by David Menon
‘I told you there’s nobody!’
‘And I say you’re lying!’
‘I’m telling you the truth’.
‘Oh come on, Nathan! You don’t even sound convinced yourself. Just who would bring a male escort into your flat? Your neighbour says she heard a commotion inside your flat before you got home. Why would she lie about that? It won’t be long before we identify the DNA that is all over the body of young Ethan Clark. Why not tell us before we get to that stage?’
‘There’s nothing else to tell’.
‘Who else had a key to your apartment, Nathan?’ asked Ng.
There was a knock on the door and both Bradshaw and Ng were called out to consult with DS Ben Masters. ‘We’ve found a match for the mystery DNA on the dead escort, Ethan Clark. Amazingly enough it’s the same as that on the exhumed bodies of the young girls Vanessa Hermitage and Imelda Stratton. But in the light of the abundance of files now being made available to us that were previously closed off, we now know that DNA was taken at the time but the paperwork detailing the results was removed from the original files’.
‘And now it’s miraculously reappeared?’ said Bradshaw.
‘That’s right, Adrian’ said Masters. ’The matching DNA belongs to none other than the MP for North Cheshire, Ken Stratton. Now go back in there and tell our friend that we know who he’s been trying to protect. I’m sure that will loosen his tongue’.
‘Mr. Alf Marsden?’ asked Barton as the door he’d just knocked on was answered. ‘I’m DSI Barton and this is DCI Wright of Greater Manchester police. Our uniformed colleagues here are from the local force’.
‘What are you doing bothering me?’ Alf wanted to know. ‘I’ve done nothing wrong. I came out the army in ’71 and haven’t put a foot wrong ever since. You ask my wife. Margaret?’
‘Mr. Marsden, we’re not here about you. It’s your neighbour, Mr. Nick Eades?’
‘Cheeky little rat, that one. I called on him the other night because since his aunt and uncle moved out and he moved in something keeps happening to the electricity supply round here’.
‘It keeps going off’ chimed Margaret as she joined her husband at the door, almost breathless after her large frame’s waddle from the living room. ‘I don’t know what the bugger he’s doing in there’.
‘Mr. and Mrs. Marsden, can you confirm that your house cannot been seen from the property now owned by Mr. Eades?’ Barton pursued. He almost pitied them. This was probably the most exciting thing that’s happened to them all their married life. But he didn’t have time for their spouting on now.
‘Yes, that’s right’ said Alf Marsden.
‘Good’ said Ben. ‘Because there’s something very important that you can help us with’.
Barton got the utility company to cut the supply of electricity to both the Marsden house and to that of the next door property that was now owned by Nick Eades. He was desperate to get the operation over with because he was certain that Rosie Franklin and the missing electrician Callum McIntyre were both in there and could be in mortal danger.
He and Wright walked up to the door of the Eades house surrounded by uniformed colleagues who also circled all the way round the house. They were augmented by armed officers who took up their positions, including one on each side of the front door. When it was answered Barton and Wright were somewhat surprised. Barton figured out who it was straight away.
‘Rosie Franklin?’
‘Yes’ Rosie answered. ‘I guess this means the game is up’.
EIGHTEEN
‘Look, before we start’ said Rosie who really did feel awful about betraying her brother-in-law Ben Masters. She was sitting in the interview room with the duty solicitor beside her and about to be questioned by Barton and DCI Wright. ‘Will you say sorry to Ben for me? I told him the truth about the abuse but I misled him through this investigation’.
‘I’ll be sure to pass on your words to DS Masters, Miss Franklin’ said Barton. He didn’t quite know what to make of this pretty young woman sitting in front of him. There was a deep sadness in her eyes like she just didn’t understand why the hell she was alive. ‘Miss Franklin, how did you become associated with Nick Eades?’
‘I met him in a bar in the city centre somewhere, I don’t remember which one’ Rosie answered. She was playing about with a paper tissue in her hands which she’d rested on the table between her and the police officers. She kept on folding it and refolding it, pulling bits off it and rolling them up into a tiny ball. She was genuinely sorry about misleading Ben. She really shouldn’t have done. He’d always been good to her. ‘I was attracted to him and we went back to his place because it was closer to the city than mine. From what I can remember we made a real connection that night in the, you know, sex department. We were well matched. Then the next morning he made me a coffee and we started talking’.
