A Jess Bridges Mystery

‘I apologise for intruding again but my team reported that you were the most observant of the locals they’ve had a chance to meet,’ said Leo.

‘Unfortunately, I’m not sure that we were much help.’ Mr Price sat opposite Leo, his wife beside him. Sunshine fell across the table from the picture windows; these overlooked a beautiful garden to the rear with some jasmine in flower on a trellis screening the shed. ‘As I said to them, we’ve not seen Anatoly for months, possibly over a year. Isn’t that right, darling?’

‘We saw him a few times about fourteen months ago. You remember, Al, when he was trying to get us to agree to his ridiculous extension?’

‘Oh yes, I remember that – could hardly forget that planning hell he put us through. He wanted to excavate a garage underneath that lovely house of his – with a turntable for his Porsches or whatever.’ Mr Price shook his head in disgust. ‘He had no idea.’

Leo stirred some milk into his coffee. ‘No idea of what?’

‘The history of the area, of course!’ Mr Price got up and fetched a book from the dresser. It was a slim paperback account of the area, the sort privately published and sold in the local shops. Leo had seen them around the area but only now did he notice that ‘Alfred Price’ was named as the author of the volume that covered the streets from the University Parks to Summertown. ‘Anatoly’s house – Number Thirteen – was once lived in by one of the team that unravelled DNA,’ continued Mr Price, turning to the relevant page. ‘Just up the road was the house of one of the Oxford Movement – you know, the religious revival under Cardinal Newman? And the physicist Schrödinger, and writers Iris Murdoch and Tolkien, all lived only a few streets away. This place has an extraordinary history – and Chernov wanted to undermine it with a motor pool to show off overpriced vehicles as if this was Las Vegas or some such place with more money than taste! Well, at least we were able to block his first application. We just have to hope we scared him off!’

Leo didn’t comment that their neighbour might well be in no state to take on another planning dispute.

‘The news said you found a body in the garden,’ said Mrs Price, offering him a biscuit from a Christmas selection box. ‘Is it anything we should be worried about?’

He took a foil-wrapped one. ‘You mean, do I think there are any more victims, and that locals are in danger? It is hard to say anything at this early stage, but I think it highly unlikely. My team hasn’t found any others in the garden and this one has been there a while. The danger was probably over a year ago, if it existed at all for anyone else.’

‘Thank you.’ Mrs Price graced him with a smile. ‘I’ll sleep more easy tonight.’

‘And do you know who it is?’ asked Mr Price. ‘Do you think someone took advantage of the fact that the house stands empty most of the time? I can’t imagine it involving Anatoly. He was always such a friendly chap, despite his lamentable taste in home alterations. We always got on well when we chanced to meet. It had to be either before his time, or in his absence.’

That was interesting. This was the first person Leo had met who had nice words to say about his likely victim.

‘You got on well?’

‘You sound surprised, Inspector. But we shared a lot, considering how different our backgrounds were. He was ex-service, like me, which meant we found we had a fair amount in common. We saw the Cold War from the opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, me as a raw recruit, he as a teenage soldier.’ Price gestured to a picture on the dresser of some shiny-faced young officers lined up for their graduating class photo. ‘Lord, don’t we look young.’

‘Far more handsome than was good for you,’ teased Mrs Price.

‘Thank you, darling. We coincided, Anatoly and I. We discovered that he was stationed in Berlin in the Russian zone, when I was on the other side in the British – that was just as things fell apart for the Soviet system. He certainly benefited from that.’

‘Do you know how he managed that?’ asked Leo, finding this information very helpful to understand the enigma that was his possible victim.

‘As I understood it, well-placed father who grabbed the money for the family. Definitely not an ideologue, unless the power of money counts as a belief.’

‘Can you think of anyone who you know who would have cause to harm him?’

Price looked distressed for the first time during the interview. ‘Hang on, you mean … you don’t mean that you think it is him in the garden? I thought it was some stranger you’d unearthed?’

‘It’s a possibility.’

‘Good grief.’ He took his wife’s hand. ‘Sorry, I hadn’t picked up on that. I assumed it was someone not from around here.’

‘I can’t confirm that the body is Mr Chernov,’ Leo said carefully, ‘but it is something I’m having to consider. I can’t find anyone who has had contact with him for over a year. Have you?’

Mr Price looked surprised to be asked. ‘Me? No, we weren’t on those terms. Just friendly neighbourly kind of chat when we bumped into each other.’

‘And how did he take your opposition to his basement alterations?’

Mr Price chuckled grimly. ‘Oh, he knew all right that he faced a battle royal to get those through, but he was determined that money would talk. He hadn’t met our kind before. Oxford is run very differently to Russia.’

