Fit Up

by Faith Clifford

  My stomach rumbled with hunger and I looked up at the clock, it was close to lunchtime. Then the phone rang. I lifted up the receiver and took an intake of breath to greet the caller, but before I could utter a word I heard Jeremy announce, ‘I’m going to be arrested this afternoon.’ My heart felt like it had been clenched inside a fist and I was so affected by the immediate shock of this news that I was having trouble formulating a response. I managed to utter, ‘Whatever for?’ but I must have sounded quite panic-stricken because I could see Ray looking at me, obviously concerned.

  Jeremy was seething with anger and I managed to calm him down enough for him to tell me that a PC Swain from Welwyn Garden City Police had asked him to come to the station to be interviewed or he would face being arrested. I asked him whether he was going, which I immediately realised was stupid, and I got a terse reply: ‘Of course I am, I have to. And in any case I don’t want the police back at our house again.’ My head was all over the place. I offered to go with him but he declined and said he would go himself to find out what it was all about. Joined-up thinking was starting to kick in and I told Jeremy to contact Irene Hill and ask her to represent him.

  ‘Don’t you dare go to that police station without a solicitor present,’ I said firmly. But innocent and naïve Jeremy merely replied, ‘But I don’t know what exactly it’s all about yet, do I?’ I think if I had been standing in front of Jeremy at this moment I would have given him a slap to bring him to his senses.

  ‘For pity’s sake,’ I said. ‘The last time you were interviewed by the police without a solicitor you were far too chatty, sorry, I meant helpful to the police and look where that got you. Please, please go with a solicitor. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for me,’ I begged. Finally, I had got through to him and he said he would ring Irene.

  Moments later he called back and said that he was on his way to Welwyn Garden City. Irene could not attend but she was sending someone. I breathed a sigh of relief but I was still frightened.

  No longer hungry and not wanting to see anyone, I went home to see Sasha. It was going to be another very long and tense afternoon.

  When the call came through from PC Swain for Jeremy, he had been parking up outside our house.

  PC Swain introduced herself before getting right to the point: ‘Due to information received we would like you to come into the police station to be arrested so that we can interview you in relation to a complaint received from one of your customers.’

  Jeremy, initially thrown, interrupted her flow and said, ‘Look, before you go on, I need to enlighten you to the fact that I am about to sue Hertfordshire Constabulary for wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution and misfeasance in public office. I don’t mind if you want to arrest me for this nonsense but it will add to my damages.’

  There was a deathly silence at the end of the phone and Jeremy thought they had suddenly been cut off. Finally, she responded: ‘May I put you on hold, Mr Clifford, as I need to speak to my sergeant?’

  ‘Sure,’ Jeremy said coolly.

  After what seemed like forever, PC Swain came back to Jeremy and said, ‘Mr Clifford, I have spoken to my sergeant and we have decided that we will not arrest you, but I would be grateful if you would come to see me for a chat.’

  Jeremy agreed to do so as he did not want to be obstructive, but as he hung up the phone he wondered what the hell was going on.

  If Jeremy wasn’t annoyed about this whole waste of time already, the effort to drive all the way to Welwyn Garden City from Watford didn’t help. He had been to a lot of courts over the past months and now he was beginning to feel harassed.

  Upon arriving at the station, he announced himself to the officer at the desk and told them that he was there to meet PC Swain. He had been told by Irene that under no circumstances was he to proceed with any interview until the solicitor got there. He did not have to wait long, however, as the young, smartly dressed man behind him introduced himself from Smith, Brown & Sprawson.

  There was little time to chat, not that there was really much to tell, and Jeremy quickly briefed him on what PC Swain had said when she called. He was already up to speed with past events from Irene.

  Eventually they found themselves sitting down in a small room with PC Swain and another female officer. They were then told that the interview would be recorded. Jeremy could not help feeling apprehensive – a police interview room was never a comfortable place to be.

