by John Mead
‘That isn’t possible,’ Hassan looked genuinely shocked. ‘We were making progress and, with another push, I am certain I can get through to Jenny. It is only too clear that Leanne and John have concerns about what has been happening recently.’
‘Whatever their concerns,’ Swift stated, entering the incident room and catching the end of Hassan’s comments, ‘Jackie, that is Cowan, has a strong alibi for the 14th April. Mr William Craig spent the afternoon with her, he knows her address and could describe the interior of her flat. As I’ve been saying to Matthew, that leaves us with a problem.’
‘We still have Cowan’s fingerprints on the plastic bag found beside Lynsey Hensley’s body, it has Lynsey’s blood and DNA on it and forensics can demonstrate that the hammer used on her was wrapped in it, it’s as close to a smoking gun as we are likely to get,’ Merry informed them. He was back in Swift’s good books after a brief dressing down for ignoring PACE regulations in dealing with Jackie but it had brought them a result, even if an unwanted one.
‘Her background points to a motive,’ Lukula agreed, glancing at Alima, the cogs of whose mind could clearly be seen working as she scowled in disapproval at this sudden turn of events.
‘Perhaps the killings are not related,’ Rosen pointed out. ‘There was a gap of four weeks between Jody and Lynsey’s killings, while Madeline’s murder followed quickly on from Lynsey’s.’
‘You had arrested someone for Jody Grahame’s death, hadn’t you?’ Alima asked, trying not to sound like she was clutching at straws, mindful that she didn’t want the others to think she was biased.
‘Nowak,’ Julie remembered.
‘He’s helping us with another inquiry,’ Swift, told them his mind still pondering what to do about Cowan, ‘as part of that he has admitted to selling drugs to Jody earlier in the day but was elsewhere when she was killed. We now have him on CCTV going toward the Albion pub just five minutes before she was attacked, we believe he was going there to buy new stock from his supplier.’
‘Still Ray has a point,’ Lukula said.
‘What do you think Matthew?’ Swift asked, his deferring to Matthew leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that he now thought of him in a new and better light.
‘I think the first question to resolve is why would Billy Craig lie about being with Jackie?’ Merry could immediately tell that only Alima thought this likely. ‘The second is to review whether the killings are linked or not, as Ray has suggested, and, the third point, have we overlooked a possible suspect?’
‘I’ve been reevaluating everything we have done so far,’ Rosen chimed in before anyone else could speak, determined to prove his own hypothesis wrong, ‘I’ve even taken into account the recent follow-ups Hayden has been looking into. I have to say that there is strong evidence linking the killings: the manner and places where the attacks occurred, the girls are all linked with the Berner Centre and are of a general physical type and age. As well as some circumstantial evidence: Jody and Lynsey both used Madeline’s hair and nail skills, Madeline and Lynsey had the same untraceable phone number in their contacts, Jody and Lynsey have links with mental health services, Lynsey and Madeline both went to the same school.’ Rosen paused, mentally checking he hadn’t missed a point before continuing, ‘There is no one we have questioned so far, apart from Cowan, that remains a viable suspect, but there are still a few gaps around following up on CCTV from around the Berner Centre so a new lead is still possible. Of course, another public appeal might draw in more witnesses and there’s still the witness from Swedenborg Gardens we have never identified.
‘Thanks, Ray, a clear and succinct summary. Although I can’t see why Billy should lie,’ Swift stated.
‘So, we’re back to square one,’ Lukula despaired, ‘looking for a new lead at the Berner Centre?’
‘You are all underestimating Cowan,’ Doctor Hassan stated assertively, having realised how to play this setback to her favour and come out in a stronger position as a result. ‘You have all fallen into the trap of assuming that because Jenny Cowan has a mental health problem that she is also unintelligent. Nothing could be further from the truth.’
‘What are you getting at?’ Merry asked, intrigued at this turn of events.
