Shroud of Evil (17 page)

Uckfield said, ‘Bloody hell, talk about anal.’

Marsden gave a dutiful smile and, again consulting his notebook, continued, ‘In the wardrobe there were also two suits, one dark and the other light grey, and four pairs of black trousers. Two pairs of black polished shoes along with a couple of pairs of expensive trainers, but no causal clothes.’

‘There are some in the holdall,’ Horton said, looking behind him at where he’d placed it on the desk next to Trueman, who at that moment caught his eye.

‘That was a call from the car park company,’ Trueman said, addressing them. ‘They’ve sent over the information we requested and I’ve just checked through it. The number plate recognition software shows Kenton’s car entering the Admiralty Towers car park.’

‘When?’ asked Horton eagerly.

‘Four forty-one Saturday morning.’

‘Are you sure?’ Horton asked, surprised, his brain racing. He threw Uckfield a glance. The big man was also looking puzzled.

‘You know what this means,’ said Horton to Uckfield.

‘Yeah, a dead man can’t drive.’

No. And neither could someone who had been on the Isle of Wight, tucked up in bed with his wife. And that, Horton thought with disappointment, meant the killer couldn’t be Brett Veerman.

‘T
hey could be lying,’ Horton ventured. ‘They could be in this together.’ Dennings was eyeing him as if he’d just declared he’d found a way to hold back the tide and Uckfield just as incredulously.

‘Why should they?’ Uckfield answered. ‘And why would they put Kenton’s car in the Admiralty Towers car park if they killed him?’

‘Perhaps Thelma Veerman drove the car there to get even with her husband for having affairs, or to get him out of her life. If he got convicted and sent to prison she’d be free of him. I know she’d also be implicating herself but perhaps she’d deny it, or claim he coerced her, or that she was driven to do it.’

Uckfield peered at him as though poised to lift the phone and call the men in white coats. OK so it was unlikely, but not impossible.

He addressed Trueman. ‘Does Kenton enter the car park at any time on Thursday after four-thirty p.m. or during Friday?’

‘No. That’s the first time his car shows up there, and I’ve gone back to the Monday before. I’ve also checked Roger Watling’s vehicle. He doesn’t show until Saturday morning just before eight as he said and London have confirmed his alibi for Friday night. I’m asking them to check him out for Thursday night.’

‘Also if he owns a boat.’

Trueman nodded. ‘Brett Veerman’s vehicle entered the car park at nine twenty-five on Friday evening and left at eleven thirty p.m. which tallies with the time he caught the ferry.’

‘Is it there on Thursday night?’

Trueman scrolled back down the list. ‘No.’

Uckfield sniffed and eyed Horton keenly. ‘You’re still favouring him despite the fact he wouldn’t have parked the victim’s car in his own car park and he was probably in bed at the time?’

Rapidly Horton tried to pull together his thoughts. Again he addressed Trueman. ‘Can we see who is driving Kenton’s car?’

‘No. I’m sending the image over to the lab to get it enhanced but whoever’s driving is wearing dark clothes and has a dark cap pulled low over his face.’

‘Or
her
face,’ added Horton.

Trueman nodded. ‘And the CCTV cameras don’t pick up the driver walking away.’

Dennings chipped in. ‘And there won’t be any footage of Veerman confronting Kenton, or escorting him out of the building to his car, because neither of them are in that car park on Thursday evening.’

Horton had worked that out himself but he didn’t bother saying so. It had been his original theory. That had changed now he knew Kenton had a powerful motor boat and his boat keys appeared to be missing.

Trueman added, ‘I’ll get hold of CCTV footage from Queen Street and the Historic Dockyard to see if we can spot Kenton’s car in the area.’

The high brick walls of the dockyard faced on to the entrance to the Admiralty Towers car park. Cameras might have been pointing that way. They might have picked up something, but Horton wasn’t banking on it.

He said, ‘There is the possibility that Brett Veerman met Kenton on his boat at the Hamble on Thursday night. They went out on it across the Solent and put in somewhere.’ But not at the end of Lord Eames’ pontoon because Eames would have picked that up on his computer. Unless he had done, spotted Brett Veerman, recognized him and was protecting a yacht club friend. He didn’t voice the latter thought to Uckfield.

‘Why?’ demanded Uckfield.

