Game Over

‘Fair enough. Now, Freddie Cameron says there were traces of oil on the victim’s pockets and sleeve, and the security door to the building wasn’t working, so anyone could have come in off the street. Conclusions?’

‘It looks,’ said Hollis, ‘as though either someone posed as a courier to rob Stonax—’

‘Or someone wants to make us think that’s what happened,’ said Atherton.

‘The courier might have been legitimate. Did anyone in the building receive a visit from a courier that morning?’ Slider asked.

‘No-one said they did,’ Hart reported.

‘Better check that point.’

‘Guv, there was that biro found underneath the body,’ she went on. ‘Say the murderer was pretending to be a courier, he could’ve asked Stonax to sign something and given him the biro. That could’ve been where it came from.’

‘Good point. Now, further to this courier theory, as far as it is one, the caretaker, Dave Borthwick, has a bike in his basement, a Triumph. However the bike does not have a box on the back. Hollis, have you looked into Borthwick yet?’

‘Yes, guv, and he’s got some previous. No burglary or robbery, but he’s done some thieving. Started with nicking cars for joyriding when he was fourteen. Nicking hubcaps and wire wheels to order when he was fifteen. Then as an adult, got done for stealing tools from B and Q – cautioned. Stealing a motorbike – got community service for that. Couple of drunk and disorderlies. And he was involved in that car-ringing gang four years ago, but there wasn’t enough evidence against him and there were no charges brought. Nothing against him since then, and he got the caretaker’s job at Valancy House just over two years ago.’

‘How come they took him on with a record like that?’ Fathom asked.

‘I don’t suppose anyone asked,’ Hollis said. ‘The landlord’s a property company, JK Holdings, owns all three of those identical blocks in Riverene Road. Previous caretaker left suddenly, and they’d be in a hurry to get someone in, not wanting to leave the place empty. Caretaker gets the flat plus a small salary to do general maintenance and a bit of light cleaning of the public areas – hall and stairs. I gave ’em a ring and they said there’d been no complaints against him, so we have to reckon he was discharging his duties all right.’

‘Yeah,’ said Hart. ‘The average age in that building must be about ninety-five, and them old trouts really love complaining.’

‘But if it was Borthwick who did it,’ Fathom said, ‘why would he dress himself up as a courier to do the robbery? I mean, he must have had plenty of opportunities to do the place over while people were out.’

‘Yeah, that would look good, him being the caretaker!’ Hart said derisively. ‘Of course he had to cover himself up, because any of the old biddies would’ve recognised him. And he had to make it look like an outsider, didn’t he, to take the heat off himself? That’s why he broke the security door.’

‘Hmm,’ said Slider. ‘But he’d not done anything like that before. Why Stonax, why robbery from the person, and why now?’

‘Maybe he’d seen the F283,’ Hart said. ‘People’d kill for that Cyber-box. He wouldn’t have any trouble shifting it afterwards. Say he’d seen Stonax come in using it? He might not’ve meant to kill him – just hit him a bit too hard.’

‘But what about the oil smears on the filing cabinet?’ Slider said. ‘If the Cyber-box was his object, what was he doing in the office?’

Hart shrugged. ‘Maybe once he’d slugged Stonax he reckoned he might as well look round. Hoping to find some cash or something portable.’

‘He didn’t take anything,’ Atherton said.

‘Maybe he was disturbed,’ Mackay said. ‘Thought he heard something. If it wasn’t his usual style, he would have been well nervous.’

‘All right,’ said Slider, ‘we’d better turn him over. Bring him in for questioning, and search his flat while he’s here. Get some samples of oil from various parts of the motorbike and send them off to Les Patterson. If we can get a match on that we’ll know something, at least. What else?’

Swilley spoke up. ‘Boss, there’s something about Candida Scott-Chatton that doesn’t make sense.’

‘Her name for a start,’ McLaren muttered.

‘She seemed as if she was hiding something. And she didn’t seem upset enough. Then, Stonax’s daughter says she stuck by her father after his bit of trouble last year, but Candida’s secretary says she dropped him like a hot potato and started to go out with Freddie Bell.’

Slider frowned. ‘But the daughter says she gave Stonax an expensive watch for Christmas.’

‘A really expensive watch,’ Atherton said. ‘Depending on the model, a Rolex Oyster Perpetual knocks out at five thousand upwards. Not the sort of thing you give to someone you aren’t seeing any more.’

‘Maybe it was Freddie Bell give it her,’ Hart said. ‘He blows his nose on fifty-pound notes.’

‘Worth another go,’ Slider nodded to Swilley. ‘Especially with the Freddie Bell connection. I can’t see the head of the Countryside Protection Trust lamming Stonax on the head, but Freddie Bell’s a different matter.’

‘He’s got no form, guv,’ Hollis reminded him. ‘Clean as a whistle.’

‘A whistle might be shiny on the outside, but on the inside it’s full of germs and old spit. Have another word with Scott-Chatton, Norma, and see where it leads. And Hollis, see if there’s anything unofficial against Bell. I’ve got an idea in the back of my head there was some sort of story about him a while back.’

‘So you don’t think it was robbery from the person, then?’ Fathom said.

‘I’m not at the stage of thinking anything yet,’ Slider said, his old formula. ‘I’m just looking for anomalies and asking questions. Mackay, go back to Mrs Koontz and find out more about this courier she saw. What kind and size of envelope? What did the logo look like? Where did he go? McLaren, did anyone in the building have a courier call that morning. Everyone else, start going through the papers. Questions?’ No-one spoke. He looked at Hart. ‘Regarding Bates’s house being watched?’

She started blankly, then jerked. ‘Oh! Yeah – I forgot for a minute. Phil Warzynski says the house was sealed off when the forensic mob had done their number. They keep a man on all the time, who keeps a note of who goes in and out.’

‘So there have been people going in and out?’ Slider asked.

‘Various SO people, but they all have to have proper ID. And everything they take out is logged. Phil says they took out a load of electronics gear a couple of weeks ago, but it was all signed for.’

‘So he couldn’t be living there,’ Mackay said.

‘But he must have a place to hang out,’ Hart went on, ‘and if he was following you, guv, it must be fairly local.’

‘We need to look into his local contacts,’ Slider said. ‘Anyone he might bunk up with, any other properties he’s got an interest in.’

‘And what about his sidekicks?’ Atherton said. ‘His driver, Thomas Mark, and that bodyguard of his, what was his name? Norman something?’

‘Norman Grant. But he’s still inside,’ Slider said. ‘He was nicked for carrying a firearm at the same time that we took his boss. But there was that butler-type he employed – what was his name?’

‘Archie Gordon,’ Hollis supplied. ‘He and Mark disappeared when Bates was taken, and we don’t know where they are. They might be helping him.’

Atherton looked significantly at Slider. ‘It seems we could do with someone to do some research, but who have we got to spare?’

‘Oh, all right,’ Slider said. ‘Give her the biographical bits of the file and the names, and see what she can come up with.’

‘Her who?’ Hart demanded.

Atherton wasn’t going to answer so Slider did. ‘Emily Stonax. She wants to help, and she needs something to do to keep her mind off things.’

‘Makes sense,’ Norma said. ‘We’re not officially on Bates, and she’s not officially here.’

Seven