Night Watcher (29 page)

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

Bill was the only investigating officer in the room when the call came in. Blair and Sid were swanning around the countryside in search of anyone who knew Nicole or who might have seen her on her way home. Kath and Jim had gone to visit Marika again; Jim was a dab hand at languages, although Bill did not think that included Polish. Sue had taken Jill Marshall and gone back to the store to speak to everyone in an attempt to find out what Nicole was like as a person. Everyone thought they knew the answer to that one already, but still, you never knew what they might dig up.

‘You said your name was Betty Cooper,’ he scribbled on the pad of paper in front of him. ‘And you’re the manageress of the restaurant. Okay Betty, just tell me in words of two syllables what exactly was in the box.’ Bill could feel his excitement mount as Betty spoke, ‘I see, Betty. Can you stay with Julie for the time being? You’ve got her in the restaurant. That’s fine, keep her there. I’ve got two police officers in the store just now. I’ll get one of them to you immediately. Try not to handle the box too much, it could be evidence.’ He listened to the crackle of the phone. ‘Yes, I can understand why you don’t want to handle it, but I just thought I should tell you.’

He stuck his finger on the disconnect button and immediately redialled. ‘Detective Sergeant Murphy,’ he said. ‘Can you ask Detective Sergeant Rogers to come to the phone please?’ He listened for a moment. ‘I don’t give a damn. Get her to the phone.’ There was the sound of the phone changing hands and Evelyn’s voice came on. ‘Thank goodness for someone sensible,’ he said to her. ‘Fine, I’ll wait.’

‘What’s up?’ Sue said a few moments later.

Bill explained. ‘You’re on the spot Sue, so can you check it out? Get hold of the package and have it sent over to forensics. You know the drill. And, you never know, if things work out this might be our lucky break.’

It was only seconds after he replaced the phone in its cradle before his excitement turned into dread. The stalker had a new target and it was Julie.

***

‘I’ll leave you to continue here,’ Sue told Jill Marshall, ‘while I go down to the food hall to interview Miss Forbes.’ She gathered up her notebook and pencil and slipped them into her shoulder bag.

Sue found Julie sipping coffee in the restaurant. A heavily built woman wearing an attractive uniform-style overall with Patrick Drake monogrammed on the pocket, sat at the table with her. Sue guessed this must be Betty.

‘I’m Sue Rogers, if you recall I interviewed you yesterday.’ She stuck out her hand for Julie to shake. ‘Can I call you Julie? It makes it less formal. And you’ll be Betty.’ She shook hands with the older woman.

‘I’ll get you a coffee,’ Betty said, standing up.

Sue nodded and turned back to Julie. ‘I understand you’ve received some sort of package.’

Julie shivered, although to Sue’s eyes she was not as upset as she had expected her to be. ‘Yes,’ she said and went on to explain what had happened.

‘I see. And you don’t know how the package got into your office and on your desk.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Harry was in your office when you got back.’ Sue inspected her notes. ‘That’s right isn’t it?’

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Julie said, looking directly at Sue. ‘But it wasn’t Harry. I trust him. And anyway it would be difficult to find a more honest and straightforward person than Harry. So I won’t have anyone accusing him.’

‘Any other ideas about who it could be?’

Julie shook her head.

‘Anybody you’ve upset recently? Any enemies?’ Sue probed, still thinking Harry was the most likely prospect.

‘Not really,’ Julie said. ‘Although I don’t think Mr Moody is too pleased that Patrick Drake is promoting me.’

‘Mr Moody? You mean Ken Moody the assistant director?’

Julie nodded.

‘What about the package? What have you done with it?’

Betty plonked a cup of coffee in front of Sue. ‘I’ve got it in one of my cupboards behind the servery,’ she said. ‘Julie didn’t want to look at it, so I took it away. Nasty thing it is.’

Sue stood up. ‘I’ll need it, of course. We’ll get forensics to check it out, but that means I’ll need fingerprints from everyone who’s handled it.’ She looked at her notebook. ‘That’ll be you, Julie and Harry.’

‘I’ll go get the package now,’ Betty said.

‘It would be better if I collected it. Save getting more fingerprints on it.’ Sue rummaged in her handbag, removed a pair of latex gloves and put them on. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got a plastic or polythene bag,’ she said, ‘I didn’t bring any evidence bags with me.’

‘I’ll pop over to groceries and get one,’ Betty said.

While she was gone Sue turned back to Julie. ‘I take it this is the first package you’ve received?’ She was sure it was, but thought she had better check. ‘Nothing else?’

Julie shook her head and seemed to hesitate before saying. ‘I’ve had this feeling someone’s watching me. It’s crazy, because there’s never anyone there. It’s just one of those feelings, you know, when the hair at the back of your neck prickles.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s probably just nerves because of what’s happened.’