‘Because Kenton had something on Veerman,’ Horton continued. ‘Something so damaging that Veerman had to prevent it from coming out no matter what the cost. And maybe Kenton was going to blackmail him. Perhaps Kenton’s done a bit of freelance investigating on the side before.’

‘OK,’ Uckfield grunted and sat down heavily. ‘Seeing as you’re still determined to put Veerman in the frame let’s hear it all.’

But Horton hesitated. Did he put forward his idea that Veerman could be involved in an international drugs crime that connected him to Europol and Harriet, as he and Cantelli had discussed earlier? No, he decided to keep quiet on that for now but he could still run through another possible scenario.

‘Brett Veerman meets Kenton on his boat at Hamble Marina on Thursday night. Veerman has come prepared with a pistol crossbow to kill Kenton but Kenton is obviously oblivious to this. They take the boat across the Solent to Veerman’s house. High tide on Thursday night was just after midnight so they could have got close to the shore where Veerman lives and where he’s already placed his dinghy.’

Marsden said, ‘Why would Kenton go voluntarily?’

‘Perhaps Veerman has promised to pay him off in return for his silence, and claims he has to get the money from his house.’

Uckfield sniffed to indicate he thought that was weak. Horton did too but again it
was
possible.

‘Once close to Veerman’s house, or on the shore, Veerman shoots Kenton. He knows that the method of death will cause little blood spatter, if any, and that it is also a silent weapon, in case anyone is around to hear it, which is unlikely. There’s only Thelma and she’s inside the house. It is isolated and it’s dark. Veerman manhandles Kenton to his boathouse. Kenton is still alive but in no position to put up a fight with a bolt in his heart. Veerman leaves him in the boathouse and waits until he slips into unconsciousness, then he returns Kenton’s boat to the Hamble and stays on it, making sure everything is clean before leaving for work on Friday morning in his own car as though nothing has happened.’

Dennings heaved himself onto a chair, which creaked at the impact. ‘So how does he get Kenton’s car from the Hamble to Admiralty Towers for four forty-one Saturday morning, when he’s asleep on the Isle of Wight?’

‘
If
he’s asleep on the Isle of Wight.’ Horton addressed Trueman. ‘What time are the ferry sailings on Saturday morning from Fishbourne?

‘One a.m.’

Horton said, ‘He couldn’t have been on that because he was on the ferry heading to Fishbourne.’

‘And the next sailing after that is at four a.m.’

And it would take about thirty-five minutes to cross to Portsmouth, another thirty minutes to drive to the Hamble, collect Kenton’s car and then drive it back to Portsmouth. It wasn’t possible unless …

‘He had an accomplice,’ Horton said, his mind racing. ‘Thelma Veerman could be lying and she caught the one a.m. sailing.’

But Trueman shook his head. ‘No one could have done – it was cancelled.’

Horton rapidly rethought. ‘OK then, Veerman pops out of the hospital on Friday and drives to the Hamble. His accomplice or lover follows him. Veerman switches to Kenton’s car and drives it back to Portsmouth where he leaves it parked in a side street. His accomplice drives him back to the Hamble where Veerman gets into his own car and returns to work. But the accomplice moves the car into the Admiralty Towers car park in the early hours of Saturday morning.’

But Uckfield wasn’t buying it. ‘Why, when it will implicate Veerman in Kenton’s death?’

‘And why wait until Saturday morning?’ interjected Dennings.

Horton felt like saying
how the hell do I know
. He thought swiftly. ‘Because the lover wants to force their affair into the open.’

‘And risk being caught!’ exclaimed Uckfield incredulously.

And Uckfield knew more about lovers than any of them, considering the number of affairs he’d had. Horton recalled his conversation with Danby about Kenton not being very good at surveillance operations. He’d already previously considered that Veerman could have spotted Kenton following him and that now seemed even more likely. And Veerman and his lover had carefully planned this murder.

Undeterred by Uckfield’s lack of enthusiasm for his theory, Horton continued, ‘After helping Veerman to move the car Veerman tells his lover that they’d better cool off for a while until the heat of the investigation dies down. But the lover suspects she’s getting the bums rush and thinks sod it, he’s not going to get rid of me like that, after all I’ve done for him.’

‘You should write TV soap scripts,’ muttered Uckfield.

Horton ignored the jibe and Dennings’ sneer. ‘She moves the car into her boyfriend’s car park, maybe not even knowing we’d make the connection, perhaps she thinks we’re thick, but Veerman will understand the implication of it.’

