Peter James: Love You Dead

‘Didn’t you say in an earlier briefing that Stonor and Warren are associated, chief?’ Frowning, Guy Batchelor stood up and went over to the family tree pinned on one whiteboard, and pointed out the connection.

‘Drinking buddies, they have been for years,’ Dave Green said.

‘Yes, you are correct, Guy,’ Grace replied. ‘My hypothesis is that Shelby Stonor attempted to burgle Jodie’s residence on the night of Tuesday 24th February. This accords with information Jodie provided us with during interviews yesterday. Prior to, or during, this bungled burglary attempt, in which Stonor may have been fatally bitten by one of the saw-scaled vipers that Jodie kept, he saw this recent-model Mercedes and passed information on to his mate Warren.’

‘That’s what friends are for.’ Guy Batchelor said.

‘I don’t want any of you to underestimate just how close Norman came to driving off in that car. It’s by sheer luck he is still with us. Whilst we are here this morning to celebrate good news, I want all of us to reflect, for a moment, on the dangers that face us daily in our work. Something for which we all too rarely get any public recognition. I can talk openly about Norman being the undercover operative as he has decided that was his first and last deployment undercover — and I don’t think any of us can blame him.’

He was distracted for a moment by Potting entering the room, clutching a sheet of paper, then went on. ‘Jodie is still in custody — we were able to get a forty-eight-hour extension to keep her in, but frankly we need more evidence. She’s so damned clever. All we’ve got against her is circumstantial at this moment, and it may be difficult to convince the Crown Prosecution Service to bring a case.’

‘What about the theft of the two hundred thousand dollars and the memory stick, Roy?’ Tanja Cale asked.

He shook his head. ‘No one’s reported the theft — the information we have from the NYPD is from one of their intelligence sources. It’s probably drugs money — and we know it’s counterfeit. I don’t think anyone’s going to be reporting it.’ He gave a knowing smile.

‘How strong is all the circumstantial evidence on her, boss?’ Batchelor asked.

‘Probably not strong enough. A sister who died, when she was with her, when they were teenagers. Her first husband who died from a snake bite. Her fiancé who died when she was with him, in a French ski resort. Her second husband who died from a snake bite in India. The Financial Crimes Unit are doing what they call following the money. The searches of all three premises linked to Jodie have revealed a number of passports, birth certificates and credit cards in different names. But it could be months before they come up with enough evidence — and even if they do, we’re looking at minor fraud. We need to find something — I don’t know what — some hard evidence.’ He turned a page of his notebook.

‘So we know Jodie was with her sister, her first husband, and her fiancé, when they died. She was on honeymoon with her second husband of just a few days when he died, also from an apparent saw-scaled viper bite. I have serious concerns about this latter death, but I have no substantial evidence to support these concerns, at this stage.’

‘What concerns do you have, sir?’ asked DS Cale.

‘We’ve pulled in a number of experts to help us with this. Dr West, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, examined Carmichael’s body, and had two major issues. Unfortunately, because it had been embalmed, any opportunity for an effective second post-mortem had gone. But he said he was bothered by the lack of any discolouration — ecchymosis — around the puncture mark on Carmichael’s leg, which he would have expected to have been present following a bite from a saw-scaled viper. He also categorically said that the location where he was allegedly bitten by this snake is not the creature’s natural habitat. He was at the Crocodile Park in Borivali East, outside Mumbai, according to what Jodie subsequently told the cruise ship’s doctor. But James West said this snake typically lives in open, dry, sandy terrain — under rocks, at the base of thorny plants.’

He paused. ‘West knows the Borivali Crocodile Park well — he’s spent time there. He says the exact area of terrain where Carmichael was bitten is swampland, and that a saw-scale viper would not go near that.’

‘Is it possible she brought the snake with her and planted it there?’ DS Exton asked.

‘Well, I think that stretches credulity — even by this lady’s standards,’ Grace said. ‘They were on a minibus from the ship to the crocodile park, so she’d have had no opportunity to buy a snake anywhere en route. Prior to that they’d been at sea for several days. It’s possible she had smuggled one out of England and had it in her cabin, hidden in a suitcase, but I think this is improbable — and besides, we have no real evidence. In reality the only charge she could be facing at this moment in time is killing Rowley Carmichael, and as you’ve heard we’re not there yet.’

Norman Potting raised a hand. ‘I think I may be able to help with that.’

All eyes were on the Detective Sergeant. ‘Whilst I was operating this past weekend as a UC in Jodie’s house, I took the opportunity to look around late on Friday night while she was asleep. It was part of my brief.’

Far from looking shaken by his close brush with death, Grace thought, Potting seemed animated.

‘I also had the chance of a bit of a snoop around while she was making me dinner — actually, I’m quite glad I won’t have to endure another of her meals, she’s not that great a cook.’

Several of the team laughed.

‘I didn’t find anything in the rest of the house, except her cat was very insistent on scratching the wall we now know was a false door to her reptile room, but I did notice a strange appliance in her kitchen. She told me it was a domestic freeze dryer, and that she had it because it was the healthiest way to preserve vegetables — flash freezing them. Later that night when I’d gone to bed, I googled freeze dryers, and saw the one she had was considerably more elaborate than a domestic one — it was a very expensive industrial-grade one.’

‘What are they used for?’ Exton asked.

‘Flash freezing food of all kinds — and chemicals — in fact, almost anything. They remove moisture and are apparently a way of preserving not just food but the potency of drugs and chemicals,’ Potting replied. ‘In the morning when I heard her in the shower, I went down to the kitchen and had a snoop through the drawers of her freezers — she had two very large freezers, one in the kitchen and the other in a pantry. Most of the drawers were filled with frozen rodents — mice and rats.’

‘Sounds like a suitable diet for this witch,’ Batchelor said.

Potting grunted agreement. ‘One of them would have been a lot tastier and less tough than the steak she cooked — or rather cremated — for me. Anyhow, I had a good rummage through, and beneath several layers of the things I found a stash of unlabelled, rubber-stoppered vials.’

‘Containing what, Norman?’ Grace asked.

‘Amber crystals — I had no idea what they were, and I wasn’t about to taste one to find out — luckily. They all looked identical, so I took one, wrapped it in a freezer bag I also found in there and pocketed it, intending to bring it straight here and have it sent for analysis. But in view of the subsequent events, I contacted the Head of Forensic Services in Guildford, told her my suspicions and asked if the analysis of the vial could be fast-tracked. To avoid any possible breach of chain-of-evidence argument by a brief in court, I drove it there myself on Saturday morning.’