Death and Deception

by B. A. Steadman

  Dan told Braithwaite a car was on its way, and then, as he’d got him on the phone asked him if Jenna was at home.

  ‘No, she’s left me a note to say she’s going to her friend’s house for tea.’

  Dan looked at Sally and shook his head.

  ‘Ok. Will you be home later, only one of us would like to pop round and see you?’

  ‘If you must,’ said Braithwaite, and then stopped. ‘Why are you coming? Have you found something out? Do you know who did it?’

  ‘We just need to ask you a few more questions. It will be late, I’m afraid. Bit busy at the moment.’

  ‘Well, I’m watching the match anyway so it doesn’t matter what time you get here. And bloody hurry up getting a car here, he’s looking a bit dodgy now and he’s gone all quiet.’ He was silent for a second.

  ‘Fuck, he’s not breathing. Ring for an ambulance.’ He dropped the phone.

  Dan handed the phone back to Colin White. ‘It’s an emergency now, Colin - ambulance needed, not patrol car - can you see it gets there quickly? It seems Braithwaite has captured Miles Westlake, and he’s collapsed, so get him under guard in hospital again, please. Let’s try not to lose him this time.’

  He took Sally’s arm and led her at a fast walk towards his car before anybody else could interrupt them.

  ‘Jenna’s ‘at a friend’s for tea’, Sal. Now I’m convinced she’ll be at Abrams’ house. She is the connection between Abrams and her sister. I knew it.’ He paused, a vertical wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows. ‘I don’t want to tell her dad yet though, he’s got enough on his plate, especially as Westlake seems to have taken a turn for the worse on his hall floor. Thing is, Westlake obviously knows that Jenna killed Carly. I reckon he’s arrived at Braithwaite’s looking to hurt Jenna.’

  ‘Balance of his mind is somewhat disturbed after all the pills and alcohol he took,’ said Sally. ‘Probably hasn’t a clue what he’s doing.’

  ‘True, and I’d say our little friend Jamie has been torturing Miles Westlake over these last couple of days, telling him all sorts of stuff to get him wound up. Exacting his revenge.’

  ‘So do you reckon that’s what he was doing at the house on Monday? Making Westlake pay for the affair with Carly? He’s a right little angel, our Jamie, isn’t he?’

  ‘He’ll be disappointed that Westlake’s suicide attempt failed. That would solve the problem for him without him having to do anything illegal.’

  ‘That’s why I know he’s bad, Boss. He’s bad.’ Sally waited by the passenger side of the car for Dan to find his key, aware of the frown on his face.

  ‘He’s not the only one who’d like someone else to do his dirty work for him,’ she said. ‘Was I hearing things or did you give Braithwaite carte blanche to give Westlake a good going over?’

  Dan laughed and broke the stiffness between them,

  ‘Sergeant Ellis, how could you possibly think that? A valued member of the community is merely defending his property.’ He paused. ‘Shit, I hope he doesn’t really harm him. We need Westlake’s testimony. Ah well, can’t worry about that at the moment. Come on, it’ll take us ages to get to Poltimore in rush hour traffic and I don’t want to miss all the action.’

  He took a moment before settling himself into the seat, feeling the evening sun on his face. ‘We’re close, Sally, aren’t we? Close to sorting it all out?’

  Sally didn’t answer. She flung herself into her seat, slamming the door closed. The more she thought about it, the more angry at herself she became for not having picked up on the clues two days ago at the Braithwaite’s house. Jenna hiding her phone under the pillow when Sally had walked into her room. Whose phone? Jamie’s need to see Jenna once he knew the body had been recovered. Was he threatening her? Blackmailing her? The fact that Jenna had said she didn’t get on all that well with her sister. The fact that no one could say when Carly had left the house on the Sunday. Because, she never did leave. Well not alive, anyway. Her own insistence that Miles Westlake or Jed Abrams had to be the guilty party - all distracting her from spotting the real culprit.

