And None Shall Sleep (16 page)

Joanna stared at him. ‘Did he say anything that might illuminate the events of Monday night?'

Wilde shook his head regretfully. ‘No,' he said. ‘Nothing.'

‘Was he concerned about his condition?'

‘Not unduly.' It was obvious from Wilde's brief answers that he had decided if he must co-operate he would be as unhelpful as possible.

‘He had received a threatening letter that morning,' Joanna said. ‘Did he mention it?'

Wilde sat frozen for a moment before deciding which answer to give. ‘He knew who the letter was from.' he said. ‘And he asked me to take action against the people concerned.'

‘He thought it was from the Carters?'

Wilde nodded. ‘I see, Inspector, you've been doing your homework.'

She brushed the sarcasm aside. ‘Mr Wilde, I have to tell you. The Carters deny having sent that letter.'

Wilde looked astounded. ‘But Jonathan was convinced it was from them. He told me it was another – exactly the same as before – and would I please see to it.'

‘And what did that mean – “see to it”?'

Wilde shifted his gaze back to Mike. ‘I took it to mean, Sergeant, that he wanted me to warn them off with a letter.' He opened the top drawer. ‘I'd actually dictated one ...' he held out a small audio cassette, ‘before I heard Jonathan's body had been found.'

‘What did you think had happened to him at first, when he was missing?'

Wilde contemplated for a while, staring up at the ceiling. ‘To be honest, I thought he'd had some sort of a brainstorm, a breakdown. I imagined him wandering somewhere. He really had been under a lot of pressure in recent months.'

‘Anything we should know about?'

Wilde leaned forward confidingly. ‘I don't think things were all that wonderful at home. Sheila Selkirk,' he said with a frown and a headshake. ‘Very strange lady, you know. And then there was this wretched investigation. Your colleagues in the Fraud Squad are none too polite, Inspector, and they make their presence felt.' He looked hopefully at Joanna. ‘Do you think they might drop the investigation now that Jonathan's dead?'

She stared at him. The hope in his words lit his entire face. ‘I don't know,' she said slowly. ‘I wouldn't have thought so. After all, Mr Wilde, you were both under investigation.'

‘Selkirk & Wilde was under investigation,' he said crossly. ‘And the firm no longer exists. You can't take action against the dead.'

‘But you can against the living, Mr Wilde.'

He was biting his lip. ‘I know that.'

But the exchange had given Joanna a focus for her thoughts. Surely Rufus Wilde could not have been naive enough to believe he could shift all the blame on to his partner – now deceased?

But as she watched the solicitor fingering his dark tie she dismissed this as a motive. It was almost certainly too flimsy. Yet the doubt remained and she watched his movements with a heightened curiosity.

‘Who wanted your partner dead, Mr Wilde?'

‘No one,' he said earnestly. ‘Absolutely no one in the entire world. Jonathan was a first-class man. Popular. Loved by all who knew him.' He paused for breath. ‘He had the respect – the greatest respect – of every single person in Leek who had professional dealings with him.'

It was as false an epitaph as any Joanna had heard.

‘Even the criminals he prosecuted?'

Wilde gave a bland smile. ‘Just doing his job.'

Joanna tried a new tack. ‘Mrs Selkirk mentioned a firearms case after which Mr Selkirk was threatened.'

‘And when would this have been?' Wilde touched the side of his glasses.

‘Eight to ten years ago,' Mike said.

Wilde's face was impassive as he thought. ‘Ah, yes. That would have been the Wilton case. Certainly he made some threats but he didn't mean business. It was all sabre-rattling. '

The veins on Mike's neck were standing out like ropes. ‘Sure about that, are you?'

‘Oh, yes.' Wilde's tone was condescending. ‘You can always tell.'

‘Still around, is he, this Mr Wilton?'

‘I really couldn't tell you.'

‘So you can't think of anyone else who disliked Jonathan Selkirk?'

‘No.'

‘Not even his son?'

‘Absolutely not,' Wilde said, ‘though I have to say Justin was a grave disappointment to his father.'

‘Why is that?'

‘Intellectually, you know. Jonathan had hoped Justin would follow him into the profession. Despite good schooling the boy showed no interest. No interest at all.'

