Walk a Narrow Mile (4 page)

‘Oh yes, of course. Sorry, it’s a bit small.’

The room they were ushered into was small, with the
obligatory
and ominous black vinyl dentist’s chair taking up most of the space. Both she and Jimmy gave it a wide berth, and in the end it was Georgia Biggs who parked her plump rear end on it, whilst Jimmy and Hillary stood leaning against the walls.

‘When you said “that man did something to her”, who did you mean, Miss Biggs?’ Hillary asked, getting straight to the point.

‘Oh, Marcus of course.’

‘Marcus?’

‘Marcus Kane. Her boss.’

Hillary nodded slowly, as if she knew all about it, and
glanced across at Jimmy, who was rapidly taking notes in his own idiosyncratic shorthand.

‘Why would you think that, Miss Biggs?’ she said, beginning the mining process for information gently.

‘Oh, please, call me Georgie. Everyone does.’

‘Did Meg not get on well with her boss? Is that it?’ Hillary pressed.

Georgie laughed harshly. ‘Rather the opposite, Inspector,’ she said, and Hillary didn’t bother to correct her about her title. Since retiring from the force, strictly speaking, she was no longer entitled to it. But she’d grown so used to hearing it over the years that she quite liked to hear it aired now and then. And it sure as hell beat being referred to as Mrs Greene. She’d been in the process of divorcing her corrupt husband when he’d died in a RTA. She was still pondering whether or not to revert to her maiden name, but somehow couldn’t seem to drum up the energy to tackle the paperwork involved.

‘Meg and Marcus were something of an item,’ Georgie Biggs said, with a certain snap to her voice.

‘You didn’t approve.’

‘He was married. With kids.’

‘Ah,’ Hillary said. ‘That old story.’

Georgie sighed. ‘He kept telling her he was going to leave the wife and kids when the time was right, stringing her along. But guess what?’

Hillary nodded. ‘The time was never right.’

‘You got it,’ Georgie agreed. ‘The kids were too young, their wedding anniversary was too close, or it was Christmas in a few months’ time. You name it, he came up with it. I kept telling her to get out from under, but….’ She shrugged helplessly. ‘I don’t know what she saw in him. I thought he was creepy.’

Jimmy glanced up at the word. Hillary wasn’t surprised. It was a word bound to twang any copper’s radar.

‘You met him?’

Georgie flushed. ‘No.’

She sounded puzzled for a moment, as if for the first time realizing the inconsistency of it, then shook her head. ‘It’s hard to explain. It’s just something I picked up from the things that Meg used to say. But then, any married man having an affair with his secretary has got to be a scuzz-bucket, right?’

Hillary nodded. But had to wonder, what did that make the secretary?

‘When she went missing, you reported her as missing
straightaway
?’ Hillary carried on smoothly.

‘Yeah, I did. If Meg was going to spend the night away she always told me, see? And after the second night, I knew
something
was up. I didn’t like the way she just vanished without packing a case or saying anything. Especially when the flowers stopped coming.’

Hillary felt her spine grow cold.

‘Flowers?’ she repeated. Against the opposite wall, she saw Jimmy stiffen too.

‘Yeah. She’d been getting these bouquets of flowers and cards and stuff. I thought at first they were from him – Marcus, but she said they weren’t. She said she’d got a secret admirer. She thought it was funny. To be honest, I did wonder if she’d been sending them to herself, you know, to try and make Marcus jealous.’

Hillary smiled, but it felt tight on her face.

‘Did she get any threatening phone calls?’

‘No. But she got some text messages. She showed me a couple. I told her she ought to go to the police, but she just shrugged it off. She said it was probably just some poor loser who knew her from around, you know? Someone with a crush on her. Like the guy who sold her the newspaper in the
supermarket
, or the mail courier who biked stuff to the office, someone like that. She didn’t take it seriously.’

Georgie Biggs shifted on her dentist’s chair. ‘You have to understand, Meg was one of these women who could have been a model. The sort you see on telly, selling shampoo, waving
their fabulous hair about. Well, OK, maybe not quite that gorgeous, or young, but pretty damned close, you know? In a league of her own around here, at any rate. She was used to attracting male attention. It’s why I can’t understand why she’d waste her time on a loser like Marcus.’

