Justice Mirror

by Simon Hall

  Click, clack, click, clack.

  Dan thought he heard Adam groan. ‘Did you have anything to do with the killing of the Edwards, Your Honour?’

  ‘No!’ Templar chirped, gleefully.

  ‘Did you fake an alibi with those emails you sent, and that phone call you made to your bank?’

  ‘No!’ came the reply again.

  ‘Then I think, if it’s acceptable, I’d like to get on with the investigation.’

  There was no reply. Templar was too entranced by the silver balls. Adam contorted himself into a poor impersonation of a bow and slipped out of the door.

  ***

  Commonly quiet when thoughtful, Adam now lapsed into an impenetrable silence. It was like that at a memorial service, dense and demanding respect. He walked slowly out of the courthouse and sat on a bench in the plaza, deliberately facing away from the car park.

  The clouds which had edged into the western sky were massing their forces. A growing breeze stirred some remnants of litter and leaves.

  Dan considered getting a coffee from the Pepperpot, but he’d had more than enough caffeine this morning. He contented himself with sitting, watching the procession of the world pass. There had been little time for rest lately.

  As they left the court, across the plaza he saw Nigel and Phil interviewing a man who must have been a witness to Roger Newman’s jump. Dan sat close to Adam, but on the opposite side so the pair wouldn’t spot him.

  ‘It’s no good just sitting around,’ the detective said. ‘As we’re here, let’s go talk to Parkinson. If we don’t get anywhere I reckon we’re left with the same conclusion. That it must have been Roger Newman who set off the explosion.’

  ***

  Parkinson looked flustered at their unexpected arrival, his beard twitching with concern.

  ‘But you didn’t make an appointment.’

  ‘Killers don’t, detectives don’t,’ was Adam’s memorable, if cryptic reply.

  ‘I’ve got a meeting in five minutes.’

  ‘Cancel it. This is a murder inquiry.’

  ‘But it’s about a major new tree planting initiative.’

  The resulting look would have withered a rainforest, and proved a sufficient answer.

  ‘I don’t know how else I can help you,’ the Deputy Assistant Director prattled. ‘I’ve told you all I can.’

  ‘I’ve got bad news for you,’ Adam said coldly, and perhaps with relish. ‘You’re the only one of my suspects who hasn’t got an alibi.’

  Parkinson could have been hit by a fist, so hard did he recoil. ‘Am I?’ he asked, weakly.

  ‘You are.’

  ‘Well… I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘You could try saying you didn’t do it.’

  ‘I didn’t do it.’

  ‘You’ve told me that before. Now convince me.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Try.’

  Adam left a silence after the merciless thrust of the word, and let it run. Dan had always been an admirer of the way the detective could make a mere nothing so very menacing, but this was a virtuoso example. It was an emptiness filled with flaming arrows and raining boulders.

  ‘I was in bed,’ Parkinson stuttered. ‘I was asleep. I don’t know what else I can say.’

  ‘Try.’

  His oversized glasses were starting to mist. It was clear the man was only seconds from tears.

  ‘I never asked for any of this,’ he gulped. ‘I don’t know why it’s happening to me. I didn’t want to be on that jury. I’ve never done anything wrong in my life. I’ve never had so much as a parking ticket. It’s just not fair! If I had killed the Edwards I’d tell you, I promise I would. It would save me all this damned torment!’

  Parkinson took off his glasses, wiped them on a greying handkerchief and dabbed miserably at his eyes.

  Adam stood up from the chair. ‘Thank you,’ he said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘We’re leaving.’

  ‘You’re not going to arrest me?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘So, was – that it?’ the unlikely master criminal asked.

  ‘That was it. With all due respect Mr Parkinson, you’re not the most difficult subject I’ve ever had to interrogate.’

  ‘Oh, thank you, thank you,’ he gushed. ‘I feel like an innocent man again. Thank you so much.’

  And with that, they left the daredevil man of parks to the excitement of his tree planting initiative.

  ***

  They returned to the bench in the plaza. The time was coming up to noon. Cloud was beginning to dominate the sky. Nigel and Phil had disappeared, probably to return to the studios to edit the story for the lunchtime news.

