‘It’s just me. Now open the door, like a good lad, so we can have a word.’
The door opened a few inches, and Mann got his fingers round the edge and pulled. Capstone was holding the handle, and in a fraction of a second that was all he was holding, and the door swung open wide. Capstone was wearing a shiny, red dressing gown with some kind of faux baronial crest on the breast pocket, and Mann laughed at the sight of it. But Capstone didn’t see the funny side.
‘Oi. You’ll have to pay for that bloody door.’
‘No, I won’t. And you won’t, either. You’ll just call the Council, and you’ll keep on calling until they send someone round to fix it for you. Now, you know why I’m here, I expect.’
‘No bloody idea, mate. But I know that this isn’t official, like, or you’d be here mob handed.’
‘Don’t flatter yourself, Brian. I can handle you.’
‘Maybe, maybe not. But if I call Kendal nick I’ll find out that you’re not even on duty today, won’t I? So you just sod off, Mr. Mann, or I’ll call the working cops and have you nicked.’
‘No, you won’t do that, Brian, because all I want to do is have a word about your little mate Tony Jones.’
‘Who?’
‘Don’t piss about, Brian. I’m not the one standing about in a tart’s bloody nightie.’
‘It’s a dressing gown, is this. Cost me fifty quid.’
‘You were robbed. So about Tony Jones.’
‘What about him?’
‘You’ll be doing his collections, now that Gary’s going away, like.’
‘Collections? Talk sense, Mr. Mann. Have you been drinking? Because it’s a bit early, is this.’
Mann took a step forward, and Capstone was forced to retreat, still holding the door handle.
‘Look, Brian, let me make this simple for you. If you carry on working for Jones, and stop anyone else coming forward to complain about his loan-sharking on the estate, then we’re going to come after you. We’ll hold you responsible for the whole lot, and for anything that goes off. Do you get me?’
‘We? I don’t see any we, mate. All I see is an off-duty copper who should know better, chucking his bloody weight around. Well, it’ll not do you any good, mate. It’s just desperate, is this. I’ll tell something for nowt, like. You’ll not hear another bad word about Tony Jones, or me, not from anyone round here. And I’ll tell you something else, and all. If I so much as see your bloody ugly mug round here again I’ll get my brief to make a harassment complaint, and then we’ll see how you like it. Being on the receiving end, like.’
‘I’m warning you, Brian.’
‘No, Mr. Mann. I’m warning you. Now, it’s your choice. Either you turn round and fuck off out of it, or I call the nick, and then we’ll see what happens.’
Mann turned, walked down the short path, then turned back to offer Capstone a few choice words of advice. But it was too late to say anything, because Capstone had closed the door.
Andy Hall had been up since five, and so had Grace. But he didn’t mind, because by half-eight he’d read the whole trial transcript, and had made an initial list of questions and ideas. He was amazed at how sharp he felt, how alive. Like he’d just come back to work after an especially relaxing holiday. Grace fell asleep again at just after nine, and as soon as Hall was sure that she was properly down he called Sarah Hardcastle, and arranged to meet an hour later at the riverside cafe in the centre of town. It looked as if it would be another lovely day.
And as he pushed Grace quickly down through the town he had another flashback to when he’d first had children, had just been promoted to DS, and was handling a complex fraud case that his DI, who made up for in laziness what he lacked in natural ability, couldn’t make head nor tail of. But eventually Hall had secured the conviction, by dint of hard work and one particular moment of insight into the offender’s mind, which he suddenly remembered had happened as he was pushing his oldest daughter down to the swings, probably on this self-same route. So maybe one of the notes that he’d made that morning would do the same with the Burke case, and crack it wide open again. It felt selfish, his excitement, as if he was putting himself first somehow, but it still felt bloody good.
