The Mechanical Devil

by Kate Ellis

  ‘No.’

  ‘And you also killed a woman who’d stopped in the lay-by – an innocent witness.’

  ‘I had no choice.’

  ‘And what about Nathan Rowyard? Did he see you in Manor Field that day? Was he blackmailing you?’

  ‘I gave him everything I had – all my savings – but he wanted more.’

  ‘So you killed him as well. You’re a good shot, Charlie.’

  ‘I joined the army when I left school. You never forget your training,’ he said with pride. ‘And I’ve got the best equipment there is – an Owen rifle made in the States in the nineteen thirties; a real beauty.’ He spoke lovingly, as a father might speak about a favourite child.

  There was no sign of the back-up Gerry had ordered but Wesley reckoned the suspect would come quietly now. He held out his right hand to the man, feeling for the handcuffs he’d put in his back pocket with his left.

  ‘Where’s the rifle?’

  He didn’t answer.

  ‘Put the metal detector down, Charlie. It’ll be safe here. We’ll make sure the door’s secure.’ Wesley made a calculated guess that the man would need to be reassured about the safety of his mechanical pride and joy. For a moment he thought his ploy had worked. Perks cradled the metal detector in both arms then placed it carefully in its own holder on the wall.

  Now his eyes had adjusted to the light in the outhouse Wesley could see mysterious shapes shrouded in sheets at the back of the building. But he was unprepared when Charlie Perks lunged backwards and grabbed something from beneath the covers. It took him a split second to register that it was a rifle, complete with a telescopic sight; the wood of the stock polished to a shine. And Perks was pointing it in their direction.

  ‘Don’t be stupid, Charlie,’ Gerry said. ‘Put it down.’

  Wesley heard the squeal of tyres outside and knew the ARU had arrived. He sent up a silent prayer that they’d use their initiative and come round the back of the house. In the meantime they needed to keep the man talking.

  ‘Tell me how you got Ian Evans to the field.’

  ‘Mr Southwark said he was staying at the Shepherd’s Arms so I waited outside in the van. I’ve stalked animals before so I’m good at it.’ His lips twitched upwards in a grim smile. ‘When he walked to Manor Field I followed him and hid myself. He stopped by that old bit of wall – had a really good look at it. He didn’t know what had hit him.’ A gratified look appeared on the killer’s face as though he was delighted with his own cleverness.

  ‘You killed him near the spot where Mary Tilson’s great-nephew died.’

  He shook his head. ‘I don’t know anything about that.’

  Wesley had the feeling he was telling the truth.

  ‘What about the woman, Andrea Jameson?’

  ‘I turned round and she was standing there looking straight at me. I couldn’t let her go, could I?’ He took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘I got justice for Mum so she can rest in peace now. That’s all that matters.’

  ‘But Ian Evans had nothing to do with your mother’s death. He was set up.’

  ‘You’re lying. Mr Southwark knew he’d done it. He told me.’

  ‘And you believed him?’

  Perks looked confused, swinging his rifle between Wesley and Gerry. Both men stood perfectly still.

  ‘Mr Southwark had no reason to lie. Why would he.’

  ‘He had every reason if he’d killed Mary Tilson himself.’

  ‘He wasn’t anywhere near the old lady’s house when she died. He was at home in Exeter. He said.’

  Wesley and Gerry looked at each other. ‘I’ve spoken to our Traffic Division,’ said Wesley. ‘Southwark was involved in a motor accident late on the night Mary Tilson died. The collision took place ten minutes from her house but when he was interviewed about Miss Tilson’s death he told the police he’d been in Exeter all that night and his accident happened the following evening. They didn’t bother checking out his story because they were so convinced of your mother’s guilt. It was sloppy policing and others paid the price for it.’

  ‘You’re lying.’ The words came out in a whine just as Wesley heard a sound behind him. He saw Gerry turn his head but he didn’t move.

  He heard the click of the ARU’s weapons being readied for firing and held his breath. They were flitting like shadows around the garden. Suddenly chaos broke out as voices barked instructions.

  ‘Put down your weapon and put your hands in the air.’

  ‘On the floor. Now.’

  Charlie Perks raised his rifle and Wesley froze and shut his eyes. Then he heard the clatter of the weapon hitting the ground and felt the air move as the firearms officers surged forward.

  He felt Gerry’s arm on his, clinging on, and when he opened his eyes he saw Perks on the floor, his arms pinioned behind his back.

  ‘Let’s get back to the village,’ Gerry mumbled. ‘I need a drink.’

  Wesley nodded. A drink in the Shepherd’s Arms was just what he needed.

  Extract from the will of Oswald DeTorham

  The seventh day of January in the eleventh year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth.

