The Scent of Death--A Sukey Reyholds British police procedural (21 page)

‘Oh, great!' Penny's eyes sparkled. ‘I've picked up bits of info about it from James and it seems it's quite a puzzler.'

‘James who?' asked Vicky.

‘PC James Bond,' Penny explained.

‘So you've been chatted up by Double Oh Seven?' said Sukey. ‘I thought you and PC Dandridge were an item.'

‘Oh, we are, but I asked James about the Dallington Manor case out of interest. Anyway, Inspector Rathbone told me to forget the cannabis farmers and meet you here, Sarge,' she said to Vicky.

‘That's right,' said Vicky. ‘The situation so far is that we've been concentrating on asking questions about people's movements, has anyone seen anything suspicious, the usual stuff, but we haven't gone into relationships among the people who were present at the time of the deaths. We're pretty sure that Lance Rainbird was murdered and you may have heard that we've questioned one suspect, but we haven't found enough evidence to charge him and DCI Leach wants us to spread the net a bit wider. One area about which we know little or nothing is Lance Rainbird's private life. We know quite a lot of his history but so far no one has checked on his flat or talked to his neighbours. He lived in Richmond and it so happens that Sukey will be in London at the weekend so she's been assigned to that job.'

‘Not exactly the short straw,' Tim muttered in Mike Haskins' ear.

‘Yes, we know it was you who put forward that suggestion,' said Vicky, ‘and you know why the job has landed in Sukey's lap instead of going to you. You have to accept that you can't win 'em all.' She turned to Penny. ‘Mike and Tim will fill you in on everything we've dredged up so far and then we have to start making some telephone calls. Sukey, Sir wants us – you and me that is – to spend the next couple of days trawling through the people in Justin Freeman's party. That could take time – he'll probably want to contact them all before we do, just to warn them to expect to hear from us. Will you give him a call? I'll join the others in case they need any guidance.'

‘Right, Sarge,' said Sukey. ‘I just hope he hasn't gone off somewhere to take a break.' She went to her desk and called Freeman's number. To her relief, he answered after the first couple of rings.

‘Is there any news?' he asked. ‘I've been turning things over in my mind since your visit in case I'd forgotten something, but nothing came to mind.'

‘We think it's possible that Lance Rainbird had some kind of relationship or dealings with someone who was at Dallington Manor over the weekend, either a member of the staff or one of the people in your party,' Sukey explained. ‘You've known him for some time because he's been on other events, and presumably a few others among your regulars have known him for a while. Apart from his arguments with Eric Bowen, and the fact that he had a certain appeal to some of the ladies, have you noticed anyone else he spent time with or seemed to have something in common with?'

There was a short silence before Freeman said, ‘After you let me go back to the hotel to collect my stuff I was buttonholed by a chap called Ashman. He said he was a colleague of Rainbird's and he asked me more or less the same question. From what he said it's obvious that different people had different impressions of the man.'

‘What did you tell him?'

‘What I'm about to tell you, that is I hadn't noticed him being particularly intimate with anyone. Like I said before, he'd talk to anyone about music, but in some ways he seemed to be a bit of a loner. I can't speak for everyone in my party, of course.'

‘I was coming to that,' said Sukey. ‘Would you let us have their phone numbers, so that we can contact them and ask them the same question?'

Freeman gave an audible sigh. ‘They aren't going to like it,' he said. ‘As it is, a few of them have cancelled their bookings for my next event, saying they found it too upsetting. I can't afford to lose any more.'

‘I quite understand,' said Sukey, ‘but we have instructions to contact them and it's only out of courtesy that I'm speaking to you first. They will of course have given the hotel all the necessary details when they checked in, but we thought we'd put you in the picture before we start ringing around.'

‘That's very considerate; thank you. I'm as keen as you are to get to the bottom of this so I'll do everything I can to help. Supposing I call, say, the first few names on the list, tell them to expect to hear from you and then email you with their details. While you're speaking to them I'll ring another batch and then do the same. How will that be?'

‘That's absolutely fine,' said Sukey. A thought struck her and she said, ‘Would you put Miss Charlotte Lang and her companion in the first batch, please?'