Sarah Hardcastle looked different in casual clothes, younger than he remembered her, but with the same quiet intensity. He’d only worked closely on a couple of prosecutions with her over the years - and the score was law one, villains one - but he liked her. He remembered her as being diligent and able. More than that she’d seemed to really care about the victims, and that was a rare enough quality in law enforcement to be worthy of note. So he smiled broadly when she looked up at him, then back down to the pushchair.
‘It suits you, Andy.’
‘You think so? I’m not so sure. If I get asked one more time about my grand-daughter I’ll probably end up in the dock myself.’
Sarah smiled. ‘I saw a banner up on a roundabout on the estate last week. It said, ‘Happy 30th, grandma’. So maybe it’s not so bad, you being mistaken for a grand-dad.’
Hall smiled. ‘Would you like another coffee? A bun too, maybe?’
‘No, let me get these. I don’t have any kids, so I’m not qualified to be left in charge of a baby, even for a minute.’
Ten minutes later Hall could feel the part of his brain that had been asleep for the last few months coming completely back to life. Sarah did most of the talking, but then she’d been living with case for months. And Hall had the strong sense that she hadn’t been thinking about much else.
‘So that’s about it, Andy. From a legal perspective I’d say that charging Adam Burke was premature, to say the very least, but that the real fault here lies with the defence. They didn’t attack Jack Lee in the box, and yet the bulk of the prosecution case was built on his testimony. Without him, what did they really have? Sod all, I’d say.’
‘Not quite,’ said Hall, ‘if I may say so. For a start, Burke clearly had a motive. When the investigation established that his wife had probably been having an affair he admitted that he knew about it, didn’t he?’
‘He suspected, yes. But he didn’t know who with. That’s what he said.’
‘That’s what he said, yes.’
‘Well, the police investigation never established who this supposed affair was with, did it? In fact, it didn’t even establish definitively if there actually was an affair at all.’
‘That’s true. I’d need to see the original witness statements in full to form a view, but it looks as if the prosecution successfully conflated the police suspicions with Burke’s admission, in the jury’s minds at least, and managed to suggest that an affair had definitely been going on, and more important that he knew about it.’
‘Exactly. The defence was asleep at the wheel. There are so many points to attack. If we’d run a prosecution like that, I’d have been spitting feathers, I can tell you.’
Hall looked into the buggy. Grace was stirring, but he’d have another ten minutes yet. And that should be enough. For now, anyway.
‘It certainly looks like Burke’s team failed him, Sarah, I agree. So why didn’t they put up a proper fight? Incompetence, or something else?’
‘No, nothing sinister. Burke just made some bad choices. He was a factory worker, and he’d never been in any trouble before remember, and that solicitor he had was crap. Ended up being struck off a few years later, in fact.’
‘Really? Anything useful to us?’
‘No, I’m afraid not. He dipped into client funds and got grassed up by a member of staff. But he was useless first, and dishonest later. And the young barrister who led the defence in court had precious little experience. She regrets the whole thing deeply now, I do know that.’
Hall looked steadily at Sarah. The old instinct was coming back, he could feel it.
‘The barrister is helping to fund this?’
‘I can’t say.’
‘I’ll take that as a yes. And I don’t need to know, of course, just so lon
g as the source of the funds is all above board.’
Sarah nodded, and looked relieved. She’d heard about Hall’s interview technique from former colleagues, and knew that he was as persistent as he was polite, so she was pleased that he was going to let that one drop. Or maybe he just knew that his guess had been correct.
‘All right’, said Hall, ‘so the defence was asleep at the wheel. But even if we accept that the motive may not be quite as solid as the prosecution made out, our man’s alibi is still crap. Basically he couldn’t account for any of the day that she went missing, could he? Burke called it in to us himself on the morning of Saturday the 6th of May 1995, and Sharon Burke was last seen on the morning of the Friday. But he wasn’t at work that day, and claimed to have the flu. But there were no pain killers in the house, nor any tissues, used or otherwise, and when he was examined by the police doc on the Sunday he was found to have no symptoms. Temperature normal, airways clear.’
