DARK CRIMES a gripping detective thriller full of suspense (8 page)

CHAPTER 7: More Puzzles

Thursday Morning, Week 1

Martin was drawing back the bedroom curtains. He’d already deposited a mug of tea on her bedside table, but she hadn’t woken until the sound of his voice and the scraping of the curtain-rings filtered through her dreams.

He gave her a kiss on the cheek.

‘Come on, sweetheart. Time to wake up.’

‘Oh, Martin, I didn’t even know you’d got up. I was sound asleep.’

‘No need to tell me. I had noticed, you know. It’s nearly eight, so I need to be off. I left you to lie in a little longer than you asked. You’re in danger of wearing yourself out.’

‘No, I’m okay. Really. I’d tell you if it was getting to me. But thanks anyway, you’re a star.’ She sipped the tea. ‘Busy day today?’ she asked.

‘Moderate, but maybe not by your standards.’

‘Well I’m usually only dealing with one or two people at a time, not a roomful of resentful teenagers. And your life is consistently busy. Mine veers between the frenetic and the very calm. I’ll try to be in for dinner tonight. Okay?’

‘Lovely. I’ll get something tasty on the go for us. Phone me when you’re setting out. Bye!’

He blew her a kiss from the doorway. Sophie finished her tea, and left the house, heading to the police station before collecting David Goodenough.

* * *

The pathologist had emailed through a copy of his full post-mortem report on Donna Goodenough. Sophie quickly skimmed through the long text, picking out the main points. She decided not to share these with the rest of the team for the time being. There were one or two details that required careful thought, and a couple of the items needed checking with Kevin McGreedie.

She walked through to the main incident room to check for new information. Lydia Pillay had already left for her visit to the hospital in Bournemouth where Donna had been treated for her leg injury. She wasn’t expected back until late in the day. Sophie had asked her to drive to the Midlands in order to visit Donna’s GP in Walsall once she’d finished at the hospital. Jimmy Melsom was on the phone to Berzins’ mobile network provider, trying to extract information about the call made on the morning of the murder. Sophie couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying, but his voice sounded rather more forceful than on the previous day. Maybe he’d make better headway today. Other people were cross-checking details against data held in the police central system or writing up reports on the house-to-house inquiries. The room had a satisfying bustle. Barry Marsh walked in.

‘Morning, Barry. The place is a hive of activity. How are you?’

‘Fine, ma’am. I’ve got a couple of people following up on the owners of the other flats in Donna’s block. We’ve got a name and address for the top-floor people, so we should be able to talk to them soon. I’ve put a team out on a house-to-house in Gilbert Road. When you mentioned how important the time was, it occurred to me that other neighbours might have seen or heard something. They can be a bit of a nosey lot round here, you know.’

‘Good idea. God knows where the police would be if it wasn’t for nosey neighbours. Well, it’s probably time we were off to collect David Goodenough. I’d like to know your thoughts about him, so stay watchful please.’

‘You think he could be involved somehow?’

‘Look how much he has to gain. He’ll presumably pick up the proceeds from the sale of the two properties. The total value can’t be much less than half a million, given house prices in this area. Something to think about, isn’t it? We should check the details of the father’s death in that car accident. It must be on record somewhere. Could you set one of the local people onto it?’

* * *

The two detectives had another short tour of the flat before collecting Donna’s brother, this time checking the views from the windows. The kitchen and lounge at the rear of the apartment looked over houses in nearby streets, but from the windows of the main bedroom at the front Sophie was able to see over the station and clinic rooftops, beyond to the Spring Hill path.

‘Barry, I can see the top section of the path from these windows. The lower section is hidden by the station roof and the health clinic. It may not be important, but it’s worth noting.’

Marsh came over to have a look. The back of the old hotel building where Donna had worked could be seen on the skyline, looming over the top of the Spring Hill footpath.

‘You’d need good eyesight or a pair of binoculars, even in daylight, to see any detail. At night you wouldn’t be able to see anything. But it must have been convenient for her, easy to get to and from the hotel for her shifts.’

‘Did you get the impression that Goodenough was holding back on something when we were here last night? It was when I asked about the photos.’

‘Not really, ma’am. But then I’d only met him a few minutes previously. You and Jimmy were with him all evening.’

They walked the two hundred yards to Goodenough’s hotel. He looked much better than he had the previous evening.

‘We were just admiring the view from Donna’s flat,’ said Sophie. ‘It’s lovely in the front rooms. They must get the sun all day.’

‘Yes. Donna was thinking of rearranging the rooms, but hadn’t got around to making a start. It’s broadly just left the way Gran had it. The kitchen has been decorated, but that’s as far as Donna got. Apparently she did chuck out a lot of Gran’s old furniture, and other stuff that was cluttering up the place.’

‘Didn’t it bother you that Donna was left the flat when your grandmother died?’

‘Not really. She left me some money, and Donna promised me to even up the amounts when Mum’s cottage was left to us.’

‘That wouldn’t have been for some time, surely?’

‘Mum wasn’t a well woman, Chief Inspector. She developed a heart weakness some years ago.’

‘Mr Goodenough, is there anything else that I should know about the family? Anything at all that could shed light on these awful events?’

He shook his head.

‘Apart from the situation with your father, the rest of you had normal relationships — where you supported each other?’

‘Yes. That’s a good way of describing it.’

They set off for Dorchester. Sophie drove, with Goodenough sitting in the passenger seat. Marsh sat in the back seat behind Sophie, to observe Donna’s brother during the forty minute drive.

‘I know it’s not an ideal time to ask, David, but it would be really helpful if you could tell us anything else you remember about Donna’s relationship with your father, particularly over the past year or so. Did you talk about him at all when you saw her earlier in the year?’

