Darkness Falls (Kate Marshall, #3)(61)

Tristan went to the coffee machine and quickly made them each an espresso. He came back with the cups, and they all sat down at the table.

“Is that all the files, and the box?” asked Faye through a mouthful. Indicating the blue box at the front of the pile of case file boxes stacked neatly by the door.

“Yes, the names all came from an indentation of Joanna’s writing on the lid. David Lamb and Gabe Kemp are the two victims, and there’s also a phone number we traced to Jorge Tomassini. Jorge was a barman who had slept with Noah Huntley, and he knew David Lamb. Joanna wanted to interview Jorge,” said Kate.

“She was preparing to write a tell-all piece about Noah Huntley. How he hired rent boys and used his parliamentary expense account to pay for them and buy them gifts. One of the young men, Gabe Kemp, had been willing to go on the record about sleeping with Noah Huntley, back in early 2002, but he withdrew his statement and it never went to print. Gabe went missing shortly after the story went to press, and his body was found a few weeks later,” said Tristan.

“We tracked down Jorge Tomassini last week. He says that he had a sexual relationship with Noah Huntley, who had, on occasion, displayed violent tendencies to him and to David Lamb when they had sex,” said Kate.

“Did this Jorge Tomassini say why he never went on record for Joanna Duncan’s story?” asked Faye.

“He didn’t want to be part of a tabloid sex scandal, which is what Joanna wanted to write. He says he was planning to leave the country, and this hastened his exit. He’s Spanish, and he decided to go home.”

“Do you think he’s a reliable source?” asked Faye.

“He’s now a Euro MP in Strasbourg. He wasn’t keen to delve into his former life here in the UK. We’ve made some additional notes in the case, and his details are in there if you’d like to follow it up. There’s a plastic file with everything we’ve been working on,” said Kate.

“You’ll see that we’ve spoken to lots of the people in Joanna’s life and gone back over their original statements. We do think that there are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding Noah Huntley,” said Tristan.

“Joanna met with Noah Huntley two weeks before she went missing, at a petrol station close to where she lived. The meeting was caught on CCTV,” said Kate.

Faye was nodding along as she swallowed the remains of her second doughnut, downed the last of her coffee, and got up, slapping her legs.

“Right. Thank you for everything you’ve done on advancing this case, and thank you for the refreshments.”

Mona popped the last bite of her doughnut in her mouth and wiped off the sugar. She stood up.

“Is that it?” asked Kate. She’d expected Faye to ask some more questions about their findings.

“Did you expect more? You’ve been a huge, huge help. You’ve saved us time and resources, and I’ll make sure that your little agency is mentioned in one of our press releases. Do you have a website?” asked Faye.

“Yes.”

“Text it to me,” said Faye. “Tony, would you give us a hand with the boxes?”

“It’s Tristan.”

“Of course, sorry. Tristan,” said Faye. She picked up three of the boxes.

“Will you be contacting Bev Ellis, Joanna’s mother?” asked Kate.

“At some point we will. Both of the investigations will probably merge very soon.”

“Can I just ask, When will Hayden Oakley be buried? Have you released the body yet?” asked Tristan.

“Next week. Hayden didn’t have any dependents. No family has asked for the body. Looks like it will be a council funeral,” said Faye.

“The pub where he was last seen is organizing a memorial,” said Mona.

“Which pub?” asked Kate.

“The Brewer’s Arms in Torquay.”

When Faye and Mona had taken all the boxes, Kate and Tristan came back up to the office. Kate made two more cups of coffee, and Tristan took a pile of linen for the campsite off the printer and scanner.

“I was worried when I said paper copies to her that she’d want to know if we’d scanned any of the case files digitally,” said Tristan. “Do you think DCI Stubbs is a bit thick?”

“I’m hoping she’s just overworked. She asked us to hand over the printed case files, and that’s what we did. If she’d have asked us to delete the digital scans, then we’d be in trouble,” said Kate.

“So this is a gray area?”

Kate nodded. “We’ve cooperated and shared everything we know. We have one advantage over the police. This is our only case, and I’m not giving up on finding out what happened to Joanna Duncan, or who killed those young men.”





33


Kate and Tristan spent the rest of the weekend in the office, planning their next steps with the investigation. They were due to meet Bev and Bill on Wednesday, which marked three weeks since they’d started working on the case. They spent some time composing an email to Noah Huntley and then sent it from Tristan’s account, requesting a general interview, hoping that the prospect of a meeting with a handsome young man might entice him to take the bait.

On Monday morning, they drove over to the Brewer’s Arms in Torquay, where Hayden had been seen for the last time. Torquay was less than an hour’s drive from Ashdean. It was another hot day, and they took Kate’s car and had the air-conditioning on full blast.