'Til Death (DI Steven Marr Book 1) - UK Crime Fiction Whodunnit Thriller (10 page)

One thing was for sure: for the second time in three days, Gregor Stanic was in deep shit.

Alex, who’d tagged along as extra muscle, was watching the road, not saying much. He never did whilst in the car: always happy to idly keep an eye on other vehicles. But at 6’4, the weekend rugby player was a useful man to have around.

In a way, Sam had always envied Alex. And Becky, too. It was strange: Sam had been telling the truth when she’d told Becky she didn’t want a family. Whatever Marr thought, she was a long way from pleading with him to get a divorce. Even taking aside the commitment and the devotion, wasn’t marriage just a twenty-five grand party? Why the hell would you want to spend it on that when you could have six months in New York?

No, it wasn’t the marriage that she envied. It was the contentment. Alex and Becky didn’t seem to want anything else. They’d both do OK – more than OK – if they were single. But never seemed fussed about anything except each other. Sam had lost count of the married men she met who didn’t think twice about trying it on, and married women who were happy to flirt their way to a free drink.

No: Alex and Becky were perfectly happy with who they were. Without that, they wouldn’t have lasted three minutes on the same team together, let alone three months. It wasn’t an egotistical thing, but when she started working with him, she’d found it odd that she’d never seen Alex even glance her way. Even the most loyal men tended to sneak the odd look.

No, Alex knew who he was. Sam could see why Becky had snapped him up.

‘Quid for your thoughts?’ Alex said, still not taking his eyes from the road.

Sam looked into the driver’s mirror. Gregor Stanic’s eyes meeting her own.

‘Nothing’ she said.

The car drove on towards the station.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

‘It’s a pity, Gregor.’ Marr was said, half an hour later, as he sat down opposite Stanic at the cold metal table. ‘People who love you keep winding up dead.’

‘I didn’t love Caroline’ Stanic replied, a bit too quickly.

Marr took a sip of his coffee. It was from the machine in the canteen, and it wasn’t good.

‘She thought you did’, he replied. ‘She thought you were going to leave Anna and run off with her.’

Stanic smiled.

‘She was stupid. I was fucking her. That was all it was. Fucking. She was just good at giving head, you know? You know how it is.’

Marr said nothing, but Sam raised her eyebrows.

‘So that’s who you are, is it?’ she said, ‘The lothario? The big man who just wants to get laid?’

Stanic slumped back into his chair, saying nothing.

Sam smiled, satisfied.

‘Why would Caroline kill herself?’ Marr asked.

‘What did the note say?’ came the reply, to which Marr smiled.

‘I didn’t say there was a note’.

Stanic rolled his eyes.

‘I was assuming.’

‘I’m sure you were. But humour me: why do you think Caroline would kill herself? I mean, she had you now, didn’t she? With Anna out of the way. This was her big chance.’

Stanic suddenly looked very interested in the one-way glass that made up one of the room’s walls.

‘Whether you loved her or not,’ Marr continued, ‘Do you think she loved you?’

At this, Stanic looked up at him.

‘Yeah, she did. Well, I don’t know about love, but she fancied me alright. She couldn’t get enough of fucking me, that much is for sure.’

This time, he looked at Sam. When he spoke again, his tone had changed from defensive to dangerous.

‘Get hooked, don’t they? Girls. You know you’ve got them on the line, because they always turn up when you ask. There might be excuses; they might lie to their friends, they might lie to their partners, they lie to themselves. But they always come when you call. And they’re on their knees without you even having to ask.’

Sam tensed. Marr gave Stanic a smile.

‘Cute speech, but I’d lay off the cockiness. You’ve just lost a fiancée and a girlfriend in three days, and you’re the chief suspect. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up in jail, and I dare say you might end up on your knees yourself.’

‘Oh man, I don’t give a shit.’ Stanic replied, throwing his arms into the air. ‘I didn’t do it.’

‘Didn’t do what?’

‘I didn’t kill Anna, and I didn’t kill Caroline.’

‘I didn’t say that you did kill Caroline. So far as we know, she killed herself. Apparently, she didn’t think she could have you, and that was too much for her.’

Stanic stopped, his expression changing. He swallowed, looking away for a couple of seconds then looking back up at Marr.

‘That was why?’

Marr said nothing.

‘Does it sound like her?’ Sam asked. ‘If that was it, would you believe us?’

Stanic’s looked thoughtful. When he spoke again, he spoke again as the accountant who’d settled down with the love of his life.

‘Yeah, I guess. I mean, I did
like
Caroline. What I just said…I was just being an asshole. Truth is, I did like being around her. Like, I loved Anna, but she was real hard work. She was so driven, and intense. Being around Caroline I could…well…I could relax more, you know? Just chill out, fuck her, have a couple of drinks. I value hard work, but 24/7 like it was with Anna…it was nice to get away from it sometimes. Caroline was like, a breather.’

‘Romantically put’ Sam said, her tone still icy. ‘And Caroline knew this was how you felt?’

Stanic smiled. It was a smile that Marr would have given a great deal to un-see.

‘Well, no, I guess not. It’s one of those things, you know: I didn’t want it to stop. I never told her I was going to leave Anna; there was no point. I
wasn’t
going to leave Anna; I loved her. But yeah, I guess I never told Caroline that: not properly. It didn’t seem like I needed to.’

Stanic sounded truthful. Stupid, but truthful.

Marr looked at Sam, who was already looking at him. He nodded.

‘Greg’, she said, ‘Caroline didn’t kill herself because of you. She killed herself because she’d killed Anna, and couldn’t live with the guilt.’

Stanic’s eyes widened, his mouth opening slightly.

