Deadly Secrets (Detective Erika Foster #6)(56)

Erika looked over at Peter. She wanted to know if they had been able to get any semen swabs, but he shook his head.

‘Is there anything else? Anything, however small?’ asked Erika.

‘He was dressed all in black. A long winter jacket. He had on black boots, the mask. Thick leather gloves… When he took one of the gloves off, he touched me.’

‘Where?’

‘My throat. He touched my neck to feel my pulse…’

‘What about the gas mask, how would you describe it?’ asked Erika.

‘It was a gas mask. I dunno, like the ones you see people wore in the war. There were these white squares on the breathing bit, the round bit where his breath was coming out…’ Jason shook his head and scrunched up his eyes. ‘It was only just getting light. But there was this smell, his breath when he got close. It was like a chemical smell, like industrial, or nail polish. I don’t know.’

‘It’s okay. Thank you, Jason.’



* * *



When Erika came back outside, she put in a call to Moss, who was back in the incident room. She relayed the information, and that they had a DNA sample from blood on a piece of glass.

‘I want a DNA sample taken from Don Walpole. Send an officer round with a DNA kit to get a mouth swab.’

‘You checked out the Matrix club with Peterson last night. How did that go?’ asked Moss.

Erika briefly outlined what had happened and that she’d gone to see Mrs Fryatt and Don about the earrings.

‘I’ve just been checking over everything from forensics, and what the police recovered from Marissa Lewis’s house, and there are no earrings. I also had Tania ask Mandy Trent, but she wasn’t aware of Marissa having a hugely expensive pair of diamond earrings,’ said Moss.

‘Okay. Oh, if you check out my desk, there’s my answering machine.’

‘Okay, not sure I understand why you brought that to work?’

Erika explained what had happened with the Evening Standard and then the strange message late at night.

‘There are more than enough weirdos in the world who probably have my number and want to give me a fright. Can you just run the number? It’s from a mobile; I’ve left it on my desk.’

‘Sure. One more thing, Boss. University College Hospital called. Ivan Stowalski is still unconscious. His wife, Ezra, arrived this morning and she’s there with him.’

‘Okay, I’m halfway there. I’ll go over and see what I can get out of her. It will be interesting to hear her side of things. Keep me posted.’





Thirty-Eight





Ezra Stowalski was a small woman with short fair hair, and a kind, careworn face. Ivan had been given a room on the top floor of the hospital, and when Erika arrived, a nurse was taking some blood from his arm. Erika waited until she was finished and then produced her warrant card and introduced herself.

‘I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened,’ said Erika.

‘Why didn’t you leave him?’ Ezra said, becoming angry. ‘Why did you have to break the door down and save him?’ She had a slight accent, but pronounced every word correctly.

‘I’m trained to save lives.’

Ezra looked down at Ivan. His skin was grey, and he was hooked up to so many machines, tubes and wires. His chest rose and fell with a hiss of a ventilator. Ezra looked away from him and closed her eyes, her face registering pain.

‘I didn’t know anything. About him leaving with her. How stupid am I?’

‘You’re not stupid.’

‘Are you trained to humour people, too?’

‘I’m not usually very good at it. Something must be going wrong today.’

Ezra smiled.

‘Did you know he was having an affair?’

‘Yes.’

‘How did things start?’

‘She put a leaflet through the letter box, asking if anyone wanted any cleaning or ironing done. Her mother has never looked after her. I felt sorry for her. I thought it was admirable that she wanted to work her way out of her situation. I asked if she’d like to come and do some ironing…’ She looked over at Ivan. ‘I never thought that he would go for a young girl.’

‘When was this?’

‘A year ago, maybe more.’

‘Did you confront them?’

‘No. I was scared to, and I was happy he wasn’t… that he didn’t want anything from me. We’d been sleeping in separate bedrooms for some time. I just buried my head in the sand. Although, I never thought he would leave me, or plan to leave me so callously. The cheating I could deal with; it was the lies and the lack of respect for our life together that hurts me.’

‘Why did you come back?’

‘My wedding vows,’ she said, looking back at him. Although, she didn’t sound too convinced.

‘What was your husband doing on Christmas Eve, after 8 p.m.?’

‘He was upstairs in his office, going over paperwork. I was packing.’

‘Why did you leave so late to drive up north to your parents? You left around 11 p.m.’

‘How do you know what time we left?’

‘We have your car on CCTV, at 11.30 p.m. leaving the congestion charge zone, and heading up north.’