The Girl in the Rug (29 page)

Frank’s face turned mulish and it looked for a minute as if
he was going to refuse. ‘Do I have to, can’t someone else do him?’

Carla shook her head, ‘No sorry, Sam and Midge are tied up
looking for Nellie and Steve Lucton has got his hands full with all those
twatty councillors…sorry Frank I need you to do it.’

Frank was not happy, and Linda was looking at him in a
concerned way, Carla had the feeling that she was missing something. ‘Is there
something that you’re not telling me Frank, some reason why you can’t interview
Tutt?’

Frank sighed and shook his head. ‘No not at all…just makes
my blood boil that’s all. No that’s fine Carla I’ll come back this evening,
I’ll be coming back here anyway so…’

‘Yeh well…that’s what I figured,’ Carla said not quite
believing him, ‘anyway as I said before I hate to break things up but…’

‘Yes yes I’m coming,’ tutted Frank, he leaned over and
kissed Linda goodbye, ‘be back later love…say nice things about me to Auntie
Kat won’t you?’

‘Ha,’ laughed Carla, ‘it’ll take more than nice things to
bring her round matey…she’s seen right through you. I think you might have met
your match there Frank.’ she finished with a smirk.

Frank growled something very uncomplimentary under his
breath and followed Carla out to the car.

Tim Boulter was not at all what Carla had expected; Tracy
had described him as a slightly older Hugh Grant lookalike, all charm and
sophistication. But the man that answered the door to them was the very
antithesis of that. His eyes were blood shot, his hair was un-brushed and
greasy, and he obviously hadn’t shaved for days. There were numerous unidentifiable
stains down the front of his shirt and quite frankly he smelt.

The house wasn’t much better, although Carla could see that
beneath the mess it was a beautifully restored cottage…but it was in desperate
need of a good hovering and there was a stale smell coming from the stack of
dirty plates in the kitchen sink.

‘Louisa has gone to Amsterdam as I told another of your lot
the other day,’ Tim said testily, when asked. ‘I don’t know why you are so
interested in her whereabouts all of a sudden anyway.’

‘We are just acting on some information that we have
received sir It’s probably nothing but we have to follow up on it, you
understand I’m sure,’ Frank said smoothly.

Tim looked like he didn’t understand at all and was just
about to say as much when Carla jumped in. ‘So if we could just have your
wife’s travel details sir, the flight she was on, the hotel she is staying
at…then we can be on our way.’

Tim Boulter looked like a rabbit caught in headlights,
totally unprepared for those questions and for the first time since entering
the house Carla began to feel a trickle of suspicion.

‘Look,’ Tim began running his hand through his hair in an
agitated way. ‘She’s not in Amsterdam ok…the truth is I don’t know where she
is…she’s left me if you must know.’

‘I see,’ said Carla calmly, ‘and how long ago was this…that
she left you?’

‘Oooh I don’t really remember…three, four days ago,’ Tim
said sitting down in a chair.

‘She didn’t leave a note or anything…telling you where she
was going?’ Frank asked.

‘No nothing,’ said Tim, ‘that’s what makes it all so much
worse I have no idea where she is.’ He broke down putting his head in his
hands, his shoulders shaking.

‘I’m sorry sir, I can see that this is distressing for you,’
Carla said in an unsympathetic voice. ‘It seems strange though that you didn’t
contact us when you found her missing, especially in light of the fact that two
other women went missing last week. Weren’t you worried that your wife may have
been abducted also?’

Tim looked up as this new idea occurred to him. ‘Oh no…do
you think she might have been…oh my poor, poor Louisa’ he buried his head in
his hands again in a convincing attempt at sorrow, Carla wasn’t moved by it.

‘Your wife is crippled isn’t she sir…I understand that she
is confined to a wheelchair.’

Boulter nodded, ‘Yes…climbing accident, she broke her back…’

‘Yes,’ went on Carla, ‘only I can’t help noticing her
wheelchair…that is it isn’t it sir, in the kitchen behind the door? How could
she have gone anywhere without that, surely that must have made you wonder
about her disappearance.’

