by Menon, David
‘So David is the son of that same James Carson?’
‘Oh yes’.
‘Why do you say it like that?’
Gerald Cotton leaned back in his chair and pondered for a moment. It was all so very bloody uncomfortable. This was David he was talking about. This was the man who’d been his best man at his wedding. This was the man who’d made sure that Gerald’s wife had been okay whenever Gerald had been away on mission without David. This was the man who’d saved Gerald from certain death on more than one occasion. This was the man who Gerald was about to stab in the back.
‘Look, David has been burdened by a demon all his life. He was brought up in a single parent family and by all accounts his mother did everything she could. But it was never enough for David. Nothing else would make up for the fact that his father was never present in his life’.
‘So what did he do about it?’ asked Collette. She had a friend back in Melbourne who’d grown up in similar circumstances to David Carson. It was a constant source of internal pain to have never known his father and he would agree that nothing can make up for the fact that he’d never known him. But at least he didn’t go around killing people as a means of dealing with that pain.
‘He made it his life’s work to find out what happened to his father because of course there was never any body found’.
‘Why was that about the body?’ Collette asked. ‘Does anybody know?’
‘The most popular theory is that the body was spirited away by the IRA so as to lessen the case against O’Connell. They weren’t counting on the determination of the British government and the security services at the time to put O’Connell away’.
‘By legal means of course’ Collette quipped.
‘Of course’ said Cotton. ‘But don’t forget that it was the IRA who were engaged in law breaking activities’.
‘Well coming back to more recent events’ said Jeff. ‘Major Cotton, what do you know about the plans of David Carson?’
‘Absolutely nothing I can assure you’.
‘When was the last time you spoke to him?’
‘About two weeks ago’.
‘And what was said?’
‘Just the usual conversation about this and that’ said Cotton. ‘Nothing remarkable’.
‘Where did he get the identity of Chris O’Neill?’
‘I’ve really no idea’.
‘What is it you’re not telling us, Major Cotton?’ asked Collette pointedly.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Come on, there’s a gaping hole in everything you say’ Collette pursued. ‘You haven’t even told us how he came to have a key to your house’.
‘There was no sign of a break in at your house, Major Cotton’ said Jeff. ‘So he must’ve had a key? I mean, we can check records to find other answers but it would be better if you told us everything’.
‘About what?’
‘About what we need to know’ said Collette. ‘We are investigating three murders all of which we suspect have been carried out by your friend David Carson whilst impersonating someone called Chris O’Neill. Now aren’t we supposed to be on the same side here, Major Cotton? The military and the police? And if we are then talk to us’.
Cotton took a deep breath before continuing. ‘About a year ago David managed to gain access to his father’s special branch file. Don’t ask me how he did it because I honestly don’t know. Anyway, there was something in it that profoundly shocked him. I mean it really sent him off balance. But it was whenever he told his mother that the repercussions started happening. Joan Carson died of a heart attack not long after David had confronted her with whatever was in the file. He then decided to leave the military. He bought himself out. He wasn’t married and didn’t have any children so he had more than enough cash stashed away. I advised him against it but he was determined to confront the issue of whatever it was he found in his file’.
‘And you seriously don’t know what that was?’ Jeff questioned.
‘No’ said Cotton. ‘That’s the absolute truth’.
‘So what happened after he left?’
‘He went to stay at my house in Hurst Green, Lancashire. Erica, that’s my wife, and I were down here in our MOD provided flat in Wandsworth and though we love our house and where it is we didn’t want to be having to go up there every weekend. We’re both working and we needed the weekends to chill out and relax, get a taste of London life with all the theatres and all the other stuff that goes on in the capital. We want to start a family next year so it seemed like a good opportunity. So all in all it was good for someone to be in the house for security purposes and David is my best mate as I told you. I gave him a key and he moved in’.
‘Then what happened?’
‘My parents went round there occasionally and they started finding letters addressed to someone called Chris O’Neill. They just thought it was somebody who perhaps used to live there years ago and for some reason their name had been reactivated with the address’.
‘That would be very unusual’ said Jeff.
‘I know’ said Cotton. ‘But my parents are good people. They never suspect anyone of anything underhand especially someone they know as well as they know David’.
‘Did you try and get David to tell you what was in the file that was so shocking to him?’
‘Several times’ said Cotton. ‘All he would say is that he’d been lied to all his life and it was about time that those responsible paid. I asked him repeatedly what he meant but he just wouldn’t say. He was angry. He was bloody angry. But I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you’.
‘Did you know that he’s also been renting a flat in the Chorlton area of Manchester for the best part of the last six months in the name of Chris O’Neill?’
‘No. All I did know was that he wasn’t spending that much time in the house’ Cotton revealed. ‘I knew he was going away a lot from what my parents and the neighbours had been saying. I didn’t know about this flat he was renting, no’.
‘Well he’s no longer at your property, Major Cotton. Do you have any idea where he could’ve gone?’
‘No, sorry I don’t’.
‘We believe he has Jade Matheson with him and that he could be holding her against her will. Are you sure there’s nothing more you can tell us?’
