‘Formidable because he coerced or otherwise persuaded just about every suspect that crossed our threshold to have other offences taken into consideration that just happened to be hanging around looking for a viable offender to own up to them. I saw him in action, Naomi.’
‘So did I.’
‘No. Sorry, he was very careful to keep you at arm’s length. You saw the Joe Jackson that he wanted his protégé to see. He protected you, Naomi. Wanted to be Mr Clean in your eyes.’
‘Alec, that’s not fair.’
‘I’m sorry, love. That’s just how it was.’
‘How you chose to see it!’ Naomi frowned, wondering why she was still defending a man who had caused her so much pain. Probably because the child Naomi still remembered the man who had listened to her, seemingly cared about her, encouraged her when all she could feel was guilt and shame that her best friend had disappeared in part because she and Naomi had argued. Naomi should have been with Helen that morning. She had let her down.
Tess shifted awkwardly. ‘The two other suspects,’ she said. ‘Why were they down-graded?’
‘They weren’t,’ Alec said. ‘Just shifted to other members of the investigative team. Joe headed up the focus on Hemingsby. He called in a man called Fincher, I think he was head of some university department or other to advise. I can’t remember where—’
‘It’ll be in the records,’ Tess assured him. ‘And what did you think. Did you favour anyone?’
Alec laughed. ‘Tess, I was barely out of my probationary year. I fetched and carried and made tea and did house to house. After what had happened with Jackson’s little undercover stunt, no one seemed prepared to risk me crossing the road by myself never mind get properly involved in an investigation like this.’
‘But you were one of the first to attend the crime scene. You were on the investigation. You attended the briefings.’
Alec nodded acknowledgement of that. ‘We got called to the Arnold house,’ he said. ‘Briggs was out on his usual beat and I was with him. Alfie Briggs was and is a fantastic community officer. That’s where his skills and his heart are and why he’s never looked for promotion beyond sergeant and stayed in uniform. The parents had discovered her body, the father called the police and the ambulance and Alfie and I were only a street away. A general call went out and we quite literally ran down to the Arnold house. By the time we got there the mother was out in the street, screaming that someone had butchered her daughter.’
‘Butchered? That was the word she used?’
Alec nodded. ‘Which made it even stranger that she agreed to it being called a stabbing. Publicly, that’s what it became and that’s what the media reported.’
‘But a lot of people would have been aware that it was more than that,’ Naomi observed. ‘Friends, family, whoever heard her shouting in the street and made their own connection.’
‘Yes, but the details were still kept under wraps. Yes, I’m sure a few people would have been privy to the whole facts, but death was formally declared to be asphyxia, the so-called stabbing element was officially reported as happening after death and was in fact recorded on the PM as post-mortem.’
‘Did he strangle her?’ Naomi asked.
‘No, he pushed her face down into the pillow and then put his full weight on her back, kept the pressure on while she suffocated.’
‘God. That can take—’
‘Too long.’
Silence fell for a moment, broken only by the tap-tap-sweep of Napoleon’s wagging tail.
‘And when you arrived at the house?’ Tess picked up Alec’s story.
‘We got the mother inside. The father was sitting on the stairs. He was still holding on to the phone and the call taker was trying to tell him help was on the way, but he wasn’t listening. Alfie Briggs told me to take the phone and report our presence to control and he led them both through to the front living room. A neighbour had followed us in. From next door. I tried to make her leave, but Mrs Arnold grabbed on to her and just carried on screaming and crying, so we let the neighbour through, put them all in the front room and just closed the door on them. I’d managed to shut the street door by then, but a crowd had gathered. It’s one of those little terraced streets and back then it was a mix of retired people and young families, mothers and kids heading off for the school run, so there were plenty of people about to hear and see the commotion.’
‘And you went to look at the scene?’
‘Technically, Alfie and I were the first officers attending. It was our job to secure the scene, so we went up the stairs to the girl’s bedroom.’
