Consequences (27 page)

‘No thanks, sir, you can keep your job,’ he said. The phone bleeped.’…Car was a hire...car...’

‘Thanks Gary… you might be interested to know...’ Dylan looked at his mobile phone’s screen. The connection had been lost.

‘Damn...You, my lady, are not going to believe this,’ said Dylan.

‘I’m all ears. Don’t tell me …’ she closed her eyes, ‘you’re going to transfer to the Isle of Wight.’ she said, flinging her arms around his neck and planting a kiss on his lips.

‘Ah...it’s not that good,’ he said. ‘You’re going to be disappointed now no matter what I say,’ he said, cuddling her tight.

‘I’m not. I knew you weren’t...I was kidding,’ she said.

‘Good. Well that was Gary Warner from the Crime Squad; it looks like it was Frankie Miller in St Peter’s Park and who more than likely killed Liz. They think he used a hire car to get to the park. Could that have been the hire car that hit you?’

‘What? never. What does he look like, this Frankie? Because I’ll never forget the look on that man’s face when he stuck one finger up at me.’

‘Of course. You saw him didn’t you?’

‘Yeah, and I’ll have his face imprinted on my mind forever.’

‘What did he look like? Dylan said sitting down.

‘Ah, so you’re interested in my minor bump now are you?’ she said. ’I could have picked him out of an ID parade for you but...he’s dead?’ She frowned.

‘VIPER.’

‘Oh yes, of course, Video ID.’

‘I’ll arrange for you to visit the ID suite and see if we can get you to pick him out.’

‘Does that mean I’ll be able to make a claim on his insurance?’

‘Stolen car. Dead driver...you might struggle with that one love.’ Dylan said, with a wry smile.

‘I’ll make a detective yet, you’ll see.’ She grinned. ‘A major witness in a murder enquiry, eh?’ She whistled long and slow.

‘A very important one, but only if you identify our man for us.’

She stopped what she was doing. ‘I will. Well, I’ll pick out the man that was driving the car that hit me.’

‘We’ll see, but the jigsaw puzzle is coming together. Who’s got the money though, and why kill Liz?’

‘That’s for you to sort Jack. I’ve done my bit …’ She stood thinking, holding a knife and half a peeled potato in her hand. ’Am I a corner piece of your jigsaw, or a straight edge?’

‘With those curves, definitely a corner piece, Miss Jones,’ Dylan said readily. Now come here,’ he said, grabbing her to him for a kiss. ‘I need to say sorry.’

‘What for?’ she pouted.

‘I pushed you aside when the accident happened, didn’t I? I treated your accident as a minor occurrence, but if it was Frankie Miller who took your wing mirror off, after he had just killed one woman, then that’s too close to my girl for comfort,’ he sighed, squeezing her tight.

The next morning Dylan was in the office early, but John was there before him.

‘You wet the bed, me old son?’ Dylan said.

‘No sir, I had one of them four o’clock thoughts and it niggled me so much I had to get up.’

‘Oh God...look...tip...write your thoughts down on a piece of paper and throw them on the floor till morning. I can do it without putting the light on now and believe it or not my writing is almost legible the next day,’ he laughed. ‘You’ll learn...coffee?’ Dylan shouted, as he walked back out of the office to make a brew. John followed him.

‘Frankie didn’t know Liz, right?’ said John.

‘Well he knew of her through Malcolm,’ replied Dylan, as he spooned coffee into two cups.

‘It’s just Greater Manchester Police just rang. They’ve found a picture in Frankie’s flat, of her outside her home.’

Dylan didn’t stop what he was doing.

‘And that’s not all, John. Gary Warner called me last night. They can place Frankie’s mobile in the park on the day of the murder. He’d also rung Liz’s home several times in the days leading up to the murder. And remember Jen’s accident the morning of the incident?’ Dylan said.

John nodded.

‘It might just have been our Frankie in a rush to get away from the scene. I’m going to get a Video ID set up for her to see if she can identify the man driving the car that hit her.’

‘Bloody hell,’ John gasped.

Dylan laughed. Handing him his coffee. ‘Perhaps that should be strong, tea John. You should see your bloody face, it’s a picture.’

‘What? Well nobody would believe that the boss’s missus, on his enquiry, bumped into the culprit leaving the scene, now would they?’

‘No, it’s so unbelievable, it could be true. And, wait for this she says she got a good look at the driver too.’

