Dead Dream Girl (12 page)

She gave a fatalistic nod. She knew as well as he did she was now a suspect and would need to be formally
eliminated
. Assuming she was innocent. Crane knew he was getting mixed vibes. She could have written up a diary that absolved herself some time after the event.

As he turned to go, she said quietly, ‘Frank?’

He turned, waited. The light flowing from the hall outlined her sturdy figure. ‘Donna … one night she woke up trembling. She’d had a frightful dream. I sometimes wonder if it was a premonition. She was in a state. Normally she never spoke about her … other life. She was very discreet. It was something to do with the
photography
man, the one who wanted her to be a fashion model. In the dream she’d decided he wasn’t good enough, hadn’t got the connections. She told him she wanted to enrol with a professional agency. He went berserk. Said she’d never work for anyone but him. He’d … he’d discovered her. He made the most appalling threats. To her looks, to her …’

‘Go on, Julia.’

‘She calmed him down, said she hadn’t meant it, she’d just been silly. None of it was really as I’m telling you. She was utterly distraught, almost incoherent. It must have been the dream. She was usually so self-possessed. And she was sobbing her heart out, poor darling. Said she didn’t
want
to go away with him. Not now. She said he was trying to control her, make her into something she wasn’t. She wanted to live her own life. She was certain he’d try to change her …’

Crane was becoming puzzled. ‘This was still the photographer?’

‘I don’t think so. It was all so very disjointed, but I think it was another man she was talking about then, who wanted her to go away with him. I think it was the man I saw at the Raven.’

‘What happened then?’

‘I made her a warm drink. When I came back she was her usual self. Made light of it. Even began to giggle. It had just been a bad dream and I’d not to take any notice, she could handle it.’

‘Thanks for telling me. You didn’t think to pass it on to the police originally?’

‘I … I couldn’t face my life with her coming out, perhaps even getting in the papers. I’m a very private person. And it seemed so likely that this man Mahon …’

He watched her, wondering if she might not have felt an overwhelming sense of relief when no police had come knocking on her own elegant door eight or nine months ago.

Anderson was already at Patsy’s, scribbling on the flipchart, on the page devoted to Joe Hellewell, as wound up, it seemed, as Crane himself was. ‘Where have you
been
, you bugger, when it’s all happening?’

‘What about the siege?’

‘All over in an hour.’ He grinned. ‘I told the desk to hold two inches at the bottom of page nine unless something really big had broken like a cat up a tree. The gun was an imitation and he was so gone on skunk I don’t think he knew which century it was, let alone day.’ He turned to Crane with a look of triumph. ‘There’s your killer, sunshine.’

‘
Hellewell
?’

‘Don’t bother with the flip chart just yet. Listen to this.’ He put a micro-cassette recorder on the table. Crane glanced at Patsy, who shrugged, drawing down her mouth at the corners.

He said, ‘Just before you begin, how come you know Kirsty so well?’

‘Last summer Leaf and Petal had a lot of saplings destroyed. The police nailed someone from another nursery trying to damage their trade. I went to report on it with a camera man. Hellewell was away on business at the time and I spoke to Kirsty. I think she took a bit of a shine to me.’ He smiled with a faux modesty as carefully honed as his charm. ‘One of their runabouts is a Scenic and I casually mentioned I fancied one myself. She made me borrow it for a couple of days to see if I liked it. Really nice woman. And then, when Donna’s body was found, I was along there again, talking to her and Hellewell and the rest of the staff.’

Crane recalled Carol at the Glass-house, acting a giggle, and asking him had there been any woman involved in the Donna affair who might have caught Anderson’s eye. Well, maybe there had been.

Anderson said, ‘I asked her if she’d mind if I used this; she said she actually wanted it on record.’

He pressed the PLAY button. They heard Kirsty say, ‘I’m very, very worried, Geoff. I should have told the police at the start. He
was
seeing Donna.’

‘Joe? We’d thought he might have been.’