Betty came back with the bag and took Sue behind the servery. Carefully Sue lifted the lid of the box and looked at the body of the rat inside. ‘I’m not surprised Julie got a shock,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I would like to have received this when I wasn’t expecting it.’ She popped the box with its wrappings inside the polythene bag and returned to the table.

‘Be careful, Julie,’ she said. ‘Try not to go anywhere on your own and keep your doors locked at home.’

***

‘She didn’t even drink her coffee,’ Betty said, after Sue left.

‘I’m sure she didn’t mean to offend you.’ Julie smiled at Betty, although the smile was simply bravado because the dead rat had upset her more than she wanted to admit. After the box was opened she had put a brave face on it, but she could not bring herself to keep the box anywhere near her, so she had asked Betty to look after it until the police came. Now Sue had taken possession of it she did not have to worry anymore, but still she could not get the image out of her mind.

‘What about you, Julie?’ Betty sat down on the seat beside her. ‘Are you going to be okay?’

‘I’ll be fine.’ Julie sounded more confident than she felt.

‘You live alone, don’t you?’ Betty’s brow had creased with a worried frown. ‘I’d ask you home with me, but there’s my old man. He wouldn’t like it.’

Julie leaned over and patted Betty’s hand. ‘I’ll be all right, honest. You don’t need to worry about me. And anyway I live in an upstairs flat so nobody’s going to peer through my windows. And I’ll make sure I lock my door.’

Julie could see Betty was not convinced. ‘What about when you’re going home?’

‘There are always plenty of folks around, Betty. You know that. Dundee’s a busy place. Anyway I’m a damned good runner.’

‘I don’t like it just the same. Betty’s hand closed round the pepper shaker she had been fiddling with. ‘You stick that in your pocket, it’s better than nothing.’

***

‘Well?’ Bill snapped the address book closed as Sue and Jill entered the room.

‘We’ve already popped the package into forensics and they’ve promised to do a rush job. Should get the results tomorrow sometime.’ Sue perched on the end of Bill’s desk and updated him on her interview with Julie and Betty, while Jill crossed to her own desk to write up her notes into report form.

‘Does Julie have any ideas who might have sent it?’

‘She says not. I did suggest the security guy, Harry, because he was in her office when she found it, or rather he found it and gave it to her. But she flew up in a blue light at the suggestion.’

‘It’s probably to be expected. She seems to be friendly with him.’ Bill wondered, not for the first time, what their relationship was.

‘Bit old for her I would have thought,’ Sue said. ‘Anyway isn’t she the one you had your eye on?’ She leered at him.

‘Don’t know what you mean,’ Bill blustered.

‘Oh, come on, I wasn’t born yesterday.’

Bill shifted position in his chair. ‘D’you think it’s the same person who was sending wee dead animals to Nicole Ralston? I mean, this one was wrapped up, the others weren’t.’

Sue considered. ‘I would guess so,’ she said. ‘I can’t see the possibility of anyone else doing it. I’ve advised her to be careful, but she doesn’t seem to be so spooked as Nicole was, so maybe she won’t be such an easy target.’

‘No,’ Bill murmured, thinking there was a lot more to Julie than appeared on the surface. ‘Maybe we’ll get a lead from forensics,’ he said, although there was a chill deep within him.

‘Let’s hope so. We have to catch this guy before he does any more damage.’ Sue hoisted herself off the desk. ‘Well, I’m for the off. I’d suggest you do the same.’

‘Sure, I’ll finish what I’m doing first and won’t be long behind you.’ He rustled about with some paper, pretending to be busy until the room was empty again. Then he sat back and stared at the address book where he had found the initial clue to Julie and her background. Once he had that it had not taken much detective work to find out the rest. Oh no, Julie was not what she appeared to be and he did not know what he wanted to do about it.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Julie’s bravado fled as soon as Betty left her at the bus stop. It was the rush hour and there was a long queue, which she joined. ‘I’ll be safe here,’ she had told Betty. ‘You don’t have to wait with me.’ But now she was alone she was not so sure.

An icy wind whistled along the street, plucking at the edges of coats, and chilling fingers and toes. She shuffled her feet, fidgeted with her buttons, her gloves and the edge of her coat. Her neck and back muscles ached with tension and she shrugged her shoulders several times to rid herself of it. Her nervousness increased with each minute she had to wait and, although she was thankful for people around her, she was afraid that one of them might be the unknown stalker.

All the way home she imagined eyes watching her, footsteps behind her and menace everywhere, and she did not relax until she was inside her flat with the door locked behind her. She had to admit she was spooked, so spooked she had bought a mobile phone, although she had never felt the need for one before, considering them to be a yuppie status symbol or a kid’s toy.

