by Adam Carter
“Are you telling me to bring Harry in?”
“Mullin’s gone and Straw never met you. He doesn’t even know where you live. I don’t see Harry could do that much good even if we did involve him. We nail a confession from Straw, we don’t need Mullin or Harry. Which means the decision’s taken away from me. It’s down to you how you go on from this. If you want to come clean, I’ll support you. Don’t know whether I’ll be able to do much to help, but I’ll certainly not let you fight this alone.”
“Thanks, Ray. You’re much better for me than Harry ever was.”
He offered a wry smile. “I’m starting to think that’s not too hard.”
In spite of everything, Lees felt herself relaxing. Ray Barden was a good man. Whatever happened, whatever she chose to do, she would not drag him down with her. Barden had a promising career; one which she would not allow him to sacrifice for anything.
“We should get on with this,” Lees said. “Put the whole thing to bed.”
“You still up for sitting in on the interview with me?”
“Should I? If it gets out that I know Harry, prosecution will have the case thrown out.”
“I think we passed that point a long time ago. And I’d prefer you with me. There are a lot of sharks out here, Carrie, and I’d prefer to have a friendly dolphin by my side.”
Lees looked at him strangely, trying desperately to work out what he was talking about. “That’s the worst analogy I’ve ever heard.”
“Yeah, it was pretty bad.”
“I mean, you could have made some mention of your name being Ray, like a stingray, or something.”
“I said I agreed with you, Carrie.”
“Or you could have …”
“Carrie.”
She smiled. “You are so easy to wind up, Detective Barden.”
Grumbling, he got to his feet. “Let’s just go end this.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“I told you already, it was Sean.”
David Straw was becoming irate, but Barden was still pressing the issue. Lees had watched the detective fight with Straw in the interview room, content herself to sit back and let him get on with it. Straw’s solicitor, Lucy Fisher, was back and this time Lees even remembered her name. Fisher was not as cocky as last time, mainly because her client did not seem to have properly discussed what was going to be said during the interview. But Straw was sticking to his claim that it was Sean Mullin who had stabbed Tanner, which was convenient considering it wasn’t Sean they had sitting across the table from them.
“I mean,” Straw continued, “I told you that back at the flat.”
“Jodie’s flat,” Barden said.
“Yeah, obviously.”
“And what’s your relationship with Jodie Appleton exactly?”
“She hired me. I told you that already.”
“She hired you to throw John Tanner into the river.”
“Yeah.”
“But not to kill him? That was all off your own back?”
“No, that was Sean.”
“Who killed Tanner because he made Sean look silly when he ran away?”
“Yeah.”
“While you didn’t feel silly at all being dragged away by Harry Gorman after Tanner had knocked you to the ground.”
Straw paused, and Lees could see he had not expected the question.
Barden moved on. “Were you sleeping with Jodie?”
“What? No.”
“Are you friends?”
“No. I never met her before.”
“So a stranger comes out of the blue and offers you a hundred pounds to toss someone in the river?”
“No. She was a friend of Sean’s.”
This, Lees decided, was buck-passing at its finest.
Barden had agreed to allow Lees to ask whatever questions she felt appropriate and she decided they needed a more aggressive approach. Barden, of course, knew far more about this job than Lees ever would, but she had a feeling Straw would give them nothing otherwise. “Why’d you kill Jennifer Appleton?” she asked.
“I didn’t. That must have been Sean as well.”
“But you knew she was dead?”
“Jodie told me.”
“I get the impression Jodie doesn’t know.”
“Oh, she knows all right.”
Lees tried not to frown. Straw was suggesting Jodie Appleton had orchestrated the murder of her own sister, which made no sense considering this had all begun because Jodie had been trying to protect her sister from John Tanner. Only a truly warped mind would believe the best way to protect someone was to kill them.
“Let’s start this again,” Lees said. “Jodie doesn’t like Tanner and wants him thrown in the river. You do that for her, then Sean kills him. You’re saying Jodie wanted Tanner dead?”
“Well, it doesn’t hurt her, does it?”
“So why didn’t she pay you to kill him?”
“Because,” Barden replied for him, “he doesn’t want to admit he was paid to kill someone, even if it was Sean who did the deed.”
“That makes sense,” Lees said. “But everyone’s blaming each other, so who are we supposed to believe?”
“What we need to do,” Barden said, “is find out where Jennifer Appleton fits into all of this. We’re concentrating too much on Tanner, but there’s another victim here, remember?”
“Sure,” Lees said. “Jodie did all this to protect her sister, so Jodie couldn’t have been the one to have done it. That leaves the two guys she hired.”
“And Harry,” Barden said, “but he seems to have disappeared. And he was just a fall guy so it would have to have been one of the two Jodie hired.”
“Right,” Lees said. “One of them is a real sicko. Maybe he didn’t like the fact her boyfriend knocked him down.”
“Or made him look like a coward,” Barden put in.
“But to go after the girlfriend? That’s a bit low.”
