by P. F. Ford
Slater wearily pushed open the door to the incident room and stepped inside. Darling rushed over to him before he could even sit down.
‘What did she say?’ she asked him, quietly.
‘There’s no need to whisper,’ he said. ‘There’s only you, me, and Norm here, and I don’t doubt he’s managed to wheedle what happened out of you.’
‘Yes, but what did she say?’
‘What about?’
‘You know what about.’
‘It’s probably better if we forget it happened,’ he said.
‘Oh no, you bloody don’t,’ she snapped. ‘That’s not fair, I’m involved, I have a right to know.’
He sighed. It was obvious she wasn’t going to let it go.
‘If you must know, I’ve been warned about my future conduct,’ he said. ‘And if there was another DS to train you, we’d have been split up already. As it is, it seems there is another one on the way, and just as soon as he or she arrives you will have a new boss.’
‘This isn’t right, I’m going to see her,’ said Darling, determinedly. ‘I don’t want to work with another DS. I like working with you, and anyway, we didn’t do anything wrong!’
She made to head for the door, but Slater grabbed her arm.
‘Please, Darling,’ he said. ‘Just leave it. If she wanted to speak to you, she would have said so. If you go charging up there now she’ll think I’ve sent you, and the mood you’re in you’ll probably say something you regret and make things even worse for both of us. The way she sees it, the fault is entirely mine, and actually she’s right about that, even if she’s wrong about what she thinks happened.’
He could see she was feeling guilty and wanted to do something to help him.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I’ve had worse bollockings than this before now, and I’m still here.’
‘But I feel so guilty,’ she said.
‘Well don’t, because none of this is your fault. It’s my fault for getting pissed and needing someone to take me home. I’m certainly not blaming you for helping me out.’
‘But what about Cindy?’
He frowned at the mention of her name.
‘Yeah, well.’ he said. ‘I’m just going to have to figure out how to explain that, and hope she understands. Anyway, that’s going to have to wait. Right now we’ve got a case to solve.’
Norman had been sitting, quietly observing the exchange between his two colleagues.
‘I thought you were out last night celebrating the fact that it was solved,’ he said. ‘Didn’t the guy confess?’
‘DCI Goodnews would like to believe it’s solved,’ said Slater. ‘But personally, I’m not so sure he was actually confessing to being our killer.’
Darling looked surprised.
‘But what else could he mean?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ said Slater. ‘Maybe I’m wrong, but with no strong evidence to link him to any of the crimes, it would be easy for a good defence lawyer to convince a jury he only confessed because he felt he had no choice.’
Norman nodded slowly.
‘And it would be easy to make a case for the guy being fragile mentally,’ he said. ‘Even a poor defence team could build a case with that, even if it was only reasonable doubt.’
Darling sighed, but seemed to understand what they were saying.
‘So what do we do then?’ she asked.
‘We keep on going,’ said Slater, ‘until we prove he is definitely guilty, or we prove he’s innocent.’
‘So where do we start?’
‘I think we need to have another chat with Melanie Crump. There’s something I don’t get about her, and if you look at it logically, she had just as much opportunity as Michael. In fact, she might have had even more, and she was travelling up and down from north to south in a company car. She could have just as easily have dumped a body down here all those years ago.’
‘Sounds like you have a theory,’ said Norman. ‘You think she did it?’
‘Not so much a theory,’ said Slater. ‘More of a hunch really, and I can’t even put my finger on a good reason why.’
‘She has an alibi,’ said Darling.
‘Which we haven’t checked out yet.’
‘You want me to dig around?’ asked Norman.
‘Yes, please, Norm,’ said Slater. ‘It can’t do any harm, can it? C’mon, Darling, let’s go and see what Mrs Crump has to say for herself.’
‘Michael tells me he’s been depressed for years,’ said Slater. ‘You told my colleague it had something to do with you losing the baby.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘It was a few years after I told him I was pregnant.’
‘So were you?’ he asked.
Panic flirted with her expression just long enough for Slater to notice it before she managed to form a smile.
‘Of course I was. Why do you ask?’
‘Because you said “a few years after I told him I was pregnant”,’ explained Slater. ‘I would have expected you to say “a few years after I got pregnant”.’
She looked embarrassed.
‘It’s just a figure of speech,’ she said, uncomfortably. ‘I was pregnant, and I told him I was pregnant. Then I lost the baby. I told your colleague all this before.’
‘Yes, you did. So why do you think Michael became depressed?’
‘It’s just his little game. There’s nothing wrong with him. He just needs to find some backbone.’
‘That’s funny,’ said Darling. ‘I swear you told me he had become depressed when you lost the baby. You even told me the reason you had stayed with him was because you felt you were obliged to as you had broken him.’
‘Yes, but it’s not real depression,’ she said, irritated.
‘Two doctors have examined him down at the station,’ said Slater, ‘and they both expressed concern over his mental health.’
‘More fool them,’ she said. ‘He’s had a long time to practice. He’s very good at it.’
‘He’s certainly fooling all of us.’
‘Why did you send us up to Wild Boar Woods?’ asked Darling.
‘I’m sorry?’