  I wish to set out the truth of my great sin and I trust the Lord will judge me when I stand before Him.

  I confess that I used the fire in which my brother and my steward died to conceal a terrible deed of which I most heartily repent.

  My brother Simeon was without fear of God or man, and his grave debts made him desperate. My cousin, Henry Dyce, accused Simeon of great wickedness but, when challenged, Simeon swore by all that is holy that Henry was mistaken and that the guilty one was Peter, my steward, who was suspected by all the village of heretical and ungodly ways.

  Simeon told me that Peter deceived our priest into allowing him to assume the guise of a friar in order to overhear the confessions of the sinful and gain power over them. I accepted my brother’s word and challenged Peter who denied all but Simeon urged me to press the matter. Peter persisted in his denial, saying he hated the little monk and the superstition of the people and that he desired nothing more than to prove the falsehood of the diabolical machine as he called it, and in my anger I struck him and he fell.

  I then went to Simeon’s chamber, only to find the robes of a friar and a wooden mask laid upon his bed. I knew at once he had deceived me and when I told him what I had done he laughed and said Peter was a fool and a heretic and, besides, was only a servant.

  Fury rose within me and I drew my dagger to stab my mocking brother through the heart. As he fell he upset a candle which caught the drapes of his bed and soon the flames caught hold. Seeing a chance to conceal my crime I fled, leaving some time before seeking help so the raging fire would consume all proof of my wrongdoing. To my eternal regret I forgot about Peter, thinking he would recover and flee the fire as I had, not knowing that my blow had rendered him senseless so he perished and I beg the Lord’s forgiveness for my most grievous error.

  43

  Shortly after Della was brought out of her induced coma a few days later she began issuing her orders to Pam. She wanted magazines. She wanted books. She wanted chocolate. For the first time in his life Wesley was glad to see her back on form.

  Now all Wesley had to do was make sure the case against Charlie Perks would stand up to the scrutiny of the Crown Prosecution Service and Gerry had no doubts that it would.

  Xander Southwark had been arrested and questioned but the evidence of his car accident on the night of Mary Tilson’s death was purely circumstantial, especially when he insisted he’d merely made a mistake about the date. There was still no way they could make a murder charge stick, even after he’d confessed to playing fast and loose with Mary Tilson’s bank account. He insisted that Ian Evans killed Miss Tilson because she’d caught him stealing her jewellery which he’d later planted at Judith Westminster’s cottage. When asked why he hadn’t brought this to the attention of the police at the time, he said that he’d thought Judith’s arrest and su
icide confirmed her guilt so he’d had no reason to voice a nebulous suspicion about a junior employee. It might even have made him look foolish.

  Southwark’s version of events was so persuasive that Wesley almost started to believe it himself and Gerry reckoned they had no choice but to let the matter drop. Southwark might face additional fraud charges but in the meantime he could go on running the Princebury Hall Well-being Centre untroubled by the law.

  The equipment in the temporary incident room was being packed up to be returned to Tradmouth. Lower Torworthy would soon have its church hall back; the village would return to normal and Neil would be able to continue his investigation of the manor house site undisturbed. Even so, Wesley couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was unfinished business. They’d arrested the killer of Ian Evans, Andrea Jameson and Nathan Rowyard but another truth was buried out there somewhere – like that little mechanical monk the workmen found. He knew all about the big friar, the automaton that would never come to light because it had never existed in the first place, and he wondered if this case was like that. Was he looking for something that wasn’t there?

  His phone rang but he didn’t recognise the caller’s number. Since Belinda Crillow’s campaign of harassment he’d become wary of strange calls and he experienced a split second of apprehension. When he answered he heard a woman’s voice and it took him a while to place it.

  ‘Is that Inspector Peterson?’

  When Wesley answered in the affirmative, the woman continued. ‘This is Sarah Shaw. We spoke recently… about Alcuin.’

  ‘I remember.’

  Sarah Shaw had been questioned about her unwitting part in the murders of Ian Evans and Andrea Jameson but no charges had been brought. Although she had been Xander Southwark’s lover Wesley wondered whether, by being taken in by his charm, she was just another of his victims. Perhaps he was being too charitable. Gerry had often said it was a weakness of his.

  ‘Can we meet in the Shepherd’s Arms in half an hour?’

  Wesley’s curiosity made him agree and half an hour later he was sitting beside Sarah in the lounge bar, an orange juice in front of him because he was driving. She’d chosen white wine which she drank thirstily, as though she was in need of Dutch courage.

  ‘What can I do for you?’ he asked, watching her face.

  ‘I’m not seeing Xander any more.’