‘His daughters were such pretty girls,’ added Mrs Price. ‘I do hope it isn’t him, for their sake.’

‘And what about the son?’ asked Leo.

‘Alex? A different sort, that one. Hard. I didn’t like him,’ said Mrs Price.

Mr Price patted her hand. ‘He was fearfully rude to Meredith. Racially abusive about our marriage. I won’t stand for that and let him know it. Reported him to the school too. Anatoly was very apologetic, brought Alex round here to say sorry. You could see the boy hated it, very grudging with his apology. He gave me the chills. I almost regretted telling the school about it and I warned Meredith never to be alone with him.’

‘But we never saw the boy again once he left St Bede’s. He went off to America for university,’ she said.

Mr Price shook his head in disapproval. ‘Things came too easily to that boy. Spoiled him. Place bought by his father, no doubt.’

‘I don’t think having all that money did him any favours,’ agreed Mrs Price.

Leo was getting a good picture of the family dynamics. His best bet, if the ex-wife didn’t work out, would be to approach one of the daughters. They sounded easier nuts to crack than Alexei. ‘And can you tell me anything else about Mr Chernov that might help us with our enquiries, something that you haven’t yet mentioned?’

The two exchanged a look. There was something. Leo waited.

‘It’s probably nothing but it’s about that fence between his garden and the next. You can see it from our attic window,’ said Mr Price.

‘The broken panel?’

‘Yes. It’s been like that for years and it bothered me. I raised it with the agent who runs the property and she said there was a dispute with the neighbour on the other side as to who owned it. Normally, she would just get it fixed – a man of Chernov’s wealth would hardly notice the cost – but it was a point of principle for him.’

‘How can it be? He barely lived here by all accounts.’

Mr Price pointed a shortbread finger at him. ‘My thoughts exactly. So I asked.’ He took a bite and washed it down with some coffee. ‘Apparently Anatoly and the man from the house in Howell Street were longstanding rivals from back home. By this she must’ve meant Russia, I suppose. The Howell Street man is from those parts.’

‘Uzbekistan actually,’ corrected Leo.

He nodded. ‘That’s what I meant. Former Soviet Union. They’re all tied up together still, believe me. You can’t shake off nearly a century of central control so easily. In any case, Anatoly and that Uzbek, what’s his name?’

‘Akmal Gulom,’ said Leo.

‘Maybe I did know that?’ Mr Price looked to his wife.

‘Planning consent,’ she said. ‘Swimming pool.’

‘Oh lord, yes, that awful extension. Anyway, according to Anatoly, he and Gulom had had dealings that went sour much more recently and were sworn enemies. The irony was they ended up living side by side, probably unaware they would share a boundary, all because they both had children at St Bede’s. It’s very popular with the Russian elite and there’s more than a little politics going on among the parents.’

‘Better than any soap,’ supplied Mrs Price. ‘I help out in the library and the tales the staff tell would make your hair curl. Bodyguards at parents’ evening!’

‘He probably had no idea how small this part of Oxford is – how likely it would be he’d be forced into proximity with his rival. I mean, you don’t give much thought to who lives at the end of your garden, do you? It’s the next-door neighbours who seem to matter most and they would’ve seemed innocuous.’

‘Did you ever see Mr Chernov in the company of Mr Gulom?’

Mrs Price hissed between her teeth, like she’d touched something cold. ‘Only once recently at the school. At the St Bede’s summer barbecue a few years back. I told you I could feel the tension, didn’t I, Al?’

‘You did. No love lost between those two.’

‘There was some Romeo and Juliet element too. All very tragic. Their children were friendly and the fathers disapproved.’

So a personal as well as business rivalry. There were plenty of motives there for murder. Leo stood up as the front door bell went. ‘Thank you. That will be my sergeant. I won’t take up any more of your time.’

He collected Harry on his way out. His sergeant was finishing his deli sandwich on the doorstep and was still wiping his hands on a napkin. He smelt strongly of fried onions.

‘New lead,’ Leo said briskly as he began a text to Jess. ‘Chernov’s enemy lived at the bottom of the garden.’

‘You mean the house where the naked chick lives?’ Harry brushed crumbs from his tie.

‘I mean the house where Miss Bridges is house-sitting, yes.’

‘Good-oh. She’s always game for a laugh, that one.’

‘You’ll be respectful.’

‘With her? She don’t need that. She’s got my number, just as I have hers.’

It took Leo a little longer than he cared to admit to realise that Harry was talking figuratively. ‘I regard her as a friend.’

Harry just huffed at that.

‘And if she lets us in to search, we can avoid the complications of a warrant.’ Chernov’s lawyer was already questioning their right to be inside the house yesterday, despite the presence of a warrant and, oh yes, a dead body in the garden. ‘Let’s see if we can find the tools that dug that grave next door.’

