Condemned

by R. C. Bridgestock

  A slight tap on the door announced the arrival of Tattie again. Charley cocked her head inquisitively at the administrator, who leaned over the desk to pass her the morning mail. Seeing that the plate was empty, she picked it up to take it away. Tim took her hand as she passed him on her way to the door. She looked down at him, and smiled. ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’ he said.

  Tattie’s smile was broad. Tim continued, ‘May I say those cookies are the best I’ve ever tasted. Are you married?’

  It seemed for a moment, that the administrator was struck dumb. Her eyes met Charley’s, who was incredulous of what she had just heard, and waited with bated breath for Tattie’s response. A blush rose in Tattie’s cheeks, and she raised her hand to pat her nest of frizzy hair. Her slightly parted lips showed her recently applied lipstick smeared on her buck teeth. She giggled at Tim. ‘Visit again,’ she said, ‘and I’ll bake another batch, just for you.’ Tim jumped up and opened the door for her in a gentlemanly way.

  Charley shook her head, a smile not far from her lips when Tim sat back down. ‘You are incorrigible,’ she said. ‘God help those who had the job of supervising you when you and Wilkie worked together.’

  Tim winked an eye. He leaned forward as if to share a secret. ‘Back in the old days, Wilkie and I never wrote a single statement, because the lovely admin ladies were more than happy to write statements up from our notebooks,’ he chuckled. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘They sure were the good old days.’

  Charley moaned, ‘Well if that smile was anything to go by, you’ve made her day.’

  Tim’s interest turned to the morning mail. ‘Anything of interest that I should know about?’

  Charley thumbed through the papers in front of her. She shook her head. ‘Nothing of great interest to either of us. Just the ivory tower sending out more Home Office guidelines.’

  For a moment Tim was silent. ‘It’s unlikely that the Dixons will give themselves up easily, especially if they have weapons, and/or drugs with them.’

  ‘The background we have on them both is firearms-related,’ Charley said solemnly. ‘Although they have discharged firearms we have no intel that they have fired directly at anyone. However, they do need to be neutralised as quickly as possible.’

  ‘Don’t worry. The armed team will deal with whatever arises on the day. If they put up any resistance, they won’t mess about. The safety of the public and the team is of paramount importance. You understand what I’m saying?’

  Charley nodded her head.

  ‘Am I right in thinking that the Dixons don’t know we’re onto them yet?’

  ‘There’s nothing to suggest they’re spooked, but, you know as well as I do that as soon as they get a whiff of a copper, they’ll be off like a shot.’

  ‘How much time do I have?’

  Charley puckered her lips. ‘We know from a Mr Sean Dean on the site, that the couple regularly go away for a couple of days at a time, and apparently they left yesterday, mid-morning. What their intended destination is, or what they are doing there, and for how long, we have no idea.’

  Charley followed Tim to the office door, to see a wink and a wave pass between him and Tattie.

  ‘Aww… What a lovely man,’ Tattie smiled across at Charley, from her desk next to the window. Then her smile turned to a frown. ‘I wish this lot ’ere were as appreciative.’

  Charley turned and put her hands together in silent prayer. Thank you, God! The last thing I needed was a complaint bordering on sexual harassment from her.

  Charley could feel her adrenaline building as her thoughts switched back to the case. Taking any armed criminal off the streets was a result, but the Dixons’ arrest would make decent inroads into the murder of Faisal Hussain.

  With the hope that the Dixons would soon be in the traps, Charley was adamant that the operational plan would be completed soon, and the team briefed as quickly as possible. Then all they had to do was wait for the tip-off that the Dixons were back on the caravan site, so that the teams could enact their plan and await for the Dixons’ next trip.

  Charley sat at her desk, quietly running over what the investigation had revealed so far. Charley picked up a pen, and pulled a sheet of paper from her printer. She started to make notes.

  Dixons housed – Primrose Pastures Holiday Caravan Park.

  Personal data about the Dixons gained from Primrose Pastures has enabled ongoing cell-site analysis for mobile phone.

