Death on the Coast

by Bernie Steadman

  Karpal Singh ticked the first item on the list and opened his mouth to speak.

  ‘She tried to blackmail me,’ burst in Patel, unable to wait any longer for negotiations to finish.

  ‘Did she, Professor?’ said Dan, delighted to be out of the solicitor’s hands. ‘Why don’t you tell us all about it?’ He took a swig of coffee and opened his notebook.

  ‘She – Katharine Kelly she called herself – came to me from Cork University with a testimonial and a very good degree. She wanted postgrad work to lead to a Masters, and then a doctorate.’

  Dan nodded encouragement. ‘Do you have copies of the documentation she brought with her?’

  Patel shook his head. ‘No, we just note that we have had sight of the appropriate documentation then hand it back. It looked fine. I had no suspicions, I’m telling you, none at all.’

  ‘Okay, Professor, got it,’ said Dan. ‘She asked for a place and you just gave it. Is that usual?’

  ‘Not exactly, no. But she had already done lots of work on ancient fire cults, and completed her Masters’ thesis in a year. She was obsessed, Inspector. Do you hear me? Obsessed with fire.’ He clutched the sodden handkerchief between his hands and stared at Dan. ‘I … I agreed to her idea of basing her PhD on the rise of cults. She had an idea that she could start her own and see how far people would go, how far she could use persuasion, auto-suggestion, reward and punishment. You know, the usual behavioural model.’

  ‘So you allowed her to gather a group of young people around her, and bend them to her will?’

  Patel nodded miserably.

  ‘Did you really have no idea what messing with people’s minds might lead to?’ interrupted Bill Larcombe. ‘Are you asking us to believe that you had no idea what she planned to do?’ Larcombe scratched the top of his scalp with his pen, a look of bemusement on his open face. ‘Come on, sir, we weren’t born yesterday.’ He shifted on his chair and threw a glance at Dan.

  Dan moved in closer to the table top and rested his elbows. ‘You did know what she was going to do, didn’t you? That’s why you were in such a state when I asked for your help, wasn’t it? You thought the game was up, didn’t you, Professor?’

  Patel shrank back from the table. ‘No, no, of course I had no idea, no idea at all.’

  ‘Why, then, when I looked at the registration information on your students, the information that you were so reluctant to pass over, could I find no mention of a student called Katharine Kelly? She was with you for almost three years – where are her records?’

  ‘Did you destroy them when you realised we were on to her, and then on to you?’ pressed Larcombe. ‘Were you covering your tracks, Professor?’

  Patel nodded miserably. ‘My secretary did it on Monday.’

  There was silence as Dan stared at the top of Patel’s head. Everybody lies. ‘Have you lied to the police about anything else, Professor? Anything else you’d like to tell us?’

  Karpal Singh intervened. ‘It seems to me that you are either ready to charge my client, Chief Inspector, or you are fishing. Please decide which it is.’

  ‘Just hold on a minute and you’ll get your charge,’ said Dan. ‘I still have a couple of questions for your client.’ He checked his notes, giving Patel time to calm down. ‘You destroyed the records and told her she was off the course, according to your secretary.’

  ‘I was distraught when I found out about the murder, and didn’t want any more to do with it.’

  Dan raised his voice. ‘But you sat on the information that would have caught the guilty parties. You allowed another person to be murdered in the same grisly manner, Professor. What kind of a man does that?’

  Patel’s eyes filled with tears. ‘You don’t understand. She said she would tell you it was all my idea and you would believe her. That I seduced her and got her to do my bidding. She said …’ He let out a strangled sob, ‘she said I would go to prison for her, and I can’t, I just can’t … That’s why I said nothing. I am not a bad man.’

  Larcombe passed him a box of tissues and let out a sigh. ‘Confession is good for the soul, Professor. You need to have a bit more faith that we don’t just take someone’s word for it, we do actually check what people tell us.’

  ‘Is there anything else? Did she put any other pressure on you?’ asked Dan.

  Patel’s bloodshot eyes swivelled around the room, avoiding eye contact. ‘No.’

  ‘Okay, so do you know where the woman calling herself Katharine Kelly, or Tana, lives?’ asked Dan.

