Paparazzi

by Jo Fenton

  “Well done, both of you. You’re amazing, and I’m proud to work with you.”

  “Does that mean I can be part of White Knight permanently?”

  “I’d be happy for you to be a permanent fixture on the team, as long as your mum agrees. But what about your computing job?”

  “I got an email today, offering voluntary redundancy, but with the option to call on me as a consultant. So I can do some freelance work on the side to keep my hand in, and help with finances, but the redundancy package would help tide us over for a bit anyway.”

  “Joanna, are you happy with that?” I see no reason she wouldn’t want her son working with us, but it seems right to ask.

  “Yes, of course. I think Will’s shown himself worthy of a place at White Knight, and he’s easy to work with. He’s even okay to live with, and he’s a better cook than I am.”

  The light-hearted discussion of the future calms me down, and I’m in a better mood by the time Will pulls up outside the station.

  Finn has arrived before us and is out of his car already as Will turns off the engine. He comes over and waits as we get out.

  “I’ll take you all up to my office. We can have a chat, and then you can watch as I interview Penny and Nigel. Does that seem reasonable?”

  “Sure. Have you still got that coffee machine in your office?”

  “Course I have. There’s a whole selection of pods, so you can keep yourselves supplied throughout the interviews. I’ve even got biscuits. I guess no one’s had dinner. This wasn’t quite what I had in mind when I suggested exchanging information this evening.”

  “No problem.” Will grins. “Coffee and biscuits sounds great. Thanks.”

  When we get to Finn’s office, I look around. It’s moderately tidy, as long as you don’t look too closely at the piles on the in-trays – he has three of these, and rarely gets round to going through them. I glance at him and see he’s watching me.

  “I need you to keep me in order, Becks.” He smiles wryly. “None of the team ever challenge me like you did.”

  I refrain from asking why he betrayed me then. He’s already explained. And also, I would prefer to keep it between Finn and me for now. I’ll tell Matt later, but that’s all.

  He must realise that he’s not getting a response, because he glances round to check the number of chairs, then leaves to fill the deficit. Joanna gives me a sharp look. I can see she senses that all is not well between me and Finn, and I decide to make an extra effort to be normal with him.

  Sitting around his desk with coffee, we keep the conversation focussed on evidence and our recent knowledge and suppositions. Finn takes copious notes.

  “I’m going to have to interview Penny. I wish you three could be part of that, but at least I can let you watch.”

  “Will you have your phone on?” I ask. He always used to turn off his phone before going into a meeting with the suspects.

  “You know I don’t usually.” He pauses. “But I suppose I could make an exception. Are you suggesting that you’ll text me if I need prompting or if something comes up that I’m not aware of?”

  “It would make sense. I think we’ve told you everything we know, but it’s not impossible that there’s some little detail that we didn’t know was important. We’ve been working in this job for long enough to know that it’s all in the details.”

  “Very true, Becks. Okay. That’s a plan then.” He switches on a screen and fiddles with some buttons, until the screen shows Penny, looking sullen, and an apparently exasperated duty solicitor. “Right. Wish me luck, folks. I’m going in.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  I have observed many interviews over the years, so this should be quite ordinary, but given the circumstances, I am fascinated to hear this story from Penny’s perspective. If she’ll talk.

  Finn opens the interview in the usual way. He’s accompanied by a young Sergeant that I don’t recognise, who he introduces as DS Ian Timms. He addresses Penny as Miss Ellsworth whilst reading her rights to her. Then, with the formalities over, Finn starts with the events of today. However angry I am with him, I can’t deny that he’s a sensible and thorough police detective.

  “So tell me about this afternoon. Why did you abduct Emma Cassidy?”

  “No comment.”

  “Do you deny that you abducted Emma?”

  “No comment.”

  “Look, Penny. I want to help you, but I can’t do that if you won’t talk to me. I need to understand the circumstances from your perspective, because right now, the evidence is extremely damning.” Finn is lying, but it’s a good tactic. He’s also switched to calling Penny by her first name. Another good strategy. The evidence is actually pretty flimsy, although now that we have a suspect, there is a warrant to search Penny’s flat. It’s hoped that this will turn up further proof of her guilt.

  Penny is looking uncertainly at her solicitor, who responds in kind but firm tones. “You don’t have to say anything, Penny. But don’t forget, if you fail to say something now and you would like to use it later in court, it may be too late.”

