‘Let him see he’s being tailed. I want to put pressure on him now, and if you are getting material we can use from the diary, specifically the last few weeks before her murder…’
‘Travis is on that section.’
‘Terrific, and she’s in with Jeannie Bale.’ Langton sighed and yanked open the door. ‘Have you watched the video taken from Lester’s flat?’
Mike looked confused.
‘The film of his exhibition at Crystal Palace karate nights.’
Mike hesitated. ‘I’ll get onto it.’
‘No – I’ll do it, and then after that I’ll be in the viewing room. Pull your finger out, Mike, and start fucking leading this enquiry.’
Mike sat at his desk, deflated and tired, as was everyone else. He found Langton impossible to deal with at times. He came in like a whirlwind and cast aspersions left, right and centre, even though they were all working round the clock with no weekend leave on the cards. He looked at his watch; it was already 10.15. He hadn’t even had time to call home to tell his wife that he would be late yet again.
Langton banged out a chair after turning on the monitor; he looked up at the smoke alarm, wanting a cigarette, but knew it would go off if he lit up. Instead he opened a bottle of water and then leaned forward, concentrating on the DVD he’d inserted. He watched as Lester James took to the mat for an exhibition in martial arts weapons. Wearing a white Gi with a black belt, Lester bowed and, acknowledging his opponent, moved to the centre of the mat. The two man began a display of part karate and part self-defence, each with a new weapon which was described by the narrator. Lester held them up from a tray carried by a young boy at the side of the mat. The crowds cheered. Langton fast-forwarded; it was starting to get tedious. Then he straightened, pressed reverse and froze the frame. Lester was strapping on a bodyguard’s sheath knife and let it rest at his left side. His opponent attempted to attack him from the rear. Langton let the film wind on in slow motion as Lester did a fast half-turn, used his left arm to block, kicked the man’s legs from under him and unsheathed the knife in one fluid movement to lean over him with the knife held to his neck.
The knife he was using for the demonstration was a six-inch blade with a handle and bridge, virtually identical to the one described by forensics as the possible murder weapon.
Mike whipped round as Langton barked out his name. Langton thrust the DVD at him, his face set with anger.
‘Look at this – the section I’ve stopped the film at. Lester James is only fucking using a knife described by the pathologist and forensic as being the type of weapon used to kill Amanda Delany.’
Mike blinked. He flushed.
‘I want it found, and I want Lester James arrested for the murder of Amanda Delany. Tonight, Mike. Bring the son of a bitch in.’
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jeannie sat with her hands in her lap, head bowed. Anna went for her.
‘You have lied to me. You had to have had that diary in your possession when I was in your flat, interviewing you. Why did you lie?’
Jeannie mumbled that she didn’t know it was there until after Anna had left. Felicity had had it, she’d found it in Dan Hutchins’s room. Jeannie had taken it into her bedroom for safekeeping, and had had every intention of calling the station to say that she had found it.
‘Then why didn’t you?’
Jeannie tearfully explained that Mr Delany had phoned and she had told him.
‘He was very angry. He said to me that it was his property, right? He wanted it, and I had to give it to him.’
‘But you didn’t.’
‘It was Felicity’s idea. She said that if he was so anxious to have it, then maybe he would give us some money for it. We were both broke and she was having trouble with Social Security ’cos she’d been unemployed for so long and she really needed money. I think she’d been cashing money that belonged to Dan – you know, his cheques kept on coming after he was dead and she got scared and so she thought up the idea of asking Mr Delany for some cash.’
There was a pause, and she scratched her arms and then started biting her nails.
‘But he didn’t get given the diary, did he?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
Jeannie wriggled in her chair. Felicity had arranged to meet him and get the money, then he could pick the diary up from the flat. Jeannie was concerned that if Felicity got the cash, she’d go off and score drugs.
‘I went looking for her, with the diary. I called her and she said she was over at Waterloo Bridge, so I got a taxi to meet her.’
‘With the diary?’
