Fatal Love Read online

  ‘When is the race?’

  Still quite surprised by this sudden interest in his running, he said, ‘Two weeks’ time.’

  ‘Well, good luck. I hope it goes well.’

  ‘Was there anything specific you wanted to discuss?’ asked Mr Cook, not quite knowing where this conversation was going. He soon found out, though.

  ‘Yes, there is, actually. It concerns the telephone conversation you had with Mr Burton on the day he disappeared. An analysis of his phone records shows that he called you at 11.35 am. Previously, you have led us to believe you had not been in contact with him after he left the golf club. Why did you lie to us?’

  If Tony Cook had hoped that this meeting would be nothing more than a recap of their previous conversations, he now knew it wasn’t and, for that reason, was clearly struggling to answer the question. So Tom decided to help him out. ‘It would be in your interest to tell us now rather than later at the station. But the decision is yours.’ Just to emphasise the options, Tom then added, ‘Here or the station?’

  This appeared to make up his mind for him. ‘Will whatever I say to you remain confidential?’

  ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t guarantee that, Mr Cook. This is, after all, a murder investigation.’

  Tom’s much-tried silence tactic once again did the trick.

  ‘Glyn called to let me know about a business deal he was involved in,’ Mr Cook finally said.

  ‘And why would he think it important to speak to you about it? From what you told me previously I didn’t get the impression that you were that close. Certainly not so close that he would discuss one of his business deals with you. According to his wife, he rarely even discussed business with her. So why with you?’ Tom was almost certain he knew the reason but wanted to hear the answer from Mr Cook. That way, he would then know if he was still not telling the truth.

  ‘It concerned the golf club,’ Mr Cook answered.

  ‘Yes, I suspected that, but could you please provide us with full details?’

  Milner, recognising DCI Stone’s increasing impatience, now spoke for the first time. ‘The call lasted three minutes. It’s quite surprising how much can be said in three minutes.’

  Whether it was what Milner had said or just the calm tone in which he had said it, it had the desired effect.

  ‘Glyn called to tell me a deal he had been negotiating with a large construction company had been agreed by them.’

  ‘And this involved selling off some of the club’s land, didn’t it?’ said Tom, wanting to make the point that they already knew.

  ‘It did, yes. You’ll remember Roger mentioned how we’ve resited the greenkeeper’s shed nearer to the clubhouse. I don’t know if you’ve seen the old shed, but it actually is much bigger than the name would imply. There are also the old World War II huts alongside it. Anyway, it’s freed up quite a lot of land. It’s that land which Glyn has been trying to sell.’

  ‘Wouldn’t they need planning permission before they could start building on it, especially in an area like this?’ asked Milner.

  ‘Yes, they would, but, as you’ve no doubt seen, the government are under pressure to build more houses. They, in turn, are then pressuring local councils to simplify their planning permission procedures, so that houses can be built quicker. Also, the fact that the new houses would be built on the existing footprint of the old shed and huts makes the process much less complicated. Glyn mentioned to me that the land agent had already spoken with someone from the council’s planning committee to sound them out about the possibility of getting planning permission. Apparently, they didn’t see any problem, providing they only built on the place where the old shed and huts are currently sited.’

  ‘And what is your role in this?’ asked Tom, genuinely unclear as to what this would be. ‘I assume you had a role? Especially as Mr Burton called you immediately after he’d received the call from the land agent.’

  ‘Glyn wanted me to provide him with a copy of the club’s deeds and constitution. He wanted to know if there was anything in them which would prevent any land being sold. Or, at least, anything which might make it more difficult. As he didn’t want anyone else at the club to know that he was taking an interest, he approached me to find out. As general manager I had access to the documents.’

  ‘And was there anything?’ asked Milner.

  ‘There was something – well, at least originally – which would undoubtedly have made it virtually impossible for one member, irrespective of their position within the club and irrespective of how many shares they held, to arrange to sell off any land. But that particular clause was removed when Glyn first arrived at the club. When he agreed to help settle the tax bill, the club’s constitution was amended so that, in future, the final decision rested with the major shareholder, providing that person had over fifty percent of the total shareholding.’

