Chapter 9 #2
Kelly wore thin cotton trousers, with a belt, a simple polo top and white pumps today, not knowing she’d be out so late.
She’d popped some extra gloves in her pockets, taken from the SOCO at the Faeryland café, unaware she’d need them so soon.
She searched for a cardigan in the back seat of her car and threw it around her shoulders.
The sun had gone down across the lake and there was a chill in the air.
She tied her auburn hair back with a scrunchie and peered up at the accommodation and wondered how a suite cost five hundred pounds per night.
Where did all that money go? What type of service did they offer?
She and Johnny had stayed in little boutique hotels, getting away for the night on a date, or just for a change of scenery, and they paid ninety pounds, tops.
But it was the way of plenty of elite hotels across the national park, and that’s how they made their money.
Tourism was worth something in the region of three billion pounds to Cumbria annually, but Kelly knew that just underneath the surface another economy thrived too.
Only last week a hotel had closed in Ambleside, not far from here, because it was trafficking illegal migrant workers.
Ted hugged his two favourite ladies, excepting his granddaughters, of course.
They set their game faces and spread out.
Kelly assessed the approach to the entrance and looked around.
Kate chatted to a uniformed officer who ID’d Jamie Robbins’ top-of-the-range BMW M4 in the carpark for them.
Ted stared at the lake. The location was shrouded in trees and shrubs.
It was well hidden. This afternoon, the shores of Grasmere and Rydal would have been busy with summer visitors wanting to cool off, and plenty of folks had heard the commotion.
But the lakeside here at Heron Hall was private and it was only one local dog walker who’d poked his nose in, who Kelly was keen to speak to.
There were no other hotels around the lake.
Kelly studied the outside of the hotel and walked around the back.
The staff accommodation was a neat little row of white cottages.
Great real estate these days, she thought.
It was one of the staff members, the conference and banqueting manager, who was their main witness.
Lee Lovett had seen the whole thing, from the moment the bloke hit the floor to the aftermath.
He’d also dealt with the logistics of stemming the rising agitation of the other guests.
By all accounts, his actions were just what they needed in a terrible situation.
Kelly had seen plenty of broken bodies, but the uninitiated could easily panic when faced with blood and gore.
Sometimes the people unaffected by it were the ones she looked at closest for that very reason.
From the staff carpark, she could make out the roof lanterns of the atrium.
It was a huge tent-like structure that rose up in the middle of the hotel like a wigwam, and it was brightly lit.
Suicides were usually private, but that didn’t mean Jamie Robbins hadn’t done himself in.
Last flurries of exhibitionism weren’t unheard of.
Equally, it could have been an accident, but initial inquiries into whether the man had been drinking, or if the floor above was recently made wet by cleaning for example, had returned negative.
Satisfied with her cursory examination of the layout of the building, she went to the main entrance and greeted the uniform guarding the door.
The place was a potential crime scene, and Ted had called a forensic team to attend just in case.
You never knew when you might need those details further down the line.
She spotted him talking to somebody at the reception desk.
Those members of staff who were still about were either sitting on sofas waiting their turn to be interviewed or were getting on with perfunctory tasks.
All of them looked pale and shocked. Kelly had dealt with trauma victims before, many times.
It was going to be a very long and taxing evening.
The copper told her that no one had heard a fight, and nobody was unaccounted for, suggesting that the man had been alone upstairs before he jumped. No witnesses reported seeing or hearing a scuffle. It was an isolated scene, and they had that fact on their side.
However, Kelly was immediately suspicious when the uniform told her there were items of clothing (a ladies’ purple scarf), and a smashed glass inside the man’s room upstairs, which did indicate a struggle.
Inside, Kelly was greeted by the sight of a blue forensic structure at the foot of the stairs and knew that a body lay under there. It was a stark realisation of why she was here. She’d get around to him in good time, but first, she spoke to her father.
Ted nodded in the direction of the restaurant and Kelly followed her nose.
She smelt food and supposed even the traumatised had to eat.
The hotel was doing a good job of looking after a group of very worried guests.
Of course, by now everybody would have been on their phones, if not social media, sharing their story with the world.
Some people were sick in the head. Some handsets had already been requested for evidence.
The first responders had requested that names not be posted, to respect the families.