  Patel shook his head. ‘I don’t know anything else about her. And I, well, I got my secretary to …’

  ‘Destroy all her records?’ asked Larcombe.

  ‘Yes. I’m sorry.’

  ‘What about the others who are in it with her?’

  ‘I don’t know who they are. She had pseudonyms for them as they were test subjects for her thesis. Brenna, Callida, Idris, Kegan, all names that mean fire in different languages. She never named them to me. For all I know they are nothing to do with the university.’

  Dan couldn’t help himself – he rolled his eyes. More lies. ‘Come on, Professor, I think we all know that Amber Northrop, Jay Vine and Scarlett Moorcroft are the members, don’t we?

  Patel’s eyes widened. ‘Scarlett? Amber? I don’t believe it. Such sensible girls. Jay? Possibly, yes. I don’t know anything about anyone else.’ He folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes.

  ‘Well?’ asked Karpal Singh.

  Dan listened in to his earpiece for a moment then nodded. ‘I need to speak to my Chief Superintendent regarding the exact nature of the charges. I’m afraid you can’t leave the building at the moment, and it is likely you will be charged and have to spend at least one night here before you can be seen by the magistrate to discuss bail.’

  Patel sat up in shock. ‘You can’t keep me here.’ He turned to his solicitor. ‘Can he?’

  ‘And you might like to alter some of the details in your statement,’ added Larcombe, passing it back across the table. ‘While you’re waiting.’

  ‘You won’t contest bail, Chief Inspector?’ asked Karpal Singh, brow furrowed.

  ‘No, I won’t contest it,’ said Dan, ‘but it doesn’t mean I have to like it,’ he muttered as he left the room.

  29

  The communications room felt even more crowded with the lanky frame of Sam Knowles holding up the wall, thought Dan, as he closed the door behind him and leaned against it. ‘That went well,’ he said.

  ‘Aye, well done, boss,’ said Bennett, ‘I reckon Patel’s on for accessory to murder, and withholding evidence.’

  DCS Oliver smiled at him. ‘Well done, Chief Inspector. That’s the way to do it. Now, about the two young women?’

  ‘We’ll have to wait until they at least have a solicitor, and I’m happy for a parent to be in the station to offer support while we’re interviewing them, but they’re all over eighteen, so they can be interviewed on their own. Ben, can you arrange for them to have a sandwich and a drink or something? The rest of us can meet back in the MI room and plan our next move.’

  ‘Right,’ said Oliver. ‘Charge Patel. I will talk to ACC Bishop and ruin his day, but there’s no way Patel is walking away from this.’ She glanced at the camera, still showing the interview room, and shuddered. ‘Odious man deserves what he gets.’ She smiled at them and stood, requiring everybody to shuffle round to allow her to get out.

  * * *

  Back in the MI room, Dan pushed his mug towards the coffee machine and tapped Sam on the shoulder. ‘Fill me up,’ he said. There was a crowd around the machine. More accurately, he decided, there was a crowd around another plastic tray of cream cakes that had appeared in the last hour. They were disappearing fast. Dan sneaked an arm under Ben Bennett’s and grabbed an eclair before they were all gone. He wedged it in his mouth so he had his hands free to add milk to his coffee, and only noticed Sally’s face as he turned back into the room. He thought she’d had a change of heart, b
ut her expression told him otherwise. Placing his coffee on the table, Dan took the uneaten half of the eclair out of his mouth and shrugged sheepishly at his sergeant. ‘Might as well finish it now I’ve started,’ he said, and devoured the rest in one mouthful.

  Adam Foster smirked in the corner. The only people not eating cakes were Sally and Lizzie, Dan noted. It was an Adam stitch-up again. Sally needed to sort him out. It wouldn’t usually take her as long.

  ‘If you’ve finished stuffing your faces,’ he said, ‘Patel has confessed to knowing all about Tana’s cult. It was for her PhD, apparently. He swears he didn’t know she was going to murder anyone, and that he took her details off the university database because she was blackmailing him. But, he didn’t tell us about Tana after the first murder, so, in a way, the second is on him, and for that he must pay.

  ‘Bill, charge Professor Patel with withholding information.’ He blew air out through his teeth. ‘You know what? Charge him with being an accessory, too. We only have his word for it that he didn’t put Tana up to it. We’ll let the CPS sort out which one is most appropriate when it comes to court. At least we know he’ll get three years. Can you get him processed for the night?’

