by Jan Newton
‘You haven’t known Lizzie very long, have you?’ Julie asked. ‘And yet you believe every word she tells you?’
‘She was telling the truth. I’ve done my own research on Quigley.’
‘And how did you manage that? We haven’t found it easy, discovering what made Quigley tick. How were you able to do it?’
‘Well, Lizzie gave me a lot of the information.’ Pritchard was blushing now.
‘And you would have done anything for your daughter, a daughter you had nothing to do with for thirty-odd years?’ Julie raised an eyebrow and leaned back in her chair. ‘I can understand why you wouldn’t want to rock the boat in your fledgling relationship.’
‘You don’t know anything, Sergeant.’ Pritchard’s lips disappeared in a grim line. ‘I had been denied any knowledge of my daughter for decades.’
‘And yet, knowing how that feels, you colluded to keep a small boy from his father.’ Swift’s face was similarly grim.
‘That wasn’t the same thing at all.’ Pritchard had finally found his voice. ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about. Quigley didn’t want his child, he just couldn’t bear not to be in control.’
‘So you killed him?’ Julie asked.
‘If I’d seen him I would have done. He would have had no hesitation in murdering my daughter to get at Sean.’
The duty solicitor put a hand on Pritchard’s arm and gave a slight shake of the head. ‘I think my client is over-wrought, Inspector. I’m sure he didn’t mean his last comment.’
‘Did you, Mr Pritchard? Would you have killed Quigley if he’d threatened Lizzie?’
Pritchard shook his head. ‘Only in my mind, Inspector. I’m far too pathetic to have actually done anything about that bastard.’
‘What about Lizzie, would she have done absolutely anything to protect Sean from Quigley?’ Julie asked.
‘Don’t be so ridiculous. You have no idea what Lizzie is like. She’s the kindest, most patient person in the world. She could never hurt anyone.’
‘She hurt her husband, Mr Pritchard. When she disappeared into the hills with you.’
‘Don’t make it sound so sordid, Sergeant. How does your smutty little mind work?’
Julie smiled. ‘Do you deny you were living at the cottage with Sean and Lizzie?’
Pritchard rolled his eyes. ‘No, I don’t deny we were living there. But I slept on the sofa, just in case that’s what you’re thinking. I was only there to keep them both safe.’ He frowned at her. ‘Like a guard dog.’
‘You left your wife in December, without telling her where you were going. She’s searched to find you and struggled financially on her own for eight months. And all this for a woman who merely claims to be your daughter and who had kidnapped a neighbour’s child.’ Julie looked up from her notes. ‘That seems rather naïve, Mr Pritchard, wouldn’t you say?’
‘I couldn’t tell Marilyn. She wouldn’t have been able to keep it to herself.’ Pritchard rubbed his eyes. ‘I should have told her something, but I left it too long. After a while it’s just not possible to go back, is it?’
‘Does she know that Lizzie is your daughter?’
Pritchard nodded. ‘She does now. That went down like a lead balloon, as you’d expect. But I was seventeen years old when I had a fling with Lizzie’s mother. She was working at a fairground, on the rifle range. A gang of us from Sixth Form had gone over to Blackpool for the weekend. We’d been in a debating competition with Kirkham Grammar School on the Friday, which we lost, and then we went out on the town. I got so drunk and the others thought it would be hysterically funny to set me up with her. I didn’t even remember anything about it the next morning.’
‘Not a great start for Lizzie then?’ Julie asked.
‘No, Sergeant, I’m aware of that. I didn’t know she even existed until last autumn. Lizzie had been going through her mother’s things. Apparently, I had left her with my name and address. I had no recollection of it.’ He shrugged. Lizzie tracked me down and dropped her bombshell.’
‘Did Lizzie leave the cottage at all while you were there?’
Pritchard shook his head. ‘Neither of them did. She said that before I moved in she had only been able to go out to buy food now and again. She’d had to leave Sean at home. She said she couldn’t risk him being seen.’
‘And with him not being well, it would have drawn attention to them?’ Julie asked.
‘What do you mean, not well? He’s hard work but we put it down to the things he’s seen, the people he came into contact with. There’s nothing wrong with him.’
‘So he wasn’t registered with a doctor or a dentist? He should have been going to school. Did Lizzie intend to live like that for ever?’
‘It wasn’t a well thought-out plan. It was a spur of the moment decision. When she did think about it, she realised it wasn’t an ideal situation.’
‘So why didn’t she come to us? We could have protected the child,’ Swift said.
‘She was worried that she would be arrested for kidnapping Sean. Who else would be able to tell Sean about his mother, her dreams and hopes, what she was like and what she wanted to be.’
‘Rosa had a brother, Mr Pritchard. He is desperate to know where Sean is too. I don’t suppose that occurred to either of you?’
‘No, Inspector, it didn’t. Lizzie said Rosa had told her she had no family.’
Swift nodded slowly. ‘Why would anyone need to tell Sean about his mother, Mr Pritchard? Surely Lizzie’s plan was to reunite them?’
Pritchard didn’t reply, but it was obvious that this potential outcome had escaped him until now.
