From his manner Francis tried his best to look calm. The DCI could tell he wasn’t by the fact of his shoulders being tense and he cleared his throat before answering.
“Certainly. My name is Francis Tack. I live at 32 Portobello Road in Notting Hill, London and I’m an antiques dealer. I’m here to attend the Evesham Art and Antiques Fair this weekend.”
“I wonder if you have your driving licence or a form of identity on you for me to check. It’s purely routine, however it would be helpful.”
Francis reached into his jacket pocket and took out a leather wallet. “Yes, I have my licence and a business card.”
DCI Andy Stone nodded. “Would it be okay to take a copy of the licence?”
“Of course. Anything I can do to help.”
Andy looked at the licence and handed it together with the business card to PC Pauline Underwood who noted down the details and then went off to the hotel office where Diane had said they could use the photocopier.
A few minutes later, she came back and returned the items to DCI Stone, who then passed them back to Mr Tack.
“Thank you, Mr Tack, that’s most helpful. I won’t keep you much longer. Can you tell me, how you knew Mr Winston-Moore?”
“Actually, yes I know him, or rather knew him because we are both antique dealers. In fact he is the reason I’m staying at the hotel.”
Francis Tack seemed happy to go on and explain the situation without being asked. “You see, as I said, he’s a rival dealer and over the last year or so his business has taken off from virtually nothing to overtake mine by a mile. I was, shall we say, curious to find out how he was doing it and I got wind of the fact he was staying at this hotel before the antiques fair. I wanted to find out how he had managed to become so successful. So I came here to spy on him but I swear I had nothing to do with his death. Nothing at all.”
The policeman made a few notes before looking up. “Did you see him yesterday?”
“As I said, I've been trying to figure things out for ages. So I was in the bar with him last night buying him a few drinks in the hope he would say something, but he never did.”
"Did you go into his room at any time?"
“Yes. I was trying to get him to open up about where he finds his stock and he took me up to see a valuable new painting he had just discovered. I was only there for about a minute then we went back down to the restaurant. I think he just wanted to boast as usual. I’m not an art expert like Peter but he said it was worth around £250,000 and I can believe it.”
The DCI nodded and tapped his pen against his teeth. “Right, I see. I noticed you talking to those two other gentlemen over there. Are they friends of yours?”
“Yes. The one on the left is Victor Athos and the other is Robin Longhurst.” Francis pointed across to a table on the other side of the restaurant. “They're antique dealers as well. We came here together. The truth is we just don't know how Peter finds, sorry found, his new stock. So we came here to see if we could figure it out. It's been driving us crazy for months."
“They will back up what I've told you. We would have no reason to harm Peter, he was a likeable person. Not a close friend but we got on.”
“Are you aware of anyone who might have wanted to harm Mr Winston-Moore?”
“No. I can’t think of anyone. The gentleman who is sitting over there.” Tack pointed across to a table some ten yards away situated by the window. “That’s Norman Gentle. He is, sorry, was, Peter’s live in partner. They have lived together for several years. He would know better than anyone if Peter had any enemies. He probably doesn't recognise any of us because we only tended to see Peter at fairs or auctions and Norman never seemed to attend any of those. But I recognise him because he runs Peter’s shop and from time to time we would visit and try to secretly find out any more info on what Peter was up to, so we’d see him in there. And Peter had talked about him and their relationship from time to time.”
“Thank you, Mr Tack. You’ve been extremely helpful. I would ask you don’t leave the hotel until we give you permission. As you can understand we need to contain things for now.”
“Yes, I quite understand.”
Francis looked relieved his ‘ordeal’ was over, at least for now.
Chapter Eighteen
INTERVIEW WITH TOBY GREEN AKA NORMAN GENTLE
DCI Stone decided the next person to interview would be the person pointed out by the antiques dealer. He looked down the list of guests but couldn’t see his name. He walked over to the table Francis Tack had pointed to.
Standing close to the man seated he smiled and said. “Hello, sir. I’m Detective Chief Inspector Andy Stone. Can I ask your name?”
“Oh yes, hello. My name is er, Toby Green.”
The DCI sat down at the opposite side of the table.
“Okay, Mr Green, the reason we are interviewing everyone is because a member of the hotel staff discovered a body early this morning and we’re treating the death as suspicious.”
Norman Gentle thought his fake identity was safe.
“So, Mr Green, This is purely routine. Can we start with your full name and address and then if you can you tell me the reason for your visit to this hotel?”
Norman’s voice was soft and unassured.
“Certainly. As I said, my name is Toby Green and my address is 12a Broadmere Gardens, South Kensington, London. I’m just visiting to get away for a few days’ to relax.”
“Mr Green, I wonder if
