"Okay. I'll leave that to you Eden, but my money's on Norman. Personally I think he’s our man and we got a lucky break when the antique dealer recognised him.”
Chapter Twenty-One
SEARCH FOR OLIVER VARNEY
At 2.45 pm. Eden Gold phoned DS Tracy Archer who was still interviewing people at the hotel.
Tracy had joined the police after university and was following in the footsteps of her father who had been a detective until he disappeared while investigating a fraud case when she was fifteen. One day he just went missing and there had been no trace of him since.
"Hi, Tracy. Eden said. “It appears the victim and Norman were in a long-term relationship and he says he stayed at the hotel because he thought the victim was cheating on him and he wanted to find out what was going on. He’s mentioned a young man staying with Peter. Norman says he went to the room, and he and Peter had a heated argument at around 10 am yesterday morning. We need to ask around if anyone heard it and if they managed to hear anything that was said? We're going to be looking at the victim’s phone records but check if anyone knows his name so we can narrow it down. There’s a chance this could bring up another possibility. A jealous lover of the young man who might have killed Winston-Moore and has taken the young man or harmed him. I'm waiting on the report from fingerprints just in case we have him on file. So if you can get back to me as soon as you have anything.”
“Actually, Eden, I’m about to interview the main housekeeper, Dawn Waterman, and the house maids. According to the hotel assistant manager they would have been cleaning the rooms around that time. Maybe she or one of her colleagues heard or saw something. As soon as I’ve spoken to them I’ll get back to you.
“Thanks, Tracy." The DI hung up the phone and turned to his boss. "Andy. I've spoken to technical and there's one of their guys in the building looking at some items from that recent pornography raid. The SOCO team have just finished at the hotel so I've asked if one of them can bring the victim’s phone over to us straight away. Then we can get the techie to have a look and see if we can come up with a name for the young man.”
Tracy started her interview with Dawn Waterman the main housekeeper.
As the pair shook hands Tracy could feel the roughness, the result from years of cleaning and a firmness that comes from manual work. Dawn stood five feet three with brown hair and little in the way of make-up. As Tracy said hello and smiled Dawn didn’t smile back.
Here tone was matter of fact. “I’ve worked here for eight years now… apart from a short period off for personal reasons last year. I’m the main housekeeper. There’s myself and three house maids. We clean the rooms plus the bars and restaurants. And I also work on the reception desk three afternoons and evenings to supplement my income.”
“So were you on reception earlier this week?”
“Yes. This week as I usually do I worked Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from two thirty until eight-thirty.”
“So you would have booked in Mr Winston-Moore?”
“Yes. I did. Along with the young man.”
“Did you get a name for the young man?”
“No. As I recall when I took the initial booking about two weeks ago it was for one person but when he booked in I noticed it was for two. So he must have phoned and spoken to someone in between and upgraded it.”
“Can you describe the young man?”
“Probably in his mid-twenties. Medium height. Quite thin with light brown hair and smartly dressed. I only saw him briefly when they booked in and a couple of times when they passed us in the hallway when Zoe and I were cleaning the rooms. The last time I recall seeing him was just after the argument on Thursday morning.”
Tracy looked up from her note-taking. “Argument. What argument?”
“Zoe and I both heard it when we were cleaning room 106. Just after ten o’clock. We heard raised voices but we couldn’t hear everything. Something about him, the man who died, being a cheat and a liar. We thought it strange because when it was over the person who came out of the room was another guest, Mr Green from room 113. Then a little later we saw the young man leave with a suitcase. I didn’t see him again after that.”
“Thank you, Dawn, that was very helpful. If you think of anything else, no matter how trivial it may seem please let us know.”
After a brief interview with Zoe Keltman, one of the house maids who confirmed everything Dawn had said, Tracy wrote up her notes, and made a quick call to Eden before she went off to interview members of the kitchen staff.
Eden’s phone rang.
"Hi, Tracy. Have you got something?"
"Hi, Eden. Yes, a couple of things. I've spoken to the housekeeper, Dawn Waterman, and one of the house maids, a young girl called Zoe, and they both overheard an argument yesterday morning. They reckon it was a few minutes after ten. They heard something like ‘Why would you cheat on me like this?’ but that's all they can recall. I've also spoken to one of the bar staff and she thinks the young man with the victim was called Oliver. She only remembers because it's the same name as her boyfriend. I checked