‘I began to suspect when he wanted to keep her on for that first winter. She was quite useless for any of the real work we do in winter, all the preparation for the new season. It meant we paid her virtually to do nothing. But
he wanted to be certain of having her in place the following spring.’ She gave a sigh. ‘He had a point, she really did seem to pull in the customers. She was a right little charmer. But then he couldn’t keep away from her. I knew perfectly well there was something going on. I should have had it out with him, threatened divorce, but … well, we’re not simply married, we’re married to Leaf and Petal. We have two kids, they’re keen to come into it one day.’ There was a lengthy pause. ‘I should have told the police at the time.’

‘Why didn’t you, Kirsty?’

‘Because I simply couldn’t believe it could be him who … he was so
gone
on her. It broke him up when they found the body. I just couldn’t believe … Not Adrian.’

‘
Adrian
?’ Anderson’s voice repeated, high with surprise. ‘But … but we’re talking
Joe
here.’

‘Oh, dear, I sometimes forget. His names are Adrian Joseph, but he always felt Joe sounded more friendly with customers and staff. We call him Adrian at home: family, close friends.’ She gave a hollow chuckle. ‘A bit like the Royal family, official and unofficial names, King George being called Bertie behind the scenes.’

Anderson paused the recorder. ‘Adrian, guys!’ he cried gleefully. ‘
Adrian
! The first piece in the jigsaw. But it gets better, a whole lot better. Stay tuned!’

He pressed PLAY again, to the sound of his own voice. ‘I
see
. Two different names. Do you think he was Adrian to Donna?’

‘Probably. I think he felt it made him two separate people. I was genuinely sorry about Donna, truly, and though he was so dreadfully upset I felt we had a chance to get our own lives on track again, Ade and me, only …’
There was another lengthy silence. ‘And then … and then I found out he was bisexual. I overheard two of the girls talking in one of the greenhouses about a wealthy customer of ours, Clement Hebden. One of them said, “All that lolly and those cool looks, why does he have to be one of them?” It gave me such a shock. I’d no idea he was gay. Adrian spent an awful lot of time with him, but he was supposed to be helping him landscape his garden. But the night Donna went missing Adrian said he’d stayed the same night at Clement’s. Said he’d had a drink too many.’

‘That’s what he told us earlier.’

‘I’ll spare you the details of how I proved to myself he was … that way, but I just had to. It had already been too much trying to cope with his affair with Donna, but, well, if there were men involved too … I knew I couldn’t handle it, Geoff. He was making what he thought were secret trips to Tanglewood. I … got it together. For months now I’ve been trying to decide the best way to break with him. It was when I read about that poor man called Ollie being almost battered to death that I began to get really, really frightened, because he was just thought to be a harmless gossip. I couldn’t help wondering if he’d somehow found out too much. And then I began to wonder if Adrian really had something to do with … Donna’s death, and his gay friends were perhaps …’

‘Covering for him?’

‘Yes,’ she said flatly. ‘And with Bobby Mahon out of it …’

Anderson flicked off the recorder, almost shaking with excitement. ‘You see? You see? She’s reached exactly the same conclusion we did, from the
inside
!’

‘That really is one clever lady!’ Crane forced himself to
look as jubilant as he sounded. ‘Well
done
, Geoff! It’s all circumstantial, but once the police have a chance to
interview
them separately, Hellewell and Hebden, they could be home and dry. If Hellewell really is in the frame I reckon Hebden’s going to crack about that alibi.’

‘Oh, Geoff, I’m so glad!’ Patsy said. ‘It’s going to mean so much to Mam and Dad if they can see an end to it.’

Crane wished he could feel genuinely pleased. He was certain the reporter had got there. And he was equally certain Kirsty Hellewell would never have talked to him as she’d talked to Anderson. Anderson had had an
incredible
stroke of luck, and though Crane was exasperated with himself he knew he was going to feel upset about the Donna Jackson case whenever it came into his mind, even though all that mattered was nailing the killer. Amateurs, one, pros, nil, he thought bitterly, behind his smile.