‘No problem.'

Sukey went over to the corner in the office where Mike, Tim and Penny were planning their strategy under Vicky's supervision. ‘Freeman's more than willing to play ball,' said Sukey. She outlined the procedure he had suggested.

Vicky nodded approvingly. ‘At least he's a well organized sort of chap,' she said.

‘I guess he has to be,' said Sukey. ‘There must be more to running events like his than choosing the music. By the way, I asked for Charlotte Lang's details to be in the first batch.'

‘Any particular reason?'

‘Only that she mentioned how one or two of the women seemed to warm to Rainbird in much the same way as the ones in his office. She might on reflection think of a particular one he spent some time with.'

‘It's possible, I suppose,' said Vicky. ‘To be honest, I'm not sure this is going anywhere. I'm pinning my hopes on your visit to his flat.'

When Sukey called Charlotte Lang's number Millie answered. She sounded flustered and said in a low voice, ‘Who is it, please?'

‘This is Detective Constable Reynolds,' said Sukey. ‘We had a chat at Dallington Manor – you remember?'

‘Yes, yes, of course I remember; it was about poor Mr Rainbird, wasn't it? But I don't understand why …'

‘We still don't know what happened to him and we are making further enquiries. May I have a word with Miss Lang, please?'

‘Oh dear.' Millie sounded uneasy and Sukey could picture her casting an anxious glance over her shoulder. ‘The fact is, she's watching her favourite programme on the television and I can't, that is, she won't like being interrupted.'

‘That's no problem,' said Sukey. ‘I need to talk to you as well so we could have our chat first and then I'll wait until Miss Lang's programme is over.'

‘All right, although I can't think what you want to ask me about. I'll just go in the next room and pick up another phone.' There was a click and a few moments passed before she came back on the line and said, ‘Here I am. How can I help you?'

‘You've told us where you were and what you were doing the night Mr Rainbird's body was found and I remember you saying “Mr Rainbird never talks to me – not that I particularly want him to”. Why did you say that? Didn't you like him?'

‘Well, it's a bit hard to explain,' said Millie. ‘I didn't exactly dislike him; it was just, well something about him … and the way some people … that is, some women …'

‘Can you be a bit more specific?' asked Sukey, as Millie seemed at a loss how to continue.

‘Oh dear; I'm not sure how to put it.' Sukey sensed that she was embarrassed. ‘I heard one of the women, Mrs Pearson I think it was, say what a nice voice he had and she said it was – now, what was the word she used to describe it?'

‘Mellifluous?'

‘No, it wasn't that, although I did hear someone else use that word. I think what Mrs Pearson said began with s.'

‘Sexy?' suggested Sukey.

‘Yes, I think that's what it was.' Sukey could almost see her blushing. ‘And then,' Millie went on, ‘she said, “He is quite sexy; I wonder if he's got a lady friend tucked away somewhere”.'

‘If you don't mind my saying so, you sound a little shocked at the suggestion.'

‘I just don't like that kind of talk, that's all. Maybe that's what put me off Mr Rainbird. Oh, excuse me; Miss Lang has just rung her bell – that means she wants her tea. I'll ask her to speak to you while I'm making it.'

‘For goodness' sake, I told you all I know,' said Charlotte when she came on the line.

‘I'm really very sorry to bother you, Miss Lang,' said Sukey. ‘As you'll have gathered, we are no nearer to finding Mr Rainbird's killer, and—'

‘Oh, you've at last accepted that he was murdered,' Charlotte broke in. ‘I told you so, didn't I? All that waffle about an “unexplained death” was just to cover up the fact that you weren't doing your job properly, and while your lot were messing about another two people died. I wonder you can sleep at night.'

‘There are times when it can be a problem,' Sukey admitted. ‘What we are trying to find out now is whether people have noticed Mr Rainbird appearing to have, how can I put it, an especially close relationship with anyone in particular, someone he spent more time talking to than anyone else?'

