Wrongful Death (50 page)

Anna opened the rear passenger door and told Dewar to stretch her legs whilst she took Aisa upstairs with Barolli, Barbara and Dan Ross to search her bedroom. Dewar’s nose was really out of joint; she was furious at the way Anna had dominated the investigation without having the manners to even brief her on her return to London.

As Anna got Aisa out of the car she could see that the young woman was in a very tense nervous state and physically shaking. In some ways, Anna felt bad about the way she was treating her, but it was a case of needs must if her plan was going to work.

Aisa led them upstairs, through the house to where large wooden double doors opened into a huge bedroom. Barbara stood wide-eyed and remarked that it was bigger than the whole of her upstairs. It was different from the period style of the rest of the house, where there were dark oak panelled walls, wooden floors and oriental rugs. This was a very modern room that had been specifically designed for Aisa, with a marble en-suite bathroom-come-wet room and walk-in wardrobes. The walls and ceilings were white, with fresh Egyptian bed linen on a king-size bed that was adorned with small pink cushions.

Anna showed Aisa the two pictures taken at the Charity Ball. ‘You wore two different dresses the night of the ball. This yellow one you were wearing earlier in the evening, I’ve just looked through your wardrobe and it does not appear to be there. Can you tell me where it is now?’

‘I got sick over it when I was feeling ill. I’d taken about three dresses with me to the hotel so I changed before going back downstairs,’ Aisa said.

‘You haven’t answered my question. Where is the dress now?’

‘I don’t know – I threw it away, I think.’

‘Did your mother know you were sick on the dress?’ Anna asked.

‘No, I never told her,’ Aisa said.

‘That’s strange, your mother checked on you a few times yet you didn’t you tell her about being sick on the dress?’

‘No, I don’t think I did. I mean, what is all this about a fucking evening dress? I put it in the bath to soak,’ Aisa said, becoming more and more distressed.

‘You never tried to have it dry-cleaned, you just threw it away?’ Anna persisted and Aisa nodded. ‘Tell me what it cost,’ Anna asked, interested to see Aisa’s reaction.

The young woman paused, swallowed and shrugged her shoulders.

‘We can easily check the cost, so why don’t you just tell me now?’

‘Nearly three thousand pounds, it was a—’

Anna interrupted, looking Aisa in the eye. ‘Three thousand and you just slung it out because of vomiting on it?’

Aisa pursed her lips, turning away, and said nothing but Anna continued. ‘So, you went back downstairs to the ball in a different gown. Correct?’

Aisa nodded.

‘And you spoke with your mother?’ Again the young woman nodded. ‘Who never even asked you why you were in a different dress?’ Aisa made no reply, clenching her hands into fists, her body rigid as she stared at the floor. Plainly, any mention of her mother and the dress in the same sentence was having a nerve-racking effect on her. Anna knew she was lying and it could only be because the dress was bloodstained and Gloria saw it that night.

Anna caught a movement out of the corner of her eye by the bedroom door; she turned and saw Lady Lynne standing on the landing. She was completely still, her face ashen, but her blazing eyes and red-slashed lips made her appear like the wicked Queen from
Snow White
. Anna gave her a friendly smile. ‘Ah, Lady Lynne, I wonder if you could help me with a small dilemma? It’s about Aisa’s evening dress, the one she wore the night of the ball. It seems to have gone missing—’

Gloria interrupted, giving Anna a long icy stare: ‘Listen to me, Detective Travis, I am under no obligation to answer any of your questions and neither is my daughter. Do you understand, Aisa? You do not say a word until you have legal advice and representation from Ian Holme.’

‘Sorry, I just thought it was a simple question that would have a simple explanation,’ Anna said, keeping her smile in place.

Gloria made a dismissive gesture with her hand. ‘You may continue the search of these premises without me. If you take anything, please give Katrina a full list. Aisa, do you understand, darling? Ian Holme told me to advise you to say nothing. I’m going to see him now and he will visit you at the station later.’

Aisa nodded like a naughty child, her fists still clenched, her arms stiff at her sides. Gloria walked out, and they could hear her aloof sarcastic tone as she addressed someone on the stairs. ‘Please walk back down. It is very unlucky to cross someone on the stairs. Thank you.’

Anna watched from the window as Gloria stormed out of the house, got into her Bentley and sped off down the driveway, churning up the gravel as she accelerated away.

‘Not very caring about you, is she? Your mother seems to be more concerned about how all this affects her rather than you,’ Anna said, wanting Aisa to turn against her mother and tell the truth.