  PC Swain, dressed in plain clothes, opened the interview. ‘We have received an allegation, Mr Clifford, that you sold Mr Lewis a Manfrotto 521 LANC controller when, in fact, you were meant to have sold him a Manfrotto 523 LANC controller.’

  Jeremy glanced across at his solicitor, whose brow was furrowed in puzzlement at her opening statement. Leaning forward in astonishment, he could feel himself going red with the effort to suppress the hysterical laughter that was bubbling up inside him. He knew he would have to compose himself before answering because if he started to giggle he wouldn’t be able to stop.

  ‘What the fuck is she on about?’ he thought.

  Obviously she had no idea what these items were. Jeremy explained that the Manfrotto 521 is a multifunctional LANC controller suitable for many camcorders. It clips on to a pan bar of a tripod and then a cable is connected to the LANC socket on the camcorder. This allows the user to operate various camcorder functions without having to touch the camcorder. The Manfrotto 523 does the same as the 521 but instead of being a clip-on accessory it comes built into its own pan bar, thereby replacing the existing pan bar of the tripod you are using. As to why he sold Mr Lewis the 521, this was, he explained, because the 523 was out of stock and rather than keep Mr Lewis waiting, he supplied the cheaper model and credited his account for about £40. Why Mr Lewis’s camera accessories were of sudden interest to the police was baffling. Surely PC Swain and her colleague who sat next to her should be out on the streets catching real criminals – not investigating the shopping habits of a member of the general public, Jeremy thought. Sending out a slightly different model to that of the one requested hardly constituted a crime that should be brought to the attention of the police!

  PC Swain then asked how transactions were conducted by the company from the time that a customer calls to receiving goods. He answered, but still he could not see the point of the questioning or the police involvement generally. Jeremy again looked over at his solicitor, who was still dumbstruck with astonishment and clearly, like Jeremy, had no clue as to where all this was going.

  After a further half an hour of interrogation about varieties of camcorder accessories, which Jeremy had answered as if he was doing a sales pitch, he was allowed to leave. PC Swain gathered up her papers in a file and said that she would be making further enquiries before sending it to the CPS, who would consider whether or not to press charges. Now he really wanted to laugh out loud; he thought she had to be joking. He wanted to get her by the shoulders, give her a good shake and, based on her line of questioning, ask her what could possibly be the charge? She had been insinuating some kind of fraud but had no evidence to support it.

  As Jeremy stepped out of the police station he and the solicitor looked at each other. ‘Jeremy, what the hell was that all about?’ he asked, to which Jeremy replied, ‘I haven’t got a clue.’ The solicitor told him that at best Mr Lewis’s grievance should be conducted as a civil case for the small claims court, and certainly wasn’t an investigation for an already overstretched police force to put before the CPS. With that, he and Jeremy shook hands and went their separate ways.

  Finally, putting me out of my misery, Jeremy called. He said that he would explain everything at home but that the whole thing had been a waste of time for all concerned.

  For our litigation, Jeremy requested copies of the tapes of the interview as he felt it might be important if he considered harassment charges, but this request was turned down with no reason given as to why.

  Jeremy remembered Mark Lewis. He was one of his customers
at UK Professional Video before it closed. The police had called Jeremy back in April with a complaint from Lewis and they were satisfied that there was no evidence of illegal activity. Even so, Mr Lewis had made personal threats by email to Jeremy, and in the end he had asked outright if Lewis knew Gerard. After that, communication ceased abruptly and he had heard no more about Lewis until now.

  The whole incident was rather bizarre and there was no doubt that Gerard had had some involvement. No matter, we thought, he was going to get what was coming to him very soon.

  Chapter 19

  THE BOB CRABTREE EMAILS

  Our letters of introduction concerning the libel case against Gerard had borne fruit and Louis Charalambous, a solicitor with Simons Muirhead and Burton, had responded and said that, on the face of it, Jeremy had a good case but they wanted a lot more information.

