‘Was Margaret working there when you first knew her?’ he asked.
Craggs shook his head. ‘No, that was before my time. Soon after this photo was taken, the building they used as an office burned down. Rumours were that it was some sort of insurance scam. It was widely known that the Kerrs owed money all over the town. They’d over-committed themselves buying a new boat. Malcolm’s makeshift shed appeared soon after.’
The next page was blank. ‘That’s all there is,’ Craggs said. ‘Unless you’re interested in seaweed…’
Joe shook his head and smiled. He felt that he had a better understanding of the background to the case, but he was here to check more recent movements.
‘George Enderby stayed with you the night Dee Robson was murdered.’
‘Yes,’ Craggs said. ‘It must have been that day.’
‘What time did he arrive?’
‘It was late. Eight o’clock. Mary had left us a casserole and I was starving. I’m used to eating earlier, and I almost started without him.’
So Enderby had no alibi for Dee’s murder, either. Joe thought he would achieve nothing more here and moved towards the door.
Mary Craggs must have been watching them, because she appeared again from the kitchen. ‘Have you got everything you need, Sergeant?’
‘Yes, your husband’s been very helpful. Thank you.’ Then he reconsidered. ‘Might I borrow the photo album, Professor? I’ll return it as soon as I’ve shown my boss.’
Craggs nodded and returned to the house to fetch the book. Then the elderly couple walked together with Joe and Charlie into the garden and stood, looking over the gate, the professor with his arm around his wife’s shoulder, watching until they drove off.
Chapter Thirty
The evening briefing. Outside it was dark and the traffic was heavy. The start of the long Christmas weekend and people making their way south to visit family and friends. Vera had shut herself away in her office and only emerged as the meeting was about to begin. She’d run her fingers through her hair so that it stuck up at the back, but nobody dared tell her.
She stood at the front of the room, with her legs apart, her eyes bright. ‘Let’s get this cleared up by Christmas, shall we, folks? Then you can all go home to your bairns in time to open the stockings.’
In the room a few sceptical cheers. Vera wasn’t known for her family-friendly policies.
‘I’ll go first, shall I?’ Defying them to contradict her. She pointed to the photo of the young Margaret Krukowski on the whiteboard. ‘Our first victim. Seventy-year-old woman, member of St Batholomew’s Church, committed to the work of the Haven, a hostel for homeless women. From the beginning we wondered if there might be a clue there. Had she been in an abusive relationship? Was that why she’d befriended our second victim, Dee Robson?’
From the back of the room Joe Ashworth thought he’d never seen Vera looking so animated. She seemed ten years younger. He wondered if she’d been at the secret stash of whisky that she kept in her office drawer. Or if she had some information of her own to share with them.
Vera continued: ‘But yesterday a witness came forward and has thrown a very different light on the relationship between Dee and Margaret. As you all know now, it seems that there was another connection between the women.’
Vera paused. The room was silent. She looked out at them, and Joe could tell that she was loving the attention. ‘Thirty years ago Margaret Krukowski was a call girl, working out of the house in Harbour Street, where she was living when she died. Discreet and classy, despite the neighbourhood. Successful too, because I reckon the money in her savings account probably came from that time. Seems to me that this answers a lot of the questions we’ve had about this woman. She sometimes talked about secrets and implied that she had a mysterious past. It explains, at least in part, Malcolm Kerr’s reluctance to be straight with us. He fancied the pants off her and wouldn’t want her memory sullied by rumours that she’d been a sex worker. And it explains her fondness for Dee Robson. I’m assuming Margaret went into business when she was deserted by her husband. And when she lost her office job with the Kerrs. Sad that she preferred selling her body to going to her parents and admitting that she was wrong about him, but she was a proud woman. And it seems that she was in control of her own business. Booth didn’t mention that a man was involved. Margaret valued her independence.’
She fell silent and looked around her. Joe wondered if she was expecting a round of applause for her expert summing-up. Holly stuck up her hand.
‘How does this move the investigation on, boss? It was a long time ago. How many people still around knew that she was on the game?’
Oh, Holly! Joe thought. When will you learn? You don’t question Vera Stanhope when she’s on a roll.
But Vera must have been feeling generous and today there was no cutting put-down. ‘This is still relevant, Hol. Because you’re a babe-in-arms you don’t understand how the dim and distant can come back to haunt you. Maybe Margaret wanted to go public about her past before she died. To set the record straight. And there were respectable people – ex-clients – who didn’t want her to do that.’ She paused. ‘How did you get on at the Haven?’
‘One of the residents there claims that she lived in the house in Harbour Street at the same time as Margaret.’ Holly looked at her notes. ‘Susan Coulson. She’s a bit confused, and was talking about having had a child that was taken away from her. But she did say that she knew Margaret’s boss.’
‘Okay. That’d be Malcom Kerr. Or his father, Billy. Let’s get Malcolm in tomorrow. I can’t believe that he didn’t know how Margaret was earning her living at that time. He’s always seen himself as some sort of confidant. I don’t see him as a pimp, though. Anything else?’
Holly looked again at her notes. ‘Not from the Haven, but I spoke to Enderby’s wife.’
‘And?’
‘She confirmed that she’s left him. Posh Diana has fallen for a guy who runs the stables where she keeps her horses.’ Holly grinned. ‘He’s very fit apparently. She went into some detail… And I asked Enderby if we could take the outdoor clothes that he was carrying around in his wheelie suitcase for testing.’
‘How did he seem when you asked him?’
‘Hurt. “How can you believe that I would do something like that?” He didn’t kick up too much of a fuss, though.’
Vera looked around the room. ‘Anyone else like to contribute to this investigation? Or is this just a case being run by the women on the team?’
Joe slowly raised his hand.
‘Yes, Joe. You and Charlie have had a nice day out in the country visiting our professor.’ She pointed to Mike Craggs’s name on the board. ‘What did you get from him? He was knocking around in Mardle at the time. A young research scientist. Was he one of Margaret’s customers, do you think?’
‘Craggs admitted that he admired her,’ Joe said. ‘But nah, I don’t think so. He was already married to his wife then, and you can tell that he loves her to bits.’ He saw that Vera was about to sneer – any talk of romance and she pretended to puke – so he moved on quickly. ‘Craggs did pass on one interesting bit of information, though.’
‘Get on with it, Joe man.’
‘The Kerrs were in financial difficulties in the Eighties. They owed money all over the town and when the office building burned down, it seemed a bit too convenient. Rumour had it that it was an insurance scam.’
Joe could see Vera processing this and dismissing it as unimportant. He suspected that she’d developed a theory of her own. That would explain her excitement. She was just waiting for the right moment to share it. Still he persisted. ‘Margaret would have known the Kerrs’ financial position. She kept their books, after all. If she was planning to come clean about the past, maybe she was going to talk about that too.’