Dead Man's Wharf (11 page)

  He smiled reassuringly but his smile vanished as he climbed into the car. Something about Mrs Collins's statement had struck him. He glanced at Lee as she pulled away. Had the same thought occurred to her? She showed no sign of it. But Horton wondered if Daniel had been going out to blackmail someone to fund his mother's treatment privately, and that 'someone' had a connection with the nursing home. Again Marion Keynes sprang to mind. But would she have had enough money to pay Daniel? Horton doubted it from what he'd seen of her house and he knew that care assistants, and even nursing home managers, didn't earn a fortune.

  There was an alternative. Had Daniel decided to tell Marion Keynes that he wouldn't betray her to the police if he could have a share in the sale proceeds of Irene's jewellery? But even then he doubted that they would have fetched much, so perhaps other residents' jewellery had gone missing? And there was something else troubling him. If Daniel had been murdered – and Horton discounted the improbable theory that Daniel had been forced off the road by another driver – then how the devil had his killer done it?

'T
he Daniel Collins fatality, Christmas Eve – anything odd about it?' Horton addressed Bob Wellsley, the uniformed officer standing on the other side of his desk. It was late afternoon and Horton had read and reread the report until he knew it backwards.

  Lee was trying to tease something out of Daniel's computer, and Walters had almost finished going through the lists that Corinna Denton and the Queen's Hotel had given him. So far he'd discovered bugger all.

  Horton guessed that Walters didn't really know what he was looking for anyway, and Horton wasn't so sure himself. If someone had a grudge against Perry Jackson, then it wasn't going to come to light simply by checking criminal records. It would mean questioning anyone who had a connection with the TV diver, and that would take for ever, not to mention more staff. Horton simply didn't have the resources.

  Cantelli had returned from Dr Mason with the disappointing news that Mason had been as unhelpful as Dr Eastwood.

  'You'd have thought there was a code amongst them to obstruct the police as much as possible,' Cantelli had said. 'Either that

  or our friend Eastwood called Mason and warned him.'

  'Why would he do that?'

  'Because he didn't like you?' volunteered Cantelli cheerfully.

  Probably, but Horton wasn't going to lose any sleep over that. So unless Dr Clayton found anything from the autopsy, or they discovered that the belongings of other residents were missing, the investigation would go nowhere.

  'There doesn't appear to be anything suspicious about it,' Bob Wellsley answered. He was a solid dependable man, thorough, middle-aged and very experienced. If Wellsley hadn't sniffed out anything, then maybe it was an accident after all.

  'His mother's adamant that someone forced him off the road.'

  'There were no skid marks on the road and no witnesses have come forward.'

  Horton knew that. He had the photographs of the scene spread out on his desk, but they were of the car and none of Daniel Collins because the fire fighters had got him out in the hope that he might still be alive. The front of the car was crumpled, but not as much as Horton had expected, so the impact couldn't have been severe. All the car windows were open.

  'Where's the car now?'

  'In the compound, sir.'

  'Has it been examined?'

  Wellsley looked surprised. 'I thought it was a drunk driver.'

  'It might still be, but there's an element of doubt.' Horton would get the forensic team on to it. He studied the schematic that Wellsley had drawn. 'So Collins was heading in the direction of Southsea and presumably home. Any idea how fast he was travelling?'

  'The absence of skid marks indicates that he wasn't speeding. I would say he simply veered off the road.'

  Horton frowned. 'Why veer to the left and up on to the wharf ? He would have had to drive up the slope into the small car park before going over the top. Why not veer to the

right and into the crash barrier?'

  'A vehicle could have been travelling northwards. Collins was drunk, thought it was closer than it was, or he was blinded by its headlights, he wrenched the wheel over to his left and ended up bounding up the wharf and over the edge, his reactions dulled by the drink.' Wellesley scratched his nose and added, 'It could have been a bird, perhaps a swan from Salterns Lake, or brent geese flying low, and Collins swerved to avoid them.'

  Unlikely, thought Horton, but Wellsley continued. 'There is another theory, not that I go along with it...' He hesitated.

  'What?' prompted Horton. He was prepared to go with anything at this stage.

