Necrocrip (28 page)

‘It’s probably a nice, simple family matter,’ Beevers said. ‘You know what these people are like about family. How about someone was banging Lam’s old lady, Leman maybe, and he met him at the fish bar to have it out with him, and lost the fight?’

Hoots greeted his theory.

‘Except there wasn’t a fight!’

‘Why would an adulterer go to a midnight meeting with the bloke whose wife he was jumping – unless he was suicidal?

‘And who took the Hong Kong flight in your theory?’ Norma asked derisively.

‘His murderer, of course,’ Beevers said, unmoved. ‘To get away from the scene of the crime.’

‘You just said it was Leman, you twonk!’

‘Maybe he came back. They do, don’t they? Revisiting the scene of the crime.’

‘Honestly, Alec,’ Norma said, quite kindly, ‘I’ve worn dresses that were more intelligent than you.’

‘Well, I’ve known villains do that,’ McLaren supported his sex through a raspberry Rowntree’s Fruit Gum. ‘When I was at Lambeth we had this bloke—’

Slider stepped in. ‘We need to know a lot more before we can start this kind of theorising. Atherton, I want you to get hold of Mrs Lam, find out everything you can about her husband, who he knew, where he went, what he did. This business of his in Hong Kong, for instance—’

‘That was legit,’ Atherton said. ‘He was meeting this colleague of the old man’s to discuss the supply of dried and tinned ingredients for the restaurant. He’d done a couple of trips like that.’

‘Hmm. But there must have been a reason the old man didn’t approve of him. Maybe he was up to something else on his own account. Let’s find out.’

‘Okay boss. What about the Leman murder?’

‘Mr Barrington’s handed that over to the local lads, with Mr Carver liaising. So far they’ve discovered that a man was seen coming out of the house at about the right time for the murder—’

General exclamations and wolf whistles.

‘—but he was wearing a motorbike helmet with a dark visor, so he can’t be identified. He was carrying a leather bag – presumably containing the knife and protective clothing – but unfortunately nobody noticed the number or make of the motorcycle.’

Sympathetic groans.

‘And Freddie Cameron has done the post, and he suggests
that the mark on Leman’s palm may have been where he was holding some small, round, hard object at the moment he was killed, and clenched his hand tightly enough to bruise it. In that case, presumably the murderer opened his hand and retrieved it, whatever it was, which leaves Mr Carver’s people with the problem of discovering what it was and why it was so important.’

‘We wish them joy of it, don’t we, girls and boys?’ Atherton said brightly.

‘Meanwhile, we’ve still got Slaughter to follow up. He can’t have lived his entire life in a vacuum. Someone else on Planet Earth must have known him, so let’s see if his history yields any information. Beevers, Mackay, McLaren and Anderson –I want two teams trawling the most likely gay bars and clubs. Take mugshots with you of everyone in the case and follow up any lead however trivial. Jablowski, I want you to find out who owns the Acton Lane house and the Hanwell house. Contact the Community Charge office –I don’t want the owner or owners alerted. Norma, I want you to go and talk to Suzanne Edrich. She must know something more useful than Leman’s inside leg measurement. Ask her especially about that last trip to San Francisco in April.’

‘Yes Guv.’

‘And when you get back, you can help Jablowski go back over all the door-to-door reports again – that goes for all of you. Every spare minute. If there’s anyone we missed because they were out or away or unhelpful, go get ‘em. And I want everyone whose windows overlook that alley visited again. Someone must have seen something.’

Unenthusiastic chorus of assents.

‘It’s going to be one of those cases,’ Slider said. ‘The essence of police work: step by step, sheer slog. No flashes of genius or strokes of luck are going to get any change out of this situation. Let’s get to it.’

‘And where will you be doing your slogging?’ Atherton asked as they began to disperse.

‘I’m going to start from the other end,’ Slider said.

*

Slider’s vigil in a small and obviously unused office was finally broken by the entry of an endlessly tall, bony young man in the uniform of the US Air Force who introduced himself in an accessible sort of way as Captain Phil Bannister and how-can-I-help-you?

Too tall for a pilot, Slider thought. Must be bright in some department to have got promoted so young. He only looked about twenty-two, but that might have been the ears. Or the ears might have been the clinically short haircut. He had the appearance, which Slider had noticed before in young officers in the American forces, of being somehow extra clean over and above perfectly spotless. He made Slider feel like Columbo.

