‘What we don’t know,’ added Lizzie, ‘is whether our suspect caused the fire that killed Kelly. Suspicious, though, eh?’
‘So,’ Sally interrupted, ‘she could have begun her murderous career years ago in Ireland, then registered on a course here, and gathered the supporters she needed to help her carry out these murders. It is beginning to look like she was targeting those men in particular, isn’t it?’
Dan scanned the room. ‘Paula, have we got those class lists from the university to hand?’
Paula Tippett nodded. ‘There’s nobody registered as Tana, or Kathy Kelly, on the lists, I’ve checked. It doesn’t mean she wasn’t on there, sir. Her name could have been removed to protect the professor?’
Adam Foster thumped the desk. ‘I knew that professor was lying, boss. Knew it.’
‘I think everybody’s lying, Adam,’ said Dan, ‘and they all know something about it. The question is, has our main suspect got a record over in Ireland? Can we get an ID from them?’
Lizzie wriggled her shoulders. ‘Our contact, Fin O’Malley, in the Garda, couldn’t find anything similar to our case in their records, with a female protagonist. It could just be a coincidence.’
‘But you don’t think it is?’
‘No, sir, I don’t. Whoever she is, this woman has manipulated a known criminal, a respected professor, and a group of intelligent students to behave in completely outrageous ways. She’s …’
‘A psychopath?’ asked Adam.
Lizzie cast a glance at her sergeant.
‘I believe we are dealing with someone who has overstepped the normal boundaries, yes,’ replied Sally. ‘Psychopath? I’m not qualified to make that judgment.’ She stared hard at Foster to include him in her gaze. ‘Are we?’
‘Okay,’ Dan said. ‘Thanks very much. Looks like the trip to Cork was necessary after all, which is good as I have to justify the expense.
‘So,’ he ticked off points on his fingers, ‘if we are right in our assumptions, Professor Patel knows far more than he’s telling us, like the identity and whereabouts of Tana, and we need to persuade him that it will be in his best interests to talk to us willingly.
‘Second, Scarlett Moorcroft talked on the phone yesterday to a person she called Tana, and I think Sam will tell me that Tana is also a name connected to fire: an alias. Scarlett is in this up to her neck, and I want her to talk, so no frightening her off. We can’t tell her how I got Tana’s name, of course, as it was overheard, but we can ask her about someone called Tana – that’s fine.
‘The other girl, Amber, will be easier to break as she’s already looking terrified.’
He stared around the room. How to split this up? He knew he should be in the communications room, observing all the interviews, but he was desperate to have a go at Patel himself. ‘Right, we’ll have Sally with Adam to talk to Scarlett, Sam with Lizzie in with Amber, and I’ll take the prof with …’
‘Me observing,’ came a voice from the door. Chief Superintendent Oliver entered and pulled up a chair. ‘Sorry to interrupt, but Assistant Chief Constable Bishop is concerned that our dealings with this highly respected member of the community, pillar of the inter-faith forum, and member of the same wine club, are carried out with the utmost discretion, so I’m in the comms room on obs; if that’s alright, DCI Hellier?’
Dan nodded. ‘Of course, ma’am. Sergeant Larcombe, would you accompany me?’
He stood. ‘Let’s make the best use of this time. Don’t forget to offer them a solicitor, refreshments, and all that stuff at the start, and do it right. These interviews are under caution, but we’re at the start of a long process, don’t push too hard and do take breaks.’ He checked the time. ‘Let’s stop in an hour anyway, and regroup.’
26
Dan nodded at Patel, pulled out a chair and slid into it. He got Larcombe to go through the introductions while he took a close look at the professor. Compared to the golden brown, round, unlined face that Dan had seen a few days before, Patel was grey-faced and sporting dark bags under his eyes. He looked hot and uncomfortable in his three-piece suit. Dan liked him that way – flustered.
