crying. She ran a comb through her hair and then shook her head so her hair fell in loose, silky strands onto her shoulders. She gave herself a look of approval, biting at her lip, as the cocaine had numbed her gums slightly; by the time she walked out, the coke had kicked in. Langton had already been into the incident room with his update on his interviews with Delroy and Silas, and the team were able to see how the jigsaw was slowly building, piece by piece. Phil turned to Anna, asking how it was going with Julia, and Anna pulled a face.Phil gave her a rueful look. 'Well, we're not getting much from her financial adviser's murder. We have the CCTV footage and we have every indication that Alexander Fitzpatrick was the last man to see David Rushton alive. What we don't have, obviously, is where in God's name he is! We've also got more bloody paperwork; it's been a real argy-bargy getting the Julia Brandon files from Rushton's partners but, from what we've ascertained so far, there are about four files missing.''But you have some idea of what he was doing for her?''Yeah, but it's a maze of companies and investment banks and fucking hedge funds; we've got three guys on it. We might find out Rushton was feathering his own pockets big-time.'Phil sighed, and they both looked back at the board. They now knew that Delroy and Silas were blaming each other for the shooting of Frank, but Langton was certain it was Delroy who also shot, with the same gun, the garage owner Stanley Leymore.Phil called over to Gordon, who joined them. His desk was stacked with papers from the garage. They were still trying to unearth the date that Leymore received the Mitsubishi. They had the date and time it had been stolen in Brighton, but by whom they didn't know. What they were trying to piece together was when the jeep was taken over by Frank Brandon, driven to the farm in Oxfordshire, and how Donny Petrozzo's body came to be in the back of it. They still had no time frame for when it came into Julius D'Anton's possession.Phil moved along the incident board. 'The start date would be when whoever bought it from Leymore. Gordon here's been checking over the garage's farcical receipts and invoices.The turnover wasn't bad, considering it was such a shithole.'Gordon pointed to the area on the board that he was writing up. 'I'm going back two years, because I've found a Mercedes listed by Leymore: its reg plates were found in a stack at the back of the garage.
They match a vehicle stolen from Kingston in Surrey. This Merc, a silver four-door saloon, was the one driven by Donny Petrozzo; we've got a match on the engine number. The car Petrozzo used for his wife and her niece to drive around was on Leymore's legit books. I've also traced the BMW driven by our drug dealer from the squat back to Leymore's garage; this was stolen almost a year ago. This could be the reason Leymore's prints were found in the squat; they could have been left there before the murder went down: prints minus fingertip, right? I've got another vehicle Leymore also sold to—'
'Enough already, Gordon! We'll concentrate on the start date of whoever bought the stolen jeep from Leymore. You got anything on the Mitsubishi?' Phil asked.
'Not yet. For the hot vehicles, he had a whole lot of legitimate documents for vehicles bought from car auctions; there's a load of equipment for respraying, et cetera. I've also got a stash of receipts for paints and electrical spare parts. They were stuffed into a black bin liner.'
'What about his personal bank account?'
'We've got two accounts, a savings and a current; there is really not that much in either, but...' Anna and Phil waited expectantly ... 'he's got a time-share on the Costa del Sol. I'm waiting for a bloke there to get back to me with more details, but Leymore has had it for years; he could plow his cash into the villa and carry it out in a suitcase.'
'So when he wasn't up to his elbows in grease, he was sunning himself in Spain?' Phil said, swearing under his breath.
'Hang on, Gordon,' Anna said suddenly. 'The Mitsubishi that was stolen: had it had a respray?'
'No, but it's only got thirty-five thousand miles on the clock.'
'So whoever got it from Leymore might have done so almost as soon as it was stolen?'
'Could be.'
