‘And his name?’
‘Garry Solomon.’
‘Where is he now?’
‘I’ve not seen him since he turned nineteen. He was wild, always in trouble. Took after his father, I suppose.’
‘Did you look for him?’
‘For a long time. Even hired a private investigator, but he had disappeared. I received a postcard from India a couple of years later saying that he was fine, but since then, nothing.’
‘Did it upset you?’
‘For a while, but I was never overly maternal. I was not a good mother, I wanted to party too much, and Michael was not a good example. I thought India was better for him, although I would have liked to have seen him again. I suppose I never will now.’
‘I need to take a sample of saliva. Would that be acceptable?’
‘What for?’
‘We need to collect a sample of your DNA for analysis.’
‘Are you saying the body is Garry?’
‘We don’t know, but we must eliminate all possibilities.’
‘I understand.’
After the sample had been taken, Wendy turned to the woman. ‘Do you want someone to stay with you?’
‘I’ve got my cats. Besides, I always assumed he would come to an unpleasant end. I never imagined it would be in Bellevue Street.’
‘It’s not been proven,’ Larry said. He had purposely said little during the interview.
‘It will be.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘A mother knows. I can’t explain it.’
***
With a clear reason, Isaac decided to confront Montague Grenfell. As the family lawyer, he should have been more forthcoming about the child of Gertrude Richardson and Michael Solomon. Isaac saw the man as being evasive in hiding information.
‘I never spoke of the son because it is part of a confidentiality agreement that I have with the two sisters,’ Grenfell said after Isaac had climbed the stairs to the lawyer’s office.
‘Why a confidentiality agreement?’
‘Do you believe the body to be that of Garry Solomon?’
‘It’s not proven.’
‘But it looks likely?’
‘A strong possibility, but why Bellevue Street and why a fireplace? Too many unknowns at the present time.’
‘If it is him,’ Grenfell said, ‘where was he for sixteen, seventeen years?’
‘Unknown, although we know he was in India two years after he disappeared.’
‘He was trouble.’
‘We know, but since he disappeared there has been no record of him, or at least no record of a Garry Solomon. We’ve not checked for a Solly Michaels, and we’ve not checked with the fingerprint department.’
Grenfell went to make some tea. He almost spilt it on his return, due to the shaking of his hands. It concerned Isaac as on his previous visit they had been firm.
‘Did you know that Michael Solomon was dead?’
‘I knew.’
‘And you didn’t tell his wife?’
‘What could I tell her? That he was living not far from her and married to another woman with a couple of children. It would only have caused more trouble.’
‘But you’re her lawyer?’
‘I’m also her cousin and godfather to her son. What kind of bastard would I have been if I had destroyed her belief?’
‘What belief is that?’
‘That her son is well and happy in India, and her husband is overseas. Better to let sleeping dogs lie. And if I told her that her husband was living in a bigamous relationship, professionally I would have needed to tell the police. I couldn’t do that to either Gertrude or Michael Solomon.’
‘You knew Michael Solomon?’
‘I did.’
‘What kind of man was he?’
‘He was my friend.’
‘Why did he leave Gertrude?’
‘That’s another story.’
‘I could make it official.’
‘Confirm the body as Garry Solomon first. Until then it remains a secret.’
***
Larry Hill had been enjoying his time with the team at Challis Street, and he had a great deal of respect for his DCI. He knew some of the truth regarding the death of Sally Jenkins, the murdered woman whose case he had been responsible for. It irked DI Hill that the woman’s death had been classified as murder by person or persons unknown. He was aware that his senior knew more, and he had quizzed him on more than one occasion, only to be told that it was classified, and the final report was confidential and came under the Official Secrets Act.
There was not much more that he could do about it, but he saw it as a blot on his career. An unsolved murder invariably reflected on the senior police officer assigned to the case. DCI Cook had told him that it did not, although in this case he even admitted that it irked him as well. Larry Hill saw an inference from Isaac that he knew who the murderer was, but he was not telling either.
Still, Larry Hill had to reflect that working with the team at Challis Street was a lot better than his previous police station. There, it had been office-bound more times than not, dealing with endless paperwork, and the senior man, a detective superintendent, had not been someone he could respect. On the couple of occasions that he had met Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Goddard, he had found him to be a decent man. A little humourless, but he left the team alone as much as possible, and he and Isaac seemed to have a good relationship.
Larry enjoyed being out with Wendy Gladstone, found her to be capable and compassionate, even if she was ageing, and did not move with the agility that he did. He reflected on how well she had handled Gertrude Richardson when she had been told about the death of her husband, and the possible death of her son.
Some secrets were clearly integral to the case. It now appeared that the time spent following up on the two elderly sisters had not been time wasted.
He did not complain about the hours he was working, although his wife, used to