‘I’m sorry to be so blunt,’ Alima stated, asserting her professional authority, ‘However, none of you understand how Jenny Cowan’s mind works and, as a result, you are missing the obvious. If you were investigating a close knit family who all lived in the same house, you would be more suspicious of what each person told you about the others. The difference here is that the personalities concerned don’t know what the others have done, but they are not stupid and can make educated guesses. Leanne and John have both shown they are capable of working out, to an extent, what has been going on and if they can then I’m certain Jackie can. Jackie is also the most manipulative of them all, she is the one who fought most against any restrictions put on her as part of the Edinburgh study, but she never approaches a conflict head on…’
‘What is it you are trying to say, in layman’s terms?’ Lukula interrupted, feeling she was losing the plot and not liking the high-handed side of Alima that was emerging before her.
‘If Jackie is fearful that Jenny has committed these crimes and as a result, her own future is at stake, then she might have found a way to get this Billy to lie for her. She can be highly persuasive,’ Doctor Hassan was pleased to note the concerned looks the others were giving each other.
‘Jackie was clear about reading everything Leanne wrote in her diaries,’ Merry confirmed. He certainly knew how persuasive Jackie could be, that mix of vulnerability and sexual appeal she exerted was a strong pull to any man, it appealed to a basic programming wired into heterosexual men.
‘Certainly John and Leanne have indicated a knowledge of the actions of their other personalities, including Mia, whom Doctor Hassan now believes is Jenny. The interview we were halfway through shows as much,’ Swift acknowledged, now in half a mind to press ahead with Cowan’s interview.
‘Then we should continue,’ Alima stated, seeing Swift wavering. ‘If we keep pushing, as we have agreed, Jenny will emerge and I am certain I can get her to confess.’
‘That still leaves the problem of Billy’s alibi,’ Lukula pointed out, she didn’t want to be the one to rain on Alima’s parade but the doctor’s pushing to be the one to solve the case, just to boost her future book sales, riled Julie’s own professional standing. ‘Once Cowan’s solicitor is told she will have a field day.’
‘Nor is Jenny’s confession likely to be that coherent,’ Merry put in, ‘under the circumstances a useful brick but not the killer blow we might hope for in a normal case.’
‘That’s true, it might be a tactical mistake to proceed,’ Swift stated, as Alima shot darts at Julie and Matthew whom she had hoped would be more supportive of her. ‘It will give us a much stronger case if we can break Billy’s alibi and then get Jenny’s confession, otherwise it looks muddled. Plus I have an idea of how to do it.’
It was not the complete win Doctor Hassan had hoped for but she nodded as if giving Swift consent to continue, Lukula noticed the arrogant action and felt part of her affection for Alima break.
‘I’ll speak with Cowan’s solicitor and explain we are releasing Cowan on bail pending additional investigations,’ Swift decisively stated, smiling at Hassan’s negative body language but putting it down to no more than her own professional self-worth. ‘Hayden I want you to lead on round the clock surveillance of Cowan, I’m going to pull in additional support to cover this. Julie, I want you to take over from Hayden to follow up on anything outstanding from the Berner Centre. Matthew, I want you to work with Ray, see if you can break the link between the girls’ murders, see if you can come up with alternative scenarios that still match all the evidence. If you can’t the case will be more solid for the attempt. If Jackie is as manipulative as Doctor Hassan suggest
s then I’m sure she will contact Billy Craig and it will throw up something we can use.’
‘No, Mum, everything is OK,’ Julie reiterated, though it was far from being the truth. ‘I know it’s late but I just wanted to let you know I’ll be down for the weekend. It’s all agreed with my boss and the case I’m working on is at a bit of a stalemate so I can get away.’
It was late and her mother sounded tired so she finished the conversation sooner than she wanted, things had gotten difficult with Alima and she had hoped to discuss the situation with her mother who had that knack of giving sound advice by simply listening. Julie had gone for a meal in Soho with Alima, which had gone well until they had bumped into Sergeant Mehta, out with her colleagues for a night of fun.