  ‘I don’t care,’ Dan whispered to himself, hopelessly unconvincingly. ‘It was just a job. Good while it lasted.’

  ‘In reverse order then, our suspects,’ Adam said. ‘Just for the sake of completeness – Parkinson?’

  Dan forced himself to focus. ‘Out. Unless he’s the finest actor known to man, I can’t even begin to imagine him being a killer.’

  ‘Templar?’

  ‘A better bet. He’s got the knowledge about how to cause a gas explosion and leave no evidence behind. And he’s either already off the rails or in the process of leaving them. He’s also got a decent motive – all those years of seeing justice not being done.’

  ‘But he’s got a hell of an alibi. The best of the bunch.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘So – Ivy?’

  ‘He claims not to be a violent type, but he took that swing at you. And he’s got a good motive, too. Like Templar, he’s seen too much of justice failing. Plus he was close to Roger and Annette.’

  ‘But he didn’t give me any sign of guilt in that interview, earlier. And he’s got a good alibi.’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Which once again brings us back to where we started. The most likely killer all along – Roger Newman.’

  Adam’s phone rang. He got up, paced around, as is an unwritten rule of using a mobile, and returned to the bench.

  ‘Interesting, very interesting,’ he mused. ‘That was Claire. The neighbour who gave Newman his alibi, or seventy five per cent of one, to be exact. She rang in. She’s worried she might have misled us. She says she was quite sleepy and reckons she can only be about half sure it was Newman she heard shouting. It could just have been someone in the street.’

  ‘Really?’ Dan said, slowly. ‘That is interesting. So it becomes more and more likely that Newman did kill the Edwards.’

  They sat in silence for a couple of minutes. A gang of pigeons pecked busily around their feet. A queue formed at the café, then waned again.

  Adam stood up. ‘That settles it. Let’s get up to the hospital. Newman should be in a reasonably fit state to talk to us by now.’

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  For twenty minutes the car waited in queues, or trundled painfully around the great tarmac lot that surrounded Tamarside Hospital. Adam grew more and more agitated. ‘Come on, come on!’ he urged. ‘We don’t have enough time as it is.’

  It was lunchtime, a peak visiting hour, as they were finding out. The Deputy Chief Constable wasn’t due in Plymouth until late afternoon. But, as Adam put it, ‘That still only leaves a handful of hours to save my backside.’

  Dan gave him a sorrowful look and the detective added, ‘Sorry, our backsides.’

  Claire volunteered to drive. She welcomed the chance to escape the MIR where she had been coordinating inquiries because there were few inquiries left to coordinate. The investigation had stalled.

  The only suspects in town remained their list of four and every conceivable investigation had been carried out into their movements and backgrounds.

  No one else had appeared on the radar. No one else with any kind of motive had been found. It was just a question of discovering which of the four was responsible. But that was one of those disarming statements which sound simple, yet are rather more tricky to achieve.
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  Partly to distract Adam from his frustrations, and himself too, Dan began another recap of the case.

  Roger Newman was a very lucky man. The firefighters had positioned their inflatable bags in just the right place and managed to force enough air into them to break his fall. One leg hit the concrete and was badly broken, but that was his only injury. A call to the hospital confirmed he was sitting up, in pain but fit enough to be interviewed.

  Claire let out a high-pitched noise, which was a mixture of surprise and relief. A man was backing a jeep out of a space. It was odd how a few square feet of tarmac could resemble the promised land.

  ‘Just one more thing before we see Newman,’ Adam said to Dan, as Claire manoeuvred. ‘When we were at the car park. You said you didn’t think he killed the Edwards. Did you really mean that?’

  Dan gave himself a minute to think. He knew the answer that was expected, even required of him. But he couldn’t give it.

  ‘Yes, I did mean it,’ he said, slowly. ‘I don’t think Newman killed them.’

  ***

  The walk to Torridge Ward was dominated by Adam reeling off a catalogue of reasons why Newman could be the killer.