Aisa’s bottom lip trembled and her fear was obvious. Gloria’s total lack of any genuine signs of attachment or care for her daughter was chilling. As if in confirmation of what Anna was thinking, Aisa gave her a strange glance, hands uncurling from the tight fists, and then she smiled, showing her neat even white teeth.

‘I’ve remembered it was a Stella McCartney evening dress. I like her designs but it was nothing special.’

Chapter Thirty-Three

It was after three p.m. by the time Anna and Barolli arrived at the Belgravia station with Aisa. Dewar had also accompanied them, having complained that she felt frustrated at having nothing worthwhile to do at Lynne House. Anna had left Barbara in charge of the remainder of the search of Gloria’s property but had never really expected to find anything of evidential value. She suspected that Gloria would never be so naïve as to keep anything that would incriminate her, and even if she did, it would be very well hidden and could take an eternity to find on such vast premises.

Barolli, assisted by Dewar, booked Aisa in at the custody desk then took a saliva sample from her for DNA and a set of fingerprints on the live scan machine. Anna told the custody officer that other than a phone conversation with Mr Holme, Aisa was not to be allowed to talk to anyone else. She then asked Barolli and Dewar to take the set of keys that were recovered from Samuel Peters’ property at the mortuary and see if they fitted Josh’s old Bayswater flat and the locks taken from Esme’s flat.

Anna went upstairs and handed Joan Aisa’s mobile phone.

‘It’s nice to see you again so quickly, ma’am, but such a shame that you’ve had to miss out on the FBI course, or are you just back with us for a few days . . .?’

‘It’s nice to see you too, Joan, but I haven’t got time to discuss the FBI course right now.’

Joan looked flustered. ‘Oh, right, sorry. What can I do for you?’

‘I need you to get someone from Tech Support to look at Aisa’s mobile for an application called Cate and also to do the same on the copy they kept of Josh Reynolds’ SIM and micro-card.’

‘Who’s Cate?

‘Not a she, it’s a phone application. Acronym for Call and Text Eraser and commonly used by unfaithful partners,’ Anna explained.

‘Whatever will they think of next?’ Joan remarked, shaking her head, as her desk phone rang. It was Pete Jenkins wanting to speak to Anna.

‘Hi, Pete. I arrested Aisa Lynne and her prints are now on the database and her DNA is on its way to you.’

‘Do you ever stop for breath?’ he asked. ‘Okay, I’m bringing up Aisa’s prints on the computer right now.’

‘Only to speak with you, Pete. Any more good news for me?’

‘Yeah, we still had a blood sample in the lab for Samuel Peters from when he was an unidentified body. I’ve run an initial test and there’s a trace of atropine, but I’ve more tests to do yet.’

Anna was pleased that it was more evidence in support of her theory that Gloria Lynne had more than likely extracted poison from her own plants to poison Reynolds and Samuel.

‘What sort of dosages of atropine are we looking at?’ she asked.

‘It’s impossible to determine accurately. Josh Reynolds, being much younger and fitter, would react more slowly, but the initial symptoms would be the same as Barolli and Marisha suffered. A sudden lethal dose is not the best way to poison someone as people ask questions if you sip a drink and keel over instantly. It’s better to go slowly but surely, leading to a heart attack and no questions asked.’

‘So Gloria knew exactly what she was doing,’ Anna remarked.

‘Looks that way.’

‘Thanks, Pete, and keep me updated.’

‘If you want to hang on a minute or two I’m checking Aisa’s prints against unidentified marks as we speak.’

‘Yeah, sure.’

There was a short pause before Pete continued, ‘Right, here we go. Majority of the fingerprints on the Ferrari match Aisa and Josh Reynolds and none for Donna.’

‘And the money recovered from Esme’s?’ Anna asked.

‘Sorry but no. I’m still working on the certificates recovered from Samuel Peters’ jacket, and so far I’ve only found Josh Reynolds’ and Samuel Peters’ fingerprints. However, the other good news is that the blood spatter on the certificates did fit with them being on the sofa at the time the bullet exited Josh Reynolds’ left temple.’

Anna hung up, slightly disappointed that Aisa’s fingerprints hadn’t been found on the certificates, particularly the one referring to her as Aisa Alleyne. This would have meant that she had physically held and most probably looked at it, and to then deny any knowledge of the document would be a blatant lie. It puzzled Anna why Aisa claimed she was adopted when the certificate made it clear she was Gloria’s natural daughter; it was something she would need to raise at the interview in the morning.