‘Well,’ he said wryly, ‘while you were writing up all this gold-plated stuff from Kirsty, I was in Ilkley talking to a Miss Julia Gregson. She’s one of the Js in Donna’s diary. There seem to be two Js, but I doubt if the second one’s relevant.’

He gave them an outline of what he’d been told at Cheyney Hall, writing up the key points on a sheet of the chart he’d set aside for Julia. Anderson became unusually silent as he talked and scribbled, and when he turned back to them he’d begun to go pale with what looked to be barely controllable anger, an anger so powerful he seemed almost to be quivering. But he quickly forced his usual amiable smile and bantering tone, though Crane sensed it was not without considerable effort.

‘Christ, Crane, is there
anyone
your equal for turning up jokers?’

‘I’m not with you,’ he said, genuinely puzzled.

‘Well, from where I’m standing it now looks as if the killer could be any one of three.’

‘Oh, come on, Gregson’s not in the same league as Hellewell. Nor is Fletcher. Why the frustration, you’ve brought the bacon home? Gregson was genuinely
heartbroken
and she’d kept what looks to be a genuine diary.’

‘They’re all heartbroken. And the diary could have been written after the event, as you said yourself. And why didn’t she tell the police? She’d been with Donna at Tanglewood, just like Hellewell.’

Crane watched him in a surprised and uncertain silence. The intensely competitive animal that Anderson was still thought he was outclassing him. Only that could explain the barely concealed fury. But his powerful reactions were raising fresh doubts in Crane’s own mind. He’d virtually ruled out Julia on hearing the tape, but she’d had a long time to make her story authentic, even if her emotions had to have been totally genuine. But then he saw he was
overlooking
the crucial aspect of this very complex case. ‘Ollie
Stringer
!’ he said. ‘Don’t forget Ollie. I ask him about Adrian and two days later he’s lying in a hollow left for dead.’

‘Hasn’t it occurred to you that Hellewell and Gregson might have colluded, Frank? You say Gregson’s sturdy, so she’d have had the strength to see off a small woman like Donna. But what if she was seen the night they sat on the bench? What if one of the gays told Adrian, out of spite? Adrian certainly knew Donna was with Gregson a lot. What if he twigs Gregson did it and puts the bite on her for some of her loot? He’d still have the motivation to duff up Ollie if he thought Ollie was asking too many of the wrong kinds of questions.’

It hadn’t occurred to him that Adrian and Julia might be in it together. The cocky, quick-thinking beggar had him there. At one time he’d not have thought a woman like Julia Gregson could possibly have been involved in such a scene, but having been in the police he’d quickly come to accept that almost anyone could be involved in almost any bloody thing.

‘Good thinking, Anderson,’ he said, trying for the other’s affable manner with the same limited success. He believed he had it sussed now, why the reporter had been so incensed. He’d had his ace trumped with what Crane had uncovered at Cheyney Hall. Instead of winning the race he had merely dead-heated.

‘Well, why aren’t you jumping up and down, you two?’ Patsy asked, in amazement. ‘With all the new things you’ve found out between you?’

Crane knew it was because they were both too evenly matched, both very, very touchy about their skills, and were in a situation that was like one of those games of chess where it seemed that neither player was going to win.

C
rane saw Benson in the Toll Gate. He gave him a rundown of everything he and Anderson had found out. Earlier, he’d phoned him with the vehicle number Julia Gregson had taken from the car at the Raven
restaurant
. The National Computer had shown it as registered to Leaf and Petal.

‘And the description she gave roughly matches Joe, slash, Adrian Hellewell,’ Crane told him, ‘but it could mean she has her own devious reasons for wanting him in the frame.’

‘It’s not looking good for either of them. She knows bloody well she should have come forward.’ Benson stubbed out his second cigarette, then added, with obvious reluctance, ‘Good work, Frank. Terry’s going to be pleased.’

When they’d both been in the force, best mates, frequently working together, Benson had never really been aware by how much Crane had outclassed him, as Crane, out of friendship, had always encouraged the impression that their decisions had been taken jointly. When Crane had left he knew that Benson had then been forced to accept himself at his true value. And hadn’t much liked it.