‘I’m sure, Detective Superintendent’ said Cotton. ‘I’m absolutely sure. Look, like I said before this has all been bloody hard for me to take in. I have literally trusted David with my life when we’ve been out on mission together in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. The idea of him even being capable of doing something like this is unbelievable’.
‘You were both involved in a profession where you’re trained to kill though, Major Cotton’ said Collette. ‘So the fact that Carson has killed shouldn’t be that shocking to you?’
‘Detective Constable Ryan, we’re trained and dedicated military officers’ Cotton emphasized almost irritably as if explaining the obvious to a child. ‘Killing in the line of duty is one thing. When it’s a war situation and it’s either them or you. Killing outside of that framework is something else entirely and makes us no different to any other citizen in the way that we’re subject to the law of the land’.
‘That’s very laudable I’m sure, Major Cotton, but the information you’ve just given us could’ve been told to us several days ago? So you withheld it. Why was that?’
‘I can only apologise for my tardiness, Detective Constable Ryan’.
‘But you only came to us when something happened in your house even though you knew there was a nationwide hunt going on for your friend David Carson’ said Collette. ‘Or rather, for Chris O’Neill who you’ve now told us is David Carson. If you really do believe in what you said a few moments ago then please don’t withhold information from us again because if you do then we may have to use the law of the land against you. I hope that’s clear’.
Cotton looked at her contemptuously. How dare she lecture him. ‘No shadow of
any doubt. You’ve made your point’.
‘I hope so, Major Cotton’.
Jeff wanted to get hold of the special branch file on James Carson. What could possibly have been in it to make his son David react in the way he has? But just like DS Adrian Bradshaw had been told when he tried to gain access to the file on Patricia O’Connell, the file was classified and nobody would be able to authorize the opening of it. There was only one person to confront about it and that was special branch officer Howard Freeman who he’d been dealing with before. Freeman came to the office of Chief Superintendent Geraldine Chambers and a row quickly developed between him and Jeff.
‘I can’t do it, sir!’ Freeman insisted.
‘I want that file opened, Freeman!’
‘And I’ve told you it’s impossible, sir. The classification goes way above my pay grade’.
‘But I’ll bet you know what was in it that made David Carson mad enough to commit murder not once, not twice, but three bloody times!’
‘I don’t, sir, no’.
‘I don’t believe you’.
‘DSI Barton!’ warned Chambers.
‘Yes, okay, I’m sorry ma’am, that was out of order’ said Jeff. ‘But we have a desperate situation on our hands here and I need every scrap of information there is to help me and my team’.
‘But with all due respect, sir, the problem we face here is much more immediate than a file that can’t be opened because it’s classified’ said Freeman. ‘Especially with the first of two high profile funerals tomorrow’.
‘Do you really think you need to tell me that?’ Jeff demanded. He wanted to pick the little prick up and throw him out the window but he resisted the urge. Why was it so fucking difficult for departments who were supposed to be on the same side to share their homework with their mates? That’s what it felt like sometimes. Like being back at school when your supposed mates placed their arm around what they were writing down in an exam so that you wouldn’t be able to copy or steal any of their ideas. Well this wasn’t a fucking competition. This wasn’t somebody’s fucking O-level! This was about a man who’d already killed three times and was probably planning on killing again. This was about a murderer on the loose with a woman who may or may not be willing. Jeff was certain that the funeral of Padraig O’Connell tomorrow would provide David Carson with the flashpoint he needed to make more trouble and perhaps kill again but he couldn’t get into his head and try and work out what he might do because special branch consider his file to be classified. And the officers who police Manchester’s streets were not considered worthy enough.
‘DSI Barton, will you please listen to what Freeman has to say’ Chambers ordered. ‘I understand your frustration but we need to maintain a civil dialogue. Why don’t you tell us how you came to identify the real Chris O’Neill, DSI Barton? Then we can listen to the rest of what Freeman here has to say’.
‘DS Adrian Bradshaw has been working with the PSNI and has discovered that David Carson was a close friend of the late Chris O’Neill, ma’am’ Jeff replied with a heavy sigh. So that was it. No more discussion about what’s really essential. Did Chambers know anything she wasn’t telling him? She probably knew something about which she was being discreet but whether or not she’d end up telling him was another matter altogether. It was all smoke and bloody mirrors especially when there was another department involved like special branch. ‘The two of them had grown up together and gone all the way through school together in a place called Coleraine in Northern Ireland. According to Chris O’Neill’s mother Rosemary, David Carson offered to step in and handle her son’s affairs after his death. Rosemary said she was glad of the offer because she and her husband were overwhelmed with grief at the loss of their only son to cancer and they knew David so well’.
‘But his kindness masked an ulterior motive?’
‘I believe so, ma’am. He knew what he was doing and he planned it all seemingly with meticulous attention to detail. I think he took the opportunity to become Chris O’Neill because it gave him the perfect cover for his plans. It was easy for him to take on O’Neill’s identity, ma’am’.