By now, both Anna and Phil were standing beside Gordon's desk. The grubby papers were stacked in piles, dated, and clipped together; there were still hundreds more in black bin liners to sort through. 'You've got your work cut out for you,' Anna said, smiling.'You can say that again!' Gordon held up his hands; some of the grease from the stained papers had rubbed off onto his fingers.Anna turned as Cunningham signaled for her to return to the interview room: Mrs. Brandon's bathroom break was up.As they left the incident room, Gordon got the call in from the property company in Spain. They confirmed that Stanley Leymore had bought from them a time-share apartment on the Costa Del Sol for ?150,000; with inflation, it was now valued at over ?200,000. He had paid the previous owner in cash.As Gordon took down the details, he accidentally knocked over a stash of papers he had not yet checked. When he finished the call and picked them up, he noticed a receipt for a Mitsubishi taillight from the main dealers of the jeep. When Gordon checked with them, they were able to give him more details: the taillight was for a 2008 Mitsubishi jeep. The date was one week after the vehicle had been reported stolen in Brighton: March 15, 2008. It was highly probable that Stanley Leymore had the jeep in his garage by that time.Julia was sitting with her back pressed into the chair, her legs crossed. Fa-gan's arms were folded, his leather-bound notebook closed on the table.'Can we now return to the date you say you moved into your home in Wimbledon?' Cunningham asked.Julia sighed. 'It'd be early March. I owned the house before that, maybe five weeks before, but it needed furnishing and redecorating.''You were with your children and their au pair?''Yes, I'd got the girls into a local nursery. Mai Ling came from an agency; she had a place of her own, so she would just come in for the day and evening, then go home. She didn't move in full-time until March.'Cunningham inteijected. 'I would like to know the date that you first employed Frank Brandon.'Julia looked to the ceiling. 'It'd be about a month after I'd moved in.' 'You say you put an advert in the local paper?''Yes. I needed someone for the garden, and someone to drive for me.''A chauffeur?''Call it what you like. Frank contacted me and came round, and we discussed wages.''When I spoke to you originally, Mrs. Brandon, you said you actually wanted a bodyguard as well as a driver.''Yes, well, you know I am a woman alone. I have some very valuable jewelry, so 1 thought it would be best to hire someone with experience.''So you knew he had been a police officer?''Yes, he told me. He said he could maintain my car, do whatever I wanted. Mostly, he was driving the children to school and back, because I was always scared, you know—in case someone found out I had money. I felt protected having him around, and he got on well with the children.''So this was in late March?''Yes.''So when did the relationship become more personal?'Julia sniffed, and smiled. 'Well, if having sex is personal, then it was a few days later.''When did you ask him to move into the house?''Maybe in May? I can't really remember the exact date; it just happened.'
'But Mr. Brandon was also working as a driver for someone else.' 'Oh, that. Well, it wasn't as if it was an everyday thing. This man would call him and ask him to do odd pickups when he was too busy.''Did Frank work for Donny Petrozzo?'Julia shrugged. 'I never knew his name, I never met him. He would call Frank on his mobile and Frank would say yes or no. Often he would drive to wherever and pick up a car to do the chauffeuring, mostly to the airports.''Frank had his own car, a VW?'
'Yes. Just like I said, he would go in his own car to wherever this man lived and then he would use a Merc, 1 think it was.' Julia sniffed and began tapping her foot against the leg of the table. She kept on glancing at Fagan as if he should say something. He remained silent.'So when did you see Mr. Brandon in possession of the black Mitsubishi jeep?''I never saw it.'Cunningham slapped the table with the flat of her hand. 'Stop lying, Mrs. Brandon! You knew that Frank Brandon drove this vehicle; you also knew where it was parked—you gave Detective Inspector Travis directions on how to get to the garage he used to park it in.''Of course I knew about the garage—I paid the rent on it. I had my two cars, so we needed another garage.'Fagan leaned forward. 'I think Mrs. Brandon has answered your question. She did not know Mr. Brandon had this jeep; she has clearly just said that she never saw it.''Thank you,' Julia said curtly.'Let's go to the date you were married.''I am getting sick and tired of this. I have told you about the wedding.' She jerked her head toward Anna.'I just need to know when you and Mr. Brandon agreed to be married.''Why? What business is it of yours?''Please answer the question.' Cunningham was starting to sound irritated now.'It was sometime in May.''He had worked for you for two months?''My goodness, how clever of you, yes! After two months we realized we wanted to be married; we loved each other, and we went to the Isle of Man and got a special license and we got fucking married.'Fagan whipped around on her. 'Julia, that was not necessary.''Of course it is! They keep asking me these ridiculous questions that have nothing to do with anything.''The life insurance policy your financial adviser arranged for Mr. Brandon?' Cunningham persisted.'Yes, you've bloody asked me about that. I was looking out for him, that is all.''But it was payable only if he died.''That is not the point! If he had a life insurance policy, he could get mortgages and things like that.''Why would he want a mortgage when you owned your house outright?''Maybe he wanted to show me he had a pair of balls rather than live off me!' she shouted. Fagan again warned her to be quiet and behave. She sniffed and then rubbed at her nose.
