“How can you say that?” Adam said, genuinely hurt.
“Well, what’s a girl supposed to think?” Chrissy replied. “I only met you yesterday, so you have to admit, I’m taking a chance here. I know we talked a lot, but I hardly know anything about you, so you could still be a well-to-do serial killer for all I know!”
Charles coughed politely. “Excuse me, Miss, but Mr Campbell can’t be a serial killer.”
“And how would you know? He could be a serial killer on Friday nights only.”
“No, Miss. I deal with Mr Campbell’s laundry, and I would have noticed the extra blood.”
“Shut up and drive!”
Adam reached out to take Chrissy’s hand. His expression was very sincere. “What I told you was all true, I do promise you. I wish that it weren’t. The idea of hot and cold women running around my house is such a pleasing image; it will be a long time before it fades. But unfortunately, rather than beating them off, my love life would be far better served if I employed Charles to hit women with a cricket bat in order to gain their attention.”
“Yeah, and I’m a nun, and the Pope’s my dad!”
“What can I do to convince you?”
“Let me see your credit card statements.”
Adam grunted and clutched at his heart, and Charles openly laughed.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “I couldn’t help it. But I believe this young lady has the measure of you.”
“I thought so!” Chrissy exclaimed sitting back in her seat. “That’s one to me, I think!”
Adam stared at Chrissy’s triumphant expression. “How old did you say you were?” he asked her.
“Nineteen.”
“Nineteen?” Adam sighed. “So young and yet so worldly. Where ever did you get that idea about credit card statements?”
“On the back of my morning packet of rusks,” Chrissy replied sarcastically. She was beginning to get angry, and her voice was harsh. “Admit it, Adam. The bracelet was meant to be the final blow, wasn’t it? You thought I was going to be a push over, didn’t you? I bet when you saw me you couldn’t believe your luck! Poor little girl, all drunk and bruised! You must have thought my knickers had a rip-cord!”
“I thought no such thing!”
Chrissy ignored him. “All that talk about dreams yesterday, I bet your sides were splitting! God, when I think about how excited I was running around the shops today! I feel really stupid now!”
Adam realised that Chrissy was angrier with herself than she was with him. “Alright! Enough!” he announced. “Truce! Firstly, most of what I told you was the truth, especially the bit about dreams. I have found that the rule about telling as much truth as possible when lying to be a good one. I admit it, you are right; I have had my share of good fortune with women. But I am not a predator. And you must admit that our meeting was down to chance. Secondly, you should find no fault in your instincts. You were suspicious from the start, and I remember how hard I had to work to gain your trust.”
“But you did it, though, didn’t you?” Chrissy said bitterly. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Yes. But yesterday you had consumed much alcohol, and had been struck by a taxi. I did have the advantage. But today we are on level terms. I told you that we would be. You have your wits about you, and I have been found out. Today, you are victorious. So now you have to choose between two prizes.”
“And what might those be?” Chrissy asked suspiciously.
“If you wish, we can return you home at once, and I will never bother you again. Or, we can both accept one another as we are, and go on to the restaurant and have a pleasant evening together.”
Chrissy rattled the bracelet on her wrist. “And what about this?” she asked.
Adam held up his hands. “That is yours to keep no matter what your decision. Consider it to be the spoils of war.”
There was a pause while Chrissy thought about it. “How do I know that this isn’t just another ploy?”
“Because we both enjoyed our conversation yesterday. Because we both like to win and because neither of us is satisfied with our scores yet.”
Chrissy turned to Charles and said, “What do you think, Charles? Should I go home, or should I give him a second chance?”
“Oh, I would never suggest that you gave him a second chance, Miss,” Charles replied to Adam’s surprise. “That would be too generous and far more than he deserves in the circumstances. However, the restaurant is expensive and the food very fine. It would be rather sad to pass it by.”
Adam grunted. “For a moment there, Charles, I thought you were looking for alternative employment.”
“Oh, no, sir!” Charles said quickly. “I have far too much satisfaction in my job to risk your displeasure so openly. But I also didn’t wish to deceive the young lady, so I thought an answer that was both genuinely honest as well as being impartial was the best choice in the circumstances.”
“You may not think so if Chrissy’s answer is the wrong one!”
Chrissy was outraged. “Are you saying that if I decide to go back home, you’ll sack Charles?”
“Of course!”
“But that’s not fair!”
“There is no fairness in love and war,” Adam insisted. “There is also no impartiality. Charles has developed a nasty habit of speaking too honestly recently. Maybe it’s time I had a change of personnel. Me thinks I have been feeding him too much meat.”
Chrissy smiled at last. “You aren’t going to give up on me, are you?”