‘Anderson had
the
breakthrough.’ Crane tried to sound gracious. ‘He had luck; Kirsty fancies him rotten. It did him no end of good when it came to soul-baring time.’

‘I knew the bugger would go far.’

‘What’s the form now?’

‘I’m going to Leaf and Petal this afternoon with a DC, get Hellewell and the shirt lifter in for questioning. I’ll be in touch.…’

Crane got on with routine work with a routine feeling of flatness that a challenging case might soon be out of his hands, bar the tying up of loose ends. But in the early evening things suddenly began to happen.

‘Ted here, Frank. Hellewell’s legged it.’

‘Go on.’

‘Kirsty says he worked alone over at Leaf and Petal last night. Someone picked him up, she doesn’t know who. Left his own car.’

‘Hebden?’

‘No, he’s been in London since yesterday lunchtime. It checks out.’

‘What does Kirsty think?’

‘That he’s somehow caught on she’s grassed him to Anderson. She’s not keen to see him back if he thinks she knows too much as well. I’ve left the DC with her, just in case.’

‘What gives now?’

‘We start searching. We’ll find him sooner or later, God knows what it’ll take in man hours. If the fairies have him squat it could take weeks.’

Crane’s mobile rang again the second he’d cleared it. ‘Oh, Frank, I’m so glad I got through,’ Patsy gasped. ‘I’ve
been broken into! When I got home from work the door was ajar and the lock smashed.’

‘I’m on my way. You’ve told the police?’

‘Before I rang you.’

‘Much missing?’

‘That’s the trouble, nothing I can see. They’ve not taken the telly or the DVD-player and my few bits of jewellery aren’t worth nicking.’

This made Crane uneasy. When he got to the flat she was sipping from a mug of tea, hands trembling. ‘Am I glad to see you?’

He took out his mobile. ‘I’ll get someone to fit a new lock. We can sort it with the insurers in the morning.’ He gave details to a locksmith contact. ‘You’re
sure
nothing’s been taken?’

‘Nothing. I’ve looked everywhere. I had a few tenners in a tea caddy. Still there. What can it mean, Frank?’

‘I don’t know.’ He glanced around the living room. Everything looked exactly as it had looked on those other nights, when they’d been gathered around the flip chart. The flip chart itself was neatly closed, as if the intruder had also lacked curiosity, as well as the wish to steal any of her modest possessions.

‘I’ll get you a drink,’ she said.

Preoccupied as he was, he realized there was something different about her. She was wearing a sage green jacket, a short pencil skirt and a black top and even more care than usual seemed to have been taken with her appearance. ‘You’re looking posh again,’ he said, ‘as your dad would say.’

‘I’ve been promoted. Officially. I’m a supervisor from the first of next month.’

‘Well, that’s great! Just great.’ He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her cheek. He wished it hadn’t made her lavender eyes shine quite so warmly.

‘I could have done without a break-in on a day like this. I was hoping I could take you for a meal, with the case looking as if it’s nearly over.’

‘You’re right, the bastard’s timing couldn’t be worse.’

‘I don’t suppose we could go out? When the lock man’s been? This is just vandalism. You know what kids on the estate are like.’

He would genuinely have liked to go for a meal. He knew he’d have to steer a careful line between his
friendship
for her and her attraction to him, but he’d have enjoyed talking about her promotion. It would have pleased him to encourage her to look even further ahead. Complete her education, learn computer skills. He knew now she was the type who could do things, all she’d ever needed was encouragement.

‘Sorry, Patsy, but the break-in bugs me, don’t ask me why. We’ll go out somewhere soon, I promise.’ She began to look as uneasy as he felt. ‘Don’t worry,’ he told her, patting her arm, ‘I’ll sort it.’

He looked around the room again. He’d have felt easier if it
had
been vandals, nicking her telly and her tea-caddy money, trashing the room, scribbling on the pages of the flip chart. The
flip chart
!’

‘Patsy, was it you who closed up the flip chart last night?’