‘Close relationship – Rainbird?' Charlotte gave a staccato laugh. ‘None that I've ever noticed. As I've already told you, some women seemed to find him attractive on account of his voice. I've even noticed the women in the office or on reception looking at him in a gooey-eyed sort of way.'

‘Well, that's something we hadn't thought of,' said Sukey. She resisted the temptation to add ‘I take it
you
weren't susceptible to his charm' before thanking Charlotte for her time and ending the call.

‘That's something to pass on to Tim and Mike,' said Vicky when Sukey relayed the gist of her conversations with Millie and Charlotte. ‘I suspect “gooey-eyed” was an exaggeration – she really is a spiteful old cow; I wonder how Millie puts up with her.'

‘Maybe she doesn't have a choice,' said Sukey. ‘As for Charlotte – well, I might turn crabby if I was suddenly faced with the prospect of spending the rest of my life in a wheelchair. How about you – any luck with the names on your list?'

‘So far I've only spoken to Julie Pearson. She wasn't at Dallington Manor last weekend of course, but she and her husband knew Rainbird from previous events. It's obvious they never understood why we've been treating his death as unexplained; she said they suspected all along that he'd been murdered. She confirmed what we learned from the Days; they quite liked Rainbird but agreed that he didn't say anything much about himself. She did confirm what Charlotte told you about the female staff; she said even Mrs Chapman, who always appeared very brisk and businesslike, seemed to warm to him, but she never noticed him show a particular interest in, or be attentive to, anyone in particular.'

By the end of the day all the members of the team had ticked off a few names on their respective lists without any positive results. ‘Let's hope for better luck tomorrow,' said Vicky as they cleared their work stations and went home.

At the press briefing the following morning DCI Leach made a statement to the effect that the death of Lance Rainbird was now being treated as murder and a new line of enquiry was being pursued. He appealed to anyone who had a personal acquaintance with Rainbird or knew anything about his private life to come forward. Despite requests from many of the journalists present he refused to answer any questions.

A
t five o'clock on Friday, Rathbone summoned his team for a debriefing.

‘You first, Vicky,' he said. ‘Did you and Sukey learn anything useful from any of Freeman's mob?'

‘Nothing specific, Guv,' said Vicky, ‘but so far we've only managed to make a dozen calls each so there are still a few people to track down. Some of them were out so we'll try them again; in the meantime the consensus seems to be that Rainbird was pleasant and polite to everyone but not much of a conversationalist and tended to shy away if anyone asked him anything like a personal question. As we already know, he was always ready to contribute to a discussion about music – it was in that sort of situation that the spats with Bowen arose – and he was quite friendly with the Pearsons, but not really intimate with them or anyone else.

‘Not a lot of help, but keep at it,' said Rathbone. ‘Have you anything to add to that, Sukey?'

‘I'm afraid not, Guv.'

‘How about you, Mike? Have you learned anything interesting from any of the staff?'

‘Well, sir, it soon became evident that the female staff often exchange titbits about things they've noticed about the guests and there seems to have been quite a lot of gossip about one or two members of Mr Freeman's group. One member of the housekeeping staff noticed a condom that didn't get flushed away in the toilet of a room occupied by a single gentleman and it so happened that the guest in the room next door was a single lady who one of the waitresses had noticed seemed to be on very friendly terms with the gentleman in question.'

‘I don't suppose the gentleman in question was Lance Rainbird?'

‘No such luck, I'm afraid, Guv.'

‘Why doesn't that surprise me? Did you have any luck with Gunn, Penny?'

‘As it happens, Guv, he did say something that might be significant.' Penny consulted her notes. ‘I began by reminding him of something he said to Mr Chapman when he rushed in to tell him he'd found Reg's body, something suggesting that he knew his friend was worried because he'd said he “might have done something stupid”. DS Armstrong and Sukey saw Gunn the next day and asked him to be a bit more specific; it seemed that it arose out of a phone call he'd had from Law on Sunday afternoon. He said, “I can't remember the exact words but the gist of it was that he should have gone to the police instead of trying to be clever” and then he said “Sorry, I've got to go” and ended the call; Gunn thought it was probably because the guests had started to come back for their tea.'