Dead Gorgeous (A Mystery for D.I. Costello) (22 page)

“No matter,” replied Angela, knowing the shaft had hit its mark.

“I run a completely respectable business. Just what are you implying?” Her voice was cold, even haughty.

“I just think you’d be wise not to use past experience to build present endeavours. It went wrong for you before and it will go wrong for you again.”

“I think I’d like you to leave now. I wish to telephone my s –”

“Your son, Nigel Summers, co-owner of Ivano King, Mrs Massingham? Yes, you probably do.”

Dorothea’s face became haggard. All the care taken in preserving and maintaining her appearance suddenly went for nothing and she looked about ten years older.

But there was steel in Dorothea Massingham’s character. She made no attempt to rush into hasty speech. She took a deep breath and pulled herself straighter on her chair.

“I was going to say ‘my solicitor’,” said Dorothea. She’d gone very pale except for two bright red spots high on each cheek.

“I haven’t charged you with anything,” replied Angela.

“I would prefer it if you didn’t play games, Inspector.”

Angela stood up. Gary did likewise. “I’m not, Mrs Massingham. I’m trying to solve a murder, and it doesn’t help when people withhold information. You own a property in Richmond, in your late husband’s name?”

Angela wouldn’t have thought it possible for Dorothea to become any paler, but that was what happened. “You must know I do, otherwise you wouldn’t be asking.”

“You might not be aware that it was raided this morning. Four women and three men were taken away. We are certain that at least one of them was held in the house against her will. The three men are now in custody and will be questioned tomorrow.” An involuntary gasp escaped Dorothea and her hand clutched at her throat. Angela nodded at Gary and they moved to the door. “We
will
be back,” she said, as she headed along the passage.

They both sat in the car and breathed deeply.

“Wow!” said Gary, after a few moments.

“Yes, all that leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth.”

“Why didn’t you question her more about the house?”

“I want to know exactly what was found there first, and what the people living there say about the set-up.”

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Where to now; back to the incident room?”

“Not immediately. This woman in a suit is still hanging round the case like a spare part. I want her sorted. I’ve got one more little idea we can try. Head for Putney.”

“Ah!” said Gary, as he pulled the car away from the kerb and set off.

From where they were parked they had a clear view of Eleanor Chandler as she came home from work. Today she wore an elegant maroon trouser suit with an off-white blouse. She moved in a rapid, purposeful manner.

“She looks in a bit of a hurry,” said Gary.

“She does indeed, Gaz. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she’s expecting a visit from the boyfriend. But have you noticed what she’s wearing?”

“Oh wow! Yes. Top marks, Angie.”

“Hold on, I don’t know if I’m right yet, but it was Madeleine describing her blouse as elegant that reminded me of Ronald Sanders using the same word. And every time I’ve seen Eleanor Chandler I’ve noted how well turned-out she’s been.” She looked across at him. “I admit it’s all very thin and wouldn’t stand up as evidence, but it got me thinking.”

“You might be right. Shall we go, then?”

“Let her get the kettle on and her jacket off first.”

Eleanor was just about to get up from her chair and go upstairs when the front door bell rang about ten minutes later. She quickly applied a little lipstick and ran a comb through her hair. Ian had called her while she was still on the bus, saying he would be round “later” – which could mean anytime. Not
expecting him so soon, she hadn’t even made the bed from his previous visit. She went to answer the door.

“Ah… er, Inspector –?”

“Costello,” supplied Angela. “And this is D.C. Gary Houseman, if you remember. I’m sorry to bother you again, but I’ve got a couple more questions. May we come in?”

Eleanor cast an involuntary look behind and up the stairs. “I was just about to go up and… er… I’ve got to prepare for someone. I’m expecting a visitor.”

Angela could see she was distracted and wanted to take advantage of the fact. “We really won’t take up much of your time,” she said.

“Oh… er… er… All right, then. Just come in here, will you?”

Angela and Gary followed her into the smart living room they’d sat in on their previous visit.

“I wanted to get more details about this showdown that you had with Kirsty.”

A sudden flash of alarm appeared in Eleanor’s eyes and she quickly lowered them, noticing some speck on her trousers and brushing it off.
Ah, I’m on the right track,
thought Angela.

“Showdown, Inspector?” replied Eleanor, with only the slightest hint of breathlessness. “I’ve already told you everything about that.”

“Yes, I know, and you were very frank. I believe you said the incident occurred at work?”

Pause.

“Yes.” Eleanor kept her eyes averted from Angela’s, her trousers taking up all her attention.

You’re just not a natural liar, Eleanor,
thought Angela. She let the silence lengthen for a few moments. “I don’t think that’s quite right, is it?” she said, gently.

Eleanor gasped and stopped what she was doing. “I didn’t have anything to do with Kirsty’s death!” she said, her face
flushed, her eyes darting wildly, and her lips quivering.