Dan made the introductions, then read through Patel’s statement while the others stated their names, and took a glance at the solicitor, a Harry Karpal Singh. Did he believe any of this? Karpal Singh was taller and thinner than his client, and given to stooping over Patel in a fatherly manner, which Dan found interesting as the solicitor was a good twenty years younger than his client. He hoped that meant Patel was ready to blurt.
‘Right, gentlemen, this shouldn’t take too long. Professor Patel, according to your statement you know nothing about the murders, and thought you were invited here to advise the police on the cult aspects of the investigation. Really?’ Dan shrugged and placed the piece of paper back on the table. ‘Do you have a young Irish woman called Kathy Kelly on your postgraduate course, studying ancient religions?’
Patel stiffened and looked at the lawyer.
‘Come on Professor, you must know whether she’s taking the course or not?’
Patel swallowed. ‘I cannot answer that question.’
Dan sat back in the chair and stared at Patel. He looked at the solicitor. ‘Did you tell him not to answer, Mr Karpal Singh?’
Karpal Singh shrugged. ‘I have in fact advised my client to tell you all that he knows about this issue, but I cannot compel him to do so.’ He pushed his chair back an inch from the table and crossed one long leg over the other.
‘Right. Professor Patel, if you are withholding evidence that could be used in court, in the prosecution of a double murder case, it will be taken in a very dim light by the judge and jury.’ Dan wanted to shout at the man: your friends can’t save you, you idiot; talk! Instead, he forced himself to sit back in the chair. ‘So, I’ll ask you again: is a woman calling herself Kathy Kelly on your postgraduate course?’ He waited for a minute. ‘Nothing to say? Why won’t you answer if you have nothing to hide?’
Patel’s despair bubbled up and spilled out of his eyes. Karpal Singh passed Patel a handkerchief, and ran a finger around the front of his turban. ‘Hot in here, Chief Inspector, could my client have a glass of water, please?’
Larcombe ambled out into the corridor in search of water.
Dan tried again. ‘Professor, I understand how difficult this must be for a man in your position, to think that you might be harbouring a possible murderer and that she may have influenced your own students …’
Patel let out a sob. ‘I … I can’t. She …’ He clamped a hand across his mouth and shut his eyes. ‘No, no, no, no …’
‘I think we need to call a halt,’ said Karpal Singh, taking the glass of water from Bill Larcombe. ‘Would I be able to have a few minutes alone with my client?’
Dan felt he could not refuse, especially as he had Oliver shouting at him down his earpiece to give the guy a bit of space. ‘No problem, take fifteen minutes. Interview suspended at seven minutes past eleven.’
Frustrated, he banged his way into the tiny communications room and squashed into the space behind the desk, next to DCS Oliver, Ben Bennett and the young PC handling the recording equipment.
All was quiet as they watched the interview with Scarlett Moorcroft. Dan soon forgot his own annoyance. They had watched her for twenty-four hours and she hadn’t done anything odd, or gone anywhere apart from college and work. She thought she was tough, this one.
27
Interview techniques were an integral part of a DC’s training, but Dan had not managed so far to observe Adam Foster in action. The young constable was perched on the edge of his chair, his arms open on the table, showing he posed no threat. Sally had removed herself slightly to the side to allow Adam some room.
Oliver turned up the volume.
‘So, you must be really enjoying the course then, Scarlett? Oh, is it all right if I call you Scarlett?’
‘Yeah, it’s my name,’ said Scarlett. She still looked remarkably composed, thought Dan,
especially for someone who might have been involved in a double murder.
‘I see that you take this elective course in the rise of cults,’ said Adam, reading from his notes. ‘Who else takes that course? Jay, Amber?’
Scarlett nodded. ‘Yeah, both of them and loads of others, not just us.’
‘But your little group, you’ve become good friends over the last couple of years?’
‘Yeah, we’re mates.’
‘You hang around together, go out for drinks, all that sort of stuff, yeah?’
The girl shrugged. ‘Yeah.’
‘What about Kathy Kelly, is she involved?’
Scarlett’s mouth dropped open. She disguised it well, coughing and pretending to change position, but it was clear that she hadn’t expected to hear the name.
