Love You Dead

28 Thursday 26 February

It was 5.30 p.m., and pelting with rain outside his window. Roy Grace shuffled together a bunch of papers on the prosecution he was preparing for Dr Edward Crisp’s eventual return to the UK, which he was going to take home and read later this evening. Then he stared at the screensaver on his phone, a picture of Noah and Cleo outside the front of their new home. He was looking forward to getting back in good time to play with Noah before bed, and then enjoy a drink and a meal with Cleo.

There was a knock on his office door.

‘Come in!’

Following Haydn Kelly’s report, he had, the day before, asked Jack Alexander to find out urgently from the US authorities what he could about Jodie Bentley’s movements at Atlanta Airport. Had she or Judith Forshaw travelled anywhere else within the USA, or did their systems show Jodie Bentley leaving the country?

The DC came in, beaming, clutching a wodge of papers on which were rows of names, as well as the blurry, blown-up image of the suspect woman’s face from CCTV footage at Atlanta Airport, and a memory stick, which he put down on the Detective Superintendent’s desk.

Grace indicated a chair in front of him.

‘Sir,’ Jack said, sitting down, ‘I’ve found out that Jodie Bentley appears to have travelled from Washington Dulles to Hartsfield — Jackson Airport at Atlanta using the name Jemma Smith. She then flew out of Atlanta as Jodie Bentley, on a Virgin Airlines flight to Heathrow last Thursday, at 17.35, scheduled to arrive in London at 6.30 a.m. on Friday the 20th. I’ve obtained her address from her credit card details.’

‘Where does she live?’

‘Now we get to the interesting bit, sir,’ Alexander said. ‘I’ve checked it out. It’s a rental mailbox address — the same as she used when she booked in to the Park Royale West in New York.’

‘What did you find out about it?’

‘I’ve been to see them and spoke to the manager, who wasn’t too helpful, until I threatened her with a search warrant.’

Grace smiled; he liked this detective’s attitude. He reminded him of himself at that age.

Alexander continued. ‘She said they’ve never met the woman. It was all set up via email about a year ago. A Hotmail account, naturally. I’ve given it to the High Tech Crime Unit to see if they can find out any information — but they’re dubious. Donald Duck could set up an untraceable Hotmail account in a couple of minutes.’

‘How did she pay for this mailing address?’ Grace quizzed him.

‘In cash, apparently. Delivered by a cab.’

‘So she was planning in advance,’ Grace commented, thinking hard. Who the hell is this woman? ‘Who picks up her mail?’

‘The manager says that the staff change all the time, and none of the current employees have any recollection of dealing with her.’

Jodie Bentley, Grace thought. ‘Have you checked the electoral register?’

‘Yes, I have. There’s no one of that name.’

‘Nice work, Jack.’

‘Thank you, sir. Sounds to me like she doesn’t want to be found.’

Grace smiled. ‘You don’t say!’

‘I checked with the Border Control Agency at Heathrow. Her passport was scanned at 7.35 a.m. It would have been flagged if it had been recorded as lost or stolen, or if it had been a poor forgery — apparently forged passports often won’t scan as forgers don’t always get it absolutely right!’

‘Do they retain information from these scans?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Great — why the hell not?’

‘I don’t know, sir.’

They both looked at the blurry photograph again for some moments. Then the DC continued, picking up the memory stick. ‘I went up to the CCTV Control Room at Heathrow to see if I could track Jodie Bentley’s movements after passing through Passport Control. I’ve got her heading to the escalator down to Baggage Reclaim, but then she vanishes.’

‘Vanishes?’

‘Possibly she went into a toilet and changed her hair and put on a different hat. On this stick I’ve got the footage from the arrivals hall, but I couldn’t see her on it. There’s a dozen or so women of similar build emerging into it, but none of them that look like her, or are dressed like her. She had three large suitcases on a trolley at Atlanta Airport. She must either have got a porter or another trolley at the carousel.’

‘What about the taxi companies and limousine services at the airport?’ Grace asked. ‘Any of those take a single woman to Brighton? Also, what CCTV footage is there of people outside the building?’

‘I’ve put in a request for that footage and I’m working through the taxis and limousines, sir.’

Grace looked at the detective’s eager face. ‘Well done!’

‘Thank you, sir.’

Next he called the Financial Investigations Unit at John Street police station. He spoke to Kelly Nicholls, and asked her to see if she could find anything on a woman, aged in her thirties, from the Brighton area who had recently been in the United States, going under the name of Jodie Bentley, Judith Forshaw or Jemma Smith.

Then he went home.