‘This morning couldn’t get any better could it?’ John grinned. ’Do you think she will ID him?’

‘She says so, but you and I know from experience, how sure people are that they will never forget a face, and then when it comes to swearing beyond doubt...we’ll see. We need to gather and secure all the evidence, in chronological order.’

‘Do you want me to do Jen’s Video ID?’

‘I think it may be better to let the Video Unit do it. They’ll be totally independent, and the last thing we want is for any suggestion from the defence of prompting, do we? We’ll also have to put the relevant schedule in disclosure to highlighting the issue as it has potential to undermine our case or even assist the defence.’

John’s eyebrows knitted together into a frown.

‘Don’t look so worried, this happens with lots of pieces of evidence and just has to be disclosed properly.

 ‘I still can’t fathom out why Frankie would kill Liz. Like Malcolm said, he wouldn’t think twice about walking into banks and asking them to hand over the money. Yer know, like:
Handover the money or I’ll blow your fucking head off.
So why bother with Liz and blackmail? It’s not really his scene, is it?’ said John.

‘No, and I’m still not happy...Malcolm Reynolds and Larry Banks need a closer looking at. Nothing more come in on Larry and his mobile home, or who’s visited Malcolm Reynolds in prison, apart from his family?’

John shook his head and picked up the ringing telephone.

‘It’s for you sir, Finchy.’

John handed the phone over the desk into Dylan’s outstretched hand.

‘Yep.’

‘Sir, Jason Todd will be with us at lunchtime. You still okay for interview around two o’clock, if I sort out his solicitor?’

‘Yeah, count me in. I’d like to see what makes that bastard tick.’

Dylan replaced the receiver and he felt his pulse start to quicken. He couldn’t wait to get stuck into Todd’s ribs with the questioning. ‘John, let’s chase up the telephone connections with Liz and Larry and get them mapped. We’ll plot all our player’s movements on an Anacapa chart and see what it gives us. Who knows that may show something up we’ve missed.’

Dylan reached for the ringing phone this time. ‘Jackie Stanley, Crown Prosecution Service. I’m just calling to let you know your double child murderer is to appear at Harrowfield Crown Court, a week on Monday, on the murder charge. His defence say he’ll enter a guilty plea for Manslaughter …’

‘No, he won’t.’ Dylan interrupted. ‘We’ll run him for murder.’ Dylan said, fuming.

‘Good, I’m glad you’ve said that, they were my sentiments exactly. The defence are suggesting he was provoked.’

‘Yeah, he will be when he’s found guilty of two murders.’

‘So, we’ll go to trial, probably, in approximately nine months’ time then. We’ll have to wait for a date in the court calendar to be secured for it. I’ll keep you posted.’

‘Is the trial likely to be heard at a local Crown Court, or are the defence pushing for one out of the County just to make it awkward for witnesses or the fact that the public feelings are running high?’ said Dylan.

‘Not sure yet. The powers that be and the judge will decide that, but we’ll know more once we have a request for witnesses, experts etcetera, so the duration of the trial can be planned.’

‘Yeah, I know, but if it’s possible I’d like it to be held locally for the families and witnesses sake let alone our officers. It would be nice if they could at least go back to their own homes after a day in court, instead of a hotel room where there’s not enough room to swing a cat, in a strange city, miles away.’

‘I totally agree, but you know and I know that we’ll have to go where they send us.’

‘Do yer best.’

‘Don’t worry DI Dylan; I’ll do what I can. You’ll be pleased to know, I’m hearing on the grapevine, that Judge Fryer-Black wants him in front of him. He’s still known as the ‘hanging judge’ because he gives out such harsh sentences and if hanging were an available option to him, let me tell you, he’d use it.’

‘Good. That would be a bonus. It’s a shame the bastard can’t be sent to the gallows...but as long as you can assure me there’s no chance his manslaughter plea is going to be accepted I’m a happy man, for now. I’ll make arrangements with the Family Liaison Officers to let the Hind and Spencer families know. Thanks for the phone call. I presume everyone else will be notified by you in due course?’

‘Yeah, normal procedure will now commence,’ the head of CPS said as she ended the call.

‘John, I’m going into interview with Patrick Finch this afternoon. Will you ensure that all the evidence that we have is gathered on the Reynolds’ enquiry? Then we’ll go and see Malcolm again.’

