The Scent of Death--A Sukey Reyholds British police procedural (18 page)

‘That would be nice; thank you,' said Vicky. ‘We'll come straight to the point,' she said as he brought a jug of coffee and some cups, ‘we've been trying to find some more information about Lance Rainbird, and one of the things we've established is that he had a particular antipathy towards any form of religion.'

‘It's odd you should say that,' said Freeman. ‘I haven't so far put on an entire programme of sacred music, but now and again I include a work with a religious theme in a programme featuring a particular composer. For example, I recently did one on the work of Berlioz and included part of his oratorio
The Childhood of Christ
which as you may know is based on the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, and I included
Vespers
in a programme on Rachmaninoff. I noticed that Lance didn't stay and listen to either of those particular works, but I never thought to ask him about it and he didn't miss anything else.'

‘Were there any occasions when something cropped up in conversation – for example a reference by someone to a sacred work not in the programme but possibly by the composer featured in the programme?' asked Sukey.

Freeman took a few mouthfuls of coffee and thought for a moment before saying, ‘I can't think of any particular occasion – although I do remember that now and again a piece would be under discussion about which Lance did not have anything to say, which was unusual. I have no idea what the piece was; I'm sorry but I really don't think I can help you.'

‘So you were never aware of any open hostility between him and any other member of the group at Dallington Manor?'

‘Not on the subject of religion. As I may have mentioned, some of the people got a bit irritated with him now and then, but open hostility – no, none that I observed.' He glanced from one to the other. ‘Have you been able to find out why he was so against religion, or religious belief?'

‘We think it may have something to do with his childhood,' said Vicky. ‘As a matter of fact we're on our way to talk to someone who may have more information. At least you have gone some way to help us to eliminate the members of your party.'

‘From which I gather you are still no nearer to solving the case?'

Vicky stood up. ‘Thank you very much for your time, sir – and for the coffee.'

The head office of Ashman, Lee and Edwards was in a modern building in the City of London. A receptionist checked their IDs, issued them with badges and directed them to the department where Luke Grayson was employed. When the lift reached the tenth floor he was waiting for them and without a word of greeting escorted them to a small room a short distance along the corridor.

The minute they were seated he said, a little irritably. ‘I can't for the life of me think what my differences with Lance Rainbird have to do with you.'

‘As you are no doubt aware, Mr Grayson,' said Vicky, ‘we have not yet been able to establish how Lance Rainbird met his death, but we have to consider all possibilities. We think he may have been attacked before his body was found in the lake and we are naturally interested in anyone who might have any kind of grudge against him.'

Grayson shook his head in apparent disbelief. ‘You've come all this way to question me about an argument I had with him in the office? I admit I did get very angry with him because he spoke blasphemy against the Lord, but I realized that in losing my temper with him I was guilty of the sin of anger, so I controlled myself and forgave him. Not that he appreciated the sentiment.'

‘Your account of the argument has already been confirmed by other witnesses, sir,' said Vicky, ‘but what we find surprising is that when you learnt of his death you merely expressed shock.'

‘What did you expect me to say? I can't pretend I was heartbroken.'

‘Of course not,' said Sukey, ‘but why did you not mention at the time that you were colleagues?'

‘I had other things on my mind.' It was clear that Grayson was beginning to lose patience. ‘Perhaps you have overlooked the fact that I had just lost a brother who was very dear to me.'

‘By no means, sir,' Vicky assured him, ‘and you have our deepest sympathy in your loss, but the fact remains that, in view of the ill-feeling between you – which it seems to us was not confined to this one particular event – you expressed nothing but shock nor any, how shall I put it, Christian feelings when you learned of his death.'

Grayson shrugged. ‘I have long regarded him as one of the lost. I have prayed earnestly that he might come to know the Lord, but …' He made a slightly helpless gesture.

‘Did you ever ask him what made him so obsessively against religion?' asked Sukey. ‘Maybe it was due to some traumatic experience in his past.'