Tim seemed completely flummoxed by Carla’s questioning.
‘Oh…well I didn’t think…I’ve been so distraught you know…I suppose she could
have called for a taxi…’

‘Does she often do that Mr Boulter…go off in a taxi without
her wheelchair?’

‘No of course not…now look here I don’t know what you are
suggesting but if you think I had anything to do with my wife’s disappearance
then you are very much mistaken. I love my wife, she is everything to me…’ he
finished his voice breaking.

Funnily enough Carla did believe that Tim Boulter loved his
wife…but by now she was also pretty sure that he had done something to her. She
wandered into the living room which seemed to have escaped the mess from the
rest of the house. It was a pretty room with a gorgeous ‘Adams’ style
fireplace, there were two squishy blue sofas on either side of it facing each
other, with a beautiful old wooden chest between them. On the back of one of
the sofas Carla eye was drawn to a colourful woollen throw, it matched the
blues and greens of the various cushions on the sofas perfectly…suddenly
everything clicked into place…throwing caution to the wind, she turned to Mr
Boulter who had followed her into the room.

‘Tim Boulter I am arresting you for the murder of Louisa Boulter,
you do not have to say anything but anything you do say…’

‘WHAT…what are you talking about…you can’t do this,’ Tim
shouted over her as Frank, after giving Carla a shocked look, cuffed him and
took him outside to the car.

Carla took a deep breath and got straight on the phone to
forensics. ‘Dorothy I need you to do a search on a property…I think…I bloody
hope, that somewhere here we are going to find the body of Louisa Boulter, or
at least some evidence that her husband has done away with her.’

‘Blimey Carla no pressure then,’ joked Dorothy, ‘ok we’re on
our way, see you soon.’

Frank had called for a car to take Tim to the station, and
as soon as he had been dispatched he came back into the cottage to confront his
boss, who he was sure had finally taken leave of her senses.

‘Bloody hell Carla I hope you know what you’re doing,’ he
said as he came in. ‘I mean I agree his story is full of holes but can we prove
anything against the man, we don’t even have a body.’

‘It was the throw Frank…in the living room, it looked all
wrong. Two sofas only one throw, and what does Tracy keep going on about…a
dirty old woollen blanket that Louisa was wrapped in. I’m betting it was a
woollen throw. But you are right I will be bricking it until forensics find
something….’

‘If forensics find something,’ Frank added unhelpfully.

Carla ignored him, she was on the phone to the station, more
specifically to DC Mandy Hopkins. ‘Mandy I’m going to need you to interview
Andy Hunt for me, remember I told you he would be coming in this afternoon? Yes
well I don’t know how long I’m going to be tied up here…oh that’s great love.
Now the woman that runs the home will be coming in with him, a Miss Taylor and
his social worker Brenda Massey so I’m not sure how comfortable he is going to be
talking about some of the things…yes that’s right he might feel a bit
intimidated with them there so I need you to watch him carefully, gauge his
reactions to your questions. The most important thing we need him to do is to
identify the men at the parties, and to tell us exactly what happened to little
Lucy. I know…yes I know I can trust you to go gently…ok love let me know how it
goes.’

Dorothy arrived soon after and started systematically going
over the downstairs rooms in the house. Meanwhile Carla was searching through
what was obviously the master bedroom. The wardrobes were full of Louisa’s
clothes, her underwear was neatly folded in a chest of drawers and her shoes
were stacked in their boxes in one of the wardrobes. Nothing gave the
appearance of a hastily planned journey, and Carla’s conviction that Louisa
Boulter had come to some harm grew the more she searched. Finally, whilst
carefully looking through what was obviously Tim Boulter’s wardrobe, Carla had
a eureka moment when, right at the very back underneath a pile of old blankets
she found Louisa’s handbag complete with credit cards and mobile phone.

‘Yes!!!’ she shouted holding up the bag triumphantly to
Frank who had just come upstairs.

‘You are one lucky cow,’ he said smiling at her, ‘you’d better
get downstairs, Dorothy’s found something.’

