‘Did they catch the killers?’
She snorted. ‘Do they ever?’
‘When did this happen?’
‘Nearly three weeks ago. It was late afternoon. Broad daylight. Can you believe it?’
‘What date?’ Ben asked, narrowing his eyes.
‘May third,’ she said. ‘Monday. Why?’
The day before Drew had withdrawn all his money from the bank, Ben thought. Four days before the kidnapping.
‘Perhaps I could speak to Mr Reynolds instead?’ he said. ‘It’s about our mutual client.’
‘I’m sorry, Mr, uh, Hope. There’s no way Mr Reynolds or anyone else at the agency is going to discuss clients’ affairs without prior written consent. Which I take it you don’t have.’
Ben ended the call without saying anything more.
This time, as Jessica Hunter led Ben into the kitchen, he accepted a coffee from her. What he really wanted was some of the single malt whisky in his flask and a cigarette to go with it, but smoking and drinking weren’t quite the thing inside a client’s house. He sat at the breakfast bar and sipped the espresso she made him. Strong, black, no sugar. Coffee with a bit of welly to it, the way he liked. He took out the evidence bag containing the hair sample and laid it in front of her.
‘This is for the police. A little something they missed, and I would have, too, except by chance. Like I said, ten to one they’ll come back saying it’s Drew’s. In which case they have to start mounting a whole new search, if it’s not already too late.’
Jessica picked the sample up and stared at it in horrified fascination. Just then, Mike walked into the room looking weary and drawn, and came to sit at the breakfast bar. ‘Back again so soon,’ he said. ‘I can’t believe you’ve only been on the case a few hours and already there’s progress.’
‘Let’s take this one step at a time,’ Ben said. ‘I have a question. Does either of you know of any reason why Drew might have hired a private investigator?’
Jessica was startled. ‘A what?’
‘His name was Paul Finley,’ Ben said. ‘Based in Dover.’
‘What on earth would Drew have wanted with a detective?’
‘There could’ve been a few reasons,’ Ben said. ‘The most obvious being to watch you. It’s not unknown for disgruntled ex-spouses to want to get the dirty on their former partners, especially when there are child custody issues involved.’
‘Get the dirty?’ Mike said, frowning.
‘Incriminating information that might have enabled him to accuse you of neglect, as a way of getting custody himself. Did you two ever go out in the evening, restaurants, nightclubs, and leave Carl on his own?’
Jessica bristled. ‘Absolutely not. I really resent the suggestion. And I’m frankly appalled that this man has been watching us like a couple of criminals.’
‘You won’t have to worry about him any more,’ Ben said. ‘He was stabbed to death in London before the kidnapping took place.’
‘That’s awful,’ Mike said.
‘It happens,’ Ben said.
‘Anyway, we have nothing to hide,’ Jessica said angrily. ‘There’s no question of Carl being neglected or abused in any way. How dare Drew make those allegations? He’s my son. I love him. I’m not the one who’s falling about the place too drunk to take care of themselves.’
‘It doesn’t matter what Drew told the detective,’ Ben said. ‘What matters is that they were in touch in the first place. After Finley died, it’s possible that someone else at the agency took over where he left off. That could mean that Drew was in contact with them right up until he took Carl, and maybe even since. It could help lead us to him.’
‘Did you say they were based in Dover?’ Jessica asked. ‘Will you go?’
‘Can’t hurt to check it out,’ Ben said.
‘What if they won’t talk to you?’
‘I’m sure I can find a way,’ he replied. ‘I won’t be gone for long. In the meantime, the police may have some work to do.’
‘You’re talking about this?’ Mike asked, pointing at the sample bag containing the short, clipped lengths of hair.
Ben nodded. ‘Forget the description you gave to the cops. It’s leading us off the trail. I’m almost certain that we should be looking for a man with much shorter hair, black or close to it. And that’s not all. If I’m right, the police should also change their suspect description from an overweight guy to one of slim-to-medium build. In other words, Drew has radically altered his appearance.’
‘Hold on, we saw him that night,’ Jessica said. ‘Nobody can lose weight that fast. It’s impossible.’
‘That’s true,’ Ben said. ‘But it’s not impossible to fake being fat in the first place. In fact, it’s pretty easily done.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘You said that you hadn’t seen Drew for some time before the kidnapping. Not since the episode of the car accident.’
Jessica nodded. ‘That’s right. He was already getting out of shape then.’
‘But between then and the day of the kidnapping, he had plenty of time to lose the pounds. Someone who’s serious could get into good shape in that time.’
‘What are you basing all this on?’ Mike asked, looking doubtful.
‘The clothes in his wardrobe,’ Ben said. ‘Every pair of trousers was a thirty-two waist. Shirts and T-shirts all medium size. Jackets all thirty-eight inch chest. Not whiplash thin, but hardly what you’d call porky either.’
‘Obviously, they were his old clothes,’ Jessica said impatiently. ‘I told you, he was quite slim and fit when we were first married. He wouldn’t have packed those things when he went on the run with Carl, if he couldn’t get into them any more.’
‘That was my thinking, too,’ Ben said. ‘That he’d have taken all his large-size clothes with him, especially if he wasn’t planning on coming back. I assumed he mustn’t have worn the other stuff for quite some time. But then, why keep it? It’s taking up a lot of wardrobe and drawer space. That interested me. Then I saw the way he’s been eating lately. All health food. A man can starve pretty fast on that stuff. No beer, no booze of any kind. He’d been cleaning himself up, even using herbs and homeopathic medicine to cleanse his liver and protect himself from the flood of stored toxins that can be released when people go on a crash diet after a prolonged unhealthy lifestyle. Looks like he was committed to it.’
‘But that’s just a theory,’ Mike said, still perplexed. ‘It doesn’t prove that he actually did lose weight.’
‘No, but it got me interested in finding out more. Not long before the kidnap, Drew took a blazer to be repaired at a little clothes alterations place in St Helier.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because I’ve just been to collect it.’ Ben opened up his bag, pulled out the blazer and showed them.
‘That was a birthday present for him, years ago, before all the troubles began,’ Jessica said.
Next, Ben took the police artist’s sketch from his pocket. ‘You agree there’s no way the man in this picture could get into that blazer?’
‘I doubt it,’ Jessica said, raising an eyebrow.
‘Right. Then how do we explain why he’d have a missing button and a ripped lining fixed on a jacket he couldn’t wear any more?’
Mike and Jessica looked at each other. ‘I don’t know,’ she said.
‘Simple explanation,’ Ben said. ‘He isn’t the man in the picture. He just wants us to think he is. The blazer repair tells us two things. One, he didn’t just fake his hair and beard when he came here for Carl. I think he was all padded up to make himself look overweight, to mislead the police. He could easily have disposed of the padding, the wig and the beard afterwards. Based on how carefully he’s gone about the whole thing, I’d say he burned them.’