Hillary smiled, but could think of several reasons. If Marcus Kane worked for one of the top firms of solicitors in the county, he’d be earning a fair whack, for a start. And married men with kids usually meant middle-aged men ripe to have a mid-life crisis, and dump the current wife for a younger, more
glamorous
model.

‘Tell me about her marriage to Brian Vickary. Did she talk about it much?’ she decided to change tack.

‘No, not really. I think it really hurt her,’ Georgie said, with a frown. ‘She used to go all pale and tight-lipped whenever I mentioned him, so I stopped asking.’

Hillary nodded. ‘Doesn’t sound as if the marriage was a happy one. Well, obviously not, if it ended. I don’t suppose you know where I can find Mr Vickary?’

‘Sorry, not a clue. Although his name and number might be in Meg’s private papers. I still have all her stuff parcelled up at the flat. I don’t quite know what to do with it, you see. Her parents are dead, and I can’t sell it. What if she comes back?’

‘I’d quite like to have someone look through it, if I may, Georgie. If I arrange a time, could you be in?’ She looked across at Jimmy. ‘Ask Sam if he can pick it up. I want all her private papers, diary, address book, anything he thinks
significant
.’ Jimmy nodded and made a note. ‘Don’t worry,’ Hillary carried on, turning back to Georgie Biggs, ‘we’ll give you a receipt for it, and you can have it back when we’re finished with it.’

Georgie nodded. ‘Anything to help. Do you really think you’ll find her? Now, I mean? I mean, if you’re looking into her case again, is it because you have new evidence?’

Hillary didn’t want to look her in the eyes and see the hope
there, but forced herself to do so. ‘We’re certainly going to do all we can to find her, Miss Biggs,’ she said.

And meant it.

Back outside, they walked back to the car. It was the start of rush hour, and they were stuck in the usual, horrendous tailback that began almost at the end of St Giles, and reduced them to a crawl the entire length of the Banbury Road.

Hillary sat frowning thoughtfully in her seat. From time to time, Jimmy cast her a questioning glance.

‘Penny for them, guv.’

Hillary sighed. ‘I’m not sure. Something about that interview didn’t sit right with me, Jimmy. You pick up on anything off?’

Jimmy pondered. ‘Don’t think so guv. You think she was lying? I have to say, she didn’t strike me that way.’

Hillary shook her head, still angry with herself for not being able to pin it down. ‘No, it’s not that. Like you, I think she was being pretty straightforward. But still, something wasn’t right.’

‘Well, she certainly had it in for her friend’s boss,’ Jimmy said, trying to be helpful. ‘Probably a bit of jealousy there. The dentist lass was pretty enough I suppose, in a way – if you like ’em blonde and plump, but I reckon her friend knocked her into a cocked hat and she knew it.’

‘Yes. Considering she never even met him,’ Hillary said, ‘she seemed really down on him,’ and then she snapped her fingers. ‘That’s it. Say you had a pal who was having an affair with a two-timing but probably harmless married man, but who’d also picked up some unknown admirer who sent her anonymous text messages and flowers. And then this friend suddenly went missing, wouldn’t you be more worried about the stalker than the married man?’

Jimmy crept the car forward a few yards then changed back down to neutral. ‘Dunno boss. Married man with a wife and kids and a good job and a reputation to lose could be far more dangerous than some unknown infatuated jerk. I mean, from
her point of view. Georgie Biggs had no way of knowing that her pal had caught the attention of a real nutter, did she?’

Hillary sighed. Jimmy made sense. ‘No. I suppose you’re right.’ Even so, something about it still felt wrong.

Or maybe she was just off her game. She didn’t want to think that the nightmares and the almost inevitable loss of some of her self-confidence after the attack on her were affecting her
judgement
. But it was possible.

She felt her hand creeping up towards her neck to massage the scars there, then forced her hand back into her lap.

Behind the driving wheel, Jimmy Jessop pretended not to notice, and inched the car forward another few feet.

Back at HQ, she climbed from the passenger seat and stood at the open door of Jimmy’s car, glancing towards the entrance to HQ before deciding to go straight to her own car and then back home to her narrowboat, moored at the nearby village of Thrupp. It was clocking off time, after all, and she was going to have to get used to keeping to civilian hours. She was a strictly nine-to-five girl now.

‘First thing in the morning then, Jimmy, we’ll go and speak to Brian Vickary. See if you can track down an address for him, yeah?’

