by L M Krier
‘Do you honestly think I’d go out to work and leave her alone with the boy if I thought she might be thinking of harming herself, with him in the house? She didn’t seem too bad, of late. The lad hadn’t long started secondary school. He was struggling a bit. He was always going to struggle, because of what happened to him. But he was managing and she was so proud of him. She’d sit and help him with his homework. So patiently. He could get angry and frustrated when he couldn’t understand things like other kids in his class could. But she was really good with him. It never even entered my head that she might harm him, not in any way.’
He stopped to drink more water. Ted’s voice, when he posed his next question, was as gentle as he could make it.
‘Do you have a theory as to what might have happened?’
‘I can’t get my head round it. Not any of it. My wife was never violent. Not to the lad, not to anyone. The boy wasn’t either. Yes, he shouted a lot when he got frustrated. He’d throw things and slam doors. That kind of thing. But he was never violent towards anyone. Never. Not at school, not at home.
‘I can’t make any sense of it. The only thing I can think that could have happened is if for some reason he got so angry the wife might have been afraid of him and grabbed a knife to protect herself. It’s never happened before. Not that I know of. Unless it had, and she was keeping it from me, for some reason. So perhaps he might have gone for her and she was afraid of him and trying to defend herself.’
‘Was your wife on medication of any kind? Did she see a doctor regularly, and was she taking something to help her cope with what was clearly a difficult situation?’
‘She wouldn’t go near a doctor. Not after what happened. She’d lost all faith in the system.’
He paused for another drink before he went on.
‘When can I … you know, at some point I need to arrange funerals and things, I suppose. I’ve never had to do anything like that before. I’m not sure I know what to do.’
‘I’m afraid funerals won’t be possible for some time. There are various stages which need to be gone through in a case like this. It’s complex and it all takes time. You’ll be informed by the Coroner’s office about things like that. There will, of course, need to be an inquest. That’s standard procedure. But there is plenty of help available to you.’
‘An inquest?’ He looked surprised. ‘I hadn’t really thought about what happens next. I’m in a bit of a daze, to be honest. It’s a lot to take in.’
‘Don’t be afraid to ask for help, whenever you need it. Meanwhile, that’s all for now, and thank you for your cooperation. Hopefully an officer will have brought your change of clothes, then we can arrange to take you to your brother’s house. We’ll need to have your contact details, of course, so we can keep you up to date with any developments.’
Ted sprinted upstairs to the main office. He knew Rob O’Connell was back in now, slightly before him, and found him writing up his report. Ted was still in his walking clothes and boots, which made Rob look even more guilty.
‘I’m really sorry, boss ...’
‘It’s fine, Rob. Seriously. You did the right thing. It was a difficult one to call. You were right to stay put with your case. That’s all ended safely now, though? Is he in custody?’
‘He is, boss. Something odd about it all, though. I’ve seen him bad a time or two before but never anything like that. Should I liaise with Drugs to see if there’s a new supplier on our patch? And could it be connected to our blind dwarf, d’you think?’
‘Do it discreetly, though. You know they’re planning to try to move in on Data soon and they won’t want to blow that op. So far he’s the best lead any of us has to the dwarf.’
‘Fair enough, I’ll tread gently. How was the murder-suicide?’
‘Steve was doing an excellent job when I arrived. He flagged up a few things which need looking at further, but he was well on top of everything. I’ve spoken to the husband, so I’m going to write up my notes then get off home, now you’re back. Before Trev changes the locks.’
He phoned his partner while he was booting up his computer in his own office.
‘I need to write up my notes but I’ll try not to be too late back. If you want to book somewhere to eat out for Tuesday evening, I’ll make sure I have cover. Come hell or high water.’
‘Have you ever kept count of how many times you’ve said that? And how many times I’ve had to cancel?’
‘I daren’t.’
‘One of these days I shall murder someone. It seems to be the only way to get your undivided attention. I’ll cook something which won’t be completely ruined if you’re disgracefully late again today. And is there a budgetary limit as to where I can book for Tuesday?’
‘None at all,’ Ted assured him, trying not to wince. ‘It’s the least I can do. Anywhere you like.’
Trev was still laughing in delight when Ted ended the call. He’d heard Steve come into the main office and went outside to talk to him.
‘Any updates, Steve?’
‘The professor was great, sir. I thought she’d dismiss all my ideas as implausible, but she talked to me about them.’
‘Good. Make sure you write everything up ready for the morning. There were one or two odd things about the husband’s behaviour which jumped out at me. Particularly the fact that he didn’t seem to want anyone going near his car.’
‘If he had drugged her, could that be where he hid whatever it was he used?’
‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet. We have absolutely nothing on which to base a request for a search warrant of the vehicle, but we can certainly do a thorough search of the house. The husband says she wasn’t on any medication but we should check to see if she was taking something he was unaware of, which might explain her behaviour.’
‘He wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave anything in the house, surely? If he had given her something.’
‘Doubtful, I grant you. But first we need the PM results to see if there’s any trace of anything. If not, it’s pointless searching for something which we can’t link to the woman.’
