Chapter 4

We began with Joe who had the surname of what could be regarded as the largest family in the country if you wish, Peeters, very comparable to Smith in the UK. There was not much he could tell us. He confirmed Mister Gentle’s story that they had left together the evening before around 3 am. Joe also told the detectives about the rumor going around concerning an affair between his boss and Rose, but couldn’t confirm that was indeed true or just a rumor. He believed more that Rose was involved with this woman, whom they had nicknamed Helga. He had seen them kissing in the car park once, nothing really passionate like what some of the girls allegedly had witnessed in the private lap dancing room, but more like a friendly peck. Maybe a bit more as it had been on the mouth, but hey women tended to do that regularly, even with their kids. Joe was released 10 minutes after he’d come into the interrogation room.

As George had already been interrogated, but Seiko and Jeff wanted to let him stew a bit longer before calling him back in to confront him with what they’d heard interrogating the different employees. So they called in Julia first.

“Julia, thanks for staying on, we understand that it must be difficult for you after what you saw yesterday. Have you been able to get some sleep?”

“Yes thank you, ma’am, the doctor gave me some pills for last night so I did get some sleep.”

“Excellent. Just for the record, what is your full name?”

“I had nothing to do with Rose’s death, I only had the misfortune to find her.”

“Please don’t worry, we do not think you had anything to do with the demise of poor Rose at the club, but to help us get a full picture of what was going on at the club and why Rose was attacked we need to interrogate everybody that works there and could shed some light on the circumstances and we do need their full name.”

“My name is Zacharsky, ma’am, Julia Zacharsky.”

“Thank you Mrs. Zacharsky.”

“Oh please keep calling me Julia, Mrs. Zacharsky was my mother.”

“If it can make you more comfortable Julia, you may call me Seiko.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Seiko.”

“Just Seiko will do dear, you see Julia, anything and everything, even the smallest detail, that you can give us could help solve this case and bring the person who committed this heinous crime to justice.”

Jeff also confirmed that Julia could call him Jeff if that made her feel more at ease.

“So Julia why don’t you start by telling us what you know about this rumor floating around of an affair between Rose and Mister Gentle?”

Julia all of a sudden looked rather nervous.

“Is anything wrong Julia?”

“No ma’am ... euh Seiko, but I know nothing about an affair between mister Gentle and Rose.”

“Well we’ve been told that a rumor was floating around in the club, so we wondered if you had heard it too?”

“No, I heard nothing about such an affair, I’ve never seen Mister Gentle getting involved with any of the girls. I have heard about something going on between Rose and a female customer though.”

“Would you like to share with us what you heard?”

“I only heard that there was a female customer, called Helga, who regularly booked a private lap dance with Rose, something that almost never occurs. It’s always men or boys that pay for these services because they hope, that way, to be able to touch the girls.”

“So exactly what did you hear about this so-called Helga and Rose?”

“The rumor goes that Rose was kissing this woman passionately during a few of these lap dances, but I’ve never seen it myself.”

“You never saw Rose being overly friendly with this woman?”

“No Seiko ... maybe once, when I was on toilet duty and stayed until closing time I saw Rose leave together with a woman and get in her car, but it was dark, I’m not sure if it was the same woman she was giving lap dances to.”

“And that was the only time you saw something that might confirm this persistent rumor?”

“No come to think of it, one day, when I was leaving a bit before 2 pm after I cleaned, rather unusual for Rose, she arrived in a car, which was not her own.”

“No it was definitely not Rose’s car, she got out on the passenger side and I could see Rose’s car parked in the back.”

“And could you see who was driving that car, male or female?”

“I couldn’t see, the car had tinted side windows, and coming out I only saw the passenger side of the car from which Rose exited, I never saw the driver.”

“Did you notice what kind of car it was or the license plate?”

“It’s been a while and I didn’t pay that much attention, but I remember it was a rather small car.”

“A small car, do you have any idea about the make?”

“I’m sorry but I know absolutely nothing about cars, if you would ask my son, he’d probably be able to give you all detailed information, he loves cars and knows all about them.”

“So you have a son and how old is he?”

“Yes, my Toby he’s my pride and joy, he’s ten.”

“I didn’t hear you mention Toby’s dad?”

“I’m a widow, Toby’s dad died 5 years ago he was a victim of a hit-and-run car accident.”

“Did they ever find the driver?”

“No, they didn’t, and to be honest I don’t think they looked very hard. In my opinion, it was a person of influence, a politician maybe and I guess he pulled some strings.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“Well it’s been 5 years now and I’ve come to terms with it, there’s nothing I can do about it anyway.”

“And then you are confronted with this horrible scene in the club.”

“Yes indeed, when I came in I had no idea what I saw until I switched on the lights, and even then I thought they had played some sort of a prank on me, it wouldn’t be the first time the girls try to scare me with something strange, especially during the Halloween period. One day they had put up a gigantic spiderweb with a huge spider in the middle, I almost got a heart attack when I ran into the web in the dark and it got even worse when I switched on the light and saw this gigantic spider, so I thought they did something similar until I came closer and saw that it was Rose. At first, I didn’t believe it was her, I thought they had put up a mannequin but when I took a closer look I saw it was indeed Rose.”