‘Do you know who Melvin Stone is?’ she asked Ted when they reunited inside the lobby. The uniform outside had mentioned several key witnesses, and the old dog walker was one of them.
‘He’s the one with the dog,’ Ted said, pointing to a man in the restaurant who stood out, not just because he had a beautiful golden lab next to him, but he didn’t fit in with the corporate types.
‘The dog?’
‘He couldn’t take it all the way back home, he was in the middle of a five-mile walk, so he kept it here.’
‘Do we know his story?’
‘He lives locally. Ex-military. Astute. Talkative. Full of unsolicited theories. He has a disabled wife at home who he takes care of.’
‘That’s very thorough,’ Kelly said, not completely surprised her father had learnt so much in such a short time.
‘He’s a talker; he told his story to the guy on the door.’
‘Has he checked on her?’
Ted shrugged.
‘That’s all I need.’
‘A spousal check?’
‘No, another military expert in my life.’
Ted smiled at her. Her ex, Johnny, was an army man.
‘He’s very particular about what he saw,’ Ted said.
‘I want to talk to the woman who recorded it,’ Kelly said.
‘Dear me,’ Ted said.
‘I know, I’d love to have been from yours and Mum’s generation,’ she said.
The mention of Wendy made her father wistful and she touched his hand.
‘Is that what you think is on his phone?’ Ted asked.
She’d tried to fill him in on some of the details.
‘No, that’s something else. Apparently, the deceased was watching a podcaster called Clem Allins when he fell; apparently he’s a big deal to these people.’
‘That’s odd. Do you buy it?’
‘Well, I certainly think it’s an unusual choice just before you jump to your death.’
‘Well, if there’s one thing medical science agrees upon, it’s that no one knows what goes through the mind of somebody intent on that behaviour. It’s a mystery.’
‘Worth checking out though.’
Ted agreed.
‘Have you been up there?’ she asked.
‘I had a wander. It would be pretty hard to accidentally fall over the edge. Take a look for yourself.’
Kelly headed to the staircase and walked around the blue dome.
She peeked inside and found the man alone, as he’d died, twisted and bloodied.
Only experience allowed her to decipher where his body parts were in relation to his terrible wounds.
It had been a violent and sudden fall. Police tape still sealed off the area where he’d landed. She went back to her father.
‘Can we get him out of here soon? It’s terribly traumatic for the guests,’ she said.
He nodded. ‘I know. The van is on its way.’
‘Sorry to keep you up, Dad; you can go whenever you’re ready. Lizzie is a bit poorly but I think she’s teething.’
‘I don’t have to stay tonight,’ he said.
‘No, please do, I could do with the company. I’ll meet you at home.’
The hotel staircase was wide and grand, and swept around the circular atrium dramatically.
In the centre was a fountain, which twinkled pretty reflections on the lantern glass and the walls.
As she walked up the stairs, she realised that it was a miracle Jamie Robbins had missed the fountain.
She paused on the first floor and saw that corridors led off to suites, then she carried on to the top.
The banister was highly polished and smooth.
As she reached the top and went to the location where witnesses had indicated Jamie fell from, she realised for herself that it would have taken a freakish accident to mistakenly step off the lip of the banister.
It was waist height. She walked back and then towards the lip, bumping into it on purpose.
She assumed that a body would bend over the edge and try to right itself, but Jamie had stayed here for a couple of nights before the conference; he would be used to the layout of the hallways and stairs.
She peered over the edge and looked at the blue dome.
It was a long way down, and she shuddered at the thought of slamming flesh and bone into hard tile at speed.
She could see there were smears still left on the floor around the dome.
Somebody had mopped but hadn’t done a very good job.
She guessed nobody wanted to be responsible for removing the last signs of a body.
After Jamie had been moved and the remaining delegates left, the owner would hire a professional to do it.
Somebody who didn’t know what had happened here, or at least hadn’t witnessed it.
The whole scene reminded her of a young witness who’d jumped off a carpark in London to evade the police, almost twenty years ago.
That’s where she’d started out as a young detective, then moved to murder squad, before coming back to Cumbria about seven years ago.
Each year, the increasing crime wave in the wildernesses of Cumbria reminded her she’d escaped London for nothing.
Falling into thin air went against every human instinct there was. To do it on purpose took some next level kind of crazy determination, or lunacy. And by all accounts, Jamie Robbins was a highflyer with everything to live for.