Murder Club - Mark Pearson [82]
Hamilton gestured to the barmaid. ‘Can we get a large glass of mulled wine for Nanook here, please?’
‘So this has been a wasted journey.’ Emma Halliday sat on a stool next to him.
‘I wouldn’t go that far.’
‘All we’ve learned is that Andrew Johnson didn’t have any enemies, as far as his wife was concerned. He was a pillar of the local community. And she obviously hated his guts.’
‘Enough to do something about it?’
‘Her alibi checks out. I phoned the hospital where she was hosting a charity dinner. She was nowhere near London when Andrew Johnson did the hop, skip and a jump to Oblivion Central.’
‘She could have contracted it out.’
‘What’s the motive? Not money. We already know that, the money in the relationship all came from her.’
‘Maybe she was tired of bankrolling him.’
‘There’s something she’s not telling us.’
DI Halliday picked up the glass of mulled wine that the barmaid had poured for her. ‘What do I owe you?’ she asked.
‘I’ve started a tab,’ said Tony Hamilton.
Jack Delaney sat staring at his laptop in the CID room back at White City Police Station. He sipped at his mug of tea. It was stone cold, but he drank some of it anyway.
DC Sally Cartwright came over, holding some pieces of paper.
‘What have you got for me, Sally?’
‘Someone who liked pretty young girls. Schoolgirls. Fifteen years old. Susan Nixon and Caroline Lewis.’
‘We’ve got names?’
‘We have.’
‘And who was it taking such a keen interest in them?’
‘The Reverend Geoffrey Hunt.’
‘The plot thickens.’
‘The girls were part of a drama group attached to the church. They were in a play to be performed at Christmas in the Church Hall. Apparently the vicar didn’t just get his own knickers in a twist.’
‘He assaulted them?’
‘Apparently.’
‘And we know this, how?’
‘The person who succeeded him in the vicarage. We finally tracked him down.’
‘The other missionary?’
‘That’s him. Out in the People’s Democratic Republic of the Congo.’
‘So what did our missionary friend have to say?’
‘At the time he was asked to take over, he remembered there was a bit of a scandal. The parents of the two girls had contacted the parish bishop making formal complaints about Reverend Hunt.’
‘Were the complaints investigated? If the police were involved then we should have had records, and there weren’t any. We checked.’
‘I know we did. The complaints from the girls were dropped. No approaches to the police were made.’
‘So what happened? Why the volte face?’
‘It seems the complaints were dropped when Geoffrey Hunt agreed to retire. There could have been a lot more, of course. Girls, I mean. Some who didn’t come forward.’
‘And we still don’t have a missing person, apart from the reverend’s brother, and Forensics have confirmed that our John Doe in the shallow grave isn’t him.’
‘So where is he?’
‘That might just be the question, Sally.’ Jack Delaney stood up and put on his black leather jacket.
‘You going to be warm enough in that, sir?’ asked the young detective constable.
‘What, are you my mother now?’
‘Someone has to keep an eye on you.’
‘Says who?’
‘Says Kate Walker, sir.’
Delaney grunted and tossed her his car keys. ‘You can drive.’
58.
DANNY VINE WAS off duty and heading down Edgware Road on his pushbike. The snow was driving into his face and he had to blink continually to see where he was going. There was still a solid gridlock of traffic running all the way from the Harrow Road onwards.
The recession might be continuing. But not on Oxford Street this Christmas. Danny was on his way to Selfridges. He wanted to buy something nice for Sally Cartwright. He didn’t expect to get anything in return. He figured that boat had pretty much sailed. And he wasn’t aboard. He didn’t blame her for not wanting to strike up a work-based relationship after what had happened to her. If he’d had his way, he would have done exactly what Jack Delaney did to the creep who attacked Sally and wipe him off the face of the earth. But Delaney beat him to it. And you could see the gratitude in her eyes whenever Sally looked at him.
Danny darted