Putting the handbag into a large brown paper evidence bag,
Carla followed Frank back down stairs and into a small room off the living room
which was obviously used as a study. There was a rather grand old desk under
the window that overlooked the back garden which had a computer and printer on
it, the rest of the room was dominated by floor to ceiling book shelves
groaning with books and files. Dorothy was crouched over near the front of the
desk rubbing a cotton bud along the edge of it.

She looked up when Carla came in and held up the cotton bud,
‘Well we’ve got blood, can’t tell who’s it is yet of course but its spread over
quite a wide area. Look you can see there’s some on the keypad and a tiny bit
on the edge of the screen, from the range of the spattering I would say that it
would be consistent with someone being hit over the head. Someone has tried to
clean it up but there’s enough here for me to say with some conviction that
someone was wounded here…quite badly wounded I would say…’

‘Brilliant…thank god for that,’ Carla said relieved. ‘Well
with that and the handbag I would say that we’ve got enough to search this
place for a body, inside and out I think, I’ll get on to it straight away.’

As Carla anticipated it was another few hours before she was
able to get away from the Boulter house. Bag after bag of evidence was labelled
and taken away to be more thoroughly examined and every inch of the house was
searched. White tents were erected in the garden and a specialist dog team were
called in to search the three acres of garden and even the lake was searched by
a team of divers. More spots of blood were discovered in the house and on Tim’s
computer, but unfortunately there was no sign of a body as yet, so unless Carla
could get Tim Boulter to confess and tell them where his unfortunate wife was
buried, the search would go on.

Nellie pulled the hood of his jacket further down over his
injured face and walked into the busy hospital lobby. It was visiting time so
there were lots of people about; carrying bunches of flowers and bags of grapes
for their sick relatives or friends. Nellie was carrying a bunch of flowers
that he had pinched form outside a garage and he walked confidently along the corridors
as if he knew exactly where he was going. He didn’t at all, that was his first
challenge, to find out where Tutt was situated in this labyrinth of a hospital,
but he figured that if he looked as if he belonged he might be able to pass by
unnoticed as he searched.

He planned to find out which ward Tutt was in and then to
hide himself somewhere until after lights out and then confront Tutt, and make
him tell him where the money was, simple on paper…not so easy in practice.

He went from ward to ward asking at the nurse’s station for
a Jacob Dodd…he didn’t know any Jacob Dodd but he needed a name to give to the
nurses, until he spotted an area that was being guarded by the police. He knew
Tutt was under arrest even though he was at present in hospital, so he figured
that there would be a policeman outside his door. He nearly came a cropper
though, when on one floor he saw two policemen each guarding a room, luckily he
was able to find out from a chatty porter that it was “those two young women,
you know the ones they’ve been banging on about on telly” that were being
guarded…Tutt was somewhere else.  After trying three floors and eight wards he
finally spotted another police officer sitting on a chair outside a private
room…bingo, now all he had to do was to hide somewhere nearby and wait till
lights out.

‘Oh Maggie darling I am so happy you two have sorted
everything out…and the smile on the face of this great lummox warms me heart so
it does,’ Martha said as she gave Maggie a hug. ‘Now where’s this food I’m so
hungry I could eat that door buttered,’ she added as she bustled past Maggie
towards the kitchen…a cheer went up at her arrival; Martha was a great
favourite with Maggie’s boys.

Duncan raised his eyebrows with a smile and then caught
Maggie round the waist and pulled her to him, ‘Hello beautiful girl,’ he said
looking into her eyes.

Maggie stood on tip toes and kissed his lips gently smiling
back at him, ‘Hello yourself handsome, I’ve missed you.’

Since that wonderful night…amazingly only two nights ago,
Maggie and Duncan had barely been apart. He had finally lowered his fortress
like defences and allowed himself to love and be loved, and Maggie had proved
in so many ways, that her love for him was strong enough to cope with any of
his lingering hang-ups that might crop up from time to time.

‘I’ve missed you like crazy too, baby,’ said Duncan
dramatically, ‘this last hour apart from you has seemed like a year…’

Maggie giggled and punched him playfully in the arm as they
went through to join the rest of the family in the kitchen.