  Patience was not one of Charley’s virtues, but it was one that was required of an SIO. She got up to go and make herself a coffee. In passing, Tattie warned her, ‘This operation is going to be costly.’

  ‘Ah, but money well spent,’ said Charley. ‘I have every faith in Tim.’

  ‘Oh, absolutely,’ Tattie smiled.

  Annie stood at the kitchen door and nodded her head at the administrator. ‘What’s up with her, has she been drinking?’ she mouthed.

  Charley tittered. ‘Never before has Ms Tate not given me grief over the cost of an operation. I’m a very happy bunny,’ she said.

  There were no calls by lunchtime to say the Dixons had returned to Primrose Pastures. With the arrival in the office of Mike and Wilkie, the team were going over the intelligence about the Dixons. Annie Glover was sitting at her desk, quietly researching any undetected robberies in the North Yorkshire area to see if the suspect criteria matched the Dixons.

  ‘Maybe the heat got too much for them? Maybe they decided it was time to retire from a life of crime,’ she said, when nothing was forthcoming in the immediate area.

  Charley shook her head. ‘No, I’m not buying it. Look further afield. These guys are cute, they won’t shit on their own doorstep again, not so soon.’

  * * *

  With the team updated on the Dixons enquiry, Charley and Mike set off to visit Lily. It was 2.30 p.m. in the afternoon. Lily, as Charley wanted her to be, was surprised to see them.

  ‘Is everything all right?’ she said, licking her lips as if her mouth were too dry as she answered the back door of the church.

  Lily stepped back to let them in, her speech was rapid, and Charley wondered if she was nervous. If so, why?

  ‘Please sit down,’ Lily said, gathering papers that were strewn around the room, and stuffing them haphazardly into carrier bags. Cleaning up was not a pastime that Charley had learnt to associate with Lily Pritchard, so she wondered what was the rush.

  ‘Do you want a drink?’

  Charley and Mike politely declined. Lily poured herself a large glass of blood-red wine from the decanter on the table, next to her chair, then she sat. Charley eyed her closely.

  A picture of Father Connor O’Doherty had been left out on the table. Charley recognised his picture from the intelligence report on the board in the office.

  ‘You knew Father Michael O’Doherty, too didn’t you?’ said Charley, pointing at the photograph.

  Lily nodded. Charley wondered what she was thinking. ‘He was an old man when I was a girl. I knew his nephew much better,’ she said, with a fleeting glance at the photo.

  ‘Uh-huh, well, we have lots of loose ends that need tying up in relation to the murder investigations at Crownest, and with your knowledge of the church and the people associated with it, we thought you might be able to help us solve a few of them,’ continued Charley.

  ‘In fact we don’t know anyone who knows the place like you do,’ said Mike, with a broad smile.

  Lily appeared flattered. ‘I’ll try my best, but the old grey matter isn’t as sharp as it used to be,’ she said with a half-laugh.

  ‘One of the things that cropped up during our investigations is suggestion that he was a sexual deviant,’ said Charley.

  Lily looked taken aback by the statement and crossed her arms tightly around her, in a defensive pose, which told Charley to tread carefully.

  ‘We understand that Connor was a voyeur. We are led to believe that he took photographs of women, and that he prostituted out at least one woman to fulfil
his needs.’

  The old woman took a sip of her drink without taking her eyes off the SIO. From her body language, Lily was not happy with the way the conversation was going, but Charley need to press on.

  ‘None of us, I suggest is without sin,’ she said quietly. ‘Father Connor was protective and sensitive to the requirements of his flock. He wasn’t sexually promiscuous, if that’s what you are saying. Although, my mother did tell me that he was obsessed with her, and she did say that she would do anything for him.’

  ‘We are not here to judge, but we have to investigate rumours and speculation, to see if there is any truth in them. We have been told that you are in possession of lewd, or artistic, depending on your viewpoint, pictures which belonged to Father Connor O’Doherty. Is this true?’

  Lily shivered, her body stiffened, her eyes watered. ‘Josie Cartwright,’ she said. ‘You’ve been talking to Josie Cartwright. She never could keep a secret that one.’

