“Did you make copies?”
Shit, mouthed Kate to herself. This was a gray area. A private detective could operate within this gray area, but crossing the line to breaking the law wasn’t something that she was prepared to do. Shit, she mouthed again.
“Paper copies?” asked Tristan.
“That’s what copies usually are,” said Faye.
“No. We just have the original paper files.”
“Right, I’ll need to arrange to come and collect them from you.”
“Listen, Faye—may I call you Faye?” asked Kate.
“Of course.”
“I’m an ex–police officer, and I understood that we were operating within the law. Of course we’ll cooperate fully with you.”
Faye’s tone grew lighter.
“Kate, I’m not phoning you to give you a bollocking. You’ve given us a breakthrough on a murder case and three other unsolved murders. But considering this, things have changed. I have to follow procedure now that this has become active.”
“Are you also reopening the Joanna Duncan case?”
Faye sighed. “It looks like it, yes. When can I arrange to collect the case file materials? Is first thing tomorrow morning acceptable?”
Kate looked at Tristan. He rolled his eyes and nodded. She went to rub her eyes with her free hand, then saw she still had on the dirty rubber glove.
“Of course, yes. I’ll give you the address of our office,” she said.
32
DCI Faye Stubbs arrived at the office at eight thirty the next morning. Her short black hair had gray at the roots and was scraped back from her face in a tiny ponytail. Her face was pale and devoid of makeup. Kate wondered if they were a similar age, midforties. In another life, Kate had hoped to reach the DCI rank before she hit forty, and she wondered how long Faye had been a DCI.
Faye arrived with her colleague Detective Constable Mona Lim, a petite, dark-haired officer with doll-like features who looked no more than a teenager.
“So, this is your little detective agency?” asked Faye, looking around the office, where cleaning products and bedding for the campsite were piled up against one wall. She had a bright, patronizing tone in her voice. Kate and Tristan had discussed how they would play it at this meeting, and Kate thought it might be a good idea to let the police think they were amateurs, but having Faye in her space made Kate feel the need to compete and prove herself.
“Yes, we opened our doors nine months ago,” said Kate.
“And how are you finding it? It must be tough trying to start something new all the way out here,” said Faye, moving to the window and looking out over the bay. Mona nodded and joined her at the window.
“Yes, it’s been challenging,” said Tristan. “But here we are, giving the police the breakthrough they need.”
Kate smiled at Faye. Nice one, Tristan, she thought. Faye returned the smile.
“So, Kate. You were once, long ago, a WPC?” she asked.
“I was a detective constable in the Met.”
“Yes. That ended rather badly, didn’t it?”
Kate had a sudden childish urge to grab Faye by her ponytail and yank hard.
“Would you like a coffee, perhaps a doughnut?” asked Tristan, indicating a box he’d picked up from Tesco on his way over.
“How lovely that you have time for morning coffee,” said Faye. “But go on, I didn’t have any breakfast.” She moved over to the box and flipped up the lid, picking up a doughnut. She indicated to Mona, who joined her and peered inside with a serious look on her face, as if it were also evidence in the Joanna Duncan case. She picked up a doughnut.
Tristan went to the coffee machine and quickly made them each an espresso. He came back with the cups, and they all sat down at the table.
“Is that all the files, and the box?” asked Faye through a mouthful. Indicating the blue box at the front of the pile of case file boxes stacked neatly by the door.
“Yes, the names all came from an indentation of Joanna’s writing on the lid. David Lamb and Gabe Kemp are the two victims, and there’s also a phone number we traced to Jorge Tomassini. Jorge was a barman who had slept with Noah Huntley, and he knew David Lamb. Joanna wanted to interview Jorge,” said Kate.
“She was preparing to write a tell-all piece about Noah Huntley. How he hired rent boys and used his parliamentary expense account to pay for them and buy them gifts. One of the young men, Gabe Kemp, had been willing to go on the record about sleeping with Noah Huntley, back in early 2002, but he withdrew his statement and it never went to print. Gabe went missing shortly after the story went to press, and his body was found a few weeks later,” said Tristan.
“We tracked down Jorge Tomassini last week. He says that he had a sexual relationship with Noah Huntley, who had, on occasion, displayed violent tendencies to him and to David Lamb when they had sex,” said Kate.
“Did this Jorge Tomassini say why he never went on record for Joanna Duncan’s story?” asked Faye.
“He didn’t want to be part of a tabloid sex scandal, which is what Joanna wanted to write. He says he was planning to leave the country, and this hastened his exit. He’s Spanish, and he decided to go home.”
“Do you think he’s a reliable source?” asked Faye.
“He’s now a Euro MP in Strasbourg. He wasn’t keen to delve into his former life here in the UK. We’ve made some additional notes in the case, and his details are in there if you’d like to follow it up. There’s a plastic file with everything we’ve been working on,” said Kate.
“You’ll see that we’ve spoken to lots of the people in Joanna’s life and gone back over their original statements. We do think that there are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding Noah Huntley,” said Tristan.
“Joanna met with Noah Huntley two weeks before she went missing, at a petrol station close to where she lived. The meeting was caught on CCTV,” said Kate.
Faye was nodding along as she swallowed the remains of her second doughnut, downed the last of her coffee, and got up, slapping her legs.
“Right. Thank you for everything you’ve done on advancing this case, and thank you for the refreshments.”
Mona popped the last bite of her doughnut in her mouth and wiped off the sugar. She stood up.
“Is that it?” asked Kate. She’d expected Faye to ask some more questions about their findings.
“Did you expect more? You’ve been a huge, huge help. You’ve saved us time and resources, and I’ll make sure that your little agency is mentioned in one of our press releases. Do you have a website?” asked Faye.
“Yes.”
“Text it to me,” said Faye. “Tony, would you give us a hand with the boxes?”
“It’s Tristan.”
“Of course, sorry. Tristan,” said Faye. She picked up three of the boxes.
“Will you be contacting Bev Ellis, Joanna’s mother?” asked Kate.
“At some point we will. Both of the investigations will probably merge very soon.”