“Shall I tell you what I think happened?” suggested Angela.

After a moment Eleanor nodded, her face a picture of misery.

“You were fed up with the way Kirsty went on. She was blatant about her certainty that she would get Ian back and she flaunted it all the time; but you’ve got far too much dignity to have a blazing row in the workplace, where it would become gossip fodder. And you’ve worked there a long time. You
knew
it would become the talk of the office. Am I right?”

Eleanor nodded, her colour returning to normal. Angela’s tone and manner were having a calming effect on her.

“You could just imagine it, couldn’t you?” continued Angela. “‘Look at Eleanor, hasn’t had a boyfriend in all these years, and now she’s fighting with Kirsty over the same man – what a laugh.’ That’s what they would have said, isn’t it?”

“I’m sure they all know how I feel about Ian; they must do. I’m pretty tough, but… it was the idea of being the butt of all the jokes. That’s what I couldn’t stand,” nodded Eleanor.

“So you got yourself up in your best suit and no doubt took a lot of trouble over the make-up; it wouldn’t do to put yourself at a disadvantage, and you went to visit Kirsty at her flat just after lunch last Sunday, didn’t you?”

Eleanor nodded. She had completely recovered her composure by now. “When I was Kirsty’s age, I would have been intimidated by an older woman in a circumstance like that but Kirsty wasn’t, not a bit. I’m telling you, she was one dirty little fighter. I came home wrecked. I can assure you, she was alive and well and, to be honest, wallowing in victory, when I left her.”

“Wallowing in victory?”

“Oh yes. My mother always brought me up to behave in a ladylike manner at all times. I didn’t think she’d succeeded until that Sunday when I realized that Kirsty and I just didn’t have a level playing field.”

Angela nodded. “What time did you get home?”

Eleanor spread her arms. “As I’ve said before, I don’t wear a watch at the weekends and apart from registering that it’s morning, afternoon or evening I don’t have much of a sense of time. I just know it was around lunchtime, maybe early afternoon.”

Angela nodded, pleased that her guess had proved correct. Now that she was here it seemed a good opportunity to explore. Angela always liked to feel the sense of any place that mattered in an investigation, but she had a problem, The location she wanted to look at was upstairs in the main bedroom. Getting into this would prove a delicate business. She took her time writing in her notebook as she considered how to pursue the matter. After a moment she turned to Gary and looked meaningfully at him. “Can you go over the details of this visit last Sunday Gary, please? We want to make sure we’ve got them properly, then we won’t have to bother Miss Chandler again.”

Gary met her glance with a completely expressionless face. “Yes, of course.” He turned to Eleanor with a grin. “It honestly won’t take long, I’m a very quick writer.”

“He’s had to learn how to be, working for me, I’m afraid,” smiled Angela.

Eleanor nodded, completely relaxed. “No problem,” she said.

“While you two are doing that, do you mind if I use your bathroom?” asked Angela. “Sorry, hate to take liberties but needs must.”

“Not at all, Inspector. It’s just up the stairs and round to the right.”

“Thanks.” Angela left the room and went upstairs. The route took her past the open door of the main bedroom. She went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her as noisily as she could. She immediately opened it again without a sound. She could hear Eleanor dictating to Gary from downstairs as
she tiptoed into the main bedroom. She noted the disarray that Eleanor was so keen to clear up, the bedlinen, the discarded champagne flutes and bottle. She cast a quick glance around the room.

And froze.

Well, well, well, that’s very interesting
, she thought, as she took her mobile phone out of her pocket and quickly took a picture before creeping silently back to the bathroom where she flushed the loo and emerged, closing the door as noisily as before.

She breezed back into the living room a few seconds later.

Gary glanced up as she entered. “Nearly, done, Angie,” he said.

“That’s great.” She looked at Eleanor. “There’s just one thing I need to ask you and then we’ll get completely out of your hair.”

“What’s that?” asked Eleanor, visibly at ease now the worst was over and she could see this ordeal coming to an end.

“As I passed the main bedroom, I couldn’t help noticing something that would help us to eliminate you from the enquiry, if you’d let us take it.”

Eleanor gave a wry grin. “I’m not normally a bad housekeeper but I just haven’t got round to things this week, and there are probably a few things in that room that should have been tidied away days ago.”

“Sorry,” smiled Angela. “I didn’t mean to criticize; no, it’s just that, if we could take it we can test it for prints and it’ll save us asking you to come in to the station and get them done at a later date.”

“Oh goodness, be my guest, Inspector. Just show me what you want.” She stood up.

Angela saw Gary looking up at her with raised eyebrows. She smiled. “Have you got an evidence bag on you?” she asked as she followed Eleanor out of the room.

“Yep,” he answered, pulling one out of his pocket.