‘And what did you talk about?’
‘Anything and everything’ said Rosie, still playing with the tissue and not really looking Barton in the eye. ‘But then we realised that our parents must know each other. From that we went to talking about our childhoods and from that we ended up having the conversation with each other of our lifetimes. With words we fell down the steps of our souls like it had always been meant to happen and found that place deep inside each other. We came together over our destroyed childhoods’.
‘Miss Franklin, we know that Nick Eades was responsible for the murders of three women, Karina Kowalewski, Stacey Donaldson, and Suzanne Hermitage. We’ve found traces of their DNA, not to mention their urine, on the makeshift electric chair that he had in his cellar. Did you know about those murders?’
‘Yes I did’.
Barton took in a sharp intake of breath. Rosie admitted knowing about the murders of three women like she would admit to knowing about who’d done that day’s crossword in the paper.
‘Were you involved in them, Miss Franklin?’
‘Yes’ Rosie admitted in a quieter voice than before. She cleared her throat and sat up on her chair. ‘I knew both Stacey and Suzanne from our childhood days. We’d not exactly remained bosom pals but we bumped into each other now and then and caught up. I saw them as the lucky ones’.
‘The lucky ones?’
‘They were like my sister Kaitlin in that they weren’t chosen to perform for Mark Donaldson, Alastair Franklin, Ronald Hermitage and the others. I don’t know why they always left one daughter out in each family but they did. And I didn’t think that was fair. Why shouldn’t they suffer like those of us who had been chosen had been made to? That’s why I agreed with Nick that those who’d been left out should be the ones we picked on … ‘
‘ …. for killing?’.
‘Yes’ said Rosie. ‘You see, when Nick confided in me about his plan for revenge I had no shadow of a doubt that I wanted to go along with it with him. He was doing it for his mother who’d been horrifically abused by them trying to make out she was mad when all she was doing was trying to get someone to believe the truth about what was being done to her. All those electric shocks they subjected her to mashed her head but if they’d let her keep her baby, Nick, then she might’ve got better and Nick might’ve had a much happier childhood that was free from his adoptive father’s abuse. He was raped by his father countless times after his adoptive mother died’.
DS Ben Masters was watching and listening intently next door and was amazed at what Rosie was revealing. She’d done a bloody good job of hiding her activities of late but on a purely police level he was pleased to hear that the final pieces of the puzzle were now coming together. He just wished it wasn’t Rosie who was doing it.
‘But how specifically were you involved in these murders, Miss Franklin?’
‘On the nights they disappeared Nick and I followed them. At the right moment I made it like we’d bumped into each other by chance and introduced them to Nick. Stacey was so drunk we said we’d get her home. Instead we took her out to Carnforth. With Suzanne it was the promise
of drugs. She liked to smoke something illegal now and again. Nick gave her a sharp blow to the back of her head whilst she was leaning into the back of his car’.
‘So you procured those two women for a murderer’.
‘If you want to put it like that’.
‘How would you put it, Miss Franklin?’
Rosie suddenly slammed the table with the palm of her hand in a sudden burst of anger and resentment. ‘You just don’t get it! I suppose you had a happy childhood? Your parents loved you and took care of you like normal parents do? Well imagine what it was like for me and the other girls who were abused. From the age of seven or eight I was raped repeatedly every Friday and Saturday night by my own father and his friends. My mother, like all the other mothers too, stood by and watched it all happen. Now you tell me how you would’ve dealt with that, DSI Barton! You tell me how you’d have dealt with your childhood being smashed into little pieces. You tell me how you’d have dealt with not being able to trust your own father not to touch you where he shouldn’t. You tell me how you’d have dealt with being terrified every night you went to bed in case you father came in and wanted you to do something you didn’t want to’.
‘Miss Franklin I’m not trying to minimise what happened to you’.
‘You fucking liar! All you’re interested in is a resolution to this case’.
