Star Struck

Chapter 15 PLUTO IN VIRGO IN THE 5TH HOUSE

She is critical, both of herself and others. She is driven to seek the answers to the world’s problems and has an analytical mind which she uses in her pitched battles against injustice. She has a great appetite for life, enjoying a vigorous lust in her sexual relationships.

From Written in the Stars, by Dorothea Dawson

I’d barely absorbed the impact of Linda Shaw’s bombshell when she delivered the double whammy. “Or the fingerprints on the murder weapon,” she added. There was no time for me to find out more; we’d reached the people carrier by then. Funny, I’d never suspected her of sadism before.

Gloria had already climbed into the front row of rear seats and Jackson, predictably, was in the driving seat. I went to sit next to Gloria, but Linda put a hand on my arm and motioned me into the back row before she slid into place next to my client. “I’ve already told you everything I know,” Gloria started before the doors were even closed. Bad move.

“I don’t think so,” Jackson said brusquely, twisting round to face us. I had a moment’s satisfaction at the sight of a painful razor rash along the line of his collar. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke.

“I didn’t kill her. She was still alive when I left her.”

“You had reason to want her dead, though.” Jackson’s words seemed to materialize in the cold air, hanging in front of us like a macabre mobile.

“I beg your pardon, I never did,” Gloria protested, her shoulders squaring in outrage.

Jackson nodded to Linda, who took out her notebook and flipped it open. “We’ve had a statement from a Mr. Tony Satterthwaite—”

“That vicious scumbag?” Gloria interrupted. “You’re not telling me you wasted your time listening to that no-good lying pig?”

“Your ex-husband has been extremely helpful,” Jackson said smoothly, nodding again at Linda.

“Mr. Satterthwaite was distressed by Ms. Dawson’s death, not least because, according to him, it was his affair with her that precipitated the end of your marriage.”

I remembered that line about backbenchers resembling mushrooms because they get kept in the dark except when someone opens the door to shovel shit on them. I knew just how they felt. I glared at Gloria. She stared open-mouthed at Linda. It was the first time I’d ever seen her stuck for something to say.

“He suggested that you had never really forgiven Ms. Dawson for the affair, and that you were, and I quote, ‘the sort of devious bitch who would wait years to get her own back.’ We’d be very interested in your comments, Ms. Kendal,” Linda said coolly.

“You don’t have to say a thing, Gloria,” I said hurriedly.

“What? And let them go on thinking there’s a word of truth in what that money-grubbing moron says? My God,” she said, anger building in her voice, “you lot are gullible. I dumped Tony Satterthwaite because he was an idle leech. He couldn’t even be bothered to look further than his own secretary when he decided to have a bit on the side. Even though she looked like Walter Matthau. He never even met Dorothea, never mind had an affair with her. I’d kicked him out a good six months before she first turned up at Northerners.”

“So why would he tell us a pack of lies?” Jackson sneered.

“Because if he saw a chance to give me a bad time, he’d not let it go past him,” Gloria said bitterly. “Especially if he could see a way of turning it into a moneyspinner. You can bet your bottom dollar that the next call he made after he spoke to you was to the Sun or the Mirror. You’ve been had, the both of you. What you don’t realize is that if he had been having an affair with Dorothea, I’d have bought her a magnum of champagne for giving me a twenty-four-carat reason for ditching the sod. Ask my daughter. Ask anybody that was around me then. They’ll tell you the same.”

“You married the man,” Jackson pointed out.

“Everybody’s entitled to one mistake,” Gloria snapped back. “He were mine. Let me tell you, you’ll not find a single person can back up his tale and there’s a good reason for that.”

Linda and Jackson exchanged a look that said they both knew they were backing a loser here. I wasn’t so sure. I’d seen how well Gloria acted off screen. But even if the tale of the affair was true, I couldn’t see Gloria nursing her bitterness for all those years. She was far too upfront for that. If she’d had a bone to pick with Dorothea, it would have been lying bleached in the sun a long time since.