‘What time was it? You mentioned the school run.’
‘About eight thirty. Rebecca was usually up before eight, snatched a bit of breakfast and then went off to work. It was only a few minutes’ walk from home. The parents had been out the night before. Mr Arnold was a member of some charity thing … Rotary Club or Buffaloes or … I don’t remember, sorry. Anyway, they’d been out and slept later than they usually did. They woke at around eight and realized immediately that something was wrong.’
‘Wrong?’
Alec hesitated, then said, ‘For one thing Rebecca wasn’t up. For another, you could smell the blood and shit from the landing. It was a small house, typical terrace layout, the stairs went up from the middle room and a door closed the stairs off. You know the kind of thing I mean?’
Beside her, Naomi felt Tess nod.
‘We went up the stairs and along the corridor. The parent’s room was at the front so you’d got the top of the stairwell separating the two rooms. The third, little bedroom had been converted into a bathroom. Rebecca was an only child.’
‘And—’
‘And the door was still open. The mother had gone to call her but they’d both realized that something was terribly wrong, so Mr Arnold followed. They’d opened the door and seen her. Mr Arnold had the presence of mind to stop his wife from going into the room. She said afterwards she just wanted to hold her little girl because that’s what mother’s do when their child is hurt.’
‘So you just observed from the doorway?’
‘I don’t think she ever forgave him, you know. For not letting her go to their daughter. For holding her back—’
‘He was right. There was nothing she could do and it would have perhaps contaminated the crime scene.’
‘I’m not sure that’s the point,’ Naomi said softly. ‘It’s instinct, isn’t it. To hold those you love as tight as you can, keep them safe. It must have cut her as deep as the killer cut her child.’
‘And then?’ Tess’s voice had a shake in it and Naomi knew she must be visualizing the bedroom. Her memory of all the other violent scenes she had observed combining to make this all the more real.
‘And then we went back down the stairs and waited for back up to arrive. Alfie posted me by the door and he went through to the front room to talk to the parents. Three patrol cars and an ambulance arrived only a few minutes later. SOCO, as it was then, turned up just a short time after.’
‘And you kept the scene intact until then?’
Alec hesitated, thinking it all through. ‘Procedure wasn’t as tight as it is now. The strict handoff from FOA to CSI wasn’t as controlled and if I remember right, Joe Jackson and another officer went upstairs before we handed over to the forensics crew. But I think they just did what we had done and looked from the door. I’d identified a path, I do remember that. Alfie and I had kept to the right-hand side of the stairs and the right-hand side of the bit of corridor. Jackson and the other officer did the same. I watched them go up the stairs and I’m pretty certain it was just before SOCO turned up.’
‘And the other officer?’
‘I think it was a sergeant Bryce. He retired not long after and I didn’t really know him. It’ll be in the records, though.’
‘Bryce died just after he retired,’ Naomi said. ‘Lasted a year and then had a major heart attack. I remember the funeral. I was on duty directing cars
at the cemetery. There was a good turnout.’
‘There’s always a good turnout,’ Alec observed. ‘It’s just the way things are.’
Naomi recalled Joe Jackson’s funeral. The world and his wife had turned up to pay their respects but that had been before … before anyone had known that her beloved mentor had been a murderer.
‘And after that?’ Tess prompted.
‘I was on crowd control, the street was cordoned and only residents let through, then we escorted them to their houses. The press arrived and the rubberneckers and then, like I said, I was engaged to make the tea and do the filing and ask the neighbours if they’d seen anyone suspicious in the area. And that was that, really. I remember later that morning Jackson came out to talk to the press.’
‘Joe was good with the media,’ Naomi said.
‘I’m sure he was,’ Alec said. ‘Jackson could have put a positive spin on the devil himself if he’d had a mind to.’
TWENTY-ONE
He had watched the two young men leave the university earlier and had followed them to the hotel, bought a coffee in the bar and settled down to read his paper. The boy called Patrick turned to look at him, idly curious as he entered the bar. He had glanced across again as the coffee had been delivered to the table and then removed his attention to his friends.
