A Long Shadow, page 5
“Good morning, Chief Inspector Shadow. Would you like to comment on your investigation into the death of Fay Lawton? I know the Herald readers would be keen to hear from the officer in charge.”
“Really? Even though you’ve already printed your story in today’s edition?”
“I did try calling your office, but they told me you were unavailable.”
“I still am,” replied Shadow in irritation, as he turned on his heel and strode away. It was typical of MacNab to get under his feet, rather than talk to the press officer at county headquarters, like everyone else.
A few moments later, he was at Granary Court. From the outside, it was a large, rather dull, modern red-brick building standing where an old Victorian flour mill had once been. There was a main door that accessed six flats, but the penthouse, where Susie and Luke lived, had its own door on the left. He was about to press the button for the intercom, when the door was flung open and Susie Slater almost knocked him over. She was dressed in black and pink Lycra shorts and cropped top, with her hair in a high ponytail.
“Oh, Chief Inspector, I’m so sorry, I was just on my way out for a run.”
“That’s quite all right, Miss Slater,” Shadow replied, managing to regain his balance, “I actually wanted to speak to Mr Carrington.”
“Would you mind showing yourself up? I’m afraid the lift’s on the blink, but the door to the flat is open. Luke might not hear you—he’s meditating on the balcony.”
Without waiting for Shadow to reply, she sprinted off towards Kings Square, her ponytail swinging behind her. Shadow watched her go then turned and headed up the stairs. By the time he had reached the top of the third flight, he felt like he’d run a marathon. He paused for a moment to catch his breath, relieved nobody was there to see him. As Susie had said, the door to the penthouse was open.
Once he was breathing normally again, Shadow stepped inside, to a large open-plan room, with high ceilings. It combined a living, dining and kitchen area. The walls were painted white and the pale wooden floors were highly polished. The huge sofas were also white, while the furniture was all glass and gleaming chrome. One wall was covered in framed gold discs and album covers from Susie’s previous career. On another, hung vast abstract canvases of distorted faces. It was difficult to tell if they were male or female. Shadow thought they were hideous.
He had wondered why Susie and Luke had chosen to live in such a plain building, having been used to the beautiful Georgian house, but now he could see why. The whole of one side of the room was glass and through it was the most perfect view of the Minster. A deep balcony ran along the length of the room. It was covered in greenery and there was a glass structure at the far end. Sitting out there cross-legged, amongst the many plants in pots and tubs, was a man wearing a T-shirt and shorts.
“Mr Carrington,” Shadow called out. There was no response. Shadow moved closer, gave a loud cough and tried again. The sliding glass door was wide open. Although the man had his back to him, Shadow was sure he must be able to hear him. He stepped back from the window. Clearly Mr Carrington was not going to be disturbed.
He wandered over to the kitchen area. There were various top-of-the-range gadgets, some of which looked as though they had been designed by NASA, but what really caught his attention was the large cork pin board next to the fridge. It was the only thing in the penthouse that wasn’t minimalistic or carefully designed. Instead it was covered in takeaway menus, phone numbers for taxi firms and photographs, all randomly arranged and held in place by multicoloured pins.
The photos had been taken at different times in Luke and Susie’s life together. There was one of them both grinning as they sat in a canoe, with a tropical forest as a backdrop. Another was of the two of them in evening dress, standing on a red carpet, at what Shadow assumed was an awards ceremony. One, which must have been taken when they were teenagers, showed them with another boy and girl. It looked like they were in Museum Gardens. As Shadow peered more closely, he realised the other boy was a much younger, clean-shaven Oliver Harrison. He had no idea who the other girl was, but with her dark curls and big brown eyes, she was exceptionally beautiful, and Luke Carrington had his arms firmly wrapped round her waist.
