Death on Account (The Lakeland Murders) (19 page)

‘Yeah, whatever.’

‘Are you aware of what happened at your neighbour’s house yesterday?’

‘Aye, Eleanor topped herself. It happens.’ Dixon thought that Walker shrugged, just very slightly.

‘How do you feel about that?’

The duty solicitor held her hand up, and Dixon nodded. ‘You don’t have to answer that, Terry.’

‘I don’t have to answer anything, do I?’

Walker’s solicitor smiled thinly.

‘So how did you get on with your neighbour, Mrs. Barrow?’

‘Not too bad. Well I say that, and I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but she was stuck up. Thought she was better than the likes of us.’

‘So did you have any disputes with her?’

‘She was always complaining about something or other, and then she was a bit too keen to call you lot. Me, I prefer to sort out my own problems.’

Dixon couldn’t help but smile. ‘Can you tell me about any recent occasions when you’ve had disputes with Mrs. Barrow?’

‘Matter of fact I can. Me and a few mates were having a nice barbecue the other day, not doing any harm to no-one, and she started hassling us.’

‘Hassling you how?’

‘I don’t remember exactly. We’d had a few drinks, you know, like you do. But then she must have called Nobby, and told him that we were chucking lumps of coal off the barbie at her, and that daughter of hers too.’

‘And were you doing that?’

‘Of course not. What do you take me for? The kid was in a wheelchair for Christ’s sake.’

‘So how do you explain the fact that PC Styles found warm pieces of charcoal in Mrs. Barrow’s garden?’

‘I dunno. She must have done it herself, to get me in to trouble like.’

‘So you’re saying that Mrs. Barrow also had a barbecue of her own going, which she hid before PC Styles arrived, and that she threw lumps of charcoal at her daughter’s wheelchair.’

‘Dunno. Must have done, I suppose.’

‘Really? You really expect me to believe that, Terry? That Mrs. Barrow would throw lumps of coal at her own severely disabled daughter? How likely does that sound to you, really?’

Walker shrugged.

‘I think you did it, Terry. Or maybe it was one of your mates. Go on, you’ll feel better if you tell me the truth. Was it one of your mates?’

‘I didn’t do nothing. Nor did me mates. If I had, why didn’t Nobby arrest me there and then?’ Walker had a look of sly triumph on his face. ‘Him and that hobby-bobby he was with just fucked off. I didn’t even get a caution, nowt. You ask Nobby, he’ll tell you. So I can’t have done owt, can I?’

‘PC Styles was called away to another job, and I can assure you that otherwise you would have been arrested.’

‘Well it can’t have been that important then, can it?’

Dixon looked down at his notes. With almost thirty years in the job he’d found that he could always distance himself from a suspect, so that it was almost as if he was watching actors, one playing the part of Ray Dixon, while the other was the criminal. It helped him forget about it when he was off duty. But he was finding it hard today.

‘So if I were to say to you that we believe that you and your family caused Eleanor Barrow’s death, or rather caused her to take her own life and attempt to take that of her daughter, what would you say to that?’

‘Rubbish. That kid is a vegetable, no wonder she topped herself. It all got on top of her I expect. I’d have done the same, I’m sure of it. And she and Kylie were mates. She’ll tell you.’

‘So you don’t feel in any way responsible for what happened?’

‘That’s right mate, I don’t. And you can’t prove otherwise, now can you? So, if it’s all right with you I’ll be off. Me and my boys have got a day’s fishing planned. Can’t miss out on this lovely weather. Bit of dad and lads bonding time, you can’t beat it.’

‘Yes Terry, you can go. We’ll continue our enquiries, and we may need to talk to you again.  So don’t head off to Mustique, will you? But if I were you I’d be more worried about the folk living down near you.’

‘How do you mean? They all know me. None of them would start anything.’

‘That’s not what we hear. The way we hear it there are plenty of people who are totally disgusted about what happened, and they’ve decided who’s to blame.’

‘Then you’ll have to protect us, won’t you?’