The journey home had been a nightmare of suspicion, making her tense and on edge. Now her muscles ached with pent up energy and she longed to run it off, but there would be no running tonight because the dark was now her enemy instead of her friend. It held terror instead of relief. Even the familiar street outside seemed menacing, forcing her to cross the room to the window to pull the curtains with quivering fingers until they closed and forced the darkness, with its flickering shadows and images of dark street corners, to remain outside.

She had not realized until tonight how much she hated this room with its grubby paintwork, and peeling wallpaper. It was tawdry and squalid, and not what she was accustomed to. She longed for the tasteful furnishings, the fine art on the walls and the light décor of her comfortable flat in Edinburgh. Why on earth had she ever left it? She had to get back to her old life or she would go mad. Maybe she already had.

A scuffling noise whispered in the silence. She conjured up a vision of a horrible, crouching shape waiting for her on the stairs – a shape that even her imagination could not visualize.

She stared in horrified silence at the door, thinking she saw the knob move. Imagining she heard shuffling feet. She closed her eyes, waiting for the sound of splintering wood. Her paralysed fingers tried to close over the mobile phone, although she did not know if she had enough strength to dial. Time slowed. Her breathing became shallow, each breath more laboured than the one before.

She was not sure how long she stood there. It seemed an age, before she heard footsteps on the stairs and the knocking started. Low at first and then louder. Her heart thudded in her chest until she was sure whoever was outside could hear it. Her lips were dry and her tongue stuck to the top of her mouth. She wanted to call out, to scream, but she had no voice. She had thought she was brave, thought she could respond to any threat. But she had been wrong. And now, it was too late.

‘Julie, open the door, I know you’re in there,’ Bill’s voice broke the silence with a thunderous crash.

‘Bill?’ she said, feeling stupid. ‘Is that you?’ She walked to the door and opened it with unsteady hands. Relief swamped her and she almost fell into his arms. She wanted to tell him how afraid she had been; wanted to confide in him; wanted his protection.

She felt him stiffen and realized she had flung herself at him. She pulled back, flustered, afraid she might frighten him off. But she needed him. She needed him badly.

Bill pushed her into the room and closed the door. ‘What are you playing at, Julie?’ His voice was cold making her shrink back into herself. She should not have rushed at him. After all, they had only just met.

He turned from her and stared at the photograph on the mantelpiece. He picked it up and held it in his hand for a moment before thrusting it in front of her face. ‘Dave, tell me about Dave?’

The photograph wavered and her eyes closed against the tears that threatened to come. ‘I told you, he’s dead,’ she said in a tiny voice that was not much more than a whisper. ‘I don’t want to talk about him.’

‘I bet you don’t,’ he hissed. ‘But I do. Shall I tell you what I know?’

Julie stared up at him her eyes wide and suddenly afraid.

‘David Chalmers,’ he said, as if he was quoting from a piece of paper. ‘Travelling salesman. Married Julie Forbes in 1996, left same Julie Forbes in June 2007 for a woman he had been having an affair with, namely Nicole Ralston. Committed suicide in July 2008 when same Nicole Ralston rejected him. Have I got it right so far?’

Julie nodded. Her brain was whirling and her thoughts were in a jumble. She slumped into one of the chairs and pulled her feet underneath her. If she could have curled up and died, she would have.

‘Here’s where it gets interesting,’ Bill snapped. ‘David’s wife, Julie, reverts to her maiden name, gives up her job as Managing Director of an art gallery and comes to Dundee to work in a department store.’ Bill looked at her. ‘Quite a change, wasn’t it, Julie? Then she becomes friendly with Nicole Ralston, the woman who drove her husband to suicide.’ Bill stopped and drew a long breath. ‘Why, Julie? Why?’

Julie bent her head onto her knees. ‘I don’t know why,’ she mumbled.

‘Julie,’ he bent down and took one of her hands in his. ‘Don’t you realize this puts you in the frame for Nicole’s murder?’

She pulled her hand out of his as anger spurted through her, making her shake with the heat of it. She lifted her head and glared at him. ‘What right do you have to pry into my affairs?’ she snapped. ‘It’s none of your business. But you had to find out about me didn’t you? It wasn’t enough to sleep with me. Oh, no. You had to know, didn’t you?’

‘It wasn’t you I was investigating, Julie. It was Nicole’s contacts, past and present. You were just there.’ Bill looked away from her and his voice reflected something – disappointment maybe. It was hard to tell because his voice was flat and emotionless.

As quickly as it had erupted the anger seeped out of her leaving behind despair. ‘What are you going to do about it?’ she muttered, not looking at him.

