Peter James - Dead Man’s Footsteps

‘How certain are we that Ronnie and Lorraine Wilson became David and Margaret Nelson, Roy?’ Bella asked.

‘Melbourne police have dug up a ton of stuff from the drivers’

licensing offices, the tax office and the immigration services. It all seems to fit together. I’m getting a report faxed over, probably tonight.’

Bella made a note, then plucked a Malteser from the box in front of her.

Looking at his notes, Grace went on, ‘This woman’s name is Maxine Porter. Her ex-husband’s a mobster, currently on trial on a whole raft of tax-evasion and money-laundering charges, and looking at a long sentence. She got dumpedby him for ayounger woman just over a year ago, about three months before he was arrested, so she was happy doing the woman scorned bit, and talking. According to her, David Nelson appeared on the scene round about Christmas 2001. It was Chad Skeggs who introduced him to that particular pleasant circle of friends, which seemed to include the whole of the Melbourne A-list crime fraternity. And Nelson apparently carved out a niche for himself dealing stamps with them.’

‘How sweet is that?’ Glenn Branson said. ‘Here in England our gangsters knife and shoot each other, while in Australia they swap stamps.’

Everyone grinned.

‘I don’t think so,’ Grace said. ‘There’ve been thirty-seven gangland shootings in Melbourne in the past decade. It has a pretty dark underbelly, like a lot of places.’

Like Brighton and Hove actually, he thought.

‘Anyhow,’ he continued, ‘Lorraine – sorry, I mean Maggie Nelson – confided in her new best friend that her husband was having an affair and she didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t happy in Australia, but said she and her husband had burned their bridges in the UK and couldn’t go back. I think it’s significant that she said it was both of them, not just one or the other of them.’

‘When was this, Roy?’ Emma-Jane Boutwood asked.

‘Some time between June 2004 and April 2005. The two women talked a lot, apparently. Both of them with husbands having affairs, they had plenty in common.’

He drank some more coffee and looked down at his notes again. ‘Then, in June 2005, Maggie Nelson vanished. She didn’t turn up for a lunch date with Maxine Porter, and when Maxine phoned, David Nelson told her his wife had left him. Packed and gone back to England.’

‘There seems to be a pattern emerging, doesn’t there?’ Lizzie Mantle said. ‘He tells his friends in England that his first wife, Joanna, has gone off to America. Then he tells his friends in Australia that his second has gone back to England. And all their friends believed him!’

‘This one didn’t apparently,’ Grace said.

‘So why didn’t she go to the police?’ Bella asked. ‘She must have been suspicious, surely?’

‘Because in her world people don’t go to the police,’ Lizzie Mantle said.

‘Exactly,’ Grace confirmed with a wry smile at the DI. ‘And the criminal fraternity over there is even more male-dominated than it is here. They’re interviewing her again tomorrow, when she’s going to give a list of all the Nelsons’ friends and acquaintances out there.’

‘That’s great,’ Bella said, taking another Malteser. ‘But if he’s legged it abroad-’

‘I know,’ Grace said. ‘But we might find out where his favourite haunts abroad are, or if he had any hankering for some particular sunny fleshpot.’

‘I’ve got some thoughts on that,’ Glenn Branson said. ‘Well, Bella and me have.’

‘OK. Tell us.’

‘We interviewed Skeggs quite extensively on Friday and on Saturday, and we took a statement from Abby Dawson at her mother’s flat in Eastbourne yesterday morning. We also returned her stamps to her, which we recovered from Skeggs’s vehicle – I took the precaution of copying them first, so we have a record. She also signed the paperwork agreeing to produce the stamps as an exhibit, if necessary, and not dispose of them.’

‘Good thinking,’ DI Mantle said.

‘Thank you. Now, here’s the thing. Bella and me don’t feel we’re getting the truth from Abby Dawson. We’re getting what she wants us to hear. I’m not happy about her story of where she got the stamps. She’s maintaining she inherited them from an aunt in

Sydney by the name of – ’ he flipped back through his notes, then found the page – ‘ Anne Jennings . We’re getting that checked out. But it doesn’t tally with what Skeggs said.’

‘And we know that he is a principled man who always tells the truth,’ Grace said.

‘I’d trust him with my last five-pound note,’ Glenn said, returning the sarcasm. ‘Which is probably all anyone would have left after doing business with him. He’s a seriously nasty piece of work. But there’s a connection to Ronnie, that’s what this is all about, I’m certain.’ He looked around.

Grace nodded for him to go on.

‘Hugo Hegarty is certain that these are the stamps he bought for Lorraine Wilson.’

‘But not so certain he’d swear on it in a court of law, is he?’ Lizzie Mantle interjected.

‘No, and that could be a problem down the line,’ Branson replied. ‘Some of the single ones have postmarks – he can’t swear they are the same as the ones on the stamps he acquired for Lorraine Wilson back in 2002, because he didn’t keep a record of the postmarks. Or maybe he just doesn’t want to get involved.’

‘Why not?’ Grace questioned.

‘All the dealings were done in cash. I suspect he doesn’t want to raise his head above the parapet and attract the interest of the Inland Revenue, on top of the police.’

Grace nodded; that made sense. ‘And how strong a claim to them does Skeggs have?’

‘Skeggs was effing and blinding about Abby Dawson having stolen his stamps, saying that was the reason he took her mother, it was the only thing he could think of doing that would bring her to her senses,’ Glenn Branson replied.

‘He never tried just asking nicely for them back?’

Branson smiled. ‘I asked him if that was the case, if he wanted to press charges against her for theft. Then he went all quiet. Surprise, surprise. Started muttering about issues , but he was evasive when we tried to push this line. He said he would have problems demonstrating title to them. Then at one point he blurted out that Dave Nelson had put her up to this. But we couldn’t get any more out of him on that. That’s why for now, despite our reservations, we’ve had to let Abby have the stamps back. Until there is evidence that a theft has taken place here or in Australia.’

‘Very interesting he said that,’ Grace commented.

‘Know what I think?’ Branson said. ‘That there’s some kind of love triangle going on here. That’s what this is about.’

‘Do you want to expand on that?’ Grace asked.

‘I can’t, not at the moment. But that’s what I reckon.’

Thinking out aloud, Grace said, ‘If David Nelson – Ronnie Wilson – did put her up to this, it’s very significant.’

‘We’ll keep pressing Skeggs, but his brief’s keeping him quite well bottled up,’ Glenn said.

‘What about putting more surveillance on her?’ DC Boutwood suggested.

Grace shook his head. ‘Too costly. I’m thinking that David Nelson may well have left Australia, if he has any sense. He won’t risk showing his face in England. So my bet is that Abby Dawson will go to meet him somewhere. We put out an all-ports on her. If she buys an air ticket or turns up at a passport control, then we’ll follow her.’

‘Good thinking,’ Glenn Branson said.

DI Mantle nodded. ‘I agree.’

It was one of those all too rare autumn days when England looked at its very best. Abby stared out of the window at the clear blue sky and the morning sun that was low but warm on her face.