  She took stock. If Jenna was the real culprit, Jamie had been convincing, but there was something cold about that boy that didn’t ring true to her. Like the way he had taken to goading Westlake to the point of suicide, and the way he seemed to go into a rage whenever the questioning got too difficult for him. She slumped back, fuming at herself and the world as they waited to filter out into the evening traffic.

  ‘Sally,’ Dan said glancing across at her, ‘I can see what you’re doing, so stop it. There were six of us investigating this case and none of us suspected Jenna Braithwaite. In fact, if she hadn’t involved Jamie May in disposing of the body, we still would never have suspected her. So, get over it and concentrate on what we’re doing now. OK?’

  Sally gave a tight smile. ‘Ok, Boss, enough with the pep talk. It just makes me so angry when I miss things.’

  ‘It’s the same with all of us, It’s what makes you a good copper. So, get on your phone and tell her ladyship what we now know, and tell her we’ll be there as soon as possible.’ With that, he negotiated his way into the traffic queue and headed east out of the city.

  Chapter 36

  Date: Wednesday 25th April Time: 17:54 Poltimore, near Exeter

  The black Mercedes van was still in place in the car park at the hospital where Grigor Pelakais had left it several hours before. Stuck to the front windscreen was a parking ticket. He tore it off and threw it onto the floor. In the van, he changed back into his wool and silk mix jacket and his soft leather loafers, binning the clogs. He knew that the success of this mission, and his survival, depended on what he did next. Although every cell in his body was screaming at him to run, he started the engine and headed out of the city towards Poltimore.

  As he reached the lane that turned off the main road, he saw the children. He recognised the older girls, but they had two new ones with them. They were chatting and teasing each other as they walked along, not a care in the world. He resisted the urge to stop and tell them to run, too. This would be their last time, and, just maybe, the two little ones would have nothing to remember but a bit of excitement at the end of the day. He drove slowly past them and wound his way along a lane bursting with green shoots and signs that Spring had arrived. Grigor wondered if this would be the last Spring he would see for many years. He didn’t care. Escape from Irina was worth whatever price he had to pay.

  Grigor drew into the drive and followed the gravel path round to the rear of the house. He parked close to the back door, leaving room for the other cars that would arrive soon. He didn’t know the men that were coming, only that there would be five of them. He stared at his eyes in the mirror. How low he had fallen. Just possibly, he could do something good now. He switched off the engine, left the keys in, and prepared to face Irina.

  He entered the kitchen, leaving the door on the latch, as promised. There was music coming from the living room and the usual smell of scented candles. These days, the smell of vanilla raised bile in his throat. He walked down the hall towards the living room just as she opened the door and stepped through.

  ‘You are late.’ She didn’t say anything else. That was bad. She stood, arms folded, framed by the doorway.

  ‘The children are on their way up the lane,’ he muttered, ‘I just passed them. I need to get the camera set up.’ She grabbed his arm as he made to walk past her.

  ‘What have you been doing, Grigor? Have you been to the hospital?’ She searched his face. ‘Yes, I can see that you have seen Filip.’ She sneered. ‘Yet, he is not here with you, so you failed in your heroic rescue attempt. When will you understand that you are nothing without me? That I made you, and that I own you? When will you learn to do as you are told?’

  She raked a nail across the delicate skin under his eye, leaving a roughened red scratch that wept blood as soon as she took her finger away. She rubbed the blood on her fingertip onto his
lips.

  Grigor stood still, heart pounding. Better to wait until she had finished, than to anger her further.

  The sound of childish laughter came trilling on the early evening air. Irina took her hand away.

  ‘Go, get ready. We will talk about this later.’

  She turned from him and opened the door to greet Jenna and her friends.

  Albert Farmer had lived at Castle Farm for more than seventy years. His wife, Josephine, had been with him for the last fifty. Their children were all grown up and gone. None of them had wanted to follow them into dairy farming, and sadly, Albert had to agree that he had seen their point. So, they had gradually reduced their livestock and sold land until their farm was less than thirty acres of the surrounding countryside, a size they could still manage. A procession of police cars and unmarked vans in the middle of afternoon milking had been the most exciting thing that had happened to them since Josie had won all the baking categories at the County show, ten years before.

