Agnes Lockwood Mysteries Collection

Chapter 17

The chief inspector was already at his desk when Sergeant Andrews arrived the next morning.

“Have you been here all night?”

“Not quite.” Alan looked up. “But I wanted to get a head start.”

“Does this mean you have some new evidence?”

“Sit down,” said Alan. He went on to tell him about what Agnes had said the night before. “She could be right. We were so convinced that the body was thrown from the window, we didn"t look for anything else. And that could be where we went wrong.” He paused to allow Andrews to think about what he had told him.

“Well, it would account for the lack of blood in the room upstairs and on the pavement.” Sergeant Andrews stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“Exactly!” Alan thumped his fist on the desk. “I should have thought about it at the time. Now I have allowed the real culprit time to get away.”

“We still need to find out who was in the house at that time of night. But so far everyone is keeping quiet. No one will admit to having been in the room, nor lending the keys to anyone.” Andrews sighed. “Do you want me to try again today?”

“Yes,” Alan replied, “and make sure they all know that they are hindering a murder investigation. Accuse them of perverting the course of justice or threaten to bring them in for questioning. Do whatever it takes to get them to open up. This nonsense has gone on long enough.”

Andrews was just about to leave the office, when Alan called him back. “I"m a little concerned about a man who seems to be following Agnes.” He coughed and corrected himself. “I mean Mrs Lockwood. This man is staying at the hotel and is registered under the name of David Drummond. She doesn"t recall ever having met him before, yet he seems to think she has. I"m just mentioning this now in case his name should come up while you are questioning the museum staff.”

“Where will you be, should I have any information.”

“I"m going to the hotel. It seems another robbery took place sometime yesterday. The theft was only discovered late last night. I have been instructed to look into it.” The chief inspector raised his eyes to the ceiling. “I gather Mrs Hargreaves has been speaking to the chief constable again. Anyway,” he added brushing his last remark aside, “I"ll catch up with you later.”

At the hotel, Agnes was just finishing her breakfast when the chief inspector arrived. Despite her late night, she had awoken early. She had rather hoped to catch a glimpse of the couple next door as they left their room, but it was not to be. They must have made an early start to their day; a member of staff was already in the room making the bed as Agnes made her way towards the lift.

“I gather there was a bit of excitement on your floor last night,” the lift attendant had said on the way down to the ground floor. “The police were called in.”

However Agnes, not wanting to say she had heard anything, tried to sound surprised by telling him that she had been so tired she had slept like a log. “So what happened?”

Unfortunately, he had been unable to tell her anything more than she already knew. She rather got the impression he was looking to her for more information on the incident. No doubt everything that happened in the hotel was filtered and passed on below stairs, so to speak. Perhaps it would be a good idea if Alan were to start his robbery investigation down there.

Alan saw her leaving the Dining Room as he stepped out of the manager"s office. He smiled warmly as he strode over to her. “There"s been another robbery,” he said.

Agnes looked around her to make sure no one was listening. “Yes, I know. It took place in the room next to mine.” She led him across to the Drawing Room and sat down. “The commotion woke me up. It seemed the couple had just come back to find some jewellery had disappeared. I assume the night security guy came up first. But then the manager was called. I guess Mr Jenkins must have an apartment here at the hotel as it didn"t take him long. Then the police arrived.” She paused. “It really is bad, isn"t it? I mean no one will feel safe in this hotel, what with their belongings going missing, a guest being murdered and a man following guests around – well, following me anyway.”

She hesitated, wondering whether to tell Alan about last night in the lift, but then thought it would be best to be upfront about everything. “He got in the lift with me last night.” She went on to tell him how the lift attendant had outfoxed him. “Anyway, his room is on the eighth floor, which means if he is in the lift with me, then I"ll have to go to the tenth floor and scoot down the stairs.”

“I knew I should have seen you to your room last night,” said Alan. “In future I shall see you to your room and there will be no arguments.”

“Does this mean we are going out together again?”

“I certainly hope you will allow me to take you out again during your stay,” he replied, sheepishly. “Actually, I rather hoped we could go out again this evening or we could even have dinner here if you"d prefer.” He grinned. “Unless you"re fed up with me hanging around all the time; you must have plans of your own.”

“Not during the evening,” she told him. “I do have a few things to do during the day. I wanted to look at some of the old places I used to haunt. But enough of that, how are you getting on with the case?”

“Which one?” Alan asked.

“Both.”

“Well, as for the robberies, we don"t have a clue about the missing jewellery. The robbery yesterday could have taken place at any time during the day as the couple went out straight after breakfast and didn"t arrive back until very late. So far, we haven"t been able to nail the thefts down to any special time of day. All the people who have been robbed seem to have spent a great deal of time away from the hotel on that particular day.”

“And the murder?” Agnes prompted.

Alan glanced behind him to make sure no one was around. “You do know that I shouldn"t be discussing any of this with you?”