‘A shame.' But Mike's sarcasm was wasted on the pompous solicitor.

Joanna stood up. ‘Thank you, Mr Wilde. We'll be in touch.'

It was the last phrase that seemed to rattle Wilde more than anything else. He stared at her with a flicker of fear in his eyes. Was the impending fraud investigation so threatening to him? Or was this the result of a guilty conscience? But why? Why on earth might he have wanted his partner dead?

She was almost through the door when the neat blonde returned with a tray of white porcelain tea cups, smothered in pink roses and a large, steaming tea pot.

‘Sorry, love,' Mike said. ‘Too late.' Then he turned back to face Wilde. ‘I hope they'll ask you to give the speech at Selkirk's funeral. You give by far the best one. Everyone else,' he finished, ‘seems to have hated his guts.'

On return to the station Joanna was met by Dawn Critchlow. ‘Which do you want first?' she asked. ‘The good news, the news or the bad news?'

‘Oh, the good, always the good,' Joanna said.

‘Dr Levin phoned. He mentioned dinner tonight and says would you ring back to confirm.' She smiled. ‘He wants to book.'

Joanna's eyes flickered. If Matthew wanted to book a table it meant a serious talk. She had avoided confrontation with him for as long as was possible. She knew what was coming, had always known. Matthew always broke bad news face to face.

She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind. ‘The news?'

‘A car was spotted in the layby near Gallows Wood at one thirty a. m. approx. A Vauxhall Cavalier, brown. And the person even got the number. We've checked it out.'

‘And?'

‘Holloway,' Dawn said. ‘It's owned by someone called Dustin Holloway. We'll run some checks on him.'

‘Good.'

‘Who called in?' Joanna asked idly. ‘Courting couple?'

Dawn Critchlow nodded. ‘Wouldn't you guess? Both married to other people so they didn't come forward earlier.'

Joanna turned to Mike. ‘We'd better check our obliging witnesses out,' she said, ‘as well as this Holloway. And the bad news?' she said to Dawn.

‘Pugh wants you in her – sorry, your – office the minute you walk in. Sorry,' she said again. ‘But that was how she worded it. If I were you,' she winked at Mike, ‘I should talk to Dr Levin first.'

Joanna dropped her eyes and sighed. Somehow even Pugh seemed preferable to Matthew just at the moment.

Pugh was no more attractive on their second meeting. Her pale eyes looked up as Joanna entered.

‘I shall be vacating your office late this evening,' she said sharply. ‘Gallini's been picked up.'

So quickly? Joanna thought. ‘Where?' she said aloud. ‘Heathrow. With a pocketful of money, waiting to board a plane to Sicily, ready for a family holiday and taking the money back to Papa Mafioso.'

‘Any chance of him talking?'

‘I doubt it. But I do have something else for you. Sit down, Piercy.'

Joanna dropped obediently into the chair.

‘I always wondered,' Pugh began, ‘how they got Selkirk to get out of bed having ripped off all his machines, and then how they got him to drip his bloody way along the corridor and leave the relative safety of the hospital without his calling out.' She stared at Joanna. ‘I was never very happy about that.'

Joanna waited.

‘You may be a big fish here in a small Staffordshire town, Piercy, but you still have a lot to learn. An examination was done on the door. Fire doors,' she said simply, ‘have to be opened from the inside.'

‘We knew that.'

Pugh shook her head. ‘So he had to have a helper. Someone let him in.'

Joanna stared.

‘You must return to the hospital and speak again to the nurses on duty that night. One of them let Gallini in as well as tore off the machines.'

It was more difficult to speak to Matthew. She dialled the lab twice, both times replacing the receiver before she was connected. The third time his secretary answered and put her through straight away.

‘Hi, Matthew.'

‘Hello.' His voice sounded strained. ‘I've been having a long think, Jo,' he said slowly.

‘With Jane's prompting.' Her voice sounded every inch the jealous mistress.

‘Please,' he said with a sigh. ‘Darling ... don't make things so difficult.' And immediately she felt guilty.

He tried again. ‘I must talk to you, Joanna. There's such a lot I need to say. I really do want us to stay together but we won't if you keep skirting the issues.'

She knew he was right.

‘I'll book a table for eight,' he said, ‘at the Mermaid.'