‘You’ve not heard?’ Mehta shouted over the noise in the club, ‘I’m leaving, this is my leaving do.’ Mehta swept her arm round to indicate half the club’s clientele, she beamed a bright smile, exhilarated by the music and her impending freedom. ‘I’m sick of the cuts, what they’ve done to the job, the impossible targets. I can’t get out fast enough.’
Julie didn’t know what to say. She understood Mehta’s motives as the sergeant was far from being the only one to quit but her experience would be missed and Julie told her so, at the same time wishing her a great future. When she turned back Alima was far from happy, not only hadn’t Julie supported her at the meeting but now she hadn’t thought to introduce her to her colleague.
‘It isn’t about support,’ Julie told her, exasperated, wanting to ask about the misgivings Merry had raised about Alima but the club wasn’t the place to do this, ‘this isn’t an academic exercise, people’s lives and futures are at stake.’
‘You know how much this means to me, the book and everything,’ Alima felt her frustration surging and she felt slighted that Julie hadn’t bothered to introduce her, as if she were some inconsequential flirtation, ‘given our connection I assumed you’d understand. Of course I want justice to be done but I need to be a central part of the case, otherwise how can I write the book?’
Julie just stared back for a moment, her concerns about Alima and her role as expert consultant were whirling through her mind. Perhaps those concerns were not really that significant and no more than innocent lapses of judgement, easily explainable coincidences. Indecision kept her mouth clamped shut on a dozen things she could have said. Maybe she should have dragged the doctor from the club and insisted they discuss things, cleared the air and put Julie’s mind at rest. Perhaps Julie should simply have given Alima the benefit of the doubt and pulled her onto the dance floor, reassuring them both with a grinding dance and kisses. Unfortunately her temper got the better of her and she left the club without a further word, leaving a shocked and angry Alima behind.
Merry had told the FLOs that he would be meeting with the two mothers in the morning, news of Cowan’s release would be out by then and he wanted to put it into context for them, explain it wasn’t the step back they might assume. He was experienced enough to know such news was never easy for the grieving family but the meeting went far worse than he expected. Maureen Turner became angry and stormed out, fuelled by Merry explaining the chief suspect had been released, while they investigated further leads, proving to be one repetition of events too many for the grieving mother.
‘You keep arresting people, saying you have someone then releasing them,’ Maureen angrily said, rising and casting around her, partly in appeal to the others present, partly to ensure she wasn’t leaving anything behind as she seemed to be increasingly forgetful of late. ‘Firstly it was that perverted little shit of my husband, may he rot in hell, now this woman! You know nothing, clutching at straws, giving us false hope, then taking everything away from us.’ She paused at the door searching for the right words, wanting something hurtful to say, that wasn’t an obscenity, ‘You don’t care, not about us, not about my poor girl, still laying on a cold slab waiting for a decent burial. It’s just your job! So don’t come here with your “sorries” and “things are progressing”, it’s all just bullshit.’
Joanne Hensley had collapsed in on herself as Maureen’s voice rose to a screaming shout, she understood every word the woman said but didn’t have the emotions left to feel angry. It was all just words: what the FLO said, what was in the media, what the inspector said, her family and now what the other grieving mother said was just words. Nothing could describe the void in which she existed, the vacuum of emotion at the centre of her raw pain.
Matthew didn’t feel much like going back to the office, Billy was uppermost in his mind but he knew that patience was required at this stage of the investigation and Swift was right, give them time and if something was amiss with the alibi Jackie and Billy would give themselves away. Instead he opted to deal with his second concern and this he thought should be tackled face to face.
‘I didn’t expect you,’ Alima stated, opening the door after a quick tidy of her apartment. She had gauged the time Matthew would take getting to her floor after he had spoken with the concierge in the lobby and she could either tidy the place or make herself respectable. She correctly judged Matthew would prefer her disheveled.
‘You look relaxed,’ Merry commented entering the apartment noticing the lavish decor and spectacular view but focusing on Alima’s short, flowing summer dress which showed off her legs and breasts to their best advantage. ‘Are you off out?’