‘Not in terms of Donna seeing him. As I said, he died in August. We did talk about what he’d left us, but it was almost nothing. He went to pieces after Mum left him, and drank away his money, as far as we could tell.’

‘Wasn’t there any property left?’

‘Mum left after Donna went to university, and the house was sold. They split the money and Mum put her share towards the cottage in Corfe. As far as I know, he ended up living in and out of hostels for the homeless once he’d drunk and gambled his way through his share.’

‘In Birmingham?’

‘I can’t tell you where. I never bothered to find out. He was out of our lives by then, I’m glad to say.’

‘Was there a funeral?’

‘I suppose there must have been one, but we didn’t find out in time. We had no idea where he was and, quite honestly, didn’t want to know.’

‘So he died a few months after the time Donna was nursing her leg injury?’

‘Yes. She had her leg in a cast until mid-April, as far as I can remember.’

‘How did you find out about his death?’ Sophie said.

‘We had a letter from someone who knew him. Apparently he’d been knocked down while living on the streets. By then he was a raving alcoholic and homeless, as I said. Look, can we change the subject?’

‘Of course. The reason I’ve asked about this is because of the scars that Donna had. We could see that she’d been the victim of abuse. But I’m sorry if my questions have upset you.’

‘I didn’t think she was still in touch with him. I thought it was all over years ago, when she left for university.’

‘Where was that?’

‘She went to Bournemouth. She told me that her school felt she could have done better and studied economics at one of the top places, but she decided to stay close to her family. I suppose I did the same sort of thing when I got a job in the Midlands when I left school. Mum was still at home then. Donna was always close to Gran, so going to Bournemouth made sense. She could pop across to Swanage on the bus for the day if she felt like it.’

‘Donna didn’t complete her degree, did she? Do you know the reason?’

‘I never found out, and neither did Mum. Donna refused to talk about it. She would just walk out of the room if we asked too much. But I do know that there was a long period when she disappeared from our lives completely. For more than a year she only spoke to Mum on the phone. They never met up.’

‘Wasn’t your mum worried?’

‘It all went over her head a bit, as far as I remember. She was on tranquillisers. She had a breakdown after she left dad, probably as a result of the build-up of tension after all the years of abuse.’

‘It figures. How did you get into your line of work?’

‘My uncle. He started the business. I joined after I left school, and stayed on under my cousin when his dad died a couple of years ago. It’s Micky that owns the business now. There’s just the two of us and an office lady.’

‘Did you feel that Donna was the one with the brains?’

‘I suppose you could say that.’

‘Did your mother move to Dorset to be close to her own mother?’

‘Yes.’ He closed his eyes and seemed to doze off.

Sophie decided to let him rest if he wanted. Maybe he hadn't slept well.

* * *

As expected, the identification was a formality. Goodenough nodded slightly as each body was uncovered. Once it was over, Sophie left him with Marsh while she sought out Benny Goodall. He was in his office and welcomed her inside.

‘Good to see you again, Sophie. Was the identification okay?’

‘Fine, as far as these things can be. And thanks for the report on Donna. There are a few interesting items that you found, but I haven’t followed them up yet. Benny, when you carried out the post-mortem on her mother, were there any signs of heart defects? The son told me that was the case, and implied that she probably wouldn’t be living to a ripe old age.’

‘Possibly some minor damage. But that doesn’t mean much. I would have only seen physical signs, such as clogging up of the arteries or really severe deterioration and there wasn’t much sign of that. But a lot of heart trouble can be caused by problems inside the heart with the wiring, as it were. Nerve damage. The best evidence would have shown up on an ECG carried out while she was alive. Why not speak to her GP?’

‘That's already in hand. Did anything else show up that I ought to know about?’

‘I don’t think so. I’ve already told you about the liver damage, haven’t I? By the way, I’ve been in touch with my opposite number in Bournemouth. She’s going to send across detailed photos of the ligature marks on that young woman who was strangled. I can compare them with the ones I’ve taken here and let you know in the next couple of days. Alright?’

‘Fine. Thanks, Benny.’

* * *

‘Let’s get a coffee in the town before we visit the cottage in Corfe,’ Sophie said to the two men. ‘It’ll help to take your mind off all of this, David. By the way, I have to ask you this question for obvious reasons. Can you recall where you were on Monday night?’

‘I was doing a delivery to Bath late in the afternoon. It’s in the company records.’

‘And after that?’

‘I drove back to Walsall. I got back mid-evening.’

‘Are there any witnesses who can confirm the time you got back?’

‘No. Sorry. It was late because of a hold-up on the motorway. Our secretary, Gail, finishes at five thirty and Micky had gone home earlier.’

‘Micky’s your cousin?’

He nodded.

‘What’s his surname?’

‘Spencer. The company’s called Spencer Express.’

Goodenough found nothing amiss at his mother’s cottage, apart from the missing address books. No photos had been removed, for the simple reason that she hadn’t had any on display.

Once they were outside the cottage, Sophie asked him for his keys. ‘We need all the keys for both properties at the moment, Mr Goodenough. I’m sure you understand. You’ll get them all back once we’ve finished with them as crime scenes.’

He took a small fob from his pocket, prised a single key from it and handed it over.

‘I don’t have a key for Donna’s flat.’

They were back in Swanage by late morning and dropped Goodenough back at the hotel. He’d closed his eyes and appeared to sleep for most of the return journey. Sophie had already asked all she needed to for the moment. She did request that he remain in Swanage for a few days more, but this fitted in with his plans anyway. He’d already decided that there was no hurry to return to Walsall.