Witchmoor Edge

by Mike Crowson

  * * *

  The Press Conference was in a meeting room next to the incident suite. Witchmoor Edge Headquarters had been purpose built and the architects had been relatively true to the purpose, so the room was fairly suitable.

  In the event, there were reporters from the regional dailies, the regional Radio and TV stations but only one national daily was represented, which was a relief. Millicent began by going over the main points of the fire and bodies.

  "As you already know, we have an identity for the murder victim," Millicent began. "We have established how he got the fractured skull and ended up in the canal, neither of which killed him, because he was already dead. We have several suspects for the poisoning which did kill him, but an arrest is not likely within hours, so to speak. We have a lot of elimination yet to do."

  The woman from the local BBC TV in Leeds was an obviously assertive little climber. "Have you traced the third body from the fire?" she asked.

  "We had an almost certain identification but, I am very pleased to say, we have been able to trace the missing young man very much alive. This means we still have no idea who the victim really was."

  "Do you think the arsonist was also a killer?" the BBC reporter asked.

  "It seems possible but unlikely. It looks as if the extra fatality may be nothing to do with the other crimes, but time will tell."

  "Do you think the fire was intended to disguise the poisoning," the reporter from the Yorkshire Post asked.

  "Without a doubt."

  An earnest young man from the Witchmoor Argus asked, "Are you still looking for the car we mentioned in the story last night?"

  Millicent thought he was Alan Ghyll that she'd encountered before, and he sounded much younger than the CDI Cooke's friend, the editor. "Yes," she said. "It seems to have vanished completely, though your story has produced some rumours."

  "Why are you looking for a car," The young woman from the BBC asked.

  Millicent explained that, according to several witnesses, the dead man had been seen lying in or just in front of a Porsche. Both the man and the car disappeared at around two on Saturday. The man turned up in the canal Sunday morning but the car is still missing.

  "Is that in the canal too?"

  "We've had divers down and they haven't found anything. Not even a wheel, much less an entire car."

  Several people sniggered in mild amusement, including Chief Inspector Cooke.

  "Of course," said Millicent, "there's plenty of canal we haven't searched and I imagine sections of the river Aire are deep enough to hide a car, even at this time of year, but we still hope to find it on dry land. Even if we can't find it, someone must have seen it."

  "How can a man disappear when there are witnesses and surely access to a poison ought to be limited enough to make catching the person who administered it easy?" The assertive young woman asked.

  Millicent was cautious, partly because she needed to be careful not to name suspects and spoil the chances of a fair trial. "There are several witnesses and several persons involved who have legitimate access to the poison, as well as several possible routes of obtaining it illegally," she said. "I think I will have to decline to be specific as it would hamper our investigation and prejudice any subsequent trial."

  From this point on the Press Conference began to wind itself down. When the reporters and cameramen had all left, Cooke relaxed a little.

  "Splendid," he said. "I thought that all went very nicely."

  "It went better than I expected," Millicent agreed, "It was the absence of the national dailies that did it I think."

  She picked up her files and folders.

  "Now I'd better sort out the odds and ends before I drive over to Bradford," she said.

  Chapter 11: Thursday 16th August (Evening)