‘No, as you speculated, just relaxing,’ she held up a glass and a teacup for him to choose his beverage and he indicated the teacup despite a sudden need for wine. ‘On days like this I love to just sit and gaze at the view, the sparkle of the sun on the river.’
‘Summer has certainly arrived with a vengeance,’ he admitted, feeling sticky in his jacket and tie despite the air con.
‘So, to what do I owe the pleasure?’ she asked as they sat on the long corner sofa which dominated the middle of the living area and gave great views through the ceiling-to-floor windows, she had curled up almost opposite him, her legs showing to their best advantage, and pleased that he continually peaked to check out her lack of underwear.
‘Nothing really, just to let you know that things are not as bad as they seem,’ he sipped his tea and wished he’d thought to remove his jacket, so he could benefit more from the cool of the air con. ‘I understand you want to push on but sometimes a slower pace gets better results.’
‘How clichéd,’ she laughed, moving her legs to ensure he had the perfect view and wondering if he was thinking about the film Basic Instinct and the irony of the situation, ‘a phone call would have done.’
‘I also wanted to talk about your time in Mallaig with Jenny Cowan,’ he decided, for once, to take the direct approach hoping to catch her off guard as she was obviously trying to distract him and, he had to admit to himself, she was succeeding, ‘during your student days.’
‘Oh, that,’ she shifted her position, sitting up but still giving him an eyeful. ‘Yes my student days were, well, my student days. I suspect you weren’t as straight-laced when you were a student as you are now.’
‘You’d be surprised, I was very studious,’ Merry smiled, he liked Alima and didn’t want to assume the worst just yet, but he did need some points answered. ‘Although it isn’t just that which concerns me, more that you haven’t said you have known Jenny from before the Edinburgh project.’
‘I didn’t think it relevant and, to be frank, it hardly shows me in a good light does it,’ she was laughing at him, amused at his thinking and not afraid to show it, she had no secrets from her old friend. ‘Hello, I am Jenny Cowan’s therapist and I’d like to help you get to the bottom of her involvement in the murder of three girls. Oh, by the way, she used to sell me recreational drugs when I was student.’
Merry laughed, she was right it was an understandable avoidance of the truth, and she still looked like a student, despite her mature, knowing eyes, she possessed the gaiety of a much
younger, carefree time in her life.
‘I realise that. Do you mind?’ Merry finally removed his jacket and loosened his tie as she acquiesced to his need with a nod, ‘it doesn’t usually bother me, the heat that is.’ He wondered if his explanation sounded lame and whether she assumed it was her revealing, loose fitting dress that was making him feel hot. ‘Although there is something else,’ he continued, determined to keep the initiative, ‘you also knew two of the girls, Jody Grahame and Lynsey Hensley, before they were killed.’
‘God! You are good,’ she stated with genuine admiration, she had forgotten how much she really liked him. ‘You should be chief superintendent by now,’ she sat up, straightened her dress and folded her hands in her lap, like an errant schoolgirl up before the head. ‘Truth is things haven’t gone well for me recently. My last book did well, as you know, at least for a short while. There was even talk of a film but then sales dropped and so did everything else. I had various consultancy jobs, that I procured based on my public image, but they petered out and my last big contract ended in a bit of a row,’ she glanced at him looking for a sign of sympathy, but seeing only that policeman’s blank look of mild suspicion on his face, she couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Oh, come on, you could at least try to look like you cared. I know, I got ahead of myself, took on too much and it all fell apart. I’d bought this place on the back of my success but there is still the upkeep, I have to pay the bills. So, I started to look round for an angle.
‘I’d come across Jenny again by then, simply bumped into her one night, although it was Jackie not Jenny. Then Leanne emerged and seemed in need of help so I became involved again. It made me think that perhaps I could find other cases, similar types to show how basically comparable childhood issues could spark different mental health problems. I won’t bore you with the details but my problem was how to find such cases as organisations don’t just hand over patient details, even to a respected clinical psychologist as myself. I made one or two direct approaches but realised it would be very long winded so I made up a white lie about sponsoring an undergraduate researcher, somehow it made everything seem more acceptable.’