Imposition (DI Gardener 5)

“What’s your next step?” asked Gardener.

“We’ve started planning,” said Gates. “Basically, there are houses all around them, lots of fields in between so you wouldn’t exactly class them as neighbours but we made a map and figured out a plan of attack.”

“We’ve spoken to some,” said Anderson. “A few of them worked nights so we’ll have to call back, but so far, nothing. No one was out and about at that time.”

“So, what he’s telling us can’t be proved or disproved,” said Cragg.

Gardener made a note before turning to the youngest officer. “Patrick, what do we have from Seacroft?”

“According to the manager of the club, Robbie did the gig, had a good night. Apparently, he’s been there a couple of times before and they like him.”

“At least someone does,” said Reilly.

“Anyway, he finished the gig and he had a half a lager like he said, but he left the club at twelve-fifteen. By my reckoning, at that time of night the drive home only takes about half an hour, so he would have been home by twelve-forty-five at the latest.”

“Not one-thirty like he claimed,” said Reilly.

“Did you get the names and addresses of everyone in there that night?” Gardener asked.

“Yes, got them all. Took me nearly all day.”

“Well done. Spoken to any of them?”

“The ones I’ve seen haven’t confirmed anything. They all went straight home or round to the nearest chip shop.”

“So, what was he doing?” Reilly asked.

“Maybe he hung around in the club car park for a while; he might have spoken to someone,” offered Gates.

“Maybe he went to the nearby chip shop.”

“Did you get the name of it, Patrick?” asked Gardener. “We’ll need to speak to them.”

“I’ll check them out, sir. I think there’s two.”

“Did he go somewhere else before going home?” Rawson asked.

“It’s possible. If you listen to him talking there was no shortage of women after him,” said Reilly. “Maybe he got lucky and serviced one of them first.”

“Didn’t leave him much time,” offered Sharp.

“Which brings us back to square one,” said Gardener. “How much of what he’s telling us is true? Maybe he did leave at twelve-fifteen, spoke to no one, arrived home thirty minutes later. We’ve already considered that he and his wife argued. So, did it get much worse than that – to the point of violence? All of which might take us to one-thirty but we’re still short of witnesses. We need a neighbour to confirm something. Sarah and Bob, you stick with that, please. Patrick, you continue interrogating the people in the club that night. We need to get beyond the conjecture.”

Chapter Twenty

Gardener spent time updating the whiteboards before asking if anyone had checked the computer taken from the house.

Emma Longstaff attracted Gardener’s attention and he nodded to her to take the floor.

“Had a good poke around this, sir, and it’s all her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everything on there has been put there by her. She has files for her clients at the stable, so I made copies of those for tonight – thought we could put them to good use.”

“Well done, Emma.”

“Thank you. There were a lot of photographs on the PC, mostly of horses and the stables and her work. There were quite a few photos that I suspected were of her and friends on nights out.”