  Larcombe gave him a thumbs-up and went off humming to type up the charge.

  ‘Right, Lizzie and Adam, get down to Exmouth and take the photo of the second victim. Can you get a proper ID? Is it David Hamworthy? Also, try to track down the homeless person known as Paddy. He may have gone into hiding if he thinks he’s the next victim, or he could have simply moved on. We need to know.’ He waved at them. ‘Go on then, you can read the report on this afternoon’s activities later. Oh, by the way, Adam,’ he said to the departing detectives, ‘good calm interviewing in there, well done.’ He chewed the end of his pen and watched Sam Knowles flush to the bottom of his neck. Well, he could hardly expect to be praised, could he?

  ‘Patel is now out of action and cooperating. Amber Northrop is very upset, as this morning’s interview did not go well. But, we do need a confession out of both young women by the end of the day, otherwise, we have to think about letting them go. Despite what some people think, we have no clear IDs from any CCTV footage, so these two girls are being interviewed because they know Jay Vine and Tana, and their behaviour was … off, I suppose.’ He gave a half-smile. ‘Hardly a reason to hold them, is it?’

  ‘I do really think they know what’s going on, boss,’ said Sally. ‘Let me have a go at Amber this afternoon. I might be able to get her to talk.’

  ‘She’s yours. Tread carefully.’

  Sally nodded her thanks, patted Knowles on the arm, and slapped her notebook shut.

  ‘That leaves us with Scarlett Moorcroft – a much cooler customer. I have a feeling that if Scarlett thinks she may go to prison, and for a very long time, she’ll drop the others in it to save her own neck. I’ll take her.’

  30

  Sally waited until Amber Northrop had settled herself. She had a new, young duty solicitor sitting next to her, pad poised for notes and wearing a smart skirt-suit and high heels that would be killing her before the end of the day.

  The girl now knew she was not under arrest, and Sally was desperate to get something useful out of her before she had to allow her to go home with her mother, who was hovering in the reception area. ‘Amber, I hope you’re feeling a bit better now?’

  Amber looked up at the camera that she hadn’t noticed earlier. ‘You recording this?’

  ‘Yes, of course we are. We’re hoping you can give us valuable information about Tana and her whereabouts. We’d like to speak to her before there are any more murders. Will you help us?’

  ‘I suppose. I don’t even know her real name. I’m not going to prison, am I? I didn’t do anything wrong.’ She plucked a new tissue from the box and screwed it into a ball.

  Sally cocked her head to one side. ‘Really? You know that’s not true, don’t you?’

  ‘It wasn’t my idea, I swear.’

  ‘What wasn’t your idea, Amber? Tell me a bit more and I’ll see if we can let you go home with your Mum. If you didn’t actually do anything, there’s nothing to worry about, is there? We can eliminate you from our enquiries.’

  Suspicion contorted Amber’s tear-streaked face. ‘You’ll let me go? Just like that?’ She stared at the duty solicitor, who gave her a reassuring smile.

  Sally gave herself a mental kick. She could almost feel Dan glaring through the window, even though she knew he was in the other interview room. ‘Not quite like that, no,’ she amended. ‘Amber, tell us the truth and I will do my best for you, I promise. Think of your mum out there waiting for you. What would she want you to do? I can see you’re a nice girl. Probably got dragged along by your friends, didn’t you?’

  The girl looked up at her, grateful for what she saw as a chance to get out. ‘Yeah, none of it was down to me. You do believe that, don’t you?’

  Sally smiled at her. ‘So, were you present at the murder of a homeless man, Simon Ongar, on the thirty-first of October, at Exmouth beach?’

  Amber swallowed. ‘If I say yes, I’ll go to prison, won’t I?’

  Sally shrugged. ‘It won’t be up to me, love. You’re young; you have a bright future ahead. I don’t know what the court will decide, but they will look more favourably on you if I tell them you have been helpful and cooperative, like the good girl you really are. So, will you answer the question? Were you there?’

  Amber mirrored Sally’s shrug. ‘No comment,’ she said.

  ‘We’re not on American TV, Amber.’ Sally gripped her pen. Kids. Christ’s sake. ‘You need to give a straight yes or no, and I’d strongly advise you to think carefully before you do. Lying to the police is a serious offence.’

