Girl Changed

by Mark Bailey

  ‘Hang on a minute.’

  ‘Come on, Greg, I knew you wouldn’t have the guts.’

  ‘It’s not that at all. Let’s have a discussion first. I can’t just walk away from the M.I.T. today or tomorrow; these things take time.’

  ‘Alright, well, you think of any questions you might like to ask.’

  I will; it won’t be this week, though. I think, by the look of it, this week will be rather busy.’

  ‘It will be a huge week.’

  Stopford looked at the evidence board. ‘There might be one or two of these characters going to jail then?’

  ‘And hopefully one coming out … or a reduced sentence at least.’

  Stopford walked to the door and turned to Milly. ‘Coming out?’

  ‘Don’t worry; we’ll discuss that later. I’ve got a few things to do at work in the morning. We’ve got a new psychologist starting, helping me in my role, so I will be tied up for much of the day. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Greg, and we’ll meet sometime Wednesday or Thursday.’

  When Stopford left, Milly thought about his inquiry into a P.I. role and his willingness to consider it. She had no right to push him when she considered her contract obligations to Theo. Even if she got around that, there was her promise to Mia and Christy that she would return home soon. If he left his job, it could jeopardize his future — they needed to have a discussion, but they would have it later; it couldn’t hurt. At least he seemed keen.

  The next day, she spent most of her time with Sarah Hammond. Rosie had completed Sarah’s induction — she had been induced as Rosie put it and driven down to Twickenham to meet staff and Dr. Elizabeth Jones. Rosie said she hadn’t heard from Theo since he’d left for Brooklyn. It seemed he was doing what he was told for once.

  Dr. Hammond was a big woman and quite homely, thought Milly. She was a merry soul and told Milly she wanted to further her career, now she had finally finished having her family, or bearing her brats as she called it. In the short time she spent with her, Milly decided Sarah Hammond knew what she was about. She smiled as she watched her taking notes in Theo’s old office, thinking how things had changed since she started at Watford Therapy. It was a testament to her resilience, how she’d weathered the storm with Theo and his narcissism. There was no doubt the more Theo stayed away, the smoother everything ran.

  Her phone rang; it was Judas James. He received the information and request from D.I. Stopford and it confirmed her thoughts. She smiled to herself as she walked to her office. She called Stopford and gave him the news, but he knew already. It was a break in the case, were Jude’s thoughts, and they should organize a meeting post-haste, which was Jude’s way of saying straightaway.

  ‘I’m not available until 9:00 tomorrow morning, Greg. I need time to prepare, so I don’t miss anything. If you want me before then, you’ll have to subpoena me.’

  ‘Ha,’ answered Stopford, ‘that’s alright. We’re only having a meeting, not going to court. I haven’t talked with anyone about our discussion yesterday, Milly, so you can tell them everything. Can you please come down to Croydon Police Station? We’ve got a board you can use down here, and you can plug your computer into a monitor.’

  ‘Okay, no worries. Tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. at Croydon it is.’

  ‘At this stage, it will be Rob, Cosmo, Judas James and I think Greg Osborne, and possibly P.C. Stone. It will be quite an audience, Milly. If you recall, Osborne was my and Rob’s boss in the investigation of your sister’s death.’

  ‘Of course I remember him, Greg. All good. Did you talk with Beth Stone?’

  ‘I did, she remembered the interview with Sim Charles. When I put it to her, she was most upset. She said she found Sim very attractive, as she did half the rest of the U.K. male population. She apologized if she gave any other impression as to her physical attraction or otherwise to Sim during the interview. She didn’t mean to. When she turned red and looked hot and flushed, that was certainly the case, and then she had to visit the toilet and grab her handbag from her desk drawer first which is why she took so long …’

  ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, spit it out will you, Greg, you’re like a bloody old woman.’

  ‘She’d just got her period, Milly.’

  ‘Oh My God, that poor girl; how embarrassing.

  ‘Yes, well I apologized on your behalf,’ said Stopford as he hung up.

  ‘You did what?’ yelled Milly into her phone. She was talking to herself.

  Chapter 33.