As Steve opened his mouth to say more, Ted told him, ‘I think you should attend the PM, though, Steve. You’ve earned that right. We’ve got a lot going on at the moment so we’ll need to sort out who’s working on what case. But you started with this one, so I’d like to see you take it further. You’ll have Jo to help you, and Rob, once you’ve done the paperwork on yours, you can come on board, too.
‘I’ll see you both in the morning.’
Trev was in the kitchen, music turned up loud, singing tunelessly along to it at the top of his voice as he cooked. Even the cats had retreated to the sanctuary of the living room to escape the din.
Ted reached across to turn the radio down, planted a kiss on Trev’s proffered cheek then made a show of opening and closing the fridge and all the cupboard doors.
‘What are you looking for?’ Trev asked him.
‘I’m just checking you haven’t got an architect hidden away somewhere. I wondered if the noise was to stop me hearing whatever you were getting up to when I came in.’
‘I did think about it, but then I found the perfect restaurant for you to take me to on Tuesday, and I was lucky enough to get a table at short notice as they’d had a cancellation. So I decided to inflict extreme pain on your credit card instead.’
The cats were venturing warily back into the kitchen now the noise had stopped. Adam made a beeline for Ted.
‘Anyway, how was today? Was it a bad one?’
‘On face value, a mother who killed her young son then committed suicide. That would be bad enough. But there’s a slight possibility the husband killed both of them then staged a fake suicide. And if that’s the case, it has to rank as one of the most cynical crimes I’ve ever come across.’
Oh, crap,’ Trev paused in his preparations to give Ted a hug. ‘That’s going to be a tough one, whichever way it goes. And you’ve already got the other possible mu
rder on. I know you. You’ll want to be all over all the cases yourself. Just don’t spread yourself too thin and not leave any time for yourself. For us. Especially not before Tuesday.’
The Ice Queen said much the same thing the following morning. She always wanted to be kept up to date on everything which was happening in her area. Ted caught up with her before he started briefing his own team. Like him, she was always an early bird.
‘Have you got enough officers to cope with a second case of this complexity? We can look at bringing in more from other areas as and when necessary.’
‘Sarah Jenkins has just about wrapped up her case, so I can poach some of her team. And Ashton aren’t far behind. Their CIO seems very on the ball so I’m sure she’s up to tying up loose ends if I bring someone over from there.
‘I’ll put Jo in charge of yesterday’s case and leave Mike on our earlier one. If we need more, I’ll let you know. Jim Baker’s itching for something to consult on, but I think we’re on top of things. For now.’
‘I can’t imagine the sort of torment a mother would have to be in to kill their own child. Certainly not in such a brutal way as that. But as you said, the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about either. What kind of a cynical, calculating mind would come up with such an idea?’
News of their latest case provoked a similar reaction from the rest of the team, when Ted called them to order for morning briefing. Although he expressed some sympathy with what the husband had been through, Maurice’s language was the most colourful at the thought of what he might have done. Even Ted didn’t pull him up on it. He was inclined to agree with him.
‘Jo, can you lead on this latest one? I’ve forwarded you my notes from talking to the father. Steve, you should stick with this. You made a very good start. As I said, I think, too, that you should attend the post-mortem, when we get a date for it.’
‘What did you make of the husband, boss?’ Jo asked him. ‘Gut feeling? You’ve had more experience than most of us with murders.’
‘I don’t like to go off the mythical intuition thing, really. Certainly some of what we saw at the scene, and a couple of things he said, flagged up questions in my mind. And Steve’s.
‘The big stumbling block we’re going to come up against if we even consider him as a suspect is that he has the most solid alibi it’s possible to have, unless the PM throws up something totally unexpected. And that is that at the time his wife seems to have died, he was outside the house in the company of two experienced police officers.’
Chapter Nineteen
‘What I need to do first thing is to make sure that we have enough people on each case. So let’s start with a round-up of who’s on what, then I can see who I need to bring in.
‘Rob, can you safely leave Uniform to process your man from Lancashire Hill yesterday for now? We’ll need to talk to CPS about charges, but we’ve presumably got him on possession, for a start?’
‘Yes, boss, he still had some of the stuff on him. Once he comes down off whatever it was, he may even start talking, hopefully about his suppliers. He has done in the past, in the hopes of a reduced sentence. I’ll liaise with Drugs, as we discussed, and I’ll see if I can get any idea on when they might be planning to move on Data.’
‘Do it tactfully, though,’ Ted told him. ‘We really need the chance to talk to Data ourselves, to tie up that last case neatly. If, and it’s a big one, he would cooperate, we could close the files on the Body in the Bowl and quite a few other elements of that whole affair. As soon as you’ve done that, though, switch to working with Jo on yesterday’s case, please, from Damson Drive.’
‘Are we treating it as a straightforward murder-suicide, or as two potential homicides?’ Jo asked.
‘Two suspicious deaths with no pre-conceptions, for now, I think is the best way forward. I’ll find out what shifts Ron Hardy and Val Gabriel are on, then we should perhaps hear their own observations first-hand about yesterday.