  ‘Wasn’t that recognised, at the time of the change, as something fundamental?’ asked Tom.

  ‘Not to the extent that, perhaps, you would imagine. You have to remember that this club has always been based upon a sort of gentlemen’s trust and, frankly, no one at the time thought for one moment that it might happen.’

  ‘I’m still a bit unclear, though, as to why you would help with this,’ said Tom.

  After Mr Cook’s earlier willingness to discuss this, it was now obvious he was struggling to continue with his explanation. Tom, not for the first time, decided to make it easy for him.

  ‘He offered you money, didn’t he?’

  ‘Yes,’ Mr Cook replied quietly.

  ‘How much?’

  ‘Fifty thousand pounds.’

  No one spoke for a while, until finally Mr Cook continued. ‘When Glyn approached me about this, I said I didn’t want to get involved. But later he came back and offered me the money, saying that he was going ahead with it anyway. Fifty thousand pounds is a lot of money, Detective Chief Inspector. It would have allowed me to pay off a chunk of my mortgage. He said no one would ever find out that I had been involved.’ Again, he seemed to hesitate. ‘Things are very tight, financially, for us at the moment. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like an easy way to get some money and get us back on our feet.’

  ‘You’re right,’ said Tom. ‘Fifty thousand pounds is a lot of money. I’m surprised he was willing to pay you that much.’

  ‘Well, he was. I don’t know the full details, but I got the impression from him that it was a multi-million pound deal. Whatever the size of the deal, though, he obviously thought the help I could give him was worth the money he was willing to pay me.’

  ‘What was the nature of your financial arrangement? Did he pay you any money up front?’

  ‘No,’ he quickly replied. ‘I haven’t received one penny.’ He shook his head. ‘He was going to pay half when the deal with the building company was signed and the remainder once the first brick had been laid.’

  ‘You must have been very happy, then, when you received the call from Mr Burton,’ suggested Milner.

  ‘I was, yes, but, of course, that didn’t last long, did it?’ he answered, with regret in his voice.

  ‘Yes, it was very unfortunate that Mr Burton went and got himself murdered,’ said Milner, in a tone which even surprised Tom. An uncomfortable silence followed.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Mr Cook. ‘I didn’t mean it to sound like that.’

  ‘I know you didn’t,’ replied Tom, as sympathetically as possible.

  ‘To answer your question,’ Mr Cook said, focussing on Milner, ‘it’s true, I was happy. In fact, very happy. Although I knew, once it all got out, there would be repercussions, there was nothing to link me to what Glyn was doing. It was when he went missing that I started to get worried, and then, of course, his body was found.’

  ‘You mentioned repercussions. What sort of repercussions did you have in mind?’ asked Milner, now sounding his normal businesslike self.

  ‘The members would have been up in arms. You have seen
for yourself what sort of club this is. People here don’t like change. They want the golf club to stay the same as it’s always been and they certainly wouldn’t want a housing development on the course. The disruption would have been considerable, what with trucks coming and going all the time and lots of workers on the course. As I said, the members would have hated it.’

  ‘Incidentally, how many houses were to be built?’ asked Milner.

  ‘I don’t know for sure, because, as I told you earlier, my involvement was limited, but I did once hear Glyn mention a combined figure of about twenty-five houses and flats.’

  ‘That doesn’t seem to be that many,’ said Milner. ‘I thought we were talking about a housing estate.’

  ‘I think anything above that number might have made things more difficult,’ Mr Cook said. ‘And anyway, as you can see, this is a very exclusive location. Each flat, let alone house, would be very expensive.’

  ‘Would each member have received a share of any profits?’ asked Tom.

  ‘Yes, they would have. That is very clear in the club’s constitution. It would have been paid as a special dividend and be based, pro rata, on the number of shares held by each member.’

  ‘But wouldn’t the members have liked that?’ asked Milner.

