You Are Dead

27

Friday 12 December

At four o’clock in the afternoon Roy Grace sat in his office on the first floor of the CID HQ, with its view out across the road. The glistening wet grey slab of the Hollingbury Asda superstore sat in the foreground, in the fading light, with the rainy landscape of the city beyond. He slipped the DVD of the interview with Jamie Ball, which he had just been handed, into his desktop computer.

The burly figure of the young man, in a grey suit, shirt and tie and black shoes, was seated, looking awkward, in one of the three red chairs in the tiny Witness Interview Room. Two detectives, DS Guy Batchelor in a sports jacket and black trousers, and DC Liz Seward, a petite woman with short, spiky blonde hair, dressed in a white shirt and dark trousers, sat with him. Above their heads the lens of a wall-mounted camera stared down at them.

Grace watched the formalities of today’s date and time being announced, and Ball acknowledging he was aware that the interview was being recorded. Batchelor asked Ball to outline the circumstances of his fiancée, Logan Somerville’s, disappearance.

Ball related the events in a precisely identical manner as he had to Roy Grace the previous evening, and that struck Grace as a little strange. Was it rehearsed, he wondered?

‘How would you describe your relationship with Ms Somerville?’ DC Seward asked.

Grace watched the man carefully. He was replying in a calm voice, but he looked anything but calm. ‘We were deeply in love and planning our wedding. I thought everything was great.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ Guy Batchelor pressed. ‘And that she felt the same way?’

‘I thought so.’

Ball looked even more uncomfortable. He stared up for some moments at the camera, then scratched his right ear, before checking the knot of his tie.

‘Do you know a lady by the name of Louise Brice?’ DC Seward asked.

‘Yes, very well.’

‘How would you describe her relationship to Logan?’ the DC asked.

‘She’s Logan’s best friend. They go back to nursery school days. They’re very close.’

‘How close would you say?’

‘They spoke or texted each other all the time. Several times a day, most days.’

‘So Louise Brice would be likely to know quite a lot about her?’

He hesitated. Grace noted his expression change. ‘Yes.’

‘The thing is, Jamie, one of my colleagues spoke to Louise Brice earlier today. I have the transcript of the conversation in front of me.’ She looked down for some moments at a sheet of printout. ‘Louise Brice told her the same thing that she told a reporter on the Argus newspaper who contacted her. That Logan had broken off your engagement. Can you comment on that?’

Again Ball looked uncomfortable for some moments. ‘We were very deeply in love,’ he said, with a tinge of defiance in his voice. ‘But recently there’s been some friction — as Logan was suddenly unsure.’

‘Why do you think her best friend would have said that to a newspaper reporter?’ Liz Seward asked him.

Ball shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Louise Brice and I never got on that well, if you want to know the truth. She runs Brices estate agency. She told Logan she thinks I’m a bit of a loser, and that she could do better.’

‘Better than what?’ Guy Batchelor asked.

‘Me.’

‘How did Logan react to her friend’s view?’ he asked.

Ball was silent for some moments. ‘She told me what Louise had said.’

‘And how did you feel when you heard that?’ Batchelor stared at him intently.

Ball touched his beard, then his stacked hair. ‘I told her that was very hurtful.’

‘I spoke to Louise Brice earlier today,’ DC Seward said. ‘She told me that Logan had a number of concerns about the relationship. Do you want to comment on that?’

Ball’s temper visibly flared. ‘That’s just bullshit! Louise’s a snotty bitch, she never liked me, she was always trying to undermine me. Logan and I had disagreements like any couple.’

‘What about?’

‘Logan can be a loner at times. I felt we should develop interests that we could do together.’

‘Did Louise Brice succeed in any way?’ the DC asked.

‘Logan told me she loved me.’

‘So, is there any truth that she broke off your engagement?’

Again Jamie Ball fell silent for several moments. Then he said, ‘Yes. Well, the thing is — we were going through a bit of a bad patch. But it was all starting to come good again. I mean — what I mean is — you know — we talked through it. All couples go through rough patches, don’t they?’

‘I also spoke to Mrs Tina Somerville today,’ Liz Seward said. ‘That’s Logan’s mother, correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘She told me that Logan spent last weekend with her and her husband, alone. Without you. That she had spent much of the time in a state of some distress, telling them that you would not accept that the relationship was over. Would you like to comment on that?’

Again he shrugged. ‘I’m surprised — but not surprised. She always told me there was friction with her parents. They’re tenant farmers — I don’t know if you understand how that system works?’

‘Would you like to tell us?’ the female detective said.

‘Much of farming in England works on a strange — quite feudal system. The aristocratic landowners own most of the land in this country — with their vast estates. Historically they’ve given farming families three-generation tenancies on fairly low rents. The deal is, in return the farmers look after the land — and make their money out of what they earn off the land. So in one way it’s a good deal for the farmers — they get substantial acreages of arable or dairy or sheep-farming land. But the downside is they don’t own their farms or their land. At the end of the third generation they have to renew their tenancies. It only works if that generation is happy to take on the same deal — as I understand it. Her parents were not happy that I had no interest in farming, they’d hoped Logan would marry someone who was.’

‘So their tenancy was under threat?’

‘Yes. They’re in their sixties and have never bought a property of their own. So they’re faced with the possibility of losing their home. They’re angry at her for not finding a potential husband willing to carry on. But the truth is that Logan is not interested herself. Farming is a tough life.’

Grace continued watching the recording, but there was nothing further that Jamie Ball said of any significance. He’d said enough already.

Logan Somerville had broken off the engagement and Jamie Ball had not accepted it. His position was they were on the verge of getting back together again. Not a view shared either by her best friend or by her parents.

Was he behind her disappearance?

Grace did not have enough information to make a decision either way. Yet.