“Then we’re talking about the lowest of the low, Constable.”
“The lowest of the low who’d accept a hundred quid to toss someone in the river.”
“Or to kill someone.”
“You think they were paid to kill Tanner, then?”
“No,” Barden said, “but when Sean stabbed Tanner, I think Straw realised they were both going down for murder. After all, they’d both accepted the same money.”
Lees looked to Straw. “That’s you, by the way. Feel free to jump in at any time.”
Straw had adopted a nervous expression. Lees could see they had rattled him, which was a good start.
“Is that why you went to Jennifer?” Barden asked, leaning forward. “Did you panic when you heard Tanner had turned up dead? You asked Sean what happened and he told you he’d done it?”
“Sean did do it.”
“And you realised the blood money would send you away. So you went to see Jennifer. Why though?”
“Because,” Lees answered for him, “he knew Jennifer recognised him. You turned up at Jodie’s work today, Straw. That makes other people see you, and it’s not a clever thing to do, is it? Any other times you were with Jodie and someone just happened to see you? Did Jennifer ever just happen to see you? Not enough for her to remember you at the pub, but enough for her to remember you once her boyfriend turned up dead. You knew we’d bring Jennifer in and show her mugshots. You knew sooner or later she’d remember the scraggly guy with the unruly mop of hair from the river and connect him with a similar-looking guy she saw one time talking to her sister.”
“I didn’t kill Jennifer,” Straw protested. “I didn’t go over there to shut her up. I didn’t do anything.”
“You didn’t mean to,” Lees corrected. “You went to threaten her, no?”
“No.”
“Silly me,” Lees said. “Threatening her wouldn’t have done anything except give her another good look at you. No, you went to blackmail her.”
“No, I …”
“Well, not blackmail, exactly,
” Lees interrupted. “You went to tell her everything. You went to tell her Jodie was behind it all, that it was her own sister that hired you and Sean. You wanted to make Jennifer understand if she put you away, you’d take her sister down with you.” Even as she spoke the words, she understood it was a parallel with her own situation. She had protected Harry and now if Harry was caught they would both go down.
“I didn’t kill her.”
“You didn’t take a weapon,” Lees said. “So I accept you didn’t mean to kill her. What happened? She screamed at you, got loud enough to make you nervous? And then you hit her?”
“By the way,” Barden said, “we’re getting DNA evidence together from the crime scene, so you might want to admit to at least being there.”
Straw looked from one officer to the other. His solicitor said something to him about calming down, but Lees could see he was already surrendering.
“She slipped,” he said. “I didn’t hit her. She slipped.”
“She slipped,” Lees said, “with enough force to smash her brains out on the bathroom sink?”
Straw said nothing, but he did not need to.
“I think we have enough,” Barden said. Lees was feeling elated they had a confession, but there was something off in Barden’s voice. “Straw, give us Mullin or you’re going down for both murders.”
The solicitor made some remark about the legality of that statement, but Straw cut her off. “He’s hiding out near the railway.”
“Near the railway?” Lees asked. “You mean he didn’t get on a train and go anywhere?”
“No. I can take you to him.”
“Just give us the location and we’ll find our own way, thanks.”
Straw gave them detailed directions. He did so in a downtrodden fashion, but far from reluctantly. For the first time since the investigation had begun, Lees was beginning to feel they were at last getting somewhere.
They rounded off the interview shortly after and Straw was returned to his cell. They had a confession to the murder of Jennifer Appleton and a possible location for Sean Mullin. As they walked back to Barden’s car, Lees felt in higher spirits than ever before. Barden, she noted, looked almost defeated.
“Why aren’t you happy?” she asked. “We’re well on our way to ending this. And … Hold on, this means I’m off the hook. When I left Mullin, he didn’t go off and kill Jennifer Appleton. My letting him go didn’t do anything at all.” She felt herself grinning like a fool. “I didn’t have anything to do with Jennifer’s death. I don’t have to feel responsible.”
“No,” Barden said as he opened his car door. She did not believe she had ever heard him so defeated. “But I had David Straw in custody and I let him go. Then he went off and killed Jennifer Appleton, as you put it. You’re not responsible for her death, Carrie. I am.”
Suddenly, Lees did not feel so good about things after all.
“Just get in the car,” he told her. “We’ll go arrest Mullin, get a confession out of either him or Straw for the murder of Tanner; then I’m going to bed.”
Lees said nothing and dutifully obeyed. It did not seem fair to tell her partner she was still relieved. If nothing else, this case had taught her the first person she should look out for in life was herself.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
He had expected Mullin to be hiding out under a dank bridge or something, yet as Barden drove to the location Straw had given them, he could see the man sitting outside a pub, drinking a pint of beer. The name of the pub, The Railway Arms, was displayed on a sign directly over his head. Barden supposed this was a little joke between Mullin and Straw, but he did not find it especially funny. As Barden and Lees got out the car, they saw a train shoot past the pub on nearby rails above, for the pub was situated beside a small tunnel. He could imagine Mullin considered himself ingenious for having fooled the police.