‘Err … no, no, I don’t think I’ve heard that name before,’ she said.
Adam tapped his pen against his teeth. ‘Odd. Amber says this Kathy Kelly is your tutor. I thought you might know her rather well, or do you know her as something else? Tana, perhaps?’
Scarlett pulled her jumper sleeves down over her hands and stuffed each hand up under the opposite armpit.
Sally sat spoke for the first time. ‘Scarlett, we know you know who Tana is. If you can help us to find her we could prevent another murder. Please, can you tell us anything about the Fire Goddess cult, or where she is now? Anything?’
The moment it took Sally to ask her question seemed to give back Scarlett her inner core of strength. ‘I have no idea who she is, or where she is, or what she’s done, and I’m not saying anything else until I have a lawyer. And I don’t believe Amber told you anything. The police just lie, everyone knows that.’
‘You’re the one having a problem with the truth,’ said Foster. ‘Can you at least admit that Kathy Kelly is your tutor? We do know that she is, so what have you got to lose?’ He smiled at her.
Scarlett dropped her head to her chest and refused to speak.
Sally stood up and stopped the recording. ‘We’ll suspend the interview at eleven twenty-nine, until we have found you a duty solicitor. DC Foster will arrange for you to make a call to your parents, or a supportive friend, but you’ll have to stay here until we complete the interview.’ She stalked out of the interview room and into the corridor, grumbling.
‘Back to the MI room, Sal,’ said Dan, sticking his head out of the communications room. ‘I just want to watch a bit of the Amber interview then I’ll join you.’
* * *
Lizzie was already an experienced interviewer, but Dan had no idea about Sam Knowles. He hadn’t actually allowed him away from the computer for weeks until this case. He was surprised to see that Sam was leading, and Lizzie, face like thunder, sat to one side, biting the top off her pen.
‘So, you seem like a pretty cool person, Amber. What on earth have you been getting up to?’
Amber stared at him, lips curling in contempt.
Dan frowned. She’d looked terrified when Adam had brought her in earlier. She wasn’t frightened of Sam though. ‘This may work to our advantage,’ he murmured.
Sam checked his list of questions. ‘How long have you known Scarlett Moorcroft?’
‘Three years.’
‘So, you’d say you’re good friends; hang out together, go to clubs, like the same things. You’re mates, basically?’
Amber nodded and relaxed back into her chair. ‘Can you tell me what I’m here for?’ she asked. ‘Has Scarlett done something wrong? Or is this about Jay? Not seen him for a few days.’
‘No, Amber,’ said Knowles, shaking his head. ‘This is about you. Your involvement in two murders. Anything you would like to say about that?’
‘Murders? You joking me?’ She ran her tongue around her lips. ‘Oh, the bonfire murders, right. It wasn’t me.’ She looked at Lizzie, who kept her head down in her notebook. ‘I wasn’t even there.’
‘Really?’ said Sam. ‘What would you say if I said I can identify you from a CCTV video recording, as being present on Exmouth beach on the night of the first murder?’
Amber shot upright. ‘You never … you haven’t got me. What are you on about?’ She looked to Lizzie, who continued to stare down at her notebook. ‘You haven’t got me on any CCTV or anything. You can’t have! You’re lying.’ Panic made her clutch the edge of the table then clamp her hands across her mouth, ignoring the tears that spilled out through her heavy eyeliner.
Sam leaned in. ‘CCTV is my job, Amber. You’d be surprised what I can see. What were you going to say? You may as well tell us, you almost have anyway. What did Tana say?’
The girl stared in terror at him, said, ‘Tana? Oh, God,’ and broke down into such violent sobbing that Lizzie had to pass her a whole box of tissues.
Lizzie glanced up at the camera then turned to Sam. ‘DC Knowles, I think Miss Northrop is too upset to continue for the present.’
Sam stared at the weeping Amber then stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Lizzie to quieten her down.
Dan looked across at his Superintendent, arms raised in defeat.
‘It was effective,’ Oliver said. ‘The girl’s broken all right. We may get a confession today.’
