Dead Weight

by Frank Smith

  ‘I think she might appreciate it more if you told her yourself,’ Ormside suggested. ‘She spent a lot of her own time staring at that screen, so I think a word from you wouldn’t come amiss.’

  It wasn’t quite an admonition, but it served to remind Paget that things had changed with the arrival of Superintendent Amanda Pierce. He’d been spending more time in the office upstairs and less time down here and in the field.

  ‘Which is the way it is supposed to be,’ Pierce had argued. ‘As DCI, you should spend more time in the office and let your people do what they do best. You have a good team; let them get on with the job.’

  She was right, of course. The late Superintendent Alcott had allowed him far too much freedom in the field, and he’d taken advantage of it, because it was what he liked to do. But there was a price to pay. He hadn’t thought about it before, but, prompted by Ormside’s not so subtle reminder, he realized he was losing touch with the men and women with whom he’d worked so closely in the past.

  ‘Point taken, Len,’ he said. ‘I’ll have a word with her.’

  TWENTY-THREE

  ‘Interview resumed at fifteen forty-three,’ Tregalles said, having set the tape recorder in motion and recited the names of those present once again.

  ‘I’d like to begin by asking about your relationship with Mr Bradley,’ Paget began, only to be interrupted by Rita Thurlow.

  ‘With regard to Mr Bradley,’ she cut in sharply, ‘Mrs Lorrimer wishes to make a voluntary statement. Against my advice, I might add, but it is her choice. As I said, it is voluntary, and I trust it will be taken into consideration when this matter is resolved.’

  ‘That may not be up to me, Ms Thurlow, as I’m sure you know,’ said Paget, ‘but it is now on record. Mrs Lorrimer?’

  But again, before Julia Lorrimer could reply, the solicitor cut in ahead of her. ‘I feel compelled to warn you that this could have serious consequences, Julia, including a prison term, although I would hope it won’t come to that.’

  Julia nodded. ‘You’ve made that very clear, Rita, and I’m grateful for your advice, but I’m tired of lying, and I just want this whole thing to be over.’ She raised her eyes to meet those of Paget. ‘I’m afraid I’ve been very foolish, Chief Inspector. We all have, for that matter, but once we started down that path, we couldn’t stop. But that’s not what you want to hear, is it?’ she said in a firmer voice, ‘so I’ll go back to the beginning.

  ‘It really began when Justine came downstairs that Saturday evening to tell me that she was pregnant, and Stephen was the father. She said she was sorry that it had happened because she was genuinely very fond of Stephen, but she knew that if it ever became public knowledge, it could damage his career, and it would almost certainly lower his chances of becoming a cabinet minister. Oh, yes,’ Julia said, seeing the question in Paget’s eyes, ‘I’m not supposed to say anything, but he’s been told he’s being considered for a cabinet post, and I’m afraid it was that as much as anything that clouded my own judgement in trying to protect him.’

  Paget frowned. ‘You accepted Justine’s word without question that your husband was the father of her child?’

  ‘Oh, yes.’ The little shrug of resignation said more than words. ‘I knew they were having an affair. They were both passionately fond of Michael – I only wish to God I could feel the same, but I can’t – and it was almost inevitable that the two of them would …’ She spread her hands and left the rest unsaid.

  ‘You didn’t mind?’

  Julia seemed to think about that for a moment or two. ‘In a strange way, I think I was relieved,’ she said. ‘It made me feel less guilty about my own affair with Jim. And before you ask, Stephen knew about that as well, so he probably felt less guilty when he was with Justine. However,’ she hurried on, ‘that’s all by way of history. Stephen and I do love each other, and we make a great team. It’s just that with him being away so much, we made … adjustments.’

  ‘But it wasn’t until that Saturday evening that you knew Justine was pregnant?’ said Paget in an attempt to get back to the matter at hand.

  Julia pursed her lips. ‘Let’s just say I had begun to wonder, but I didn’t know until Justine told me. Anyway, Justine was very practical in everything she did, and she had it all worked out. She said she would make no claim on Stephen as the father. She said she was prepared to return to Manila and have the child, but it would mean giving up a well-paying job, and without it she would not be able to keep her grandfather in the home he was in. She said he was ailing and was not expected to live long, but until that time she wanted Stephen to promise to continue paying her present salary into her account in Manila. She said once her grandfather died, she would let Stephen know, and she would expect no more payments from him, and we would never hear from her again.’