In a more recent snap, Luke and Byron were both giving a thumbs up for the camera. The image next to it made Shadow stare more closely. Standing in what he thought was The Haven garden, smiling for the camera as she sat next to Susie, was Fay Lawton. The image he had in his head was of her pale, damaged and lifeless, yet here she was staring back at him, young, happy and full of life. He was also fairly certain it was the same photograph MacNab had used for his article in the Herald.
“Ah, Chief Inspector Shadow, I presume.”
Shadow spun round, startled; he’d almost forgotten why he was there. Luke was standing behind him, looking very relaxed to find a strange man in his kitchen.
“They phoned from The Haven to say you might call in,” he explained. “Forgive me, but I can’t be disturbed when I’m meditating. Can I get you a drink?”
Luke opened the fridge door and brought out a bottle containing a thick, dark green liquid. Shadow thought it looked like bottled seaweed.
“No thank you,” he replied, politely.
As Luke knocked back the suspicious liquid, Shadow had a chance to take a proper look at him. He was tall, slim, toned and tanned. His dark hair was streaked with grey and he wore it long and tied back in a ponytail.
“Have you and Miss Slater lived here long?” Shadow asked.
“Since we turned my folks’ old place into The Haven. Susie found it. She’s great at that kind of thing. I told her I needed plenty of light so I could paint and voila! What could be more perfect than this place? As soon as I walked in, I felt it had a really positive, creative energy,” Luke explained, waving his arm around airily.
Shadow attempted to smile as he realised, with horror that Luke Carrington might well be responsible for the monstrosities hanging on the wall.
“How long have the two of you been together?”
“Since we were kids. My dad was her manager back when she was a singer. I was meant to go to uni, but I went a bit wild after sixth form. Susie was fantastic, she really helped me find my focus again. We spent a lot of time travelling in Thailand and South America, you know, living with some local tribes. I really grew as a person, made me realise how unimportant material things are.”
Shadow nodded sagely, while taking in the designer watch on Luke’s wrist and the expensive coffee machine behind him.
“Did you become a vegan while you were travelling?”
Luke stared into the distance, as if he was giving the question very serious consideration. “I would say mentally yes, but physically it was more like a year ago. It was a long process to realise what is better for my body is also better for the planet.”
“And Miss Slater feels the same?”
“Yeh man, Susie has been so amazing. She grows organic fruit and vegetables in the garden at The Haven and out there on the balcony, she’s practically recreated the rainforest.”
He gestured to where he’d been sitting outside and Shadow reasoned the glass structure must be a greenhouse. The last thing Shadow wanted was a lecture on the benefits of a vegan life, so he briskly moved on.
“I’m actually here to ask you about Fay Lawton.”
“Oh man, what a tragedy! I’ve felt so traumatised since I heard, you know, real pain right here.” Luke thumped his chest dramatically with his fist. “I haven’t been able to even pick up my brushes. The only solace has been my music.” He turned towards a guitar propped up against one of the sofas.
“You’re a musician as well as an artist?” asked Shadow, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
“I have been truly blessed.”
“A left-handed player, I see.”
“All the greats are: Hendrix, McCartney, Cobain.” Luke laughed self-consciously and walked over to the window. He beckoned Shadow to follow him. Shadow did so reluctantly. Luke pointed solemnly out towards the Minster. “That’s where my musical awakening began. As a boy, I was one of the choristers at the Minster. Emma, Susie and I were all recruited at the same time. That’s when the unbreakable bond was formed.”
“Who’s Emma?” asked Shadow. Luke pulled his phone out of his pocket and showed his screen saver to Shadow. It was the same photo he’d just seen on the pin board of Luke, Susie, Oliver and the mystery girl.
“Emma Harrison. Another young life taken too soon.” He sighed deeply and briefly stroked the screen. “That’s what I’m thinking of calling my next song: ‘Taken Too Soon.’”
Shadow resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Unfortunately, there is more bad news. We believe Fay’s death was not an accident. There was poison in the vodka she drank.”
Luke shook his head as he slipped the phone back into his pocket. “Wow that’s crazy, man. So, you think she killed herself. I know she was upset about Ryan and she did have history of self-harming, but wow.” He stepped back from the window and sank down on to one of the sofas.
