Cold Blood by Jane Heafield (great books to read txt) 📕

Turner leaned back and folded his arms. ‘No, why would I have? Where did you get it?’

‘As you saw, Overeem and the others arrived with the unknown man. All entered the ranch together. Would you agree this means the film crew met their visitor somewhere else and travelled together?’

‘If you say so.’

‘How did you know they were renting the ranch?’

Turner gave a frustrated giggle, sans smile. ‘I hear things. You clearly don’t, since I’ve already explained this.’

‘Who’s the unknown man?’

‘I hope I don’t have to repeat this. I have no clue.’

Bennet used a finger on the video’s scrub bar to rewind, and pause, and two fingers to zoom. Overeem’s head filled the screen, frozen inches from the blank wall in the ranch kitchen.

‘Ever seen this video before? Oh, wait, you said no already. Ever been to the Panorama hotel?’

‘What? Yes, of course. Is that relevant?’

Bennet tapped the phone screen. ‘Why do you think Overeem is standing here like this, just staring at nothing?’

Turner shook his head.

‘Basic hotel rooms at the Panorama. Door in a central corridor, so it faces a window. Unlike this ranch kitchen, where the window is in a side wall. Overeem took a room at the Panorama. He’d dragged a tea table into the centre of the room, for two men to talk. Overeem rehearsed his confrontation with the unknown man at the ranch, but the live show, we’ll call it, was to take place in that hotel room. That blank wall, come opening night, will be a window. Ever seen this video before?’

Turner snorted his frustration, but offered no words.

‘Overeem checked into the Panorama on Sunday afternoon, bringing only a file folder and a camera bag. He was there for just minutes. Long enough to move the table, lay his documents out, and set up the camera. But here’s the problem. Overeem left the hotel that afternoon and didn’t return until 2145, and he was alone. He was back only to put away his documents and camera and check out. You’ve never seen this video before, right?’

Turner ignored the question in favour of one that hadn’t been asked. ‘You seem confused by his behaviour, Bennet, so let me clear that up. Overeem and his people had just left the Lion. Fast. They’d caused trouble in the pub and had decided, finally, to leave my village. He went back to the Panorama to clear out his things because they were running with their tails between their legs.’

‘What if they weren’t fleeing? What if Overeem went to the Panorama for his camera and documents for another reason?’

Turner shrugged. ‘Why don’t you just say it instead of–’

‘The rehearsal video – here, look – is timestamped 2018. The film crew were planning a confrontation with the unknown man, but an hour later everything had changed. They left the Lion and, to use your word, fled to the safety of the ranch. But what if, in that hour, they changed the venue for their confrontation with the unknown man? And Overeem went to collect his camera and folder for that reason? You like Hennessy cognac, don’t you?’

Turner gritted his teeth, clearly annoyed at Bennet’s disjointed questioning. ‘Again, just say it, detective.’

‘You told me Sunday is your night at the Lion. I had that confirmed. Regular as clockwork, you pop in for a nip of your fine Hennessy. But you didn’t go that Sunday, the 19th.’

‘No. It’s not written in stone. If you remember, I told you my son needed help with one of his cars. I was at his garage most of the evening. I was there at the time you say the film crew died. But obviously you’re leading up to somehow trying to connect me to those murders. And I’d love to hear it.’

Bennet found another video on his phone and described it for Turner. CCTV from the Lion, Sunday evening. Francis Overeem at the bar, talking to the barmaid, Vicky London. ‘Here, look: Overeem scans the lounge, then asks her a question. She tiptoes to also look at the patrons in the bar, shakes her head and looks at her watch. Doesn’t that look like Overeem has just asked about a certain customer and he’s not in? And the barmaid says, oh, he should have been in by now?’

Turner’s reply to Bennet’s narration was, ‘I’m sure this silent video could be given a voiceover to mirror a famous movie scene, if we tried.’

‘I think the film crew expected the unknown man to be at the pub that Sunday, because he usually is. Their plan was to take him to the Panorama hotel room for the confrontation. But the unknown man wasn’t there.’

Next up for Turner’s perusal was a printed sheet of paper. Bennet fingered a specific line. ‘This is your phone data, and here, at 2104, you received a call. We know this was from Vicky London, the barmaid. We sat down with her and found her memory to be suddenly refreshed. She’s admitted to police that Francis Overeem came to the bar and asked where you were. When he’d gone, she called you soon after and said a man was looking for you. You told her not to tell anyone she’d called you. I think that warning from Vicky is why you didn’t go to the Lion for your weekly nip of Hennessy.’

Bennet fingered another line on the sheet. ‘At 2113, you received another call, this time from an unknown number. I think that number belonged to Overeem. Let me ask again, have you seen that rehearsal video before today?’

‘No. That’s the last time I answer that question.’

‘I have a couple more pieces of media for you.’

The first was a segment of the rehearsal video. It lasted three seconds. Overeem, with his face against a bare wall, said to Lorraine:

‘I have proof. Sit down and talk to me. I’ll be happy to Alt F4 this joint.’

‘Alt F4 is a computer term, Mr Turner. In the context of this line, what