Dead Beat (19 page)

“Thanks. I’ll make sure she’s got a good one.”

“Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” he said bitterly. There didn’t seem much I could say to that, so I turned and walked back down the path.

I made good time back over the motorway. I’d rung Macclesfield police station from the motorway services. I regretted the impulse as soon as I was connected to Cliff Jackson.

“I’m glad you rang,” he growled. He didn’t sound it. “I want a word with you.”

“How can I help, Inspector?” I said. It’s a lot easier to sound sweet and helpful when there’s forty miles of road between you.

“There’s nothing gets on my threepennies more than people like

“If I knew what you were referring to, Inspector, I might be able to offer you some reassurance as to my future conduct.” He really brought out the lawyer in me.

“The way you conveniently forgot to mention that Maggie Rossiter was not only in the vicinity of Colcutt Manor at the time of Moira Pollock’s death but was also out and about in the highways and by-ways of Cheshire at the relevant time,” he snarled.

“Well, for one thing, Inspector, I wasn’t even sure what the relevant time was. The fact that she was in the lane a good hour after Jett and I discovered the body didn’t seem especially revelant to me, I have to admit.”

“Don’t try to be clever with me, Ms. Brannigan. I’m not making idle threats here. If you interfere with the course of my investigation again, or if I find you’ve been withholding evidence, I’m going to come down on you so hard it’ll make your eyes water. Do I make myself plain?”

“As the proverbial pikestaff, Inspector.”

“Right. And I think I’ll be wanting another word with you about your version of events around the time of the murder. You seem rather more hazy than I’d expect from someone who thinks she’s as sharp as you do. I’d appreciate it if you could come into my office tomorrow morning at nine.”

Before I could refuse, the line went dead. Going back to Colcutt could only be an improvement on the day.

   “Kate!” Neil exclaimed as I stuck my head round the door of his office. “Come in!” I’d caught a glimpse of his retreating back as I’d entered the manor and followed him.

He was standing by his desk pouring a mug of coffee from a Thermos jug. His face had the bleary, unfocused look of a hangover. “Fancy a cuppa? I’ve no milk here, I’m afraid.”

“Black’s fine,” I replied. He opened his desk drawer and took out a second mug, which he filled and handed to me.

“Fancy a little something to keep the cold out?” he asked. I shook my head with a mental shudder, and watched in revulsion as he pulled a bottle of Grouse from his desk drawer and poured a generous slug into his mug. He took a long swallow of the brew, and as it went down, his face seemed to regain definition. “Aah,” he sighed comfortably. “That’s better.”

Neil slouched across the room and collapsed into a leather armchair in a corner. “So,” he said with a crooked smile, “how’s Hawkshaw the Detective getting on? Ready to finger the culprit yet?”

“Hardly,” I replied, sitting down on the typist’s chair in front of the desk. I was in two minds whether or not to tell him about Maggie’s arrest. On the one hand, I didn’t want to help him earn a shilling out of selling the story. But on the other, I was convinced Jackson was so far off-beam that I wanted him to end up looking like the fool he was. In the end, I decided I wanted to get my own back on Neil more than I did on Jackson, so I kept the news to myself.

“I’ve only just started my inquiries,” I said. “And if Gloria’s anything to go by, I’d have more joy panning for gold in the Mersey than extracting information out of you lot.”

Neil pulled a face. “I don’t envy you the lovely Gloria. But if it’s good gossip you’re after, you’ve come to the right place. My encyclopedic knowledge of the occupants of Colcutt Manor is entirely at your disposal. Fire away.” My relief must have shown in my face, for Neil chuckled. “Bit of a shock to the system, eh, finding someone who actually wants to talk.”

“Just a bit,” I said. “Before we get down to the serious gossip, though, I have to do the proper detective bit. You know, where were you on the night of, etc.”

He lit a cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke with an appreciative smile. “Eat your heart out, Miss Marple. Well, I’d been nattering to Kevin earlier, then about ten I went down the local pub for a few sherbets before closing time. I must have got back about half past eleven, then I came through here and did a couple

I asked a few more questions, and soon elicited the fact that he hadn’t seen Moira in the pub. Presumably she and Maggie had gone up to her room before he’d arrived. I decided to change to a more profitable line of questioning. “So, if you were a gambling man, who would you be putting money on?”