‘I’m Detective Inspector Slider of the Shepherd’s Bush CID,’ Slider said, showing his brief. Bannister took it and inspected it gravely, and handed it back with a touch of uncertainty. Slider didn’t blame him. He didn’t find them very convincing either. Technology was having a hard time catching up with the life of an ID card in a hip pocket. Why did so many policemen have big bottoms? It was one of Life’s insoluble little mysteries.

‘Okay,’ said Bannister, as though prepared to overlook its shortcomings, ‘what can I tell you?’

‘I’m interested in a man called Lee Chang, who I believe worked here until quite recently.’

‘Yeah, they said you were asking about Lee, but they didn’t say why. Is he in trouble?’

‘I hope not. What I’m hoping to do is to eliminate him from an enquiry. You worked with him, did you?’

‘He was in my section, which I guess you’d loosely call operational computers, but as a civilian he wasn’t directly under my command. But, yes, I guess you could say I worked with him. He seemed a nice guy. What did you want to know?’

‘Could we start with when he came here, and where he came from?’

‘That’s easy. He was here for six weeks from April seven through May eighteen. He was loaned out to us by his company, Megatrends Warmerica Inc – have you heard of them?’

‘I’m afraid not.’

‘Oh, big, big software house in Santa Clara. But
megabig
in the products development field! Lee’s been with ‘em for a couple of years now, very highly rated by his people, so I understand. Real whizz kid. He started off as an electronics engineer, went into the micro side – used to work for Intel at one time – and then went over to software, so he knew the business from an all-round angle. That’s why they sent him to us. He was here to install a new strategic planning program for us and get it running, sort out any glitches and so on. Well, he did his job and he went, and that’s all. I’m kinda sorry to lose him. He was a great guy – full of laughs.’

‘When exactly did he leave?’

‘Like I said, May eighteen – that was the Monday. He finished up around three-thirty and we all said goodbye and – away he went!’ He flattened his right hand and made it take off into the big blue yonder.

‘Do you know where he was going when he left here?’

‘I guess he went home,’ Bannister said, puzzled.

‘Home to the States? That very day?’

‘Oh, I get you! Well, as far as I recall, he said he was gonna take a couple of days out shopping in London, and then head back to San Francisco on Wednesday or Thursday.’

‘And then he would report back to his company, I suppose?’

‘I guess so. No, wait, I remember now he said he had some leave coming that he was gonna take right after he got back. I don’t know if he’d have to let them know how the job here went off first, but after that he was heading off on vacation.’

‘You suggested he was a very friendly man. Did he have any particular friends? Anyone he spent time with outside working hours?’

‘I don’t know about that,’ Bannister said, shaking his head. ‘He was friendly in and around the base, but I don’t know if he met anyone outside. I could ask around for you.’

‘Please, if you wouldn’t mind. And also if anyone has a photograph of him.’

‘Oh, I can give you a photograph. He had to have one taken for his security card.’

‘You run a security check on everyone who works here, I imagine?’

‘Certainly. But the people at Mega would have checked him out before they sent him anyway. They wouldn’t have put him on a new product installation like this if there was anything funny about him.’

‘I understand.’

‘Has he done something wrong?’ Bannister asked with a concerned frown. ‘He didn’t have access here to any sensitive material, of course, but if there is any question of a security problem we ought to know about it.’

‘It isn’t anything like that,’ Slider said with a reassuring smile. ‘A man in the same house where Chang was staying committed suicide in rather peculiar circumstances, and I’m obliged to check on everyone who may have come into contact with him. It’s purely a domestic police matter, you see.’

‘I see. Okay. Well, if anything develops that we ought to know about—’

‘Of course. I’ll make sure you’re informed at once.’

‘Meanwhile I’ll get you that photograph – do you want to wait for it?’

‘Yes please. If it’s no trouble.’

‘Not at all. And I’ll ask around the guys if anyone saw anything of him out of hours.’

‘Thank you. Oh, there is one other thing.’ Bannister paused and looked enquiring. ‘Chang was staying in a bedsitter in Notting Hill Gate—’

Bannister beamed. ‘Yeah, I gave him a lift home once on my way to Grosvenor Square. Quite a way to travel every day!’

So that was the man in the dark blue overcoat, Slider thought with minor relief. One less thing to check up on.

‘The room he rented belonged to a man called Colin Cate, who you may have heard of?’

‘Oh, yeah, everyone here knows him. Well, he kinda liaises on security, so he gets round all the departments one way and another.’

‘I see. I just wondered how Chang got to know him. Did someone here suggest to Chang that he contact Mr Cate for accommodation?’