  'The ghost.'

  He gave Wellsley a sceptical look.

  'Yeah, I know, but that part of the road is supposed to be haunted by the victim of a previous traffic accident. Sometimes in the rain and fog, drivers have claimed to see it and there's certainly been more accidents on that stretch of road than anywhere else along it, and more fatalities there than on any other road in Portsmouth.'

  'We'll discount the spook. Was there anything inside the car or the boot?'

  'Only the usual documents, which were rather wet: insurance, MOT certificate, breakdown services details, and the spare wheel and tools in the boot.'

  'No mobile phone?'

  'No. Could be at the bottom of the sea.'

  And the tide went out exposing mud where the incident had occurred. Raising his voice, Horton called, 'Walters! Got a job for you.'

  Wellsley left with a grin, guessing what fate Horton had in store for the overweight detective. Horton briefed Walters and countered his grumbles with the advice that he get himself a pair of fisherman's waders. Then he called the scientific services department and asked if they could examine Daniel's car, before turning his thoughts to the interview with the Collinses. There was something bugging him, but he couldn't think what it was, and though he sat for a few minutes trying to grasp it, it still eluded him.

  He rose and stared out of the window, watching the rain slanting down on to the overflowing drains in the station car park. Were none of these strands going to hang together? Was he completely off his trolley for even bothering to follow up the Eburys' and Daniel Collins's deaths? Bliss would have thought so. Why hadn't anyone at the Rest Haven mentioned Daniel's death? Perhaps he hadn't been very well liked.

  And why hadn't Ray Ferris or Steve Uckfield got back to him with any news on DC Lee? If he could just get it clear in his mind that her secondment was genuine and Bliss's departure a gift from heaven, then he could settle down to trying to solve some of the other hundred and one cases clogging his desk.

  His head was thudding. Cantelli was right. He needed to take some time off. Next week he would. He pulled his blinds shut and marched into the CID office, swiftly crossing to Lee. Cantelli was on the phone.

  'How are you getting on?'

  'Not much so far. Just some rather lovely photographs. We really need to access his e mails and view his Internet record.'

  'Leave that for now. Go to the Rest Haven, find out if Daniel Collins was the only male working there and what the staff thought of him. Did he know or ever speak to the owners? Oh, and while you're at it, get some feedback on what the staff think of the owners, Mr Chrystal and his brothers. Also check the register of the residents' belongings with what is in the drawers, see if anything else has gone missing.'

  Lee plucked her jacket from the back of her chair and left without protest or comment.

  Cantelli came off the phone. 'Ian Keynes is a lorry driver. He's worked for Ryan Oldham for the last eighteen months.'

  Horton considered this. 'Oldham's Wharf is less than half a mile from Salterns Wharf, where Daniel died. Years ago Oldham's used to operate out of Salterns.'

  'So?'

  Cantelli was right. Where did that lead them? Nowhere.

  'Neither Marion nor her husband has a criminal record, but their credit rating is very poor. I've just got Marion's previous employment record. I'll start checking it out to see if she left anywhere under a cloud. The Chrystal brothers own four nursing homes in the area including the Rest Haven. The abbreviated accounts at Companies House show a fairly healthy profit. And I've got the Commission of Social Care Inspector Report for the Rest Haven. It's not bad, but like I said before, I wouldn't put my mum there.'

  'What's wrong with it?' Horton asked, interested, sitting in Walters' vacant chair.

  'The inspector visited unannounced in July last year following a few adverse comments from relatives.' Cantelli briefly consulted his notes. 'He said there wasn't regular supervision of the staff, the residents' social and emotional needs weren't being individually assessed and new equipment and furnishing was needed in several of the residents' rooms.'

  Horton could back that up by what he'd seen.

  'He also said that the delivery, storage and management of medicines needed improving,' continued Cantelli. 'I think it's about time they got another visit.'

  'OK, but wait until we've finished our investigations.'

  'Oh, and the photographic unit called and said there's nothing they can get from the photocopied photos I gave them of Irene and Peter Ebury. They need the originals.'

  And Horton thought they had little chance of getting them. 'Did you make that appointment with Irene's social worker?'