  “Fine! Okay, yes, I abducted his daughter, but he deserved it. He was being stupid.”

  “Would you like to expand on that, Penny?” Finn’s tone is neutral, but I know him well enough to sense his relief.

  “I sent him a letter warning him that if he didn’t change his behaviour, his daughter would be taken away. He didn’t change.”

  “Was this the letter?” Finn reaches into a black leather bag at his side and extracts the plastic bag holding the letter that Troy received. Penny glances at it, then nods.

  “For the purposes of the recording, Penny has just nodded assent. What did you plan to do with Emma once you had taken her?”

  “It depended on what Troy said. If he’d agreed to my terms, then I’d have let her go.”

  I can’t see Finn’s face from the direction of the camera. He and the Sergeant have their backs to it, but I suspect him of mentally rolling his eyes. He would show a poker face though.

  “What were your terms, Penny?”

  “He had to agree to be with me. To marry me and be mine for ever.”

  “After you’d murdered his wife, who he loved, and his parents, who I presume he also loved?”

  “He did. He was close to his mum and dad. That’s why they had to go. Anyone who got in my way had to go.”

  “So you admit to killing them?” Finn’s tone is neutral, but the solicitor murmurs in Penny’s ear.

  “I don’t admit to anything except for wanting Troy.” Penny sounds mutinous, and her tone is childish.

  I glance at Joanna. “She’s not normal. This is not normal behaviour even for an obsession.”

  “Killing everyone who gets in the way is also not normal.” Will points at the screen. “Let’s see what else she says.”

  “Tell us what happened with your friends in Huddersfield.” Finn changes tack.

  “We argued. They were being really bitchy to me. Jen said I’d never get married. She said no one would want me. The others laughed and agreed with her. I don’t see why not. I’m prettier than they are, so maybe they’re jealous. Anyway, I’m pleased they’re dead. They didn’t deserve to stay alive.”

  “Did you cause their deaths?”

  Penny flushes after her solicitor gives her a discreet nudge. “No comment.”

  The interview continues. Our suspect continues to withhold answers to direct questions regarding the murders, but gives herself away in so many other ways. She builds a picture of a lonely young girl who developed a crush on an attractive boy. But unlike most crushes, this one didn’t go away; it developed into an unhealthy obsession with a man who was not interested in her, and never would be. As a result, six people are now dead.

  After the door closes behind Finn and Ian, Penny turns to her solicitor. “How did I do?” she asks. She looks almost triumphant.

  “I’m going to have a hard job in court if you want me to plead innocence, but I’ll
have no problems with getting a plea of insanity, if that’s what you’re after.”

  “What do you mean? I’m not crazy. They had to die, and I did it. That doesn’t make me mad.”

  “Penny, you killed six innocent people. That makes you either insane or evil. The court will find you guilty of one or the other. Would you prefer to be in a hospital or a prison?”

  The door opens and Finn comes in. I turn to him with a finger on my lips, then point at the monitor.

  “Neither. I want to marry Troy and live happily ever after.”

  It’s impossible to judge whether she believes it can happen, but it’s clear to me she’s lost her grip on reality.

  The solicitor shakes her head in apparent disbelief, or maybe shock, and a heartbeat later the door opens again. A couple of uniformed officers enter and remove Penny.

  “They’ll take her off to the cells for tonight,” says Finn. “Do you guys want to get going, and I’ll catch up with you tomorrow?”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  The days that follow are filled with news coming through. Matt is less shocked than I was to discover Finn’s betrayal.

  “I always knew something was wrong there. He visited you once in hospital, but then we heard nothing more from him. It smacked to me of a guilty conscience. Obviously it coincided with his rehab, so maybe that’s why he didn’t come to see you again. All the same, it just didn’t feel right.”

  I accept his explanation. There’s no point asking why he said nothing at the time. I had enough to cope with. A betrayal by Finn would have been too much for my fragile mental state. I’m not able to shrug it off, but work is taking priority, and I speak to Finn almost daily as news comes through.

  An initial examination of Penny’s flat reveals only her fingerprints, but the bins have not yet been emptied, and yield many items of bloodstained clothes that link the wearer to the murder scenes of the girls in Huddersfield and of Troy’s parents. The clothes are found in black bin-liners.

