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57
FRIDAY
Hal
Hal pulls the car into the Maserati dealership and parks.
‘Wait,’ Jen says as he’s about to open the car door. ‘I’ve been sent some CCTV footage from the location where Patrick Young claimed to be on the morning Tom died.’
It takes a frustrating amount of time to download, but once it has, Jen hits play. The venue is a gym called Snap Fitness. ‘Apparently this is the only way in and out,’ she says. They watch as a few people enter, mostly women, clearly none of them Patrick. Jen hits pause when a man comes in who might be him. His hood is pulled up and his stature is similar to Patrick’s. She looks closely. ‘It’s not him,’ she says. Hal looks, too. She’s right. They play through the remaining footage, pausing again a few times, until it ends.
‘He didn’t go to the gym that morning,’ she says. ‘He’s lying.’
‘It’s a shame we didn’t get this earlier,’ Hal says. ‘Tell Finn Macdonald to track him down. I want to bring him in.’ If they’d got the footage yesterday, they could have questioned Patrick last night, instead of sending him packing. Now, who knows where he’s gone? Hal feels his stress levels rise.
He gets out of the car while she makes the call. The dealership is as swanky as he expected. He feels out of place. When Jen is ready, he pushes open the door, and she follows. The air inside is cold and thickly laden with scents of leather, polish and whatever else they’re pumping around to persuade people to part with their cash. Hal hates car salesmen, hates the way they try to obfuscate and tie you in knots when all you want is a fair price on a driveable motor.
The young man at reception plasters on a smile for them. Hal pulls out his badge before there’s any foolishness. He doesn’t want this young man to have to pretend he believes Hal can afford one of these cars.
‘I’m interested in an event your dealership held up on the Downs,’ he says. ‘We’d like to know if someone attended it. Do you keep records?’
Hal watches as the chain of command is invoked. The receptionist knocks on a glass office door and has a word with the man inside. He, in turn, leaves his space with a smile at Hal and speaks to another man, working in a corner office.
The salesroom manager, Mick, is a big man, in chinos and a branded polo shirt. He towers over Hal and presents as affable, a man’s man, a slew of pleasantries and mild jokes on the tip of his tongue, but Hal senses a cut-throat edge to him, too. He’s met enough senior officers in the police force to recognise histype in an instant. Mick shakes both their hands but addresses himself exclusively to Hal, which embarrasses Hal.
‘We have a database of clients: some have purchased from us; some are interested parties. I’m happy to search it for you if you give me the name you’re looking for.’
‘His name is Tom Booth. He’s already bought a car from you. What we’d like to know is whether he attended an event you held on the Downs as part of a local business festival.’
‘We were sponsors,’ Mick says.
‘Indeed.’
‘Let me see. We try to take names at these things, but we don’t always get to everyone.’
His computer screen is angled out of Hal’s view. He spends a few moments staring at it, scrolling and clicking. ‘Tom Booth bought a lovely Quattroporte from us in the spring. Canary yellow. All the trimmings. Lovely guy.’
He looks up, as if just realising that talking to the police about Tom might not be what Tom wants.
‘I’m sorry to say that Tom died,’ Jen says.
‘What? No! That’s terrible. He was young. What happened?’
‘We’re currently investigating,’ Hal says.
‘Oh, I see,’ Mick says. ‘Tragic. Say no more.’ He mimes zipping his mouth shut and Hal finds it distasteful.
‘Anything?’ Hal says, nodding at the computer.
Mick has another look. ‘Spouse is Nicole. No kids. We collect a bit of information about clients, and oh, yes, here it is – we had first contact with Tom at the event. There’s a note here.’
He swivels the screen and Hal reads the note: ‘Lottery winner!!!! Chatted to Darryl. Priority follow-up!’
Bingo, Hal thinks. That means Tom could have met Martha. But it would be nice to have confirmation.
‘Do you know if he spoke to anyone else at the event?’
‘I don’t know myself. I can ask Darryl.’