  ‘Did you believe her?’ asked Paget.

  Julia hesitated. ‘I did,’ she said slowly. ‘Justine was very honest, but there were no guarantees. I mean, what if her grandfather carried on living for another ten years or more? What if Justine decided not to tell us if he died? Or if she just became used to the money and continued to demand it as the price of her silence? I mean, I did trust her, and it wasn’t an unreasonable request under the circumstances, but still …’

  ‘But it was still blackmail,’ Paget said. ‘You say this was Saturday evening; was this before or after your husband phoned to say he would be staying the night in Worcester?’

  ‘Before.’

  ‘What did he have to say about it?’

  Julia shook her head. ‘I didn’t tell him,’ she said. ‘I wanted to think about it. To be honest, I was afraid his emotions would impair his judgement. Which is why I rang Jim and asked him to come over. Jim is a pragmatist, and he has Stephen’s best interests at heart, so I wanted to talk it over with him before I said anything to Stephen.’ Julia paused, brow furrowed as she looked past Paget into the distance. ‘Jim is such a dear man,’ she said softly, ‘always so dependable, always willing to help, but I wish I’d never called him that night.’

  ‘Why was that, Mrs Lorrimer?’

  ‘Because none of this would have happened,’ she said sadly, ‘and it’s all my fault!’

  ‘That may be the way my client is feeling,’ Rita Thurlow cut in quickly. ‘So let it be clearly understood that this is in no way an admission of guilt or responsibility for anything that happened that evening.’

  Julia sighed. ‘Unfortunately, Rita, it is the way I feel,’ she said, reaching out to pat the solicitor’s hand before turning back to Paget. ‘I told Jim what Justine had said, and he agreed with me that we should try to sort something out before telling Stephen. I could understand where Justine was coming from, and if she stuck to her word, I could live with that. But I really wasn’t sure how Stephen would take it if he knew that Justine was carrying his child. He can be very emotional about such things, and we had no idea how he might react to the news. He might even want to become involved in the child’s welfare, and I couldn’t risk that. He’s worked so hard to get where he is – we all have – and we want him to receive the recognition he deserves, but one wrong move on his part, and all those years of work would mean nothing.

  ‘You see,’ Julia continued, ‘Justine said she hadn’t told Stephen that she was pregnant. In fact, she said he was driving back from Worcester later that night to see her, and she was going to tell him then. So Jim and I began to wonder if there was any way we could persuade her to simply leave without Stephen ever knowing about the child, but the problem was the money. How could we continue to pay her without Stephen knowing? I have some money of my own, but not enough to handle a steady drain like that over a number of years. Jim said there might be a way to draw money from the business accounts – fake some expenses or something like that – but Stephen keeps a pretty sharp eye on the bank accounts, and we couldn’t hide that sort of thing for very long.’

  Julia Lorrimer spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness. ‘We weren’t getti
ng anywhere until, finally, Jim suggested that he go up and talk to Justine, and I agreed. To be honest, I didn’t know if it would help or not, but Jim has a way with people, and I suppose I was hoping that he would work something out with Justine.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. In fact, it was a total disaster. Jim was only gone a few minutes when he came running downstairs, looking as if he’d seen a ghost. He could barely get his breath, but when he did he said, “I think Justine’s dead! Honest to God, it was an accident, but she’s not breathing.”’ Julia shut her eyes. ‘I can still see his face,’ she said. ‘It was chalk white, and I knew that something was dreadfully wrong because there was blood on his hands and the sleeves of his jacket. Even then, I couldn’t bring myself to believe it until I went upstairs to see for myself. Justine was lying on the floor in a pool of blood, and I knew at once that Jim was right and she was dead. I didn’t know what to do; I couldn’t think, and Jim was there beside me, saying over and over again that it was an accident.’