Chapter 9

Jess

‘When shall we three meet again,’ I said dramatically as I opened the door to Leo and Harry.

‘Hello, Jess. Thanks for making time for us,’ said Leo. ‘I hope it didn’t cause any trouble at work?’

‘No, my boss is a peach.’

The two policemen came inside. Flossie came to greet them, nether regions doing a full shake of pleasure. A tail wag was not enough for my spaniel.

‘Is it OK for the rest of the team to look through the garden and outbuildings?’ Leo asked.

‘I’ll open the side gate for them.’ I took a keyring from the hook inside the pantry. ‘They’ll need this to get into the shed.’ I waved at the three-person team waiting in the drive. ‘Hi, guys.’

‘Has anyone else used these tools?’ asked a silver-haired man in a boiler suit.

‘Just the old house-sitter and me.’ That last was a little bit of a lie. Sure, I’d looked at them but I’d not taken them out for a spin.

‘What’s the name of the previous house-sitter?’ asked Leo.

‘Ben Major. He’s gone back to New Zealand to raise vines and make wine. He liked gardening.’

‘Got a contact for him?’

‘Yeah, somewhere. I’ll give it to you.’

Leaving the team to get on with their search, we returned to the kitchen.

‘So you have a dead guy?’ I asked bluntly.

‘We always have dead guys,’ said Harry. ‘Can’t get enough of them. Would you show me where the home office is, love?’

‘Oh, I’m not sure I should …’ What was the right thing here? Could I be jeopardising my job if Mr Gulom discovered I let the police into his private papers? But then, as far as I knew (and I had looked), he didn’t keep much here, this being more of a weekend retreat kind of place.

‘We can get a warrant if you prefer?’ asked Leo.

‘No, no, it’s fine. Just try not to land me in trouble, please?’

‘If we find anything, it won’t be you in trouble, Jess,’ said Harry.

I showed him the study that looked out over the garden. ‘Make yourself at home. The household papers are in that filing cabinet. It’s not locked. I don’t think there’s much else here – just the plans of the building work they did, school newsletters, that kind of thing.’ I’d had a good look myself, being insatiably curious.

‘Any firearms kept on the premises?’ asked Leo.

‘None that I’ve seen but maybe there’s a hidden safe or something?’

‘Will you give me the tour?’ Leo was checking all of the family photos as we moved around the house. ‘This one is Gulom?’

‘Yep. There’s a really cheesy one of him over the fireplace in the drawing room if you want the full splendour of my employer.’ I took him into the oak panelled room in which I had great fun reading Victorian novels in front of a crackling fire. Over the mantlepiece was what I thought a terrible oil painting of Akmal in desert robes, a sub Lawrence of Arabia look. He had heavy brows and a hawkish nose. A bird of prey sat on his gauntlet. ‘You’d think he was a Bedouin or Arab prince, wouldn’t you, but he’s a diamond trader.’

Leo stood contemplating the portrait. ‘Is he married?’

‘Turn around.’

On the other wall was the wife as sultana. She was pictured reclining on a couch with a leopard stretched at her feet. She was draped in diamonds, including a yellow one in her naval.

‘Words fail.’

I had to laugh at his expression. ‘I think they’re fun. Maybe this is like their sexual fantasy life?’

‘I now dread to ask: children?’

‘There were two, according to Ben, the house-sitter before me. He had to move out sometimes during the school terms when the parents came to visit their kids at St Bede’s. That was until the girl died in a car accident on the A34 – real shock to everyone – and they took the son out of school. They’ve not been back since. Sad, isn’t it?’ I picked up a school photo of Fatima, smiling out of the frame with that heart-breaking expectation of a full life. I guessed she was about fourteen in this one. There were none of her in the house after her eighteenth birthday.

‘Pretty girl.’ Leo took it from me.

‘Beautiful.’

‘I think I remember the case.’ He replaced it exactly in the spot I’d taken it from. ‘She wasn’t the only casualty but the driver survived. Another passenger was badly injured. Fatima and another girl sitting in the back were killed. A lorry driver was jailed for causing it. He was proved to have been using his mobile and ploughed into their vehicle which was waiting in a queue to leave at the Botley interchange.’

‘I don’t blame them for not coming back here. I’d sell up and try to put it behind me if I were them.’

‘So why haven’t they?’

I shrugged. ‘Maybe waiting for an uplift in the market? Things have been pretty stagnant for the multi-million pound home since Brexit. Or so I’m told by the neighbours. Let me show you around.’

I led him through the upper floors with the multiplicity of en suite bedrooms. ‘I’ve actually worked out that there are more bathrooms than bedrooms. Don’t you find that weird? I mean, how many do you have?’

