“Okay,” he acknowledged the request with a subdued nod. “Who the hell did this? The only way this murderer could elude our programs is with major plastic surgery, changing his appearance.”
“Someone in showbusiness, then,” Alison said brightly.
“The percentage is a lot higher among celebrities than the rest of the population. They’re always improving their appearance.”
“Could be.” Uncertainty was a strong presence in his voice.
“Alison, that can be your priority,” Amanda said. “We’ll turn Tyler’s finances over to a professional accountant. That’ll free us to interview friends and colleagues, see if any of them recognize this picture.”
Her finger tapped the cybofax screen. “I’ll start with the Sullivans. You concentrate on his fellow celebrities.”
Amanda was just going out the station door when she caught sight of a silhouette in the reception area, a man talking to the desk sergeant. “Greg?”
Greg Mandel turned round. His eyes narrowed for a second, then he grinned. “Amanda Patterson, right?
Detective sergeant?”
She shook the hand he offered. “Detective, now.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks. So what are you doing here?”
“Checking on a vehicle accident. One of Eleanor’s family was hurt.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Any luck?”
“None at all.”
“Yeah, well, you know how the police force works. Traffic doesn’t get the highest priority these days.
Want me to pull any strings?”
“No. That’s okay, thanks. I guess CID’s pretty busy with the Tyler case. I saw it on the news.”
“Yeah. It’s my case, too.” She glanced from Greg back to Mike Wilson who was standing waiting politely. Asking never hurt, she thought, and she’d had a reasonable relationship with Greg during an earlier case when he’d been appointed as a special adviser to Oakham’s CID. “Look, Greg, I realize this probably isn’t the best time to ask you, but the Tyler case is really a ball-breaker for me. We’re hitting a lot of stone walls.”
“Uh huh.” Greg’s expression became reluctant, trying to work out how to extricate himself.
“Just sit in on one interview, Greg, that’s all I need. I’ve got a suspect I’m not sure about. How about it?
You can cut straight through all the usual crap and tell me if she’s on the level. We can even pay you a fee. Mike here is from Crescent Insurance, they’re picking up the tab for Tyler.”
Greg and Mike eyed each other suspiciously.
“What exactly is your field?” Mike asked.
“I have a gland,” Greg said mildly.
Amanda enjoyed the discomfort leaking over Mike Wilson’s face. She’d endured the same feeling the first time she met Greg; every guilty memory rushing to the front of her mind.
“I thought we’d cleared Claire?” Mike Wilson protested.
“She was at the apartment very close to the time,” Amanda said. “And I know she’s holding something back. That’s why I need a psychic, to see where I’m going wrong. If I knew the right questions to ask her I bet we could take some big steps forward.”
Mike Wilson clearly wanted to object; just didn’t have the nerve.
“Detective’s intuition, huh?” Greg asked.
“Must be catching,” she told him spryly.
He consulted his watch. “Okay. I can give you an hour. But I’ll have to call Eleanor first, let her know where I am.”
She couldn’t resist it. “Under the thumb, Greg-you?”
His smile was bright and proud. “Certainly am, I have two women in my life now. Christine is six months old.”
“Oh, I didn’t know. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
Amanda and Mike Wilson took it in turns to brief Greg on the case as they drove out to Uppingham. Just before they got to the roundabout with the A47 at Uppingham, Greg said: “I’d like to take a look at the apartment first.”
“Why is that necessary?” Wilson asked.
“It’s best if I can get a feel for the event,” Greg said. “Sometimes my intuition can be quite strong. It might help with the interview.”
They pulled up in Church Vista’s courtyard. Greg got out and looked round, head tilted back slightly as if he was sniffing at the air. Wilson watched him, but didn’t comment. There was a police seal on the door to apartment three, which Amanda’s card opened.
Greg went over to the red outline at the foot of the stairs. “What was the result from the security ’ware?”
“As far as we can tell it’s clean,” Mike Wilson said. “If it was tampered with, then whoever did it covered their tracks perfectly.”
“Hmm.” Greg nodded and started to walk round, glancing at the coffee table with its spread of glossy art books.
“We’ve collected statements from all the neighbors now,” Amanda said. “None of them heard or saw any other car arriving or departing that night. It was only Claire and the Ingalo. And we’ve received the enhanced images from the security camera by the gates. She was the only person in it coming in and out.”
“Well, I can appreciate your problem,” Greg said. He was walking along the wall, examining the pictures one at a time. “Circumstances make it look like a professional hit, but pushing Tyler down the stairs is strictly a chance killing.”
“Tell me,” Amanda muttered. “We know there was someone else here, we even know what they look like. But everything else we’ve got says it’s Claire.”
“Can I see the image you assembled from the genome data?”
Mike Wilson flipped open his cybofax and showed Greg the image while it ran through its eighteen-to-eighty lifecycle.
“Doesn’t ring any psychic bells,” Greg said. He stopped beside the smallest painting on the wall, a picture of a hill with a strange object in the air above it. “This is a bit out of place, isn’t it?” The pictures on either side were colored chalk sketches of ballerinas clad only in tutus.
“Is that relevant?” Wilson asked as he slipped the cybofax back in his jacket pocket. He was beginning to sound more positive, overcoming his apprehension of the gland and its reputation.
“Probably not,” Greg admitted. He led them up the stairs into the bedroom. The crime scene team had tagged the three cameras that were discreetly hidden within elaborate picture frames, the units no bigger than a coat button. Slender fiber-optic threads buried in the plaster linked them to an AV recorder deck in a chest of drawers.
“And you say there’s no sign of a struggle?” Greg asked.
“No. The only thing messed up was the bed.”
“Right.” He stood in the door, looking at the top of the stairs. “If it was a professional hit, then the murderer could have waited until just after Claire had left, then thrown Tyler down the stairs. That would disguise the fact it was a hit, which would stop us looking for anyone else with a motive. Was Tyler alive when he fell?”
“The autopsy says yes. The impact snapped his neck, he was killed instantly.”
“What about bruising or marks? If he was alive when he was forced to the stairs he would have put up some kind of struggle.”
“No bruising,” Amanda said.
“That doesn’t necessarily follow,” Mike Wilson said. “He’d only struggle if he realized what was happening. If the murderer made out he was a burglar and made him walk to the stairs with a gun to his head he wouldn’t have fought back.”
Greg pulled a face, looking from the bed to the stairs. “Yeah, this is all possible, but very tenuous. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.” He went over to the chest of drawers, and bent down to study the AV recorder, fingertips tracing the slender optical threads back into the skirting board. “How old is this place?”