  Josie Farmer was waiting for them as Oliver gathered her team in the yard. She had a tray of fresh-baked scones with jam and cream, an industrial size teapot and a dozen china mugs. The milk was still warm, straight from the cow.

  Julie Oliver stepped out of the first car and walked across the yard. What on earth was the woman thinking?

  Before she got a word out, the men and women who would follow her every order, the men and women who represented the face of the law in East Devon, had dodged around her back. They were stuffing scones in their mouths and slurping tea, nodding their thanks to the rotund lady with the pink cheeks.

  Bill Larcombe put a consoling hand on her shoulder. ‘Never mind Boss, we work better when we’re fed,’ He grabbed another scone as he headed for the patrol car that would be his base for the operation.

  Oliver sighed and raised her eyebrows at DCI Garrett.

  ‘You have to see the funny side. Only in Devon can a major operation be halted by a cream tea,’ he said.

  Five minutes later, Josie Farmer had a clean plate and the officers had moved fluidly into position. The two senior officers climbed the oak staircase and found their way into a small room under the eaves that had once been a girl’s bedroom. It was ideal as it had two small windows, one overlooking the side of the Abram’s house and back yard, and the other overlooking the lane at the front of the property.

  A communications specialist followed them up the stairs and speedily set up a field communications system that would allow them to contact their teams. She put on a pair of headphones and called in each team, one at a time, checking the equipment was working. Once satisfied, she called Oliver over.

  ‘Ma’am, we have helmet cameras on all of the armed officers, so you can follow the action from here,’ she indicated a laptop screen. They also have live microphones, so we can hear what is happening, too.’

  Oliver nodded. The officer pressed one earphone to her head. ‘Just heard back from sniper One and Two, in position.’ She laughed briefly, ‘Sniper 1 is complaining that if he moves more than foot to either side, he will fall into a cow’s toilet.’

  Julie Oliver breathed a noisy puff of air through her lips. All was in place. She said a quick prayer to a god she did not believe in and perched on the end of the pine dressing table so she had a good view through the small gable window.

  Garrett picked up the binoculars and scanned the lane. Nothing yet, but Pelakais had returned as promised. Then they waited. It was 6.05 p.m.

  Jenna led her little gang up the lane. She was feeling sad. She hadn’t expected to miss her sister so much. It seemed weird that she had spent much of the last year hating Carly, but now she was gone, she really missed her. She had put a picture of Carly in the same place as she kept her memories of her mum, a shoe-box under the bed, so she could think about them sometimes, but not all the time, otherwise she didn’t know how she would carry on. And she couldn’t even think about Jamie. She’d nearly had a fit when he came round to the house. At least her dad had chucked him out. But he might come back.

  And she was worried about Jed. Why wasn’t he answering his phone? She had left texts, too, but nothing. Where was he? She’d been shocked when Irina rang her. She said Jed was away for the night and that she and the other kids should make their own way to a house in Poltimore, not the studio, and she had sent her the directions. She’d had to find the right bus stop and everything.

  It was all a bit weird, and she needed to see Jed. He’d make sure it was alright. She liked Jed a lot, he was the only person she knew that made her feel special, and pretty. He let her smoke and drink in the studio, treated her like a grown-up. Not like her dad, who only had eyes for Carly, and treated her like she was the maid.

  Deep down, and only to her-self, Jenna admitted that she knew that what she was doing was wrong. Especially since she and Maddie had started finding the younger kids for Jed. But, oh, she liked the money, and the attention, even if the old blokes did make her feel sick. Irina had some good stuff that she let Jenna have, too. It made her sleepy and feel happy, took away all her worries and made the whole filming business pass by in a flash.

  She cast a quick glance at the two small ones. She would get a lot of money tonight, for bringing them. Then, maybe she could buy her own stuff from Jed and have it all the time, not just when Irina came. Then, she would feel better about Carly and not mind so much about her dad.

