Almost Love (36 page)

Chapter Forty-Eight

“Do you remember the reported break-in at the house in Chapel Lane?” Superintendent Thornton fixed Tim with a flinty eye.

“Of course I remember,” said Tim. “It was only yesterday. Juliet Armstrong was detailed to interview Alex Tarrant, the woman who lives there. I met both her and her husband myself. I’d actually met her for the first time a few weeks ago, when I first started work on the McRae case.”

“Yes,” said the Superintendent, “you did. You told me. You also said that the daub on the kitchen wall made you think – with good reason, I might add – that the break-in was connected in some way to Claudia McRae’s disappearance and that therefore Mrs Tarrant might be in danger. Or is my memory playing tricks?”

“No, sir, that is correct.”

“So why wasn’t she given police protection?”

“We thought about it. But she went to stay with friends in Holbeach – is still there, as far as I know. So we thought the risk was minimal. I saw her earlier today, as a matter of fact, at the Archaeological Society. She seemed in good form. Nothing’s happened to her, has it?”

Tim asked the question with a growing sense of foreboding. He knew almost before he spoke what the answer was going to be.

“She’s disappeared, that’s what’s happened to her. That was her husband on the phone. He was expecting her back at the friend’s house by about 6 p.m. this evening and she hasn’t turned up. He’s tried calling her mobile, but it’s switched off. Naturally, he’s terrified that she’s been hurt.”

“It’s barely 7 p.m. now,” said Tim, flicking his wrist so that he could see his watch. “It’s a bit early to . . .”

“No, DI Yates, it isn’t ‘a bit early to’ anything. You know as well as I do that we’re looking at a pattern here: daub on the wall followed by abduction. It may not be exactly the same pattern, I grant you – but perhaps something went wrong yesterday. Perhaps the intention was to kidnap her then, and whoever was after her was thwarted in some way – maybe by those neighbours arriving. Whatever the answer, I think that we should be under no illusion that Mrs Tarrant is in danger now – and we’d better find her double quick. There’s already been enough muttering over the ineptitude of this force in discovering any clue that might lead to the discovery of Dame Claudia, but at least when we were notified of
her
disappearance she’d been gone for several hours. Assuming that Mrs Tarrant was safe at work until at least 5 p.m. and that she hasn’t just wandered off somewhere – which is highly unlikely – if she is being kept against her will, it must be somewhere local and her kidnapper can only have a head start of just over an hour. He – or she – must be a person that we know about, if only we can work out who it is. I expect you to do that, Yates. Pronto. And to find her. I want that woman reunited with her husband before the end of the evening. Is that understood?”

“Yes. Understood.”

Tim’s heart sank. Thornton was right to blame him for putting Alex Tarrant in danger. In truth he had intended to send a policewoman to look after her for a few days, despite the staff shortages, and it had simply slipped his mind. If she were in danger now, it would be his fault.

“And Yates?”

“Yes, sir?”

“I suggest that you find this Guy Maichment while you’re at it. It seems to me that he holds a lot of the cards here. Friend of Roy Little or not, I want to hear what he has to say for himself. For a start, we want to know whether he knew about that body you’ve just found.”

“I’ve requested a warrant . . .”

“You have. And I’ve got it for you. Now you’d better go away and get on with it before Mr Tarrant arrives. He sounds as if he’s in a fine state and he’s clearly not feeling very well-disposed towards you. I can’t say that I blame him, either. I’ll deal with him.”

“Thank you. But I would like to see him anyway – he may have some vital information for us.”

“I very much doubt it; he hasn’t seen his wife since the morning and he says that she was perfectly all right then. But you must let me be the judge of what he says. If he tells me anything of importance, of course I will pass it on immediately. You don’t need to see him now. There will be an opportunity for you to apologise to him later.”

“Yes, sir.”

For once in his life, Tim was unable to think clearly. He went back to his office and sank down into his desk chair. He felt drained. He would have put his head in his hands if he hadn’t been aware that Andy Carstairs was watching him with undisguised curiosity.