  Julia paused, eyes fixed on some distant scene. ‘I don’t know how long I stood there,’ she said quietly, ‘but when I finally managed to pull myself together and got Jim to calm down, I asked him to tell me exactly what had happened. He said that he had knocked on Justine’s door; she opened it, and he explained why he was there. He said she told him to come in, and said something like “I’ll just turn the gas off”, then bent down quickly to do that and hit her head on the mantelpiece. Jim said he’d followed her in and was right behind her when she staggered back and bumped into him. He put out his hands to stop her from falling, but she spun away from him, and fell backwards and struck her head on the corner of the mantel. Jim said she just crumpled, and suddenly there was a pool of blood around her head. He said he got down on his knees and tried to stop the blood, but he couldn’t, and he realized that she was dead.’

  Julia Lorrimer shook her head sadly. ‘There was nothing either of us could do,’ she said. I remember saying we should call an ambulance, but Jim kept saying, “No, we can’t do that; they’ll never believe it was an accident. There’ll be an autopsy. They’ll find out she’s pregnant. There’ll be questions, and that’s the last thing Stephen needs right now. It could ruin his career.”’ Julia lifted her head to look straight at Paget. ‘I knew he was right,’ she said. ‘I mean, I knew that it would be wrong to cover up what had happened, but I also knew that he was right about Stephen’s career. Justine may have died exactly as Jim said she did, but who would believe it? Even a whiff of scandal could destroy a lifetime of work. Stephen wasn’t even in the house, but that wouldn’t matter to the press.’

  Julia looked away. ‘So we set to and spent the rest of the night setting the room to rights. Jim went down to the basement and gathered up some plastic bags, then took the rug and bedspread and various other things down the outside stairs to his car, along with Justine’s body. We cleaned and scrubbed until we were satisfied that it would pass inspection, then brought in the other rug and bedspread.’

  ‘You said, “Justine may have died exactly as Jim said she did,”’ said Paget. ‘Did you doubt his story, Mrs Lorrimer?’

  Julia gave a flick of her head as if dismissing a disturbing thought. ‘It was so bizarre,’ she said. ‘It was hard to believe. But knowing Jim as I do, there was no way that he could make up a story like that on the spur of the moment. He’d only gone up to talk to her. He barely knew Justine, and it’s not as if he’s a violent man. But I could see what the media would do with a story like that, which was why I finally concluded that there was nothing we could do for Justine, and agreed to help Jim cover it up.’ She shot a guilty look at her solicitor. ‘And I might as well tell you the rest and have done with it,’ she said. ‘It was my idea to report Justine as a missing person, and I’m truly sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused.’

  ‘What time did this take place?’ asked Paget. ‘When Jim went up to talk to Justine?’

  Julia thought for a moment. ‘Ten thirty, quarter to eleven, perhaps,’ she said tentatively.

  ‘Where was Sebastian while all this was going on?’

  ‘He came in around eleven thirty,’ Julia said. ‘I saw the headlights of his car hit the window as he came down the drive, so I went downstairs to meet him. He had no reason to go into the south wing upstairs, but I wanted to make sure that he didn’t. As it turned out, he was drunk, so I got him up to his room and on to his bed. I knew that once he was asleep, he’d be dead to the world until morning. Then I went back to help Jim.’

  ‘Do you remember if Sebastian was carrying anything?’

  ‘He was waving a bottle of wine about,’ she said. ‘I took it away from him.’

  ‘What happened to it?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Julia said slowly. ‘I remember telling Sebastian that he’d had more than enough to drink for one night, and I took it away from him. It’s probably in the kitchen somewhere. Why? Is it important?’

  ‘It could be, but we’ve not been able to find it anywhere in the house.’

  ‘Then I don’t know what happened to it,’ Julia said. ‘I know I didn’t drink it.’

  ‘Did you know your husband was sitting outside on the steps while you and Bradley were in Justine’s room?’

  ‘Good heavens, no! At least not until he told me after he’d been to see you. Fortunately for Jim and me, Stephen had given up and gone back to Worcester by the time Jim started taking things down to the car.’

  ‘What did Mr Lorrimer say when you told him what had happened?’ asked Paget.

  ‘I didn’t tell him until last night. Jim and I both thought it best to leave him out of it for his own sake, so he really believed that Justine had gone missing.’