  Louis had invited Jeremy to meet with him on 23 June. We were anxious to appoint a solicitor to start the litigation and to give Bob Crabtree their name so that we could see the two emails he had from Gerard.

  At the meeting, Louis had asked for a lot more background information, especially in relation to the criminal case. He confirmed that the conversation recorded of Julie Cullivan and Gerard was slander. Jeremy told him about the contents of the emails, which would be evidence of libel. Despite this strong evidence we would have to pay our own legal fees as neither he nor Counsel would consider acting on a CFA agreement due to the fact that there could be a viable defence to the slander allegation. Then there was the uncertainty about the recovery of our costs against Gerard.

  That afternoon Jeremy spoke to Bob Crabtree and gave him the solicitor’s email address to forward the Gerard emails. Bob was kind enough to copy Jeremy in at the same time and we sat down to read the attachment together.

  The first email was on 18 March 2005.

  Dear Bob

  Sorry about my last email, I think it came across too pushy, that was not my intention. You suggested I emailed you this week to chase progress so without seeming pushy at all, have you managed to find time to remove the last few links? Please let me know.

  Regards. Lloyd.

  This was, we were convinced, a desperate request from Gerard for Bob to remove any erroneous links to himself and Video Action from the DVDoctor website. Bob had replied that he had not had the time and to contact him again the following week.

  Gerard replies on 21 March:

  Dear Bob

  Thanks for the update. Unfortunately, I have just been diagnosed as having a tumour on my kidney. I’m going to have an emergency operation hopefully tomorrow. All being well I should be back in the office in about 2/3 weeks.

  Regards Lloyd

  Needless to say, we were shocked by this new information. We had heard from a supplier that Lloyd had told him some time ago that he had not been feeling well and that he was going to see a consultant for tests. We never thought any more of it but Jeremy knew that Gerard smoked marijuana daily and if he had been experiencing any pain it was surely going to be masked by the effects of the drug.

  Bob’s next email wishes him luck.

  On 7 April, Gerard writes:

  Dear Bob,

  I am now back from my operation which was successful although painful. I’m not sure if you’ve heard what has happened to Jeremy Clifford in my absence. It seems he has closed down. He also has a pending paedophile case for which I have been asked to be a witness. I’d be interested to know if you have more info on Jeremy Clifford’s demise.

  Regards as always.

  Lloyd

  It seemed quite predictable that in his effort to recover from a very painful operation, the first thing he could think about doing was turning the screws on Jeremy from his hospital bed. We could see that he had been spinning a fair few lies and exaggerations. We were right about one thing, though – he had been talking about the court case.

  Bob never answered this email from Gerard – we could only guess that he must have started to feel uncomfortable about the way the correspondence was going.

  While we were glad that Bob had come forward with this evidence, it made hard reading and knowing that Gerard had been spreading the word across the industry, just as Jeremy had predicted at the police interview, was incredibly upsetting.

  I could tell Jeremy was hurt by these emails and determined to take this case to the end. He so badly wanted Gerard to know about the evidence he had against him, to show him that he was not as smart as he liked to think he was. Waiting to slap a letter of claim on him was eating Jeremy alive.

  Sensing he was disappearing into a dark mood, to take his mind off things I suggested we go out for something to eat. While Jeremy drove, the radio played ‘No Matter What’ by Boyzone. It was our first dance song at our wedding (although he preferred the Meat Loaf version). As the words ‘I will keep you safe and strong and sheltered from the storm’ were sung, Jeremy became emotional and was unable to look at me as he said, ‘I’ve failed to do that.’ My eyes started to well up and I couldn’t respond, I felt too sad.

  Jeremy had also received a response from Mark Afeeva, a direct access barrister about whom Jeremy had been enquiring. We reasoned that it would cut costs if we could eliminate the need for a solicitor and just pay the barrister to present the case against Gerard. Mark was in the same place as Louis in that he also required more information, and each time anyone asked for the history it became easier to collate and relate the events.

