Need You Dead

23 Thursday 21 April

If they made an arrest within hours of the murder being reported, it would not only reflect well on him, Grace thought, as he left the building. It would take any pressure off him having to explain his sudden absence for a few days.

If.

If they had the right person.

Corin Belling had violently assaulted his wife three times in the past year — at least, three times that the police were aware of, having been called by his wife. In all probability it was many times more than that, unreported. Such was the normal pattern. Abusers would assault their partners, then apologize and beg for forgiveness. Over and over. The average was, incredibly, forty assaults before the partner would contact the police. And still after then the assaults would continue. Until one day they went that bit too far.

There was a ton of questions he needed answering. The first was Lorna’s reason for having this flat. Did the husband know about it? Or rather, when had he found out about it? Was Lorna a secret smoker? If not, who had been using the ashtray? Corin? DNA might provide the answer if they could find any on the cigarette ends.

In the meantime they had the print match on the beer cans. Lorna’s husband, Corin.

Corin had been released from custody after his arrest earlier in the week for assaulting his wife.

Lorna had been renting the flat for over eighteen months — secretly, Grace presumed. Paying cash. Why? And why no phone? Or computer?

The obvious explanation was to give her a bolthole to escape from her husband when he became violent. Maybe she left her computer at home. Maybe also she left her phone. If the husband was a control freak there were any number of ways these days he could track her through her phone.

Another possibility that he’d already considered was a secret trysting place with a lover.

It was unlikely for her husband and her to have a place close to the seafront as a kind of weekend holiday home. But if that was the case, why would it have been in her name and why was she paying in cash, giving the landlord no other address?

He razored away that last explanation, leaving just the first two options.

The husband’s prints, clearly recent, on the cans of beer put him at the scene where she had been found dead.

Had he discovered her bolthole and gone there to confront her? Then turned violent? He looked at his watch. Time was running out on him. He wanted to break the news himself to the man, and see from his face and body language how he reacted.

Grace decided to go to the man’s workplace and talk to him. He was aware of the forensic considerations of going straight from a crime scene to a suspect, but in this case he judged there would be no cross-contamination issues.

Needing a collaborating officer for the questioning and potential arrest, he thought for some moments about who from his team was available, then called DS Exton, gave him the address and asked him to head straight there and meet him outside.