Stop Dead (DI Geraldine Steel)

need to clean the carpet before Jenny –’
    ‘Please don’t touch the blood stain on your carpet for the time being, Mr Apsley.’
    ‘But I can’t just leave it. Jenny’ll go ballistic if she sees it.’
    ‘We’ll need to send a scene of crime officer in to examine it first.’
    ‘Why do you need to examine it? I told you where it comes from. You know what it is.’
    ‘And we’ll need your shoe –’
    Keith stared at her, belligerent with sudden fear.
    ‘What for?’
    His voice rose in agitation.
    ‘And when are you going to move that car? I told you, Jenny will be home this evening and she’ll need to put the car in the garage. There’s no parking round here without a resident’s permit. We haven’t even got one because we don’t need it. We’ve got a garage –’
    He paused and took a step back.
    ‘I’m sorry. It’s just – I’m not feeling quite myself. This whole thing’s been horrible.’
    ‘Mr Apsley, we’ll send a scene of crime officer in as soon as possible,’ Geraldine assured him. ‘Once they’ve finished I’m sure they’ll be able to advise you the best way to remove the blood stain from your carpet.’
    ‘Thank you.’

     
    ‘Did you think there was something a bit dodgy about him?’ Sam asked as they walked back to the car.
    Geraldine shrugged.
    ‘My guess is he’s been drinking this morning. Not a good idea when you’ve missed a night’s sleep after a shock.’
    ‘But it’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it?’ Sam persisted.
    ‘What is?’
    ‘His wife goes away and suddenly a dead body turns up on his doorstep.’
    ‘There’s nothing to suggest he had anything to do with it. Someone just happened to deposit a body by the lock ups. It’s a quiet enough spot.’
    Sam wasn’t satisfied.
    ‘What about the blood stain on his carpet?’
    Geraldine looked thoughtful.
    ‘He gave a reasonable account of how that got there. If he was implicated in the murder, why would he report it to us? And would he be so quick to show us the blood in his hall and on his shoe if he was guilty?’
    ‘We could hardly miss seeing the blood on the carpet. He didn’t exactly show it to us,’ Sam argued.

     
    Geraldine shook her head.
    ‘No. It doesn’t add up, Sam. He could easily have covered up the blood stain with a rug, or spilled red wine over it to mask it, or something, and we’d have been none the wiser. Why would he draw our attention to it? And why show us his shoe and admit he’d stepped in the blood right by the car when he could have disposed of the shoe without our seeing it and we might never have known he’d been anywhere near the door of the Mercedes. He could simply have reported what he’d seen through the windscreen, or just reported the car and not mentioned he knew there was someone inside it at all.’

     
    Sam scowled.
    ‘Well, it all seems a bit odd to me.’
    ‘We’ll certainly check him out, and his missing wife, but I don’t think someone who’s just committed a murder would be in such a hurry to summon us, and go out of his way to draw suspicion on himself. Why would he?’
    ‘To put us off the scent,’ Sam argued. ‘He didn’t exactly rush to call us. The car had been there all day, maybe longer for all we know. He said himself he saw it when he went out yesterday morning. He must’ve realised someone would report it eventually and it’s parked right outside his garage. He probably thought it would look odd if he didn’t report it himself.’
    ‘Well, maybe, but I don’t think so.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘For a start, he seemed far more worried about his wife’s reaction to the stain on the carpet than about the body outside his garage.’
    ‘Transference?’

     
    ‘Maybe. Now come on, we’ve got an important job to do.’
    Sam’s face fell.
    ‘Oh Jesus, what now?’
    Geraldine turned to her with a laugh.
    ‘Lunch of course. Or aren’t you hungry any more?’
    Sam grinned.
    ‘Ravenous,’ she replied. ‘I know this great Chinese chippy not far from here.’

CHAPTER 10
     
    ‘T his place must have cost a few bob,’ Sam said with a low whistle as they cruised along an elegant tree-lined avenue in Hampstead and drew up outside a large detached house. She stared around in admiration before following Geraldine through an iron gate into a small front garden.
    ‘I reckon some of the windows at the back must have a view over the heath.’
    ‘Put your eyes back in,’ Geraldine smiled.

     
    The door was opened by a