The End of the Roadie (A Mystery for D.I Costello) (14 page)

Angela nodded. Brendan’s eyes were fixed on hers, with a kind of desperation in them. He could have been a prisoner in the dock and she the judge about to pronounce a verdict. For the time being, at least, she could put him out of his misery. “I believe you, Brendan,” she said.

His shoulders slumped and a look of relief appeared on his face. “Thank you.”

“What’s this Brother Xavier got to do with it?”

He gave a haunted smile. “Our school was run by the Salesians and he was the physics master. We had one of those days when our regular teacher was off sick and Brother Xavier came in to babysit us. You know what it’s like when that happens.”

Angela smiled. “Yes, the lessons can turn out to be quite fun and more interesting than usual.”

“That’s what happened in this case. Terry – you knew I was at school with Terry, right?” Angela nodded. “Terry had a tabloid newspaper and the front page was full of some celebrity who’d been accused of attacking a woman. Actually, I tell a lie, he’d just been acquitted. The case dragged on for months and his name had been smeared all across the headlines. Terry held up this paper and shouted out, ‘Hey, Bro Xavvy, what do you think of this, then?’ We just wanted to
get him talking about anything other than physics, of course. But he was canny, Brother Xavier; he knew what we wanted. He probably didn’t want to give a physics lesson either, and we got into this discussion about how the media handled this sort of thing. Looking back, I can see this monk was even more shrewd that I gave him credit for at the time because, really, he turned it into a session on ethics. This celebrity’s name had been dragged completely through the mud, people had been talking about it for weeks and in the end he’d been found innocent. And that’s the point that’s stayed with me. I can still see Brother Xavier holding up this tabloid so that we could all see this poor man’s picture. And he tapped it as he spoke. ‘This is how it works, boys,’ he said. ‘Good that he’s innocent. But. He. Has. Already. Been. Crucified.’”

Back at the incident room, the team pooled the results of their morning’s labour over a couple of shared pizzas. Rick and Jim took the floor first. They’d finally managed to go and search the victim’s property that morning.

“We’ve come up with two things of interest,” began Rick.

“Fire away,” said Angela.

“He seems to have had a girlfriend.”

“Yes,” added Rick. “A neighbour came and knocked on the door while we were there and wanted to know what was going on. He couldn’t tell us any more about Oliver Joplin than we’ve heard from everybody else so far. He said he’d got a grunt once or twice when he passed him on the stairs and said ‘Good morning’, but that was it. However, the neighbour did say that over the past few weeks he’d been coming back late at night with a woman. He peeped out from his door one time when he heard the footsteps on the stairs, but he only got a sight of someone’s back and heard her giggle.”

“We’ve every reason to believe this is Carla, the runner on the crew,” said Angela, “It’ll all be in our report. What’s the other thing?”

“He was either into something dodgy or he just liked holding folding,” continued Jim.

Angela and Gary exchanged looks then Angela spoke. “How much?”

Rick look down at the inventory they’d made. “Three and a half thousand pounds,” he replied, “in a variety of denominations, used notes. He had wedges stashed in different pockets, a hundred here, couple of hundred there.”

“We’ve heard from some of the backstage crew that he was thought to be into ‘something’ but they didn’t know what,” said Angela. “Gary and I have discovered one of Oliver’s sidelines. We’ll tell you about that in a minute. But he could be more enterprising than we know – he may have had more than one iron in the fire. Amounts of money like this stashed about his person sounds like – what does it sound like, team?”

“Like money you’d have for making a payment that wasn’t going to go through anyone’s books,” obliged Jim.

“Exactly,” agreed Angela. “OK, did you find a computer?”

“Yep. We couldn’t get into it, he must have a password set up, so we’ve sent that to the lab.”

“Good. What else?”

“His bank statement,” replied Rick.

“And?”

“The cash we found in his pockets was only the tip of the iceberg.”

“Really?”

“Yep. He’s got fifty thousand in a deposit account.”

“Wow!” said Gary. “I wonder how much a member of a rock band road crew would normally expect to earn.”

“Not that much, I’m sure,” said Angela.

“We’re also wondering if somebody had been into the flat before us,” continued Rick.

“Oh, really? What makes you think that?”

Rick frowned. “That’s just it; we’ve no way of knowing for certain. There was just a feel about the place. It wouldn’t have been difficult to get in. If we hadn’t had his keys with us there’d have been no trouble forcing the lock, so most other people could have done the same. And then, he didn’t seem to be all that tidy. He had clothing, odds and ends and books and what-have-you on every surface and in every drawer, bar one.”

“Yeah, that’s what made us think someone had been there,” added Jim. “It was the top drawer of the desk where the computer sat. There are three drawers to the right and the top one was completely empty.” He looked across at his partner. “We thought, since everywhere else was crammed with stuff and such a mess –”

“It could have been cleared out in a hurry,” finished Rick. “Some of the mess could have been spread about by an intruder. Hard to say. Anyway – if there has been a break-in, whoever it was took what they wanted but didn’t hang around to look for money. There was plenty for the taking.”