  The following day at 8:30 a.m. Milly drove to the Croydon Police Station, armed with her photos, computer, written notes, and the U.S.B. containing her information. Her relationship with Murphy’s Law lobbed her into the path of P.C. Stone before she had time to walk from the car park. She apologized profusely for any negative inference Beth might have taken from her comments and Stopford’s questions. Beth assured Milly she would have asked the same questions if roles were reversed.

  ‘I meant no offense,’ said Milly finally, as she concluded that bloody Stopford had dropped her in it.

  ‘None taken,’ Beth replied, ‘but he is gorgeous!’

  ‘You should meet his brother, Joe,’ said Milly, and they both laughed. All was forgiven.

  She walked to the interview room, the same room where they had the computer link-up with Mia and Aunt Christy and the Australian detectives when Mia had explained the state of play with her twin sister. When she walked in, Stopford was there on his own.

  ‘I’ve got a bone to pick with you later, mate,’ said Milly.

  ‘Whoops,’ said Stopford smiling.

  ‘I’ll give you whoops. My pants were metaphorically down around my knees when you picked me up at Heathrow on Monday. Now they’re back up, and my chastity belt locked in place. You dropped me right in it with Beth Stone,’ Milly smirked.

  When Beth walked in, Stopford cringed; he was unaware the two had made up in the car park.

  Windsor, Cosmo, Superintendent Osborne, and Judas James arrived, and the group mingled and chatted until Milly had set her computer up and was ready to begin.

  She briefly explained where Australia fitted in. She went into some detail but assumed they had read the news online from the Sunday Times in Australia or something similar. She finished her summary of the Boyds and Dannii and Simone by asking if there were any questions. Next, she introduced Sim Charles and explained where he fitted into the puzzle, but only as far as his trip to Australia was concerned.

  ‘Are there any questions?’ No one spoke. ‘Alright, since there are no questions I will assume that you have all seen the information on the U.S.B. I gave Greg and D.C.I Windsor.’

  Once again, there were no nays from her captive audience.

  Next Milly put up a photo of Donald Kerford.

  ‘First, I want you to forget who he is. I want to know if anyone can see a distinguishing mark or characteristic when they look at this photo and, for the sake of this exercise, just acknowledge if you can by raising your hand and don’t say anything until I ask you to.’

  Beth Stone and Jude both put their hands up.

  ‘Can any of you others see anything? I’ll give you a moment.’

  ‘No,’ answered Stopford almost immediately.

  ‘Yes, Beth?’

  ‘He’s got a lazy left eye.’

  ‘Well done, Beth. It’s not a lazy left eye; it’s a lazy left eyelid … but I know what you mean,’ and Jude nodded. The others agreed they had missed it but could see it now. Then Milly turned to her computer and put up a photo from Kerford’s Facebook page on the monitor — the profile picture of Kerford with his daughters.

  ‘I know the quality isn’t the best, but does anyone notice anything about the physical characteristics of his daughters in this depiction from Kerford’s Facebook page?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Windsor, speaking for all of them, ‘the girls have the same lazy eyelid.’

  ‘Good, correct. I, like the rest of you, missed Kerford’s eyelid until it was pointed out to me,
and I’m sure, like the first photo of Kerford here, I would have missed the trait he has passed onto his daughters in his Facebook profile as well. It seems beauty and detail are in the eye of the beholder.’

  Milly then went over some of the Scottish connection. There were the three Charles brothers and their parents Gus and Deonaid Charles. She made light reference to Kerford again but would get back to him later. They already knew who Cailin Stewart was, so she took the photo of Kerford down and put up photos of Niall, Joe and Sim Charles, informing them Niall was dead.

  ‘What can you see here?’

  ‘They’re obviously brothers,’ said Cosmo as all in the audience raced to find a prominent feature that wasn’t so prominent in each of the photos. Was this another test, they wondered?

  She added the best and youngest photo she had of Gus Charles, and they all agreed the four were related and looked like Gus. Then she took the photo of Gus away and added the one photo she had emailed herself of Deonaid on the monitor.

  ‘There is something in this photo of Deonaid that is common to her three sons. It’s not a big nose or a pointy chin or protruding ears, but a softness or expression or something … I don’t really know. I can see that she is the mother of her three boys.’