As promised, Maggie had taken the reluctant Jools and Maylee
out for a day’s shopping. The day hadn’t started well as both the girls wanted
to ride shotgun with Maggie in the front of the car. That was soon taken care
of by Maggie, who herded them both into the back seats firmly and then watched
in her driving mirror with a sinking heart as they made no attempt at any
conversation with each other, but sat looking out of their respective windows
the whole way down to Brighton.

Once the car was parked the girls hit the lanes, which soon
had all of them ooing and aarghing over the beautiful antique jewellery and the
vintage shops that they discovered around each corner.  Little by little the
atmosphere started to lighten. Especially when Maylee discovered that Jools
shared her love of vintage fashion and in particular, vintage shoes. Soon they
had their heads together as they drooled over some beautifully crafted velvet
evening shoes (which thankfully were too small for both of them otherwise there
might have been trouble). And so by the time they stopped for lunch Maggie was
hopeful that she might be witnessing the start of a budding friendship between
the two. The afternoon proved to be even better with each of the girls finding
something special to buy and all of them enjoying the unusual and sometimes
downright weird wares that were for sale in the many little shops.

The journey home was a riot, Maylee and Jools teasing Maggie
about her Barry White CD and then proceeding to sing along to it all the way
home. All in all Maggie was delighted at how the day had gone, and so had
capitalised on its success by inviting the whole family round for a meal this
evening.

‘Whose was the chicken Korma?’ Jed was saying, as she
entered the kitchen with Duncan a few minutes later. ‘Oh I might have known
that was yours Jools, how can you eat that sweet creamy rubbish…give me a
vindaloo every time, now that’s a real man’s curry.’

‘Ha,’ said Jools laughing, ‘yeh right, give it five minutes
and you’ll have sweat pouring from every orifice…I don’t know why you always
choose it, you always regret it…’

‘Well whatever you do don’t let Martha have any of that
vindaloo,’ Duncan said. ‘We have enough combustible gas coming from her
direction as it is, and she’s not as quick on her feet as she once was, if she
needs the bathroom in the night…it could be disastrous believe me…’ he was
stopped by a whack round the head from Martha’s huge handbag.

‘I’m more worried that Jukie might eat some,’ said Maylee,
‘he’s only had curry once and believe me you wouldn’t have wanted to deal with
the nappies.’

‘What did you think I was talking about?’ laughed Duncan, ‘I
mean it Jed, she’s not allowed any.’

‘Don’t you be listening to that fella Jed…’ cackled Martha
giving Duncan a defiant look. ‘I may be old but I can still handle a hot
curry…that’s it me boy, pile me plate high.’

Maggie made Jukie an omelette to alleviate Maylee’s fears
which he gobbled up sitting on Jed’s lap. Jukie absolutely adored Jed and followed
him everywhere whenever he came round. It made Maggie realise what a good dad
he would make…in the far distant future of course, she was still far too young
to be a granny!

The evening was filled with chatter and laughter, and Maggie
watched with relief as Dom and Jed laughed and teased each other and Jools and
Maylee had their heads together, having a good gossip. It seemed that disaster
had been averted and her little family was back on track. No doubt Maylee would
always grate a little bit with her funny ways and her inverted snobbery, but
Maggie would always try and remember how kind she had been to her, when she had
needed it most.

Maylee and Jools were showing Martha what they had bought in
Brighton and Martha seemed particularly interested in a tie that Jools had
bought for Jed.

‘It’s a Vivian Westwood Martha,’ Jools was explaining as the
old lady was examining it. ‘It’s pure silk, cost me a pretty penny I can tell
you…vintage of course, late seventies early eighties I think…’

She broke off as Martha went into peals of laughter, ‘It’s
little willies…’ she gasped in between cackles, ‘all over it…tiny willies.’

‘What…’ said Jools grabbing the tie and looking at it
carefully. ‘No surely not…oh my god,’ Jools burst out laughing alongside Martha
and handed the tie to Maggie.

And sure enough, what had from a distance looked like little
flowers all over the tie were in fact lots of tiny cocks and balls.

‘Well that’s just lovely Jools,’ said Jed when he’d finished
laughing, ‘is this your subtle way of calling me a prick!’