His eyes crinkled up in concentration for a moment, then he rattled off the odds: “2–1 Tamar, 3–1 Gloria and Kevin, 7–2 Jett, 4–1 Micky and 10–1 the girlfriend.”

I couldn’t help smiling. I hadn’t expected such a literal answer. “And what about you?”

Neil stroked his mustache. “Me? I’m the dark horse. An outsider in more ways than one. You’d have to put me down at 100–1. After all, I was the only one who had nothing to gain and everything to lose from her death.”

I was intrigued. On the face of it, what he said was plausible. But since my only experience of murder is in the pages of Agatha Christie, that made him number one suspect in my book. I said as much.

He roared with laughter, and got up to refill his mug. This time, the tot of whisky was noticeably smaller. “Sorry to disappoint you, Kate,” he remarked, “but I meant what I said. Moira was the best possible source for early material on Jett. I mean, we all know how showbiz biogs steer well clear of scandal. And Jett’s life has been well-documented. The only genuinely new angle I could hope for was finally lifting the lid on what happened between Jett and Moira all those years ago. I couldn’t get an on-the-record word out of anybody about the reasons for the partnership splitting up. Her arrival on the scene was a godsend. She was willing to talk, and we’d only just begun to get into it. So I had a vested interest in her being around to talk to me. Forget the doctrine of the ‘least likely person.’”

“OK. So you didn’t have a motive. But you obviously think the others did. Suppose you run them past me?” I flipped my bag open and on the pretext of getting my notebook out, I switched on my tape recorder. I’d meant to tape all my interviews, but finding a strategy to deal with Gloria had driven the thought from my mind.

Neil stretched out in his chair and crossed his legs at the ankle, revealing odd socks above his scuffed leather loafers. “First, Tamar,” he said, a note of relish in his tone that made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Life with Richard has shown me that journalists are the biggest bitches on two legs, but I still can’t get off on listening to them dishing the dirt. “They were on the rocks long before you found Moira. She’d actually taken a walk a week or two before that gig when I met you, but when Jett didn’t chase her, she came back off her own bat. If he hadn’t been so distracted with the work on the album, she’d have been on her bike a long time ago. But she was putting a lot of work in on making herself indispensable. When Moira turned up, Tamar could see all that good work going down the tubes.”

“What d’you mean, good work? All I’ve seen her do so far is doss around,” I interrupted.

Neil grinned. “I mean, ‘Yes, Jett, no, Jett, three bags full, Jett.’ And all those evenings in the kitchen rustling up tasty little gourmet dinners for her hard-working man. Not to mention the horizontal work. Once Moira arrived, she used to wind Tamar up something rotten, flirting with Jett whenever Tamar was around. As long as Moira was around, Tamar was living on borrowed time. And hell hath no fury. But now Moira’s gone, Tamar’s wasting no time consolidating her position. As you no doubt noticed for yourself yesterday.”

“I can’t see Tamar choosing a tenor sax as her murder weapon,” I objected.

Neil crushed out his cigarette. “All the more reason for her to use it,” he countered. “Though I agree it is a bizarre image.”

We both paused for a moment to contemplate the idea. For me, it didn’t work, but judging by the satisfied smirk on Neil’s face, he was having less trouble with it. “Next,” I demanded. “Gloria at 3–1.”

“Obvious motive. She is obsessive about Jett. Madly in love with him, and all she is to him is a housekeeper with word-processing skills. She didn’t approve of Moira’s presence, reckoned she was disruptive and ultimately bad news for Jett, trapping him in a time warp. And if she thought Moira was going to spill any dirt on her idol, Gloria would have a double motive for getting her out of the way,” Neil summed up with an air of having said all there was to be said on the subject.

“And you think Kevin’s motive is as strong?” I challenged him.

“We-ell, that depends on how straight you think he is. There’s been a lot of argument in this house over the past few weeks about money and contracts. Jett was pissed off with Kevin for signing me up, you know. He wanted your boyfriend.”

“I know,” I said stiffly. That had already tagged Kevin in my mind as a shit. I had to be careful not to let my personal reactions interfere with my professional judgement, something which Neil seemed to be deliberately trying to provoke. “But I hardly think that would give Kevin a motive for killing Moira.”