Angela considered what they’d said. “Hmm, it does sound strange. Perhaps, if you’re right, whoever came to the flat was nervous of being caught there.”

“If they emptied the drawer out they must have known what they were looking for and gone straight to it,” said Jim. “We don’t know what was going on, do we? So whoever it was might not have known he was dead, and been keen to get in and get out before Oliver turned up.”

“They might have had good reason for haste even if they knew he’d been killed,” said Angela. “We now know of at least one very alert neighbour.”

Nobody on the team argued with this.

“OK,” said Angela. “We’ll keep the place sealed for now. If you’re right and something was taken away, it could be documents of some sort and the computer might tell us more once the lab has got into it. We might need to pay another visit. Anything else?”

“We took away some photographs with us,” said Jim. Some are family snaps – what you’d expect – him with his parents, him with his sister, there are a few of him with some little kids, maybe his niece and nephews.”

“We met the sister yesterday. I’m sure we’ll recognize
the children if they’re the same ones,” said Angela. “Any of friends?”

“Just a couple, and he’s with the same bloke in both of them. Apart from this man in the photos, he sounds a bit of a Billy no-mates to be honest.” Rick passed the photographs around the team, starting with Gary.

“Ah!” said Gary. He passed the photograph to Angela.

“Oh yes,” said Angela, looking intently at it. “Are we beginning to join up the dots, do you think?”

“I reckon so,” he replied. He looked round at the others. “On the night of the murder I went to a concert at the Apollo.”

“Yes, I remember,” said Rick. “That’s why you were on the scene so quickly.”

“Yes, well, before the show I was waiting for Maddie in the foyer and I saw this bloke outside, touting tickets.” He passed the photograph round so they could all see it properly. “I got a good look at his face – but these…” He brought his hand over the top of the second picture and pointed to the memorable tattoos.

“Very distinctive,” said Rick.

“What are they? Oh, I see,” added Leanne, peering closely at the photograph. “They’re like elongated hawks swooping down his arms.”

“So we know he’s a tout and he’s a mate of the victim,” finished Jim.

“Ah!” exclaimed Gary. They all remained silent as his face showed him going through some thought process. “Ping! Or ‘Bingo!’ as Angie might say.” He grinned across at her.

“What are you thinking?” she asked him.

“I hadn’t thought before about the whole context of seeing him at the theatre. I’ve just remembered something and it might have a bearing on things.”

“Go on, fill us in, then,” said Angie.

“I was standing in the foyer looking out through the glass doors to the street, watching for Maddie. I heard a bit of a commotion behind me and I looked round. Some man had brought his daughter and a few of her friends for the concert – a birthday treat from what I could gather – but it turned out that his tickets weren’t valid.”

“Bought them from a dodgy source?” suggested Jim.

“Sounds like it. He argued the toss a bit with the doorman, protested he’d bought them in good faith and paid with his credit card, but his daughter started crying so he ushered them out into the street, very embarrassed. By that time Maddie had joined me and we both watched as this man –” Gary pointed at the photograph again – “approached him in the street and started talking to him. We could tell what was going on, and we reckoned he’d pay up because he wouldn’t want to disappoint the girls.”

“He’d be paying well over the odds in that case,” opined Derek.

“Cor, yeah!” agreed Jim.

“Oh – just a minute,” said Angela. “I think I know where you’re going with this. Are you assuming a link between this man’s phoney tickets and the fact that a tout approaches him the minute he gets outside the theatre?”

“Yes.”

“That looks quite juicy,” added Jim.

“Doesn’t it just,” agreed Angela. “A possible ticketing scam, eh? OK, Gary and I found another connection between hawk-arms and the victim,” she continued, “through Joplin’s sister. She has a picture of him in her kitchen. It shows him at a party with Oliver but Kay claims not to know him and, if my memory serves, said he hadn’t been around for a while; which, of course could also be true – from
her
point of view.” Angela paused for a moment. She remembered the constantly
grounded conversation with Kay Joplin and began to wonder if the woman had deliberately stonewalled them. She took the picture showing the two men together from Leanne. “Stick that up on the board, Jim,” she added.

“You look like something’s bothering you,” said Gary.

“I think there might be, but I can’t get what it is,” Angela admitted. “There’s something about our interview with Oliver’s sister. Never mind, it might come back to me when I’m not thinking about it.”

“Instead, you can think about how he’s got a lot more in the bank than one would suppose for a man in his job,” said Rick.

“Plus all the cash about the place,” added Derek.

“Indeedy,” agreed Angela. “OK, Derek and Leanne.”

“Yes, guv,” they replied in unison.

“Do a bit of research. Try to find out exactly how much someone in his position can expect to make in the normal course of touring, and stay on top of what the lab find on his computer.”

“Will do,” replied Leanne.

