‘I didn’t. I only knew the number of the last phone that he had. Before his number had been secret, and he only phoned me,’ Christine said.
‘Then why did he allow you to phone him on the last phone?’
‘He said he wanted us to be closer. To form a bond of trust between us.’
‘And you believed this?’
‘Yes.’
‘My sister has a Mills & Boon romantic notion of love,’ Gwen said.
‘Sugar and candy, innocent love, sweet words under the apple blossom tree? That sort of thing?’ Isaac said.
‘Exactly. Not the reality of love and lust and heaving bodies, words of love spoken in the heat of passion, rejected afterwards. If Christine says that she believed this man loved her, then she is not lying.’
‘A history of such relationships?’
‘Not necessarily adulterous, but yes.’
‘My sister does not like me,’ Christine said.
‘It does not affect the situation,’ Gwen said. ‘You’re family. I’ll support you whatever.’
‘Even if she committed murder?’ Larry asked.
‘Even then. He’s not the first man to break her heart. He won’t be the last.’
‘You’re not the sort to be susceptible.’
‘I’m not here being interviewed, my sister is.’
‘Christine, let us come back to when you saw him,’ Isaac said. ‘Where was this?’
‘I was walking to Paddington Station.’
‘Another SIM card to purchase for a guest?’
‘Not this time. I just needed to get out of the hotel, and it’s as good a walk as any other. I’m waiting to cross the road, and he drives by in the back of a taxi. He’s got a woman with him.’
‘Nothing you can do at the time?’
‘No.’
‘What did you do afterwards?’
‘I was confused, not sure what to do. I thought the worst.’
‘Any reason to?’
‘He was a lovely man. He could have had anyone. Why me?’
Gwen Hislop let out an audible sigh, rolled her eyes.
‘Don’t look at me like that, Gwen,’ Christine said.
Isaac ignored the friction between the two sisters, surprised that Gwen, a lawyer, was allowing personal issues to affect a police interview. Most unprofessional, he thought, realising that the hatred between the two ran deep.
‘The taxi? What did it look like? Did you get the number?’
‘Black, the same as all the others.’
‘Not a minicab?’
‘It was black.’
‘And the registration number?’
‘LD08 CYP.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I remember numbers, work with them all day.’
‘Photographic memory,’ Gwen said. ‘We had an aunt who thought she was a freak, scared her so much that she wouldn’t visit us. Not that we cared, she was a dragon.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us this before?’
‘I didn’t want to remember,’ Christine said.
‘Time and place?’
‘The corner of Praed and Spring Streets. 11.46 a.m. Five days ago.’
‘Photographic memory again?’
‘I looked on my phone, tried to take a photo.’
‘Did you?’
‘No, the lights changed, and the taxi took off.’
‘No more questions for now,’ Isaac said.
Four minutes later, the two sisters left the station. Eight minutes later, the team assembled in Homicide, this time joined by Katrina Taylor and Mortimer. It was close to midnight. No one was going to get much sleep that night.
***
Wendy was seriously annoyed with Christine Mason. ‘I gave her enough opportunities to come clean. It wasn’t as if we were moralising about her behaviour. As far as I was concerned, she could have been screwing every last member of the Household Cavalry.’
‘Ease up,’ Isaac said. He could understand her frustration, but anger wasn’t going to resolve anything, facts would.
‘Easy one, the registration number,’ Bridget said. ‘I’ve accessed the Automatic Number Plate Recognition database. Every registration is in there.’
‘A win,’ Larry said. ‘Any luck with the taxi’s movements.’
‘I can’t give you that. The taxi company will keep records, also the driver. It’s part of their conditions for the licence.’
‘Where are they? Who do we talk to?’
‘This time of the night may not be so easy. It’s not the same as it used to be, the twenty-four-hour phone number, the dispatcher radioing the location of the pick-up, the name, the destination. Nowadays, it’s online, on your phone.’
‘Who’s going to knock on a door?’ Isaac said.
‘I’ll go with Larry,’ Wendy said.
‘Constable Taylor, Constable Mortimer, any more to add?’
‘The taxis would have GPS tracking, and the taxi company will have fleet management software,’ Mortimer said.
‘Okay, everyone. Do what you can, and we’ll meet back here at six in the morning,’ Isaac said. ‘Try to get a few hours’ sleep if you can. If you can’t, then sorry.’
With the two constables out of the room, Isaac looked over at Bridget. ‘A handy man to have around,’ he said.
‘I thought he was on the way out,’ Wendy said, ‘and now he’s friendly with Katrina.’
‘You think that something’s going on?’
‘Takes all sorts. She’s pretty, and he’s no oil painting. Still, Christine Mason fell for a young man; he for her, supposedly.’
Chapter 9
Isaac arrived home at twenty past two in the morning. It had been some time since Jenny had spoken to him in anything other than a manner that could be described as terse, although she had otherwise been agreeable, had ensured that he had an early breakfast, a meal in the microwave or the oven on his return. She had even discussed the trip to Jamaica, made it clear that she understood, and how important his work was, and that people could walk the streets at night due to his efforts.
Isaac had thought the ‘people could walk the streets at night’ was the warm up to