‘There’s no forensics on the car,’ Trueman interjected. ‘No blood and no recognizable fingerprints except for a few on the inside of the boot hatch that match Kenton’s. They’ve got a few hair samples, the colour of which match with Kenton, but we won’t get a DNA confirmation for a while yet. They’re hoping to get some prints from the foot pedals. But the car is so clean inside that it looks as though it’s been valeted.’

‘And outside?’

‘Salt on the bodywork, windscreen and windows and some traces of salt underneath and on the tyres.’

‘As if it was driven into the sea?’

‘No, parked close to it. They’re working on trying to get traces of grit and gravel from the tyres.’

‘A clean-up job then before being dumped in the car park.’

Uckfield scratched his neck and studied Horton dubiously. ‘First Thelma Veerman is in league with her husband and now it’s a lover – make up your mind.’

‘The lover is more plausible given what Thelma Veerman told me about her husband and the fact she’d hired a private investigator. Brett Veerman might not even have driven the car to that area. He could have given Kenton’s keys to his lover on Friday with instructions to collect it from the Hamble and take it somewhere and dump it. Maybe she did and then changed her mind in the early hours of the morning after Veerman had told her they had to cool the relationship. When I told Veerman where the car had been found and questioned him about whether he still had his key fob on him he was remarkably cool. Perhaps too cool. There was no shock, bewilderment or anger.’ Horton recalled the intelligent, self-assured man. ‘Perhaps he’d had time to prepare his reaction because his lover had already told him what she’d done.’

Dennings piped up. ‘Hang on, why did Brett Veerman wrap Kenton up in sail cloth and dump him on the shore?’

‘To hide forensic evidence, which could lead back to him and he thought the weight of the sail would drag the body down. He didn’t count on it being washed up on the shore.’

But even as Horton said that he didn’t feel entirely comfortable. He was sure the body had been placed and that a clever man and a medical one such as Veerman wouldn’t make such a mistake. But then killers did make mistakes, thank God.

Uckfield was still looking unconvinced. ‘But having a bit on the side wouldn’t necessarily damage his career.’

‘It would if she were a patient.’

‘He’s an eye surgeon, not a gynaecologist,’ Uckfield exclaimed.

‘Doesn’t make any difference, he’s still breaching ethical guidelines. If he tries to implicate her she’ll say she didn’t know that Veerman had killed Kenton. She was just asked to move Kenton’s car, but when she discovered on Friday night that her lover had killed Kenton, she was shocked and horrified. She’ll claim she was afraid and was forced into helping him. A good lawyer will make her story sound convincing. It’s his word against hers. And there’s no evidence to connect her with Veerman because before parking Kenton’s car at Admiralty Towers, she’s taken all Kenton’s surveillance equipment, his laptop and mobile phone and stashed it in her car. Perhaps Veerman told her to do that. But now she has something on Veerman that she can use to force him to divorce his wife, or so she thinks.’

‘Then he’ll kill her.’

‘Probably.’ Solemnly Horton added, ‘She’ll end up with a bolt in her heart. So
if
there is a woman involved we need to find her quickly, and that means we need a warrant to get information from the hospital about Veerman’s movements on Thursday night and Friday. They won’t give it to us without it. Cantelli’s tried.’ He didn’t mention they were using their own private resources to try and obtain it.

Uckfield hauled himself up. ‘I’ll talk to the ACC in the morning.’

Why not now
, Horton thought, impatiently. But Uckfield was looking at his watch as though he was late for his meeting with Bliss. Horton wondered what the ACC would say, or rather what Eames would say after Dean or the Chief Constable reported back. Horton still thought the lover angle the strongest but he wasn’t ruling out the drugs scam or that the beachcomber could somehow be involved.

Returning to CID he found Cantelli on the phone and Walters at his desk. Walters announced that he and PC Tina Collins had identified three possible suspects for the racist restaurant attacks, all with extreme right-wing views, all male and all Caucasian.

‘One’s in his twenties, the other two are in their mid to late forties,’ Walters said. ‘I’ve been trawling the Internet for comments they’ve made on forums and social networks. The idiots often like to brag about what they’ve done. PC Collins is checking on their whereabouts, social security and employment backgrounds. We’ll talk to them tomorrow.’