At Your Door

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‘Looks to me as though spanking would have been one of the least painful activities they got up to in here,’ Walker said.

Anna stepped further into the room to look around. There were no cupboards, drawers or wardrobes, and nothing filled the space under the bed. So everything was on display, and the more Anna looked the more she found.

There were bottles of massage oil, several pairs of rubber gloves, a roll of plastic cling-film, a bright red latex catsuit, no fewer than five vibrators, a blindfold and a scary-looking mouth ball gag.

‘It’s enough to make your eyes water and your skin prickle,’ Walker said.

One of the shelf units was filled with books, magazines and DVDs. The titles sent a shudder along Anna’s spine. Mistress of Torment, How to be Kinky, Erotic Fantasies, Diary of a Submissive, Bound to Cum, Domination and Submission, Hogtied.

‘I’m reminded of the time I went into an Ann Summers store in search of a birthday gift for the wife,’ Walker said.

‘And did you buy anything?’ Niven asked him.

Walker rolled his eyes. ‘You don’t really expect me to answer that question in front of the boss, do you?’

Anna decided they had seen enough of the playroom and that the contents were becoming a distraction. She was also concerned about contaminating forensic evidence.

Turning back towards the door, she said, ‘This room is off limits until the SOCOs get here. And it’s time to dispense with the inappropriate repartee, guys. OK?’

Back in the living room, Anna told Prescott and Niven about Nathan Wolf and said he was no doubt the regular visitor the landlord had mentioned.

‘So it means he has to be a suspect in Holly’s murder,’ she added.

‘It seems he’s not the only one,’ Prescott said.

Anna frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, according to the landlord her ex-boyfriend, a bloke named Ross, came here last week and started a row with her. She accused him of stalking her and was very upset. The landlord also thinks he saw him hanging around outside on Tuesday night.’

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#ulink_48fcbb47-6f98-5600-8030-5b8a4b11814b)

Jason Lattimer was a short, overweight individual in his late fifties. He described himself as the son of an immigrant couple from Barbados.

He had the same dark skin as Anna’s partner Tom, who had lived on another Caribbean island, Antigua, before moving to the UK with his family at the age of five.

Lattimer had been told only that Holly Blake was missing and her parents were becoming increasingly worried, hence the need to gain access to her flat.

Anna and Walker spoke to him in his sparsely furnished living room while detectives Prescott and Niven went knocking on the other flats in the block. The first few questions to the landlord were aimed at eliciting information about the man himself, partly to determine whether he should be treated as a suspect.

But it took Anna less than a minute to weigh him up and rule him out, although they would still subject him to the usual checks.

Lattimer told them that he owned a total of five properties in and around Camden and that he had inherited them from his parents. Holly’s flat had been let unfurnished and was on a rolling lease.

‘She viewed the flat with an older man who’s been a frequent visitor this past year,’ Lattimer said, his voice quiet, nervous. ‘All the furniture was delivered before she moved in and she’s been an ideal tenant. In fact I’ve come to regard her as a friend. She’s such a pleasant girl and the rent’s always paid on time.’

‘Have you been inside the flat?’ Anna asked.

‘A couple of times, but not recently. I only ever went into the lounge and kitchen and I was very impressed with the way it had been decorated.’

‘Is the rent paid by direct debit?’

He nodded. ‘Fifteen hundred pounds a month transferred directly from her bank account into mine.’

‘What do you know about the man who helped her set up home here?’

He shrugged. ‘Nothing at all except that he usually arrives and leaves by taxi and that he rarely stays overnight. He’s in his forties, I reckon, and I’ve always suspected that he’s some kind of sugar daddy.’

‘Why is that?’

‘Well, the age difference for one thing, and the fact that he doesn’t live with her. She described him once as her boyfriend and let slip that he had paid for all the furniture.’

‘Have you spoken to him much?’

He shook his head. ‘The longest conversation I had with him was when they viewed the flat, and that was over a year ago. He’s quite posh and polite, but he also comes across as very shy. He always wears dark glasses and sometimes a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead. It’s as though he doesn’t like people seeing his face, which is another reason I figured he was more a benefactor than a boyfriend.’

‘Do you know his name?’

‘Not his full name. Holly refers to him as Nate, which I’m certain is short for Nathan.’

Anna fished her phone from her pocket and opened up a photo she’d saved of Nathan Wolf.

‘Is this Nate?’ she said.

Lattimer leaned forward and picked up a pair of glasses from the coffee table between them. He slipped them on, looked at the picture and nodded without hesitation.

‘That’s him.’ He then tilted his head to one side, furrows texturing his forehead. ‘Do you think something bad has happened to Holly, detective? Is that why you’re asking all these questions?’