Suspicion Points Page 14

  Sharon spun around and glared incredulously at her. ‘Not violent? A man who punches a woman, for whatever reason, is violent. It is a violent act.’

  ‘She provoked – ’ Margaret stopped abruptly.

  Sharon smiled. ‘You realize what you just admitted?’

  Margaret turned pale.

  We left. We went to Human Resources and got Leslie Hooper’s address. He lived on the outskirts of Truro in an attractive terraced house with a steep front garden. A middle aged woman answered the door. It was obvious from her reaction that she knew why we were there. She was nervous and her voice was panic stricken.

  ‘He moved out. I haven’t seen him for months. We had an argument. I don’t know where he lives now. He’s not been in touch since he moved out.’

  She was an unconvincing liar. I expected Sharon to ask if we could search the house, but Mrs Hooper, babbled on. ‘He’s not here. You can have a look for yourself if you don’t believe me. Please, I’d rather you did, so you could see for yourself – ’

  ‘That’s all right, Mrs Hooper. But if he does contact you please ask him to get in touch with us,’ said Sharon giving her a card.

  ‘We’re going to see Phoebe now,’ said Sharon when we left Mrs Hooper.

  I said nothing. She looked at me as we marched to the car. ‘You think I was harsh, Sergeant?’

  ‘To Margaret, yes. You were okay with Mrs Hooper.’

  ‘You approve of men punching women?’

  ‘Of course not, but from what people say, Elaine Dunn is a nasty – ’

  ‘So you think she asked for it?’

  ‘She provoked him,’ I said as we reached the car. ‘Probably humiliated him in front of all the staff. According to Phoebe and the others, another chap had a nervous breakdown because of Elaine and Bridget.’

  We didn’t speak again until we were out of Truro. Then Sharon said in her most hectoring tone, ‘Apart from me, how many people have you hated? People you knew, don’t count politicians etcetera.’

  ‘Not that many. And as I’ve never said I hated you, please don’t – ’

  ‘Okay. Have you punched anyone or killed them?’

  The honest answer would have been ‘yes’ and ‘don’t know’, but Sharon was driving and might have run off the road. And Vanessa and I had sworn never to tell anyone about our encounter in America.

  ‘Well, Sergeant, have you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Would you?’

  ‘In self-defence – in a kill or be killed situation – ’

  ‘I would say you are one of the least likely people to thump a woman.’ She made it sound like an insult. ‘Have you ever been in a brawl?’

  ‘No.’ I was relieved to be able to tell the truth. The confrontation with the rapists in the forest could not be described as a brawl.

  ‘I’m more likely to lash out in a temper than you are.’ Her tone was even more derisory. ‘If you had children would you smack them?’

  I’d never smacked Hannah. Even if I had believed in smacking, Hannah had never behaved badly enough to deserve it. On one rare occasion when I was impatient with her because we were running late, I’d raised my voice, ‘For goodness sake, hurry up, Hannah!’

  She’d looked at me wide eyed with surprise. ‘All right, Daddy, calm down.’

  ‘Sergeant, would you smack – ’

  ‘No.’

  ‘There you are then. You’ll be saying next that Bridget deserved to be murdered.’

  ‘She wasn’t murdered and although it’s probable she was the target, it could have been Declan.’

  ‘We haven’t found or heard of anyone who hated Declan enough to murder him.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean they don’t exist.’

  ‘Suppose that’s true. Why would someone hate him?’ Her tone became sarcastic. ‘Could someone have been harbouring a secret passion for Bridget?’

  ‘Unlikely. She’s not the type that men would fight over – unless they were desperate.’

  ‘But Phoebe would be, wouldn’t she?’

  Not caring how exasperated I sounded I expelled my breath.

  ‘You think she’s beautiful, don’t you?’

  ‘Please stop telling me what I think.’

  That was when I decided to pursue the theory that Phoebe had been the intended victim and not tell Sharon. I’d do it in my own time.

  12

  SHARON

  There was an e-mail from Elaine Dunn when I arrived at work. I printed out two copies, called Robert into my office and handed him the two pages.

  Dear Inspector Richardson,

  When I took over the Medical Records Department it was in the most frightful state. The staff thought it was a social club, not a place of work. My predecessor apparently encouraged this. I immediately set about correcting this state of affairs. Bridget was the only person who was willing to help me. She was an excellent worker so I promoted her. The rest rebelled and made their hostility towards me obvious.

  The ringleaders were Phoebe Harris and Margaret Fox. Another ringleader was a male member of staff who had since left due to mental illness.

  I like order and hate sloppy dressing. Many of the staff wore jeans to work, which is unprofessional. I introduced uniforms. Some of the staff were happy with this as it saved their clothes, but others, led by Phoebe, rebelled.

  ‘Even with my lack of interest in clothes, I can understand why Phoebe rebelled,’ I said. ‘The uniforms are hideous.’

  ‘They are,’ Robert agreed.

  She argued that she was not in the public eye, did not wear jeans to work and that spending money on uniforms was a waste of NHS money. I took her and Margaret and four other members of staff to a disciplinary board when they refused to wear the uniforms I’d ordered. I won my case. Phoebe said they all looked like a bunch of refugees.

