A Dog's Life (The Romney and Marsh Files Book 4) (35 page)

‘The beginning?’

‘That’s right.’

Ric D’Angelo looked down at his hands on the table and sighed. ‘I suppose that’ll be when Steph and I were still married...’

‘Sorry, Ric. My mistake,’ interrupted Romney. ‘It’s not your life story we want, interesting as I’m sure that is. I’m really just interested in hearing about what happened on Saturday at the hotel for now.’

‘Right. Sorry. Saturday. I got myself on the day shift. I was actually interested to see Steph. But I didn’t want her to see me. Not till I was ready.’

‘Why did you want to see her?’

‘I had something I thought she might be interested in.’

‘What was that?’

‘Can I come to it?’

‘Sure. Take your time.’ Romney smiled reassuringly at the man seated opposite him.

‘Before I could find a chance to talk to her she’d gone. Walked out with just her handbag. I’d missed my chance. I got on with my job. The woman in eleven, Steph’s agent, had asked for more towels. I was the one told to take them up to her room. She was out. I let myself in with the hotel pass key. As I was coming back out of her room I walked straight into Rachael. She must have been looking for Steph’s room. She was in a vicious mood. She clocked me and my uniform and started taking the piss. She was laughing at me. We exchanged words. She said some horrible things to me. I lost my temper. I shoved her. Just a push. I don’t know what came over me. She started making a scene and I just bundled her into the room.’

‘The agent’s room?’

‘Yeah. She really kicked off then. Started shouting that she was going to make trouble for me. She went for me and I shoved her off. She fell and cracked her head on the furniture. It was an accident. She was dead. I panicked. I dragged her body along to Steph’s room and left it there.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I knew it was empty and the agent could be back anytime. Like I said, I panicked.’

‘So you dumped Rachael’s body in room ten?’

‘Yes.’

‘And gave her a few more whacks for luck with the ornament to finish the job, eh?’

‘It wasn’t like that. I didn’t enjoy that. You have to believe me. But I had to make it look like something it wasn’t. I just picked up the first thing I could find and tried to cover things up. And then I realised I couldn’t leave that behind.’

‘So you took the ornament with you and Stephanie’s room key, locked and left?’ D’Angelo nodded. ‘You wanted it to look like Stephanie had killed her, didn’t you?’

D’Angelo breathed heavily and made a face. ‘I told you: I just panicked. I... I wasn’t thinking straight. I’d killed Rachael. It was an accident, but I knew no one would believe me.’

‘Why, Ric? Why not just leave things like they were, explain what really happened? Why all the devious stuff?’

‘Rachael and I had history. That’s why. When we were together I’d been violent towards her. I had problems. The police and the courts were involved. It was messy and there are things on record. I didn’t think anyone would believe me if I told the truth.’

‘All right. Let’s move on. Didn’t Steph recognise you when she left the note at reception?’

‘I turned my back. They said she was pissed, anyway.’

‘Did you give the note to the agent?’

Ric D’Angelo shook his head. ‘No. I didn’t. She wasn’t in when I went up and then I forgot all about it, what with what happened.’

Romney was very disappointed. ‘So you spent the rest of the afternoon at work watching us and the other emergency services chasing our tails and just keeping your head down?’

D’Angelo nodded. ‘The longer it went on the worse it all seemed. I was scared. Terrified. I didn’t know what to do. So I did nothing.’

‘How did you discover where Steph lived?’

‘Reception had her address.’

Romney nodded. ‘How did you get into her London flat?’ This had been a detail that had greatly puzzled the police. ‘You just dropped in on your ex-wife – someone you hadn’t seen or had any contact with for years – and she let you in? Really?’

‘I put on a voice over the entry phone. I’ve always been good at voices. She was drunk. Slurring her words. She didn’t care who it was. I told her I was from the hotel with her bags. She buzzed me in.’ Ric D’Angelo looked up and into the eyes of Romney. ‘Do you know why she chose Dover to celebrate her big book deal?’ Romney shook his head. ‘She hated the place. Never could stand it when she was living here. She chose Dover to rub my nose in her success. She knew I still lived here. My guess is she thought I still worked on the docks. Can you imagine the field day she’d have had if she’d known I was a porter at the Dover Marina Hotel?’

Romney didn’t really care. ‘Why did you go to London? To her flat?’

‘For money. When we were married she always was a saucy cow. She’d let me film us having sex. It certainly brought her out of herself. When I had to move after I lost my job, I found some tapes we’d made. They were pretty hot stuff and there was no mistaking Steph for anyone else. And then I heard she was making serious money with her writing. When I learned she’d booked the hotel for her book event I thought it would be as good an opportunity as any to see if she was interested in buying the tapes. I went to see her to offer them to her for a price.’

‘So we can add blackmail and extortion to your charge sheet?’

‘It wasn’t like that.’

‘Really? How was it then?’

‘I had something to sell. I wanted to know if she was interested in buying them. That’s all.’

‘Why? What good was money going to do you in prison?’

‘I wasn’t going to prison, was I? I would have been on the next ferry out of the UK.’

‘To where?’

‘Spain. I heard a man can lose himself in the Costas.’

‘Wasn’t she surprised, alarmed even, to find you standing on her doorstep?’

‘She was out of her head on something. It made her... playful... in a nasty, vindictive way. Like a bored cat with something it didn’t really want to eat but wanted to toy with. She heard me out.’

‘So what did she say?’

‘She and Rachael were so alike in so many ways. She laughed at me. She told me to put them on the Internet. She said the publicity would be worth its weight in gold for her and then she’d sue me and bankrupt me.’ He let out a hard, ironic little noise. ‘Bankrupt me. That was almost funny. These days I don’t have a leaky pot to piss in.’