‘Not Marcus Kane, guv?’ Jimmy asked in surprise.

‘He’ll keep,’ Hillary said. ‘Unless you think that a responsible citizen like one of Oxford’s top solicitors is also our stalker, that is?’

Jimmy grunted and gave a wry smile. ‘Sorry, guv. I keep forgetting we already know who our man is. I mean, not his name, but… hell, you know what I mean.’

Hillary did. ‘It feels like an ordinary case, doesn’t it, and we’re trying to find our killer amongst the victims’ friends and families? Yeah, I know. But the truth is, our man is probably here somewhere,’ she said, nodding toward the large police HQ.

Jimmy sighed. ‘You really think Rhumer and his team can track him down from this end?’

‘Let’s hope so,’ she said, forcing her voice to remain
non-committal
. ‘In the meantime, we try and see if we can get a sniff of the bastard, via our three missing victims.’

Jimmy nodded. ‘See you in the morning then, guv,’ he said, and watched her walk away. When he was sure she was gone, he got out and walked down to the basement to confer with Steven Crayle.

He wanted to make sure that Hillary would have someone watching over her tonight – whether she knew about it or not.

Wednesday dawned bright and clear and, despite her efforts to keep civilian hours, Hillary found herself at work an hour early so that she could sit at her computer and type up a report of their activities for Geoff Rhumer. She printed off an extra copy for Steven and left it on his desk. She knew that he had an early meeting with Commander Marcus Donleavy, who was not particularly happy to have been talked into letting Hillary head up the missing girls’ inquiry. That meant they were going to have to babysit him all the way, which they’d agreed was Steven’s job.

There was, as usual, no sign of Vivienne, who arrived any time she chose, but usually before ten. Her argument that because she wasn’t a ‘real’ copper, and wasn’t being paid a real copper’s wages because of budget cuts, meant that she had more flexibility than those that were, had some merit, Hillary supposed. But she noticed that, despite being in his last year of a BA course, and still not being paid a fair wage, Sam Pickles still managed to put in the hours required.

Hillary would be glad when the little madam finally decided to call it a day, and go off and pursue a job in PR. Or the beauty trade. Or whatever.

Jimmy came in with a mug of canteen coffee and the latest address of Brian Vickary.

‘Had the lad do some finger walking before he clocked off last night,’ Jimmy confessed, sipping his coffee. Although he could
use a computer when he had to, Jimmy tended to avoid it when at all possible.

Hillary nodded and began reading the file, giving him time to finish his much-needed caffeine fix.

‘Says here he owned his own double-glazing firm.’ She spoke out loud in case the old man hadn’t had time to study it himself yet.

‘Went bust though when the bankers tossed the world economy to the wolves, guv,’ Jimmy said, tacitly letting her know that he’d been a good boy and done his homework. ‘Been unemployed on and off for the three years since.’

Hillary winced. ‘He’s only thirty-two.’

Jimmy shuddered. ‘Tell me about it. Makes me glad I’ve still got this little gig, I can tell you,’ he said. Over at his desk, Sam chortled at Jimmy’s choice of words. He thought the old man was probably trying to sound with it, and he found it oddly touching that it only succeeded in making him sound even more of an old fart.

Jimmy ignored the youngster’s mirth.

‘He’s just down the road in Begbrooke, guv.’

Hillary nodded. The small village, distressingly situated beside a busy dual-carriage way, was literally only a few minutes’ drive away.

‘Well, since he’s having trouble getting work, I dare say we’ll find him at home then,’ Hillary agreed. ‘You fit?’

Jimmy hastily gulped the last, still piping hot dregs, from his mug, making his gums wince in protest, and nodded gamely.

Brian Vickary lived in a pre-fab bungalow that looked
something
like a beach hut. Tucked away far from the road, it appeared to be damp and somehow sagging. Even in the bright May morning, it looked as if it should be condemned. An
identical
bungalow beside it had a
FOR LET
sign. Hillary guessed that the landlord owned both, which meant that Vickary didn’t even own the place.

A come down indeed for a man who’d set up and run a highly successful company, not so long ago. According to Sam’s research, Victory Glazing had rented offices in Banbury, and had employed four workmen/fitters and two office staff.

Hillary rang the bell, realized it was defective, and banged on the door instead. The paint was peeling, and she was still wiping the knuckles of her hand when the door was yanked open suddenly and aggressively.