‘Too easy’ said Chambers.
‘The O’Neill family are absolutely devastated at what Carson has done to their son’s memory, ma’am’.
‘I’m not surprised’.
‘But until I know what was in that file on his father that twisted his mind enough to commit murder I won’t really know what I’m dealing with. We have the first of the two funerals tomorrow, ma’am. Padraig O’Connell. I’ve taken a lot of precautions because I believe David Carson will use it to stage some kind of show. My fear is about what shape that will take and will we be able to protect all those involved, especially Patricia Knight and her husband Dennis’.
‘And she won’t say what she meant when she said that she’d been disappeared to Australia hence no official documents?’
‘That’s right, ma’am. That’s what she told DS Bradshaw and DC Alexander and she wouldn’t go into any further details’.
THROWN DOWN SIXTEEN
DS Adrian Bradshaw and DC Joe Alexander turned off the Princess Parkway as it made its way through Manchester’s southern suburbs and pulled up outside the entrance to one of the biggest cemeteries in the city.
‘I wonder why they’ve gone in for burial and not cremation?’ wondered DC Joe Alexander.
‘Catholics don’t go in for cremation’ said Adrian.
‘How do you know that?’
‘Because I am one’.
‘Really? Do you do the whole Mass thing every Sunday?’
‘Not anymore’ Adrian admitted. ‘Just special occasions now like births, weddings … funerals’.
‘You’ll be able to follow what’s going on here then?’
‘Count on it’.
Detective Constable Collette Ryan was with DI Ollie Wright in another car right behind Adrian and Joe. Sitting in the back with them were Patricia Knight and her husband Dennis. Another car with two armed officers inside was parked discreetly on the other side a few meters behind. They weren’t taking any chances. Patricia Knight was a more than likely target for any revenge seekers, including members of her own family who would be bearing the biggest grudges. When she double crossed the IRA she placed them all at risk.
‘You’d better not let the Australian taxpayer know you were sent all the way over here just to keep an eye on me, DC Ryan’ said Patricia who was feeling suddenly vulnerable. All she could see where graves and tombstones. She’d never been more thankful to have Dennis’s hand to hold onto. ‘I’d get more strife for that than for … well than for being involved with the IRA all those years ago’.
Collette smiled. ‘You may be right there, Mrs. Knight’.
‘Oh I think I am’.
‘Mrs. Knight, do you know what might be in the file on James Carson that would’ve upset David Carson so much?’
Patricia fixed her with sharp eyes. ‘You people don’t give up, do you? Not even whilst we sit here waiting to bury my brother’
‘I’m just doing my job, Mrs. Knight’ said Collette who’d really had a gut full of Patricia Knight especially after hearing about the way she’d treated DS Adrian Bradshaw and DC Joe Alexander during their attempt to interview her. How dare she be so bloody sanctimonious with her history?
‘You have no idea what I went through’ said Patricia.
‘I know that whatever you did back then led to us being here today’.
‘Look, would you stop picking on my wife?’ said Dennis, his anger rising. ‘She’s not under arrest here’.
Patricia was looking all around her, waiting to see those members of her family who she hadn’t seen in almost forty years. They’d already broken her heart. She’d tried calling all of them at least twice now but each time they’d all put the phone down on her. She didn’t know what she was going to say to them when they did appear.
‘I want today to be over and done with and then I’ll be glad to fly home’.
‘I want to get back to my family. The family that Dennis and I created and who I know still love me. You might not think I deserve it. But I’m not going to justify anything of what I feel to you’.
Dennis squeezed her hand and then said ‘Look, my wife is finding all this distressing enough and we’re still so bloody tired from the flight over’. He wasn’t looking forward to the flight home. Twenty-two hours cooped up in a plane with only one stop to stretch your legs. It wasn’t Dennis’s idea of fun. ‘So like I said before, just back off’.
Collette got out of the car to get some air. She stretched and rubbed the back of her neck. She was knackered and no surprise for guessing why. She and Jeff had been at it like rabbits again last night in her hotel room before he left as the sun came up to go and spend some time with his son. She’d never actually seen rabbits doing it. She’d spent many summer holidays when she was a child with her paternal grandparents on their farm in rural Queensland. They kept rabbits there and one year she took a shine to a particular one who she called Bobby. He had this beautiful brown fur but sadly for him he encountered a python in one of the fields one day and came off worse. It took her weeks to get the image out of her head of poor Bobby being eaten alive by a snake about a hundred times his size. The poor little thing must’ve been terrified.
DI Ollie Wright took a call from DSI Jeff Barton and once he’d digested the details he leapt out of the car to speak to Collette.
‘That was the boss, Collette’ he explained. ‘David Carson has turned up at the house of Maria Holmes, sister of Patricia Knight, with a shotgun and a whole stack of other weapons. He’s hearded all the guests into the garage and locked them in. He says he’ll kill anyone who tries to get out. He’s already doused the coffin of Padraig O’Connell with petrol and set fire to it’.
‘You what?’
‘It was on a trolley which he sent hurtling down the street’.