‘What do you take me for – some sort of counsellor? If he had problems there are professionals who deal with that sort of thing.'

‘And that is all that you have to say about the relationship between you?'

‘Absolutely.'

‘One more thing, sir,' said Sukey. ‘Where were you between eight o'clock and midnight last Friday?'

Grayson stood up. ‘This is outrageous!' he exclaimed. ‘Are you suggesting I'm some kind of fanatic? I assure you, the idea of physical violence is not in my character. Are you seriously suggesting I might have pursued Rainbird to Dallington with the intention of murdering him?'

‘It's a purely routine question, sir,' Sukey assured him. ‘We have to put it to everyone connected with the case.'

‘All right, if you must know I was at the Ritz hotel, making final arrangements for my mother-in-law's one hundredth birthday party the following day. Do you want the names of the restaurant manager and the maitre d'?'

‘That won't be necessary, sir,' said Vicky, ‘and thank you for your time.'

‘As far as I'm concerned it was time wasted,' said Grayson. ‘By the way,' he added, ‘I have checked with my father the date when John made that call you were so interested in. It was soon after eight o'clock on the Friday evening – the first day of the Schubert music party at Dallington Manor.'

On the way back to reception, Vicky said, ‘You can't seriously regard him as a suspect!'

‘No, of course not.' Sukey chuckled.

‘Then why …?'

‘I just wanted to wipe that sanctimonious expression off his face. “There are professionals who deal with that sort of thing”,' she mimicked. ‘Isn't he capable of any kind of compassion? What sort of a Christian does he think he is?'

Vicky nodded. ‘I take your point. And did you notice his self-righteous manner when he told us about the time of Romeo's call? As if he was saying “just because you've offended me is no reason for me to fail in my obligations”?'

‘At least he told us something we wanted to know. Suppose we're right in our assumption – that Romeo overheard the exchanges between Freeman and Rainbird. We know from what Ashman told us that he'd found out someone was a phoney – could it have been Freeman he was talking about? He had access to the Internet on his mobile so maybe he already knew about the phoney degrees and had just learned that Rainbird knew about them as well. He had a grudge against Rainbird for being rude about his singing so perhaps he was hoping he'd be able to put a bit of pressure on him … maybe get him to say something complimentary.'

‘So he went back to his van and rang home to tell his folks what he'd overheard. He obviously didn't see Rainbird being attacked, or lose his balance and fall in the water. If he had, he'd have raised the alarm.'

‘Instead of which he must have spent the next couple of nights in the van, done his act on Sunday as arranged and left soon after.'

‘And soon after that conversation with Freeman, Rainbird ended up in the water – but we still don't know how,' Vicky sighed.

As they were about to return to reception to hand in their badges, a young blonde woman wearing a very short skirt and teetering on very high heels hurried after them. ‘Excuse me,' she said in a low, breathless voice, ‘are you two ladies the police officers who've been talking to Luke Grayson?'

‘That's right,' said Vicky.

‘I'm glad I caught you. I'm Barbara Baker; I work in the same office as Luke and poor old Lance. Luke was away from his desk for a couple of minutes when you rang so I took the call,' she explained.

‘So it was you who picked up the phone when I asked to be put through to him?'

‘That's right. As soon as June on reception mentioned police I was naturally dying with curiosity so I hung around, trying to catch what was going on. It was obvious Luke wasn't best pleased at whatever you said. After you arrived and he went off to meet you we chatted among ourselves and wondered if it had anything to do with the way he used to wind up poor old Lance. I know it's wicked to say so, but between you and me several of us wouldn't have minded so much if Luke was the one who popped his clogs.'

‘Let's get this straight,' said Vicky. ‘Did you and the other people in your office witness what we understand was quite a fierce argument that took place recently between Lance Rainbird and Luke Grayson?'

‘That's right.'

‘You implied that this was something that had happened before.'