  ‘It’s the shape of her face and her skin,’ interrupted Beth.

  Before she was distracted by Beth’s comment and lost her way, Milly pinned a photo of Kerford and then Cailin Stewart beside the three boys next to the monitor. Stewart was similar physically to the Charles boys. The mugshots of Joe Charles and Cailin Stewart were full upper-body shots, taken at the police station as they stood. They were similar in shape and size, and their hair was similar too, but there was no resemblance to Deonaid Charles in either Stewart or Kerford. All present agreed that Deonaid was the mother of the three Charles boys.

  ‘You might be right about the skin, Beth.’

  ‘I think so,’ agreed Windsor who was enjoying himself.

  ‘Right, so this is where it starts to get interesting. I asked D.I. Stopford to get the D.N.A. profiles of Joe Charles and Cailin Stewart from their criminal records in the U.K. database. Fortunately, there were enough markers in the profiles to prove, as I suspected, that Stewart and Joe Charles were both fathered by Gus Charles and, therefore, Sim and Joe Charles are half-brothers to Cailin Stewart.’ To make her point, Milly swapped the photo of Cailin Stewart with Kerford’s photo at the end of the line of photos of Niall, Joe, and Sim on the display board.

  ‘Unbelievable,’ said Stopford and they discussed it amongst themselves, nodding their heads. They could see the resemblance, once Milly had shifted the photos around.

  ‘When did you pick this up, Milly?’ asked Osborne.

  ‘When I walked into the interview room here … the time we played our little trick on Cailin Stewart; it was the first and only time I’d come across him. Then when I met Sim in Scotland at my sister’s funeral, I had what we might call a eureka or ‘lazy eyelid’ moment. Stewart was angry that day, and it reminded me of Sim who usually looks staid and sullen, at least whenever I’ve come across him. The minute I saw him in Scotland, I thought of it and dismissed it out of hand. Then when I missed Kerford’s eyelid when John Russell pointed it out to me, I became rather obsessed. We should take notice of our intuition … first impressions and all that.’

  ‘Yes, it is rather obvious in Kerford’s case when it’s been pointed out, isn’t it?’

  ‘Exactly.’ Milly left the photo of Stewart beside his half-brothers Niall, Joe, and Sim. The likeness between Sim and Cailin Stewart was most pronounced.

  ‘Right, Milly. I hate to play the devil’s advocate, but what has this to do with Nari Kim and your sister?

  ‘That’s coming, Rob.’

  ‘Does Gus Charles know he is the father of Stewart and vice versa, and where does Kerford come into it?’ asked Windsor again.

  ‘All in good time, Rob,’ answered Milly as she looked back at her audience. ‘The first connection we have is that Kerford and Sim Charles were employed at Aberdeen Steel Fabricators where they both worked as welders and were supervised by Gus Charles who also worked there as a welder. I got this information from Deonaid Charles, so you guys will need to check their employment records.’

  ‘Doesn’t Kerford work in computers in London?’ asked Beth.

  ‘Yes, Beth,’ replied Milly, ‘I’ll get back to that in a minute. So, the fact that they worked together means they know each other. Then, to Rob’s question, I want to discuss whether Stewart and Gus Charles knew what was going on. When I visited Deonaid Russell, she told me that there was a good relationship between Cailin Stewart and the youngest Charles boy, Niall, before he died, despite their age difference. It was a new friendship, and Deonaid assumed Niall was being bullied at school and Stewart was looking out for him. I can tell you that as a Psy.D. psychologist who has eight years training in clinical psychology mainly studying child and adolescent behavior, this is slightly unusual, at least in this context, where there were two older brothers.’

  ‘Why is that?’

  ‘As I’ve mentioned, Deonaid and even Joe Charles suspected that Stewart was sticking up for Niall Charles because he was being picked on at school. But both agreed there was no evidence of that, and Niall never told his mother or Joe that he was being bullied. Now we can go into all sorts of theories on why and when adolescents do things, not least the fact that if Niall were being bullied at school, Joe would sort it. I contend that Cailin Stewart knew he was Niall’s half-brother but didn’t say anything, probably because he promised his now dead mother that he wouldn’t … and, because his father didn’t, and still doesn’t know, he’s not the father. He was simply friendly with Niall Charles because he knew they were half-brothers.’