With great prejudice, Barden intended to ruin his day.
Striding quickly towards him, Barden watched the man’s face. He was so certain of himself, so confident that he had escaped the law, that he was not even paying any attention to anything around him. The instant he saw Barden his expression changed dramatically, for while he had never met the man before he could see Barden was the law. Noticing Lees striding along beside him confirmed his worst suspicions and Mullin was on his feet, stumbling over his chair and knocking the table over in the process.
Barden began to run, but Mullin was already moving, throwing his half-empty pint and entirely missing either of his targets. Barden did not believe he had ever seen someone flee in such a panicked fashion, but if Mullin was anything it was fast. As he and Lees gave chase, it became immediately obvious Mullin was going to get away unless they could do something drastic.
“I’ll get back to the car,” Lees said, “and try to cut him off.”
“Wait,” Barden said, seeing that Mullin was scrambling up a steep incline of dirt which led to the tracks above. “I think the idiot’s slowing himself down for us. Find another way up and meet me on the tracks.”
Without waiting for an answer, Barden launched himself onto the incline and scrambled up after him. Mullin’s determination to escape lent him speed, but so too did Barden’s determination to catch his prey. Several times he felt he could reach out and grab hold of Mullin’s foot, but each time his prey eluded him. As Mullin reached the top and disappeared from sight, Barden knew he had to get over the rise in the next few moments or lose him for good.
He felt his foot slip and cursed, knowing his panic may well have cost him everything, and as he finally made it to the top he paused to take in the scene. Train tracks continued left and right, while on the opposite side there was a low wall, strewn with graffiti. Mullin could certainly have escaped over the wall, but it would have taken him a few moments to work his way over, and Barden had not been delayed enough for that. Looking both ways, he could see no sign of Mullin, but nor could he have escaped back down the incline.
Then Barden saw something else. To the left there was an area where the track split, ending after several metres in a buffer. Sitting against this was a cart or carriage of some kind which reminded Barden of a skip which had sat outside his house one time for months. It was filled with stones and grit and had enough weeds growing through it to suggest it had been there a long time.
It was the only place which offered any kind of cover for someone who wanted to hide.
“Mullin,” Barden called as he started over the tracks. “Come on out, there’s nowhere else you can go.”
A head poked out from the side of the cart. “It was David,” Mullin called. “David Straw’s the one you want.”
“For which murder?”
“Both of them.”
“That’s what he says, too.”
Mullin paused. “Then why do you want me?”
“To testify that it was all Straw. You’re a witness, Sean. The best witness we have.”
“I’m not putting Dave away.”
“It’s either him or you, Sean. Your choice.”
There were a few moments of silence, presumably while Mullin considered his situation. Then he said, “What evidence do you have it was Dave?”
“DNA,” Barden shouted back, wondering why he was raising his voice. “We have enough to put him at Appleton’s without a doubt, and without a knife we can’t prove who stabbed Tanner; but if I can nail him for one I’ll get him on the other through circumstance.”
Another pause. “Are you tricking me?”
“No.”
“But you would say that.”
“Yes.”
“So you are tricking me?”
Barden had dealt with frightened criminals before and always enjoyed it. “Whatever I say, you’re not going to believe it. So how about you just come down to the station and find out? There’s nothing much else you can do anyway. We know who you are, so unless you’re going to flee to Spain or something, you might as well take the chance I’m telling the truth.”
&nbs
p; Again Mullin considered it, but didn’t seem to believe him. Barden had never really expected him to.
“You can’t come near me,” Mullin said.
“Why? What exactly are you going to do?”
A rock hurtled over the top of the cart and landed on the track about ten metres from where Barden was standing.
“That’s it?” Barden asked. “You’re going to throw rocks at me until I leave?”
“I have plenty of rocks.”
“And I have plenty of backup I can call in. If I tell them you’re armed they might even come with guns.” Another rock landed on the tracks and Barden did not even watch it roll away. “I’m sure they have better aim, too.”
“Fine, I give up.”
“Then come out.”
“I can’t. I’ve trapped my leg.”
“You haven’t trapped your leg. Now get out here.”
“It’s stuck.”
Barden was not an idiot, but he also knew if Mullin wanted to keep to his story there was not much he could do. Lees was driving around somewhere, probably still trying to figure out precisely where they were, not having expected Mullin to just hide behind a rusty old cart. Calling in for backup was ludicrous and he would be laughed at for a very long time, even if there were officers spare. It all therefore came down to how much he wanted Mullin in a cell, which was very much so.
Grumbling, he started forward, keeping an eye on the side of the cart so he would be able to see if Mullin made any sudden moves. He could see the man’s legs through the wheels and could not see either of them was stuck, but at least he now knew where he was standing. Crouching, in order to keep his eyes on Mullin’s position, Barden reached the cart and began to move around it.