“Okay. But there must have been tension between Bill and Jo?”
“Of course. Bill was very worried about it all. And Jo had to do her job, of course.”
“According to Marnie—” started Kate.
“According to Marnie!” Bev spat. “What does she know? Last I saw, she was demonstrating toys on her fucking YouTube channel. No doubt thinking she’ll get away with working at the same time as claiming benefits off the state.”
“Did you and Marnie fall out?”
There was a pause.
“We was good for a time. She helped me a lot. My car got nicked at the same time as Jo went missing, and she was good, running me around, taking me shopping when Bill couldn’t. But then she turned nasty. Didn’t understand what I’m going through. She got irritated with me wanting to talk about Jo.”
“Okay; how did Joanna feel about discovering the story about the asbestos and then finding out Bill was involved?”
“What do you mean?” said Bev, slurring even more.
“Joanna uncovered this juicy story. Didn’t she feel cheated that she couldn’t print it?”
There was a pause. Bev sighed, exasperated.
“Jo wasn’t like that! She knew Bill meant everything to me . . . In the end, Bill took it on the chin, and they paid to have the building made safe. Listen. We’re paying you to find out what happened to Jo. I don’t like this, these questions, Kate. You sound like you think Bill’s done something wrong?”
“No. I’m just following up on some leads, and this came up.”
“From fucking Marnie. Shit stirrer. Did she ask you for money when you talked to her?”
Kate hesitated, thinking about the book Marnie had asked her to sign. “No. She didn’t.”
“She was always jealous of Jo making something of herself. Getting out of that estate.”
“Bev, if you’d have told me about this in the first place, it wouldn’t have taken me by surprise. That’s the only reason I’m asking.”
She was silent on the end of the phone.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said.
“Please. Don’t be. I can’t imagine everything you’ve been through. This must be so tough.”
“My whole bloody life’s been tough . . .” Kate heard Bev pouring a drink in the background. “I thought that when me and Bill lived together, we’d see each other so much more, but he’s away a lot with ’is work.”
“It’s a lovely house you’ve got there.”
“It gives me the creeps when I’m ’ere on me own . . . ,” said Bev. “I’ve never lived nowhere so empty. I’m used to having neighbors and people upstairs, downstairs, to the side . . . And the fucking windows. No curtains. And there’s all these buttons for things. I tried to turn the outside light on, and the fucking jacuzzi comes on.”
“Where’s Bill gone away on business?”
“Germany. They’re doing a big contract on a new motorway. He has to be there, overseeing. Dusseldwarf . . .” Kate didn’t want to correct her. “He’s only gone for a couple of days, but still. I miss him . . . Just me and these awful bloody windows, reflecting my ugly mug back at me . . . Do you think you’re any closer to finding her? Jo?”
Kate hesitated, feeling her heart sink at the question.
“We’re going through a lot of information in the case files. We’re talking with everyone who Joanna was friends with,” said Kate. She wished she hadn’t phoned Bev; it was cruel to phone without having concrete information.
“That’s a very political answer.”
“I’m going to find her, Bev,” said Kate. There was a long silence on the end of the phone.
“I can get Bill to phone you when he’s back,” said Bev. “He’s going to call me later. He won’t mind talking to you.”
“Thank you.”
There was a click, and Bev was gone. When she’d raised her voice on the end of the phone, there had been an echo. Kate thought of Bev, alone at night in Bill’s house, staring at her reflection in the huge glass windows. Then she thought back to Marnie, living on the horrible council estate, disabled, and bringing up two small children. Should she have just signed the book? At the stroke of her pen, it would have been worth a couple of thousand pounds. That freaked her out.
Kate had always avoided the merry-go-round of notoriety that accompanied Peter Conway. There had been lucrative opportunities to write books and tell her story to the tabloids, but in Kate’s mind, that would be profiting from murder. Singers and actors were famous for their art. Conway was famous for killing, and it was sick to profit from that.
25
Jake phoned Kate to say that the changeover ladies had come to meet him before their first shift at the weekend, and were helping to move the clean bedding from the office down to the storeroom in the surf shop. When Tristan called after meeting with Bishop, Kate asked if they could meet at his flat.
Tristan made them tea, and they sat in his small kitchen, bringing each other up to speed.
“I’m sorry that Marnie was such a freak about the book,” said Tristan.
“Part of me feels bad for not signing it. She didn’t look like she had a lot of money,” said Kate. “It made me understand Joanna a little better. She wanted to escape that housing estate and have a better life. I don’t know if Marnie was bitter about that.”
Tristan nodded.
“How high were the stakes for Bill, if Joanna had gone ahead and written the asbestos story?” he asked.
“His investment would have gone down the drain. I don’t know how much he would have lost, but I get the idea it was significant. Bev sounded defensive on the phone when I brought it up. It must have put her in the middle of things, but she insists that Bill and Joanna sorted it out. She didn’t write the story, and his company fixed the problem.”
“If they sorted it amicably, then that doesn’t necessarily raise a red flag, but it’s the same names we keep coming back to. Marco Polo House is now linked to Shelley Morden, Joanna, and Bill. Shelley and David Lamb are linked to Max Jesper’s commune, and Noah Huntley is linked to all of them, apart from Bill. We need to talk to Noah Huntley.”
“We don’t know how deep Joanna dug into his private life, but she had enough to write an exposé on his use of rent boys. We’ve also got Noah Huntley investing in Jesper’s hotel, going to social events at Jesper’s house. Who’s to say that he didn’t regularly drop by the commune?”
“If only we had Joanna’s notes and files from that time,” said Tristan.
“Joanna’s editor, Ashley Harris, told her to drop the whole part of her original story about Noah Huntley and his rent boys. Why? What if Noah Huntley had something to do with David Lamb and Gabe Kemp going missing?” said Kate.
“And George Tomassini—we can’t forget him. Ade thinks he went missing mid-2002.”
“I’ve left a message with Alan Hexham, asking if he could pull some strings and find out if David Lamb, Gabe Kemp, and George Tomassini had criminal records,” said Kate.
“Do you think he can? Do you think he will?”