‘Was he sure?’
‘Definitely, sir. He said she flirted with him outrageously. So much so, that when he put her credit card in his machine he didn’t notice that it was in a man’s name. What’s more, Sharon propositioned him, and he scribbled his phone number on a napkin and gave it to her.’ Armitage turned over a page in her pocketbook. ‘It’s the number found on the napkin that was in her handbag at the hotel. And before you ask,’ she added with a smile, ‘the waiter was on duty until midnight that evening, and the following evening. And that checks out. He said he hadn’t heard from her again.’
‘Anything about the mobile phone we found at the scene, Sheila?’
‘Ah, the mobile. Yes, sir. A mobile phone was certainly purchased by Sharon Gregory at an outlet in the Chimes Centre. But according to the cash receipt you found in her handbag, it wasn’t the phone found in her room at the Dickin Hotel. I checked the serial number with Linda Mitchell.’
‘Interesting,’ I said. ‘I wonder what happened to it? More to the point, where did the one we found come from?’
‘I doubt we’ll be able to find out, sir,’ said Sheila. ‘Mobile phones are difficult to track down.’
I’d not met Ben Donaldson before, but he’d taken over the legal attaché’s post when Joe Daly had returned to New York on retirement after twenty-four years with the Bureau.
Ben was a big man who originated from Montgomery, Alabama. Although he later told me that he’d spent many years in Washington and New York, with spells in Ottawa and Paris, his accent and Southern bonhomie hadn’t left him. He almost leaped across the office as we entered.
‘How ya doin’, Harry?’ he said, as though he’d known me all my life.
‘Pleased to meet you at last, Ben,’ I said. ‘This is Dave Poole, my sergeant.’
Donaldson seized each of our hands in turn and pumped them vigorously. ‘Guess you know Darlene,’ he said, as his secretary came into the room bearing a tray of coffee. ‘Joe left her behind when he went back to the States.’
‘Yes, we’ve met,’ I said, smiling. That Darlene was still here rather surprised me; I thought that she and Joe had had a ‘thing’ going. She was a beautifully packaged American redhead who looked as though she belonged in a Hollywood movie rather than in a London office. And she had the happy knack of producing coffee the minute we arrived at Grosvenor Square. And for anyone else who arrived, I imagined.
‘Take a seat, fellers.’ Donaldson swept his hand magnanimously towards the bank of armchairs in one corner of his impressive office. ‘What can I do for y’all?’
I explained about the murder of Sharon Gregory and the events that led up to it, including our certainty that she’d murdered her husband. Both Ben and I were law enforcement officers and, even though this was our first meeting, I trusted him implicitly to keep my theories to himself.
‘Dave has discovered that the phone numbers of two men, Lance Kramer and Miles Donahue, were on our murder victim’s mobile—’
‘What’s a mobile?’ asked Donaldson, feigning innocence.
‘It’s what you call a cellphone in America, Ben.’
‘Oh, I thought you were talking about one of those gadgets you hang over a baby’s crib.’ Donaldson laughed. ‘I’ve only been here about three weeks, but I guess I’ll come to grips with your language if I stay long enough.’ He paused. ‘Only kidding, Harry.’
‘Both these men live in the Miami Beach area of Florida.’ I turned to Dave. ‘Tell Ben your problem,’ I said.
‘We don’t know whether to contact Miami-Dade Police Department, or the Miami Beach Police, which seems the more obvious,’ said Dave. ‘Or even the Florida State Police.’
Donaldson took a mouthful of coffee and set down his cup before replying. ‘The set-up of the American police is a minefield, Dave,’ he said. ‘Half the guys in it don’t even understand who to talk with about interstate enquiries, let alone how to deal with international ones. But you’ve come to the right place. When in doubt, contact the FBI. As it happens, we have a Bureau office on Second Avenue at North Miami Beach, and I’ll contact the special agent in charge ASAP.’
‘Excellent,’ said Dave.
‘Yeah, excellent.’ Donaldson savoured the word and grinned. ‘I like that,’ he said, and shouted for Darlene. ‘Dave here will give you the details, Darlene. Perhaps you’d send a request to the Florida office and ask them to make enquiries.’