  ‘We are not trying to discredit the Reverend, we just need to understand what happened back then, and if there were secrets we need to know about them.’

  Chapter 33

  ‘Can you confirm that Father Connor’s box of photographs still exists?’ said Charley, in a matter-of-fact manner. ‘What we are trying to establish is whether these pictures could be connected to the murder of the woman that we discovered in the cellar at Crownest.’

  Lily kept her facial expression so impassive that her emotions were unfathomable.

  Charley turned to Mike, which was the indication for him to continue the questioning, in the hope that he could get Lily to open up to them.

  Sympathetically, he leaned towards the frail woman. ‘We are investigating a murder that occurred many years ago.’ Mike’s voice was soft and reassuring. He repeated their line of questioning. ‘We are not investigating the taking of the photographs to discredit Father Connor O’Doherty as you might think,’ he said, ‘but what we are trying to establish is, could these photographs be of assistance to us in identifying the murder victim buried in the cellar?’

  Still the old lady’s face was unreadable.

  ‘This is really important. If the pictures can’t help us then that is the end of this line of enquiry. Do you understand?’ asked Mike.

  At that moment, Charley saw the sun shine through the stained-glass window at an angle that transformed the adjacent wall into a colourful mosaic.

  Oblivious to what Charley was looking at, Mike carried on. ‘You see sometimes Lily, through misguided loyalty, people do things that they think might help someone, but in fact it just creates more problems. Does that make sense?’

  The room was silent, warm and peaceful. Light turned to darkness when a cloud covered the sun. But the next ray of sunshine, stronger than the last, put the cut-crystal glass vase containing a posy of wild flowers into the pool of light. She counted five; primrose, spear thistle, red campion that was actually bright pink, snowdrops and bee orchid.

  Lily’s cloudy eyes followed Charley’s gaze. ‘I assure you I’m not being obstructive. You see, my family and I… we are indebted to Father Michael, who found a way for my father to take my mother into the church instead of the workhouse… and to Father Connor also—’ Lily faltered here, ‘—as what you don’t understand, is that later on in life I found out that he was my father by birth.’

  ‘How?’ said Mike.

  ‘When Walter, my father, was dying, I was the one who nursed him. When he needed a blood transfusion, I gladly offered mine. But my mother denied me the chance to help him. I screamed and shouted, as I couldn’t understand why she would do that.’ Lily’s face twisted in pain. ‘In the end she had no choice but to tell me that it was because she knew it would be futile, because there was no blood connection.’

  Charley absorbed the information and picked up on her enquiries. ‘But when you saw Connor’s photographs, even as a young child you must have suspected that there was something wrong about them?’ Charley said. ‘Why else would they be hidden? Do you think you didn’t tell anyone about them in order to protect Father Connor, or for fear that your home life, as you knew it, would be changed for ever?’

  Lily put her hand to her forehead. ‘I don’t know. I was a young girl. I came across the photographs by accident. Father Connor had sent me to fetch the copy of the precious Saint John’s Bible. I felt honoured, and quite nervous. Whilst doing so I must have inadvertently triggered a lever in the sacristy, which opened the secret cupboard. I must have been gone a long time because Father Connor came looking for me, and that’s when he caught me looking at the photographs. He made me swear on the Holy Bible that I wouldn’t tell, and then he took the box from me, and gave me the Bible as a present. He told me I was his very special girl, and I deserved a gift for my birthday.’

  ‘Do you remember anything else that happened that day?’

  ‘It was a hot, sunny summer’s day. He said I could invite all my friends around to my party. He took us down to the stream, and Mum made sandwiches, and jelly. We swam, and played in the garden, until our wet clothes dried and the sun went down. Father Connor loved taking photographs.’

  ‘Did he take photographs that day?’

  Lily nodded, ‘Yes.’

  ‘Even though he made you swear on the Bible, you did tell someone about the photographs though, didn’t you?’

