Page 124 of Making a Killing

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Daisy Mason case

Sorry for the radio silence, bit of a hitch on the Kelsie front. She was sick or something so we haven’t met yet. It’s a bummer but there you are.

I’ll keep you posted.

Rob

– no further emails –

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Adam Fawley

31 July 2024

09.15

At nine fifteen the following morning we’re all in the incident room for a debrief, with Asante back for the day from Gloucester, and me sat discreetly to one side, letting Quinn run the show.

‘So,’ he says, ‘let’s get the crap out of the way first. The restaurant manager at Gusto has confirmed the Manns’ reservation on June 15th, and has a record of three people seated at seven p.m.; the bus timetable for the Evesham to Stow route that goes via Hescombe also matches the timings Gary gave us. We’re checking his phone to see if he could have gone back the day after to get rid of the body if he did actually kill her, but I doubt it – I’m not buying him as a suspect. Not least because Daisy must have been in the house when he did it and I just can’t see how that could have played out – they never trusted each other, they haven’t seen each other in eight years, and the first thing they do is collude in a murder? I don’t buy that for a nanosecond. Gary’s phonewasuseful, though, because the number he was using to communicate with Daisy turns out to be theburner phone we found at the house. She obviouslyhad both an official and an “unofficial” phone. No doubt to stop Kate finding out what she was really getting up to.’

‘Have they managed to unlock it?’ asks Ev.

He shakes his head. ‘Not yet.’

‘Meanwhile, I’ve checked out Barry and Jamie, alibi-wise,’ says Gis, ‘and they’re confirmed at the Premier Inn in Redcar on the night of the 15th and then with a late check-out on the afternoon of the 16th, so no way they could be in two places at once. And in any case, what’s their motive? They stood to make money from Tierney, and Barry could have cleared his name once and for all – neither of them had a reason to kill her.’

‘We’ve also spoken to Dry Riser,’ says Ev, ‘and they’ve confirmed that they made a payment of $52,000 to Tierney’s account on June 15th, after receiving that email on the 13th. $2,000 for Jamie – which he clearly never got – and $50,000 for Kelsie Smith.’

‘So Kelsie Smith met with Tierney, collected the cash, then fixed it for her to meet Daisy?’ says Sargent.

Gis nods. ‘The timeline works.’

‘That’s assuming Gary really did see Daisy going into the house,’ says Baxter. ‘We only have his word for that.’

But Ev is shaking her head. ‘Gary doesn’t lie. He’s not built that way. He can withhold things, yes, but he doesn’t tell outright lies.’

‘The phone data will prove it either way,’ says Stillwell. ‘And in any case, I can’t see what he’d be doing in an out-of-the-way place like Hescombe otherwise.’

My turn. ‘The same goes for Daisy. If she was there, it had to have been prearranged.’

‘Doesn’t the same apply to Kate?’ says Stillwell. ‘She’d bent over backwards to be in Broadway that weekend. After practically living under a stone for nearly eight years.’

‘Exactly,’ I say, turning to her. ‘We have to assume she could have been at the house that evening too.’

‘Tierney had deliberately set up a meeting with Kate at exactly the same time?’ asks Sargent. ‘Without either of them knowing? What does that achieve?’

Gis shrugs. ‘Drama. Ratings. Nick bloody Vincent’s stock-in-trade. He wanted a big bang for his big bucks, the nasty little gobshite.’

‘So,’ says Ev, ‘we have Daisy definitely at the house and quite possibly Kate too.’

‘What about Smith?’ offers Sargent. ‘She could have been there as well.’

‘True,’ says Ev. ‘So that’sthreesuspects, one of whom not only killed Robin Tierney but then went to considerable lengths to make everyone else think she was still alive.’

There’s a silence.

‘Kate certainly doesn’t strike me as the murdering type,’ says Sargent eventually.

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