“Well, there was a lot more going down between the three of them than that. Moira was convinced that Kevin had been systematically ripping Jett off. She kept egging him on to straighten out his finances, to get Kevin to give him a detailed breakdown of his earnings and his assets. Kevin was being awkward about it. Now, whether that is because he genuinely had something to hide or because Moira just pissed him off and made him stubborn, I don’t know. I do know that she was having a hell of a lot of trouble getting her hands on all her back royalties.” That confirmed what Maggie had already told me. Things were beginning to fall into place. Nothing like a bit of corroboration, though.

“There were a lot of rows about touring, too,” Neil added. “Moira kept telling Jett that he shouldn’t be having to do so much touring, that he should be concentrating on short tours of big venues like Wembley and the NEC. Kevin was furious. He seemed to think that she didn’t know what she was talking about, and she had no right to interfere after being away for so long. She really was making his life a misery. If I’d been in his shoes, I’d probably have taken a meat ax to her weeks ago.”

Neil certainly wasn’t stinting himself when it came to putting the poison in. In spite of my misgivings, I knew I had to milk it for all it was worth. “Micky?” I asked, leaning over to pour myself the last cup of coffee.

“Micky produced Jett’s first four albums, and that was the springboard that put him on the map as a producer.” Neil paused to light another cigarette, and I had time to reflect that he even spoke like a tabloid newspaper. “But the last two years have seen him plummet from the top of the tree, thanks to the old nose candy.”

“Coke?” I asked.

“The same. Just like Jett, Micky’s had too many flops for comfort, and he knows it. The collaboration was supposed to work the old magic and produce a classic album. Till Moira came along, it was shaping up to be classic dross. She encouraged Jett to shout Micky down and go back to their old style. Micky kept ranting that they were five years out of date. But then, as Moira sweetly pointed out, so are most of Jett’s fans. She also wasn’t scared of badmouthing him over his habit. Given Jett’s views on drugs, that was a serious no-no for him.”

“You’re not seriously trying to tell me Jett doesn’t know about Micky?” That I couldn’t believe.

“Yes and no. I mean, theoretically, he probably does. But Micky’s very careful to keep it under wraps. You won’t ever walk into a room here and find somebody doing a line or two. It’s all behindlocked-doors stuff. Everybody goes along with Jett’s little fantasies about this being a clean house. Moira was using that as a lever to put pressure on Kevin to make her joint producer. Micky was really running scared.”

“Scared enough to kill her?” I asked. Maybe I’m too naïve for this game, but even my naturally suspicious mind was having trouble getting round that idea.

Neil shrugged. “Coke makes you very paranoid. It’s a fact.”

“And the girlfriend? What exactly do you mean?” I demanded.

“I’m presuming you knew Moira had become a dyke, since it was you who tracked her down? Well, she’d been shacked up with some social worker called Maggie over in Bradford. The girlfriend

“And you think being given the big E is a motive for murder?” I said skeptically.

“If she thought Moira was packing her in to go back to Jett, yeah. Helluva blow to the ego. And she’s the only outsider you could reasonably expect Moira to let into the house.”

And she stood to inherit a substantial amount of money. I could see why Jackson was in love with the idea of Maggie. “You seemed to think Jett had a motive. But he has an alibi. He was with me, remember?”

“And I am Marie of Romania! Come on, Kate, I know that was all bullshit. And I know you believe he couldn’t have had anything to do with it. But just think on. Moira had turned his comfortable life on its head. That might have been OK if they had been lovers. But she wasn’t having any, and he really wasn’t handling that. I mean, you’ve heard all his New Age stuff about them being soul mates destined for each other. He wanted them to be together and make babies, for God’s sake. Maybe she just turned him down once too often. I mean, the guy has got one helluva quick temper. Maybe he thought that if he couldn’t have her, then no one else would. In spite of the front he puts up, he’s no pussycat.”

“One big happy family,” I remarked ironically. “All for one and one for all.”

“I tell you, if I wasn’t working for Jett, I could make a fortune with the shit I’ve picked up round here in the last few weeks.”

I got to my feet. I might still be able to learn more from Neil, but I’d had enough for one helping. “Thanks for the info,” I said. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.” I wasn’t bullshitting, either. Neil’s reminder of Jett’s quick mood changes niggled in my mind like biscuit crumbs in the bed. I almost missed his parting remarks.