  ‘Josephine… my playmate and the person that I thought of as a sister for a while. We told each other everything. That’s why when you told me you knew about the photographs, I knew it had to be her that had told you.’

  ‘Are you still in touch with Josie?’

  Lily looked sad. ‘No, not long after my eighth birthday party, she vanished. I know it sounds odd, but I was told she had been adopted, and that was that! There were no goodbyes and she was never mentioned again.’

  Charley looked surprised. ‘Did you ask to see her?’

  ‘Yes, but I was told her new mummy and daddy wouldn’t allow it. I remember thinking that if God loved us, why had he done this to us both?’

  ‘Yet you haven’t tried to contact her since? Especially now that she is back in the area.’

  Lily shook her head. ‘I know where she lives, but it is only recently that her adopted father died. I read in the papers he was a hundred years old. Truth is, I didn’t feel it was ever the right time to intrude.’

  ‘Do the photographs still exist, Lily?’

  The old lady hesitated for a moment. It seemed that her words were caught in her throat. After a few moments, she nodded.

  ‘Can you show us where they are?’

  Choked by emotion, Lily’s voice wobbled. ‘They’re still where I found them.’

  Charley frowned. Her questioning eyes found Mike’s. ‘We’ve searched, haven’t we?’

  Lily cleared her throat, inviting the detectives to look at her. ‘Yes, but there are many secret hiding places in this house of God.’ She sensed Charley’s frustration. ‘Please, don’t blame your officers, this is nobody’s fault but mine.’ Lily stood up, and shuffled towards the door leading into the church. Before she disappeared into a shaft of light, she beckoned them to follow.

  The old tin box was easily found. With gloved hands Charley took it from Lily. Tentatively she opened the lid, and fleetingly she looked at a photograph or two inside.

  ‘Do you know any of the people in these photographs?’ asked Charley.

  Lily closed her eyes, her chin dropped to her chest. ‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Father Connor showed me my mother.’

  ‘Now, is there anything else that you can tell us that may shed light upon the skeleton of the female that was discovered at Crownest? Anything else that you are withholding?’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’d swear on mother’s grave, if she had one.’

  Charley looked at her questioningly.

  ‘It’s a long story. She was cremated, and her ashes were spread up on the hills, free, where she wanted to be.’

  * * *

  Back at the
office, the detectives took the photographs out of their exhibit envelope with gloved hands. Charley and Mike watched, as each photograph was painstakingly fingerprinted by the CSI, and swabbed for DNA. Each picture was placed in separate see-through exhibits bags and given an exhibit number.

  ‘There is no doubt in my mind that these photographs were taken by a voyeur,’ said Charley as she looked down at the Incident Room table where the tagged photographs had been spread out.

  With tears in her eyes, Annie tried to look brave. ‘Those poor youngsters,’ she said looking from one to another.

  Mike studied one picture closely. ‘Can you pass me the magnifying glass? The one we got the boss as a joke?’

  Wilkie moved to open his desk drawer and handed over the glass. ‘Getting a bit serious aren’t we, Sherlock?’

  Annie and Charley moved behind Mike to look over his shoulder. ‘That young girl, she looks familiar.’

  ‘Lily? Josie? They all look the same to me.’

  ‘I can’t understand why she wouldn’t have destroyed these when Connor died,’ said Annie.

  Annie was subdued. ‘She’s probably been brought up to think that this sort of thing was normal, and because of the enquiries she is having to revisit her past. She is probably having to come to terms with the fact that the person that she had thought of as her father, was not related to her at all; her mother was prostituted out by her real father, who was the man she looked up to, and a priest to boot. Not only that, by speaking to us, she has had to expose him as a voyeur.’

  Silently, Mike lifted and studied photograph after photograph as the others looked on. ‘Do you think we’ve discovered an historic pedophile ring? It was, presumably, unchallenged at the time and maybe interference was dealt with by death?’ said Mike.

  ‘You think that it’s a possibility that the female corpse we found was a consequence of Father Connor’s debauchery?’ said Wilkie. ‘God forbid what happened to him then when he received the judgement at the pearly gates!’