“At the end of the day, we don’t have to prove motive in a court of law,” Jackson pointed out. “Most people think detectives have to prove means, motive and opportunity. But we don’t. All we need is evidence. And we’ve got evidence against you. There’s circumstance — you’re the last person known to have seen her alive, and more often than not the last person to see a victim alive is also the first person to see them dead.”

I opened my mouth to speak and he waved a hand at me. “You’ll get your say in a minute. Let me finish first. But we’ve got more than that, Gloria. We’ve got fingerprints. To be precise, we’ve got your fingerprints on the murder weapon.”

There was a long silence. Gloria stared impassively at Jackson, then lit a cigarette with a hand that showed no tremor. “The crystal ball?” she asked.

His smile was as thin as the line of the new moon. “The crystal ball,” he confirmed.

It was obviously my week for fingerprints. All I needed now was for one of DI Tucker’s merry band to find Gloria’s prints inside Dennis’s shop and then I could swap client for buddy behind bars. Then something occurred to me. “Excuse me, but I don’t remember anyone taking my client’s fingerprints. Where exactly has the comparison set come from?” I asked belligerently.

Linda’s eyes widened and I could see her forcing her body not to react. Jackson scowled. “That’s neither here nor there. Take my word for it, the prints on the murder weapon are a perfect match for Gloria’s here.”

I shook my head. “You’ll have to do better than that.” I glanced at my watch. “Otherwise I’m going to call Ruth Hunter and get this whole shooting match on the record. And I don’t have to tell you how much Ruth hates having her lunch interrupted.” I knew the last thing Jackson wanted now was to get to the “lawyers at dawn” stage. He was relying on Gloria being confident enough to think she could handle this alone, and even with me along to stick a spoke in his wheel, he still thought he was the one holding all the cards. You’d think he’d have known by now. “So where did you get a verified set of my client’s prints?” I demanded again.

“You gave her a glass of water in the green room on Friday night when we had our initial interview,” Linda said. Jackson glared at her, but he must have known they’d reached the point of put up or shut up.

“And you helped yourself to it after we left,” I said, shaking my head in a pretense of sorrow at their deviousness. “So how do you know it’s not my prints on the murder weapon?”

Linda allowed herself a small moment of triumph. “Because you were still wearing your leather gloves.”

OK, so I’d forgotten. I didn’t think Gloria was going to sue me. At least the conversation had provided enough of a diversion for my client to pull herself together. “Of course my fingerprints were on the crystal ball,” she said. All three of us turned to stare at her.

“Gloria,” I warned, stifling a momentary panic that she was about to confess.

“It’s all right, chuck. There’s a simple explanation.”

My favorite kind.

“I’d just had a consultation, hadn’t I? I’d been sat opposite Dorothea, with my fingertips touching the crystal ball. That’s what we always did. I suppose she did it with everybody, but she must have buffed it up between times because it was always sparkling,

I grinned. Usually when I’d been present to watch Jackson get shafted, I was the one doing the shafting, which meant the pleasure was always tinged with a degree of apprehension. This time, the delight was entirely unadulterated. Jackson looked like a man whose cat just ate his prize canary.

“I bet it was just my fingertips on that crystal ball, wasn’t it? Not my whole hand,” Gloria said. She sounded as if she was half teasing, half scolding a naughty schoolboy. “You’ve been trying to get me going, haven’t you? You’ve been stretching the truth to try and get me to confess.” She wagged her finger at him. “I don’t like people that think they’re smart enough to get clever with me. Brenda Barrowclough might have come up the ship canal on a bike, but I’m not so daft. I’m not talking to you again, Mr. Jackson, not without I’ve got my solicitor with me.”

“I can’t believe you tried that on, Jackson,” I said. “Wait till Ruth Hunter hears about this. You better thank your lucky stars that you didn’t drag us down the nick for this bag of crap.”

Jackson turned dark red, his eyes narrowing as I’d seen them do too many times before. Just before the geyser of his rage erupted over us, the door behind him jerked open, nearly tipping him backwards towards the slushy car park.