A few moments later they were settling themselves in the
car. “OK, Gaz,” said Angela, as she belted herself in behind the driver’s wheel. “I need your help.”

“No probs,” he replied, putting the evidence bag gently down on the floor between his legs.

“I took myself off upstairs while Eleanor was dictating her story to you to try and have a bit of a snoop, as you probably guessed.”

“Yes, I got that.”

“Couldn’t do much in the time available, but I now think I’ve got an idea how this crime was committed. I might be wrong, but I’m going to run it past you anyway and you can try and knock it down in flames, all right?”

“Yep, fire away,” he said, as the car pulled away from the kerb.

As soon as they got back to the office, Gary raced along to the forensic department and Angela sought out D.C.I. Stanway. She took him through the events of their visit to Putney.

Attentive as always, Stanway listened to Angela without interruption and remained silent and pensive, staring at the blotter on his desk for a few moments after she had finished.

“It hangs together,” he said, finally; and then, “But it depends on what forensics come up with. Let me know when you’ve got the results.”

“Yes, sir.” As Angela got up and went towards the door, the phone on Stanway’s desk rang. He picked up the receiver and gave his name. As Angela turned to close the door behind her, she glanced at him and saw a look of alarm spread across his face. He waved to stop her going any further. She quickly stepped back into the room again and closed the door.

“Yes? Yes… Tone-Up Gym… I heard that.”

Angela sat down and leaned forward, straining to hear the other side of the conversation.

“Yes. Yes, she’s here with me now. How many? When…?”
Stanway turned a grave expression towards her as he listened, making notes on a pad in front of him at the same time.

Angela’s eyes widened as Stanway finished the call and put the phone down.

“Sir?”

“News is patchy at the moment, but there’s some sort of violent disturbance going on at the Tone-Up Gym.”

“Does it involve any of my suspects?”

“Nobody’s got any names as yet. It seems someone has locked himself in there with a couple of other people and is threatening to beat one or both of them up; it’s not clear.” Stanway moved rapidly from behind his desk and grabbed his coat from the back of the door. “Apparently a hysterical woman phoned the message in, yelling for help and saying, ‘He’s gone berserk!’”

“Who is it that’s gone berserk, sir?”

“Good question.” He moved out into the corridor, Angela in pursuit. “We’ll go in your car, Angie; text Gary to meet us there.”

If Angela had been a gambling woman, she would have wagered the journey from the office to the gym couldn’t be accomplished in less than five minutes, even with the siren blaring. She would have lost her money on this day.

Stanway groaned as he swung the car round the corner and saw the crowd of onlookers milling around outside the premises. “Oh no,” he said. “Just as I feared. A party going on.” They nosed carefully past the bystanders to a convenient space.

“Uniform are on the case already, I see,” he said, as they got out of the car and surveyed the scene. Across the road in front of the gym, several officers were making valiant attempts to keep onlookers moving along. The fruits of their labours only produced more rubbernecks stopping to ask what was going on and staying to watch. The presence of another police car, blue lamps flashing, made it even more improbable that anybody would go about their business.

“They’ve managed to get a bit of order, sir,” said Angela as she realized a cluster of gym patrons had been huddled into the area immediately in front of the door. They were easily identifiable from their clothes – a variety of warm-up suits or shorts and T-shirts. Some had towels draped round their necks and one man was wrapped in a bath sheet.

“He’s going to think twice before taking a shower here for a long time to come,” remarked Stanway, nodding towards the man.

“At least his modesty is protected in that great big thing, and it’s a fairly warm night.” Angela gazed across the road and recognized the latest arrival, a man holding a very professional-looking camera. “Uh-oh, the press are here.”

“That’s just what we need. It’ll be the telly next.”

“No, sir, it will be quicker to get a radio crew here,” began Angela, but Stanway was already striding across the road towards the hubbub. He’d pushed his way through to the most senior-looking uniformed officer by the time Angela reached him, and stood listening to a recap of the events.

“… As far as we can tell, sir, the chap came in pulling another man along with him. He said he was going to kill him but wanted to make him suffer first. He made everyone get out and pulled the other man into… er… something called the waiting room.”

“The weights room,” corrected a nearby voice. They swivelled towards the sound and found themselves looking at a man in a purple warm-up suit, a towel flung carelessly across his shoulders.

“Did you see what happened?” Angela asked him.

“Yes, at close hand; and it was pretty scary, I can tell you,” affirmed the man.

“Are you OK, sir? Can you tell us about it?”

“Oh yes, it was a bit of a shock at first, as you can imagine. I’m OK out here.” He pushed an expensive-looking pair of spectacles further up his nose and ran a hand through his hair. It’s as the officer said…” Out of the corner of her eye Angela saw the HAT car arrive. Gary and the rest of her team piled out and came across to join them. “I was in reception when the door burst open. Two men came staggering in – I took them for drunks at first. One of them was shouting, ‘Leave me alone, you bastard! Leave me alone!’ Then I saw his head was held in an armlock.”