  Robert smiled. ‘A good description.’

  They looked professional and smart. When I first saw Phoebe she was wearing a pink blouse with a white stripe and a burgundy skirt, which is as unprofessional as you can get.

  ‘If Elaine thinks Phoebe looked unprofessional, what did she think of Bridget’s clothes?’

  ‘Even the hideous uniforms would be an improvement on what we saw her wearing,’ said Robert. ‘Was Elaine wearing a uniform when we saw her?’

  I tried to think back, but all I could recall was her lying on the floor with blood on her chin. I shook my head and we went back to the e-mail.

  Because Bridget and I were managers, I chose different uniforms for us. Phoebe had the nerve to say that if they had to wear uniforms then Bridget and I should wear the same ones. Again, I won. Human Resources agreed that as senior managers we were entitled to wear different uniforms.

  I shook my head in disbelief. ‘What was her motive? Did she want them all to look dreary and ugly?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Robert. ‘I think that’s exactly what she wanted.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Making them all look the same robs them of their individuality. Making them wear ugly clothes robs them of their confidence. If she and Bridget wore more attractive uniforms that would make them feel superior.’

  ‘But Bridget’s taste in clothes is dire. How would – ’

  ‘Take it from the viewpoint of the rest of the staff – Bridget wears an attractive uniform – therefore she looks better than they do,’ Robert said.

  The filing system at that time was straight numerical, but files where a patient had not attended the hospital for 10 years were stored elsewhere. I set about changing the system to the more efficient terminal digit system. If you don’t understand this, it means that if a file number is 123456 it is filed under 56. To make this more clear number 123400 is filed in block 00.

  ‘Does she think we’re stupid?’ Robert said irritably.

  I smiled. ‘She’s probably so used to Bridget’s ignorance she thinks everyone’s the same.’

  To implement this new system I needed people to work overtime. I thought that as th
ey were working for the NHS they should be willing to work unpaid overtime. Only Bridget was willing to do this.

  ‘I bet she was,’ said Robert. ‘It gave her an excuse to get away from her appalling mother.’

  It was an enormous task. And to my annoyance none of the other staff were willing to work paid overtime either. When I tried to force the issue with Phoebe she said she had a rampant social life. This meant I had to go to an agency and pay for temps to do the majority of the work. Bridget and I often worked till midnight.

  ‘Maybe Elaine’s got a horrible mother too,’ I said.

  Because of the permanent staff’s attitude the changeover took far longer and cost more than it should have. When the work was complete I set about trimming the staff. Fortunately some had already left, one I mentioned earlier, had a breakdown. I made Phoebe redundant.

  Bridget had no idea that Phoebe lived in the house next door before she moved in. When they were friends Phoebe and her husband had lived in a smaller house. Phoebe ignored Bridget when they became neighbours and she must have poisoned the other neighbours’ minds against Bridget too. It’s not as if she’d lived there very long herself, but she behaved as if she’d been born there.

  So I certainly think that Margaret, Phoebe, Leslie Hooper and the man who went crazy would have felt enough ill-will towards Bridget to kill her. Phoebe, due to her close proximity to Bridget’s house, would be my chief suspect.

  How is your search for Leslie Hooper progressing? Please keep me informed. I want to be in court when his case comes up.

  Elaine Dunn (Medical Records Manager)

  I hit reply.

  Dear Ms Dunn,

  Thanks for all the information. We went to the address provided by Human Resources for Leslie Hooper, but his mother informed us that he no longer lives there. She does not have his new address.

  Yours sincerely,

  Inspector Richardson.

  I laughed when she immediately replied telling us she was sure his mother was lying and to put a watch on his house.

  ‘Does she think we’ve nothing else to do? Self-obsessed woman,’ Robert muttered.

  ‘But, as Elaine pointed out, he may be the one who set fire to Bridget’s house,’ I reminded him.

  When Phoebe answered the front door and saw us she looked frightened.

  ‘We need to ask you some more questions,’ I said in my sternest voice. If she had set fire to Bridget’s house I wanted her to crack. If we’d had any evidence against her I would have made her come to the station.

  She took us into the kitchen. ‘Would you like some tea or coffee?’ Her voice was shaking.

  ‘No thank you.’ I outlined what Bridget had said.

  ‘She’s a liar. The letter I gave you was the only one I wrote to her.’

  ‘It must have been difficult living next door to her. Not only was she your enemy, she had a baby. She told us about your miscarriages and the baby that died.’

  Her eyes flooded with tears. Robert sat still. His face was blank. Phoebe got up and tore some paper towels from a roll. She wiped her eyes and sat down again.

  ‘We’ve heard that she flaunted her baby at you.’

  Phoebe shook her head. ‘I didn’t notice,’ she managed to say.

  I thought that was unlikely. If Margaret had noticed when she visited, then Phoebe must have noticed too.

  ‘You’ve got plenty of reasons to want her dead. One, she betrayed your friendship. Two, she turned against you. Three, she sided with Elaine. Four, she used her power to bully you. Five, she helped get you made redundant.’