He had watched the little group. The girl and the boy who had found their dead friend and the two he had followed, joined shortly thereafter by a third. He watched them with regret. The boy would be so perfect, and there was still a little sadness that he had been forced to make the substitution. But you were dealt your hand and you played it and that was that.
He felt no urgency about the situation anyway, no pressure to act in the foreseeable future. He had, long ago, learnt to exercise self-control. To wait out the time between and to cover his tracks. He knew, of course, that connections had been made and that the police had looked for a pattern and no doubt found several; some real and some imagined by those who fancied themselves to have a little psychological insight – an idea that amused him greatly. A little knowledge was not just a dangerous thing, it also served, more often than not as a misdirect. A template against which expectation could be measured.
The girl left the group and soon after that it broke up. He followed the object of his interest for a while, but then turned and headed off to have lunch before his afternoon appointment.
All was well, he thought. All, in fact, was very well.
‘Tell me about the three suspects,’ Tess said. ‘Anything you remember.’
Alec moved restlessly and Naomi guessed he was getting impatient with all the rush of past memories. ‘Your records will tell you more than I can.’
‘But I’d welcome your impressions.’
‘My impressions. Right.’ Alec reached for a slice of pizza and munched pensively for a moment, gathering his thoughts.
‘What was it about Hemingsby that appealed to DI Jackson? What made him stand out?’ Tess prompted.
Alec shook his head. ‘I don’t know that,’ he said. ‘The other two were local men, known to have been in the area and one had previous. Greening, I think the name was. I don’t recall the first name. He was a local butcher, known to get aggressive after a drink and he’d narrowly escaped jail, if I remember right. GBH. The victim claimed to have been threatened with a knife, but Greening had used his fists and both were drunk. There was something else as well, but …’ He shook his head. ‘Sorry.’
‘And he was in the frame because?’
‘Because he’d been seen hanging around outside the Arnold house and making a nuisance of himself. He fancied his chances with Rebecca, apparently. I think they’d been at the same school though he was a few years older. She had a steady boyfriend and made it plain she wasn’t interested.’
‘And the boyfriend was alibied?’
‘Must have been. I don’t remember anything about him.’
Alec frowned, trying to drag the memories to the surface. ‘Greening had a sister. Younger. Rebecca and the sister were friends, I think.’
‘And because he was a butcher he’d be comfortable with knives and have a knowledge of anatomy,’ Tess said thoughtfully.
‘Didn’t they reckon the same thing about the Ripper cases? No evidence that old Jack was a butcher either in the end. But yes, I suppose that would have made him an acceptable suspect. That and his background and the fact that the parents had already told him to bugger off and leave their little girl alone.’
‘Still, it’s one hell of a leap,’ Naomi commented.
‘And suspect lists have been drawn up on a lot less.’
‘True. Everything has to start somewhere. Who was the second suspect?’
‘Dilly Hughes,’ Alec said.
‘Dilly?’
Alec laughed at Tess’s tone. ‘Named for Frank Dillinger,’ he said. ‘I kid you not.’
‘And, apart from having an unfortunate name, he was liked because?’
‘Because he had a history of sexual … escapades is probably the best way of describing them. Nothing violent that we knew about, but he liked to expose himself to young girls in the park and had an unfortunate habit of standing, buck naked, pressed up against his bedroom window in full view of the street. He lived on Landsmoore Road, that little enclave of 1970s houses with the big windows, so you can imagine the full impact.’
‘And exposure is often a precursor to sexual violence,’ Tess said with a nod.
‘Statistically, yes. The family moved away pretty smartly after the Arnold murder and there were a half dozen girls who came forward to say that Dilly had grabbed at their breasts or made lewd suggestions. Psychiatric reports, if I remember right, suggested that our Dilly wasn’t all there but he’d been seen in the vicinity of the Arnold house on several occasions and Rebecca was certainly one of the young women he targeted. She’d lodged two or three complaints with the police. Alfie will probably remember it better. He was probably one of the officers tasked with going round to have a word with the family.’
