Page 67 of The Chapel of Bones

‘I was going to put it back in the loft with the rest of Dad’s things,’ Penny continued, ‘but I haven’t got round to it yet, so it must still be in the kitchen drawer. Hang on.’

She leapt up, and Wesley heard noises from the adjoining room. It seemed an age before she reappeared holding a large book in her hand.

‘Here it is. Names of his tenants and when they paid their rent,’ she said, before handing it to Gerry, who was sitting with his arm outstretched, waiting impatiently.

‘Have you ever come across the names Susan Potter or Suzy Porter?’ Wesley asked while Gerry flicked through the ledger.

‘I don’t think so.’ Penny drew a deep breath as the realisation dawned. ‘Isn’t Susan Potter the name of that woman who was murdered in a village near Neston?’

‘That’s right.’

Her hand went to her mouth. ‘That’s terrible. I’ve never heard of Suzy Porter.’

When Wesley heard the DCI mutter, ‘Gotcha,’ he turned his head to look at him.

‘What have you found?’

With a smug grin on his face, Gerry passed the ledger to Wesley. It was open at a page listing the tenants who’d lived at St Julian’s during the period September 2010 to May 2011, just before the house was purchased by Timothy Fontescue-Burns.

Wesley’s eyes travelled down the list, and he suddenly understood the reason for Gerry’s satisfied expression.

The name Carlo Lanzani stood out like a beacon. As did the name Jim Baker. The third tenant was called Aphrodite Benson – the member of Timothy Fontescue-Burns’s commune who’d stayed on when the house changed hands.

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It was a case of all hands on deck, as the former merchant navy officer Gerry Heffernan put it. They had to find Jim Baker fast. And they really needed to put some effort into locating Aphrodite Benson too.

‘Aphrodite, goddess of love,’ said Wesley as he pored over the list with Rob. ‘June, Della’s business partner, said there was an Aphrodite and an Apollo in Tim Fontescue-Burns’s Casa Mirabilis commune. She said a couple of the tenants from Ethelred Bingley’s day left, but Aphrodite stayed on. She probably shared Tim’s philosophy of life. Whereas Carlo Lanzani and Jim Baker . . .’

‘Probably didn’t. There’s no sign of an Aphrodite Benson on any official records, so the name might have been made up.’

Wesley had already come to this conclusion.

‘I’ve searched through police records for anyone using that alias,’ Rob continued. ‘No luck. Either they kept their nose clean or they committed offences using other aliases.’

‘Good work, Rob. Keep looking.’

But Rob had more to say. ‘Then there’s this Fiorenza, who found Tim Fontescue-Burns’s body and decorated it with flowers to mess up any evidence of foul play. We haven’t found her yet.’

Rachel had been listening in to the conversation. ‘As a matter of fact, I think I might have. I’ve been trawling through records, and a Pauline Mansfield was arrested after taking part in a demonstration against animal cruelty outside a laboratoryin Cambridge last year. She initially gave her middle name as Fiorenza, but it was later found to be Florence.’

‘Well done,’ said Wesley with a wide grin.

‘I’ve contacted her and she’s agreed to a video call. Said she’d do anything to clear Timothy’s name, even talk to the pigs, as she so delicately put it. It sounds as though she was in love with him. And from the way she spoke about him, I suspect she’s never really got over his death.’ She checked the time. ‘I’ve scheduled the call for half an hour’s time. Might be best if I speak to her one to one.’

Wesley agreed. The presence of more police officers listening in would probably make the woman less likely to share anything important.

He tapped into his computer, wanting to find out more about Dale Gadson and his zoo. It wasn’t long before he came across something surprising; something that made him sit up and read it twice. He called over one of the DCs assigned to the case and asked him to do some digging.

Gerry emerged from his office and called for silence before addressing the incident room.

‘So you all know that Jim Baker and a Carlo Lanzani used to live in Sycamore House when it was owned by Ethelred Bingley and called St Julian’s. Lanzani. Sound familiar?’ An image of the strange mythical beast, a blown-up photograph of the picture found in Sue Potter’s cottage, had been pinned in the middle of the huge noticeboard that dominated the far end of the room. ‘OK, I’ve been told Lanzani is a perfectly normal Italian surname, but I think it’s a bit too much of a coincidence, don’t you?’

There was a murmur of agreement and a nodding of heads.

‘We need to identify this Lanzani character as a matter of urgency. And we need Jim Baker brought in as soon as possible. All patrols are on the lookout for him, so he can’t hide for ever.’

Once Gerry had finished addressing the team, he asked Rachel to keep him up to date on what Fiorenza had to say for herself, asking her to find out all she could about the elusive Aphrodite and Apollo. Then he asked Wesley to join him in his office. They really needed to go over the case to get things straight in their minds.