‘Yeah. We did intend giving it to Mr Delany, honestly. It was just she was acting all crazy.’
‘So did she score?’
‘No. He wasn’t answering his phone and she didn’t know anyone else to call.’
‘Who did she get her drugs from?’
‘Mostly Amanda, but she was going through a detox programme, and she wasn’t bringing any gear around, especially not for Felicity ’cos she never paid her for the cocaine she’d got the last time.’
Barolli interrupted, saying Jeannie was talking as if Amanda was still alive.
‘We knew where she got them from,’ Jeannie said, ‘and after she died, we called him. I mean, I didn’t. Felicity did.’
‘Who did she call?’
‘Amanda’s contact – her driver Lester James – but he wasn’t around.’
‘So then what did you do?’
‘Well, Felicity got this idea about holding onto the diary to get more money out of Mr Delany. She even came up with the idea of contacting the publisher who come round to meet Amanda, and as she’d said her story was worth a lot, Felicity reckoned we’d get a big pay-off.’
It was obvious that Jeannie was placing all the blame on Felicity, who Anna considered too stoned to have an idea in her head. It was lie upon lie. Anna was certain that it was Jeannie manipulating the entire scenario with Mr Delany and Josh Lyons.
‘Go on. After you met Felicity at Waterloo, what happened?’
Jeannie was biting her nails down to the quick; two pink spots had appeared on her cheeks.
‘It was a sunny day, right, and we were by the pleasure boats, and Felicity’d bought a bottle of cider, so she decided we’d go for a trip up the river. I didn’t want to go as she was getting drunk and she could get real nasty. I gave her a few hundred and said we’d try getting some coke for her later when she got home, and so she got a ticket and went on the boat.’
‘So when did you decide to pack up and leave your flat?’
‘When I read about Felicity in the papers. It scared me, I sort of blamed myself, you know. I shouldn’t have let her go on the boat by herself as she was well on the way to getting pissed, and she could get into real fights with people. She was a nice girl, but when she was drunk she was a right fucking cow.’
Anna tapped her notebook.
‘Doesn’t work, Jeannie. You see, Felicity’s death was not in the press until three days after she died. You had already left your flat. We paid a visit there with your landlord. Why don’t you stop spinning a pack of lies and start telling us the truth. You were on that boat, weren’t you? Do you think we haven’t made any enquiries, haven’t talked to witnesses?’
Anna was spinning her own lies now, and Jeannie was shaking with nerves.
‘Did you push her into the river? You think we are going to believe that she would just go off with a few hundred pounds when you were given five thousand for the diary, which you never had any intention of giving to Mr Delany, did you?’
Jeannie started to cry.
‘You keep putting all the blame for everything you have done on a dead girl, but it’s not going to wash with us. We know you tried to sell the diary to the publishers, we know you’ve been running around with it, and if, as you say, you only knew about Felicity’s death from the newspapers, then you must also have known that we wanted to talk to you.’
‘I never
. I told you the truth, I swear before God.’
Langton, watching the interview, loosened his tie. He liked the way Anna was goading her. Suddenly the solicitor intervened.
‘My client denies having any responsibility for the death of Miss Felicity Turner. She was never with her on the boat and, as she has explained, she read about her demise in the press.’
‘That’s right, I’m telling you the truth.’ Jeannie nodded her head.
‘Your friend was drowned, but from blood tests we know she had injected a substantial amount of heroin. Where did that come from?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘But you can understand our confusion with your statement?’
‘Maybe she got some of Dan’s gear; he died of an overdose, and he used to keep a stash hidden in the fireplace. She could have found it, you know, probably needed something to give her confidence to meet with Mr Delany. And I tell you something, we didn’t mind ripping him off because we knew Amanda hated him. He’d molested her when she was a kid, and her grandfather, they’d both abused her so what we did was for her really.’
‘That’s enough crap, Jeannie. I think you were the one to find the drugs, you took them to Felicity, and that was the only way she would part with the five thousand pounds. You have been sitting here lying to us.’