By now the speaker, Angela and Stanway were completely surrounded by their team. “What happened then?” she asked.

“Tony tried to calm him down. He even went towards him – my goodness, I was impressed! He said, ‘Daz! Daz,
calm down, mate.’ But the bloke – Daz, I presume; huge man, officer, you’ll need to be careful – just kept hold of the other man. Must have a grip like a wrench. Anyway this Daz said something like, ‘No! He’s gonna pay for what he did!’ Then he dragged the man into the weights room and locked the door.”

“Is there anybody else in there with them – people using the weights, that is?”

“I was in there, actually, with a couple of others, but we all came out into the reception area when the shouting started, so, no; nobody but those two now.”

Angela thanked the man, who rejoined the other gym patrons. Stanway looked at her. “You’ve met him, Angie. What do you reckon?”

“Well, sir, you can’t really ever tell with people. I put him down as a gentle giant, but if so, he’s obviously flipped. From what we’ve just heard, it’s at least safe to enter the reception and speak to Tony and Sandra. I imagine Sandra was our ‘hysterical woman’.”

“Angie, I…” Stanway’s expression was worried, but he couldn’t argue with the logic of her statement.

Angela pressed what she hoped was her advantage. “If we request back-up, we’ll have to take the time to brief them. Tony and Sandra are bound to be frightened. They need to know we’re here. Also, we need a fuller picture of what’s going on in the weights room and we’re not going to get it out here. If we go in now, we may be in time to prevent grievous bodily harm, or even a death.”

Stanway gave her a searching look. “You seem very keen to get inside. I hope you’re not hoping to be a hero, Angie.”

“No, sir. If Darren’s locked himself and his captive in the weights room, I don’t think there’s any danger in the reception area, and… and…” Angela looked into Stanway’s concerned face and decided to drop all pretence. “Sir, the thing is, jungle
drums being what they are, Patrick’s likely to get wind of what’s going on very soon, if it hasn’t happened already, and then he’ll be here and I’ll find myself under pressure.”

Stanway nodded. “A husband standing out here full of anxiety won’t help you to do your job.”

“May I proceed, sir?”

“Do you have either of their mobile numbers to hand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Call them.”

Angela brought up the number for Tony Chambers on her mobile and pressed it. He answered after it had barely begun to ring. “Yes?” His voice was very low and shaky. Angela could tell that much even though the noise from the street meant she could hardly hear him.

“Tony, it’s D.I. Costello here. We’re outside the gym.”

“Oh, thank God! We don’t know what to do.”

OK, one frightened man,
she thought.
Three, maybe, if you count Darren and whoever he’s dragged in there. And I don’t suppose Sandra feels too chipper.
“It’s OK, Tony,” she said. “We’re all here and we’re going to get you out of this. We’ve been told that Darren has locked himself into the weights room with someone and is threatening them. Is that true?”

“Yes. From the sounds he was making, it seems like he’s got the other bloke pinned under some weights, but I can’t be sure. We were trying to talk to him through the door, but he didn’t answer. In the last few minutes it’s gone a bit quiet.” Tony’s voice had become steadier as he spoke.

“Do you know who the other man is?”

“Nope, never seen him before in my life.”

“And who’s with you?”

“It’s just Sandra and me. I yelled at everyone else to clear out when it all kicked off.”

“Yes, most of them seem to be out here in the street. OK,
Tony, hold on; I’ll get back to you soon.” Angela finished the called and turned to face Stanway.

“So?”

“Sir, it’s as the witness said. Darren has locked himself in the weights room with another man. It seems he’s got him pinned under some weights and appears to be threatening him. There’s just Tony and Sandra in the reception area. They were trying to reason with Darren, but to no avail. I think, sir –” Angela took a deep breath, “I think I should go in.”

From the look on Stanway’s face, Angela knew he was about to become very formal. She set herself to match him.

“D.I. Cost –”

“Yes, D.C.I., sir; this is the case I’m working on at the moment. Some of my suspects are in there.”

There was a brief silence.

“Very well, Angie, but no unnecessary risks and I want to be kept constantly informed.”

“Of course, sir.”

“And you’re not going alone.” Stanway looked across at Gary.

“I’ll go with her, sir,” he said.

“Good man.”

Angela cast a brief glance at all those among the crowd then turned slowly back to the front door of the gym and was surprised to see Stanway waiting there with Gary. “Sir?”

“In case Patrick does turn up, I’ll be safer in there with a crazed giant than out here with your husband, Angie,” he said, in what was clearly an attempt at a joke. Angela smiled to acknowledge it. He looked steadily at her and Gary. “OK, troops, here we go.”