‘And no charges were brought? Just the complaints?’
‘Far as I remember, yes. But I may be wrong. As I say the family moved away and I don’t know what happened after.’
‘And of those two, Dilly Hughes and Greening, the general opinion was?’
Alec shrugged. ‘They rose to the top of the list because they’d been in the right place at the right time and they had contact with Rebecca Arnold, but we also brought in the usual suspects. Anyone with a conviction for knife crime or sexual violence. There was no suggestion that Rebecca Arnold had been raped or sexually assaulted but consensus was that there was a sexual component to the crime. It was so bloody …’ he searched for the right word.
‘Intimate,’ Naomi said.
Alec nodded thoughtfully. ‘I suppose that would be a good way of describing it,’ he said. ‘Perversely intimate. Horrifyingly so.’
‘And this Hemingsby? Was he in contact with Rebecca Arnold? How did he make the list?’
‘Now that,’ Alec said, ‘was always something of a puzzlement to those of us not in Jackson’s inner circle. I was just suddenly aware that he was on the board as a person of interest and then as a suspect. Beyond that—’
‘But you must have been present at the briefings,’ Tess objected.
‘And very little was said beyond the fact that Hemingsby was a suspect. Look, you have to understand the way Jackson worked.’
Naomi shifted uncomfortably. She wanted to object but in truth found she could not. In some ways Joe Jackson was unpredictable and difficult, even she had to admit that. He led an investigation from the front, confiding in a select few who could be relied upon to agree with his reasoning and not question his methods. He was very much in favour of defining a ‘need to know’ and his opinion was generally that very few people needed to know very much. She bit her lip, vaguely annoyed with both herself and with Alec that she should be forced to come over, even slightly, to his way of thinking.
‘Jackson had certain colleagues that he trusted with his ideas. The rest of us were just worker ants. He gave out his instructions and we followed them. But over Hemingsby he was even more close-lipped than usual and I suppose that was understandable in a way. Hemingsby was respectable, had friends who might intervene on his behalf and create a lot of noise, according to Jackson. We should tread carefully. Understand, this was the impression I got, I knew very little about the man or his background though I vaguely recall that he thought Dilly Hughes might have been a patient of his and I think that might have been how the initial connection was made. Something like that, anyway, but what I remember is mostly gossip I picked up so don’t hold me to it.’
‘And how did he go from being a witness to being a suspect?’ Tess wanted to know.
‘Sorry. I just can’t tell you that. Only that he did. Meanwhile we plebs continued with our house to house and our interviews and with chasing the likes of Dilly Hughes and interviewing members of the public who came in or phoned in and were certain they’d seen something that might crack the case … and you can understand, the local community took this very personally, very much to heart and everyone and his dog wanted to help out any way they could.’
‘Information overload.’ Naomi smiled. ‘Who kept the book?’
The book; a collation of all leads, all information received, all interviews and suspicions and tasks completed or left undone. It was the bible; the core text for any major case.
She felt rather than heard Alec hesitate. ‘Well,’ he said at last, ‘Alfie Briggs acted as collator for the general enquiry.’
‘But?’
‘But not for Hemingsby.’
‘No,’ Alec agreed. ‘Not for Hemingsby.’
They fell silent for a few moments and then Tess said, ‘Look, I’ll get this from the records when I go through, but tell me. Surely DI Jackson wasn’t SIO on this? Who headed up the MIT?’
‘If I remember right, the new structure for Major Incident Teams had just been established up here. We were a twelvemonth or so behind the Met in getting the full structure in place,’ Alec said. ‘It was a DCI called Frearson, I think. But Jackson had day to day control of the enquiry. Rumour was, he and Frearson went way back.’
A Murderous Mind Page 9