‘He said he felt like he had flu, Andy. He wasn’t self-diagnosing. And you know what man-flu is like. One sneeze from the average bloke and it’s a week of back rubs and Marmite soldiers.’
Hall laughed. ’I wish. But you can see why he was always going to be the prime suspect from them on in, until they actually found the body, can’t you? And even when they got him in the box he was just so, I don’t know, vague. Reading the transcript it was like he didn’t realise that the rest of his life was at stake.’
‘Exactly. That’s exactly what he was like. Almost as if it was all happening to someone else entirely. At the time the prosecution QC was delighted, and said that the defence should never have even called him.’
Grace was stirring with intent now, and even with the brake on her buggy was starting to sway slightly as she squirmed. Hall knew that he had five minutes tops before feed and changing time, and he couldn’t see Sarah hanging around while that was done, still less offering to unroll the changing mat.
‘You’ve spent time with him recently, I assume?’ asked Hall. ‘How did he strike you?’
‘Much the same. He’s living in Flimby now, in a little cottage on the main road. No job, obviously. But he still says he’s innocent, Andy. Always has, right from day one. He’s never wavered for a moment, and that’s the truth.’
Hall nodded. That didn’t mean much, in itself, but it didn’t necessarily mean nothing at all. ‘And what about this other bloke, Jack Lee? His alibi was solid, I take it?’
‘For the Friday? Rock solid. He worked in the same place as Burke, and he was in the factory all day. Twenty people saw him. And he was out drinking in Whitehaven after work. His wife said he was at home later on too, sleeping it off.’
Hall wondered if picking Grace up would buy him an extra few minutes. On balance, he thought that it would. So he lifted her gently from the buggy, and sat her on his lap, looking out at the world. Sarah didn’t express any desire to hold or otherwise interact with Grace, and that was fine with Hall.
‘Of course we don’t know for certain that she died on the Friday, do we?’ said Hall. ‘It could have been later. Maybe much later. The PM couldn’t be at all specific about time of death, because it was so much later that the body was recovered. And perhaps that’s exactly how the offender wanted it.’
‘You could be right, but there were no sightings of Sharon after the Friday, which is suggestive, at the very least. So I take it that you’re fancying Jack Lee for it then, are you?’
‘Too early to say. Do you know what background was done on him?’
‘You’d have to ask your former colleagues about that, Andy.’
‘I just might do that.’
Sarah smiled. ‘So you’ll take it on? You’ll work with us? I’m sorry that the day rate isn’t more, and I know you’re worth it, but we’re funding this ourselves.’
‘Don’t worry about it. And you do understand that I’d need help? I’d need someone that I trust to do the leg-work.’
For the first time Sarah looked at Grace, who was eyeballing her solemnly, and smiled.
‘Yes, Andy, I can see that. Do you have someone in mind?’
‘I do. A retired CID man from Kendal nick, name of Ray Dixon. Do you remember him?’
Sarah thought about it.
‘Terrible shoes and a permatan?’
‘Yes, but don’t let that put you off.’
‘Which bit?’
Hall smiled. ‘Both, I suppose. But Ray’s the most naturally talented detective, on the human side of things, that I’ve ever met.’
‘What about all the rest? You know what these cases are like, Andy. Detail, detail and more detail.’
‘I’ll take care of all that. Can you give me a day or two, and I’ll come back to you with a work plan?’
‘Of course. Adam Burke has already waited twenty years and counting, so what difference will a more few days make?’
Grace was really wriggling now, and a soothing hand and word would only work for another few seconds. But there was something that Hall simply had to say, to be sure that there no misunderstandings.
‘You do appreciate that I’m not working from any presumption that Burke is innocent?’
‘But you’re also not working from the presumption that he’s guilty?’
‘That’s right. I’ll do what I can to re-investigate aspects of the case, but you have to appreciate that, after so much time, the chances of me establishing anything definitive are pretty slim. Actually, they’re probably less than that. So I wouldn’t want anyone to start getting their hopes up.’