John Turpin stepped back, not prepared to stand between Jackson and a nasty fall. At the last minute, Jackson grabbed the steering wheel and hauled himself back into the seat. “Jesus,” he exclaimed. “You nearly had me on the floor there, Mr. Turpin.”

Turpin’s broad face was wearing a scowl that matched most of the tales I’d heard about him. “I’m very disappointed in you,” he said, his voice as sharply clipped as a topiary peacock. “I had thought we’d reached an accommodation. We’ve bent over backwards for you and your team. We’ve given you space to work in, we’ve offered you full access to our site and to all NPTV staff. The one thing I asked was that you didn’t disrupt filming.” He shook his head sorrowfully.

Jackson was at a major disadvantage, stuck in the van seat well

Turpin snorted and jerked his thumb at Gloria. “That’s your murder suspect?” he said, his voice a suppressed laugh. “My God, man, you must be grasping at straws. This is the woman who’s so timid she’s hired a private detective because she’s had some hysterical hate mail. Even if she had the nerve to commit murder, I don’t think she’d be doing it when she’s got a minder on her tail. Unless of course you think Gloria hired Brannigan and Co to commit murder for her?” I couldn’t repress my smile. Linda broke into a spasm of tactical coughing, but Jackson couldn’t see the funny side. He probably thought Turpin’s sarcastic suggestion was a promising line of inquiry. “It wouldn’t have hurt to have waited for a natural break in filming. I mean, she’s hardly dressed to go on the run, wearing Brenda Barrowclough’s wig,” the TV executive continued with genial sarcasm. “Did you think she was going to take a cameraman hostage with her handbag?”

“This is a police inquiry,” Jackson said obstinately. “Only the case dictates the timetable I work to.”

Turpin gave Jackson a thoughtful look. When he spoke, his voice had a kindly tone at odds with his words. “The press is always interested in anything that affects Northerners and this company is a notoriously leaky sieve. You might think your murder investigation is the most important thing in this city, but there are far more people interested in the outcome of Monday night’s episode of Northerners than in who killed some stargazing charlatan. You might want to think about how dumb you could be made to look by some news-hungry journalist.” Without waiting for a reply, Turpin bent forward, head and shoulders into the van, forcing Jackson to step hastily aside, with the cavalier lack of concern most big men display.

“Gloria, my dear,” he said coldly. “Time to earn your grossly inflated salary. Mustn’t keep Helen waiting, must we?”

Gloria squared her shoulders, gathered her coat around her and made a nimble exit. “Ta-ra, Linda, chuck,” she said, leaning back into the van. “I won’t be talking to you again without a lawyer, but I don’t hold that sneaky trick with the glass against you. You were only doing your job, and we both know what it’s like to work for complete shits, don’t we?”

Turpin’s stare was surprisingly malevolent. “The people you have to deal with in this job,” he sighed, including us all in his comprehensive glower.

“Never mind,” I said sweetly. “If NPTV sell out to cable or satellite, you’ll be able to retire to the South of France on your profits.”

His calculating eyes made the snow look warm and welcoming. “You really shouldn’t believe actors’ gossip,” he said. He turned on his heel, brushing past Jackson, and made for the catering truck. I didn’t envy Ross if the coffee was stewed.

Jackson spun round to close the door, his face still scarlet with rage. It was clear he regarded my continued existence on the planet, never mind in his eyeshot, as pure provocation. Rather than wait to be arrested for behavior likely to cause a breach of the peace, I slid along the seat and out of the opposite side of the van. Sometimes, bottling out is the sensible course of action.

I gave the catering van a wide berth too and trudged across to the knot of people round the director. Gloria and Ted were already heading back across the snow to begin their long tracking shot again. At this rate it was going to take all day to film one scene. I didn’t have to be an accountant to work out why that would piss Turpin off, especially if he was obsessed with making the balance sheet look good to possible bidders for the show.