  Of their suspects, Newman had the strongest motive by far. He had no real alibi. He was a successful businessman and you had to be ruthless in business. That could feasibly extend to committing murder. His mental balance was disturbed by the loss of his daughter.

  As for the argument that it wasn’t in his character, look at Newman’s reaction when they went to arrest him. He’d thrown a punch. So, he could be violent. He’d tried to escape, a credible sign of guilt. On top of which, Newman tried to kill himself. That was – partly at least – in remorse for setting off the explosion.

  Dan listened patiently and had to agree with all Adam said. It made perfect sense. But he still couldn’t escape the indefinable feeling that Newman wasn’t the killer. And he could see Claire felt the same way.

  ‘We’ll see in a minute,’ a disgruntled Adam huffed, when he’d given up trying to convince them.

  They followed a long and well-polished corridor, round a corner and into a newly built part of the hospital. It overlooked sizeable gardens, an expanse of neat hedges and lawns.

  The windows were large and the wing was light. The occasional sound of hammering and drilling drifted through the walls.

  Ahead was a pair of swing doors. They were almost at Torridge Ward.

  ***

  Newman was out of bed. He was sitting in a wheelchair by one of the long windows, looking out over the grounds.

  Debate as they might the nature of Newman’s character, his popularity wasn’t in doubt. In just a few hours, word had spread of his attempted suicide. For some, it would have attracted only contempt or hostility. But not for Newman. His bed was surrounded by cards from well-wishers and several bunches of flowers.

  One was from his housekeeper, another from the staff at Roger’s Rugs. Some of the cards were from the schools he had helped with his charitable work. But by far, the majority were from young people who had received bursaries and gone on to fine futures they might otherwise never have known.

  Adam’s eyes roved across the display. But his expression said it made no impact on his resolve. He coughed loudly and Newman turned.

  Dan hadn’t been sure what reaction to expect. More anger and defiance he thought, perhaps another tirade. But Newman was humble and contrite, and it felt genuine. He said quietly, ‘I’m sorry. Please, sit down and let me try to explain.’

  Claire settled on a chair, Dan sat on the end of the bed. Adam remained standing.

  ‘You’re sorry for what, Mr Newman?’ he asked.

  ‘Not what you’re thinking.’

  ‘That depends what I’m thinking.’

  Newman smiled. It was a weary look, but honest enough. ‘You’re waiting for me to pour it all out and say sorry for killing the Edwards. But I can’t – because I didn’t.’

  Adam said nothing, just waited for Newman to continue. And he did, without hesitation.

  ‘I’m sorry for losing my temper, and for trying to hit you.’

  ‘It’s an occupational hazard,’ the detective replied, wryly. ‘You get used to it.’

  ‘And for running from you, too. And for – well, you know. That business on the roof.’

  Adam’s look made it clear he wasn’t going to be tempted into any concessions, so Newman turned to Dan. ‘You understand, don’t you? I wasn’t myself. I’d been drinking. What happened with Annette…’

  Dan spared him the need to finish the sentence. It was difficult not to feel for the man.

  ‘I can certainly understand that, Roger.’

  ‘And I wanted to thank you.’

  ‘Thank me?’ Dan couldn’t keep the surprise from his voice. ‘For what?’

  ‘For trying to stop me jumping. For doing your best to talk me round. For all you’ve done, in fact. You’ve been very good to me, with the kidnapping and the trial, and…’

  The words stuck fast. The images, the events after that verdict, impossible to articulate.

  ‘Everything that’s happened,’ Newman continued. ‘I just wanted to tell you I appreciate it.’

  He pulled his dressing gown tighter around his chest, despite the comfortable warmth of the ward. Outside, most of the sky was covered in a graphite shroud, only a few forlorn patches of blue remaining.

  ‘When my leg’s better,’ Newman went on, ‘I’m going to ease back from the day-to-day running of Roger’s Rugs. I’m going to dedicate myself to my charity work. I plan to set up a foundation in Annette’s memory.’

  He bent down, shifted the weight of his plaster-bound leg and wriggled the protruding toes.