  ‘All conjecture, Milly.’

  Of course, Rob.’ Milly agreed. ‘Stewart’s mother Mary died of cancer between 2005 and 2006, according to Deonaid Charles, and around 1990, Deonaid kicked Gus out because he was having an affair … she didn’t tell me that, though. Joe told me about the affair … Sim had told him, but Joe doesn’t know who the other woman was. As for an affair or not, there had to be a coupling between Gus Charles and Mary Stewart, as proven by the D.N.A. test.’

  ‘We are assuming Mary Stewart was Cailin Stewart’s mother?’ interrupted Windsor.

  We’re not assuming it Rob. It’s evidenced by their D.N.A. profiles. I would also contend that Gus Charles knows he is Stewart’s father, which may be backed up by that phone call you guys mentioned when Stewart called Gus before he was picked up and charged with my sister’s murder. Of course, this is all supposition …’

  ‘That’s right, I remember the call on Stewart’s phone records,’ said Windsor.

  ‘On November 14, 2016,’ said Milly referring to her notes. ‘The call went for five minutes. It’s a long time to talk to someone you don’t know.’

  ‘So then, Milly, you have established why you believe there is a link between the Stewart and Charles families … including an affair between Gus Charles and Mary Stewart that resulted in Cailin Stewart. Is there a connection between Stewart and Kerford?’ asked Cosmo.

  ‘Yes, I’m coming to that as part of my answer to D.C.I. Windsor. First, I don’t believe that Deonaid Charles knows about Cailin Stewart or that Gus Charles wants her to know. He wants to patch their relationship up and would likely believe this won’t help in that outcome. Now, to your question, Cosmo and Rob, yes, there is a connection between Kerford and Stewart. They are or were both deer shooters and, for the record, none of the Charles family are. To your question, Beth, before I forget, Kerford is now working in computers in London … he had a change of career.’

  For some light relief, Milly then told them the story of Donald alias Daggy Kerford, and it got some giggles. Then Stopford recalled Stewart buying the Victorinox brand knives at the Victorinox Flagship Store in New Bond Street, London for his father, Troy Stewart, for Father’s Day before they had identified Sibby’s body. The knives w
ere to be used in their deer-shooting pursuits.

  ‘With all that in mind, I’d like to turn my attention back to Kerford. D.I. Stopford told me of your thoughts on Kerford and Dasti, Rob, and the role they may have played in Nari Kim’s murder and I agree your theory might have legs … I’m sorry, I should have used another word.’

  ‘Hooves,’ offered Stopford. Milly looked at him as if to tell him to shut up and it was all P.C. Stone could do not to burst out laughing. That got Milly smiling, and they both started giggling briefly why Stopford sat there with his characteristic stupid grin. Milly thought then it was hard to stay angry with him. She re-adjusted her thoughts.

  ‘Can you explain the procedure you would need to go through, Dr. James, in removing the legs of a fellow human being at the hip joints and separating the femur from the tibia and fibula? Can you please use the analogy of separating a beast’s body from one of its hind legs at the hip?’

  Jude was happy to oblige and went on for twenty minutes. He stressed it wasn’t as difficult as it first appeared, but that the perpetrator would need experience and training if the cuts were to be clean and a saw wasn’t being used; not to mention a sharp knife, of course.

  ‘Keeping in mind the analogy of a beast and separating one of its hind legs from the rest of its body by flicking out the hip ball from the socket, have any of you ever seen a red deer carcass?’

  ‘No,’ said Stopford.

  ‘Then, you’ve never shot a red deer and dressed it, D.I. Stopford?’

  ‘You know I haven’t, Milly.’

  ‘Daggy Kerford has.’ There was silence. None of them had guessed where Milly was leading with her discussion of deer shooting.

  ‘So, you are contending that Kerford would know how to cut Nari up into the pieces we found her in?’ asked Windsor.

  ‘Yes,’ replied Milly.

  ‘You don’t want a career change, do you?’ asked Osborne.

  ‘I do, Greg, but that’s another story. I’ve got more to tell you, so perhaps we should have a break.’

  ‘Yes, we’ll break for thirty minutes.’