Her only hope now was the one person she hoped would visit – Greg Turner. He was a good man and he was adept at recognising when people told lies. He would know she was telling the truth.
Her heart lifted at the prospect and then quickly, like most of her hope that day, it was instantly crushed, leaving her feeling distraught. Greg Turner was an ordinary man dealing with an extraordinary killer. There was no way he could set her free.
Chapter fifty-one
Joe’s face beamed at him through the car window as Greg waved goodbye. Clad in Spiderman pyjamas, cheeks flushed and hair still sleep-tousled, he held on for dear life to the bright yellow toy helicopter he had been given. It had been a wonderful morning and now, guilt-free, Greg set the car in motion back to Bath.
At midday, as he drove through the outskirts of the city his mobile rang, and, pulling over into a lay-by, he took the call. The man’s secretary had come up trumps. Greg had spoken to her while he was at his ex-wife’s house and she had said she would do her best to get a hold of Robert Fitzgerald.
Robert Fitzgerald had an American accent and his voice was loud in Greg’s ear. ‘So what can I do for you, Inspector? My secretary said it was urgent.’
Greg held the mobile further away from his ear. ‘It concerns Oliver Ryan. You represented him.’
‘That’s right, I did.’
‘Could you tell me exactly when he died, and how?’ All Greg had managed to find from his internet search were the years for when the actor was born and had died.
‘It happened in July. And it came as a complete shock,’ Robert Fitzgerald answered. ‘Oliver Ryan was a narcissist, and not someone I would ever have believed would do this. They didn’t find any drugs in him at the autopsy, only alcohol. The only thing that I can think of is that it was a prank that went wrong. The coroner didn’t buy it, though.’
‘What did he do?’
‘Hanged himself.’
‘And why do you think this happened?’
‘I dropped him. Told him that I didn’t wish to represent him any more.’
‘When was this?’
‘The day before he killed himself.’
‘Why did you drop him?’
‘In a nutshell? The man was a loose cannon. I gave him a second chance last year after a bit of trouble he got himself into. Got him a few parts on prime time television in several dramas, kept him busy and in the eye of Joe Public. Then in July I was negotiating a lead part for him with a film producer, a sure winner, and what does he go and do? – gets himself in another jam. Only this time, there’s no walking away from it. The woman rings me up, crying, wanting to know where Oliver is. She’s pregnant, and lover boy has scarpered.
‘Well, that was it. I saw red. I could see the road he was going down and knew that wherever he went scandal would follow. Put him in a big movie and it would just give him licence to create havoc. So we had a little chat and he walked out of my office as arrogant as when he walked in, threatening to sue me.’
Greg was mildly surprised. He would have thought it unlikely that an agent would dump someone over a bit of scandal, especially if they were about to get a big part. Maybe Robert Fitzgerald was a principled man.
He had been doing the maths in his head as soon as heard the word pregnant, and now wanted to know who the woman was.
‘So this all happened in July? The negotiation for a new part and a woman ringing you to tell you she’s pregnant?’
‘All happened the same day, July 30th. I’d spent most of the morning on the phone to the producer and his secretary discussing contract details. It gets to lunchtime and I’m about to ring Oliver to give him the good news. Only I get this other call from this pregnant woman.’
‘Did she give her name?’
‘No, and I didn’t ask, but I reckon she was from Bath. She asked if I knew when he was coming back. I reckon she was either a nurse or a policewoman, because she asked me to tell Oliver she was on duty and could he call her workplace. The fool got into trouble with another woman there last year, and then goes back to the same place for more. Anyway, as I said, I saw red. I invited him over for a chat and gave it to him straight. Told him about the big part he was no longer getting and told him he was off my books for good. The problem with Oliver is he couldn’t keep his pants zipped for five minutes.’
It had to be Amy Abbott he got pregnant, Greg thought. She was admitted to A & E in mid-November, and, according to the post-mortem, she was sixteen weeks pregnant.
He had used his ex-wife’s computer to look up the actor and had gathered a brief history of his career. He would have to get more information on the man from other sources, and he would also have to re-examine Amy Abbott’s and Lillian Armstrong’s case files. Alex Taylor claimed that both women were killed by Maggie Fielding, but the reality was she had probably killed them herself. Laura Best was therefore right – Alex did have some form of Munchausen’s, or else she had killed them in cold blood for having some involvement with Oliver Ryan. Maybe, as Caroline Cowan suggested, Alex got too involved and became obsessed by him.
‘The woman from last year, what was that about?’
The American agent sighed. ‘She was a doctor. Oliver was in her hospital learning the role of a doctor. Her boss rings me up after he’s only been there a few days and requests that he doesn’t come any more. She said there’d been a situation, that one of her doctors had been sexually assaulted. Oliver denied it, of course, and the doctor who made the complaint didn’t go to the police, so nothing came of it.’ The man paused. ‘I didn’t believe him for a minute. He was a danger where women were concerned.’
‘Was there anyone special in his life?’ Greg asked, and then decided to throw another woman’s name into the equation. ‘You ever hear of a Maggie Fielding?’
‘No, never heard of her. But yes, there was someone special.’
Greg’s chest momentarily tightened.
‘Oliver Ryan. That was the only special someone in his life. There was no room for anyone else.’
*
His mood more sombre, Greg carried on driving, the conversation with the American playing in his mind. Fitzgerald didn’t believe the actor had intentionally killed himself, but that it was an accident. Greg wondered if it was neither suicide nor accident. He would have to speak to the police who investigated the death. A vague memory of the man’s face kept prodding him. He knew the memory could be from the TV, but somehow he didn’t think so. He had a feeling he had met Oliver Ryan, but couldn’t recall where.
Alex Taylor’s apartment was still being searched, and he would head that way now and give them some help with what they should be looking for – links to Oliver Ryan, Amy Abbott and Lillian Armstrong. Even the old man she had nearly killed in the emergency department. They would run his name into the police computer on the chance that he was somehow connected.