Charlotte Denver Cozy Mystery Box Set Page 20

  “Yeah, you could say that. She misunderstood that she shouldn’t be calling me with ridiculous requests at this time on a Sunday morning.”

  “I see. I rather meant that you had misunderstood the seriousness of refusing to cooperate with the police in a murder enquiry. Now, let’s try again. I’d like you to come to the station to answer some further questions regarding the death of Kate Denton. Obviously, it would be preferable if you came of your own free will, but if you refuse, you will leave us with no alternative but to come to your home, or your place of work, and question you on the premises, or bring you to the station.”

  Olivia had cursed under her breath as she’d considered the ramifications of not co-operating with the police. The last thing she needed was for them to call at her home, or even worse, at work.

  “What time do you want me to be there?” she’d conceded, furiously.

  “What time did DS Farrell say?” Nathan had asked.

  “Eleven,” she’d replied.

  “Well, in that case, let’s make it ten-thirty. Good day, Ms. Floyd-Martin.”

  ººººººº

  “So, you’ve been at The President for, what is it? Five years?” Nathan sat opposite the chef in the interview room and tapped his pen on the table.

  “Yes.” Olivia was feeling decidedly uncomfortable. She had an intense dislike for police stations - they held extremely bad memories for her.

  “And would you say that you’re well-liked by the other staff?”

  She shrugged. “I have no idea. Nor do I care. I’m there to make the rooftop restaurant the best in the country, not to recruit members for my fan club.”

  “Hmmm. Well, let me give you some direct quotes from other members of staff,” said Nathan. ‘This one, for example, “She scares me to death. Ever since I saw her throw a pan of boiling water at the commis chef for overcooking the asparagus, I’ve been looking for another job.’ And this one, ‘I can’t stand her. Every time I see her, I want to punch her on the nose.’ That one was from a woman, incidentally. And this one’s my favourite, ‘Her idea of a positive working environment is when she’s positive she’s going to make our lives hell for the entire shift.’” He sat back and surveyed the impassive chef carefully. “All in all, I’d say that you’re not too popular.”

  She shrugged again. “I don’t know what you expect me to say. So I’m unpopular. Big deal. What does that have to do with that woman falling off the roof and you wanting to question me again?”

  Nathan stared intently at the chef. “Is it true that you used to bully ‘that woman’ when you were at school?”

  Olivia became flustered. “For God’s sake! That was over twenty years ago. You can’t try and pin this on me because of that!”

  Nathan continued. “And that you when she reported you to the headmistress, you were suspended? That must have made you very angry?”

  Olivia said nothing.

  “Would you say that you bear a grudge, Ms. Floyd-Martin?

  Still nothing.

  “Why did you leave your last job?”

  Olivia turned pink and looked down at her hands. “Like I just said, what’s does that have to do with Kate Denton’s death?”

  “Kate Denton’s murder, you mean? Well, I don’t know yet, but I intend to find out,” said Nathan. “So, you were just about to tell me why you left your last job.”

  Olivia sat with her fists clenched. She hated, hated, hated not being in control. It went against the very grain of her being. She took a deep breath and said, “Because of my temper.”

  “Your temper? I see,” said Nathan. “And what exactly was it that happened to make you lose this temper of yours?”

  “I had a disagreement with a customer,” she said, her voice quavering.

  “What’s that? You say you had a disagreement with a customer? I should say you did, Ms. Floyd-Martin! As you’re obviously not very keen on talking about it, let me tell you what happened and you can stop me if I get it wrong.” Nathan smiled widely before continuing. “Right, when you worked in The Bannock Barn Restaurant, isn’t it true that you took exception to a four star review left by a newspaper food critic?”

  Olivia retaliated swiftly. “It was completely justified! He said that my red wine reduction lacked depth. Lacked depth! He wouldn’t know depth if it smacked him in the face.” Looking down, she closed her eyes and tried to focus on the deep breathing exercises her anger management counsellor had given her.

