Chapter 39
Thirty-Nine
It hadn’t taken a lot of detective work to bring Kim to a house on the Stourton Road.
Nadine’s Facebook page had listed Images Modelling Agency as her place of employment.
A quick search of Companies House had given Kim a registered address as well as the information that the company had declared a turnover of less than one hundred thousand pounds for their first five years in business, but upwards of a million for the last three.
Kim had to wonder at the change in fortunes of a company she’d never heard of.
As Bryant parked the car in front of a reasonably sized detached home with a Jaguar on the drive, Kim was still trying to process what Penn had relayed to her about Nadine’s last moments. She idly wondered if there was some way they could get Rita on the payroll.
‘Nice,’ Bryant said, taking a good look at the car as they passed it.
Although Kim could probably identify everything about any passing motorcycle, her knowledge and interest didn’t stretch to cars.
She knew the badges, but establishing how high up on the food chain a model was fell to the remit of her partner.
His one-word statement, tinged with both envy and longing, told her it was a pretty expensive car.
The house was formed of weathered brick with oak bay windows at the lower level. To the right was a three-car garage, and to the left was what looked like a recently added guest cottage.
The door was opened by an attractive woman in her mid-forties.
Her clothes were good quality and would be categorised as smart casual.
She wore two-inch heels, and her hair and make-up were perfect.
If this was the effort she put into being at home, Kim could only wonder how she might look to go out.
Bryant introduced them both as the sound of classical music reached her ears.
The woman frowned but stood aside for them to enter. ‘This way,’ she said, pointing to a room on the right, where the music was playing.
The room was a home office and a sizeable one at that. A reception room had been sacrificed for the woman to work from home.
‘Beethoven, Grosse Fuge,’ Kim said, nodding towards the sound system.
‘Correct, Inspector,’ the woman said, turning it down. It was one of the composer’s string quartets, and one of his final achievements before his death. ‘It helps me work,’ she added.
Kim remembered fitting an exhaust system to a Triumph 2000 to this very piece of music.
‘Please, take a seat,’ the woman said.
‘You’re one of the directors of Images Modelling Agency?’ Kim asked.
‘Yes, I’m Suzanne Compton, and the other director is my husband, Andrew. Is there some kind of problem?’
‘Mrs Compton, may I ask what your business does?’ Kim asked. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand the name. It was more that she couldn’t work out the reason for its change in fortune.
‘Suzanne, please,’ she said, waving a hand towards the wall. ‘We’re a modelling agency. Not exactly high fashion, more commercial.’
Granted, there were a lot of pretty girls adorning the wall, including Nadine, and Kim had no reason to doubt the nature of the business. But the sudden increase in turnover prompted a little scrutiny.
‘May I ask what this is about?’ Suzanne asked, following Kim’s gaze.
‘Are some girls more in demand than others?’
‘Of course,’ Suzanne answered.
‘Which ones?’
Suzanne swallowed her impatience, as though she wanted Kim to get to the meat in the sandwich. ‘Well, Chelsea is always popular for bikinis; Danesha lands a lot of underwear work; Cindy does a lot of sportswear.’
‘What about Nadine?’ Kim asked.
‘She gets by, I suppose.’
‘On what?’
‘Mainly catalogue work.’
‘Does it pay well?’ Kim asked.
‘If you can get enough.’
‘And does she?’
Suzanne pulled a face that indicated not really.
The questions were popping out of Kim’s mouth because she had the feeling she was not seeing the full story.
‘Glamour modelling?’ she asked still trying to account for the financial uplift.
Suzanne coloured but shook her head. Kim wasn’t convinced.
‘Was Nadine working today?’
‘Inspector, I really must insist that you tell me what this is about before we go any further.’
‘Nadine Cowley is dead.’
‘Wh… what?’ she asked, gripping the edge of the desk.
‘She was murdered a few hours ago after meeting someone in a pub while wearing a recording device.’
Despite her shock, some kind of instinct had clearly kicked in as the woman stood.
‘You need to leave.’
‘Why?’ Kim asked. ‘You’re not in any kind of trouble unless you killed her.’
Suzanne pointed towards the window. ‘I have cameras out there. I can prove I never left the house.’
Kim folded her arms. ‘Suzanne, I had no suspicions about you when I walked in here, but you’re looking very guilty of something right now.’
‘I’m not saying another word until I’ve spoken to my lawyer.’
‘Why? No one is trying to… oh, hang on,’ Kim said as a thought occurred to her. ‘You’d only need to be worried if she was working at the time she was killed, but she wasn’t on a modelling job.’
‘Please leave, Inspector,’ Suzanne said, standing by the living-room door.
Kim made no move to stand as she considered all the information she had. The increase in company revenue, the recording device, the behaviour that Penn had described from Rita’s statement.
‘Ah, now it makes sense. Nadine was a honey trapper, wasn’t she?’
Suzanne said nothing but didn’t move from the door.
Nadine had been recording the conversation to use against their target.
Kim slapped her own forehead, unable to believe it had taken so long for her to put it all together. ‘The guy with the camera. He works for you too?’
Nothing like a bit of photographic evidence to back up the audio file.
‘I need you to leave.’
‘Give me the name of the man Nadine met today and I will,’ Kim said.
According to Rita, he had not been a happy chappie when he’d left the pub. If he had a lot to lose, he was the first person she wanted to speak to.
‘I’m giving you nothing until I’ve spoken to a solicitor.’
This woman was not bound by any confidentiality laws, and there was no protected medical or financial information, but by the same token Kim couldn’t just order her to start opening filing cabinets without the correct authorisation.
‘You do understand that this is a murder investigation and one of your employees is dead?’
‘I do.’
‘And you’re aware that there are obstruction charges at our disposal?’
‘There are also pieces of paper that would grant you access to my files that you don’t have right now,’ Suzanne answered, meeting her gaze.
‘I will be able to get a warrant for your records,’ Kim said icily as she stood.
‘I’m sure. By which time I will have spoken to my lawyer and I’ll be ready to hand over whatever I’m legally required to surrender.’
Kim brushed past her as she headed for the front door, knowing she could do nothing more until she had that warrant and the name of the man whom Nadine had seriously pissed off.
As she headed for the car, she began to summarise the case in her mind. She could imagine suspect names dropping from the whiteboard in the squad room.
Harriet and anyone else connected to netball practice were long gone. Daniel Reynolds had been hiding nothing more suspicious than Ava’s true parentage, and even Warren Chance had fallen by the wayside.
Unless they found some kind of link between Ashley and Nadine, she and her team were going to have some serious explaining to do.