did you have any joy with the CCTV?”
“The bar across the road has cameras facing Fulton’s offices. It caught Mike Dale leaving on the Friday night that he disappeared; he had his laptop with him.”
“Is that significant?”
“I think so, for two reasons: First, Ted Fulton lied about the laptop. He told Dale’s PA that it had been taken in for repair. And, according to his PA, Mike Dale never took his laptop home with him. So why did he take it that day?”
“Because there was something on it that he didn’t want anyone else to see?”
“Perhaps. Or maybe he knew he wouldn’t be coming back.”
“Do you think he disappeared on purpose?”
“It’s a definite possibility, but I really need to speak to Lisa. I take it you didn’t have any joy getting hold of her?”
“No. I tried at least twenty times.”
“That’s beginning to look like another dead end.”
“Not necessarily.”
“What do you mean?”
“We can’t make her pick up her phone, but it’s definitely still switched on.”
“So?”
“So, I could probably trace it.”
“How?”
“It’s probably best that you don’t know. It’s not exactly legal.”
“Jeez, Zero. When you said you used to be a hacker, I thought you were just messing with me. You really are into this stuff, aren’t you?”
“I used to be, big time, but I packed in the heavy stuff when they started to get too close for comfort.”
“They?”
“The government, secret service, that kind of thing.”
“This just gets worse and worse.”
“It’s okay as long as you don’t end up getting extradited. There are some places where they don’t mess around. They’ll lock you up and throw away the key for this kind of stuff.”
“But you’ve stopped doing it now, right?”
“The serious stuff, yeah. My mum said she’d kill me if I got sent down.”
“I don’t want you to try to trace Lisa’s phone if it’s going to get you locked up.”
“This kind of stuff is nothing. There are ten-year old kids who do this sort of thing in their lunchbreak at school.”
“That’s a scary thought. Do you really think you might be able to track down Lisa?”
“Yeah, provided she doesn’t ditch her phone. I’ll do it this weekend. I ought to have something for you by Monday.”
“Great. We might as well call it a day. There’s not much more we can do here now.”
“Err, Kat—I—err—?”
“Yeah? Spit it out.”
“I was just wondering when I might get paid?”
“You’ve only been working here for a couple of days.”
“I know. I was hoping I could get paid weekly? I’m not sure I’ll last a month without any cash.”
“I can try, but it isn’t going to be easy until I start to see some money coming in.”
“Hello!” A woman’s voice came from the outer office. “Is
there anyone home?”
“We’re through here,” I shouted.
It was Mrs Marston. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“That’s okay. This is my new assistant, Zero.”
“Hi.” He nodded.
“Nice to meet you, err—”
“Zero.”
“Right. I just popped over to bring you this, Kat.” She opened her handbag, took out a cheque and handed it to me. “And I wanted to thank you for being so honest. I’m sure a lot of people would have milked it for as much as they could get.”
“No problem. I hope things work out okay for you.”
“So do I, but if they don’t, I know where to find you. Okay, thanks again. Bye.”
I waited until I’d heard her close the outer door before taking out the envelope that Vi had given me. “Looks like you’re in luck, Zero.” I counted out a hundred pounds and handed it to him. “We’ll sort out a proper wage for you next week. Will that keep you going until then?”
“Yeah, that’s great. Thanks, Kat. See you on Monday.”
***
Before my ‘date’ with Graham, I planned on accompanying Luke to the park, just in case the toerag’s father turned up again.
“There was a man here, looking for you, Kat.” The Widow Manning handed me Rexy’s lead.
“Was it the guy who reckons the dog bit his lad?”
“I don’t think so. At least, he didn’t mention the dog.”
“What did he want?”
“He didn’t say. He just asked if I knew when you’d be back.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall, fiftyish, with—err—” She ran a finger down each side of her face.
“Sideburns?”
“Yeah. Bushy ones.”
“How long ago was this?”
“A couple of hours, I’d say.”
Just then, the lift doors pinged open; it was Luke.
“I’m going to come with you to the park,” I said.
“What for?” He pouted. “I told you I’m not afraid of that bloke.”
“I know you aren’t, but it’s time he and I had a little chat.” I handed him the lead. “It’s okay, I won’t cramp your style if your girlfriend is there.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said, indignantly. “Girls are stupid.”
“Gee, thanks.”