Page 63 of Dead Fall

‘DI Bacon,’ he said into the mic. Then he looked up at her with a smile. ‘We’re on our way.’

*

Within ten minutes the two of them, together with DS Craig, were gathered round DC Becca’s laptop in the incident room.

‘So here it is,’ said Becca, frowning intently at the screen.

The clip she played had been captured at night by a CCTV camera positioned above a petrol station forecourt, presumably in a bid to catch drive-offs. She fast-forwarded through a few cars coming and going, their drivers whizzing back and forward to the window to pay. Then she paused it.

‘There.’ There was no one at the payment window but she was pointing at a guy off to the right who had walked up to what appeared to be a cash machine. He was in half profile but from his gait alone there was no mistaking his identity. Ethan Fox.

‘It’s definitely him, isn’t it?’ asked Becca, the young female DC.

‘It’s him all right,’ Flyte told her, smiling at her anxious but excited expression. It was a tedious job, tracking down every possible source of CCTV material in the area around Bronte’s flat and it had paid off.

‘The time stamp reads five past eleven,’ said Streaky, squinting at the screen. ‘And Bronte’s flat is how far from this garage?’

‘About ten minutes’ walk,’ said Becca. ‘I timed it.’

‘Bang in the right area a couple of hours before Bronte takes a fatal header off her balcony.’ Streaky pulled a beatific smile.

‘So Ethan not only lied about seeing her that evening,’ said Flyte, ‘but also about his movements that night.’

‘What did his bandmate say again?’ Streaky asked Becca.

‘That Ethan was at band practice at his gaff in the Holloway Rd that afternoon and slept on the sofa cos it was late when they finished.’

‘The last bit made up to protect his chum,’ said Streaky. ‘In fact, Ethan came back to Camden, and got some cash out a short step from Bronte’s.’

‘And who uses cash these days? Other than drug dealers,’ this from Craig. ‘Should I go doorstep Ethan’s bandmate, boss?’

Streaky turned to Becca. ‘It’s your lead, Becca. You should go see the guy, put the fear of God into him for lying. See what else he can tell us about Ethan. You can take Craig here, if you like: it’s your shout. Terrific work. Good old-fashioned policing.’

Becca went a fetching shade of pink.

Flyte was pleasantly surprised to see the way Streaky bigged up Becca, but something had been niggling away at her about Ethan as a suspect. She could definitely buy him losing his temper with Bronte and tipping her over the balcony, and of course he could easily have known what it was that she was dangerously allergic to. But was he really capable of the calculation and planning that feeding her an allergen involved? And why risk taking her the gift of a book that might advertise his presence at the flat that night?

‘Did you find anything useful in your trawl of Bronte’s comms?’ she asked Becca.

‘Nothing much,’ said Becca, pulling up a file. ‘But you were right about her planning a Cyprus trip. She had a flight booked to Larnaca and car hire for a week.’

‘Just her? When was she supposed to be flying?’

‘Ten days after her death.’

Interesting. So much for Chrysanthi’s insistence that Bronte had zero interest in the family’s home island: maybe she just hadn’t liked the idea.

‘One other thing,’ said Becca. ‘Her health problems were ongoing – she had sent an email a few weeks before her death enquiring about an appointment with a gastroenterologist in Harley Street. Using a false name.’

Not that unusual for a celebrity wary that their private info could be leaked.

‘Did the consultation happen?’ asked Streaky.

‘The fee quoted was £350 plus VAT, but she didn’t reply.’ Becca shrugged. ‘And there’s no payment going out of her bank account so it looks like she didn’t get round to it.’

Streaky returned to his desk and Flyte followed.

‘I did some Google research on anaphylactic shock,’ she told him. ‘Apparently it’s pretty rare for the first serious reaction to kill you – there’s usually a previous episode. Clearly her murderer knew what she was allergic to. Which suggests they might have been with her when she suffered an earlier reaction?’

---