‘So how did you get Rosa’s body from the cottage down onto the Monks’ Trod?’ Julie’s face gave nothing away, but Pritchard’s demeanour switched instantly from cautiously self-assured to totally wrong-footed.
‘I… it…’ He glanced at the solicitor.
Swift’s voice had lost all trace of understanding. ‘Do you know Mal and Sarah Preese?’
‘I don’t think so.’ The shimmer of sweat on Pritchard’s forehead contradicted the steadiness of his gaze.
‘You know of the property Sŵn y Coed?’
‘I… yes of course. I know where the farm is. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Elan Valley over the years.’
Swift raised an eyebrow. ‘And have you ever used the quad bike belonging to Mal Preese?’
‘No.’
‘And you’re quite sure about that, are you?’
Pritchard nodded. ‘I’m sure, Inspector’.
Have you ever moved anything in any of the outbuildings at Sŵn y Coed?’
‘Of course not. Why would I?’
‘So is there any reason why we might find your fingerprints at Sŵn y Coedor on Mal Preese’s quad bike?’
Pritchard sighed. ‘I’ve told you. I have never been there.’
‘We have found fingerprints on Mal’s quad bike, which we are confident will match yours. We have also, this afternoon, found a heavy-duty plastic sack which we believe was used to cover the victim’s head. We believe that similar prints will be found on that too.’ Swift leaned forward. ‘Did you kill Rosa Quigley, Mr Pritchard?’
‘No!’ Pritchard was on his feet. ‘You’ve got it all wrong.’
‘Sit down, Mr Pritchard.’ Swift barked the instruction. ‘Now!’
The duty solicitor was suddenly animated, towering over Swift. ‘I must protest at your aggressive and oppressive behaviour towards my client, Inspector.’
‘I apologise,’ Swift said, offering Pritchard a small smile.
Pritchard and the solicitor sat down, Pritchard slumping into the chair with his right hand clamped over his mouth. Swift waited.
‘I didn’t kill her.’ It came out as a whimper and Julie almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
‘But you moved her body away from the cottage and lied to the police,’ she said. ‘Did Lizzie help you?’
Pritchard shook his head. ‘She doesn’t know Rosa was even up there.
’
‘Did she tell you that too?’
Pritchard nodded.
‘So where was Lizzie while all this was going on?’
‘She was in the house with Sean. He’d been doing the usual all morning. I just had to get out for a walk, get away from it. I don’t have the patience I used to have, and Sean never stops. I had to get out of the house before…’
‘Before what, Mr Pritchard, before you did something you’d regret?’
‘I would never have touched him.’
Julie gave a half nod. ‘So you left the cottage. Did Lizzie suggest you should go for a walk?’
Pritchard looked at her and Julie was sure she had seen something change in his face. ‘Yes, Sergeant, she suggested I could do with some fresh air.’
‘And then what happened?’
‘She was there, Rosa. Just lying there below the gate. I didn’t know it was Rosa, not then. She’d obviously been close to the cottage, I saw blood on the gatepost. But I swear we didn’t know she was there. The way Sean was carrying on, we wouldn’t have heard her even if she’d knocked on the door.’
‘Was she dead?’
Pritchard shook his head and shuddered. ‘Almost. To be honest, I thought she was already dead, but as I leaned over her, she reached out and grabbed my jacket. I nearly died of fright. She looked horrendous, her face was plastered in blood.’
‘Did she say anything?’ Swift asked.
‘I asked her what had happened to her. She only managed one word before she died.’ He shook his head as though he could erase the picture in his mind.
‘What was that word?’ Swift said. Julie could tell he was beginning to lose patience with Mr Pritchard.
‘She was so weak, I could barely hear her. She just whispered his name. Quigley.’
‘What did you take that to mean, Mr Pritchard?’ Julie asked.
‘Well obviously, I thought Quigley had hit her, and that he must still have been there somewhere. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t do anything to help her.’
‘Why would she have called him Quigley? Why not Jason?
Pritchard shrugged and stared down at his hands. ‘As I stood there trying to think how to help her, she made a horrible gurgling sound and I knew then that she was dead. There was nothing I could do.’ He closed his eyes again.
‘Could it have been Lizzie, Mr Pritchard? Could Rosa have said Lizzie’s name with her last breath?’
‘No!’ Pritchard’s stare was furious, then bewildered. His mouth moved silently as he tried out the two names. He glanced away, refusing to meet Julie’s gaze.
‘I’ve told you, I had to move her away from the cottage, otherwise Lizzie’s hideaway would have been useless. She could have staggered there, trying to get help and there would have been attention from Quigley and if not him, then the authorities, but I had to leave Lizzie and the child to move what I had to assume was Rosa’s body. I didn’t know what to do.’
‘Why didn’t you contact us, Mr Pritchard? You found a dying woman on a hillside and your first thought was to move the body?’ Julie asked.
‘Only half an hour before, Lizzie had reminded me that Quigley might be out there. My imagination was working overtime. I even thought he might have left Rosa there as a decoy to get me away from the house. So I just picked her up and ran down the hill. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I saw the quad bike by the shed at the farm and I put her on it. I couldn’t bear to look at her face, her eyes were still open and she looked as though she was watching me.’