‘She what?!’ he said. Any cockiness had melted away in an instant. He looked stunned.

Marr nodded confirmation.

‘She left a suicide note,’ he said. ‘She met with Anna to tell her about your affair. Anna attacked her, and during the struggle Caroline stabbed her. Then, she pushed Anna into the lake. She was the first person you called when you found out?’

Stanic nodded.

‘Yeah, I mean, I know that me and her were…well, she was still Anna’s friend.’

Marr nodded.

‘Did Caroline sound upset when you spoke to her?’

‘No, no, she sounded...she sounded shocked. I wasn’t expecting her to call, though, because…well, I mean I should tell you…’

He stopped talking.

‘Gregor?’ Marr asked.

Stanic looked back up, his expression that of a guilty little boy.

‘Caroline and me were together on the night Anna died.’

Marr and Sam looked at each other.

‘When?’

Stanic shook his head, looking annoyed.

‘Not enough to provide an alibi, if that’s what you’re thinking’ he said, ‘I left about half eleven, and went straight home.’

So there was nothing to be gained from this revelation. Marr didn’t doubt that Stanic was telling the truth: he probably would have seen it as a sort of last hoorah before getting married.

Not that the affair would have stopped.

Marr found himself playing with his wedding ring. A ring that didn’t, in the end, make much of a difference to anything. If you were the sort that cheated, why would a ring or a set of papers change things?

Stanic would have carried on seeing Caroline: whether he was brave enough to admit it to himself or not.

‘Do you think that Caroline would have killed Anna?’ Sam asked. Stanic said nothing, his eyebrows crossing again.

‘I don’t know. I don’t think so, but there’s no telling how she’d have reacted when Caroline told her. Maybe it really
was
self-defence.’

‘Do you think Anna would have actually attacked her?’

Stanic nodded.

‘Yeah, she probably would have tried to kick her head in. Anna wasn’t really violent, but she had a real thing about loyalty. She told me that she had a friend called Marie – they were good mates from nursery up until they were about fourteen, then Jen snogs Anna’s boyfriend. Fucking meaningless, isn’t it, when you’re that old? Anna never spoke to her again, even blanked her when we saw her in the pub a few months back; insisted we left straight away. She could bear a grudge.’

‘Was Anna tough? I mean, couldn’t she have done Caroline some damage if they did have a fight?’

‘Yeah, I guess so, though Caroline obviously wasn’t exactly thinking straight either. Meeting her in the middle of the night to make some big declaration; it’s not normal is it? She’d had a couple of beers, too, when she was with me.’

‘Where did you meet up?’

‘Hers. I went there, pretended I was going round a mates.’

‘Your mate must have been in on it?’

‘Yeah, his name’s Woz. Warren Street.’

Sam raised her eyebrows.

‘No, honestly, he works at the EE shop in town. His dad’s a wind-up merchant, probably wrote the name down whilst Woz’s mum was looking the other way.’

Real funny, Marr thought, unless you were Warren himself. Poor bastard.

‘Did Caroline ever strike you as someone who would do this, outside of the situation? Could you ever imagine her killing herself?’

Stanic shook his head.

‘No. I mean, she was a bit messed up sometimes: she used to get jealous. But then, everyone’s messed up, aren’t they? Everyone’s fucked up in some way. Caroline had problems, but I never would have thought she was suicidal.’

They weren’t getting much from Greg Stanic here. Marr still thought something was wrong. Was this man a killer? A multiple murderer? Probably not, but there were two bodies in the morgue. One the result of a murder, and the other dead under very suspicious circumstances.

And Stanic was the biggest connection between them. It was frustrating, but there was no evidence: only circumstantial. It would be laughed out by the CPS.

Even if he was guilty, Stanic wouldn’t be convicted. He might be the biggest suspect, but they still had to release him: probably tonight.

And then they were back to square one.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Marr’s phone rang five minutes after he left the interview room. Sam had stayed behind with Stanic, and truth be told, Marr was glad about that. After talking about affairs for ten minutes, the one person Marr didn’t want to be in a room with was Sam. He was glad to see that it wasn’t her name displayed on the screen of his phone: instead, it was the lead CSI.

‘We’ve found Caroline’s mobile phone.’ Ray said.

‘After seven hours in her house. You boys are getting quicker.’

‘Don’t be a prick, Steve, I don’t mean her fucking iPhone. She had a burner in a drawer downstairs. Battery’s dead, but the SIM is still in there.’

‘Shit’ Marr replied, surprised.

‘Yeah; stick that up your congratulatory arse. I’ll send it to Becky once we’ve checked it for prints.’

‘Tell her to talk to someone who might be prepared to help out, his name’s Warren Street, he works in the main branch of EE in town. He knows Greg Stanic. Might be able to check if she’s topped it up recently.’

‘Warren Street? Oh, very fucking funny.’

Ray hung up. Fair enough, Marr thought.

So Caroline had a burner phone; bought and topped up in cash. Even with modern technology being what they was, the burners were pretty much untraceable, as long as you didn’t do anything dumb like check your Facebook on it. You had to hand over details when buying a burner, but the checks weren’t exactly rigorous.

Who the hell had Caroline wanted to talk to that was so secret?

Marr picked up his own mobile and called Becky, giving her an update and asking her to see if Caroline had actually bought the phone. It could have been a plant, after all: nothing stopping a hypothetical killer from leaving it there…

Marr felt annoyed with himself for having such a hard time with the case. Wasn’t it possible that Caroline really
had
killed herself? People didn’t like dealing with the consequences of their mistakes. Maybe the guilt was simply too much for her.

Maybe
, the voice in his head replied,
but it wasn’t
.