“Were you at The Haven the night Fay died?”
“No, I was here. Asleep. Dead to the world. Susie spoke to her. She said she was in a state. Fay saw Susie as a kind of maternal figure; she relied on her a lot. Susie felt really bad about not letting her stay, but I told her, we have a policy, ‘It’s a no to the three Ds – drink, drugs and dogs.’”
“No exceptions? Not even for a young, vulnerable girl?”
Luke shook his head solemnly. “It wouldn’t be fair to the other residents.”
“I see, and you can’t think of anyone who might want to harm Fay?”
“No way, man, she was a sweet kid, just a bit messed up. Don’t worry though, Chief Inspector, if someone did kill Fay, karma will take care of it.”
“Karma, good, well that’s a relief. It should make our job a lot easier.”
Shadow couldn’t take anymore. He quickly said goodbye and left, shaking his head as he made his way back down the stairs. Oliver Harrison called Susie Slater a saint earlier, well she was either that or mad to put up with Luke Carrington.
As he stepped out on to St Andrewgate, he found Jimmy waiting for him.
“How did it go, sir?”
“Sadly, we can’t arrest someone just for being a prat. How about you? Anything on the CCTV?”
“Yes and no, Chief,” Jimmy began. Shadow scowled at him, so he hurried on. “I mean no, Ryan and Kayleigh definitely didn’t leave Ted’s that night. I rewound the tape to see Fay leave on her own, at 10.40pm and then I went back further, to see what time the three of them arrived and if anyone else was with them. So, they arrived about 2pm and it was just them.”
“Is this going anywhere, Sergeant?” sighed Shadow impatiently.
“I’m getting there, sir. At 5.30pm Ross Jones walked into Ted’s. A few minutes later he left with Fay and then after about ten minutes she returned alone.”
“Ross the street cleaner? Didn’t he say he hadn’t seen Fay for years?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well you had better go and speak to him again and see if there is anything he would like to add to his statement. Make sure he knows that obstructing a police officer is a serious offence. When you are done with him, don’t forget to see if you can get any CCTV for Goodramgate. I’m going to head back to the station for a while. There are a couple of things I want to check.”
Shadow turned briskly on his heel, only to find Jimmy still by his side, tapping away on his mobile phone.
“I’ll walk with you, Chief. By the way, I got the council to email me a copy of Mrs Morrison’s petition and there are a couple of interesting names on there. Ted and Dr Richard Stather both signed.”
Shadow raised an eyebrow.
“So, Ted isn’t always so understanding when it comes to the homeless. What’s it got to do with Stather?”
“His office is above the Angelique Boutique and he’s been quite vocal about how the soup kitchen is, in his words ‘lowering the tone.’ By the way, sir, there’s something else about Stather. Last night he said the Museum Gardens were dug up thirty-two years ago because St John’s were renovating the boathouse. So, while I was waiting for you, I phoned the school bursar to see if they had the details of the contractors they used in case you wanted to speak to them. Unfortunately, the bursar was out, so I actually spoke to his secretary, and she’s worked there over forty years.”
Shadow groaned loudly, so Jimmy hurried on.
“And she said no work was ever carried out on the boathouse. Instead of renovating the old one, they built a new one on the edge of the school playing fields thirty years ago.”
“That’s odd. Stather seemed very sure.” Shadow frowned, as he thought in silence for a few minutes. Finally, he muttered, grudgingly, “Good work, Jimmy.”
Jimmy grinned but continued rapidly tapping the small screen.
“What are you doing now?” asked Shadow in exasperation. “It’s a miracle you don’t walk into a lamppost!”
“Sorry, sir, I’m using an app to give me directions to Ross’s address.”
“In my day, you’d be expected to know these streets like the back of your hand,” Shadow grumbled.