Adam shook his head. “I told you, you’re far too valuable to part with just yet. And as I said, I like to win. Let’s be honest with each other, shall we? The game we’re playing is simple. You have something I want, and I have something you want. The winner is the one that gets what they want while denying the other too much of what she wants. At the moment I believe that you are ahead by one bracelet to my deception of shy innocence. Are you tough enough to continue? Or are you going to fold and flee with your winnings? Think carefully now, Charles’s future may depend on your answer.”
“You’re very confident, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
Chrissy smiled ever so sweetly. “I’m glad,” she said in a soft voice, leaning closer to Adam. “Because now that I’m on to you, any advantage you had over me before is all gone. Now you’re just the same as all the other men I meet. You might have more money to throw about, but you’re after the same thing. I can deal with that. This game, as you call it, I know how to play. And I play it well, very, very well. I’m totally unforgiving and I take no prisoners. I hope Charles isn’t squeamish, because this is going to get really bloody.”
Chapter Twenty-One
A Home Visit
Shawcroft had dialled the right number on Saturday afternoon. Max turned out to be Max Headly, and he had a brother called Scott. And, yes, he did have a girlfriend called Joanne. It was their mother who answered, and at first she was very alarmed, as both her sons were out at a football match, and she feared the worse.
Shawcroft was quick to put her at ease, but told her nothing about the murder. Instead he only told her that Joanne Henshaw had been attacked late last night, and made arrangements to talk to both young men and their parents about it later that evening.
“Good,” Connors had said when Shawcroft had told him. “By the time we get there, both sons will have had a grilling by their parents, and if either of them knows anything about what happened to Joanne Henshaw, they’ll be on the defensive.”
Connors was right.
When they arrived at the house, Mr Headly opened the door. He was very straightforward.
“What have they done?” he asked as soon as he saw them.
Connors said, “At the moment, we don’t know that they have done anything, sir.”
“They must have done something, or you wouldn’t be here.”
“Are your sons here?” Connors asked.
Mr Headly nodded.
“Are you going
to let us in?”
Reluctantly, Mr Headly opened the door wide and showed them into the front room.
They were all there, sitting in the front room waiting for them. Max, Scott, their mother, and another man who was obviously a solicitor. Both Max and Scott looked very nervous, and their mother was just plain scared. Their expressions told Connors all he needed to know.
As soon as Shawcroft and Connors came in, the solicitor stood up.
“My name is Henry Billing. I’m here on the instruction of Mr Headly to represent his sons. I have been told that you are here because Max’s girlfriend was attacked last night, so I must insist that you declare any charges against my clients, or state that they are suspects in this crime before you question them.”
Shawcroft answered him. “That is correct. But at the moment there are no charges against either young men, and we have no idea whether they are suspects or not. We are merely here to ask a few questions.” He took the opportunity to introduce himself and Connors to those in the room.
“I’m Detective Constable Shawcroft, and this is Detective Sergeant Connors. Are these two young men Scott and Max?”
Billing nodded and identified Scott and Max to the policemen.
Connors smiled and looked at the younger brother. He was sweating. “Do you have any idea why we are here, Max?” he asked in a casual manner.
Billing quickly intervened. “You don’t have to answer that!” But it was too late to stop Max shaking his head nervously.
Connors had another go. “You mean you didn’t ring Joanne to find out what had happened to her? Not even to see if she was alright?”
Again there was the nervous shake of the head.
Billing was furious. “I must insist that you stop this! My client has a right to know if he is a suspect before you ask any questions!”
Connors nodded. “You are perfectly correct.” He kept his eyes fixed on Max as he said, “I’m sorry to tell you this Max, but your girlfriend, Joanne Henshaw, was found murdered late this afternoon.”
Mrs Headly screamed and her husband grabbed hold of her. Billing and Scott Headly both stood up and began talking at once, and Max just sat there and stared in horror.
By the time sanity returned to the Headly household, Mrs Headly was sitting down on the sofa with a whisky, and her husband was sitting next to her. They were both very subdued. Scott had gone to stand by his brother. Max was sitting in an armchair looking very pale. He had begun to cry. Only Billing seemed to have retained his composure.
“Is Max a suspect?” he asked Connors.
“That depends on the answers he gives us, Mr Billing,” Connors replied. “And I think it would be best for all concerned if we got this all over with as quickly as possible.”
With Mr Headly’s consent, everyone moved into the lounge leaving Shawcroft and Connors with Max and Billing in the front room.
Connors let Shawcroft handle the questioning. Max was still obviously very upset and emotional. He was slow to answer, but slowly, the events of the following night were revealed.
“And that was the last time you saw her?” Shawcroft asked after Max had explained how he had left Joanne and the other girls on Deansgate.
“Yes,” Max whispered, wiping the tears from his eyes.
“And what happened then?”
“I went to look for Scott…I couldn’t find him, so I went to Piccadilly and caught the bus home.”
“At what time was that?”
“I dunno……it must have been about eleven o’clock, because I got home at quarter to twelve.”
