Chapter 16

Next day, Victor and George Corrigan were knocking at Susan’s door but there was no reply; she was out on her rounds, and George knew Thursday was her day at the flats furthest from the block they were in. They went to the office in the foyer.

“Let’s look at those tapes,” said George. “The top floor ones will hardly have been used – you’ve not been here much since October.”

“Didn’t the police take them?” asked Victor, curious that since the tapes would have shown who entered his flat while he was away, they would have been good evidence.

“Seems not,” said George, opening the cupboard and finding all the tapes for the top floor in place. “Wait a minute,” he said, reaching for the last tape, which had a post-it note attached.

“Ah!” he said, reading Susan’s neat writing. “Here – she says ‘police taken’ and the date and ‘returned’ with yesterday’s date.”

They played the tape.

“That’s funny,” said George as they came to the point after they could see Victor leaving the flat with his bags. The tape showed snow until Susan appeared then Victor returned.

“It’s been erased,” said Victor. “If no one had been up there, it wouldn’t have played at all, there’d not have been any gap between me leaving and arriving, except for Susan.”

“So,” said George reflectively, “whoever had a key to your flat, also had one to this office, and presumably to the front door as well. It has to be Susan’s keys. If it’s Seth who’s done this, how is it she doesn’t know about it? Or perhaps she does?”

“If she doesn’t know he’s had her keys,” said Victor grimly, “It’s a serious breach of security on her part. If she gave them to him, it’s worse.”

“Do you want to see her,” asked George, “or shall I?”

“You’re her employer now, George, you do it. You need to know if anyone had access to her keys, and Seth in particular. At your office. This afternoon.”

Susan was surprised to get a text from George, telling her to get to the office ASAP. When she arrived, depositing Carl with George’s secretary, she entered his office and was taken aback to find Victor sitting in on corner.

“What’s he doing here?” she asked aggressively.

“Sit down Susan,” snapped George, “He’s here because it concerns him.”

“I’m not staying here if he’s here.” She retorted and moved to the door.

“If you leave, you’re sacked,” barked George. “This is very serious!”

She stopped. Victor looked on impassively.

“Sit down,” George repeated. She returned sullenly and sat down.

“Now,” said George, “I need to know who has had access to your keys since August.”

“No one,” Susan replied immediately without thinking.

“There are only three sets of keys to the flats. The owner has one. I have one. You have one. Someone entered Mr Freeman’s flat while he was on holiday. You said yourself that you thought Mr Freeman had been there.

“They used a key to get in. They must also have used a key to the front door, and to the office. The tape of the top floor has been erased for the period Mr Freeman was absent on holiday. Whoever did that had a key to the office as well. Neither the owner nor I have allowed the keys to leave our possession, there’s only one set could have been used. Yours. Did you erase the tape?”

Susan shook her head, and paled. This was serious trouble, she knew. This was a breach of security which was unforgivable. Her job was fading away. She thought hard, and then knew.

“I’m sorry,” she said looking only at George. “It’s my fault. I’ll resign.”

“Did you erase the tape?”

“No.”

“Did you allow your keys out of your possession?”

“There’s only one person could have access to the keys, but not during September or October.”

“Your lodger? Mr Grimshaw?”

“Yes,” she said but added hastily, “but he was there in August, not September or October.”

“When could it have happened?”

“I was ill for a couple of days. Seth did the shopping for me. My front door and the block door key were on the ring for all the flats, so he took them all, but he brought them back. He’s not had access to them since.”

“Were the keys labelled?” asked Victor, knowing they were. Susan ignored his question.

“Well,” asked George, “were they?”

“Yes,” she said wearily, “They were all labelled. But...”