‘It seemed odd. Like her behaviour afterwards. She and Mr Robbins didn’t seem close, but she was hysterical over him.’
Kelly had seen the footage. People reacted in different ways to trauma but Sandy’s was more like a performance, she had to admit.
‘Thanks for telling me, Lee. It’s a big step when you’ve been so close to somebody to go behind their back and reveal the truth.’
He smiled weakly.
Her words wouldn’t help him heal his broken heart. To Doctor Cooper, this man had been a quick lay. A bit of rough sex on the side. Exciting, clandestine, thrilling.
To Lee it meant so much more.
‘There’s something else,’ he said. ‘Paul Burlington went missing from the hotel last Tuesday night. Sandy asked me to help search for him. They were worried. Panicked, you know? Like they knew he couldn’t look after himself.’
‘Go on.’
Kelly recalled seeing the physical signs that Paul Burlington was unwell. Perhaps there was more to it.
‘We found him in the caves.’
‘The caves?’
Lee nodded. ‘He was in a real state. Like hallucinating or something. He’d lost his clothes, ripped them off apparently and Sandy calmed him down.’
‘He’s a big bloke,’ Kelly said.
‘She was able to relax him. I got the impression it happened a lot.’
‘You said “they”. Who else knew this?’
‘Hank Hampton knew because he waited in the bar for them to return and he sank about seven whiskeys. One of the bodyguards came with us.’
‘Which one?’
Lee shrugged.
‘Did he wear a baseball cap?’
‘No I don’t think so.’
‘What was he doing in the caves?’
‘Sandy said he was obsessed with them.’
‘Obsessed? That’s an unusual thing to say.’
‘Maybe he was sheltering in there? Sandy said he’d liked to walk on the fells, maybe he got lost, but then that doesn’t make sense because he told me he hated exercise and all this “health crap”. That’s what he said. He was drunk at the time.’
Lee stopped talking suddenly. ‘I think that’s everything, can I go?’
‘What time on Tuesday night?’ She couldn’t help herself imagining Paul Burlington’s bulky frame inside Angelina’s room, turning nasty and forcing himself on her.
‘It was late, about midnight.’
‘And was he injured?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Did he have boots on?’