  ‘Any particular reason?’

  She blushed and bowed her head. ‘When I told him I’d seen Ian Evans he used the information to get that Charlie Perks off his back, didn’t he?’

  ‘Looks that way.’

  She sighed. ‘I realise now that he used me and people died as a result. And I was too stupid to see it.’

  ‘We all make mistakes.’ Wesley paused to take a sip of juice before asking his next question. ‘Did you speak to Ian Evans when you saw him in the village?’

  She gave a small, reluctant nod. ‘I was leaving the church and he recognised me. He asked me if I remembered him but I told him I didn’t – which was a lie. Then he asked me if I still saw Xander… only he called him Alexander. He doesn’t like being called Alexander any more. Says that was part of his old life.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I told him I hadn’t seen Xander since my time at Jellicoe and Travers and I think he believed me.’ She paused, turning her glass round and round in her fingers. ‘I love my husband… and my kids. But I met Xander again when he opened the Well-being Centre and he offered me something I hadn’t had for years. He made me feel like a desirable woman again rather than a mum in jeans juggling my own business and the school run. He asked me up to the Hall for a drink and we ended up in bed together. I used to lie to my husband – I’d tell him I was meeting friends or making deliveries when I was really going up there to meet Xander. I became very good at lying.’

  Wesley looked straight at her. ‘It didn’t make you happy, did it?’

  She gave a weak smile and shook her head. Then she looked at him. ‘Inspector…’

  ‘Wesley, please.’

  ‘Look, Wesley, there’s something I haven’t mentioned. You know I first met Xander when I worked at Jellicoe and Travers.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I was… seeing him when I met Alcuin.’

  ‘I guessed,’ said Wesley.

  She bowed her head. ‘It never occurred to me at the time but recently I’ve started wondering whether Xander had something to do with Al’s death. I know they said it was an accident – but what if it wasn’t?’

  Wesley waited for her to carry on.

  ‘It was me who told Xander about Alcuin’s suspicions. Al confided in me; he said he thought his aunt’s solicitor knew more about her death than he admitted. Of course he had no idea that me and Xander were… close.’ There was a moment of hesitation, as though she found it hard to carry on. ‘I… I told Xander everything Al said. I betrayed his trust.’

  There was a long silence and Wesley waited, watching her face. He could see she was hurting, racked with regret, and he guessed she’d put any nagging suspicions she’d had about Alcuin’s death out of her mind for years. But now she couldn’t ignore them any more.

  Then she spoke again in a hushed whisper. ‘There’s something I’ve never told anybody before.’ She took another drink, draining her glass. ‘I think Xander might have been near Manor Field on the evening Al died.’

  Wesley sat forward, giving her his full attention. ‘You saw him there?’

  She shook her head. ‘When Al didn’t turn up here I went to the field to see if he was there; I wanted him to show me the site of the old manor house.’

  ‘You lied to the police?’

  ‘I didn’t lie exactly – I just didn’t mention it. Anyway, I walked there but there was no sign of him. Then I saw a car in the lay-by and I thought it looked like Xander’s so I turned back because the last thing I wanted was for anyone to see us together. When I asked Xander about it he said it couldn’t have been his because he’d been in Exeter all evening.’ She looked at him nervously. ‘When they said Al’s death was an accident it was easier to believe him. Besides, I didn’t want my parents to know about me and Xander. He was a lot older than me and they would have gone mad.’

  ‘I think it’s time the truth came out, don’t you.’

  ‘Can you promise I won’t get into trouble for withholding information?’ She sounded frightened now; scared of losing the life she’d built for herself – a life she was prepared to put at risk for a few hours of excitement with Xander Southwark.

  Wesley made the promise, although he couldn’t assure her that her evidence wouldn’t be needed in a future court case. Her mistakes might catch up with her whether she liked it or not, and he just hoped it wouldn’t destroy her family.

  As he drove home an idea came into his head. If he was right justice would be done – for Mary Tilson and Judith Westminster – and now he could add Alcuin Garrard to the list.

  Bringing Xander Southwark to justice had been like wrestling with an eel – just when they thought they had something on him he slipped from their grasp. But now Gerry was happy that they had enough to charge him and Sarah Shaw’s statement that she’d seen a car like his at Manor Field around the time of Alcuin Garrard’s death and her revelation that she’d told him Ian Evans was in Lower Torworthy would, he hoped, clinch it. But Southwark’s solicitor was confident he’d be acquitted if the case came to trial, claiming all the prosecution evidence was circumstantial. Besides, even if he had told Charlie Perks that Ian Evans was responsible for his mother’s death, how could he possibly have known how Perks would react? Wesley knew he had a point.