  “So, this critic left a four star review which, to put it into perspective, was four stars out of five, not ten or twenty. So not really a bad review at all,” said Nathan. “Anyway, the next time he came into the restaurant, is it true that you picked him up and threw him through a plate glass window?”

  Olivia sat silently, eyes still closed, breathing deeply and counting backwards from 100. She’d heard everything the Detective Chief Inspector had said, but didn’t want to acknowledge it. The incident he’d referred to had been the catalyst which had sparked the most difficult time of her life, and one that she was trying hard to forget.

  She stopped counting and unclenched her fists. “Yes, it’s true,” she said, quietly.

  “And isn’t it true that a condition of the critic not pressing charges against you was that you sought help at an anger management clinic?”

  She nodded.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Floyd-Martin, would you speak for the benefit of the tape, please.”

  “Yes.”

  “And isn’t it true that you’ve attended regular sessions at a clinic since then, but your counsellor is concerned that, even after all these years, you still struggle to keep your temper under control?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what would happen if you lost your temper so badly again, and did something as bad, or worse, than what you did to that unfortunate food critic?”

  Olivia stared at the wall. It wasn’t often that she became vulnerable in the presence of others, but then again, it wasn’t often that she was forced to confront her darkest thoughts by a stranger.

  “I’d be locked up.”

  “Yes, you’d be locked up. Because it’s on your record that if you make just one more slip-up and the police get involved, you’ll be behind bars in a flash. It’s all here, in this file, along with the details of every other offence for assault, going back years.” He tapped the sheaf of papers on his desk.

  “You sure you didn’t have a slip-up on Saturday, Ms. Floyd-Martin? You sure that grudge you’ve been holding for years didn’t rear its ugly head when you saw Kate Denton again? You let your temper get the better of you for a split second and before you knew it, she’d gone over the rail? You sure that’s not what happened?”

  “No, no, I swear,” said Olivia, perspiration showing in patches as her tee-shirt stuck to her. “I promise you, I had nothing to do with her death. You have to believe me! I know it doesn’t look good, with my record and all, but even if I’d wanted to - which I didn’t - I wouldn’t have pushed her. I can’t risk getting involved with the police again ... the thought of going to prison absolutely terrifies me.”

  Her eyes were fearful and full of tears and Nathan noticed the perspiration on her palms as she clenched and unclenched her fists. “Listen, if I’d done anything wrong, do you really think I’d have spoken to you like that on the phone this morning? It would have been like adding fuel to a smouldering fire. I give you my word, I didn’t do anything.”

  Nathan stared at the chef, a greatly deflated version of the arrogant woman who had sauntered into the interview room an hour before.

  “Interview terminated at eleven-thirty five. Ms. Floyd-Oliver, you are free to go but if we need to question you with regard to this matter again, please make yourself more readily available than you did today. DS Farrell will escort you off the premises.”

  “I can go?” The relief on Olivia’s face was clear and she was out of her seat and out of the door before Nathan had turned the tape recorder off.

  He
crossed her name off the list in his diary and put a put a ring around his next appointment.

  Chapter 7

  Drew arrived at the station at just after quarter to four. Nathan had called round earlier to share the findings of the SOCO report. Kate hadn’t fallen accidentally at all. “It’s a murder enquiry now” is what Nathan had said. Then he’d told him that he had some questions to ask him. Questions of a sensitive nature which might be better asked and answered at the police station.

  He had no idea what Nathan was referring to, but like so many things over the past 24 hours, the conversation had been somewhat of a blur.

  His mother had called an ambulance in the middle of the night, as after he’d finally fallen asleep, he’d woken ten minutes later screaming and lashing out, and she’d been unable to communicate with him. The paramedic had given him a tranquiliser shot which had calmed him and allowed him to get some rest.