  ‘I was – ’

  I ignored her. ‘Six, she tried to stop you getting another job. Then she moves next door with her husband and baby. Not only that, but she wants to make improvements that you disagree with. Were you worried that it would devalue your house?’

  Phoebe had recovered her composure, but was still pale. ‘I am not a murderer,’ she said steadily.

  ‘You had eight reasons to want her dead.’

  ‘No. I was glad when I was made redundant. It got me out of the snake-pit that medical records had become. Elaine and Bridget tried to get me to commit a serious offence so they could sack me, but it didn’t work.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘They tried to provoke me into either hitting one of them or swearing at them. They were both taunting me. Bridget’s a fool. She should have known it wouldn’t work. She’s never heard me swear and I don’t go around hitting people.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I got put on three months special paid leave and my redundancy payment was good.’

  ‘Still,’ I continued, ‘That’s seven reasons.’

  ‘It’s not. I never resented the fact she had a baby.’

  ‘Even if that’s true, that leaves six reasons. I would have hated her if I was you. So would most people. Did you hate her?’

  ‘Yes and I despised her too. If things had got unbearable Stuart and I would have moved. But they didn’t get unbearable.’

  ‘What would have made it unbearable?’ I asked.

  ‘If she’d turned all the neighbours against me.’

  ‘The neighbours didn’t like her. Did you turn them against her?’

  She shook her head. ‘She did that herself.’

  ‘Not a good time to sell up now, is it?’

  ‘We’ve added a lot of value to the house. We renovated it when we moved in – got the windows repaired, the whole place rewired and put in a new kitchen and bathroom. Even with falling property prices it’s worth a lot more than it was when we bought it. And we’ve done up the garden.’

  Phoebe and Stuart’s kitchen was attractive in a different way to Alice’s. The units were dark wood, the floors were slate and the worktops were granite. A coffee machine, in shining chrome, stood on the work top. Structurally the houses were all alike, but the ones we had been in all looked individual. Alice was the only one whose kitchen was in the basement and her units were cream.

  Robert’s silence was annoying me. ‘When you and Bridget were friends did you visit her flat?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes. Once. She invited me for dinner.’

  ‘Did you enjoy yourself?’

  ‘No. Her mother was hostile and the food was revolting. No wonder Bridget’s so thin.’

  ‘Did you and Bridget have much in common?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘But you were friends?’

  ‘I felt sorry for her at first, but she had an engaging personality, even if she does use people. We weren’t good friends – just friends. She kept asking me for advice about how to cope with her mother.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I advised her to leave home and get a flat as far away from her mother as possible. She was going to. I went flat hunting with her. She found a place that she liked, but her mother said she’d kill herself when Bridget told her she was moving out.’

  ‘Bridget seems to have lots of friends. Someone told us that everyone loves her. It seems as if you and your neighbours were the only ones who disliked her.’

  ‘All the staff in medical records hate her, except Elaine. We used to like her, but that was before Elaine came. And the neighbours don’t like her because – ’

  ‘Yes, we know. They said she didn’t fit in.’

  ‘She didn’t.’

  ‘Do you agree you have a lot of motives?’

  ‘No. I had reasons to hate Bridget, but not motives to kill her. And even if I did, I would never kill an innocent man or a baby.’

  ‘Did you like her husband?’

  ‘I didn’t know him.’

  ‘Did you ever speak to him?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But he was your neighbour. He’d done nothing to you. As you say, he was innocent.’

  Phoebe started tearing up the paper towel. ‘Before we moved here we had the chance to buy into Pengelly House. We decided against it because we were about to exchange contracts. We loved this house and looked forward to doing it up. Now I wish we’d mo
ved into Pengelly House. This is supposed to be such a happy time for me. My book’s published and I’m working on my second one. But instead of enjoying my success I’m living in fear that I’m going to be arrested for something I haven’t done. Every time someone comes to the door – ’

  Robert stood up. ‘I think we’ve covered everything. Thank you for your time.’

  I knew he was furious. I also knew I’d sounded cruel. We drove for miles in silence.

  ‘Thank you for supporting me back there, Sergeant.’

  He didn’t reply.

  ‘Well, answer me.’

  ‘I’ll reply to any question you ask. But you made a statement, you did not ask a question.’ His tone was icy.

  I sighed. ‘Do you want to solve this case?’

  ‘Yes. Solve being the vital word. We won’t solve it if we arrest the wrong person.’

  ‘This may not have occurred to you, Sergeant, but as Bridget is still alive, the murderer might try again.’

  ‘It did occur to me. Very early on in the case. That is if Bridget was the intended victim.’

  ‘Of course she was. I think the only way we’re going to solve this case is to get a confession. We’ve got no DNA, no fingerprints and no witnesses. I was trying to make Phoebe crack.’

  ‘The best way to do that is to be gentle and sympathetic. You were brutal. If she did set fire to the house you didn’t get the result you wanted, did you?’

  ‘We’ll have to keep at her.’

  ‘You keep at her. I refuse to be part of any scene like that.’