She gave him a puzzled look, slowly shook her head. ‘I always leave it exactly as you and Geoff leave it.’

‘Well, I went after Geoff last night and I left it open on the last sheet. The one I did on Julia Gregson.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘What if whoever broke in was only interested in the flip chart itself?’ He was already keying his mobile. ‘Geoff? Frank. Look, Geoff, two things. Hellewell’s legged it and Patsy’s been broken into.’

‘Keep talking.’

‘Nothing’s been taken from the flat, but I’m pretty sure the flip chart’s been tampered with.’

‘Who’d want to do that? Who’d even know about it?’

‘You don’t think it could be Hellewell? One of his pals?’

Anderson was silent for a couple of seconds. ‘Do you realize what you’re saying, Frank? God, all our thinking, all our notes. They’d give him the full picture. He’ll know he’s the leading suspect!’

‘That could be why he legged it. Kirsty told Benson he was picked up. Someone must be helping him.’

‘Frank,’ he said slowly, as if to calm himself, ‘we’ve got to apply some rigorous analysis here before we get too carried away. How could Hellewell know about the flip chart?’

‘Could you possibly have been followed yesterday, from Leaf and Petal?’

‘It’s … possible, I suppose. But I went on to the siege.’

‘Maybe he tailed you there and then on to Patsy’s.’

‘Still possible. He’d have gone unnoticed in the crowd.’

‘Look, you talked to Kirsty in her own office. Maybe Hellewell found out and wondered what she could be telling you. He must have known things weren’t the same between them any more. Let’s say he feels he’s got to know, shadow’s you to Patsy’s place, but maybe thinks it’s
your
place. He could have sneaked in behind you to pin down the actual flat, the front door takes several seconds to close and lock itself.’

‘You know, I think someone
did
come in behind me when the lock was tripped. I thought nothing of it, people are always in and out.’

‘Once he knew the exact flat, maybe he decides to come back when he thinks you’ll be out and go through your notes, tapes, whatever he can lay hands on. So then he drives back to the garden centre and pretends to be working late. He could have nipped back this morning, after checking you were at the
Standard
office and most of the other residents would be at work. A credit card would open the front door, it’s a simple mechanism.’

‘If that’s how it did happen he certainly hit the jackpot!’

Crane smiled sourly. The flip chart had been the whiz kid’s idea, not his. ‘Well, if it
is
Hellewell, and I can’t see who else it can be, all he’s doing is digging himself in deeper. And why leg it if you’ve got a clear conscience?’

‘It would be handy if we could nail him ahead of the police.’ The excitement was rising in his voice again. ‘The A Team!’

‘And make a proper job of it.’ Anderson’s enthusiasm was catching.

‘I’m working out of town just now, but I’ll be in touch as soon as I’m back. He’ll not go far without money and help. Good luck, pal.’

Crane knew he didn’t mean those final words, but it was a nice gesture. Patsy’s troubled eyes met his. He said, ‘You’ll have got most of that, yes? We can only see it being Hellewell, and now it looks as if he might know
everything
we know. But I’m certain it doesn’t affect you, so you mustn’t worry. Me and the paper boy are determined to sort it.’

He rang Hellewell’s home number. Kirsty answered
quickly, sounding very nervous. ‘Mrs Hellewell? Frank Crane. I was with Geoff yesterday.’

‘What is it, Mr Crane?’

‘Geoff played me the tape he made with you. We’re working together, as you know.’

‘That’s all right,’ she said in a low voice. ‘It was only because I know Geoff so well, and not knowing you …’

‘I quite understand. It’s vital your husband’s found, Kirsty, if only so he can be eliminated from the new
investigation
. You told DS Benson that Joe was working late, but would you know if he was away from the nursery some time in the early evening? For about an hour or so?’

‘I really couldn’t tell you. I came home not long after Geoff left.’

‘Would any of the staff know, do you suppose?’

‘I doubt it. Joe’s always here, there and everywhere. It’s the nature of the job.’

‘All right. Would you know if he took his passport with him?’