I switched my phone to mute, not wanting to risk the rage of the director if it rang during another take. When the shot was finally in the bag, I followed Gloria back to the wardrobe truck. While she changed back into her own clothes, I checked for messages. To my surprise, Della had called back already. I found a quiet and sheltered corner behind the make-up trailer and dialled her number. “Good news,” she said.

“I could use some.”

“I’m on my way back to Manchester now. I managed to get hold of my contact, and he’s meeting me around three in La Tasca. If you want to swing by there around half past three, I should have what you need.”

“And I can buy you both some tapas?” I said with resignation.

“Just me,” she said firmly. “I’m not having you corrupting any more police officers.”

“As if. See you.” I hung up and checked my watch. If the roads were still as clear out in Saddleworth as they’d been earlier, I could get Gloria back home and still make it to the tapas bar in time for my meeting with Della.

Forty minutes later, outside my house, I handed Gloria’s car keys to a nervous Donovan. “Do I have to stay over?” he asked, glancing apprehensively at Gloria who was giving him flirtatious waves and winks through the windscreen.

“She’s got no personal appearances this evening, but she wants to visit her daughter for dinner. I’d like you to drive her there and take her home afterwards. I’ve told her I think she’s in no danger and she should pay us off, but she’s adamant that she wants us to carry on.”

“She’s after my body, more like,” he grumbled.

“You should be so lucky. I think pretending she’s trying to get into your knickers is a more acceptable motive to her than admitting she’s scared shitless. Just because she doesn’t like doing vulnerable doesn’t mean she’s not afraid,” I told him. “So it might not be a bad thing if you do stay over. It also saves me having to drive to Saddleworth in arctic conditions at the crack of sparrowfart, and if I was you, I’d be happy to store up a few Brownie points with the boss.”

He grinned. “You going to tell my mum, then?”

Suckered again. “I’ll tell her. At least you’re not going to get arrested for taking care of Gloria.”

He didn’t look as if he thought it was much of a consolation. I waved them off, then walked across to Upper Brook Street and caught a bus down to Deansgate. Even public transport was better than trying to get into town and parked legally when the snow was

I spotted Della right away, sitting at a round table near the back. She was sitting with a young Asian bloke who I guessed was her former colleague, now DI Tucker’s bagman. I helped myself to one of the tall wooden bar stools and ordered a Corona. It came with the obligatory slice of lime, which always made me feel like an amateur teenage drinker again, fourteen and down the pub with a half of lager and lime. These days, I need all the help I can get.

Ten minutes later, her companion left and I picked up my beer and threaded my way across the room. “You look good,” I said, meaning it. Her copper hair had started to show a few silver strands, but somehow it only made it look richer. Her skin was still glowing from the month she’d just spent in Australia; the old shadows under her eyes hadn’t reasserted themselves yet. A Cambridge-educated economist, Della had one of the most devious financial minds I’d ever encountered. Way too smart for the Serious Fraud Office, she’d carved out her own niche in the north, unrivaled when it came to unravelling the sordid chicanery of the sharks in sharp suits.

“You look knackered,” she said. “Have some chorizo. I just ordered more prawns and the aubergine with grilled cheese.”

My mouth watered and I remembered how long it had been since breakfast. As I made uncouth sandwiches with French bread and the meltingly rich sausage, I filled Della in on my day. She winced at the encounter between Turpin and Jackson. “I wouldn’t like to be Linda Shaw this afternoon,” she said. She pushed a large manila envelope towards me as I finished the last of the chorizo. “One set of crime-scene photographs. I’ve had a quick look myself, and I didn’t see anything to excite me. But then, murder has never interested me much.”

I didn’t bother opening them. There would be a better time and place soon. Besides, food was due any minute, and I didn’t want to lose my appetite. “Thanks.”

Della smiled. “I said it might tie in with a long firm fraud I was working on, but I didn’t want to go public on it yet, hence the unofficial request. I don’t think he believed me, but I don’t think he much cared. So, no big deal.”

“I owe you,” I said. I meant it; but what I owed Della was nothing compared to the debt Dennis would face if my hunch worked out. I couldn’t wait to see his face when I told him he was in hock to a DCI.