‘You suggested we should take good look at Wild Boar Woods. Why is that?’
‘Why, what have you found up there?
‘What are you expecting us to find?’ asked Darling.
‘I don’t know,’ Melanie Crump said, looking down and brushing at something imaginary on her skirt.
‘I think you do,’ said Slater. ‘It was you who suggested to DC Darling we might find Michael’s mementos. What mementos did you mean?’
‘I don’t think I said anything of the sort-’
‘Are you going to deny everything you told my colleague?’
‘What do you mean? My memory’s not what it was.’
‘It must be very bad,’ Slater said, ‘because you seem to be denying just about everything you told her. On that basis I have to assume you’re going to do the same thing if we refer back to this conversation at a later date.’
She looked at him uncertainly.
‘What are you saying?’
‘What I’m saying, Mrs Crump, is that I think it would be best if we take you down to Tinton police station, where we can hold a proper recorded interview. That way we don’t have to worry about how bad your memory might become.’
‘But my car’s in the garage being serviced,’ she said.
Slater smiled at her.
‘That’s all right. There’s plenty of room in our car. We’ll give you a lift.’
‘Do I need a solicitor?’ she asked, anxiously.
‘That’s up to you,’ said Slater. ‘It all depends on whether you think you need one. You can think about it on the way to the station.’
‘Now then, Melanie,’ said Slater, when they were settled in the interview room. ‘How about you tell us the truth?’
‘What about?’
‘Where shall we start?’ he said. ‘You understand why I’ve brought yo
u in here, don’t you? It’s because you’re what I would call inconsistent in what you say, and I believe you’re also very economical with the truth.’
She swallowed hard, and looked away from his gaze.
‘You see, the thing is, you told DC Darling some things the other evening and she wrote them down. Now, this morning, you claim she got it all wrong, and you didn’t say those things. Are you suggesting DC Darling is incompetent? Or maybe you’re suggesting she’s the liar here.’
He paused to give her an opportunity to speak, but she said nothing, so he continued.
‘No, I didn’t think so. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what you think of DC Darling, because this time, just to make sure you can’t claim we got it all wrong again, we’re going to record it all. It’ll save you any embarrassment about your memory.’
He directed his best ‘crocodile about to eat his prey’ smile at her.
‘So how about you start by telling us all about your pregnancy again?’
‘I never actually got pregnant,’ she said.
Darling looked shocked, but Slater didn’t bat an eyelid.
‘Go on,’ he said.
‘We got married because I needed a father figure, and he wanted someone to look after and protect. It was perfect for me. I could pursue my career, and he was always there for me, encouraging me, and supporting me.’
‘Was it a proper marriage?’
‘If you mean did we have sex, yes we did, but not very often.’
‘So what changed?’
‘He decided he wanted children,’ she said, ‘but that was the last thing I wanted. He wouldn’t leave it though, he kept on and on, all the time. So eventually I agreed to try, but I never stopped taking the pill.’
‘Why didn’t you just tell him no?’
‘I did, but he wouldn’t accept that. He just kept insisting, so in the end I pretended I was pregnant.’
‘And he never knew?’ asked Slater.
‘I made out I lost the baby when I was away working. I was less than twelve weeks. I just told him it wasn’t big enough to show. He didn’t know any different.’
‘So you lied to him?’ asked Slater.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It was the only way I could shut him up.’
‘But didn’t he want to try again?’
‘I told him I couldn’t get pregnant. I even invented a story about how my doctor said I had become infertile when I lost the baby.’
‘And he believed that?’
‘He seemed to,’ she said.
‘Tell me about before you met Michael,’ said Slater. ‘What about your family?’
‘My mother died some years ago. My father’s in a nursing home back in Manchester. He’s been there for years now. He has a degenerative disease. He doesn’t really know who I am anymore.’
‘Do you ever visit him?’
‘Every birthday,’ she said. ‘That’s where I was when this little girl went missing.’
Slater smiled at her again.
‘Goodness,’ he said. ‘That’s something you told DC Darling that you haven’t denied. Are you sure it’s correct?’
She glared at him with narrowed eyes.
‘We’ll need the address of that nursing home before we finish this interview. About that little girl who went missing. What do you know about her?’
‘What could I know about her?’ she asked.
‘You do know we have your husband locked in a cell downstairs, don’t you?’
‘Of course I do.’
‘I was wondering why you haven’t been to see him,’ said Slater. ‘Or even asked about him.’
‘That’s because I don’t care about him,’ she said.
‘Now there’s another little inconsistency. You said before that you stayed with him because you felt you owed it to him. You said you broke him, so you owed him. What does that mean?’
‘He got depressed because I lost the baby,’ she said. ‘I was wrong to play with his feelings like that.’
‘There you go again,’ said Slater. ‘You told us before that he isn’t depressed. When I told you two doctors were worried about his mental health, you said it was just an act. Now you’re saying it’s the real thing. You can see our problem, can’t you, Mrs Crump? It seems you have difficulty telling us the truth about anything. How do I know what to believe?’
She said nothing, but a nervous tic had developed by her left eye.