  As he walked to the station, it occurred to him that he still felt a little out of it. He didn’t mind, though - it took the edge off everything. He knew that Kate had gone, but it made the situation that much easier to deal with. He must remember to mention it to Kate’s parents - maybe they could get a shot of whatever it was he’d had. They were having a dreadful time coming to terms with what had happened.

  He walked through the doors of the police station and announced his arrival to the desk sergeant. “Just take a seat, Sir, and I’ll let DCI Costello know you’re here.”

  Two minutes passed and Nathan himself came down to greet him. “Mr. Ferguson, good to see you. Thanks for coming in.” They shook hands and made their way to the interview room, making small talk all the way.

  “First of all,” said Nathan when they were settled in the interview room. “I appreciate how difficult things must be for you right now ... which makes it all the more difficult for me to ask what I’m about to ask you.”

  Drew frowned, looking puzzled. “Will it help find who did this to Kate?” he asked.

  Nathan nodded. “We think it might, yes. Or at least, eliminate them from our enquiries.”

  Drew nodded. “Well you’d better ask away then.”

  Nathan cleared his throat. “Mr. Ferguson, who is Nina?”

  “Nina?” Drew repeated.

  “Yes, we’re very keen to interview her, but we have no idea where to find her.”

  Drew shook his head. “Well, as much as I’d love to help you, I don’t know anyone called Nina. Who is she and what’s she got to do with what happened to Kate?”

  He noticed that Nathan cleared his throat again. Must be a nervous cough.

  “The day before Kate died, she was heard speaking to someone called Nina on the phone. It sounded very much as though she was talking to her about you - telling her to stay away because she was trying to get her relationship with you back on track. It certainly seemed as though this ‘Nina’ was causing some problems between you and Kate.”

  Drew looked blankly back at Nathan. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, I don’t know who Nina is and Kate and I weren’t having any problems. I don’t know where you got your information from, but it’s wrong.”

  He saw Nathan look to Fiona and then back to him. “Okay, well do you know anyone who has a name that could have been misheard as Nina?”

  Drew shook his head. “No, I don’t.” His eyes narrowed and he leaned across the table. “Hold on ... are you insinuating that this Nina woman and I are involved in some way?”

  Nathan had the good grace to look uncomfortable. “Look, I don’t mean to insinuate anything, but I need to find out the whereabouts of this woman so that I can speak to her directly, and to my knowledge you’re the only person who might know where she is.”

  Drew was shaking with emotion when he stood up, his chair crashing backwards behind him. “Well, you’re wrong. I don’t know where she is and I don’t know who she is. And for your information, Detective Chief Inspector, Kate and I were very happy. In the fifteen years we were together, I was never unfaithful. Not once.” A lone tear appeared at the corner of his eye and he brushed it away angrily. “If you have no more questions, I’d like to leave now, if I may.”

  Nathan stood up, his hands splayed in front of him. “I’m sorry to have upset you, but we’re just trying to find out who did this to Kate and this woman is a likely suspect,” he explained. “If you don’t know her, though, there’s obviously been a misunderstanding and we’ll just have to try and find her using other methods.”

  Drew stood at the table, his shoulders sagging and his head down. He wiped his hand over his eyes again. “No, I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that when you’ve been as close to someone as I was to Kate, it’s difficult to have your relationship put under scrutiny.” He stepped back to pick up the chair he’d knocked over. “Sorry about that,” he said to Fiona, sitting by the door behind him. “If you do find her, you’ll let me know? I’d like to know who she is and how she knew Kate.”

  “Of course. Now let me just stop the tape and I’ll see you out.”

  “Goodbye, DS Farrell.” Drew stopped to shake her hand before disappearing down the corridor.

  Five minutes later, Nathan came back into the room to collect his things.

  “What did you make of that, Chief?”

  Nathan blew out his cheeks. “Well, if he does know who Nina is, he’s definitely not saying, so it makes our job very difficult.” He sat on the edge of the table and stretched out his legs. “How the hell are we supposed to find her? In fact, what with the elusive woman in the green dress and now the mysterious Nina, I honestly don’t know where to start.”