‘I’m just trying to establish the facts of what happened’ Barton went on. There was a part of him that really did feel for Rosie Franklin and the other victims. What they went through must’ve been horrendous. But she and Nick Eades had taken the law into their own hands and innocent women had been brutally murdered. The police officer in Barton had to deal with the actual crimes even though it was hard in this instance to retain an emotional detachment.
‘Well I tell you what didn’t happen. Karma. That’s what didn’t happen. The guilty went on to live happy successful lives whilst those of us who’d been damaged beyond repair have had to get through a living hell. And that just wasn’t fair. Karma only happens when you take steps to make it happen otherwise bad people get away with it and good people have to live through shit. That’s why I joined up with Nick. To make karma happen’.
‘And what about Karina Kowalewski? Where did she fit into this … revenge?’
Barton noted that Rosie looked uncomfortable all of a sudden. The murder of Karina Kowalewski obviously didn’t fit into the neat little box of reason that both Nick Eades and Rosie had been delving into to justify their crimes. Instead of getting help Rosie Franklin was now facing a good few years in prison to add to the misery she’d felt all her life.
‘Karina Kowalewski was the kind of clingy sort of brat who was all over a man after she’d fucked him’ said Rosie. ‘She seemed to think that one sexual encounter meant a lifetime’s commitment. The stupid bitch. She deserved to be used to test the electric chair. She’d had every advantage in life that had been brutally denied to me. I met her briefly. I hated her on sight’.
‘Because she’d slept with your boyfriend?’
‘Look, I didn’t own Nick just like he didn’t own me. We had a common purpose because of what we’d been through as children but we weren’t about to take out a mortgage on a desirable property in the suburbs. Along with that common purpose we had a pretty good sexual connection like I said before, but we weren’t an item as such. That kind of thing was for other people. It was never for me and never could be’.
‘Miss Franklin, all three women died in that electric chair’ Wright reminded her. ‘I can’t imagine how horrific their final moments would’ve been. Do you feel no remorse for having basically led them to their deaths?’
‘No’.
‘None whatsoever?’
‘They were made to suffer like I was made to suffer, like Nick’s Mum was made to suffer and all the others. I told you, it was karma. We were making things even’.
‘And did Nick think he, both of you, were going to get away with it?’
‘Well I don’t think he was planning on getting caught’ said Rosie, almost flippantly as if it was the most stupid question. ‘Once he’d evened the score he was planning to spend more time with his newly found Mum who he’d come to think a lot of’.
‘Miss Franklin, if you and Nick were so close, how come you shot and killed him just before we arrived at the Carnforth property?’
Rosie paused as she recalled what she’d done. ‘He was going to do something to Callum and I had to stop him’.
‘Callum McIntyre?’
‘Yes. Callum is one of my dearest friends and I had no idea that Nick was holding him or what he was planning to do. When I did find out we argued. I told him he’d crossed a line. I told him again and again that we could morally justify revenge but only against the right families. I said that our principle couldn’t be applied to Callum because he couldn’t blame all homosexuals for his father’s abuse of him. That was wrong. Callum and his family had nothing to do with any of it. And despite what you might think Detective I don’t believe in blaming the whole world for what one person has done to you. I wouldn’t have let Nick pick any girl at random. They had to be members of those families who’d done us wrong. And that didn’t include Callum’.
‘So what happened?’
‘Nick flew off the handle. He said that all fags were responsible for showing what his father was missing. I said he had to let Callum go because he was my friend, a good friend who’d been very good to me. I knew he had a gun in the house so I went and got it. I held it up and threatened him with it. He said he couldn’t believe that I could even think about shooting him over some useless fag. He started coming towards me and the next thing I knew I’d fired the gun and he dropped down in front of me. I couldn’t believe what I’d done. I knelt down and said I was sorry. I started to cry. It was in that moment that I realised just how much I did feel for Nick’.
‘A man who’d murdered three women’.
‘For reasons that I’ve already explained’ spat Rosie impatiently and for the first time during the interview she was holding back the tears. ‘I then went and released Callum and the next I saw was him being taken away in the ambulance. Is he going to be alright?’.
‘He has some minor physical injuries but he’ll be fine’ answered Barton. ‘Of course it’ll take him a long time to get over the psychological trauma of what he’s been through’.
