Local Gone Missing(83)

“What state was Charlie in when you saw him?”

“He was a worried man,” Toby said quietly.

“Worried or terrified?”

“Ummm . . . he was upset. He kept saying all the money was gone. That he’d been let down like us. But Kevin didn’t believe him. He said we should leave him there for a few hours to think about the trouble he was in.”

“But why didn’t Charlie escape when you left?”

There was a beat before Toby whispered, “We tied him to his chair.”

“What with?”

“Well, we used cling film. It was all I had in the boot of the car—one of those catering rolls. We just wound it round him.”

That’s why there were no marks on his body. Elise couldn’t wait to tell Aoife.

“Did you gag him?”

“Kevin put an old towel in his mouth. And when we came back, he was dead,” Toby carried on. “He was still sitting in the chair but it had toppled over. We couldn’t believe it. We just couldn’t believe it. . . .”



* * *



—

Kevin Scott-Pennington told his own version when he arrived in Southfold, handcuffed and huddled in a thin T-shirt and jogger bottoms.

“It was Toby’s show,” he said immediately after the recorder was switched on. “He was driving the whole thing and he brought the wrench to frighten Charlie, and then hit him with it. I was shocked.”

“That’s interesting,” Caro said, “because we know from your phone records that you rang Toby Greene on Sunday afternoon while your car was parked near the Perry property. You summoned him, didn’t you? And a wrench was bought on your wife’s credit card between your two visits to the Perry house. That’s some coincidence.”

Kevin’s solicitor, a severe-looking young woman imported from a big Brighton firm, scribbled something on her yellow pad and whispered in her client’s ear.

Kevin’s chin sank and he went to “No comment” as the questions continued to pile up in front of him.

But when they got to the attack on Charlie, he blurted, “I didn’t hurt him—he was already dead. There’s no specific offense of assaulting a dead body.”

He’s been googling, then, Elise thought.

“What about kidnapping and imprisoning him in the basement?” Elise said. “Those are specific offenses.”

“He had stolen our money,” Kevin muttered, and his solicitor tutted.

“We’re also looking at charges of manslaughter, based on your actions that night.”

That shut him up.

“Why did you put Charlie’s bag in the skip?”

The question clearly knocked him off guard because he forgot the instruction to stick to “No comment.”

“I didn’t. Which skip? He had it with him when I took him into the house—he was about to go on the run. But we couldn’t find it later and I didn’t want to spend time looking.”

“And then you rang his widow on Charlie’s phone, pretending to be him? To hide what you’d done. To give yourselves time to leave.”

“No comment.”

“Where is the phone now?”

“No comment.”

“I see. I think we are finished here for the time being. Take him back to the cells, please,” Elise said.

Kevin sat with his eyes screwed shut as his solicitor packed her briefcase.





Sixty-four


MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019





Dee


They’ve put me in the interview room with a young copper and a cup of weak tea while they go and get Elise. I’ve told them I’ve got something to tell them. About Liam.

It shouldn’t take long. He’ll confess. He’s right at the tipping point. And then they’ll charge him.

Look, it’s got to be done. Some people might say I’m throwing him under the bus but I’ve got to think about me and Cal. Liam is dragging us down. I can’t have him around our child, bringing drugs and the police into our lives like this. I can quietly move away now. No one will blame me for making a fresh start. Maybe I’ll try Devon or Cornwall. It’s pretty down there. I can find a new place and begin again.

I wonder when they’ll arrest Dave. I’d give anything to see Doll’s face when they do.

When Elise and DS Brennan come in, Elise looks dog-tired. Her eyes are sinking. She’s overdoing it.

“Mrs. Eastwood,” Elise says like she doesn’t know me. Well, that’s fair. She doesn’t really. “I understand you want to help us with our inquiries relating to the drugs circulating at the festival.”

I’m sweating and I can feel my hair sticking to my head. I wonder if Elise has noticed.

I take a deep breath and she leans forward.

“Liam helped Dave Harman get hold of the ecstasy,” I whisper. Like I don’t want to say. “From an old mate in Brighton to get Pete Diamond into trouble. And that poor girl nearly died.”

Elise looks at DS Brennan.

“Mrs. Eastwood, how do you know your husband was involved?” Brennan says.

“By accident. I found out he’d gone to meet that scumbag Spike Jefferies in Brighton. Spike was always bad news. They knew each other back in the day when Liam was into drugs—when we first got together. But . . .” I close my eyes. Take it slowly. . . . “But Liam told me he’d done Dave a favor by putting him in touch with Spike and helping him buy a hundred Es. Dave was going to give Liam some work if he helped him close down the Diamond Festival. He got Liam and Ade to smuggle the drugs into the event. They were going to plant them on Pete and call the police. But it all went wrong when Ade and his girlfriend took one.”