“Are you all right? Would you like some tea?”

Tim jerked his head up suddenly: Juliet! Juliet had to come back to the police station immediately. Between them they had assembled many pieces of the jigsaw, but they hadn’t put them together. He hadn’t paid enough attention to all the background stuff that Juliet had gathered and he hadn’t had the opportunity to relay Katrin’s messages about the Norwegian journal articles. Then there was Andy’s work with the looked-after children and the drugs gang. He was suddenly certain that the two cases were connected.

He pulled his mobile out of his pocket to speed-dial Juliet’s number. Before he could complete the action, the gadget glowed yellow and the same number appeared on his screen.

“Juliet?” he said. “I was going to call you. I need you here. Now.”

“I’m not sure that . . .” she sounded breathless, but Tim was in no mood to find out why.

“I said I need you here, now. It’s an emergency. Alex Tarrant has disappeared.”

“Oh, no . . .”

“Juliet? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. But it’s the dog-handler . . .”

“What? You aren’t making much sense. Can you get back here now, or not? Presumably there is still a police car there that can bring you. What does the dog-handler have to do with it?”

“The Alsatian got a scent. He kept on trying to lead his handler out of Guy Maichment’s garden. Apparently he’s quite a young dog and . . .”

“Get to the point.”

“He led the handler to a spot close to the gravel pits. He found a shoe there . . . and a walking stick. Close by one of the pits, the one that’s used as a fish farm.”

“And?”

“They belong to Dame Claudia. I’m quite certain of it. In the most recent photograph that we have of her, she’s wearing the same shoes and the stick is propped up beside her.”

“So you think that she was pushed into the pit? Or that her body was dumped there?”

“I think that it’s likely. We’ll have to get it dredged.”

“Well, get the Peterborough cops onto it, will you? It’s time they took responsibility for some of this case. I still need you to come back here. It’s even more important now. Whoever is holding Alex Tarrant is probably the same person who took Dame Claudia to that pit. We’ve got to find Mrs Tarrant before they harm her, too. And we’ve also got to find that little shit, Guy Maichment – always assuming that he and the kidnapper aren’t one and the same person. And there are some things that I need to tell you – stuff that I’ve found out that may or may not help. I need you to put your mind to linking up all the evidence that we’ve got, so come with a clear head.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

One of the policemen from Peterborough drove Juliet back to the police station. She arrived at her desk breathless and uncharacteristically dishevelled. There were spatters of mud on her coat and the soles of her shoes were caked in black loam.

Although he had awaited her return with impatience, Tim had meantime been co-ordinating the searches for both Alex Tarrant and Guy Maichment. He’d put Andy Carstairs in charge of the operation on the ground. Police officers had been deployed across the Fens, helped also by reinforcements from Peterborough and North Lincs Police. Both Maichment’s and Alex’s photographs and descriptions had been circulated to the officers taking part, as well as details of Maichment’s Land Rover, but the media had been given details about Maichment only and asked to broadcast them immediately. On balance, Tim had decided that Superintendent Thornton’s instruction not to make public the details of Alex Tarrant’s disappearance yet was probably the right one, even though he did not share his boss’s rationale for withholding them. Tim had scant regard for the politics of the situation, but he believed that it was important to delay alerting Alex’s abductor for as long as they could; panicky kidnappers were dangerously unpredictable. Nevertheless, it was a difficult judgment to make. He was acutely aware that if they didn’t locate her in the next forty-eight hours, they would be lucky to find her alive. Tim explained all of this to Juliet as briefly as he could. “We’re covering as wide an area as possible and alerting other forces, in case either Maichment or the person who’s holding Alex Tarrant – which of course may be Maichment – tries to get away from this area completely.”

