Chapter 41
Lee Lovett looked nervous.
Kelly greeted him warmly and noticed his hand felt tacky. She took him into a free interview suite.
‘How can I help, Lee?’
She studied him as she waited for him to collect himself. She appreciated that just being inside a cop shop was at best intimidating and could be downright terrifying. Especially if you had something to hide.
Which Lee Lovett clearly did. He looked like a child who’s caught pilfering pudding before main course. She relaxed into her chair.
‘How are you holding up?’ She broke the ice.
On a serious note, Lee had witnessed a horrific scene and the longer she sat with him and watched him, the more she realised that he was conflicted.
‘You’re here for a good reason; tell me what it is.’ She put on her most charming manner and opened her body. She waited patiently.
‘I was thinking about leaving the area and taking a new position.’
‘That’s good. It’s a positive step,’ she said. ‘A fresh start. What will happen to Heron Hall?’
‘I’ve heard rumours that a big American buyer is interested. The Nirvana Project.’
‘It’s being sold?’
‘It’s been on the cards for some time. Everybody is struggling in hospitality. Especially the independents.’
‘And this American buyer, do you know how long they’ve been interested?’
‘Months. I think there have been negotiations.’
‘And this incident. The very public death of a guest has spurred on the owners to sell?’
‘Looks like it.’
‘Does that strike you as fortunate for the buyers?’ Kelly asked.
Lee looked at her and it dawned on him what she was getting at.
He relaxed and smiled at her. ‘Christ, I didn’t even think of that; you don’t think…’
Kelly shrugged. ‘I’m a police officer; I don’t assume. I wait for the evidence to come together.’
A whiff of respect blew Kelly’s way and she knew she’d earnt his trust. He wouldn’t be here otherwise.
‘I have some information for you,’ he said. ‘But I think I might have committed a crime.’
‘Really?’
‘I withheld evidence.’
‘What evidence?’
‘The CCTV from the back corridors of the Heron Hall.’
‘I thought you said there was none. You lied?’
‘I wasn’t sure. I double checked after you left. I was astounded it had a battery in it to be honest.’
‘You’ve seen it?’
He nodded.
‘And?’
‘There’s hours of it. All sorts of people used those corridors that I was unaware of. Staff sneaking about in the middle of the night. Guests thinking they were being clever.’
‘And the night of Jamie’s death?’
‘I didn’t watch it all.’
Kelly didn’t figure Lee to be a voyeur but neither did she believe him that he hadn’t scoured the footage to within an inch of his life. Otherwise he wouldn’t be here.
‘Have you got it with you?’ Her heart raced.
‘I thought I’d better keep it safe.’
‘Safe, where?’
‘In my room.’
‘And you’ve driven all the way to Penrith to tell me that you want to give me something that is back in your room?’
‘I didn’t want to lose it.’
She glared at him but corrected herself. She’d get nowhere by hounding him. ‘Why did you withhold it?’
‘Because Sandy asked me to.’
Lee looked at his shoes and Kelly checked they weren’t CAT boots.
They weren’t.
‘Did you give her a copy?’
‘No.’
‘Did she ask for one?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did she offer to pay?’
‘Yes.’
‘So I’m guessing she didn’t come up with the goods so now you’ve come to me?’
‘I thought it was the right thing to do.’
‘So how can I get it?’
‘If you’d like it I can email it to you when I get back.’
Kelly realised that this was his insurance. She’d have to let him go if he promised her something.
‘Is there something else? You could have told me this over the phone.’ Her hands twitched and she was desperate to see the footage but she mustn’t rush and scare him off.
‘We can overlook your timelines,’ she said.
‘I saw Sandy come in from outside just as he fell.’
‘Tuesday evening?’
A nod.
‘Had she been smoking?’
‘I don’t know. I guess she could have been.’
Kelly’s heart sank. Lee Lovett was suffering. Now paranoia had kicked in and he was grasping at anything he could to assuage his desperate abandonment at the hands of a predatorial woman. Sandy had wounded him and so he wanted to repay her in kind by pinning something on her.