‘What are you thinking of, Terry? An officer outside the front of your house for a few days? Maybe someone in plain clothes to keep an eye out for you when you’re out and about in town? Reckon that’d do it, do you?’

‘Aye, for starters. People can be right animals down where we live.’

‘I’ll ask for you, Terry, but we call that the gold package. But maybe the bosses will be sympathetic.’

Dixon said that the interview was over, and turned off the tape.

‘Like I said, Terry, I’ll see what I can do. But I think you’ll find that while your safety is obviously our top priority, it really is, we just won’t have the resources to give you any protection at all. Absolutely sod all in fact. But that’s the economy. All those benefit scroungers dossing about all day, that where all the money goes I expect. So if, one night, you’re coming down a ginnel and a group of your neighbours decide to kick you into intensive care be sure to contact us just as soon you come out of the coma. We’d certainly do all we could to find out who it was afterwards. Now, I bet that makes you feel better.’

Andy Hall was in his office with Charlie Coward. The door was closed, and both their mugs of tea had gone cold.

‘I wonder how Ray Dixon is getting on with Terry Walker?’ said Coward.

‘I’ll give you three guesses. No, I’ll give you one guess.’

‘Nowhere?’

‘You’ve got it. If that twat’s brains were dynamite he couldn’t blow off his ears, but he’s been in trouble often enough to know exactly how to play it. Just deny, deny, deny, irrespective of the evidence.’

‘Will we get enough to charge him?’

‘Depends on the neighbours, Charlie. If they’ll talk then maybe, but don’t get your hopes up on that. They probably think much the same as we do about the bastard, but unfortunately they loathe us just that little bit more than they dislike him. So they’ll probably clam up on us, same as usual. But I still don’t see what you’re so worried about, really. Eleanor and her daughter were on the vulnerable register, weren’t they?’

‘Yes, but I think that makes it worse, not better. I pulled Nobby away when he wanted to nick him, Andy, even though that half-wit and his drunken mates were lobbing bits of burning coal at a kid in a wheelchair. What in God’s name was I thinking? I’ll probably get the sack, and I’ll deserve it. You know Robinson, he’ll stand behind me right up until we’re in the enquiry, but if his neck is on the block as well he’ll be gone faster than a box of doughnuts in the mess room.’

‘No, you’ve supported Nobby all the way, Charlie. He’ll back you up, and that’s what matters most. How is he anyway? I saw his statement. Pretty tough stuff to read.’

‘He’s off sick, first time I can remember that happening since he had his varicose veins done. I spoke to him earlier on the phone. He saw his GP and he’s signed off, and believe it or not he’s actually taking the happy pills the doc gave him. I was amazed. You know Nobby, he’s old school. His idea of a tranquilizer is six pints after work and exchanging a few war stories with the rest of the lads. It’s always worked for him up until this crock of shit, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up leaving over all this.’

‘Give him a chance, Charlie. It only just happened. It was finding Gemma alive that did it, I suppose?’

‘Aye. Nobby’s done his share of suicides down the years. Well, haven’t we all?’

Hall nodded, although he hadn’t. He hadn’t been in uniform long enough to attend a single one, and now he almost regretted it. He might have developed a thicker skin if he had.

‘The poor kid looked terrified. She’d watched her mum die in front of her and she couldn’t do a thing. No wonder she was in such a state. Like a nightmare, Nobby said it was. He broke down you know, out in the back garden, and that prat Robinson asked him if he was all right to carry on. I’m surprised Nobby didn’t deck him. We virtually had to cuff him to get him away from the place when we got him calmed down.’

‘I expect he wanted a word with Walker.’

‘You bet, and that’s what I was afraid of. Nobby would have ripped Walker’s head off, and then done the same to those feral kids of his as well, I expect. Personally I’d be willing to sell tickets, but as long as I wear the uniform I even have to protect the likes of Terry Walker. So maybe I’ll be best off out of it all. Some things about this job just turn my stomach. Anyway, I better go and see Robinson. I’m expecting to be suspended, but will you keep me in touch with what happens on this one, as a favour?’

