Need You Dead

41 Saturday 23 April

‘I think I’d have an affair, too, if I was married to that witch,’ Roy Grace said as they climbed back into the car.

‘Or shag the dog, which is prettier,’ Batchelor said.

‘You’re a happily married man, Guy, right?’

‘Yes.’ Batchelor gave him an odd look.

‘How much would you spend on a birthday present for your wife?’

‘I dunno. I usually buy Lena a few things, you know — one big present, a piece of jewellery or something, and some smaller bits and pieces. A hundred quid, maybe a bit more. Hundred and fifty. Why?’

‘Me too — that’s sort of what I would spend. Maybe a bit more if it was a significant birthday. Seymour Darling bought a car — or thought he had — as a surprise for his wife. Two thousand eight hundred pounds — seems a lot, don’t you think? Especially when you look at their very modest house — and the state of their relationship.’

‘Are you saying it’s dodgy money? Is he drug dealing?’

‘How about guilt money?’

‘Guilt money?’

‘A man who’s been unfaithful will often buy an expensive present for his wife, out of guilt.’

Batchelor gave him a strange look. ‘I trust you’re not talking from experience, boss? Tut tut tut, and you a newlywed!’

Grace smiled. ‘Thanks for your faith in my integrity!’

The DI raised a placatory hand, also grinning. ‘No offence meant.’

‘None taken. Affairs have never been my thing — unlike, it seems, my late ex-wife.’

‘She had affairs? Sandy? You’re serious?’

‘She was kind enough to tell me in her suicide note. Not information I particularly wanted or needed to know.’

‘Shit, I’m sorry.’

Grace shrugged. ‘Maybe I was more of a rubbish husband than I ever realized.’

Batchelor was silent for some moments, then he said, ‘Don’t ever think that. If that’s what she did, then she was the one in the wrong.’

‘You’re lucky — I don’t know you two well, but it seems to me that you and Lena are very solid. She’s a lovely lady.’

‘She is, I’m very lucky.’

‘You are. I’ve been a reluctant confidant to quite a few officers over the years, who’ve told me about their tangled love lives. That’s how I know about the gifts.’

‘I see where you’re coming from with Darling.’

Grace nodded. ‘Wracked with guilt over his affair, perhaps he decided to buy his wife her dream car, to compensate. He paid the money over — money he could barely afford — and either Lorna Belling stole it, tucking him up, or as seems more likely to be the case, he’s been the victim of online fraud. Either way, he’s angry at her, blames her, wants his money back. So he calls her forty-seven times and makes ten visits to her flat. What does that sound like to you?’

‘Someone’s anger escalating to danger point.’

‘Precisely. The report you have on the cell site puts Darling outside Lorna Belling’s flat on ten separate occasions in the past week, as well as on the night of her death. The most recent was last night — two days after her death. We know that killers have a habit of returning to their crime scene and observing.’

‘Yes.’

‘One hypothesis I have is that he went into the flat, had a confrontation with her, raped and killed her. If there’s a DNA match with him and the semen found in her that would be pretty strong evidence.’

‘I like your hypothesis, boss.’

‘So, Plan B?’

‘Plan B?’

Grace explained it to him.

As soon as he had finished, the DI punched a series of numbers into his phone before going hands-free. Moments later, as they drove away, it was answered.

‘Julian Raven, Digital Forensics.’

‘Julian, it’s Guy Batchelor. That phone number you gave me earlier, for Seymour Darling?’

‘Yes, sir?’

‘I need the current triangulation on it. Can you get on to your O2 phone company contacts and find its current whereabouts?’

‘I’ll do what I can, sir. It may take a while, because it’s the weekend.’

‘Fine. Call me when you have it.’

‘Yes, sir.’