She understood.
‘I hadn’t seen her go out,’ he said.
Now Kelly paid attention because this was more interesting. Lee was in love with Sandy, that much any fool could tell, so he’d pretty much stalked her the whole conference. This detail was significant to him.
‘When did you see her before then?’
‘In the conference talking to the American in the cream suit.’
‘Hank Hampton?’
‘Yes, Mr Hampton.’
‘So are you telling me, then, Lee, that you suspect that Sandy could not have gone from talking to Mr Hampton inside to being seen outside?’
A nod.
‘You’re telling me you think she used the back stairs?’
A nod.
‘Why would she do that?’
Lee’s face showed her that he was confused, yes, but also unsure, worried.
Troubled.
He was fighting with his conscience. He’d fallen in love and when that happens, hope emerges strong and clear. That hope had been dashed by Sandy’s callousness. She’d dumped him. Now he wanted to offload.
‘Do you think the timing of her being outside at that moment was important?’
‘It seemed odd. Like her behaviour afterwards. She and Mr Robbins didn’t seem close, but she was hysterical over him.’
Kelly had seen the footage. People reacted in different ways to trauma but Sandy’s was more like a performance, she had to admit.
‘Thanks for telling me, Lee. It’s a big step when you’ve been so close to somebody to go behind their back and reveal the truth.’
He smiled weakly.
Her words wouldn’t help him heal his broken heart. To Doctor Cooper, this man had been a quick lay. A bit of rough sex on the side. Exciting, clandestine, thrilling.
To Lee it meant so much more.
‘There’s something else,’ he said. ‘Paul Burlington went missing from the hotel last Tuesday night. Sandy asked me to help search for him. They were worried. Panicked, you know? Like they knew he couldn’t look after himself.’
‘Go on.’
Kelly recalled seeing the physical signs that Paul Burlington was unwell. Perhaps there was more to it.
‘We found him in the caves.’
‘The caves?’
Lee nodded. ‘He was in a real state. Like hallucinating or something. He’d lost his clothes, ripped them off apparently and Sandy calmed him down.’
‘He’s a big bloke,’ Kelly said.
‘She was able to relax him. I got the impression it happened a lot.’
‘You said “they”. Who else knew this?’
‘Hank Hampton knew because he waited in the bar for them to return and he sank about seven whiskeys. One of the bodyguards came with us.’
‘Which one?’
Lee shrugged.
‘Did he wear a baseball cap?’
‘No I don’t think so.’
‘What was he doing in the caves?’
‘Sandy said he was obsessed with them.’
‘Obsessed? That’s an unusual thing to say.’
‘Maybe he was sheltering in there? Sandy said he’d liked to walk on the fells, maybe he got lost, but then that doesn’t make sense because he told me he hated exercise and all this “health crap”. That’s what he said. He was drunk at the time.’
Lee stopped talking suddenly. ‘I think that’s everything, can I go?’
‘What time on Tuesday night?’ She couldn’t help herself imagining Paul Burlington’s bulky frame inside Angelina’s room, turning nasty and forcing himself on her.
‘It was late, about midnight.’
‘And was he injured?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Did he have boots on?’
Lee looked at her oddly. ‘I can’t remember looking at his feet. I just recall him being undressed.’
Kelly thought it was worth a look around Rydal caves for a pair of boots because if they were to turn up it might corroborate Paul’s story.
‘OK, Lee, thank you.’ Kelly stood up.
‘Will you email me the footage as soon as you get back?’ she asked. ‘Are you intending to stay in the area for the time being? We may need a formal statement from you,’ she said. She didn’t add ‘depending on the footage’ because that might encourage him to tamper with it.
Lee looked forlorn. That hadn’t been part of his plan but reality was something that, once faced, couldn’t be put back in a box.
She walked him out and headed back to her team upstairs.
But she didn’t make it past the door.