‘He’s strong’ said Rosie, her voice quivering.
‘I’ll miss him. I don’t suppose he’ll want to remain friends with me after this’.
‘Who was going to be next on the revenge hit list, Miss Franklin?’
‘I’ve no idea’ Rosie answered. ‘Look, I haven’t denied anything or held anything back. I’ll sign a statement and then we can get this over with’.
‘You sound almost proud of yourself, Miss Franklin’.
‘Oh I am proud of myself. I’m proud to be the first member of my family to answer for their crimes’.
Barton and Wright came out of the interview room at the same time as DS Ben Masters came out of the room next door where he’d been watching and listening to Rosie franklin’s testimony. Barton said to Wright he’d catch him up.
‘Are you okay, Ben?’ asked Barton.
‘Not really, sir, no, but thanks for asking’.
‘It was pretty full on in there’.
‘You could say that, sir. I think I’m in shock to tell you the truth. I should’ve seen through her deception’.
‘Serial killers and those who assist them are very clever’ said Barton. ‘And you have known her for a long time within a very tangled family set-up. Don’t blame yourself for anything, Ben. None of it is your fault’.
Ronald Hermitage finally opened up to Barton about the nature of the work he’d done for the circuit in so much detail that his statement took all morning to complete. He also admitted to having forced his way into Scott Delaney’s apartment and having overpowered him he made his murder look like a suicide. He said he’d done it a
few times before on behalf of the circuit and gave Ben all the information he needed to charge him with multiple counts of murder, including that of Scott Delaney and Lance Parkin. He said that he had been a kind of enforcer for Mark Donaldson and Alastair Franklin but that the members of the circuit were now down to less than one hand count. Barton could well see how broken a man he now was. He cut a pretty dejected looking figure sat there on the other side of the interview table.
‘They used you Hermitage’ said Barton.
‘I’ll never admit to that’ Hermitage answered. ‘I still have a modicum of pride left’.
‘Not that it’s going to do you any good now’.
‘Go on then Barton’ said Hermitage. ‘Have your little parting shot’.
‘I feel sorry for your ex-wife, Hermitage’ said Barton. ‘She’s got to face the future entirely alone now without either of her daughters and knowing that it was you who removed the DNA evidence that would’ve convicted Ken Stratton of Vanessa’s murder. But she’s relatively young. She might meet someone else who’ll be worthy of her. Think about that whilst you spend the rest of your natural born behind bars’.
Hermitage looked up and said ‘You’ve exhumed the body of my little girl Vanessa I hear?’
‘Yes. For the DNA. And because of the match we were able to identify Ken Stratton as her killer. But of course, you already knew that. It was your own daughter Hermitage and you went along with protecting her killer’.
‘Well once I knew it was too late and they had me over a barrel’ Hermitage explained. ‘I couldn’t call time on Stratton because his father was part of the circuit and they would’ve called time on me’.
‘You really do disgust me’.
It had been a long and very exhausting day but as DS Ben Masters slumped into his chair at his desk he allowed himself a moment of feeling satisfied.
Then he thought of his sister-in-law Rosie.
Then he thought of his wife Kaitlin who’d been so distraught at the arrest of her parents and her sister that she’d been taken into the maternity unit at the local hospital where the doctors said they would probably keep her for the rest of her pregnancy because her blood pressure had shot up. She was now seven months gone with her and Ben’s second child and needed to be kept under observation in case anything happened to either her or the baby. As the father Ben was naturally worried sick but as Kaitlin’s husband he wondered just how much emotion he could give to support her and whether or not the time had come to call an end to it all. But could he really do that when Kaitlin had already been through so much? She was going to have to live with none of her family around her because they’d all be in prison, except perhaps for her mother who might get away with a non custodial sentence according to the prosecution lawyers. On top of all that could he really place a divorce and a child custody battle? But then again what about his own feelings? Did he have the strength to stay with someone he just didn’t love anymore? All he wanted to do as soon as he’d finished here was to go to Abigail’s place and climb into bed with her. And that’s exactly what he was going to do. He needed to be with Abigail. He wished he could whisk her away to somewhere lovely.