  ‘I want to talk to my mum.’ Amber looked at the solicitor again, but Sally jumped in before the woman could speak.

  ‘That’s not a possibility at the moment, but she’s outside waiting to see you. If you tell the truth now, love, it will be much better for you later. Really. Think of your mum.’

  Sally gave it two minutes of complete silence, while she stared at the girl who was sitting before her, her head down and her fingers lacing and unlacing in her lap. Come on …

  Quick tears leaked from Amber’s eyes as she made her decision. ‘Yeah, okay, I was there,’ she whispered, ‘I saw what happened. But I’m not telling you any more. I can’t. I didn’t do anything, I swear.’ She lost her brief composure, curled her legs up on the chair and bawled.

  ‘And was Scarlett there, and Jay?’

  Amber nodded her head.

  ‘For the benefit of the recording, the suspect has nodded her head.’

  Over her sobbing, Sally arrested Amber formally for being an accessory to murder, and asked the PC on the door to take her to be processed into the cells. They wouldn’t get much of a chance to have another go at her. Still, not bad for fifteen minutes. Now we might start making some progress on this bloody case, she thought, and called Dan out of his interview to tell him.

  * * *

  Dan eyed up Scarlett Moorcroft through the window of the interview room. She was chatting animatedly to the duty solicitor. He sighed. Why was it always Vanessa Redmond for his suspects when he was on a murder case? She was guaranteed to wind him up just by breathing in his presence. But they had a confession from Amber, and he was good to go.

  Bill Larcombe nudged his elbow. ‘I reckon she likes you, boss, does our Vanessa. She keeps coming back,’ he said, and yanked up his trousers at the front.

  ‘You need your eyesight checking, Bill. I can feel those red talons poking my eyes out as we speak. Okay, here we go. Be still my beating heart,’ he said, and opened the door.

  ‘Chief Inspector,’ said Redmond, looking up at him over her tiny tortoiseshell glasses, ‘good afternoon.’

  Dan nodded at her and faced Scarlett. ‘Interview resumed at fifteen thirty-three, with the addition of duty solicitor, Vanessa Redmond. So, Scarlett, you have spoken to your mother and you
have a solicitor. We have fed you and made sure your needs are met. Now, can we talk about the night of October thirty-first, please, and will you tell us what happened?’

  Scarlett stared at her solicitor, unsure of her next move.

  ‘You should tell the police all that you can about the murders, Scarlett,’ said Redmond.

  Scarlett looked horrified. ‘But you’re supposed to help me, to protect me. I don’t want to go to prison …’

  ‘I’m here to advise you of your legal rights. I always advise my clients to tell the truth.’

  Dan sat back in his chair. She’d never once advised that in all the months he had put up with her.

  ‘We know you were there, Scarlett,’ said Larcombe, aiming for fatherly and kind.

  ‘This is shit,’ said Scarlett. She stood up and made for the door. ‘I want my mum,’ she said. ‘You can’t keep me here.’

  Dan reached the door before her. ‘We can if we charge you; Amber Northrop has just named you and Jay Vine as being there on the night of the first murder. And I reckon you were at the second, too. Sit down, you can’t leave.’

  Once again, Scarlett looked to her solicitor for help. Redmond waved her back down. ‘If they are going to charge you, you have no choice but to hear the charge. At least then we’ll know what we’re up against, won’t we? Come and sit here next to me,’ she said, and patted the empty chair.

  Reluctantly, Scarlett complied. Much of her earlier bluster disappeared and she appeared younger to Dan, more vulnerable. Here was the moment when he could break open the case. When the lies began to crumble and the gaping holes in stories became obvious. He let out a held breath and resumed his seat. ‘We know you were there. Tell us what you know and we will do our best for you.’

  She stared at him, eyes blue in black kohl rings. ‘You can help me?’

  ‘Why did you agree to do it, Scarlett, to help kill those men?’

  And in that moment the girl saw her chance and grasped at it. ‘We didn’t know,’ she said to the table top. ‘We didn’t know that she would really do it. It was just a laugh at first. You know, the bonfires, the chanting, making videos for Facebook and YouTube. I couldn’t believe it when she …’