Heading into her office, Anna got out the folder that Jane, the secretary at the Lynne Foundation, had given her containing the records of Aisa’s mobile phone. She immediately noticed that there were a number of calls to Josh Reynolds’ mobile, which started at the end of August and increased in intensity until his death. Anna suspected these calls added up to a secret affair and was not surprised to see there were a number of calls from Aisa to Josh on the fifth of November.

Aisa had called him for two minutes just before the Charity Ball started and then again at 9 p.m. and 10.15 p.m., which was just after she must have left the Savoy Hotel in Donna’s Mini. From that time on she never phoned Josh’s mobile again and, for Anna, there could be only one explanation. Aisa knew Josh was dead and might even have been present when he died.

Significantly, Anna also noticed that there were calls to Josh from Aisa on the days of the illegal transfers of money from the CCS Medical account, and on the same day as the payment for the blue Ferrari was sent. Anna cross-checked Donna’s appointment records, and confirmed Donna was out of the office when the online transactions were made. The evidence was accumulating against Aisa in a most satisfying way; Anna could see that if the young woman did choose to lie there was plenty of hard evidence to hit her with and hopefully convince her that she was only digging a deeper hole for herself.

Anna’s reflections were interrupted by a text from Barolli who told her that he had tested Esme’s Chubb and Yale locks against the keys from Samuel’s property and they fitted perfectly, and he was now on his way with Dewar to Bayswater and Reynolds’ flat.

Opening her office door, Anna called out to Joan to ask if she had a copy of the text messages recovered from Josh’s mobile. Joan brought over a folder.

‘I’ve also got details of all the calls made from Marisha Peters’ landline and mobile, including cell site analysis, going back to July last year. I don’t know how you do it, but yet again, your hunch was right,’ Joan said. ‘Calls were made to Gloria Lynne’s house and mobile from Marisha’s landline and mobile on more than one occasion.’

‘How did you get Gloria Lynne’s mobile number?’ Anna asked, worried that Joan had obtained it by improper means.

‘Off Aisa’s phone, which you gave me earlier – just looked in contacts and found one for Mum and then checked it off against Marisha’s calls.’

‘Brilliant, Joan. At last we have a tangible connection between Samuel Peters and Gloria Lynne. Can you get me details of all the calls from both Gloria’s house and mobile phone for the same period and do a cross-comparison?’ Anna asked.

‘As you have arrested Aisa, the authority to check outgoing landline calls from Lynne House goes without saying as she lives there. But Gloria’s mobile will need at least a DCS’s authority,’ Joan reminded her.

Anna never ceased to be amazed by Joan’s desire to please and help and decided that she’d recommend her for promotion when the case was over.

‘Put Langton’s name on the request.’

Joan looked surprised. ‘Are you sure? He’s not even in the country!’

‘He will be by tomorrow morning and he’s already sanctioned my actions, but please don’t tell anyone, it’s strictly between us.’

Joan nodded and Anna continued, ‘Now tell me more about your good work with the phone calls.’

‘Obviously, there were also calls from Marisha’s phones to Josh’s landline and mobile so I’ve highlighted those in red and any calls to Gloria in blue,’ Joan informed her.

‘Well they had to be from Samuel because according to Marisha she and Josh hadn’t spoken for fifteen years.’

Anna looked closely at the Marisha Peters’ landline list, noticing that the first call made to Gloria’s house phone was one week after all the online requests for certified copies of marriage and birth certificates were made to the Jamaican Registrar General’s office.

‘Once Samuel got the certificates he could, as I am damned sure he did, start to blackmail Gloria,’ Anna observed.

‘That bit makes sense, but why does Gloria kill Marisha months after Samuel? Why not silence them at the same time if she was involved?’ Joan asked.

Anna explained to Joan that she suspected there were different strands of events, the first being the initial blackmail, which Marisha might or might not have been party to, but even if she had been, Gloria could well have had no knowledge of her involvement as Samuel would have done all the talking. Anna had also considered the possibility that Gloria thought Samuel and Marisha would drink the rum together and, having heard nothing from either of them since, thought her evil deed was done. Joan wondered why Marisha had not contacted Gloria since Samuel disappeared. Anna told her she thought it was probably a mixture of things, but predominantly fear that whatever had happened to Samuel might happen to her, and no doubt Marisha didn’t want to lose the forty thousand in the freezer.