“I don’t think that’s likely in her case,” said Juliet. “If Alex Tarrant has been kidnapped, it must have been for a purpose. There has to be a motive. I think that she was taken either to stop her from finding out about something or to prevent her from obstructing some action. My guess is that if whatever it is goes according to plan, she will be released. And I think that it’s likely she’s being held somewhere local. Why would the person who’s holding her run the risk of being spotted on a major road when there are so many tiny lanes and deserted outbuildings in this area? We could search the Fens for days without finding her.”

“Let’s hope that you’re wrong about that, but right in thinking that she’s still in South Lincs. We still have to cover the widest possible area, even so. That may help us to find Maichment. And Thornton’s already furious because he thinks that I’m responsible for Alex Tarrant’s disappearance. He has told me to spare no resource to get her back now. He hardly had to make the point, actually; I’m quite aware that I should have looked after her better.” Tim’s face creased with weariness. Juliet was indignant on his behalf.

“It’s too glib of Superintendent Thornton to blame you. Does he know that we’ve found some of Claudia McRae’s possessions at the gravel pit, by the way?”

“God, no, I suppose I should have told him at once. Go and let him know yourself, now, will you? It will come better from you, since you were there, and you can explain the delay in telling him by saying that you’ve only just got back. He probably has Tom Tarrant with him at the moment. He’s expressly forbidden me to sit in on the interview, but he may let you join in. If he does, try to probe Tom for any information that you think might help us. Then get rid of him as soon as possible and tell Thornton about the new McRae development. But hurry back as soon as you can – I urgently need your help to make sense of some other information I have.”

Juliet smiled briefly. It was typical of Tim to forget about her existence for days and then expect her to jump to attention and complete several tasks at once. Even more in character was his blithe assumption that she could take over an interview that had been set up by Superintendent Thornton himself. Tim might believe that she could hold sway with her superior interviewing skills, but the Superintendent would have other ideas.

She returned in less than half an hour.

“I think that you were right,” she said. “Tom Tarrant seems to be able to offer very little that could shed light on his wife’s disappearance. He made one cryptic comment, about feeling that she had recently distanced herself from him for a time, but, when the Superintendent asked him if he meant that she might have been having an affair, he backed off immediately. He said that their relationship was a very happy one and that he might have imagined that the problem. Anyway, he’s adamant that they are now as close as ever again.”

“Trust Thornton to blunder in flat-footedly and ask the question head-on! What kind of response did he expect? What about her friends? Did he ask about them, or whether Tom Tarrant thought that any of them might know where she is, or even perhaps that she might have gone to see one of them without mentioning it?”

“He did ask that. Apparently she has only one close friend, a woman who lives in Ireland. Her name is Carolyn Sheldrake. She’s actually working in London at the moment and met Alex for lunch a few days ago. Tom got in touch with her as soon as he became alarmed. He established that Alex wasn’t with this woman and hasn’t been in touch with her today.”

“Did he tell you how to get hold of Carolyn Sheldrake?”

“He’s given me her mobile number.”

“Good. I’d like you to call her a bit later. But first I want you to look at this.”

Tim produced the transcripts of the newspaper articles that Katrin had e-mailed to him and waited impatiently for Juliet to read them. Belatedly, he saw that he was making her nervous and moved a few steps away to look out of the window. Juliet deliberately took her time. She was a slow reader, but a meticulous one. Tim knew that she would remember almost every word of what she was reading; more to the point, she’d be able to compare it in equal detail with stuff that she had read days or even weeks before.

She looked up, thoughtful.

“I do remember some references to someone called Abigail,” she said, “but not from the Elida Berg articles. And I didn’t know her surname, nor that Claudia McRae had adopted her. I thought that she was just a girl who had accompanied Claudia on one of her digs in the 1950s. But, if her surname was Maichment, or for some reason she chose to take that name, I suppose that she could have been Guy’s mother. I didn’t find out why she went on the dig, but I do know that it turned out to be a disastrous experiment. Apparently, Abigail showed not the slightest bit of interest in archaeology and refused to earn her keep by doing any work whatsoever. However, there was plenty to fuel her principle pastime, in the form of an abundant supply of unattached young men. Claudia herself seems to have occupied a Gloriana-like place in the coterie of young male archaeology students who were born after the war. They vied to be selected for her expeditions; it is interesting that she rarely chose women to accompany her, despite her alleged orientation. But although the men presumably aroused no sexual feelings in her, it still rankled when Abigail began to flaunt her charms. Eventually, Abigail was sent home at her own request, apparently to attend a secretarial college. I don’t know what happened to her after that.”