‘You don’t have to ask. But he won’t suspend you. You know the Super as well as I do, he’ll want to know which way the wind is blowing first.’

‘Well, Kylie, you must be really upset about what happened’ said Ray Dixon, when he’d got the recorder started at the third attempt.

‘I am. I couldn’t believe that Eleanor would leave Gemma like that. She was such a loving mum.’

‘It wasn’t deliberate, Kylie. Gemma was lucky, or unlucky, to survive, depending on how you look at it.’

‘Unlucky then.’

‘You’re probably right. So how did you get on with Eleanor?’

For the first time since they’d sat down Kylie looked guarded.

‘All right, aye, we got on fine.’

‘And do you have any idea why she might have wanted to kill herself and her daughter?’

‘Not really. It all got too much for her I expect.’

‘Possibly’ said Dixon, ‘but I think that’s unlikely. You want to know why?’ Kylie didn’t look as if she did. ‘Why didn’t she do it years ago? How old is Gemma now, fourteen, fifteen? I think something happened to push her over the edge. Do you think that’s possible too, Kylie?’

‘You’re inviting my client to speculate, Detective Constable. I suggest you don’t answer. Kylie.’

Kylie looked down at the table, and Dixon left a long silence.

‘OK’ he said eventually. ‘Let’s talk about how your husband and his kids got on with Eleanor and her daughter, then.’

‘All right, I think.’

‘All right, you think? Really, is that what you’re telling me here? Kylie, love, I may look as thick as pig dribble, but I’m really not. The other day we were called out to your road because Eleanor said that your husband and his mates were pelting her disabled daughter with hot coals straight off the barbie.’

‘I don’t know anything about that.’

‘Do you want to hear your husband’s version of events? He says that Eleanor did it herself, to get him in to trouble. Does that sound likely to you?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘So have you ever asked your husband to behave better towards Eleanor?’

‘I don’t tell Terry what to do.’

‘Really? My wife never stops telling me what to do. I don’t always do what she says, mind. But you’ve got an old fashioned house by the sounds of it then, and Terry is the boss.’

‘That’s right.’

‘And what happens if you disagree with him?’

‘I don’t.’

‘Has he ever hit you, Kylie?’

‘No, no. Who told you that?’

‘Just asking. So you’re saying that you have no idea why Eleanor took her own life, and attempted to take that of her daughter too? And more than that, your husband and step-children had nothing at all to do with it?’

‘That’s right. I had nothing to do with it. I mean we had nothing to do with it. None of us did.’

Andy Hall was watching a live feed from an empty interview room in Liverpool when Jane knocked and came in.

‘It’s like some kind of art installation’ he said, as she sat down. ‘They’ll be starting any minute now I think.’

Jane Francis nodded. ‘How’s Nobby? I heard he was pretty bad.’

‘Off work. Finding that poor kid alive, and in a hell of a state, seems to have done the damage, and it isn’t hard to see why. Christ, I honestly can’t imagine anything worse.’

‘And the Walkers?’

‘Pound to a penny we won’t get a single charge to stick. I asked SOCO to look for the lumps of charcoal that Terry and his idiot friends were lobbing over the fence but they said the garden looked like it had been trampled over by rhinos. They got nada.’

‘Our lot?’

‘Yes. Ray’s doing his best, but unless someone grasses Walker up he’s not going to get so much as a caution out of this. Mind you, I do know someone at the Housing Association, and I’m taking him out for a drink one night this week. So I’ll put in a bad word for Terry. You never know, we might get the bastard thrown out yet.’

‘A case of stable door though, Andy?’

‘Tell me about it. And to make matters worse Charlie Coward reckons he’s going to be made to walk the plank on this one, and it might happen yet. He’s a good bloke and a good cop, so that would just be more damage done by Walker and his clan. But if the press pick it up what’s the betting that the powers that be cut Charlie adrift?’