  A questioning glance from Tregalles caught Paget’s eye. He responded with an almost imperceptible nod, then sat back in his chair to focus his attention on Julia Lorrimer as the sergeant took over. ‘I know you said that Mr Bradley barely knew Justine,’ Tregalles said, ‘but are you quite sure about that, Mrs Lorrimer?’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re suggesting,’ Julia said cautiously. ‘To the best of my knowledge, they barely knew each other.’

  ‘Yet he was the one who went upstairs to talk to her,’ Tregalles countered. ‘I would have thought she might be more receptive to what you might have to say.’

  Julia Lorrimer shrugged. ‘I had nothing to offer her,’ she said.

  ‘But Mr Bradley did?’

  ‘As I said before, Sergeant,’ Julia said patiently, ‘Jim just said he’d go and talk to her to see if something could be worked out, and I was grateful for anything he might be able to do. I’m not sure that even he had anything specific in mind when he went up. He was just trying to help.’

  Tregalles glanced at his notes. ‘When you went upstairs to see for yourself if Justine was really dead, you said, and I quote, “I knew she was dead.” Did you examine the body closely, Mrs Lorrimer?’

  Julia swallowed. Her hands fluttered. ‘I … well, close enough to know she wasn’t breathing,’ she said. ‘There was so much blood.’

  ‘Did you have any doubts about the cause of Justine Delgado’s death?’

  Julia frowned. ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said. ‘It looked pretty obvious to me. There was blood coming from a gash in the back of her head.’

  ‘I think what the sergeant is asking you again,’ Paget said quietly, ‘is whether or not you were satisfied with Mr Bradley’s explanation about how Justine died.’

  ‘I …’ Julia spread her hands and shrugged. ‘I know it sounds … well, almost too incredible to be true, but things like that do happen, don’t they? I mean, it’s not the sort of story one would make up and expect to be believed, is it?’

  ‘The point is, Mrs Lorrimer, did you believe it?’ said Paget.

  ‘I …’ Julia moistened her lips and raised her head defiantly. ‘Yes, I did,’ she said firmly. ‘I’ve known Jim a long time; he’s a good friend and very loyal to Stephen, so yes, of c
ourse I believed him.’

  Tregalles didn’t say anything, but the look he gave Paget said much more than words.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  When Paget and Tregalles left the room, Rita Thurlow followed them out to ask if her client could be released. ‘Mrs Lorrimer has given you a voluntary statement, so there’s nothing to be gained by holding her. I mean, it’s not as if she’s liable to disappear. She knows she’s in trouble, and she’s resigned herself to facing the consequences. You haven’t charged her, so there’s no reason to hold her.’

  ‘I haven’t charged her yet,’ said Paget. ‘But there will be charges, so Mrs Lorrimer will be held until I’ve had time to decide exactly what those charges will be.’

  ‘Ah, good!’ said Ormside when they entered the incident room. ‘I was just trying to decide whether to interrupt your interview with Mrs Lorrimer or just send in a note. Bradley is with the custody officer. Forsythe and SOCO are searching Bradley’s house and garage, and the second team is at Bradley’s late mother’s house. They found the Kia Picanto in the garage, and they’re arranging for it to be brought in.’

  ‘Good work, Len. It looks as if—’

  ‘There’s more,’ Ormside broke in. For a man who rarely smiled, he was looking particularly pleased with himself. ‘Stephen Lorrimer is here,’ he continued. ‘He was out of town when Mrs Lorrimer was arrested, but when the girl in the office phoned him, apparently she told him that his wife had been arrested for the murder of Justine Delgado, so he came charging in here, demanding to have his wife released. He says it was Bradley who was responsible for Justine’s death and persuaded Julia to help him cover it up.’

  ‘Did he now?’ said Paget. ‘That is very interesting. Was Lorrimer under caution when he said that?’

  ‘Unfortunately not,’ Ormside said. ‘Apparently, he said that to the man on the front desk before I got to him. I arrested him on suspicion of conspiring to conceal a suspicious death, and cautioned him. He said he only found out about Bradley yesterday when his wife broke down and told him. I tried to question him further, but he refused to say anything more. He’s in room number two if you want to talk to him.’