Peter James - The Perfect Murder

DC Badger was looking back at the doorway again now. She resisted the temptation to look as well. She did not want to appear anxious. Then, a little distracted, he turned back to her. ‘Is there anyone else in the house at the moment, Mrs Smiley?’

She shook her head. ‘No.’

‘Are you certain?’

‘Yes, there’s no one.’ She shot another glance at the doorway.

‘Does he have another mobile phone, with a different number, perhaps, that you’ve been calling?’

Again she was silent for a moment, trying to think what to say. Her stomach felt as if it was plunging down a lift shaft. ‘No, there’s no other phone. I just don’t understand this.’

DS Brett made a note on his pad, then flipped back a page. ‘When the two uniformed police officers were here last night, they asked you about a white van that was parked in your driveway. You told them it belonged to your plumber. Is that correct?’

Her stomach felt as if it was plunging even faster now. She was starting to feel that everything was coming undone around her. ‘It belongs to my plumber, yes.’

The detective sergeant studied his notes for a moment. ‘The van belongs to a business called Mile Oak Electrical Supplies . They do plumbing as well, do they?’

‘I believe my plumber borrowed the van,’ she said in a trembling voice. ‘That’s why he was working late, of course. His van had broken down, so he came late.’

She felt the sweat popping on her brow. Relief surged through her. Her lie had sounded okay, she thought.

The DS made another note, then glanced at his colleague and back at Joan. ‘Right. Mrs Smiley, I’m afraid the next thing I have to ask may be a little distressing for you.’ He fell silent and glanced at his colleague again. DC Badger looked at him with a serious expression.

‘Oh?’ Joan said.

The DS went on, ‘Were you aware that your husband, Victor, was having an affair? Did you know that he was planning to leave you?’ Both men were studying her face carefully.

Joan sat very still, in shock. After some moments, she said, ‘An affair? My Victor?’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t believe it! Not Victor. I mean, who on earth would—?’

She stopped in mid-sentence.

DC Badger was looking at the doorway again.

‘Do go on,’ the DS said.

‘I’m sorry, I just don’t believe that.’

‘Does the name Kamila Walczak mean anything to you?’

‘Should it?’

‘She rang your husband’s mobile number last night.’

‘So?’

‘She withheld her number and left no message.’

Now Joan remembered the call that had come in on Victor’s phone. There had been no number in the display and no message. Was that her?

She said, a little acidly, ‘Well, I’ve never heard of her. Who is she?’

‘She works as a hostess at a club in Brighton,’ the detective sergeant said.

‘The lady is mistaken. Victor doesn’t go to clubs.’

The two detectives looked at each other before Brett spoke again. ‘I don’t know how best to put this to you, Mrs Smiley. To be blunt, it is a sex club. This young lady is a sex worker.’

‘A prostitute? Is that what you mean? A call girl? A tart?’

‘I’m afraid so, yes.’

‘My Victor seeing a prostitute? He couldn’t! For a start, where would he have got the money?’

‘I can’t answer that for you, Mrs Smiley. All I can tell you is that Miss Walczak came in to see us just a short while ago. She is very upset. She told us that she and your husband were planning to start a new life together.’

Joan shook her head. ‘She’s made a mistake. Mistaken identity.’

DC Badger was looking at the doorway again. Then he said, ‘We showed her a photograph of your husband. She identified him, without any doubt.’

‘Maybe she’s hiding something,’ Joan said. ‘Could she have harmed Victor, do you think?’

‘That will certainly be one of our lines of inquiry.’

‘My Victor with a hooker? I can’t believe it! I – I just can’t believe it.’

‘We’re mentioning it, Mrs Smiley, because it is possible he has other lady friends as well. He could perhaps be with one of those at the moment.’

‘ABSOLUTELY NOT!’ Joan said loudly. The shock of this news was still spinning in her head. Victor seeing a prostitute. How many years had this been going on? Bastard! How dare he?

‘You are really sure, Mrs Smiley?’ the constable asked.

Something in his voice made her think for a moment. Suddenly, Joan realized that she was being given a gift by the police! She had the perfect reason for Victor to disappear. He had another woman.

She put on a false smile and dabbed her eyes with her fingers again. ‘How well do we know anyone? I thought I knew Victor. I thought he was very happy. Clearly, I must have been wrong if he’s gone running off to tarts. Yes, you’re right, there could be others. There could be loads! Maybe even in other countries? No wonder he kept me so short of money!’

‘Did you check to see if he had taken his passport with him, by any chance?’ DS Brett asked.

She nodded and then lied again. ‘Yes, actually I did. He had taken it. Yes, it was gone from his desk! It was one of the first things I checked.’

‘Why didn’t you mention that in your report to PCSO Watts?’

‘I was in such a state,’ she said. ‘I must have forgotten! Can you imagine what it is like to lose the person you love?’

She began to sob.

The detectives left a short while later. They seemed to spend a long time sitting in their silver Ford Focus outside, talking to each other. Finally, they drove off.

It was ten to one. Joan needed to hurry or she would be late for work. Instead, she stood still for some minutes, staring out of the window. Anger was boiling inside her. Victor had cheated on her. He had been going to a tart! For how long? How much money had he spent on this tart?

She marched over to the internal door to the garage and unlocked it. She opened it and stared down at the smooth cement screed covering the floor.

‘YOU BASTARD!’ she shouted.

Chapter Twenty-One

DS Brett drove the Focus. They were heading back towards the police station. DC Badger stared at the photograph of Victor Smiley on his lap. It was the one that had been circulated, and was being put on Missing Persons posters in police stations around the county.

‘It didn’t feel right to me. What about you?’ the detective sergeant said.

‘She was nervous about something. She kept looking at the doorway,’ Badger replied. ‘The feeling I got is that she has something to hide. If she’s reported her husband missing, and he was lurking in the doorway all the time we were there, someone’s having a laugh at us.’

‘So what do you think she’s playing at?’ the DS asked him.

‘Could it be an insurance scam? We should check to see if there are any life insurance policies on him. There was a couple who did that a while ago. What were they called? Darwin. The husband faked his death in a canoe and they got a life insurance payout. He hid in the attic for five years.’

‘Why didn’t you ask her about it?’

‘I didn’t want her to think I was suspicious. She said there was no one in the house, right?’

Brett nodded. ‘So you think her husband might be alive and well, and hiding in the house?’

‘Possibly, chief. We know she’s been lying to us about the phone. What else has she been lying about?’

‘I see where you’re coming from,’ DS Brett said.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Shortly after six o’clock that evening, Joan edged the purple Astra into her driveway and stopped in front of the garage. She had two bottles of wine in the boot, which she had bought from the supermarket. She also had several packets of biscuits, some prawn cocktails at the end of their best-before dates, and two steaks.