Blood in Grandpont (DI Susan Holden 2)

‘It’s possible,’ Holden admitted, ‘but her car does have a hands-free kit. We checked.’ That is to say, Wilson had checked. ‘Which means, in the scenario you are sketching out, Lawson, she gets the call while driving to St Clement’s, doesn’t bother to answer it, and then doesn’t bother when she has got there to check who had rung her and why.’

‘That’s a bit of a loaded way to put it.’ Lawson didn’t like her ideas been abandoned quite so obviously. ‘To say that she couldn’t be bothered.’

‘I know, Lawson. But the bottom line is we have to make some judgements. Anyway, let’s put Fox and Wilson on the spot. What do you two think of the scenario Lawson has proposed. Probable, possible, or unlikely?’

‘Possible,’ Fox snapped back. ‘But on the unlikely side.’

‘I agree,’ Wilson chimed. ‘I wouldn’t want to put too much weight on it.’

‘So Wilson, suggest an alternative scenario.’

The young man shifted in his chair. He didn’t like being the centre of attention, but he had had more warning of Holden’s thinking than the others, and he knew the answer because she and he had already discussed it. He spoke softly. ‘Perhaps, when she was rung, she didn’t have the phone with her.’

‘Exactly!’ Holden leant back in her chair, and sipped slowly at her coffee. She felt elated. She wasn’t sure when the idea had first formulated in her brain, but she felt sure the seed must have been sown when she almost missed the call from Karen that morning. At any rate the idea had materialized by the time she’d pulled into the station car park, so she had been able to slip it into her briefing of Wilson. And now it was out there in the ring, fighting its corner.

She put the cup down, and looked around. ‘Well? It is the obvious answer. Maria didn’t answer the call because she never knew it had been made. We can’t prove it, but let’s run with it as an idea. OK?’

‘OK,’ Lawson nodded, though there was reluctance in her voice. ‘So the next question would be where was the phone when Geraldine rang, and how come you found it in her coat pocket in St Clement’s car park?’

‘I agree. But let’s look at it from a different perspective, with a long lens and not a microscope. What, from the point of view of the investigation, is the importance of Maria’s mobile phone.’

Lawson, typically, jumped in again. ‘The photo of Jack Smith. It put us on to his affair with Maria Tull.’

‘To call it an affair may be an exaggeration,’ Holden said, remembering what Geraldine had said about Maria’s attitude to sex. ‘He claimed it was only a one-off, and I’m inclined to believe him. She wanted to get her hands on the painting, so she did what she felt she had to do to achieve that, and she took a photo to make sure he cooperated.’

‘There was a photo on Jack Smith’s mobile too.’ Three pairs of eyes turned towards Wilson. ‘Of a painting that had passed into Dominic Russell’s hands.’

‘And now Dominic Russell’s brains have been blown out.’

‘With the painting which Jack Smith handed over to Maria lying by his dead body.’

‘Slashed with a knife, the same knife that killed Maria and Jack.’

‘Whoa! Just a minute.’ Holden raised her hands to emphasize her words. Her team were in danger of careering out of control. ‘First of all, there is no certainty that the knife that damaged the painting is the weapon that killed Maria and Jack. We need to wait for Dr Pointer to confirm that. And second, you’re jumping forward mighty fast. Maria’s phone had a picture on it that pointed to Jack Smith. He is murdered and his mobile had a picture that pointed to Dominic Russell. Then Dominic is murdered or commits suicide, only there’s no mobile, but there is a painting with him that we know Maria and Jack took possession of. So question one is: are these two mobile phone pictures part of the same pattern or are they coincidence?’

There was a silence. Holden’s desk phone rang, but she ignored it. ‘Well?’

Lawson volunteered again. ‘I doubt it’s a coincidence.’

‘So what is it?’

‘They’re clues. Deliberately left by the killer.’ Lawson’s words were emphatic. ‘Maybe to taunt us, maybe to lead us off the track.’

‘So to go back to my earlier question, how come Maria didn’t answer the mobile, yet we found it in her pocket in the car park?’

‘It was planted,’ Fox interrupted. He had just caught up. ‘By the killer.’

‘Quite. So where was Maria’s phone when she rang? The answer is: in the hands of the killer, who naturally didn’t want to answer it when it rang.’

‘But if someone had stolen it and Maria had noticed, she’d have reported in stolen.’

Holden turned towards Wilson, who had now become the expert on Maria’s mobile phone. ‘Well? Was it reported Wilson?’

‘No, Guv, it wasn’t.’

She turned back towards the others, but her gaze settled on Lawson. ‘How long would it take you to notice if your mobile was missing, Lawson?’

The features of her face tightened on concentration. ‘It depends. A few hours at most, I’d say. Unless I’m really busy, and then I might not get time to check it. But normally, I’d maybe check it at lunchtime, and as soon as I get home, so I’d notice then if I couldn’t find it.’