  Although steps had been made in the right direction, Jeremy had not been as upbeat as he had been prior to seeing the emails a few days ago. The path to justice was taking so long and was, it seemed, never clearcut. To him it was simple, the proof was there in black and white and audio. In the days that followed Jeremy was resentful and bitter. He snapped at everyone, not caring who he hurt in the process. I came off worse of course and I could not do right for doing wrong. Our relationship had always been loving and easy-going, and now I felt I was living with a stranger. He talked to me like I was on the side of the enemy, telling me that I must have thought he was a paedophile. He even went as far as to accuse me of hiding the truth about how his own family ‘don’t say it to my face but they think it just the same’. However, my feelings of injustice ran just as deep, as deep as the love I felt for this man and on whom I would never give up. Only he did not see it at this moment.

  I could not let Gerard and the police get away with what they had done, not just to Jeremy, but to me and our families. It was exhausting having to constantly try to build him up, to look for positives. Even Sasha could not pull him out of his mood. I went to work early in the morning but would return at lunchtimes to make sure Jeremy was eating, and to get him to converse about his progress with Mark or any other developments. One afternoon I returned home to see the curtains still closed in our bedroom. My heart sank, fearing that he was slipping back into the dark place that it had taken so long to get out of the previous year. I went upstairs to find him feet up on the desk in the back bedroom, still in his dressing gown with music blaring. I got his attention but he had a vacant look which unnerved me. The songs were from what he told me were the most enjoyable era of his childhood, where he regularly appeared to be retreating to happier memories. I was literally losing him to the ’70s.

  Turning off the CD player, I firmly told him to shower, get dressed and come downstairs for something to eat. He dutifully did so and as we sat together eating soup and bread rolls, he leaned forward and said chillingly, ‘I could quite happily kill Lloyd. The thing is, it’s only a matter of planning how and getting away with it. Mind you, I don’t think I really care as long as he is dead.’

  I laughed and said, ‘Don’t be daft, don’t let this guy take any more from you. Your time for retribution will come but let it be the legal way, he’s just not worth letting him sap all this energy from you.’

  ‘Of course, you’re right.’ He smiled and seemed brighter and I asked what he had planned for the afternoon. He said he had to make a p
hone call to Mark Afeeva as he was starting to write up the Particulars of Claim against Gerard and would take Sasha for a nice walk in the park. Before I returned to work he showed me that he had received a letter from the National Identification Service confirming that they had updated their records with the ‘not guilty’ verdicts on all the charges. ‘Well, that is a step in the right direction,’ I said encouragingly, and with that I kissed him goodbye and told him I wouldn’t be home too late.

  I did not speak to Jeremy at all that afternoon but as I pulled up in the drive, he was waiting for me. His hands were in front of him as if in prayer, and he had that same blank look he had had at lunchtime. I placed my hand on his shoulder and said gently, ‘Sweetie, whatever is the matter?’

  Jeremy looked up from the steeple of his fingers and looked me directly in the eye. A feeling of dread suddenly swept over me as he said, ‘Lloyd’s dead!’

  Chapter 20

  GERARD’S END

  In that moment, the world seemed to have come to a grinding halt. Still standing in the front drive, I searched Jeremy’s face for information but he just stared at me impassively. My heart was thudding so hard I could hardly breathe and I was trying to ignore the horrible thoughts that were pushing to the front of my mind. He had not called me that afternoon, which was unusual, and I had put it down to the fact that he had probably got busy with something. Then, remembering what he had said at lunchtime that he could ‘quite easily kill Gerard’ made me shiver in the late afternoon sunshine. Was it possible that, once I had left, Jeremy had planned to find Gerard and … do what? Could he? Had everything that had taken place simply messed with his mind and made him unable to stand it any more? Then came the ‘how had he done it?’ thought. All these questions were forming thick and fast in my mind when my subconscious stepped in and helpfully formed the words that I had been trying to ignore: ‘He’s only gone and murdered Gerard!’