‘Oh yes.' She glanced over her shoulder. ‘Look, it's a bit public here. I've slipped out for an early tea break to have a private talk to you. Why don't we go down to the staff restaurant and find a quiet corner?'

‘All right,' said Vicky. ‘We could do with a cup of tea. How long is your tea break?'

‘Just twenty minutes. That should be plenty of time for what I want to say.'

They went to the counter for cups of tea – and in Vicky's case a hefty slice of chocolate cake – and sat down at an empty table.

‘Right,' said Vicky, plunging a fork into her cake, ‘tell us what Lance and Luke used to argue about.'

‘Luke was usually the one who started it. He's a real goody-goody and used to have digs at Lance, who had a thing about church and stuff.'

‘What sort of thing?'

‘He obviously thought it was all a load of cobblers and wasn't afraid to say so. Luke seemed to go out of his way to get his back up and then start preaching to him about God.'

‘Was anyone else in your office involved in these exchanges?'

‘No, we just sat and listened. We thought it was all a bit of a laugh.'

‘How many people are in your office besides Luke Grayson – and Lance Rainbird, of course?'

‘Three – Sue, Helen and me. Luke's the only one who had his knife into Lance; the rest of us thought he was OK – quite nice in fact. Not exactly good-looking,' she added, ‘but there was something about him, especially his voice. Not that he ever said much unless it was something about work – except to Luke during one of their spats.'

Sukey had been listening carefully to these exchanges. She took advantage of a momentary pause and said, ‘Did Lance ever make a pass at any of you?'

Barbara shook her head. ‘Now and again, when we were packing up to go home and chatting about our plans for the evening, he'd look sort of wistful, as if he wished he had plans, but he never asked if any of us was free or anything like that and we didn't expect him to. He seemed to be a bit of a loner.'

‘So you don't really know anything about his social life.'

‘No. He never talked about himself, but once or twice I've seen him leaving the building at the same time as Mr Ashman and they seemed to know each other quite well.'

‘So he wasn't really a ladies' man?'

‘Not that we knew of, but we all wondered if perhaps he had a girlfriend – or possibly several – tucked away somewhere. He was quite sexy in an odd sort of way. And there was something about him that made us think he quite enjoyed getting under Luke's skin.' She looked at her watch and hastily gulped down the rest of her tea. ‘Sorry, I've got to go now. I don't know if any of this has helped; we really hope you find out what happened to Lance. We miss him.'

‘I
f you ask me, that was a wasted journey for us as well,' Vicky observed as they left the building. ‘Ashman had already told us about the row between Grayson and Rainbird, and knowing the strongly opposed feelings the two of them had about religion it's hardly surprising that it was just one of many.'

‘That's true,' Sukey agreed, ‘but at least we've learned a bit more about the character of both men and I can understand the way Barbara and her pals feel about them. Grayson told us he used to pray that Rainbird would come to faith, yet according to Barbara he constantly went out of his way to wind him up and presumably goad him into uttering one of his “blasphemous” opinions. Maybe he was trying in a roundabout way to give him a chance to redeem himself – although it seems an odd way to go about it,' she added after a moment's reflection.

‘So the women all found Rainbird “quite sexy in an odd sort of way”, weren't put off by his anti-religious views and found Grayson a pain in the backside,' said Vicky, showing a touch of impatience with this line of reasoning. ‘So where does that get us? We'd already learned from people in Freeman's group – and Freeman himself mentioned it – that some women seemed to find Rainbird's voice attractive, but no one's appeared to have noticed any atmosphere or tension between the married couples that might have hinted at a husband consumed by jealousy. I honestly can't see that we've learned anything remotely useful.'

‘I'm not suggesting Rainbird was pushed into the lake by a jealous husband,' said Sukey. ‘It's just something to add to what up to now has been a pretty thin character sketch of Rainbird the man as opposed to Rainbird the victim.'

‘If he is a victim,' Vicky pointed out. ‘Surely Doc Handley will do the PM soon.'