‘I don’t know, Julie. I’m going to have to think about it.’ He replaced the photograph on the mantelpiece and walked to the door without looking at her. ‘Remember to lock it behind me,’ he said, as he left.

Julie shuffled to the door, turned the key in the lock and then stood, her head pressed to the wood, silent, but screaming inside.

***

Claire, apparently calm except for the force she used to clatter the plates inside, stacked dirty dishes into the dishwasher. She looked across the kitchen table, her glance flickering past Ken to the plate of food he was playing with. ‘Aren’t you going to eat that?’ The kids had long since finished their meal and gone to pursue more interesting things in the playroom. Only Ken remained, pushing the food round and round on his plate.

‘Not hungry,’ he said, shoving the plate away.

Claire snorted. She lifted the plate and scraped the two complete chops, potatoes and peas into the waste bin. ‘I thought you liked lamb chops,’ she muttered.

Ken did not reply. He looked awful, grey-faced and shrunken, with a dead look in his eyes she did not like.

‘They’ll soon be here,’ she said. ‘You’d better pull yourself together.’

‘I don’t know why they wanted to see us here,’ Ken muttered, getting up from the table. ‘I could have gone to the police station.’

‘They’re just trying to make it easy for us, they said. Besides they want to see us together and they know we have kids.’

Ken grunted, ‘Since when were the police considerate about things like that?’

Claire took his arm. ‘Let’s just go through to the lounge and you can get settled before they come.’ The lounge was tidy, but Claire busied herself plumping up cushions and rearranging ornaments.

When the doorbell rang she gave a final look around and, glaring at Ken, said, ‘Don’t slump. Look alert. Remember you’ve nothing to hide.’

‘Detective Constable, Blair Armstrong, and my fellow officer, Sid Low. I hope we’re not too late.’ He grasped her hand in his, but held on to it a fraction longer than Claire liked. She smiled at him, thinking he might be susceptible to female charm.

‘Come in,’ she said, ‘we’ve been expecting you. My husband’s in the lounge.’

‘Just a few questions, for the record.’ Blair was looking at her legs. ‘First of all I need to know your movements on Wednesday, 26th November 2008.’

‘Why that’s easy, inspector . . .’

‘Constable, ma’am.’ Blair corrected her.

‘Oh, I’m sorry, I always get things wrong.’ She smiled at him and looked away as if in embarrassment, but not before she saw him readjust his position on the chair and straighten his tie. In another situation she would have laughed at him, but for the present it was better if he thought she was a silly female.

‘Your movements?’ he prompted her.

‘Oh, yes. As I was saying – constable – that’s quite easy. We were here at home all evening. Watched the telly, although for the life of me I can’t remember what was on.’ Claire had mugged up on the programmes and knew perfectly what had been on that night. She would probably be able to answer any question on the content and get off with it. She was not so sure about Ken though. ‘Didn’t much matter to Ken what was on anyway because he fell asleep in his chair. Not that he would remember or admit that. We went to bed after the ten o’clock news. And that’s about it really.’ She smoothed her skirt over her knees. ‘I’m afraid we don’t live a very exciting life.’

‘I see.’ Blair leaned forward. ‘That seems to cover what we need, but I’ll have to ask Mr Moody some questions of a more personal nature. Maybe he would prefer it if you weren’t here.’

Claire frowned. ‘You mean about his affair with Nicole. I know all about it. Can’t say I was very pleased but the woman chased him, and Ken’s not the strongest person in a situation like that. Are you, Ken?’ she reached over and clasped her husband’s hand. She could see from the policeman’s expression that he thought she was a martyr.

‘Right then, Mr Moody,’ Blair seemed to have lost some of his previous confidence. ‘How would you describe your relationship with Mrs Ralston?’

Ken glowered at his feet. ‘We went out a few times, but it was starting to get intense, so I ended it.’

‘Intense! In what way, sir?’

‘Well, she started to think it was more serious than it was. It was only a fling after all, but she started to want more. I told her she had made a mistake and there was no way I would leave my wife for her.’ Ken stopped and looked at Claire. She smiled at him and nodded her head. ‘I also told her I’d go to her husband if she didn’t stop pestering me. I can’t say Nicole was all that pleased about it, but she had to accept it. In any case I think she already had her eye on somebody else.’

‘Have you any idea who that might be, sir?’

‘Not a clue,’ Ken said. ‘We were barely speaking by the end.’

Blair asked a few more questions before saying. ‘I think that will be all for now, sir. We may want to speak to you again though.’

Ken and Claire watched the policemen drive off. ‘I think that went quite well,’ Ken said.

‘Yes,’ Claire said. ‘I’m not sure you didn’t go a bit too far though with that comment about Nicole being interested in someone else.’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Ken said. ‘It’ll take the heat off me if they’re hunting around for someone else.’