‘I haven’t. I swear before God I have been telling you the truth.’
Anna gave Barolli a tap on his knee beneath the table, indicating for him to change the subject. He kept his voice calm and friendly.
‘Tell us about Dan Hutchins, Jeannie. He overdosed on heroin, yet he’d been on methadone, trying to get clean, hadn’t he?’
‘Yeah. Amanda got him into a rehab programme, paid for him and he promised he’d get clean, and he did for a while.’
‘But then he scored heroin?’
‘Yeah, he sold her computer, that’s how he got the money.’
‘Who did he score the heroin from?’
‘No idea. He had contacts, not just Amanda’s bloke. And he wouldn’t go to him as he’d have told Amanda, and she would maybe have stopped looking after him.’
‘She was already dead, Jeannie.’
‘Oh right, yeah, I forget. But I know he sold her computer, ’cos she kept it at the flat in his room for him to play internet games. She’d bought herself a laptop so she didn’t really need it, but it was hers and he got some cash.’
‘Who did he sell it to?’
‘I dunno. He left the party we was at, and then when we come home he was dead on the floor in his bedroom.’
Jeannie dug into her pocket and took out a tissue.
‘He never got over her being murdered. He really loved her, and she was very good to him, and often when she was at the flat she’d be in his room with him. They were once an item, you know, she and him, and they still sometimes slept together, but he was impotent ’cos he’d been injecting into his groin for a couple of years and it done something to his deckhand. By this time she wasn’t that interested in him ’cos she had this thing with Scott Myers and a few others …’
‘So Dan left this party, was able to sell the computer and score heroin in just a couple of hours from when you had last seen him?’
‘No, he’d sold it before the party ’cos Amanda found out and she told him that she wasn’t ever going to see him any more. If you ask me, that is why he OD’d, ’cos she wasn’t going to be his friend any more.’
Anna sighed; her head was aching.
Jeannie clicked her fingers.
‘At the funeral, I think he scored or arranged to get a fix after that, so it might have been Lester what passed him the gear.’
‘By Lester, you mean Lester James, Amanda’s driver?’
‘Yeah, he was there. In fact, maybe he got the computer, I dunno.’
‘Take me through what happened when you returned to the flat and found Dan’s body.’
‘It was terrible. I mean, I looked into his room and I thought he was sleeping as he was in his bed, all wrapped up in the duvet.’
‘On the bed?’
‘Yeah, that’s right. So I shut the door, and I made some scrambled eggs as we reckoned he might be hungry.’
‘But Dan was found on the floor of his bedroom – not, as you have just stated, in his bed. Did you move him?’
Jeannie sat back in her chair, looked to her solicitor and then shrugged her shoulders.
‘Felicity tried to revive him, I think, and he fell off the bed, and that’s when we knew he was dead.’
Anna tapped the tabletop with her pencil. ‘How much heroin did you find?’
Jeannie was offguard for only a beat, then was quick to implicate Felicity once again. She thought that Felicity had found some tinfoil wraps and cocaine.
‘She hid it because we were scared the police would be called and we’d be involved in his death for scoring drugs. I’m an actress, right, and I didn’t want to get any shit thrown at me. I mean, I have to think of my career.’
‘So if Felicity had hidden it, why didn’t she go and use the hidden stash taken from Dan’s room when, as you said, she needed drugs?’
‘She couldn’t remember nothing.’
‘But you remembered?’
She had a whispered conversation with her solicitor and then Jeannie nodded and sat stiffly in the chair.
‘No comment.’
‘Did you take drugs to give to Felicity when you met her at Waterloo?’
Jeannie looked to her solicitor and back to Anna.
‘No comment.’
Barolli glared at the smirking solicitor, as Anna quickly defused the situation.
‘Jeannie, you may be acting on the advice of your solicitor right now not to answer any further questions, but you do not have to take his advice. It may even damage your defence if you don’t mention something now which you may rely on later in court. This, Jeannie, is your opportunity to give your side of the story. We can retain you here until tomorrow morning, especially as it is now eleven-thirty at night.’