‘Understood.’
‘And one last thing. I assume that we’ve got full access to Adam Burke?’
‘Of course.’
‘And he understands that he’ll be questioned like a suspect, Sarah? Because that’s exactly what he is. When your wife goes missing, whether or not she’s been playing away, then the husband is first in the frame. I know it sounds like lazy policing, but it’s not. It’s just boring mathematical probability, I’m afraid. So at some point we’re going to need to press him.’
‘All right, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You’ll talk to Ray Dixon first?’
‘I will, maybe even today, and if he’s on for this my next move will be to see what I can get out of the force in terms of the investigative file, and also any other materials that they might have kept. After that, we’ll talk to Burke. And then we’ll see, OK?’
When Ray Dixon answered the phone he sounded out of breath, and Hall said, as politely as ever, that he hoped he hadn’t called at a bad time.
‘Christ, no, boss. I’m trimming the bloody hedge along our back.’
‘I hope that’s not a euphemism for something, Ray.’
‘Is that a bit like a trumpet? No? What can I do for you, anyway?’
‘I wondered if you might be interested in a bit of work.’
‘You bet. I’m going bloody mad here, boss. We live in a three bed semi, but I swear that the list of jobs for me to do hasn’t got any shorter since the day I bloody retired. I’ve repainted that back bedroom three times already. I wouldn’t mind, but the kids never even come to stay. The furthest one away only lives in Endmoor.’
‘Glad to hear you’re being kept busy. And it’s Andy now, Ray. You know that I’ve retired as well?’
‘Aye, I heard you’re a what’s-it-called now. A house husband, aye, that’s it. So I hope it’s not childcare, or owt like that, you want me for. Never so much as changed a nappy, me.’
‘No, it’s more in your old line of work.’
‘Oh, aye? And it’s all above-board, like, is it?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Shame, but aye, I’m in. You want to meet up to talk it through?’
‘How about this evening? The Brewery, at eight?’
‘Aye, that’s fine. Assuming that I’m not supposed to be steam-cleaning the carpets then, like.’
When Hall arrived Dixon was already ensconced in one of the old mash tuns, two pints in fron
t of him.
‘I took the liberty, like. Thought you’d need it after a day of nappy changing.’
‘It’s not all fun, you know’ said Hall, smiling and reaching out and shaking Dixon’s hand. ‘Did you read the stuff I sent you?’
‘Aye, most of it. I remember that case, vaguely. Well, talking to a couple of the lads who worked on it, anyway. They always thought it was the husband, I do remember that, but they couldn’t charge him until the body was found. I remember this old DS saying to me that Burke was nervous as a kitten, right from the off, and he thought that the bloke would ‘fess up, sooner or later, but he never did.’
‘What about the transcript of the trial? Any thoughts?’
‘Doesn’t tell us much, does it? Same old story, really. Both sides just pick and choose what they fancy, don’t they? But the defence did a pretty crap job, I must say. Without any forensics or relevant eye wits I doubt it would even come to trial these days. The chances of a conviction would be too small to justify the costs. That’s what the accountants would say, and we all know that they outrank any detective in the whole wide world these days.’
‘I agree, a prosecution would be very unlikely. But on the basis of what you’ve read, do you think that Burke is guilty?’
Dixon took a sip from his pint. ‘Is there a right and a wrong answer to that question, like?’
‘Do you mean have I formed a view? Well, we worked together for nearly ten years, so what do you think?’
‘No, it’s too soon. Nothing like enough information. And I agree with you, there’s not. But I’d say he probably did do it, because in cases like this the hubby has to be favourite. But I’d like to have had a proper look at this Jack Lee bloke, I will say that.’
‘He had a solid enough alibi though, didn’t he?’
‘Aye, but just on the day she went missing. That’s not necessarily the day she died though, is it?’
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