  “Well, if we find out that he does know her and has been keeping her a secret, we can have him for withholding evidence,” said Fiona.

  “Hmmm, if being the operative word,” said Nathan, dubiously.

  ººººººº

  Later that evening, Nathan sat in the kitchen with Charlotte as she prepared dinner, Pippin at his feet chewing on a rubber, bone-shaped toy.

  “Did you get the SOCO report back yet?” she asked as she opened the fridge and started rooting around in the salad drawer.

  “Yes.” Nathan knew what was coming and he wasn’t looking forward to it. Charlotte was incredibly sensitive and he knew how much the news that Kate’s death hadn’t been accidental would unsettle her.

  “And?”

  “It wasn’t an accident.”

  “I knew it!” she said, a frown immediately creasing her forehead.

  “Now don’t go getting all upset, okay?” said Nathan. “We’ll find whoever did it, just like we did before.”

  Charlotte began cutting up cucumber and Nathan could tell from the way the knife banged against the chopping board that she was taking out her anxiety on the salad vegetables.

  “Anyway, how was your day?” he asked, keen to change the subject.

  She shrugged. “Okay. Jess didn’t have an easy time, though. Y’know, bad news travels fast - seems like the whole of St. Eves knows that she was at The President yesterday morning. She spent most of the day trying to avoid questions about what happened. Oh, and Drew popped in to see her.”

  Nathan looked up with interest. “Really? What for?”

  “To tell her that he didn’t think she had anything to do with Kate’s death. She’s so stressed about being a suspect, it did her the world of good to hear him say that - she looked like a ton weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Anyway, apparently, he was on his way to see you but he stopped off at the café first.”

  Charlotte slid the chopped cucumber into a bowl and started on a head of celery. “So, are you any closer to finding the woman in the green dress?”

  Nathan shook his head. “No, but I put out an appeal earlier so hopefully we’ll get some responses over the next few days.” He looked at his watch. “In fact, we might just catch it on the end of the local news if I switch on now.”

  A minute later, his face filled half the TV screen, the other half occupied by the ar
tist’s sketch of the woman in green.

  “The suspect we are keen to question is a woman who was last seen leaving the roof terrace of The President Hotel at approximately five-past twelve last Saturday afternoon. She is white, with auburn, shoulder-length hair, and is between approximately 5’6” and 5’10” tall. She was wearing a green dress or skirt and blouse, a light-coloured sun hat and a pair of sunglasses.

  “Unfortunately, I ‘m afraid that as the only witness to see the suspect wasn’t able to get a close look at her, the description we have is rather vague. Therefore, I am appealing to all of you watching at home to please get in touch if you think you recognise this woman from the artist’s impression, or you have any other reason to believe that you know who she is.

  “Alternatively, if you are the woman we’re looking for and your reason for being at the hotel was entirely innocent, I appeal to you to get in touch in order that we may eliminate you from our enquiries.

  “Kate Denton was a local woman. Having recently returned to St. Eves after a period of travelling, she had her whole life ahead of her. That it was cut short so cruelly is nothing less than tragic. If you have any information which you think may help us with our enquiries, the number you need to call is ...”

  He switched off the TV and threw Pippin’s chew toy across the kitchen. “I hope to God that turns up something.”

  “Hmmm, me too. Regardless of the fact that Drew thinks she’s innocent, Jess is desperate for you to cross her name off your list of suspects.”

  The celery joined the cucumber in the bowl and Charlotte began chopping a wedge of honeydew melon into cubes for her Surprise Salad, so called because she never knew what the ingredients were going to be until she saw what was in her fridge.

  “By the way, did you know that Ben’s been all weird with Jess since yesterday? She thinks it’s because he’s convinced she’s guilty of something. I hope she tells him to get lost if he ever comes creeping back to her.”

  “Ah, I wondered what was wrong with him. He’s had a face like a smacked backside since yesterday,” said Nathan.