“How did you find all this out? I assume that it wasn’t written down in the blank pages of the family Bible?”

Juliet smiled.

“No. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t difficult. I got most of it from Oliver Sparham, when he was showing me some old photographs of digs.”

“Really?” asked Tim. “I didn’t know that you’d been to see him.”

“I haven’t. He was at the Archaeological Society this afternoon when I called in to ask Alex Tarrant to sign her statement about the break-in.”

“Interesting. He’s a character that I’ve largely overlooked during this investigation. I liked him when I met him, as well. I’m sure that any information that he can provide will be trustworthy. I suppose I should have made more of his long-term acquaintance with Dame Claudia. It might be worth talking to him again. Not now, though. I’d like you to try to think more about the significance of all this stuff that we’ve dredged up from Dame Claudia’s past – if it
is
significant. It could be totally irrelevant. But first of all I’d like you to call Carolyn Sheldrake. See if you can get any more out of her than Tom Tarrant could. Use my office – you’ll need some peace and quiet.”

Tim had barely finished his conversation with Juliet when Superintendent Thornton bustled into view.

“Ah, Yates. DC Armstrong tells me that there may be another body at the Helpston property. Excellent news if it’s Dame Claudia’s. What steps are you taking to have the gravel pits searched? I trust that there are already frogmen there now trying to find it?”

Tim ignored the Superintendent’s callous satisfaction at the likelihood that the corpse would come in handy to tidy up the case.

“We’ve asked Peterborough police to continue with the search, sir. It’s their patch, after all. They will send divers in, but probably not until tomorrow. If Dame Claudia’s body is in one of the pits, she’s beyond our help and our priority is clearly to find her killer. The only person whom we know to be associated with that place is Guy Maichment and, as you know, a massive co-ordinated search for him was set in train as soon as we found the unidentified male body. We’re using the same team to look for Alex Tarrant, although of course we have no way of telling whether or not she is with Maichment.”

“Is there no-one else at all whom we know to be associated with Maichment? What about that rather personable woman who came here a few weeks ago? Didn’t you say that she was his aunt’s housekeeper, or something?”

Jane Halliwell! Tim was furious with himself. How could he have forgotten her or how suspicious of her he had been? It was doubly galling that it was Thornton who had reminded him about her. However, the Superintendent’s thoughts had already flitted grasshopper-like to another subject. Tim noted that the smile was fast fading from his face.

“I don’t know the details of the operation that you’ve set up, Yates, nor do I particularly want to know them, but I stand by what I said earlier. I want Alex Tarrant to be returned to her husband this evening. Poor chap’s in a terrible state.” He changed subjects again. “I’m going to call Roy Little about the gravel pits now. No doubt his own coppers have briefed him – though if he gets the same level of co-operation from them as I ‘enjoy’ here, it’s by no means a foregone conclusion.”

He walked briskly away.

Tim called Andy Carstairs.

“Where are you, Andy?”

“I’m heading out to brief some of the Peterborough team.”

“Are any of our lot in the vicinity of Welland Manor at the moment?”

“Gary Cooper’s just left the cottage at Helpston. Why do you ask?”

“I want someone to bring Jane Halliwell in for questioning.”

“I’ll get in touch with Gary. Do you want him to caution her?”

“Not if she co-operates. I don’t want to alarm her unnecessarily; and I actually don’t yet have any idea of what she might be guilty. I’m certain that she’s deeply involved in all of this, but I’m not sure in what way.”