‘Just one. I wish I had more.’ He poked his head into one that had gold fittings and quickly withdrew.

‘You should borrow one of these. They wouldn’t notice.’ I opened the door to show them the lost child’s bedroom, a princess chamber of canopied bed, sugar-pink walls and white furniture. A calendar from the year she died still hung on the wall. ‘This one is Fatima’s. It’s exactly as she left it, clothes still hanging in the wardrobe. I find it sad.’ I led him up a winding stair and threw open the door onto my chaos. ‘Ta-dah, the Jessica bower. Also known as the house-sitter hovel.’ I leant a little closer. ‘It isn’t en suite, but as I’m the only person here I can have a bath in a different one each day of the week.’

Leo’s eyes snagged on my lingerie which was currently draped over the radiator.

‘Oops. Maybe I should’ve tidied up?’

He just smiled and shook his head.

‘If you really want to understand this house though, you’ve got to come down to the basement with me.’ I reversed course and took him down two flights of stairs. ‘Looking at this house with the spooky mansion vibe, I bet you’re thinking that it’ll be cobwebs and the mouldering remains in coffins, but …’ I switched on the light to reveal the still, blue expanse of the underground swimming pool. ‘I have to admit this is the best perk of the job. Technically, I’m not really supposed to swim here alone – something about insurance – but I confess I take no notice of that.’

‘How could you resist?’ He knelt and felt the water.

‘Is that a glint of envy in your eyes, Inspector? I’ve been told this is Gulom’s precious.’ I waited for him to get my joke. ‘Gulom? Gollum? Oh, never mind. What I mean is the last house-sitter said Mr Gulom had a huge battle with planners to get this built. The locals were up in arms. But it’s done now and you can’t see it from the outside so all that’s subsided. He’s been forgiven a lot for having a decent garden, unlike the one you dug up.’

‘Not personally.’ He let his fingers play in the water. ‘I didn’t take the spade to it myself.’

I glanced over my shoulder to the stairs back up. ‘Wanna strip off and dive in? I won’t tell anyone.’ In fact, I’d probably join him.

‘Sorry. Another time, maybe, I’ll come for a swim. After all, I can’t have you invalidating your insurance by leaving you to swim alone. Jess …’ He looked down. There were some cracked tiles that moved a little under his feet.

‘That wasn’t me. Shoddy craftsmanship – or my predecessor had a really wild party. I’ve reported it to the agency but they’ve not responded.’

‘Ah. About that. We think Glass Tower might’ve gone out of business.’

‘What? Couldn’t you have led with that? Jesus, I’m owed a month’s salary.’ I raced upstairs to find my phone to dial Heather. It rang out.

Leo joined me in the kitchen. ‘I’m sorry. We can’t find anyone still working for the agency and the listing at Companies House is also out of date. But, on the bright side, they didn’t own this house; it belongs to Mr Gulom. If you can contact him, then maybe he’ll pay you directly?’

‘Or maybe the agency has done a midnight flit with my pay?’

‘Do you know how to contact him?’

I dug my fingers into my hair and squeezed. ‘No, but there has to be a way.’

‘I’m looking for him too.’

‘Why?’

‘He and Chernov were business rivals apparently.’

‘And you’re wondering who hated Chernov enough to plant him in his garden?’

‘If the victim is him. I’ve still not got an ID on the body.’

‘But you believe it is?’

‘Signs are pointing that way.’

I looked for missing people for a living. How difficult would it be to find a stupendously rich guy who was also possibly on the run if he was responsible for a dead man next door? Probably more than for the ordinary runaway who didn’t have bottomless coffers to fund their escape.

‘Let me know if you find him, won’t you?’ I asked.

‘Same here. That’s one of the tasks I’ve set Harry, to see if there are other addresses on the correspondence.’

I perched on the edge of the kitchen table and tapped the phone against my mouth. ‘You know who would have another number?’

‘No, who?’

‘The school. If the Guloms weren’t in residence full-time, they had to have left an emergency contact number.’

‘Jess, you’re brilliant! The same would apply to the Chernovs too.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘It’s four already.’

‘It’s a private school. Longer hours. If you go now, I bet you’ll still find people there.’

He moved closer to say goodbye. I made the move into a hug and was pleased when he held it for a second and squeezed me tighter. All my old attraction to him came zinging back. To be honest, it hadn’t gone very far. ‘Thank you, Jess. We still need that talk.’

‘Yes, we do. But go. You don’t have long.’

‘I’ll leave Harry and the team with you. Will you still be here when I get back?’

‘Not going anywhere, Inspector. I live here, remember?’

With a nod, he was out of the door and driving away.

I should’ve told him that on a Friday evening around school pick-up time, it would be quicker to walk.

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