She found it difficult to concentrate at the afternoon's briefing. Her mind kept wandering ... Life without Matthew? Life without her work? Life trying to juggle both? She kept hearing Matthew's voice, serious and set on a course of action. He could be a very determined character. She blinked and forced her mind to move back to the briefing and the roomful of officers who were depending on her to direct their enquiries.

‘There are four main areas,' she said, using the charts and a blackboard, ‘where we must concentrate our investigation! She drew in a deep breath. ‘Thanks to the agent from the Regional Crime Squad we have the man responsible for the shooting.

‘As they thought, he is a Sicilian named Gallini. He's been known to be available for hire and is apparently responsible for other killings. Ballistics evidence connects him with at least three others, all shootings. His
modus operandi
was typical. Pugh thought around eight thousand pounds would have changed hands for Selkirk's death certificate.' She stopped. ‘We don't know anything about the car he was driving. We have a sighting of a brown Vauxhall Cavalier at one thirty on the night in question. Seen by a courting couple. We'll want to run checks on them. The Cavalier belongs to a man called Dustin Holloway.' She paused. ‘Everything's worth a try.

‘Thanks to Pugh' – she ignored the ripple of derision that did a Mexican wave around the room – ‘
thanks to Pugh
it has been pointed out that someone from the hospital let him in. There was definitely an accomplice.'

‘But we thought ...' Mike looked startled.

‘There are two reasons why she came to this conclusion. Firstly she examined the sills in the adjacent hospital ward, which was empty on the night of the abduction. They gave no sign of an intruder.' She glanced around the room, found two faces and smiled. ‘Thanks to an afternoon with Timmis and McBrine, who removed the fire door,' she said, ‘we now know that was where Gallini entered the hospital.'

She drew in breath. ‘The other reason why an inside accomplice was suspected is that the alarm on the cardiorator had been turned off. We're going to need a small team to look into details of the three nurses' bank accounts, personal details, any sort of area that might have bearing on possible criminal activity.'

Mike touched her elbow. ‘What about all that fuss about the depressive who threw himself out of the window?'

‘I don't know.' Joanna frowned.

Mike was staring at her. ‘Well, you're the one who doesn't like coincidence,' he pointed out.

She spoke back into the room. ‘The second area we wish to concentrate on is Jonathan Selkirk's business life. We already know a fraud case was hanging over Selkirk & Wilde. Interestingly, Rufus Wilde, I think, welcomed his partner's death.' She made a face. ‘In spite of his new black tie and his daughter's mourning suit, I think he had an idea the Fraud Squad might just drop the case against them. He doesn't know the Fraud Squad.'

More amusement emanated from the assembled officers.

‘Another thing that makes me extra interested in Mr Wilde is that he has admitted that the phone call from the hospital was made to him.' She held up her hand. ‘I'm not going to attempt to speculate what Selkirk had to say to his partner. Wilde claims that he was instructing him on some clients, but it could have been anything.'

She glanced around the room. ‘Dawn, do you think you could liaise with the Fraud Squad, make sure I have all the details on Selkirk & Wilde's case, right up to today, and find out all you can about Wilde and his neat little daughter.' She frowned. ‘I didn't like that show of filial duty. And the black suit...'

‘I can't see her forking out eight k to get rid of her father's business partner,' Mike pointed out.

Joanna narrowed her eyes. ‘No, but I can see her presenting the cheque to her father – for signing'

Joanna turned back to the board. ‘Next,' she said, ‘we have Selkirk's sweet little family – wife, son, daughter-in- law – and “family friend”, Anthony Pritchard. All of whom seem to positively welcome Selkirk's demise.' She tutted. ‘I've never known a family apparently so liberated by the death of a member.' She looked around the faces. ‘It's quite bizarre. And, needless to say, it puts the family in a very unfavourable light. Therefore, I shall be visiting Justin Selkirk and his wife as well as interviewing “Grandpa Tony” in the next day or so.

‘Then, last, we have the Carter family, who are the exact opposite of the Selkirks. They still have open sores over the death of their daughter, Rowena, who was knocked down on a school crossing by Selkirk five years ago. He abandoned the scene of the crime, thus making a later blood alcohol level of three times the legal limit inadmissible in court.' She could hear the officers groaning.