‘But never found her again?’
‘No.’
‘How long ago was that?’
He shrugged. ‘A few weeks.’
‘Maybe she’ll turn up.’
‘No, I don’t think she will turn up.’
‘I’m very sorry.’
‘She bit me.’
‘The schnauzer bit you?’
‘On my hand. I don’t think she was such a nice dog.’
‘You’ll like Humphrey, he’s crazy and loves everyone. We also have twelve chickens.’
‘Why?’
‘We like to have our own eggs.’
‘Can’t you buy eggs in England?’
Grace grinned. ‘Yes, in lots of places. But we like to eat our own eggs, we know what the hens have been fed on, and that there aren’t any chemicals in the eggs.’
Bruno fell silent for several minutes. Then, suddenly, he asked, ‘Why did my mother do it? Why did she die? Why did she?’
Grace thought carefully, as he drove, before answering. ‘I don’t know, Bruno, that’s the honest truth. There is so much I don’t know about your mother and your life with her. But I did love her very much and I do know that she loved you very deeply.’
‘Do you think she was ashamed of me?’
‘Hey!’ He put a hand on his son’s shoulder, but felt him stiffen beneath the touch. He put it back on the steering wheel. ‘Don’t ever think that.’
‘What should I think?’
The rush-hour traffic had thinned out, and the motorway was quiet. They’d be home in around an hour. He’d known, all along, before flying to Germany, from everything that Anette Lippert had told him, that it was not going to be easy for this boy to adapt to an entirely new life. But he felt that they had started to bond.
How did he reply? What had Sandy told him about her past? What did Bruno, who was clearly highly perceptive, know about his mother? Had she ever told him the truth about why she had disappeared when she knew she was pregnant? Become for a short while a Scientologist? Then joined another sect and bigamously married its wealthy leader? Divorced him before he later died in a car accident? Then became a heroin addict? Got cleaned up and went into therapy? Hit by a taxi crossing a Munich street, leaving her crippled and permanently disfigured?
What a disastrous waste of a life Sandy had led since leaving him. Just what did Bruno know, what would he be prepared to talk about — and how much had her erratic existence affected him? Maybe he would know all of it in the fullness of time, but not now. Glancing at him, he said, ‘Right now, Bruno, I don’t have answers. What I can promise you is that my wife, Cleo, and I will love and take care of you, and do everything we can for you. Cleo is not a replacement for your mother and never can be, but we will love you every bit as much as we love Noah. Noah’s too young at the moment to understand what has happened, but I’m sure you will be an amazing big brother and role model to him as he grows older.’
Bruno did not respond.
‘Oh, and Cleo loves fast cars — she has an Audi TT.’
‘Will I have any friends?’
‘The son of a friend of mine — his name is Stan Tingley — is looking forward to meeting you. He’s a really nice boy. And when you go to school there’ll be loads of other kids your age. I’m sure you’ll be making a lot of friends, very quickly.’
‘Can Erik come and stay?’
‘We can invite Erik over to stay once you are settled in. Absolutely.’
‘What football team does Stan — support?’
‘Crystal Palace.’
‘I think Crystal Palace do not like the Brighton Albion team, the Seagulls.’
‘You know your football teams!’
‘Kayla the Eagle is the Crystal Palace symbol. The eagle is on my country’s flag. It is our national emblem of Germany.’
‘OK, so, what does that mean to you?’
He shrugged. ‘Nothing. It is not my country any more.’
Grace took that as a positive.
39
Saturday 23 April
Guy Batchelor had an early-morning coffee and cigarette outside, then went in, out of the chilly wind, to his temporary SIO office on the ground floor, and sat down with his back to the window thinking hard about the day ahead on Operation Bantam. He read through the notes he had taken during yesterday evening’s briefing, and also what he had written in his Policy Book, so he could bring Roy Grace, who was due in shortly, up to speed. His phone rang, interrupting his thoughts.
No caller ID showed on the display.
‘Guy Batchelor,’ he answered.
It was Julian Raven from Digital Forensics. ‘Sir,’ he said. ‘Regarding Operation Bantam, we’ve come up with some information on the deceased Lorna Belling’s iPhone we were asked to look at. It was passcode protected, but we’ve managed to get into it.’
‘Bloody hell, how?’ He was mindful of recent press publicity where the FBI in the US had failed with court orders to get Apple to unlock seized phones.
‘It had fingerprint security activated. We have Surrey and Sussex Forensics to thank. They took it to the mortuary — they’ve developed some fancy new technology to use the finger of a deceased to work on the button.’
‘Brilliant!’
‘Yep, pretty impressive. So, in the week before Lorna died there were forty-seven calls from one number. And fifteen messages, many of them abusive.’
‘Really — what do the messages say?’ Batchelor said, his hopes rising again.
‘They appear to relate to an MX5 sports car advertised for sale on eBay by Lorna Belling. The bidder had offered £2,800 which she accepted. He made payment via PayPal, but she then appears to have denied receiving the money. He had been accusing her in his messages of stealing his money.’
‘Go on.’
‘He’s been threatening her with dire consequences if she doesn’t either give him the car or his money back. He’s particularly angry because he wanted this car for a surprise for his wife’s birthday — he’s explained that in his messages. We’ve done a triangulation survey and cell-site analysis with his mobile phone service provider, O2, which puts him in the vicinity of the deceased’s flat, Vallance Mansions, on several separate occasions. The most recent was last night.’
Batchelor felt a buzz of excitement. ‘What do we know?’
‘His name is Seymour Darling. He’s logged as having made a complaint to Sussex Police on Saturday, 16th April, about a fraud. The complaint is being investigated by DC Hilary Bennison from the Economic Crime Unit. I’ve spoken to her and it seems Darling might be the victim of an online scam that’s currently pretty widespread.’
‘What kind of scam, Julian?’
‘It’s one of a number, where people get sent an email with payment instructions. It looks like the sender’s address but there is a subtle change. The moment the money’s paid over, it’s gone.’
Batchelor thought hard. ‘Seymour Darling? Why’s that name ringing a bell?’
‘He’s got three previous convictions, the first in 1997 for shoplifting, for which he got a fine and community service order. The next was 2003 for demanding money with menace — for which he got two years suspended. The third was in 2005 for GBH, when he permanently blinded a woman in one eye in an assault in a pub — for which he got four years. I have his address; 29 Hangleton Rise.’
‘Well, he sounds quite the charmer. Let me have his number and any details you’ve got — and I’ll also get a full background check on him.’
As he ended the call, Roy Grace came into his office. Seeing the big grin on the Acting SIO’s face, the Detective Superintendent said, ‘What’s up?’
Batchelor told him.
Grace pulled up a chair at the empty desk opposite him and sat down, absorbing the information. ‘Interesting form,’ he said.