‘I’d have to ask around about that, too.’

‘I suppose he must have been staying in a hotel to begin with?’

‘That would be on his personal record. Do you want me to look it up for you?’

‘If you would I’d be grateful. Also his home address in America, and his next-of-kin.’

‘Sure. I can let you have those. I didn’t know Colin let out rooms,’ he added with a puzzled smile. ‘He seems to be into all kinds of things, doesn’t he?’

‘He’s an all-round businessman,’ Slider said warmly, and Bannister relaxed.

‘Yeah. Well I wouldn’t trust a man who didn’t respect money, myself – would you? But I didn’t get the impression that Lee and Colin were particularly friendly. I mean, I’ve been there when Colin’s come into the department, and there was no kind of—’ he hesitated, not quite knowing how to phrase it.

‘Special relationship?’ Slider offered.

‘Right! I mean, you’d expect him to say, “Hi, Lee, how’s the room? Comfortable? Anything you need?” Something like that. But I never heard him say anything to Lee at all. Or the other way around.’

‘Well, maybe Cate didn’t like people to know he let out rooms. May have thought it sounded a bit downbeat for such a successful man.’

‘Maybe so. Yeah, that would explain it all right,’ Bannister said, comforted. ‘Okay, well I’ll go get that photograph for you.’

While he was gone, Slider sat very still, his eyes fixed on the skirting board, his mind working furiously. Computers again. Cate had a chain of outlets called Compucate. And there had been one other mention somewhere of computers, but he couldn’t bring it to mind. Some other connection … No, it was no good. It would come to him if he left it alone. The Chinese connection and the computer connection. He must find out whether Chang had reported back to his company, or indeed anywhere.

What was it all about? He was willing to bet Cate was in it right up to his eyeballs, though, whatever it was. If only he could investigate Cate properly, instead of pussyfooting around the periphery. But he’d get there, he’d get there. A man who didn’t like Bob Dickson couldn’t be all good.

Bannister came back at last with a neat manilla folder – military efficiency allied with personal cleanliness. ‘Everything you want’s in here – photo, addresses and all.’

‘Thank you,’ said Slider. ‘I’m very grateful.’

‘Also I’ve asked in the department whether anyone saw anything of Lee outside the base, but they all say no. He used to head right off home when he finished his shift. Jimmy Demarco says he invited Lee to Sunday lunch once at his place – thought the guy must be lonely all on his own – but he wouldn’t come. Just said he had things to do. That seems to be how it was.’

‘I see.’

‘As to your other question, about how he knew to ask Colin Cate about accommodation, I can’t give an answer. No-one in the department knows. But it does seem that he went straight to the bedsit, not to an hotel first. Is it important to know? Would you like me to ask around the other departments?’

‘No, no, please don’t bother. It doesn’t matter at all,’ Slider said hastily. General enquiries about Colin Cate would almost certainly go straight back to Colin Cate, and Slider would find himself swiftly promoted to Permanent Latrine Orderly.

‘Okay. You’re the boss. Anything else you want any time, just let me know.’

‘You’ve been most helpful. I really am grateful.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Bannister beamed. ‘I’ll see you off the base. I hope you find out that there’s nothing wrong with Lee, though,’ he added, ushering Slider out into the corridor. ‘He really seemed like a nice guy.’

He didn’t say the same about Colin Cate, Slider thought, as he got into his car.

His enquiries of the Chinese Embassy were less fruitful. Any questions about personnel would have to be put through the correct diplomatic channels. But he only wanted to know whether a certain person had actually been officially in England at a certain time. No information whatever could be given about employees past or present. Very sorry. The Great
Stonewall of China in full working order again.

He decided to go back to Mrs Sullivan and put a little pressure on her. He wished he could confront Cate and threaten him with living off immoral earnings or running a disorderly house or something if he didn’t answer a few questions, but he didn’t think Barrington would be too frightfully keen on that idea. All he got out of Kathleen Sullivan, however, was that Lee Chang had come to the house straight from the airport, and that she had been told the day before by ‘the owner’ – whom she still coyly refused to name – to expect him, and how long he would be staying. That did not, however, necessarily give the lie to Cate’s own account, for the ‘friend at the base’ could have asked him about accommodation before Chang arrived. But then the friend would have had to know Chang, and know that he would want accommodation. And, as Bannister had said, it was a long way to travel each day. Surely Harrow or even Watford would have provided better, cheaper, more convenient rooms than that top-floor bedsit in Notting Hill?