  Jenna hurried them along and down the long drive of a yellow-brick house that glowed in the evening sun. Irina was waiting at the door with a smile. She was so beautiful.

  The first sign of action was the arrival of the children. DCI Garrett spotted two older girls, he thought they might be about twelve or thirteen, and they were accompanied by a girl of five or six, and a boy a little younger. He hoped the hothead from Vice was in position and stayed there, because he was finding it hard himself, at the moment, not to leap down the stairs and scoop them up and away to safety. He alerted the Child Protection Officers, so they knew how many to expect.

  Tom Garrett was a father of three, all teenagers now, but he couldn’t even begin to imagine how he would feel if a police officer had knocked on his door with the news that one of his kids had been involved in this kind of abuse. It was going to be a long hard night for some families.

  He nudged Oliver who followed the children’s progress up the drive, and they got their first view of Irina Akis as she opened the front door.

  ‘Sniper One, close up on the suspect’s face, now.’

  Garrett turned towards the seated officer and stared at the screen. A blurred picture was instantly relayed. She refined the picture and a coldly beautiful, Slavic blonde stared out at them, smiling for the children. As the woman ushered them in, she cast a quick glance around the garden, and shut the door behind them.

  Within thirty minutes, he watched the men arrive who paid for the opportunity to abuse children. Three cars, five men. They drove around to the back of the house, parked and got out. They were carrying cans and bottles. Sniper Two, lying flat on top of the milking parlour got clear pictures of three of the men, which he sent back to headquarters so they could be checked against the Sex Offenders’ Register. Garrett’s heart thudded against his ribs. Got the bastards.

  The voice of Carl Manley, the Vice Squad Officer, came over the speaker.

  ‘I recognise one of the men, Ma’am. Andrew Falkirk. I arrested him last June but he got off with a warning. Kid’s family wouldn’t go to court. Got the bastard now, though.’

  Oliver sniffed, ‘Yes, we have, Sergeant Manley, but don’t go jumping in there too soon. We want all of them, preferably alive so they can face prosecution. I don’t think they’re going to wriggle out of this one.’

  She glanced at Tom Garrett. She didn’t know him very well, but she was just about to put her team’s safety into his hands. She hoped his reputation was justified. Before she could speak, however, her phone rang. Garrett watched her face change from incredulity to h
orror as she listened to her Sergeant. Her hand shook as she put the phone down.

  ‘Are you alright, Ma’am?’ he asked.

  ‘No, Tom, I’m not.’ She looked over his shoulder at the farmhouse behind him. ‘The taller, fair-haired girl who has just walked through that door is the sister of our murdered girl, Carly Braithwaite. And if that’s not a sick enough coincidence for you, it looks like she might also be her sister’s murderer.’

  Oliver experienced a series of almost physical jolts as several pieces of this frustrating mess fell into place. Jed Abrams was the key to all of this. Dan’s hunch was right. Abrams was the one who linked it all together. The one responsible for Ian’s death. And he must have recruited Jenna. When or how, she would work out later. For now, she was glad they had him safely in custody.

  She focussed on the hands of her watch, willing the agreed fifteen minutes to pass.

  Then, ‘Go, Tom. Go now. Get the sick bastards.’ Eyes clear now, breathing under control, she moved to the window and stared through her binoculars as her colleague assumed command.

  The sun had retreated behind the trees at the front of the house, throwing the backyard into shadow. Team 1, led by Duncan Lake, rolled over the hedge and scrambled in silence towards the back door. Lake pushed at the door and it fell open an inch.

  Team 2 followed Carl Manley at a low run along the nearside of the stone wall separating the two farmhouses, and waited for the signal to cross the wall and enter at the front door.

  Team 3 moved into position at the rear of the house, ready to capture anybody trying to escape.

  On the ‘go’ signal, Lake pushed the door wide, swept a glance round the kitchen and slipped into the hallway. Pelakais was waiting in the hall as instructed. Lake gestured at him to get down on the floor, left one of his team to cuff him and opened the front door to admit Team 2. They could hear laughing and the noise of a television coming from the living room to their right.