‘D’you know what I’m beginning to think, Darling? I’m beginning to think Mr Crump’s depression has nothing to do with Mrs Crump losing her pretend baby. I’m beginning to think it’s probably got something to do with the fact he could never tell the truth from the lies. I can imagine it would be enough to depress anyone. What do you think?’
‘It’s hard to say for sure,’ said Darling. ‘But with all this chopping and changing in her story you’re probably right, Sir.’
‘What do you think, Melanie?’ he asked. ‘When did he really get into this state? What really started it?’
‘I don’t think I want to say anything more without a solicitor,’ she said.
‘I think that’s probably very wise,’ said Slater. ‘In the meantime I think you’d better stay here where we can keep an eye on you.’
‘You can’t hold me here, I haven’t been charged with anything.’
‘Sorry,’ said Slater. ‘I’m sure your solicitor will explain it to you. We have the power to hold you for up to 24 hours without charging you, unless it’s a serious crime, and then we have up to 96 hours. This is a murder inquiry, and it doesn’t get much more serious than that.’
‘What do you think?’ asked Darling.
They were sharing coffee and cakes.
‘I think she knows she’s talked herself into trouble,’ Slater said. ‘She’s getting into a mess with all the lies she’s told, because there are so many she can’t keep track any more. With any luck she’s going to start telling the truth.’
‘Yes, but how will we know?’ asked Darling.
He smiled.
‘Now that’s a good point. I guess we have to hope it’s going to be stuff we can verify.’
‘What do you want to do next?’
‘I think it might be interesting to talk to Michael again,’ he said. ‘Just for a few minutes. I’d like to get his take on this fake pregnancy.’
‘D’you think it’s relevant to the murders, then?’
‘I don’t know about that, but I feel it’s very relevant to their relationship, and I think that’s what drives him.’
They were back up in the incident room, gathered around Norman’s desk.
‘What do you know, Norm?’ asked Slater.
‘I’ve been looking for Melanie Crump’s father, like you asked me.’
‘And?’
‘She said he was in this Meadowlands Nursing Home in Carrington, just outside Manchester, with some degenerative disease, right?’
‘That’s right,’ said Slater.
Norman was beaming.
‘No,’ he said. ‘That’s not right. According to the research I’ve just done, her father is living in a private house down on the edge of the New Forest in a place called Ower. As far as I can tell, he’s getting on a bit, but he’s quite healthy. Her mother died a few years ago, but her dad’s alive and well.’
‘More lies,’ said Darling. ‘What’s wrong with this woman? Can’t she tell the truth about anything? She’s going to give women a bad name.’
‘One more thing,’ said Norman. ‘This guy is not a biological parent. She was adopted at the age of seven.’
‘What happened to her real parents?’ asked Slater.
‘No idea. I can’t find any record of where she came from.’
‘That’s odd,’ said Darling. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘Don’t forget we’re talking about the sixties,’ said Norman. ‘Keeping records wasn’t the same back then.’
‘Maybe there was a reason,’ said Slater. ‘We change identifies now to protect p
eople, maybe they did back then.’
‘Yeah, well wish me luck with trying to trace something like that.’
‘So why would she know the address of a nursing home up north?’ asked Slater, of no one in particular.
‘Lucky guess?’ suggested Darling.
‘Manchester’s a big place,’ said Slater, thoughtfully. ‘So there’s a good chance you might guess there’s a Meadowlands Nursing Home and be right, but Carrington isn’t a very big place.’
‘You think it might mean something to her?’ asked Norman.
Slater pulled a face.
‘Could be, but who can say? She tells so many lies, Norm.’
‘Why don’t I give them a call?’ asked Darling, ‘We need to check if she really has been up there.’
‘Yeah, good idea,’ said Slater. ‘It’ll be a lot quicker than going all the way up there.’
Darling made her way back to her own desk and picked up the phone.
‘I’ll see if I can find any history between her and that nursing home,’ said Norman, ‘and I’ll try and find out if there’s any reason why someone would have thought she needed an identity change.’
Slater’s phone began to ring. He headed for his desk and checked the caller ID. It was Steve Biddeford.
‘Yes, Steve, what have you got?’
As Biddeford began speaking, Slater reached for his notepad and a pen.
‘They have no record of Melanie Crump visiting that nursing home in the last week,’ announced Darling, a few minutes later. ‘They also say they have CCTV and we’re welcome to view it any time. The name Crump doesn’t ring a bell with anyone working there.’
‘Why am I not surprised?’ said Slater.
‘Why would she tell us such an obvious lie, especially when she knows we’re easily going to be able to check with them and find out it’s not true?
‘It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?’ said Norman. ‘Maybe she’s just told so many lies she can’t help herself.’
‘I don’t think she’s the sort who would make a mistake like that,’ said Darling. ‘On the other hand she’s so bloody devious, it’s impossible to figure out what she’s up to.’
‘And now the plot thickens further,’ said Slater. ‘That was Steve Biddeford on the phone. I asked him and Tony Ashton to go back to Lawrence’s and check Clive Morrison’s alibi again, only this time I asked them to make sure they talk to Lawrence senior, the real boss.’