“Can anyone verify that?”
“Yeah…mum and dad were still up.”
Connors then repeated the question he had asked earlier. “Why didn’t you ring to ask Joanne what this was all about, Max? It would have been the obvious thing to do.”
“Scott told me not to. He said that if Jo had been attacked she might blame it on me, and that it would be best not to talk to her.” Max’s face creased up and he began to cry again. “It was my fault,” he wailed. “I shouldn’t have left her like that…I should have walked her home…I always walk her home…”
Max couldn’t continue after that. Shawcroft and Billing took him into the lounge and sat him down.
Next came Scott.
He was much more calm and in control than his brother. He told them exactly the same story as Max had done, the only difference being his conversation with Chrissy at the end.
“And you say you left her at the end of King Street?” Shawcroft asked him when he had finished.
“Yes. I went back to the bar on Deansgate but everyone was gone.”
“So what did you do next?”
“I stayed at the bar until it closed. I had a few drinks and a laugh, then I went to a club.”
“Were you alone?”
“Most of the time. But I bumped into John a bit later and we went to an Indian restaurant in Rusholme. The Shere Khan it was.”
“This is the same John King you spoke of before?”
“Yes, that’s right. It turned out he had gone off with some girl he met at one of the bars we visited. I just happened to bump into him again in Piccadilly.”
“Do you have his address so that we can contact him and verify your story?”
“Yes.”
Shawcroft passed him a piece of paper and Scott wrote it down.
“Thank you,” Shawcroft said. “What time did you get to the restaurant?”
“At about two thirty. We were there about an hour, an hour and a half maybe, then went home. I caught a taxi and got in well after four. Everyone was asleep.”
Connors then asked Scott, “You advised your brother not to phone his girlfriend. Why is that?”
“It was because of that girl I told you about, Victoria. She messed everything up between all of us. I don’t know what her game was, but she didn’t like me and Max from the start. Max told me how she even mucked up him and Jo, so I figured she must have got Jo into trouble. She was behaving like a bit of a slag, and I wouldn’t have put it past her to get Jo to blame it all on me and Max. But I didn’t have any idea that Jo might have actually been killed. Mum only said that she had been attacked.”
When they questioned Mr Headly later, he said he remembered the time Max had returned home because it was unusually early. He also verified that Max didn’t go out again that night. He said he and his wife were asleep before Scott got back.
Billing wanted to know if that was the end of the matter, but Connors told him that he and Shawcroft might wish to question both brothers about their statements at a later date.
“But they’ve told you everything they know,” Billing said. “And neither of them were the last person to see the victim alive.”
“That has yet to be confirmed,” Connors replied. “We still have other people to question, and you know quite well that we may need to re-question everyone involved more than once. A young woman was killed, and we have to find the person responsible.”
Shawcroft and Connors left shortly after. It was more than obvious that everyone in the house was glad to see them go.
Shawcroft waited until they were both in the car before he asked Connors what he was thinking.
Connors was thoughtful. “Hmmm. I have to admit that after I saw Max’s reaction to the news I wasn’t as confident as I was before that it was him. He seemed genuinely upset. He also has an alibi that would suggest he is innocent.”
“He and his parents could be lying,” Shawcroft suggested. “They did have plenty of time to work on their story together.”
Connors nodded. “They did. And they seem like a close knit family, one that would stick together in adversity. The presence of the solicitor, Billing, would also suggest that it could be a possibility. I think it likely that Mr Billing and Mr Headly questioned and clarified his son’s stories, but I don’t think they concocted any of it. And Mrs Headly’s reaction suggests that they were not aware that Joanne was dead.”
“It sounds like you’ve given up on Max as the killer.”
Connors smiled. “I didn’t say that. But what do you think, Mike?”
Shawcroft sighed and shook his head. “I’m not sure. I’ll have to wait until I’ve questioned the girls from the University and the other two young men, Andy Price and John King, before I make up my mind. But I do think the other brother, Scott, was far too calm and confident for my liking. And why would he warn off his brother from phoning up his girlfriend unless he knew that she was dead? His excuse was a bit lame.”
Connors nodded. “Lame, but feasible. And he also has an alibi, unless the Coroner’s Report gives the time of death as somewhere between three and five am. If it does, it could still have been possible for Scott to have intercepted Joanne going home, killed her, then returned home as he said.”
“What happens if the time of death was earlier, say around three?” Shawcroft said.
“Then we will have to see if his alibi checks out. But I suspect that there will be a few gaps somewhere. But the question then would be why he did it. Why kill your brother’s girlfriend?”
“Maybe it was the argument he had with the other girl, Chrissy Davis?” Shawcroft suggested.
Connors replied, “Or maybe my first thought was correct, and Max is merely a very good actor.”
“So you do still think it’s him?”
The Look of Love Page 13