‘Mike, where are you up to with our other suspicious death case, Sandstone Street? When is the suspect coming back in for questioning and have you disclosed the findings about the drug yet?’
‘He’s coming this afternoon, with Ms Castle in tow, before he starts his evening shift. He’s kept on working throughout. Says it’s his way of coping, and we can’t really judge him on that. I’ve not disclosed yet until I get all the paperwork together. I thought I’d do so as soon as they arrive, then give him half an hour or so with his solicitor before I start to question him.’
‘Watch out for Ms Castle, though,’ Ted warned him. ‘She’s a stickler for procedure, so don’t give her the slightest opening or she’ll exploit it to the hilt. If I’m not tied up elsewhere, I might watch part of the interview. I’ll need to talk to CPS again once we hear what else he has to say for himself. At the moment, I would say we’re a long way from being able to go for a murder charge.
‘What’s the situation now with the son?’
‘Maurice and I are going to talk to him again later today, boss,’ Jezza told him. ‘I’ve been in touch with where he’s being looked after, to confirm, and they say he’s very gradually starting to open up to them and talk a bit more. None of it’s favourable to the suspect.’
‘Tread gently with him, please. He’s the nearest we have to an eye witness, but we need to stay aware of the traumatic effect all of this is bound to be having on him.
‘What about ordering the drug? Steve, where did you get to with comparing credit card statements with our suspect’s shift patterns?’
Steve flushed, immediately on the defensive.
‘I had started, sir, but I had to leave it to go to the incident yesterday ...’
‘It’s fine, Steve, it wasn’t a criticism. You mentioned it was easy to get into his computer. What was the password?’
‘The son’s date of birth, sir. He even obligingly had it written down on a piece of paper.’
‘So the defence will certainly argue robustly that with a password as obvious as that, it would be easy enough for the mother to have used the computer to order the drugs herself while her partner was out at any time. As long as she had access to his credit card.’
‘Don’t most sites have extra security now?’ Jezza asked. ‘Usually when you enter your credit card details, unless they’re saved, don’t they text a code to your mobile which you have to enter to complete the purchase? Which means she would have needed access to his phone, as well as his credit card, surely?’
‘So far most of the orders I’ve been able to check were made when he wasn’t at work,’ Steve told them. ‘Although that doesn’t necessarily mean he was at home, of course.’
‘And there’s the gift to the defence, right there,’ Ted said. ‘No doubt he’ll say that he might well have been at home but he was in bed asleep, leaving her alone with not only his credit card and his computer, but his mobile phone as well.’
‘But then he must have seen what was happening, from his credit card statements, surely? Purchases being made by someone other than himself,’ Jezza said. ‘If he’s as much of a control freak as it would appear from what I’ve heard of him so far, I can’t imagine he would be someone who wouldn’t go over things like his statements to check that everything was as it should be.’
Ted looked round the team then said, ‘Virgil, can you take over from Steve on this one, please? See if there’s a pattern there. See if he was always in the flat, or likely to have been, when the orders were placed. Can we trace where the phone was, too, when the codes were sent, if that’s what happened, and if that’s even possible? We need to show a balance of probability at the very least.’
‘On it, boss.’
‘Mike, I get the feeling that we know a fair bit about our suspect but still not yet enough about the victim. Was she computer literate? Jezza, that might possibly be something the boy could reveal, if he does feel safe to talk to you. Would he have needed to use a computer, or have access to one, for his school work? And did she help him
with it, or was it the step-father? If the defence do claim she was ordering the stuff herself online, we need to be in a position to counter that by showing whether or not she had the skills to do it.’
‘It might be rather a lot for us realistically to get from him so soon, boss. We’ll try, though, of course. But it may take more than one interview.’
‘So what else do we actually know so far about our victim? Nick, Andy, what do the neighbours say about her?’
‘Not a lot, in a word,’ DC Nick Ross replied. ‘They hardly ever saw her outside the flat, unless the Other Half was with her, and when they did, it was all she could manage to say hello. Quieter even than the boy, they all say. If they met her out with the other half, she hardly said a word unless someone asked her a direct question. And always looking to him, like for permission to speak.’
‘Did she go out shopping by herself or anything like that? Did she work at all?’
‘Never seen out without him in tow. Maybe that does lend weight to her not being in charge of the purse strings. And no, she didn’t work. She seems to have spent most of her life in the flat.’
‘Right, let’s make it a priority today to find out much more about her. Have we got her medical records yet? If not, someone get them chased up. We’re lacking anything concrete to make a murder charge stand up and I don’t want him getting off on a technicality.
‘Jo, can you go to our latest crime scene today and oversee a thorough search of the house? Basically anything out of the ordinary that turns up needs bagging and tagging. We’re particularly interested in any type of medication, other than the usual packet of aspirins.’
‘Sir, we need to do a thorough search of the garden, too,’ Steve cut in, almost before Ted had finished speaking. ‘By his own admission, the husband was shut outside for quite a few minutes waiting for the emergency services to arrive. He says he was trying to break back in, but it would have given him an ideal opportunity to hide anything he didn’t want us to find. And him drawing attention to his car like he did might have been a distraction technique.’