Val Mcdermid - Star Struck

“You might remember Freddie here. He works in the make-up department at Northerners . Freddie witnessed an encounter between Dorothea and a senior management figure at NPTV. Freddie, can you tell DS Shaw what you told me last night?”

He was so overwhelmed with relief that I hadn’t after all revealed either of his secrets that he told the story we’d agreed

“What did Turpin say?” I asked.

“He went bright red. He told her if he wanted to waste the company’s money, there were plenty of perfectly good charities. Then he just stomped out without doing whatever it was he’d come in for.”

“Turpin might well have interpreted Dorothea’s comments as an indirect blackmail threat,” I pointed out.

Linda had listened with her head cocked to one side, critically appraising his words. Then she gave a slight nod. I was about to say more, but she raised one finger and made a series of notes in her pad. “Interesting,” she said.

“There’s more.”

“I’m sure,” she said.

“You’ve already taken a statement from Gloria about the events of the evening when Dorothea was killed. I don’t know if you remember, but she had a far better opportunity than I did to take notice of who else was in and around the car park at the same time. Among the people she saw was that same NPTV executive, John Turpin. Maybe you’d like to confirm that for us, Gloria?”

My client nodded avidly. “That’s right, chuck,” she said eagerly. She was loving every minute of it, just as I’d expected. I hadn’t really needed her there, but she was paying the bill, and I figured a bit of grand-standing might just be worth a Christmas bonus. “I saw John Turpin standing in the doorway of the admin block. He looked as if he was wondering whether it was worth chancing getting his good suit wet in the sleet.”

“Thanks for confirming that, Ms. Kendal. But we did know that already, Kate,” Linda pointed out, not even bothering to make a note this time.

“I’m just sketching in the background, Linda,” I said apologetically. “I became involved in this case because Gloria here was getting death-threat letters. She hired me to take care of her.”

“Which you and yours have done admirably,” the irrepressible Gloria chipped in.

“Thank you, Gloria. I may need that testimonial before long,” I said. “This morning, when I unlocked the office, there was a padded envelope in the mailbox.” I produced an envelope from the desk behind me.

“Inside was an assortment of papers and a floppy disk. The disk contains what I believe are the originals of the letters sent to my client. A note attached to the floppy claims that the originals are to be found on the hard disk of John Turpin’s home computer. I’d have thought that might be grounds for a search warrant?”

Linda grunted noncommittally, frowning at the disk and the note I handed her. “Why would he target you specifically, Gloria?” she asked.

“I haven’t a clue, chuck,” she said. “The only thing I can think of is that I’m the only one of the show’s really big names who lives alone, so maybe he thought I’d be easiest to scare. Mind you, he’s never entirely forgiven me for our Sandra giving him the elbow all those years ago.”

“What?” Linda and I chorused.

“He took our Sandra out for a few weeks, years ago now. Before she met Keith. Any road, she decided he wasn’t for her and she chucked him. He wasn’t best pleased. He’s never had a civil word for me since.”

All I could do was stare at her and shake my head. I love clients who go out of their way to make the job easier. I just don’t seem to get many. I took a deep breath while Linda took more notes.

“Also in the envelope.” I placed more papers in front of her. “A photocopy of Turpin’s phone bills, home and mobile. A photocopy of what looks like a Rolodex card, giving the number of Tina Marshall. She’s the freelance journalist who broke a substantial number of the Northerners stories in the press. Check out the number of calls to her number. I think you’ll find most of them were made a few days before a big Northerners story broke.”

Linda was now sitting upright, totally focused on the papers in front of her. Her finger flicked to and fro. Then she looked me straight in the eye. “This fell through your letterbox,” she said flatly.

“That’s right. It seemed to be my civic duty to pass it on to you, Sergeant.” I rummaged inside the envelope. “There is more.” I handed her the material Gizmo had culled from his electronic sources. More for Gloria and Freddie’s benefit than Linda’s, I ran through the contents.

“And at the time when he placed that order for NPTV stock,” I wound up, “only the killer could have known that the viewing figures were about to climb sky-high on the back of Dorothea Dawson’s murder.”

“Hellfire, Kate, you’ve done wonders,” my grateful client said. “I can sleep easy in my bed at night now.”

“I’m glad,” I said. Not least because I could get Donovan back on the work he was supposed to be doing. I turned back to Linda. “Taken together, it’s a hard conclusion to resist.”

“It’d be easier for my boss to swallow if the information came from somewhere else,” she said resignedly.

“Howsabout if it does?” I asked. “It won’t take five minutes for Gizmo to walk down to Bootle Street and leave it in an envelope at the front counter with your name on it. You can tell Jackson you’ve been out taking a statement from Freddie about Dorothea’s conversation with Turpin and then when you got back to the office, hey presto! There it was. You can leave me out of it altogether.”

“Are you sure?” she said. I could tell she was weighing up how much my generosity might cost her in the future.

I shrugged. “I don’t need my face all over the Chronicle again. Besides, there is one thing you could do for me.”

Her face closed like a slammed door. “I thought it was too good to be true.”

I held my hands up. “It’s no big deal. Just a word with your colleagues in uniform. Donovan is going to be serving process for me for at least the next eighteen months. I’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word that the big black guy on the bicycle is wearing a white hat.”

Linda grinned. “I think I can manage that.” She got to her feet and took some folded sheets of A4 out of her shoulder bag. “As it happens, I’ve got something for you too. I’ll see myself out.”

Curious, I unfolded the bundle of paper. There was a Post-it stuck on one corner in Linda’s handwriting. “Printed out from Dorothea Dawson’s hard disk. It gave us all a laugh.” I pulled off the note and started to read: Written in the Stars for Kate Brannigan, private investigator.

Born Oxford, UK, 4th September 1966.

• Sun in Virgo in the Fifth House

• Moon in Taurus in the Twelfth House

• Mercury in Virgo in the Fifth House

• Venus in Leo in the Fourth House

• Mars in Leo in the Fourth House

• Jupiter in Cancer in the Third House

• Saturn retrograde in Pisces in the Eleventh House

• Uranus in Virgo in the Fifth House

• Neptune in Scorpio in the Sixth House

• Pluto in Virgo in the Fifth House

• Chiron in Pisces in the Eleventh House

• Ascendant Sign: Gemini

Sun in Virgo in the 5th House: On the positive side, can be ingenious, verbally skilled, diplomatic, tidy, methodical, discerning and dutiful. The negatives are fussiness, a critical manner, an obsessive attention to detail and a lack of self-confidence that can disguise itself as arrogance. In the Fifth House, it indicates a player of games …