‘Let me look, I keep them all together. You can go on talking, I’m using a cordless.’

‘You think he was picked up?’

‘We have CCTV now. The police asked me to check the tape. A car drew up near one of the greenhouses about nine. It was too far from the cameras to see the number or who was in it, though the police have ways of sharpening the picture. It could be a Honda … maybe an Accord.’ As she talked, Crane could here the sounds of drawers being opened. ‘Ah, his passport’s still here.’

‘Good, it narrows the field. Thanks a lot, Kirsty, you’ve been very helpful.’

She was silent for a short time. ‘Mr Crane, Frank … do
you think there’s any possibility, any at all, that Adrian … Joe, didn’t do for that poor kid?’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll never live with him again, but we’ve been together a long time and we have a family. We were very happy once, when we were building the business up. I’d give anything to know he wasn’t involved.’

‘Anything’s possible, Kirsty,’ he said gently. ‘And so the sooner we find him the better.’

‘But you think it was him, don’t you? You and Geoff?’

There was no answer to that, at least not one that held the smallest crumb for her comfort.

He cleared his mobile. Patsy was standing before the flip chart, reading the last completed sheet. She sighed. ‘I feel sorry for Julia. She must have been in an awful state to break down the way you said she did. She must have been crazy about Donna. I can see it all. No one could play the sweet little innocent like Donna. I always had an idea she attracted both sides. I wonder who the other J could be.’

Crane shrugged. ‘I don’t think it matters any more. Another married bloke, maybe, just keen to keep his head down.’

‘I wonder if Donna let anything slip about anyone else,’ she said, in a musing tone. ‘I know she was secretive, but two women together, pillow talk, all that. Something Julia might have written in her diary, seeing as she kept a proper one. It might help put Hellewell away, mightn’t it?’

‘Julia wouldn’t have wanted to know, Patsy. She hated hearing about Donna and men. I’m sure the bad dream was an exception. And if—’ He broke off abruptly, stood staring at the flip chart. ‘Christ, maybe you’re ahead of both me
and
Geoff.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘If Hellewell’s seen the flip chart he knows about the diary too, knows about Donna’s affair with Julia. What if he had the same idea as you and thinks the diary could implicate him? He might think Donna really did let his name slip at some point, that there might even be a mention somewhere that she was seeing him the Saturday she died.’

She paled, watched him a little open-mouthed, not quite understanding. ‘Look, Patsy, let’s say he saw off Ollie, or tried to, because he found out Ollie had been talking to me. So what if he’s aiming to do the same to Julia and then destroy the diary? He doesn’t know she took the number of his car that night at the Raven, because I wasn’t going to put it on the chart till Benson had checked it out. In other words, he just thinks Julia saw someone at the Raven who
might
have been him. But if she’s out of it and he and Hebden stick to the story he was with him the night Donna disappeared, well, he could decide the evidence is too flimsy to do him any real harm.’

‘But … what if Hellewell and Julia really were in it together, like Geoff thought they might be?’

‘Geoff had a good point. So what if Julia had killed Donna, and Hellewell thinks if she’s taken in for
questioning
he might be fingered for colluding with her? That’s a very serious offence in a murder. He’d go inside, his business and reputation could be ruined. But if Julia could be made to disappear …’ He paced up and down the little room. ‘I think I’d better go over there. Warn her to be on her guard. Whether she’s in the frame or not it’s essential the police get her in one piece. I’m really worried now, Patsy, she’s isolated and she lives alone and I’m pretty sure the staff only come in the daytime. I’ve got to go. I’ll
call in on the way back. The locksmith should be here any minute.’

It was dark now after a day of low cloud. He drove to Ilkley on the quicker route this time, along the valley road, through Guisely and Burley and then along past the silently flowing Wharfe. When he reached Cheyney Hall he pulled up on to the verge, took out his mobile, keyed her number. She’d not want to open the door without knowing who was going to be out there. When he got through, there were odd grating sounds, as if the phone were being picked up uncertainly. There was a brief, breathy silence and then words that came out almost as a sob. ‘Help me …’