  “How did she get them from the crime scenes?” I ask Finn by phone. “She had no car as far as I can tell. And her moped was in the garage the entire time being fixed. I kept ringing up to make an appointment to check it out, and had to cancel each time, but I don’t think it left the garage the whole time. Surely she didn’t travel on the bus in bloodstained clothes?”

  He comes back to me the next day.

  “They found a rucksack under a loose floorboard of her flat. Inside were bloodstained black trainers, and next to the backpack was a black t-shirt, hoody and leggings. They match an outfit that someone of her height and build was seen wearing as they got off the bus from Huddersfield in Manchester on Thursday night last week. The complete kit has gone off to forensics to check for DNA matches to tie her to that crime scene, and possibly the others.”

  Another day, he calls again.

  “We’ve found the knife.” He sounds triumphant.

  “Well done. How and where?” I put the mobile on speakerphone so that Joanna and Will can hear. Will has just returned from Edinburgh in a clapped-out Ford Focus, which he quickly leads us to understand won’t be a fixture for long.

  “Well, after we found that loose floorboard, it seemed sensible to check for others. We couldn’t find any, but one of our SOCOs stubbed her toe on the kitchen plinth, and it moved – the plinth, not her toe.”

  “And?”

  “Behind the plinth, there was a flattish black case, containing house-breaking tools, and a lethal-looking knife. There were signs of blood on the blade, although it had been rinsed. It’s gone to forensics for a detailed examination, and they’re taking apart the sink to check for blood in the plumbing, if that’s where she’s been washing her tools.”

  “That’s impressive detecting. I hope your team will get a lot of kudos for this.”

  “Sure. Someone took a photo of the bruise on Katy’s big toe, and it’s got pride of place on the case noticeboard – with the headline BIG TOE SOLVES CRIME. Not strictly accurate, but it seems to cause a lot of amusement.”

  After ending the call, I search my phone for Katy (who I remember fondly from previous cases). I locate her quite easily from an archived contacts list, and send her a message congratulating her on her excellent detection skills, and wishing her toe a speedy recovery.

  With the case wrapping up well, I devote a few days to my family. Matt is much better now, and is looking forward to being able to drive again next week.

  Finding our client guilty of murder is a bit of a worry on the financial front, but then, Joanna rings me.

  “Guess what’s arrived in the post?” She sounds as giddy as a teenager.

  “No idea.” I reckon she wants to tell me herself, and who am I to spoil her fun?

  “A cheque from Troy. A reward for finding the killer.” She pauses, and I give her a few seconds to build up to telling me the amount. “Becks, it’s for ten thousand pounds!”

  “Wow. That should keep the wolf from the door for a bit.” I make a mental note to drop him a thank-you message as soon as the call ends.

  ***

  Cheryl and Joel are definitely going out now, and she seems happier than she has been for many months.

  I spend today typing up notes from the case. We have some lessons to learn, and we’ll be discussing them over a takeaway this evening. It’s now a week to the day since Emma’s abduction. I followed up with Troy this morning. Gaz and the boys, and Linda’s parents, are rallying round and supporting him and Emma. It will take a long time for him to get over this, but he has family, and he has good friends to help.

  I return from my takeaway at 10pm. It’s been a good session, discussing the case with Joanna and Will, but as I drive into my path, my skin prickles. Something is not right. I glance around the street. The neighbours’ cars are parked as usual, but a black Audi is there too. It’s familiar, but I can’t think for a moment. I turn the engine off, brace myself, and get out of the car as swiftly as I can. I rush into my house to be greeted in the hall.

  “Well done, Becky. You did a good job on that case.” Roger is standing in the doorway of my lounge, leaning against the doorframe. “You have work to do though. There’s no time to relax. I know you haven’t yet started those Russian lessons, and your hacking skills are still awaiting their existence. Get on with it. You will need them very soon.”

  When Roger has gone, Matt turns to me.

  “This arrived while you were out.” He hands me a brown envelope.

  I open it and extract a sheet of white paper containing a few lines of print.

  Fascinated to see you have reunited with your friends in the police force, ex-DI Wiseman. Your new name is far less formal – I like it.

  I was however sorry to see the ease with which you escaped my friend on the train. We will be better prepared next time, and you will have no way out.

  Looking forward to seeing you again soon, Becky White. Remember, you are being watched.

  TO BE CONTINUED

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