“There's always the life insurance policy,” Detective Sargent Illingworth said in matter of fact way that did nothing to help Detective Inspector Peters’ mood. In fact it only served to irritate the more senior police officer more as it only served to remind him that he didn’t really have leads on this case, assuming that there was a case in the first place.
“What life ‘insurance policy’?” He asked grumpily as he looked up from the file he had been looking through.
“The one Mrs. Baxter took out on her husband before he died,” the Sargent replied knowing full well that the Inspector wasn’t particularly annoyed with him specifically it was just that this case had seemed as though it was going nowhere. Detective Inspector Peters knew that Emily Baxter was dead, and hadn’t just disappeared as was commonly thought. The trouble was that in the two years, or perhaps a little more than that, since she had disappeared here hadn’t been any sightings of her whatsoever and there hadn’t been any sign of her body.
The bank accounts that she had normally used had been dormant virtually since the day that she seemed to have walked out on her life and job. There hadn’t been a single cash withdrawal, card payment or even an attempted online purchase made on any of her accounts; not even for a train ticket. And all that made DI Peters even more suspicious than usual.
If Emily Baxter had indeed just simply walked out on her life then DI Peters reasoned that she must have needed money to live on, to buy food and pay for rent or any of the myriad of things that most normal people would need to in order to survive from day to day. He that there had been no activity because he had been able to put a track on her bank accounts after the first week she had been missed had gotten her bank to track back for the period from she had last been seen leaving work to when he had put the check on her accounts in place. Neither had turned up anything at all, even though there had been almost £500 in her current account and nearly double that in her savings account.
As no one would leave almost £1,500 in their bank account untouched for this amount of time, DI Peters knew that she was dead. But as yet he couldn’t prove it and had no real leads, other than a strange man who had been seen in and around where she lived in the six months prior to Mrs. Baxter disappearing. No one in the area could quite place this stranger, even though most people who had seen him had said that he looked vaguely familiar, but yet no one could quite place where or when they had seen this man before. And as far as DI Peters was able to tell no one had seen this man since she had vanished and even a television appeal on the local news had turned up no real leads.
“What about it?” DI Peters said with more frustration than he had intended to show as they had been trying to get information out of the insurance company more months now. This was something that was frustrated by the fact that they didn’t have any real evidence of a crime being committed and certainly didn’t have any evidence that Emily Baxter had been kidnapped, or worse.
“National Mutual Insurance have confirmed that they have being paying out every quarter or so for the last 2 years,” DS Illingworth said ignoring his bosses foul mood, which was pretty much normal when he was stuck on a cast that was going nowhere.
“How have they been paying it?” DI Peters asked more interested in his sergeant now than when the man had walked in a few minutes ago.
“By cheque sir,” DS Illingworth said after having a quick look at his notebook to make sure that he had remembered the details correctly. “They said that they had been sending the cheques to an address in Manchester for over a year,” he added as DI Peters indicated for him to continue.
“Well that’s something,” the DI said when Illingworth had stopped talking. “Did they say what the address was?” He then asked with more hope than he had felt in many months.
“No, they said since there wasn’t any indication of fraud then they wouldn’t divulge that information,” DS Illingworth added and as he did he could see the hope physically drain from his bosses eyes that had suddenly sparked to life with his initial report.
“Damn,” DI Peters exclaimed trying not to let his disappointment get the better of him, “back to square one then I guess.” He then clenched his fists tightly and had to stop himself from slamming them down on the desk in front of him. There may have been times in the past when he would have allowed himself the take his frustration out on the nearest object, or at times even the nearest person, in a violent outburst, but over the last decade he had managed to get his impetuous outbursts under control and himself more focused on the task at hand.
Deep down in the pit of his stomach he knew that someone had done something to Emily Baxter, and that was all that he needed to keep him from dropping this case as just another missing person. There was something else going on here and he knew it, after almost twenty-five years working as a police officer he trusted his feeling and instinct on case more than anything. Here there was just something that didn’t seem to add up to DI Peters and he was determined to find out what it was.
“Illingworth,” he started to say to the sergeant who was now standing there waiting for further instructions, “that poor woman is dead and I know it. Now someone is cashing in her husband’s life insurance policy and I want to know who it is,” he the said with steely intent.
“But where do we go from here?” The Sergeant asked wondering what the Detective Inspector had in mind.
“Honestly?” DI Peters asked rhetorically with more than a hint of resignation about his tone. “I have no idea,” he then added clearly not knowing what he should do next.
“Couldn’t we get a warrant to force the insurance company to let us have the address?” DS Illingworth then suggested as he saw that his boss was considering his next move.
“Maybe,” DI Peters said considering the idea and then dismissing it, “but we don’t really have any evidence of wrong at the moment.” Which was true, regardless of whether he liked the situation or not, there was nothing he could do at the moment to change that fact. “But maybe there is something that we could do,” DI Peters then as he flicked through the file in front of him thoughtfully.
“What's that sir?” DS Illingworth asked trying to work out what his boss was thinking and where they could possibly go with this case that would lead them out the cul-de-sac that it had already led them up.
“Wait,” the DI then said without looking up from the file that was now starting to get engrossed in.
“If someone is fraudulently cashing those cheques then sooner or later they’ll make a mistake,” he then added when he saw that DS Illingworth was still standing there waiting to hear what he had to say on their next move. “On the other hand if Mrs. Baxter is just missing and cashing those cheques then she’ll turn up,” he then added not happy with the situation but having to live with the realization that there were several active cases that he could be pursuing that had actual leads to follow up instead of this wild goose chase that didn’t seem to be going anywhere. And one thing he had learned over the years was to be patient.
In the case of Emily Baxter, as DI Peters could tell anyway, there wasn’t anyone in immediate harm and even if they were there was no way at present for him to find out where they were being held. And there was every bit the case that if Mrs. Baxter had been kidnapped then she would probably have been killed several months ago, as DI Peters didn’t think that whoever had taken would have kept her alive this long without making some kind of ransom demand. But then there didn’t seem to be anyone to make a demand of, let alone Mrs. Baxter being worth the risk anyway.
This case was going nowhere and sooner or later whoever was cashing the life insurance would make a mistake. When they did DI Peters would be ready to take advantage of that mistake and until then he would just have to be patient. Whether he liked it or not and DI Peters certainly didn’t like just having to sit on a case and wait for the next move.