  'Yes, but it's not the same one who was handling her case when she moved to the nursing home. She left a year ago. Tomorrow morning, nine thirty.'

  Horton rose, glancing at his watch. 'Well, we might not need to keep it if Dr Clayton confirms death by natural causes. Come on, let's see what she has to say.'

  They were shown into Dr Clayton's office by Tom, the whistling mortuary assistant.

  'I was just beginning to think you weren't coming,' Gaye greeted them, looking up from her computer screen. She nodded a farewell to Tom and gestured them into the seats across her desk.

  Horton was surprised to see that her office was still full of Christmas cards; they were spread out on filing cabinets and blue-tacked to the walls. Christmas seemed like a lifetime ago to him.

  She swivelled her chair across from the computer screen. 'First, Peter Ebury, cause of death, respiratory failure. He looked pretty healthy and I wouldn't have thought he would keel over with that, but it's what he died of. I've sent his organs for further tests and I've taken blood samples, but it looks as though he died a natural death and prematurely. Bit of a waste.'

  Cantelli said, 'His whole life was a waste.'

  So that was the puzzle over Peter Ebury's death solved, thought Horton despondently.

'And Irene Ebury?'

  Gaye gently swung her chair round, tapping a pencil against her mouth. 'Irene Ebury was in a poor state: thinning arteries, weak heart, cancer in one of her lungs, and it was a heart attack.'

  Although he'd been expecting that news he nevertheless felt a bitter blow of disappointment. He was also annoyed that Dr Eastwood's diagnosis would be borne out.

  'Could it have been induced?' he asked, more in hope than anticipation.

  'You mean brought on by a shock? Possibly. Alternatively she could have been injected with air. Because of her poor health it wouldn't have needed much to cause an embolism, but it would have required a skilled person to inject the air into her by using a syringe.'

  Horton brightened up at that. 'She was in a nursing home. Plenty of people there who could have done it.' He was thinking of Marion Keynes.

  Gaye raised her eyebrows. 'If she was injected with air then it's almost impossible to detect. I looked for froth around the heart and in the blood vessels, but I couldn't find any.'

  So, dead end. He could sign off both these deaths and forget about Lee being sent to keep an eye on him. What an idiot he'd been. 'Looks as though I was wrong on both counts.'

  'What about the missing jewellery and the intruder?' Cantelli said.

  'Sounds like one of those murder mystery games,' Gaye commented.

  Horton said, 'We'll continue to investigate the missing jewellery with Marion Keynes as our prime suspect. As for the intruder –' Horton shook his head – 'Mrs Kingsway must have imagined it.'

  'And Daniel Collins?'

  Was his death simply a tragic accident after all? wondered Horton. Probably, but he might as well ask whilst he was here.

  'Your colleague did an autopsy on a Daniel Collins who died on Christmas Eve. His car went over Salterns Wharf. He worked at the nursing home where Irene Ebury died. I've read the autopsy report but wondered if you could tell me anything more about it.'

  'I doubt that,' she answered, tapping into the computer. 'Daniel Collins, aged thirty four, drowned. Toby Simmonds did the autopsy. It seems straightforward. His body's been released to the Chapel of Rest. Want me to take another look?'

  Horton hesitated, saw the grief-stricken faces of Mr and Mrs Collins and said, 'No.' They'd been through enough already.

  'Why the interest? Apart from the nursing home link, that is?'

  Horton gave her a brief summary of what Mrs Collins had said. Gaye looked sorrowful. 'I expect she's just finding his death hard to come to terms with.' Her green eyes swivelled to Cantelli. 'And how are you coping, Sergeant?'

  Cantelli gave a sad smile. 'I keep telling myself that Dad was old and he'd had a good life, but it doesn't make it easier.'

  'No,' she answered quietly, then added, 'Inspector Horton tells me the funeral is on Thursday. I'd like to come if it's OK with you?'

  Cantelli brightened up. 'Of course it is. The service is at the cathedral. The Roman Catholic one that is,' he added. 'At twelve thirty. Dad's being buried in Milton cemetery and then it's back to the restaurant in Southsea for the wake.'