Imposture (DI Gardener 6)

“Let’s hope not, for our sakes,” said Reilly.

Chapter Sixteen

Following a phone call from Roger Hunter, Gardener and Reilly were back at Highway Cottage in Burley. Despite the fact that he had been living in his brother’s house for something close to three weeks, it didn’t appear to be lived in at all. Gardener had the impression that Roger Hunter was merely a caretaker.

“How are you?” asked Gardener, sipping tea.

“I’ve been better.”

“I’m sorry for what you’ve been put through. Losing family is never easy.”

“You sound like you have previous experience.”

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” replied Gardener.

“Do you have any other family, Roger?” asked Reilly.

“No. I’m a loner. Always have been. I’ve had one or two relationships but I could never commit to them. I operate better alone.”

Gardener brought up the phone call that summoned them over.

Roger glanced at the coffee table between them. On the top were a couple of diaries. Underneath them was a large white envelope.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about what you’d told me, about Anthony Palmer. I’m struggling to believe he would do that to my brother, and Ann Marie.”

“You can’t choose your family, Roger,” said Reilly.

Roger grabbed a handful of pistachio nuts. After chewing he washed them down with some tea before picking up one of the diaries.

“David was always the secretive one of the two of us. When we were kids he used to hide things from me.”

“What sort of things?” Gardener asked.

“Stupid stuff. Things that he’d think I’d want. I remember him hiding a bloody abacus in a bag, inside a case, under the wardrobe. God knows why, I didn’t want it. I didn’t know how to use it. But that was what he did. If there was something he wanted, or something he couldn’t understand, he wouldn’t ask anyone for help about it, he’d fester. He’d hide the bloody things away until he could come up with a solution.”

“What have you found?” Gardener asked, sitting back in his chair.

“This,” said Roger, holding a diary aloft.

“Where was it?” asked Reilly.

“In the bathroom cupboard behind a false panel. You wouldn’t have known it was there unless you were a bit anal like me. If things don’t look right, they’re usually not. I noticed a slight slant on this panel so I moved it. Found these.”

“What’s in them?” asked Gardener, reaching out for the book.

“A couple of things.” Roger opened the diary at a particular page and then passed it over to Gardener. Reilly moved closer.

“It seems that my brother had arranged to meet with Anthony Palmer. From what I can gather, David had told Anthony about the mess he had found himself in, despite the fact that none of it was his doing.

“He was convinced that he was being conned by a hacker who had used the fact that he was employed by a private bank with some extremely large accounts. They had used his identity to break in and shift money around – to their advantage.

“David basically knew nothing about how it had happened. He wanted Anthony’s help to sort things out. Little did he know that he was being conned by a member of his own family.”

Gardener was skimming pages. Some of what Roger had said was there. A lot of other pages were gibberish, which Gardener guessed might have been something connected to the cryptocurrencies.

Roger picked up the other diary and leafed through till he found what he wanted. “This one also makes me wonder if, at the last minute, David had managed to find out who was behind the scam and was perhaps arranging to meet someone else in an effort to expose them.”

“Do you not think he might have picked a better time and place, Roger?” asked Reilly.