Nathan Trentham (British detective, set in London, UK, 1987)
Nathan Trentham was a grizzled Scotland Yard detective in his mid-40s, a veteran of the 1970s IRA bombings and the fading industrial unrest of the early Thatcher years. Born in a working-class East End family, he’d joined the Met Police straight out of school, worked his way up through Vice and Serious Crime, and earned a reputation for dogged persistence mixed with a dry, cynical wit. He still wore three-piece suits that had seen better days, smoked unfiltered cigarettes, and distrusted the new wave of yuppie officers flooding the force with their computers and management-speak.
In the sticky summer of 1987, Nathan was called to a leafy Kensington townhouse. The case: Missing Wife. Elaine Hargrove, 38, wife of prominent merchant banker Richard Hargrove, had vanished three days earlier after a heated argument. Richard claimed she stormed out after he confronted her about spending too much on their daughter’s private schooling. The house showed no signs of forced entry. Her passport was still in the drawer, her credit cards unused.
Nathan quickly smelled money and secrets. Interviews with the au pair and neighbors revealed Elaine had been seen arguing with a younger man near Holland Park. Digging into Richard’s finances (no small feat before widespread digital banking), Nathan uncovered large cash withdrawals and a second set of books showing Richard was deeply in debt to offshore lenders. The “other man” turned out to be a private investigator Elaine had hired to document Richard’s own affair with his secretary.
The breakthrough came when Nathan tracked Elaine to a modest bed-and-breakfast in Brighton using a cab driver’s tip and old-fashioned legwork. She had staged her disappearance to pressure Richard into a divorce settlement while protecting their daughter from the scandal. Confronted in the B&B, Elaine confessed she feared for her safety after Richard threatened her during their fight. Nathan negotiated a tense standoff with Richard’s lawyers, ensuring Elaine got a fair deal and the daughter was placed with relatives. The case closed without charges, but Nathan added another entry in his mental ledger of rich people behaving badly. He celebrated with a warm pint at the local pub, muttering about “bloody bankers” under his breath.
