Anna looked up as she replaced the letters and cards into the envelope. “She never showed up for the weekend she promised?”
“No, I never heard from her again, apart from that phone call.”
“So she never sent any money?”
Mrs. Walters again seemed tense. “If she had, I’d have reported it. We have to, if it’s for the children.”
“You know, it is important, Mrs. Walters, if you did receive any money from Mrs. Potts.”
“If it was a check, we’d report it and arrange an account if that was what was wanted.”
“I am referring to any cash sent to you.”
Mrs. Walters clasped her hands together.
“I can fully understand,” Anna said quietly, “that if you did receive cash, then you naturally would have put it toward things for the children. I am not in any way insinuating that there was any wrongdoing on your part.”
Mrs. Walters twisted her wedding ring around and around. Anna went for it. “How much did Margaret Potts send you, Mrs. Walters?”
“She didn’t send it.”
Anna leaned forward. “I’m sorry?”
“It was in an envelope pushed through the letter box. We — that’s my husband and I and the children — had been at a sports day at the school, and when we came back, it was lying on the doormat.”
“When was this?”
The woman was really nervous now, constantly licking her lips. “Six months or more before her body was discovered.”
“Can you tell me how much it was?”
“I’ve wondered and worried about this, you know. I said to my husband we should tell the Services, and then we’d had it over a week and done nothing with it, and it sort of stayed in that drawer. I took a tenner here and there for things, and he needed to pay off his car, and then the washing machine broke down, so we bought a new one. It wasn’t as if we spent it on ourselves. We take them out on trips in the car, and I need a washing machine.”
“Just tell me how much, Mrs. Walters, that’s all I want to know.”
“Over a thousand pounds.”
“In used or new notes?”
“Old ones: ten and twenties.”
Anna returned to the station, knowing that Margaret Potts had not only left money in her suitcase but had also given Mrs. Walters a large amount. Anna sat at her desk and calculated the timing between the two amounts of cash. It was possible there was even more money, as Emerald Turk could have lied about how much was in Margaret’s suitcase. Mrs. Walters also could have lied about the amount. Adding this to the new clothes, new shoes, and so on, Anna was certain that their victim was in possession of more money than she was earning as a prostitute. She crossed to the board and jotted down her new information.
Barbara glanced at Joan and then craned her neck to have a look at Anna’s left hand. She turned away quickly when Anna came over.
“Have we had access to John Smiley’s bank accounts yet?” Anna asked.
“Due in this afternoon,” Barbara said, able to see clearly the ring on Anna’s finger. “That’s lovely,” she said, nodding toward it.
“Thank you.”
“Diamonds, are they?”
“Yes, Barbara, and seed pearls. It’s Victorian.” Anna couldn’t stop herself. “It’s an engagement ring,” she blurted out.
Barbara looked again at Joan. “Oh, your mother’s, is it?”
Anna giggled and shook her head. “No, it’s mine, Barbara. I’m engaged.”
“To be married?”
“That is the usual reason for wearing an engagement ring, isn’t it?”
“Well, congratulations! Aren’t you the quiet one? So who’s the lucky fiancé?”
“You don’t know him.”
“Happened on the weekend, then, did it?” Joan asked, looking over.
They were blatantly nosy, but Anna couldn’t take offense. “Yes, it happened on the weekend.”
The news went round the incident room like a forest fire. Barolli was told by Joan, he told Mike Lewis, and the rest of the team was told by Barbara. DI Anna Travis was engaged to be married!
Anna secretly enjoyed the furtive attention, she knew they would be drawing up bets to try and find out whom she was engaged to. It wouldn’t be a secret for too long.
The excitement over the engagement abated only when Mike Lewis received the details of John Smiley’s bank accounts. They were impressed by his wages, as they were considerably higher than many of the team members were earning; forty-five thousand pounds a year. The money was paid directly into his account. Smiley had numerous direct debits for things like gas and electricity; his mortgage was also paid directly. He had withdrawals of eight hundred pounds every month paid into an account in the name of his wife, Sonja Smiley. They presumed this was for housekeeping. He didn’t appear to make cash withdrawals on a regular basis; maybe his wife paid him out of the housekeeping. He had three cards, one of which was in the name of Swell Blinds and was used only for diesel. Another was for his NatWest cashpoint, and a third was a department store credit card.
“Bloody well organized, isn’t he?” Mike said, looking at the columns of figures.
In a high-interest savings account, Smiley had twelve thousand pounds. He had a pension arranged with Swell Blinds’ employees, and basically, that was it.
Anna leaned over Mike’s shoulder. “So the only lump sums of cash that go out are paid directly into his wife’s account. If she is handing out pocket money, they live a frugal life. What about an expense account for Swell Blinds, anything on that?”
“We haven’t seen that come in. I can get on it.”
“We also need to go back further. These are all this year’s, right? But if he was being blackmailed by Margaret Potts, it wouldn’t be recent; she’s been dead two years. Take it back to three years ago.”
Anna repeated to Mike the amount of money they knew their victim had in cash shortly before she died.
“You see, the money in the suitcase was left at Emerald Turk’s, along with a bunch of new clothes, so she would have to be blackmailing Smiley after the blinds were put up in her flat, right?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“The money from Mrs. Walters was about six months before she was murdered.”
Mike was scrolling through the bank statements with Anna standing beside him.
“With him being such a model husband and not shelling out even for holidays, as far as I can see, it’s going to be easy to see if he starts making cash withdrawals to pay her off.” Anna drew up a chair. “Although if the money was in tens and twenties, used notes, it doesn’t quite gel if he wasn’t withdrawing large sums to pay her off, does it? At the same time, Margaret would have been paid in used notes by her punters.”
“If she charged ten or twenty quid for a blow job, that’s a hell of a lot of johns for that amount of money. She’s not likely to have saved it all up, is she?”
“We don’t know. She could have, and this is all a waste of time,” Anna said, glancing at her ring. She would have to get it made to size, as the bandage was sticky.
“So who’s the lucky bloke?” Mike asked, staring at the screen.
“You don’t know him.”
“So he’s not one of us, then?”
“No, he’s not.”
“That was what the family commitment was on the weekend?”
She grinned. They were all the same, so nosy. She got up and stretched and then turned back to Mike. “What if John Smiley was also doing a bit of moonlighting? We are pretty certain he got paid by Emerald Turk to put up a blind in her flat: what if this was a regular thing? He could be making cash in hand that way.”
“He could, but right now he denied ever being at Emerald Turk’s.” Mike was still scrolling through sheets of bank statements.