The two men had now reached Low Ousegate. As they walked by All Saints, Shadow noticed Jake and Missy sitting on one of the benches in the small garden behind the church. The two police officers stepped over the low brick wall to join them. Missy immediately jumped down and began barking loudly. Shadow ignored her.
“It turns out you were right about Fay. It wasn’t an overdose; she was poisoned.”
Jake barely looked up from rolling his next cigarette. “Yeh, what sort of poison?”
“Cyanide.”
“Nasty stuff—it nearly got Missy once. She’d been eating cherries. PDSA had to pump her stomach.”
“I don’t suppose you can think of anyone who might want to harm Fay?”
Jake inhaled deeply from his now lit cigarette and shook his head. “I think you’re barking up the wrong tree. I reckon it was all a mistake.”
Shadow took the seat recently vacated by the noisy spaniel. “How do you mean?”
“I bet Fay nicked that bottle from The Haven and if there was poison in it—well it was meant for someone else. My money would be on Mother bloody Teresa.”
“You mean Miss Slater? Do I take it you’re not a fan of hers?”
“Not just me. Missy doesn’t like her either and dogs are excellent judges of character.”
Shadow turned to see the now quiet Missy, on her back, wagging her tail furiously as Jimmy tickled her tummy.
“Any particular reason for your dislike?”
Jake flicked some ash away dismissively. “Too bloody good to be true.”
“So, you don’t use the soup kitchen or The Haven?”
“No way! They don’t let dogs in, say they are the same as booze and drugs. That’s discrimination that is.”
*
Back at his desk in the station, having finally jettisoned Jimmy, Shadow wondered if Jake could be right. What if the cyanide had been meant for someone else? He knew Susie had purchased Holy Cow, but not used it for the birthday party. Could someone have poisoned it in the hope of targeting Susie or Luke? Is that why it was in a fifty-centilitre bottle? Then, there was Mandy Morrison, who had also bought Holy Cow from Oliver. Surely it was too big a leap to go from complaining about the homeless to poisoning one of them.
In front of him were two folders. One contained a pile of press cuttings about Susie Slater and the other, the old case notes regarding the disappearance of Emma Harrison.
“You know, all this stuff could be put on a computer and emailed to you, sir,” the newly recruited constable, who staggered in with the heavy files, had suggested. “It would save time and paper.”
“But possibly not your job, Constable,” growled Shadow, sending the young man scurrying out of the office. Although he admitted to being a technophobe, Shadow also thought there was a lot to be gained from being able to hold the original case notes in your hand. Seeing notes or annotations the investigating officers had made was often invaluable when he was reviewing an old case.
He opened Emma’s folder first. A photograph of the beautiful, young girl smiled up at him. She was wearing the uniform for York Ladies’ College, a school that had stood on Petergate, but had been closed for many years now. He began reading the notes. Emma hadn’t just been a pupil there, she had been the star pupil. Head girl, captain of the tennis and hockey teams, lead violin in the orchestra and on her way, everyone thought to Oxford University. She was the daughter of Anne and Philip, who had opened Bacchus shortly after they married. Oliver was her only sibling, older by one year.
It was early one Saturday morning in June, when she disappeared. She and Susie, who both represented the school at rowing, had been training on the river. York Ladies’ College didn’t have a boathouse of their own, so they used the one in Museum Gardens, belonging to St John’s School. According to Susie’s statement, they had finished training, she had gone to change, but Emma didn’t follow her. After a few minutes, she heard a loud splash. When she ran outside to look, there was no sign of Emma. She assumed her friend had fallen in the river, so she raised the alarm.
As both girls were under eighteen, there should have been a member of staff with them, in this case, a young trainee teacher called Ruth Brooke. It seems she had wandered off into the gardens while the girls were on the river. The officer making the notes suspected she had gone to meet a man, but this had never been confirmed. The statement from Miss Brooke said she had gone to read in the shade of a nearby tree. She too had heard a splash and when she arrived at the river Susie was in the water looking for her friend.