‘No, ma’am, it wasn’t effective in the long-term.’ He stood up and grasped the door handle tight. ‘I won’t have it. He lied outright and broke her down too early before we got anything useful. It’s duress, clear as. As soon as she has a solicitor we won’t get anything out of her until the trial. I told them to take it easy. Lizzie would have handled it better. Amber is key to finding out what’s going on here.’ He banged the door frame. ‘No, I should have interviewed her myself.’
He stormed into the corridor and pinned a surprised Sam Knowles into a corner, finger pointing at his chest. ‘Do what I tell you, Sam, I do it for a reason. We’re not messing about in there. You’ve blown it. That girl’s a key witness or a key suspect, and you made her weep like a baby before you got anything useful at all. How are we going to get anything out of her now?’
Sam blanched. ‘But … but she was going to break. I nearly had her, sir.’
Dan lowered his arm, flexed his fingers, and tried for a deep breath. ‘I said take it easy, take breaks. It’s early days.’ He took another breath. ‘But I blame myself, not you. Lizzie is level three trained – she should have led the interview procedure and I should have made that clear.’ He made a sudden leap of understanding: Sam was trying to prove himself in front of Lizzie, hence the out of character behaviour. ‘If you want to impress anybody, Sam, do it by following orders, and let Lizzie lead where she is more experienced, okay? You got that?’
He scrutinised Knowles’ burning face. ‘You haven’t done the training, that’s why I paired you up with her. And you must have a grasp of PACE, surely? A confession acquired under duress will be knocked out of court by any reasonable barrister, and then we won’t be able to use her evidence at all. Key evidence.’
Dan softened his voice, the bloke looked devastated. ‘Look, take a break while we calm her down, and come back into the comms room. A bit of observation will help you, and I could do with another opinion in there, okay? I’ll arrange the appropriate training once this is over.’
Sam gave a brief nod and sloped away.
Back in the communications room, Dan sent the constable away to get them coffee so he could speak to Oliver and Bennett. ‘Ma’am, I’ve asked DC Knowles to join you in here to observe for the next session. He isn’t level three trained but he couldn’t somehow bring himself to let Lizzie lead. He’s desperate to impress her.’
‘Bless,’ said Oliver. ‘Maybe you need to get him out in the big world more often, let him loose from the computer occasionally.’
‘I hear what you’re saying, but he’s just really good at the techy stuff. We can keep so much of that stuff in-house with his skills. No, I just need to get my staffing better balanced.’
‘I can help with that, boss. Move the teams about a bit,’ said Bennett.
> ‘Okay, let’s crack on. I’m going back in with Patel.’ Dan stood, collected a coffee from the constable as she opened the door, and prepared to confront Patel. Perhaps he should let Sam have a go at him.
28
Inside the stuffy room, Navinder Patel sat quietly next to his solicitor. Karpal Singh had a page full of notes in front of him.
Dan sat next to Larcombe and signalled for the recording to begin. ‘I hope you’re feeling better now, Professor Patel. It will be looked on favourably by the court if you tell us all that you know now, rather than hold back and have it exposed in a public trial by an adversarial barrister. You do see that, don’t you?’
‘I do understand, Chief Inspector.’ Patel sniffed and blew his nose on his solicitor’s handkerchief. ‘It’s just that this will mean the end for me. For my career, probably for my marriage, and, worst of all, for my reputation. So, I will cooperate, but only if you can give me some guarantees.’ He gestured to his solicitor.
‘My client wants an assurance that he will not serve time in prison for what he is about to say. He is cooperating fully with the police investigation, as he wants this criminal brought to justice as much as you do.’ Karpal Singh looked up expectantly.
Dan pursed his lips and looked at Patel. ‘You must know that we do not prosecute the cases, sir. Our job is to gather the evidence and present it to the Criminal Prosecution Service. You can’t make a deal with me, and I won’t promise you anything I can’t guarantee. On the other hand, I will deal with you as fairly as I can, if you’re straight with me.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Anything else?’
Death on the Coast Page 14