Imposition (DI Gardener 5)

it, the worse it became.

“Could it have been his wife?” asked Reilly.

“Maybe,” said Paul Benson. “But I took him home and his guitar was missing, along with the money he’d earned that night – amongst other things. She couldn’t have done that.”

“No, but he could have done all of that before he came here,” said Rawson.

“I’ll go along with that, Paul,” said Gardener. “I think it’s ironic that someone was in the house after he’d set the alarm and claimed it was burgled. That leaves us with one big question: was he in the place before Robbie came home? Until we find that person we won’t know. Which reminds me, what did the phone history show?”

Benson answered again. “I checked most of the landline calls. I managed to identify the stables a number of times. If I can cross reference the list that Emma has, I can probably identify most of her clients and friends. Same with the wife’s mobile, a lot of the numbers appear on both.”

Gardener nodded.

“What about his?” Reilly asked.

“Still checking,” said Benson. “Her number is on it quite a lot, and the landline. He also called his agent on a regular basis.”

“Did he call his wife on the night in question?” asked Gardener.

“No. He didn’t call anybody that night.”

Gardener asked Mike Atherton about the CHIS Handler’s and the Intel Cell, both of which had proved negative. As yet, no one had tried to fence any of the missing stuff locally.

Gardener shook his head. Nothing was making sense. He glanced at the clock. It was approaching eight-forty-five, so he told the team what he and Reilly had discovered at the stables, and what Matthew Atkinson and his wife had said about her. The stint in America, the time she’d worked for them, how excellent she was with horses, finishing with the Atkinsons’ reaction to the accident that Robbie had claimed she’d had.

“The Atkinsons knew nothing about the accident?” asked Benson.

“No,” replied Gardener. “They have an accident book, but nothing was recorded.”

“From what you’ve said about them they’ve been in business long enough and don’t look the type to have slack practices,” said Paul Benson.

He was talking from experience. Gardener knew that his wife had horses and he’d spent a lot of time on the family farm as a youngster.

“I can vouch for that,” said Cragg. “I’ve known the Atkinsons a lot of years. They’re good people.”

“Did Robbie know who she was with when she had the accident?” asked Sarah Gates.

“He never said. He didn’t show any interest in her professional life at all,” answered Reilly.

“If you ask me, he didn’t show any interest full stop,” said Anderson.

“Okay,” said Gardener. “We have a few more actions from that lot. All her contacts – friends and clients alike – need to be checked out. Build up more about her and her personal life. According to Lizzie Atkinson, Robbie and his wife were like chalk and cheese, but Matthew wasn’t prepared to comment further because he didn’t feel he knew them well enough as a couple.”

“I want to know about the accident,” he continued. “If it happened, who knew about it and why wasn’t it recorded in the book? If it didn’t, Robbie is lying and I want him back in here. I want someone over to Peter Strange, the owner of the Land Rover dealership. I know they’re divorced but they may have stayed friends; they may have talked recently.”

“I’d like someone at Thirsk to talk to Carrie Fletcher. She introduced Jane Carter to the Atkinsons and they indicated that she was a close enough friend for Jane to have confided in if things were wrong, and the impression I got was that things had gone wrong before in the relationship, if not now. I want someone at the house in Sowerby that she used to rent from the Atkinsons. There are neighbours, few and far between but they might know something.”

Gardener passed sheets around the room containing the address and the name of the current tenant.

“The fact that she had money and was comfortable means we need to find out who her solicitor is, if she’s made a will, and who stands to benefit,” Gardener added.

“Do you want me on that one, sir?” asked Colin Sharp.

“No,” said Gardener. “I have something else for you.”

Rawson grabbed Gardener’s attention. “Don’t suppose the Atkinsons knew anything about those tablets you found, did they?”

“A little,” said Gardener, briefing them on what had been said. “So I need someone to find out the name and address of her GP. When you do, Sean and I will pay them a visit. I want the name of her solicitor so we can speak to them as well.”