  Mr Cook looked at him. ‘Most of our members are over fifty-five years old, and quite a lot well into their sixties. At their age they are not especially motivated by money. What they care about most is keeping the club as it has always been.’

  ‘But they couldn’t have stopped it, though, could they?’

  ‘No. As long as Glyn was the majority shareholder he could, basically, do what he wanted. Glyn wasn’t the type of person who would get upset just because he wasn’t liked. In fact, I sometimes felt that he would have enjoyed it.’

  ‘You mean any subsequent confrontations?’ asked Tom.

  ‘Exactly. He knew he held all of the aces. He was a man who liked to do deals. In my experience, it was what drove him the most. And anyway, I suspect he would have got enjoyment out of doing this as revenge, almost.’

  ‘Revenge? That’s a strong word, Mr Cook,’ said Tom.

  ‘I think you got a flavour of this when you were last here. Didn’t you say that you’d spoken with some of our members who had been playing and they weren’t especially complimentary about Glyn? He was aware of how people felt, and that they only admitted him to the club because of his money. In my opinion, it was partly his way of proving to them that an East End man was not to be underestimated.’

  ‘Is there any possibility some of those members had found out what Mr Burton was doing?’ asked Tom.

  ‘If they did, I certainly didn’t tell them,’ Mr Cook said, defensively. He paused. ‘It’s unlikely but, I suppose, not impossible.’

  ‘Mr Cook. If you had told us this earlier, it would have saved a lot of our time. Is there anything else you want to tell us? This is now definitely your last chance.’

  There was a moment’s hesitation, which Tom immediately noticed. ‘If there is, then you should tell us now,’ he added as further encouragement.

  ‘I’m not sure if this is relevant or not, but, a couple of days after Glyn’s disappearance, Greg – that’s Greg Wallington, one of those who Glyn was due to play with – mentioned to me he’d heard Roger and Glyn having an argument, here in this office, on that Sunday morning. Apparently, it was immediately afterwards that Glyn then left.’

  ‘Could he hear what it was about?’

  ‘I did ask him that, but all he could hear was their raised voices.’

  ‘Is that everything?’ asked Tom.

  ‘Yes. I’ve told you everything I know.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Tom. ‘Next time, though, I hope you will be forthcoming a bit sooner.’

  He didn’t respond directly to Tom’s comment. Instead, he said, ‘I suppose I will now have to resign. When all this gets out, no one will trust me anyway.’

  Chapter 30

  ‘Should we bring in Roger White?’ asked Milner.

  They had arrived back at the station and DC Bennett had joined them.

  ‘On what basis?’ replied Tom. ‘We don’t have any firm evidence to charge him. All we know is he sold most of his shares to Mr Burton and was angry when Mr Burton seemed reluctant to sell them back to him.’

  ‘He also, though, tried repeatedly to contact him on that Sunday and even, later, by his own admission, went to a lay-by to meet him,’ Milner said. ‘We really only have his word that Mr Burton didn’t turn up. What if he did and something happened which resulted in his death? Mr White could easily have then driven the victim’s car to the quarry – it’s only a few miles away, after all – pushed it over the edge and then returned to his own car and driven home, before his wife returned.’ He paused. ‘And he had a strong motive. It’s possible he had found out about Mr Burton’s plan to sell the land and had confronted him with it. Perhaps that’s the reason they were heard arguing on the Sunday morning? He would definitely benefit from Mr Burton’s death, as it would stop the deal going through. And let’s remember he has not been especially truthful each time we’ve met him. Why would the last time be any different?’

  Tom considered what Milner had just said, impressed by the compelling way he had summarised his concerns. ‘All of that is possible,’ he admitted. ‘Put like that, I suppose, it is fairly persuasive. What we really need, though, is some evidence, perhaps through CCTV, which puts him close to the quarry on that Sunday evening.’ He paused briefly and then continued. ‘You say the quarry is not too far away from the lay-by. It would help if we knew exactly how far away it actually is. If he did murder Mr Burton then, presumably, he would have put his body in the boot of Mr Burton’s car, driven it to, and then pushed it into, the quarry, and then somehow returned to his own car. If all of this did happen, a key question then is “how did he get back to his car?”’