“But,” Agnes c****d her head on one side.

“Truthfully, we don"t have any information on that either, Last night, after I left you, I walked along the quayside trying to get a clearer picture of the whole episode. Nothing makes any sense.” Alan could tell she was about to interrupt, so he held up his hand and quickly continued. “Yes, I agree with what you said regarding a car or small van being in the area when we heard the thump. But that"s only a starting point. There are still a great number of things unanswered. Why drop the body there? Why not drive a few more yards and throw it in the river? Or maybe the killer shot the woman where we found her and used a silencer?”

He paused for a moment to allow Agnes to throw her thoughts into the pool. However, she remained silent. He didn"t know whether it was because she had none or she was still pondering on what he had said.

“The restaurant we were at on the night in question is across the road from the museum,” he continued. “But it is also just out of sight of where we found the body due to the curve in the road. So yes, we heard a thump and when you saw a window close, we assumed the body had been dropped from there. Everything we, by that I mean the police, did afterwards was based on the understanding that the body had been thrown from the window. But there is absolutely no evidence that is the case. There is no blood in the room. In fact there is no blood anywhere in the house, which indicates the shooting did not take place there.”

By now, Alan was tossing thoughts from one side of his head to the other in a battle to outwit the opposition, rather than actually reciting the facts to Agnes.

“Yet the shooting didn"t take place outside the museum either or else we would have heard the g*n shot and your team would have found blood on the pavement,” said Agnes thoughtfully. She heaved a sigh. “Therefore, the whole murder must have taken place in another street in another part of the city. Somewhere in the centre of Newcastle; somewhere where the sound of a g*n being fired would have been muffled by the voices of the people coming and going from the night clubs. I have heard it can be very noisy…”

“I could kiss you!” Alan interrupted, sharply. “You are so right. Of course! Anywhere in the city is noisy at night, but none more so than the streets in and around the Bigg Market.”

Alan pulled out his phone and called his sergeant. “Andrews, as soon as you have finished with the staff at the museum, get up to the Bigg Market. Take some of the lads with you and start looking for blood.” There was a pause while Andrews said something back to him. “Anywhere, Andrews you need to check out the whole of the Bigg Market area. If you don"t find anything, move on to another part of the city where there"s loud music and throngs of people late at night.” There was another pause, while Andrews quibbled. “For goodness sake, Andrews, I know the whole city is heaving at night. Just get on with it. You"re wasting time! I"ll join you as soon as I can.”

Alan shut his phone with a snap. What had he been thinking? He had got this case so wrong. Normally, if no blood had been found at the scene of a crime he would have widened the search. He would never have stuck to that one area. This wasn"t like him at all.

But since meeting Agnes, his mind hadn"t really been focused on the job. He was enjoying their friendship – perhaps he was enjoying it a little more than he should. She would be going back to Essex shortly and he probably wouldn"t see her again. He needed to pull himself together and concentrate on his job.

“Are you alright,” Agnes asked. Since Alan had given his instructions to his sergeant, he had gone very quiet.

“Yes. Sorry, Agnes, I was thinking about the case. I seem to have totally messed this one up. I"m normally so absorbed when working on an inquiry, but my attention seems to be slipping on this one.” He looked across towards the reception. “And then there are these damn burglaries. It seems that someone staying at the hotel is incredibly clever.”

Alan looked down at the floor. For the first time in a long while he felt despondent. Usually he picked up on some detail that didn"t seem right and he would focus on it until the case was solved. He recalled how Andrews had often likened him to Sherlock Holmes; a fictional detective that, once having found even a shred of evidence, wouldn"t let it go until the case was solved. Yet in these two cases, he was totally lost.

Sherlock Holmes“So, what are you doing today?” Alan raised his head as he asked the question.

“I"m going to take a taxi across through Gateshead to Low Fell. I want to have a look around the area where I was brought up and then walk down to the school we used to go to – if it"s still there. It could be pulled down for all I know.”

Alan smiled. “Yes. It"s still standing and going strong. That was where I first met you.”

“Indeed it was,” said Agnes.

Her mind drifted back to all those years ago. What if she had picked up on Alan"s keenness to know her better? Would she have kept in touch? Would she have found her way back to Tyneside, to meet up with him again? Her life could have taken a completely different path. She closed her eyes for a second before snapping them back open. The past was long gone.

“It would be wonderful to go inside and look around,” she said, putting on a cheerful smile. “But I doubt they would allow it. There are lots of rules and regulations where children are concerned.”

“I best be getting on,” said Alan rising to his feet. He knew he had spent too long talking to Agnes. But he was reluctant to leave her. “So, would you like to join me for dinner again this evening?”

“Yes, thank you,” said Agnes. She smiled. “I"ll leave you to choose the restaurant.”

“Okay. I"ll pick you up at seven.”

Agnes watched him walk across to the reception where he had a few words with one of the staff before leaving the hotel.