“And maybe check to make sure an elderly aunt didn’t die and leave him fifty thousand quid recently.”

“Right,” added Derek.

“But that’s not all,” continued Angela. “Gary and I have discovered another little earner he had on the go.”

“Seems like an enterprising chap,” remarked Rick.

“Oh yes,” agreed Angela. “No flies on Mr Joplin, and not many scruples either, from what I gather.” She quickly told them about the blackmail of Brendan Phelan and waited for them to digest what they’d heard.

Rick was the first to speak. “Poor bloke; he was paying top whack for his pleasure, wasn’t he?”

“And paying and paying and paying,” added Jim.

Angela looked across at Leanne and saw she’d gone very pale except for two bright red spots high on each cheek. “What a bastard!” she exclaimed. “Blackmail. The dirtiest crime in the book! Poor Brendan, my heart goes out to him. You know, some of his songs in the past few years have been really haunting, like they’ve been born out of real pain and suffering. I bet that’s the reason.”

“Actually, his girlfriend told us he hasn’t written anything new in a long while and she can’t figure out why. I think this could be the reason,” suggested Angela.

“That makes it all the more poignant,” said Leanne.

“It certainly takes the edge off our sympathy for Oliver Joplin as victim,” agreed Angela. “But our job is to find his killer, no matter what the man’s character may have been like. I didn’t ask Brendan for a copy of that birth certificate because he seemed so wretched about the whole business, and I didn’t want to alarm him that it might become relevant to the case; but, of course, we’ll need to follow through on this.”

“Want me to get on to it, guv?” asked Leanne.

“Yes, add it to the jobs you and Derek have got. I don’t know if she was registered in the borough where she’s now living, but it’s a good place to start and she would have been born twenty-two years ago. Do a bit of a trawl round the family. I mean, see if you can find out anything else about them.”

“Any previous convictions, for instance?” asked Derek.

“Yeah, that, but…” Angela paused. “Maybe any instances of Social Services’ involvement as well – child at risk, that sort of stuff. I don’t quite know what I’m looking for, but when we met Kay yesterday – full name, Kayleigh, by the way, Leanne – she seemed like a regular young mum with no problems beyond sorting the kids out and running a home. The thing is, this young woman was used by her brother as
bait to entrap Brendan Phelan when she was just
fourteen
.”

“It makes you wonder about the quality of the home life, doesn’t it?” remarked Rick. “And also –”

“Yes?” asked Angela.

“Well, I’m just thinking back to what my younger sister was like when she was that age. She was a mouthy little so-and-so. She would have soon told me where to go if I’d even suggested such a thing.”

“Perhaps this one was under her big brother’s influence in a completely unhealthy way,” offered Leanne.

“She seemed genuinely fond of him, said what a good brother he was.”

“I’m not saying it makes it any better or right, even,” said Jim. He looked carefully around at them all before continuing. “But some teenagers are very forward and much more grown-up than, well, others.”

“It’s a good point,” agreed Angela. “Brendan had no doubt whatsoever he went to bed with somebody of age.”

“Until she turned up two days’ later in her school uniform,” added Gary. He grimaced. “And that monk at his school was right,” he added. “The press
would
crucify him if it came out.”

“Wouldn’t they just. They’d be like a pack of baying hounds. We go very carefully with this.”

“We’ll find out what we can, guv,” said Leanne. “Leave it with Derek and me.”

“Good, that’s sorted,” replied Angela. “Now, the other thing was that Brendan thought we might consider him one of the suspects. He was half-joking, mind you.”

“How would that work?” asked Jim.

“It’s a good question. Gary put forward the suggestion after our first visit to him, but it got buried under everything else. He was very tense and we now know why, but even so, let’s think about it. Gaz and Derek, stand in the centre of the
room facing each other. One of you be Oliver and the other, Brendan. The one who’s Brendan, you’ve got a gun in your hand, right? You’re talking to each other outside the stage door. OK – go!”

Gary picked up a stapler from the nearest desk and pointed it at Derek.

“No,” objected Derek. “Surely he’d have it out of sight at this point.”

“OK,” agreed Gary, and put the stapler into his trouser pocket.

“Give me some more money or I’ll tell everyone you slept with my sister when she was just a kid,” snarled Derek, causing a few giggles to erupt in the room.

“I’m fed up with this. I don’t want to pay any more,” replied Gary.

“You’ve got no choice, punk!”

“Punk? Seriously? Oh, right, then! Yes, I have. This is what I say to you.” Gary pulled the stapler out of his pocket and pointed it at Derek. “Bang,” he finished. Derek began to feign a slump forward. “Oh, no, that’s not right,” said Gary. “I’ve got to shoot you in the back of the head. Go back to where I pull the gun out of my pocket.” Derek righted himself. “OK. No, I’m not paying you another penny,” snarled Gary. With one hand he pointed the gun and with the other he reached out and quickly spun Derek round so that he was facing the opposite direction. “Bang,” he said again.