Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(24)

‘Did you see a lot of Mr Forbes-Wright?’

‘Yes, I saw him most evenings. He usually came in late.’

‘It looks like he entertained a bit up there?’

‘Yes, he did, quite often. I would say most nights he had company.’

‘And these would be foreign dignitaries, other politicians, that kind of thing?’

Tyler looked at Willis and back to Carter. He looked embarrassed, amused.

‘Sometimes.’

‘But not always.’

‘Mr Forbes-Wright liked company in the evenings – all sorts, if you know what I mean?’

‘What kind are we talking about, Tyler? Don’t worry, you can talk freely.’

‘Escorts, sometimes more than one; men too.’

‘You’re sure that they were escorts?’

‘Positive.’

‘Did you ever talk with them?’

‘Yeah, I talked to them. I knew their names because Mr Forbes-Wright had to leave their names at the desk so I could let them in when they got here without him. I still have a business card from one of his regulars.’ Tyler took out his wallet and the card. ‘I kept it just in case anyone else here ever needed some company.’

He gave it to Carter. It was a smart-looking ivory and gold with Gentlemen’s Services written in fancy script. On the other side it had Top Class Escorts.

‘When was the last time you saw Mr Forbes-Wright?’

‘Just after Christmas.’

‘How did he seem?’

‘I don’t know, he seemed down. But Christmas is a horrible time for lots of people, isn’t it? It’s lonely and he didn’t seem to have any company.’

‘No escorts?’

‘No. It was all very quiet.’

‘I tell you what, Tyler – you’ll go far; can we hang on to this?’ Carter held up the escort card. The concierge nodded. ‘One more thing, have you let anyone else into the flat since he died?’

‘The jacuzzi company needed access for maintenance. The caretaker’s been in and out, but he has his own key. I had to let the window cleaner in. Mr Forbes-Wright’s son, Toby, and his friend also came. They didn’t know the code for the door. I had to let them in. They had keys for the apartment.’

‘They came just the once?’

‘Oh no, they’ve been a few times now in the last two weeks, not always in the evening – I was talking to the day-time concierge and he’s seen them here. They always stay for a few hours every time.’





Chapter 11


When they got outside, Carter rang Robbo.

‘There have been a few people in the flat since JFW died. Toby and his mate, for starters, add to that the housekeeper, the jacuzzi man, the maintenance guy. Toby’s been lying about how many times he went there. It seems like he and Gareth liked to hang out there a fair bit.’

‘What did you find in there?’

‘Nothing of interest. Surprisingly little, really. Toby had already been through the correspondence, or we presume it was Toby. We need to look at the CCTV to be sure. JFW looks like he couldn’t curb his habits – he was partial to an escort or two, or eight. We have the number for one of the escorts that used to visit him – a woman called Louisa from Top Class Escorts.’ Carter read out the number. ‘The concierge says she was a regular.’

‘We’re going to get into tricky ground if we start investigating Jeremy Forbes-Wright’s dirty secrets.’

‘We’ve got Bowie on board. If there’s one thing he hates, it’s red tape. He’ll want us to get access to anything we need. We need every angle on it we can get. And, Robbo, it should take us about five and a half hours to get to Cornwall, plus an hour for the stopover at the services, so we expect to get there at lunchtime tomorrow – we’re leaving here at six. Can you dig up everything you have on the retired police sergeant Michael Raymonds for us to read on the way?’

‘Do you want me to ring him and tell him you need to talk to him?’

‘No, that’s okay. We’ll surprise him and the others from the funeral.’

‘Will do. I’ve already spoken to a man who knew Raymonds. I’ll email you across the transcript of the conversation now. You can see for yourself, he’s a character. I’m guessing you saw the lip-reader transcript of the conversation with Toby Forbes-Wright?’

‘I saw it and, strangely enough, Toby can’t seem to remember anything about it.’

‘Maybe he didn’t catch it,’ said Robbo. ‘He looked spaced out to me. Are you headed back to look at your flat now, by the way? We did the best we could with it. Two officers went round and made it secure. We’ve opened a file on it, taken some prints. You need to make a list for your insurance.’

‘Cabrina will do it tomorrow. There’s no chance of me having a day off. Any match for fingerprints?’

‘No, sorry. Bad timing, huh?’

‘Is there ever a good time? I’ve got a meeting with the boss now.’

‘Archway Tavern?’

‘How did you guess? What about the mittens found at the services?’ asked Carter.

‘They’re definitely Samuel’s,’ answered Robbo. ‘There’s no visible blood. We’re running tests on the fibres found on them. It’s lucky that it didn’t rain on them overnight. They look in good condition.’