  ‘It’s unlikely he walked,’ said DC Bennett. ‘Which only leaves the possibility of him getting a taxi, or bus, for at least part of the way. If he did, then, although it might take some time, those are things we can quickly check up on.’

  ‘If he had an accomplice he could, of course, have been picked up somewhere along the route,’ suggested Milner.

  ‘Anyone in mind?’ asked Tom.

  ‘Well, what about his wife? We haven’t actually spoken with her yet. Why don’t I do that straight away?’

  Tom, warming to Milner’s theory, quickly agreed. ‘Okay, go ahead and do that. Perhaps I was giving Roger White too much benefit of the doubt.’

  ‘And should I bring him in?’ asked Milner.

  ‘Why not?’ answered Tom, persuaded by Milner’s arguments but also increasingly conscious that his own availability clock was quickly ticking down. ‘I still don’t think we’ve got enough to charge him, but there’s definitely enough for us to legitimately ask him a few more questions.’

  ‘And what about Craig Blackwell?’ asked DC Bennett. ‘I hope this doesn’t mean we’ve taken him off our list of suspects.’

  ‘I don’t think we would dare,’ answered Tom. ‘But, for the moment, we concentrate on Roger White. All of our efforts should be on him, at least until we’ve either charged him or eliminated him. Is that clear?’ he added, mainly for DC Bennett’s benefit.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ DC Bennett answered, albeit without any enthusiasm.

  ‘And Tony Cook?’ said Milner. ‘Have we now eliminated him from our list of suspects?’

  ‘I think so,’ answered Tom. ‘Having spoken to him, and heard about his involvement in the land purchase deal, I can’t think of any possible motive. Mr Burton’s death has meant Mr Cook has lost the opportunity to earn £50,000 and now, most likely, his job and reputation. I can’t see him getting a similar job with another golf club any time soon.’

  ‘So, should I cross him off?’ asked Milner, looking in the direction of the chart.

  ‘Why not?’ agreed Tom.

  Milner, marker pen in hand, walked
towards the chart and put a large cross over Tony Cook’s name.

  ‘Let’s have a look at who we are left with,’ suggested Tom. ‘Let’s focus on the men, for the time being. First, we have our prime suspect, Roger White. I think we can now add the word motive under his name. Next we have Craig Blackwell. I don’t, for one minute, believe his explanation as to why Mr Burton called him on the Sunday morning. I also don’t buy into his explanation as to why he needed the two lots of £5,000 which he withdrew from the business account. I think we can now add another word under his name. How about lying? DC Bennett? I’ll let you do the honours.’

  DC Bennett quickly wrote the word but, even then, couldn’t resist the temptation to add an exclamation mark.

  ‘Then there’s Mike Preston.’ This seemed to trigger something in Tom’s memory. ‘Has anyone actually spoken with his wife yet?’

  It was Milner who answered. ‘In actual fact, I’m seeing her later today, after she has finished work. I can’t say she was particularly keen to meet but eventually she did agree, although she asked if we could not tell her husband.’

  ‘Understandable,’ replied Tom. ‘Try and find out if she still has feelings for Mr Burton. Anyway, Mike Preston? What are your thoughts?’

  Again, Milner was first to respond. ‘I don’t believe it was him, sir. I know it could be claimed he had a motive, but, frankly, it’s almost too obvious a motive, and he must have known he would have been the prime suspect. Also, if he was going to murder Mr Burton, surely he would have done it not long after their altercation, not some considerable time later, when he and his wife had just got their marriage back on track.’

  ‘Unless, of course, he had deliberately waited for time to elapse before making his move. It could all be a very clever plan on his part,’ said Tom. ‘Anyway, we’ve already eliminated one suspect today. I think another one might be one too many, at least for the time being.’ He considered the chart. ‘And that just leaves Mr Mercer. It’s difficult to pin a crime on someone when they were not even on the same continent on the day the crime occurred. We are sure of that, are we?’