“My, my, you really have been talking to people haven’t you? He was an extremely vile and nasty piece of work. All I can say is, if you’ve got a list of people who would have liked to see some harm come to him it would probably stretch from here to Edinburgh. But if you’re asking in a roundabout way if I had anything to do with his death the answer is no. Sure, I disliked him intensely for all the things he did but I wouldn’t stoop to murder.”
“Can you tell me what he did to you to really upset you?”
“How long have you got? Look, you probably know the main thing. You seem switched on. I had a fling, if you can call it that with Mrs Swinton, the lady who runs the old-style tearooms at Swinton’s auction rooms. Peter found us in a compromising position in her stockroom. She’s a very attractive woman and very open and it just happened. He was there snooping around. We didn’t see him but he used his phone to film us having sex across a table in her stockroom. He said unless I paid him every month he would show my wife. I called his bluff but it didn’t work. He sent her a copy and the result was she left me and filed for divorce. Once I had a nice little business with a property worth a small fortune and fully paid for. What with the divorce, I now have half a shop and a large mortgage with the bank, and my wife and kids no longer speak to me. All thanks to Peter. So if you ask me would I have liked to see someone give him his just desserts then the answer would be yes. But if you ask me if I had the guts to murder him then I’d have to plead to being a coward and say no.
“And before you ask me about Mrs Swinton, the only reason he didn’t go after her is because her husband probably has an idea what she’s like. I’m sure I wasn’t the first and I’m equally sure I won’t be the last. And besides, that café just about pays its way. She doesn’t have any money to pay him and as you’re aware, she’s not his type.
“It may have been Norman who killed him or it may have been one of the dozens of dealers he crossed over the years. Many of them were around for the art and antiques fair. I’d guess about half of them would’ve had a motive to see some harm come to him. If it wasn’t Norman and you find who did it, please give them my thanks. As far as I’m concerned it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.”
As with the two previous dealers James sat and chatted for a few minutes, seeing if Francis’s mannerisms and tone changed.
It seemed a lot of people hated the victim and the list of suspects was wasn’t getting any shorter. All he could do was to drive back to Trentbridge and get a good night’s sleep and prepare for tomorrow when he intended to speak with members of staff at the hotel and see if any of them had noticed anything.
As a former police detective with all his years of experience he knew that even the most challenging case usually came down to one lucky break.
Chapter Thirty-Two
DS Carla Parsons had been the first to arrive for work and was going through the overnight incidents when she spotted something she thought would be of interest to her colleague, Eden Gold.
As he walked through the door twenty minutes later, she greeted him. “Morning, Eden. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate at the moment but we’ve just had a report come through from a Stavros Kappas who runs the Greek Taverna restaurant. He’s reported someone paying their bill with forged twenty-pound notes. He said they were paid by three Irishman, possibly travellers. I took a quick look at the description he gave and the name Kevin O’Connor sprung into my mind.”
“Thanks, Carla. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s involved. Send the details over to me. I’ve been considering a visit to see Kevin regarding the Five Bells attack. I’ll stop by the restaurant on my way and get a statement. The more stuff I can hit O’Connor with, the better as far as I’m concerned. Could you check CCTV between the two locations for me?”
Eden knocked on his boss’s office door, which had been slightly open and walked in.
“Morning, Andy. I was just preparing to go and see Kevin O’Connor and his sons about the Five Bells attack when this came in. It’s a report from a restaurant. Three Irish men gave the owner nine fake twenty-pound notes for a meal they had last Wednesday. The time ties in with the attack at the Five Bells. I’ve got Carla checking to see if we have any CCTV of them in the area. I just thought I’d keep you up to date.”
“Mmmm. The wonderful O’Connor family. How are you thinking of approaching them? Do you want uniformed back up?”
“My thought was to go with Tracy. Make it a low-key visit. Just a chat and see how he reacts. I’ll go and see the restaurant owner first just to make sure before I visit Fen Road. The more I have to hit him with the better.”
Everyone in Trentbridge was aware of Fen Road and its reputation for trouble. Most of it stemmed from the two legal travellers’ sites and many more that were illegal. It ran alongside the River Stern on the outskirts of Pickstone, regarded