Lisa, the young office admin clerk walked in with an envelope for Dylan’s personal attention.

‘Some crank?’ Dylan said opening it. Lisa shrugged her shoulders. The writing was spidery, spasmodically written and almost illegible. The paper was stained and so he strained to read it.

‘Jack

 I might be a lot of things but I’m no murderer.

Larry.’

‘Got an exhibit bag in your drawer, John?’ said Dylan, as he picked up the letter carefully by a corner, and placed it in the clear plastic bag John handed him.

‘It’s from Larry,’ Dylan said. ‘He doesn’t say much. Take a look, then get it checked out for prints and identification marks to see if we can pick up any evidence from it or prove it is him that wrote it; post mark, DNA on the stamp etcetera.’

‘The writing’s...hardly...’ John said, studying it closely.

‘Yeah, but at least if it’s his hand writing, we know he’s alive somewhere. We just need to find him and soon.’

Dylan stood up to leave. ‘Right, so if you’ll ring the video unit for me and make sure everything is set up for Jen’s visit? Let them know who she is seeing, will you? I get enough earache from police officers at work, without getting it from her at home about people’s attitudes and unacceptable comments.’

‘Yeah, will do, no problem. Let’s see how good a witness she is.’ John smiled.

‘If she doesn’t pick him out I’ll never let her live it down,’ Dylan joked.

‘So, no pressure there then?’ John laughed.

‘Did I ever tell you about the case I once dealt with, involving my only witness, who saw the attacker just before he assaulted a woman?’

John looked inquisitive.

‘The defence at the trial – in the middle of his evidence mind - asked him if he was born blind...and he said ‘‘yes.’’ Nobody from the police or prosecution had any idea about his disability and he’d picked the fella out of a line-up. So you can imagine the panic, can’t you?’

‘So what happened?’ John said.

‘Our Queen’s Council looked at me as much as to say,
Shit that’s blown it
, but the defence continued questioning the witness about his sight and he confirmed that although he’d been born blind he’d had an operation as a kid which had enabled him to see, but not one hundred percent. You can imagine my heart was in my mouth by this time.’

‘Christ Almighty. And this was your star witness?’

‘Yeah, the one and only, and it was a really bad assault as well. The defence didn’t leave it there. They wanted to show the jury that if the witness’s sight was in question, then his evidence was too, so they decided to test him by asking him what he could see, in the courtroom. ‘Can you see the judge?’ The defence asked.

‘Yeah,’ he replied.

‘Can you
see the jury?’

‘Yes, all twelve of them,’ he said.

‘The man in the dock?’

‘Oh yes, he’s definitely the man I saw.’

That obviously rattled the defence. ‘Okay then, now
can you see the clock at the very back of the courtroom?’’

‘Yes,’
he replied obviously agitated.

‘And that is about the distance you were away from the man you saw, would you say?’ The defence asked, trying to smugly prove his point that he could only see the outline and not detail.

‘Can you now tell the court what time it is, please? To which the man promptly lifted his arm, looked at his wrist watch and said ‘Eleven thirty-two, sir.’

Dylan laughed out loud. John stood aghast.

‘The court was in absolute uproar. The red-faced defence barrister didn’t offer any further questions and quickly sat down, presumably because he was embarrassed. To my mind it showed the jury what an honest person the witness was and a credible one too. This of course wasn’t the only evidence but what a bolt out of the blue that line of questioning was. The jury went on to find the perpetrator guilty and he got life imprisonment.’

‘Don’t tell me, Jen’s got a problem with her eyesight?’ said John.

‘Well?’ said Dylan thoughtfully. ‘She’s living me with isn’t she?’ Dylan sniggered.

‘My point exactly,’ John said.

‘Careful John,’ Dylan said, as he left the room.

The atmosphere in the incident room was more relaxed. They were making headway.

Dylan walked from John’s office to his own, where he found a ‘Kiss Me Quick’ hat and a stick of rock on his desk.’

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Dennis Dors lurking in the corner of the general office. Because of his initials and surname Dennis’s nickname was Diana Dors. In no way could a man with his stature be mistaken for a woman and he hated it with venom.

‘Diana, My office now.’ yelled Dylan.

Dennis was grinning broadly as he stood leaning on the door jamb to Dylan’s office door. His left hand was heavily bandaged, and the size of a boxing glove; the only reminder of his altercation with Todd and the machete.