“And then you called the Emergency number 112.”

“Yes, I did.”

“And what happened then?”

“The person on the line told me to stay calm, go outside and wait for the police to arrive. She stayed on the line and kept reassuring me that everything would be fine, they arrived about 10 minutes later.”

“Was there anybody in the car park when you arrived in the morning?”

“No, it was completely deserted like it always is.”

“Did you see any signs of forced entry?”

“The gate was closed but not locked which struck me as strange but the back door was locked as usual, and all the lights were out.”

“Do you not go in via the front door?”

“No, I always use the service door in the back.”

“So you have no idea if the front door was open or forced?”

“No, I have no idea.”

“You went out the way you came in via the back door then?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Do you pass the front door when you go to the back?”

“Yes I do, but I didn’t pay much attention and can’t remember seeing anything out of the ordinary.”

Seiko was checking the papers in front of her containing the report of the policemen who had arrived first on the scene. She couldn’t find anything about the front door being open, or locked or forced. So this confirmed Julia’s story.

“Is there anything else that you remember, anything out of the ordinary?”

“I’m afraid not Seiko, it’s still all one big blur.”

“Yes, I can imagine after what you saw. We thank you for coming here and having to relive this horrid scene, what you told us will certainly help us in our investigation. If there is anything that comes to your mind in the coming days, please don’t hesitate to contact us, even if it seems irrelevant to you at first sight.”

“Yes Seiko, if I remember anything I will contact you, can I go no? I need to pick up Toby at the babysitter, well maybe I shouldn’t speak of a babysitter anymore, Toby would strongly object as, since he turned 10, he now refers to himself as a teenager.”

“Yes, I can imagine he wouldn’t like that at his age, anyway, thanks again for your help Julia and if you need counseling, you know you can always rely on the services of victim assistance.”

“Yes, I know the ambulance driver gave me the phone number before taking off.”

“Excellent, and please take care of Toby.”

“I will Seiko, I will.”

After Julia had left, Seiko and Jeff stayed in the interrogation room to go over what they had learned so far and sound each other out on what they were thinking happened and who the murderer could be. Jeff was inclined to think that George Gentle had something to do with it, after all, there had been no forced entry into the building so the person or persons that got in must have had a key or had intricate knowledge of locks. Even the most complicated door lock is easy for a specialist to open. There was nothing in the reports that the locks of the front or backdoor had been forced or tampered with in anyway. Ok, both doors are locked in several places in the frame but when you picked the lock that would not pose a big problem.

From the initial interrogation on-site it was clear that only two people had keys. George Gentle had a key to the front and backdoor and Julia only had a key to the backdoor. The gate at the parking opened with a remote or by entering a security code on the pad at the gate itself. Julia had confirmed that there was nothing out of the ordinary when she arrived with her bicycle. The gate was closed and opened flawlessly after she had entered the code although she didn’t hear the click, which made her conclude the gate was not locked. There was no report of the alarm going off. It was a big mystery, they hoped that further interrogation of George Gentle would shed some light on the whole thing.

Both wanted to find out if there was anything to these rumors of George and Rose being romantically or sexually involved, something Seiko was not sure about. She wanted more to pursue the line of investigation into this mystery woman, Rose was allegedly involved with. She definitely wanted to grill George on this woman. After a good 15 minutes of letting George stew in the waiting room, they called him back in.

“Well mister Gentle, we have now interrogated your complete staff, but we still have a number of questions for you personally,” Seiko started.

“I have nothing to hide Miss Tashima, please feel free to ask me anything, I want this solved as much as you do. I want to see the murderer of Rose caught and brought to justice for this heinous deed, and please call me George, mister Gentle was my granddad.”

“OK George, can you please take us again over the night in question? You left at 3 am together with Joe?”

“Yes like we always do.”

“You went where?”

“Home, of course, I am usually dog tired and want to go to bed.”

“Is there anyone who can confirm that?”

“Euh no, except for my dog maybe, but I don’t think you speak dog do you?”

“This is serious George, so no witnesses?”

“Nope.”

“Now, tell us a bit more about your relationship with Rose.”

“Where would you like me to start?”

“From the beginning.”

“Do you mean from the day I met Rose for the first time?”

“That would be a good start yes.”

“OK, Rose has worked at the club for close to 15 years, and after all that time, she was still the star attraction. She started when she was 21, a few years after Apple. She sort of replaced Apple’s colleague and best friend at the time, Lisa, who retired shortly after Rose started. It is impossible to run a club with just one girl, Lisa had already indicated that she wanted to stop, so I was very happy when Rose came to audition. I hired her immediately, and it proved she was the right girl for the job as she very quickly became the most wanted performer.”

“You employed Rose 15 years ago to replace this Lisa, but you only opened the club 15 years ago how does this work.”

“Oh but I had another club before this one, I’ve been in this business for at least 25 years.”