  ‘I should never have jumped. You were absolutely right. It was cowardly and I’ve never been a coward. I just wanted to apologise.’

  He reached out a hand. Dan was aware of Adam’s eyes, sharp upon him, but he shook it anyway.

  A nurse walked over and fussed around, straightened the blanket over Newman’s knees and offered the visitors a cup of tea. Adam declined with a terse shake of the head.

  ‘Anyway,’ the businessman said, ‘I don’t expect you came here to listen to me going on about how sorry I am. How can I help you?’ He smiled again. ‘Have you come to release me from arrest?’

  Adam still wouldn’t reply, so Claire said, ‘I think it’s a moot point whether you were actually under arrest. As I remember, we didn’t get through the caution before you… got a little upset.’

  ‘So, how can I help you then? Have you got some news about the investigation?’

  And now Adam did speak. But all he said was, ‘Kind of.’ Just two words, but as ominous as a shark circling in the water.

  ‘Which means?’

  The detective folded his arms. ‘Here’s the problem, Mr Newman. We’ve investigated everyone who might have had a reason to want to harm the Edwards. We’ve looked at their motives and their movements. And this is the same old issue we keep coming back to.’

  He paused while a cleaner walked by, pushing a broom back and forth.

  ‘No one has a motive and opportunity like yours. No one wanted the Edwards to suffer so much. I’ve heard what you say, about not killing them and it not being in your character. But frankly, I don’t believe it. So, in answer to your question – no, we haven’t come to release you from arrest. It’s quite the opposite.’

  Claire caught Dan’s look, their differences forgotten in a shared sympathy for this man. And there was concern too, at the direction in which Adam was forcing the investigation.

  He was working through the words of the caution. Newman said nothing, just stared at him. A hand grabbed at the crutch, propped by his wheelchair. He gripped it hard, as if he wished it was the detective’s throat.

  ‘Now, do you have anything you’d like to say?’ Adam concluded.

  The businessman didn’t reply. He looked stricken. It was perhaps disbelief, maybe anger, or a collision of both.
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br />   ‘In which case, we’ll leave you – for now,’ Adam continued. ‘And in case you were thinking about another of your little disappearing acts, be it wheelchair bound or not, I wouldn’t bother. There’ll be a cop on the entrance to the ward.’

  Still, Newman said nothing. That hand was gripping and releasing, gripping and releasing the handle of the crutch.

  Adam headed for the door. Claire and Dan exchanged a glance and dutifully followed. Neither could look at Newman. But a noise made them stop.

  It began as a low growl, but grew fast to become a roar, like a jet preparing for flight. It was Newman, his face contorted in a frightening manner. What calm the man had found was turned to ash in his fury.

  ‘You idiot, Breen!’ he yelled. ‘You’re a fucking fool! You can’t catch real criminals, and now you’re persecuting an innocent man. I’ll get you for this.’

  His hand scrabbled for the crutch, drew it back and sent it flying across the ward. It barely reached Adam, clattering forlornly at his feet, and he kicked it contemptuously aside.

  ***

  On the drive back to Charles Cross, the car was filled with silence. On several occasions, Dan thought about trying to break it, but the look on Adam’s face suggested that would be unwise. Battles were being fought, time and again, in the detective’s mind.

  Dan tried to find some respite from the demons of the case in comforting memories. But all he could think of was the trick he’d pulled to spend the night with Katrina.

  And here was Claire, just inches away. A woman who loved him and hoped for a future with him, however unworthy he may be.

  Just half a mile from the police station, as they reached the end of Mutley Plain, the car got stuck in a traffic jam. A delivery lorry had broken down, a small mishap leading to the predictable gridlock.

  Dan’s mobile rang. It was a withheld number and that meant work. He ignored it and then listened to the answer phone message.

  It was Lizzie, and in full ranting force. Newman’s solicitors had been on the phone. They were ringing all the media in the kingdom. Their client had called a press conference at the hospital to attack the police in the most forthright of terms. Incompetent, blundering and negligent were the words the solicitors were using. It would be highly newsworthy.