‘You can’t do that,’ Jeannie said angrily.
‘Yes, we can. You see, up till now we have not pressed any charges and you have been simply assisting our enquiry. However, I consider you to have been implicated in the death of Felicity Turner and that you supplied her with Class A drugs. This will be a charge we will level at you. There could even be other matters we wish to interview you about, such as blackmail. We will take a statement from Mr Delany regarding the five thousand pounds.’
‘You can’t do this!’ Jeannie was half out of her chair.
Her solicitor intervened. ‘You are interviewing my client on matters about which I do not even have an evidence statement. To threaten to retain her in order to persuade a witness to give a statement is illegal.’
Anna ignored him. ‘What isn’t right, Miss Bale, is that we have been fed a stream of lies from the moment this interview began. We will give you one more opportunity to answer the questions truthfully. Now: did you give heroin to Felicity Turner?’
Jeannie started to cry. ‘I only gave her what she wanted. She’d been desperate and she had the shakes. I never touch the stuff so I wouldn’t know what I gave her. I don’t do drugs.’
‘Where did you pass this heroin to Miss Turner?’
‘On the boat. She went into the toilets and took it in there. I stayed up on deck; we were going to Greenwich.’
‘So you now admit that you were on the boat with Miss Turner?’
At last, between the sobs, they got the facts.
‘I came back with some coffee to try to sober her up. We were near Tower Bridge, and she was at the front of the boat acting crazy, she could hardly stand up, and I got the money off her because she was so out of it, and then she stood on the seats. I told her not to, and she told me to fuck off. I went and left her ’cos I didn’t want people coming up and seeing her. It was raining and they was all inside.’
She broke down sobbing. After a while she had gone back up on deck to
find Felicity, but she had disappeared. She had searched the boat, but by this time they were docking at Greenwich.
‘Didn’t you tell anyone that you couldn’t find her?’
She shook her head. Her nose was running and her black eye-make-up had smeared down her cheeks.
‘I got off the boat, an’ I got the tube home. I thought she’d just crashed out somewhere under one of the benches. I was scared about what would happen so I packed my bags and went to see some friends in Bristol.’
‘With all the money?’ Anna asked.
Jeannie nodded.
‘Felicity drowned, Jeannie. You knew that was a possibility and you never told anyone who might have stopped the boat and turned it round to search for her.’
‘No, that’s not true. I just thought she’d passed out. I swear to God I didn’t know she’d fallen overboard, I really didn’t.’
She rested her head in her hands, as her solicitor seemed to shrink back from her. Clearing his throat, he asked what charges they intended passing against his client.
Anna spoke. ‘We’ll consider charging Jeannie for withholding evidence. She’ll be released but we’ll be keeping an eye on her. She mustn’t leave the country, as we’ll want to question her again.’
The girl’s mouth dropped open as she looked from Anna to her solicitor. ‘You mean I can go?’
‘We’ll prepare a report for the CPS to decide if you’ll be charged with gross negligence or the manslaughter of Felicity Turner. You will be released, Miss Bale, on police bail pending further enquiries. We will need a statement from you to confirm that Lester James was supplying drugs.’
Anna and Barolli both knew that for Jeannie’s evidence against Lester James to stand up in court, she would have had to witness a transaction and to know that it was heroin that he had passed to Dan Hutchins. Langton congratulated them and then, to their astonishment, told them he had given the go-ahead to arrest Lester James. Having watched the video of his karate exhibition, he felt they had enough evidence to charge him with dealing and perverting the course of justice. He would kick off the interview the next morning; Anna and Barolli could sit in the viewing room and watch him at work. In the meantime he wanted Lester’s weapon and suggested they search his lockers at the karate dojo he worked out in. Anna watched Langton, his arrogance grating on her nerves, and fully aware that they should have watched Lester’s show as soon as the video had been removed from their suspect’s flat.
Silent Scream Page 37