The tears, which had been blinked away for several minutes finally began to roll down Pritchard’s face. ‘There was a plastic sack in the box on the bike, so I put it over her head.’ Pritchard screwed his eyes shut. ‘It felt less like a person then, when I couldn’t see her face. Stupid.’ He opened his eyes, but he wasn’t focussing on anything in the room. ‘Then I drove her down the farm track and out onto the moorland, just above the path.’
‘And nobody saw you?’
‘You’ve been up there, Sergeant. There isn’t anyone there. I would have been unlucky to see anyone on that day.’
‘So when you got to the Monks’ Trod, then what did you do?’
‘I didn’t know what to do with her. But it felt as though it would be sacrilegious to just dump her there.’
‘So you arranged her against the rock as though she was just sitting there?’ Swift asked.
Pritchard nodded. ‘I see her every time I close my eyes. Why I didn’t just keep driving and bring her to you, I’ll never know. But I had to get back to the cottage in case Quigley was roaming around.’
‘We think that wasn’t very likely,’ Julie said.
‘Have you caught him?’ Pritchard’s eyes widened. ‘Have you got the bastard?’
‘You took Rosa’s bag back to her room at the B&B, at your home in Llandrindod, didn’t you?’ Julie asked. ‘How did you know she was staying there?’
Pritchard frowned. ‘Lizzie must have told me.’ Julie thought he wasn’t convinced about this angle. He put his head on one side and stared up at the ceiling. ‘No, that’s probably not right. She can’t have known that, can she? That wouldn’t make any sort of sense.’
‘But what was the point of taking it all the way back to Llandrindod?’ Julie waited until he was looking at her, before adding, ‘Did Lizzie tell you to do that too?’
Pritchard closed his eyes. ‘I forgot to take it with me when I took Rosa away. I had to get it away from the cottage and I chickened out of going back to the body to leave the bag with it… her. So I took it home, to Bryn Awel. I wasn’t thinking straight, or I’d have just stuffed it in a bin somewhere. I phoned Lizzie and told her I had things to do in Llandrindod. I told her to stay inside and keep the doors and windows shut tight. When I got down to the car, I thought I’d better check what was in the bag. I thought there might be something in it with Lizzie’s address on it.’
‘And was there?’
Pritchard shook his head. ‘But there was a key for Bryn Awel B&Bin the bag. I had no idea whether it was my home or another Bryn Awel,but I didn’t want to leave it to chance.I didn’t know Marilyn had turned it into a B&B. I didn’t even know if she had changed the locks, but I had to get rid of the bag somewhere safe.’ He looked up at Julie. ‘I know it sounds ridiculous now, but it made perfect sense at the time. I waited outside in the street that night for Marilyn to go to bed, and tried the front door key. I crept into the house and left the bag with the rest of what must have been Rosa’s stuff in what is now Room 3, not that she had much.’ He frowned. ‘How did you know I took the bag back?’
‘There was blood on the bag which could only have come from the area between the cottage and the farm on a certain day,’ Julie said. ‘How many people would have known that Rosa was staying there? Did you know, before Lizzie told you? How did Rosa know about your wife’s B&B? Did Lizzie tell her about it, about you?’ Julie stared at Pritchard.
‘I can’t remember Lizzie telling me anything.’
‘So you find a dying woman on the doorstep, you get her down the hill to the farm, put her on a quad bike, drive her to the Monks’ Trod and dump her body. Then you take the quad back to the farm and tell Lizzie you have to go out. Then you wait until it goes dark, deliver Rosa’s handbag to your own house, just on the off chance that she might be staying there and you saunter back to the cottage at bedtime?’ Julie shook her head. ‘And you thought a madman was on the loose out there, ready to attack your daughter? I’m not buying that, Mr Pritchard, any of it.’ Swift shook his head. Pritchard shrugged. ‘And surely you must have been covered in blood and all sorts of other noxious substances from that bike? Not to mention the peat and the mud from the moorland.’
‘I had intended to go straight back to the cottage after I parked the quad in the yard. I’d walked halfway up the hill before I realised what a state I was in. I picked up Rosa’s bag, bypassed the cottage and walked down the other side of the hill to my car.’
&nb
sp; ‘So you’d taken your car keys with you?’ Julie asked.
‘I’d been out to Llanidloes in the morning for supplies. We go to different places so we aren’t building a routine, just in case anyone is watching. I had my keys in my pocket. I drove to one of the charity shops in Newtown and replaced my clothes. I got changed in the toilets by the bus station and dumped my old stuff in a wheelie bin outside the library.’
‘Anyone would think you’d done this sort of thing before. How did you keep calm enough to do all of that?’ Swift asked.
‘I was on automatic pilot somehow. I couldn’t get my head round what had happened and why I’d done what I did. It wasn’t rational, leaving the poor girl out there like that.’
‘So you went from not being able to leave the cottage long enough to inform us that you’d found a body, to being able to take a run out all the way to Newtown to kit yourself out in new clothes?’ Julie raised an eyebrow. ‘Did you really think Quigley was still a threat?’