‘And he’s not in the crime business, Liversedge. He’s a family law man.’
‘He was only there for show, anyway,’ said Gerry.
‘Yes,’ said Annie. ‘But why?’
‘They’re obviously thick as thieves,’ said Banks. He glanced at Gerry. ‘Perhaps we’d better do a bit of digging into Hadfield’s other contacts, starting with Brian Liversedge. In the meantime, let’s have a look into the connections we already have here. Maybe something will fly out and slap us across the face. Gerry, you’ve got the most recent HOLMES printout on the links between the people in the two cases, right?’
‘Yes, guv. Right here.’
‘Can you go through it for us, slowly?’
‘Of course. It works best on this diagram.’ Gerry laid a sheet of paper on the table, scribbled with circles and arrows pointing back and forth. ‘What’s missing?’
They all examined the diagram for a few moments, then Gerry told them. ‘There’s no connection between Anthony Randall and any of the women.’
‘Yet Adrienne had been at Hadfield’s house. Most likely on or close to the day they both died.’
‘And both Adrienne and Sarah were in their best party clothes,’ Annie added. She turned to Gerry. ‘And we think Randall was lying about not knowing the girls, don’t we? And he phoned Hadfield three times on that Saturday.’
‘That’s a lot of “ands”,’ said Banks.
‘And if Randall was part of it, he’d have a pay-as-you-go, too,’ Gerry said. ‘So why didn’t he use it to call Hadfield?’
‘Why would he?’ said Annie. ‘Hadfield was a mate. He’d be used to calling him on his regular mobile. He wouldn’t think of using the burner for that.’
‘Fair enough.’ Gerry nodded and added dotted lines in pencil between Randall and all three women. ‘Quite a tight little coven, isn’t it, when you look at it like that?’ she said.
‘And don’t forget the mandies,’ Banks said. ‘No matter what Randall told you, he’s a doctor. If anyone could get hold of them, it was probably him.’
‘But Hadfield had the South African connection,’ said Gerry. ‘Adele Balter mentioned that he visited Cape Town just a few weeks before his death. And mandies are still more prevalent there than anywhere else. I think it’s a lot more likely that he picked them up from a friendly doctor or client on his trips over there.’
‘So they’re all connected, and three of the five are dead,’ said Banks. ‘Short of finding Mia, which we need to do as soon as we possibly can, I think we’ve got to put more pressure on Randall. He definitely knows more than he’s saying. But how do we do that?’
‘Could you get Ken Blackstone to put someone on him?’ Annie asked.
‘I certainly think we can get Ken’s team to help us on this. After all, we’re officially together in this investigation. I’ll talk to him tomorrow, see if I can do something about it.’ Banks paused. ‘Winsome? Something on your mind.’
‘Oh, what? Yes, guv,’ said Winsome. ‘I was just thinking.’
‘It’s encouraged.’
‘Well, I know we’ve been thinking about drugs, and I know I’ve been one of the prime movers in that direction, but what if it’s not? What if it’s something else?’
Banks nodded. ‘Sex. We’ve all thought of that angle, too.’
‘Yes,’ said Winsome. ‘What if that was the case? And what if it was organised?’
‘Go on,’ said Banks.
‘Well, I doubt the students and the old blokes who want to get them into bed move in the same circles, so what do you do if you’re a rich old geezer and you want to meet a student? Put an ad in the papers or a card in a phone box? I don’t think so.’
‘An escort service?’ suggested Annie. ‘There are plenty of sugar daddy sites online.’
‘Something like that,’ Winsome said, ‘only not perhaps on so grand a scale. Say you want a more specialised service, something more select than an Internet dating site. And say you want to be more discreet about it, you don’t want to leave an electronic trail. This Mia only ever appeared around the universities at the beginning of term, didn’t she, in the case of both Adrienne Munro and Sarah Chen?’
‘That’s right,’ said Annie.
‘What if she was recruiting? Or filling orders?’
‘For Hadfield?’
‘And others. Remember, someone bought ten burners from Argos.’
‘What’s in it for Mia?’
‘Money, same as for Adrienne and Sarah. Finder’s fee. She wouldn’t do it for nothing. An introduction service. Private, reliable. Remember, both girls were a lot more flush this term, and they lied about why. I’ve checked into Sarah’s insurance and inheritance situation, by the way, and there’s nothing there. She got a small insurance payment shortly after her father died, but that was it.’
‘And where does Randall fit in?’
‘Sarah Chen.’ Winsome held her hand up. ‘All right. I know we’ve got no evidence. I know all that. But... I don’t know... call it a hunch...’
‘Symmetry,’ said Gerry.
‘Pardon?’ Winsome said.
Gerry tapped the diagram. ‘Symmetry,’ she said again. ‘It completes the diagram, Randall being involved with one of the girls. And if Adrienne was at Hadfield’s place... Maybe they had something already arranged, a get together of some sort, a party, or maybe they were arranging something?’
‘Let’s also not forget,’ Banks added, ‘that Randall is a doctor. Doctors can have all kinds of uses, especially in situations where something goes wrong and people need to keep quiet.’
‘Between eight o’clock and eleven?’ Annie said.
‘If Adrienne took an overdose of Mandrax, for whatever reason, wherever she got them, and if she was at Hadfield’s house, his bathroom, say, where she lost a charm from her bracelet, even in the bath, as Dr Glendenning mentioned she had been in contact with water... Well, he’d hardly want the whole world to know, would he? What better than a friendly medic to sort things out? Phone a friend. Especially one who was also involved in the same sort of dodgy business with the girls as he was. That way Randall could be guaranteed not to talk.’
‘And Sarah?’ asked Annie. ‘Where exactly does she fit in?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Banks. ‘I don’t profess to have it all worked out. We know she had that slip of paper with Adrienne’s name and throwaway number on. At least we assume that’s what it was. Maybe Sarah was with Randall? Maybe she saw too much?’
‘And Randall didn’t save the day,’ said Annie.
‘Exactly.’ Gerry brought another sheet of paper from her briefcase. Banks could see it was a map with markings in red pen. ‘I didn’t think much of it until Winsome just spoke out,’ she said, ‘but if you look at the map you can see two things.’ She pointed to the lines on the sheet. ‘In the first place, the Tetchley Moor parking area is just beside the direct road between Hadfield’s house and Belderfell Pass.’
They all looked, then moved on to the next line. ‘And,’ said Banks, ‘the bothy where Sarah Chen’s body was found is directly on the route south between Hadfield’s house and Bramhope, where Randall lives, which is just along Otley Road from Hyde Park, where Sarah lived.’
They all paused to let the ideas sink in. Banks finished his beer and noticed that Manfred Mann were doing ‘Pretty Flamingo’. ‘We’d better not get too carried away,’ he said. ‘Most of this is still pure speculation.’
‘Isn’t that what our job is most of the time, anyway, guv?’ said Winsome.
‘I’m not disagreeing. Just saying that we can’t go to the CPS with what we’ve got. Or even to Chief Superintendent Gervaise. We need evidence. We’ve got to keep moving along the lines we’ve already established — more pressure on Randall and finding Mia. We can conduct more interviews with Sarah’s and Adrienne’s friends. Show them Ray’s sketch. See if anyone else talked with Mia. See if anyone can place Randall with Sarah Chen. I don’t think that whatever happened that day was in any way planned, so if Hadfield and Adrienne and Randall and Sarah were connected in some way, they’d have no reason to avoid going out, maybe to fancy restaurants.’