Page 17 of Go Now
‘If he’d been watching the victim over a period of weeks, or even longer, he’d know that Ashworth had to leave the apartment to deal with the alarm.But that might explain why Ashworth wanted CCTV.He had an idea that someone was watching him.And that’s also backed up by something else Kathy Crendell told me.When she mentioned the guy hanging round outside her office to Ashworth, he seemed spooked.’
‘Spooked?’
‘Her words.’
‘We need to double down on CCTV, near the agent and near Ashworth’s apartment.’
‘Chen’s on it.But bear in mind we’re talking about events last month.It’s likely to have been wiped.’
‘I know.We can only try. But I’ll tell you one thing that’s bothering me.There are, what, six apartments in that building?’
‘One empty, being sold, one used only in the daytime by a cartoonist who commutes in from Connecticut.That leaves two, one on the ground, one on the floor above Ashworth.’
‘And neither of them heard a thing?’
‘Don’t forget the killer could have paralyzed Ashworth with the betahydroxy-stuff as soon as he or she got in.’
‘You’re right.So we’ve got some sense of a physical threat from someone watching the building.What about more overt threats?’
‘The agent loaned me a file full of angry letters.I’m about halfway through.They’re pretty tame as far as death threats go, but we should do a basic background search on the ones that aren’t anonymous.What about you?’
She filled him in on the material from the gallery.He peered at the screen.
‘You’ve got 14 photographs, but only 12 names.’
‘Have I?’
Marcus had noticed something instantly that she’d failed to see in about two hours.That didn’t surprise her.
‘So that means two people didn’t sign the petition,’ Marcus went on.‘Who have you matched?’
She showed him, tapping the screen with her pen.
‘So it’s just these two.’
They looked at the two images – two very different men.One was huge, as wide as he was tall, with mousy hair plastered over his forehead and a somewhat vacant look in his eyes.The other was a small, neat-looking man, with a dark complexion and a tidy beard.He wore simple robes over a well-fitting charcoal suit and a priest’s collar.
‘Big Guy,’ Marcus said, pointing to the larger of the two men. ‘I’m going to email this to Ashworth’s agent, see if it’s the same guy she saw hanging around.’
‘Good thinking.’
‘Did you do a reverse image search on this guy?’Marcus asked, pointing to the priest.
‘Yep.Nothing came up.Maybe the beard is new, or it’s a different style to one he had before.That’s the problem with beards.’
‘I say we go back to the gallery.I need to talk to them anyway, because his agent said they also got emails, letters, written threats.Maybe one of the staff saw something, spoke to one of the protestors…’
‘Worth a try.’
They were just heading out of the door when Kate’s phone rang.
‘It’s Winters.’
Kate picked up.True to form, her boss launched straight in without any niceties.
‘What’s the progress?’
‘We’re looking at protestors, people with a specific gripe with the victim and his work.We’re getting repeated mentions of a particular individual scoping out Ashworth’s apartment and the office of his agent, Kathy Crendell.’