‘What happened at Stephanie’s flat?’ Ric D’Angelo opened his mouth to speak and Romney stopped him with a raised finger. ‘Before you answer that and waste any more police time, Ric, let me tell you a few things. We recovered the ornament that caved in Rachael Sparrow’s skull with Steph’s clear fingerprints all over it and the key to her hotel room, also with Steph’s prints on. Just like you wanted us to. The way it looks to us is that you went there that night not to ask Steph for money but to kill her and then implicate her in her sister’s death. Think about it, Ric. If Steph had given you money and you’d left, as soon as she learned of her sister’s death she’d have mentioned you and we’d have put two and two together and made four. But with Steph also dead and implicated with good evidence in her sister’s death, who’s to point the finger at you or anyone for that matter?’

Ric looked imploringly at Romney and swallowed hard and loud. His darting eyes filled with tears and his face crumpled like a collapsed lung before he put his head on the desk and sobbed his guilt up.

***

26

‘He just didn’t think it through, did he?’ said Romney. He and Marsh were outside the little late-night coffee shop around the corner from the station. The coffee shop that only two days previously they had sat outside with Romney fearing he had rabies and Joy’s mother slipping away. ‘A smarter man could have maybe got away with it. He over-egged his pudding. If he’d kept his mouth shut and his head down we probably would never have given him a second look.’

‘But we should have, shouldn’t we? Or rather I should have. You told me to check him out and I didn’t think you meant it. I’m sorry. I feel like I made a mistake.’

‘Don’t beat yourself up. I wasn’t even half serious. I believed what everyone else believed: that Steph had done for her sister and then herself. And when I got over that error of professional judgement I jumped straight onto the back of another one and galloped off into the sunset. So don’t talk to me about mistakes. Besides, don’t think I don’t appreciate that you’ve been having a tough time of it lately and still been turning up for work.’

Despite his words, Marsh felt he was being exceedingly generous regarding her failings. He’d given her a job to do and she hadn’t taken it seriously. She hadn’t done her job. She’d let him down. ‘Do you believe him about Rachael?’

Romney nodded as he inhaled. ‘Yes. It makes some sense. But Stephanie’s death is something altogether darker. He went there with the intention of killing her and framing her for her sister’s murder, I have no doubt of that. There is nothing else that sits right. He overpowered her – probably not too difficult if she was binging on Temazepam and gin – got her in the bath and drowned her. Maybe she already had the bath run for herself when he turned up and it was just too convenient to pass up.’

‘Very fortunate for him that she was intoxicated and had a bath drawn ready,’ said Marsh with a hint of something akin to dubiousness.

‘Even if she were stone cold sober and eating her dinner, he’d have found a way to make it look like she took her own life. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. No, old Ric was an understandably-desperate man who resorted to desperate measures. His history with both of them, their successes and his sudden plunge to Earth must have coloured his judgement. For the couple of days he was walking around in the clear he must have been fighting to keep the self-satisfied smile off his face.’

*

Romney told Marsh to go home. He had to see about turning Mrs Allen loose and he wanted as few witnesses to that potentially-embarrassing spectacle as possible.

In the event it did not go as badly as Romney had feared. She left the station a lot quieter than when she’d arrived. Mrs Allen was so overcome with relief at her unexpected release that she seemed intent only on leaving the building and getting as far away from Dover as quickly as possible. Romney offered to organise a ride home for her but the prospect of travelling in police transport was evidently something that held no attraction for her.

As Romney watched her hurry away without a backward glance he doubted very much whether that would be the last he heard from her, or her legal people.

He breathed heavily and put all that aside. Perhaps it would not be something he would have to face after all. He’d seen that Boudicca’s car was still outside despite the lateness of the hour. He trudged his way upstairs to her sanctuary.

The only light on was a soft lamp by her desk. She was working.  Her great swathe of ginger hair was carelessly piled up and clipped, glasses perched on the end of her strong nose, and an air of focussed determination defined her body language. She looked up at the noise of his approach.

‘I’m surprised to see you still here, ma’am,’ he said.

‘To be honest, I’d rather be elsewhere, but there are things to do today and there will be more things to do tomorrow. Sandra Allen off the premises?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Did she go quietly?’

‘Like a lamb. But I doubt it’s the last we’ll hear from her.’

Boudicca pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow. It spoke volumes for her disappointment. ‘What can I do for you?’

Without ceremony, Romney approached her desk and placed his warrant card on it.

Superintendent Vine removed her spectacles, frowned and looked up into his blank features. ‘What are you doing, Inspector?’

‘It’s my warrant card, ma’am.’

‘I can see what it is. I said what are you doing?’

‘I mucked up and that was the deal. I’m not one to welsh on a deal.’

Vine massaged her eyes. ‘Sit down, Tom.’

‘I’d rather stand, ma’am.’

‘Oh for God’s sake, man, stop being such a pompous arse for five minutes, will you?’ Romney shrugged and sat. ‘Yes, you made mistakes. From what I’ve seen you can be a bit like a blindfolded bull in a china shop when you get the bit between your teeth – all charging about, not enough contemplation. But that’s you and the way you’ve been allowed, and therefore encouraged, to behave.’ She managed to make him sound and feel like a naughty toddler. ‘But basically you’re a good policeman and an honest detective. You weren’t completely wrong with your theory regarding the circumstances surrounding Rachael Sparrow’s death – just the person you believed responsible.’

‘That’s quite a big error of judgement, wouldn’t you say?’

‘I believe your actions are the result of the best of intentions and it’s clear that you aren’t interested in covering up your mistakes. Why do you think I’m so intent on seeing the back of you?’

‘You haven’t exactly kept your feelings to yourself, have you? You’ve made it quite clear that you’re unhappy with Dover CID. And everyone knows what happened when you took over at Maidstone – the demotions, the kicking outs.’