by A K Lakelett
However, Jimmy can’t resist trying to connect the dots. He is convinced that the dead woman is the missing witness.
Wednesday 4th of June
The Abbey Chronicle, page 8
Woman found dead in Mason Woods
A body of a woman was found today in a flat in the Mason Woods area in one of the newly converted Georgian buildings there. According to the neighbor, the TV had been going loudly on all hours for nearly a week, and nobody had answered the door, despite repeated visits.
The neighbor finally called the police. to get some peace and quiet. After the body was found, the neighbors were shocked to find out that the retired teacher, who had only recently moved there, had died. They all wished they had called the police earlier. The Abbey Chronicle is not publishing the name of the dead woman at this time, as the next of kin has not yet been informed according to Faukon Abbey police.
This death comes nearly a month after the death of Eric Warner. The police have tried to locate the member of the public who discovered his body and called 999, but that person has not been found, despite “countless efforts” by the Faukon Abbey CID officers. Could the woman now found in Mason Wood be the missing witness Faukon Abbey’s constabulary has not been able to find as was stated at the inquest?
Thursday 5th of June
DI Peter Greene and DC Terry Ford
On Thursday morning, Ford drives to fetch Pratt for another interview. He wants to get her to talk about the fight and the flat in Exeter. And did she know Ms. Harris? Pratt is grumbling about having been brought to the station again. Ford brings her a cup of tea, with milk, two sugars and a plate of biscuits.
In the other interview room, Greene is talking with Estelle. He had sent the uniforms to bring her in that morning. She was not happy. Once Greene and a WPC come to the interview room where Estelle has been waiting for a good fifteen minutes, Greene states that it is only to help them to sort out a few inconsistencies. He starts the tape recorder, stating, ‘DI Greene and WPC Heather Lawrence interviewing Estelle Warner at nine-ten on Thursday the fifth of June.’
‘What do you mean inconsistencies? About what?’ Estelle asks in a low voice.
‘We just have a few questions, Mrs. Warner. Before you left for the Scilly Isles, you had a fight with your husband, Eric Warner. Could you tell us what it was about?’
‘You have been talking to Pratt, haven’t you; I’ll fire her for this!’ Estelle gives Greene a cold stare.
‘We are trying to solve your husband’s murder, so please help us. Maybe our source misheard or misunderstood, so please tell us what it was about. Was it about him not being interested in having more children?’
Estelle looks at him for a moment and swallows, looking down.
‘Yes,’ she says, her voice barely audible.
‘So you had found out he’d had vasectomy or did he tell you about it himself?’
Estelle bursts out crying.
‘I wanted to have children with him, that’s why we moved here, or so he said. And then he goes and makes it impossible! So of course we fought, I was mad at him. I wanted to have babies, and not get buried in this godforsaken good-for-nothing village for nothing!’
She sobs for a while. Peter waits. Then she blows her nose and wipes her eyes.
‘Did he tell you about it?’ Greene asks, his voice steady.
‘No, I got a call from some urologist’s office saying they had the test results and they looked very good.’
‘Test results?’
‘That’s what I said. But I also knew they wouldn’t tell me anything. As I had had to deal with all kind of doctor’s appointments and the like for Mr. Smithers, I knew exactly what to say: “Oh, these are the results for his prostate exam or for the blood tests?”, and they responded, “No, for the sperm count after his vasectomy”. Ah yes, indeed, I said, thanked them and called Eric. He came home and we had a row. Could I have some water, please?’, she asks.
Greene ask the WPC to get her some. She comes back with a plastic glass and a bottle of water. Estelle drinks and then sighs deeply.
‘After the fight you decided you wanted to go to see your mother in the Scillies?”
‘I was so mad at him and I didn’t know what to do, so I called my mother and told her I’d be coming over there in a couple of days. I wanted to think.’
‘You have previously stated to us that you were on the Scilly Isles on Monday the twelfth of May.’
‘Yes, as I just said.’
‘Are you quite sure you didn’t leave the islands at any time?’
‘What is this? I have already said I was there!’
‘Mrs. Warner, we have new information which confirms that you indeed flew to St. Mary’s on the ninth of May. However, we checked it out and know that you flew back on the morning of Monday the twelfth from St. Mary’s to Exeter. Where did you go?’
‘What you mean you now know?’ Estelle leans back in her chair and crosses her arms.
‘You purchased a return ticket from St. Mary’s under your maiden name, Estelle Thomas. So I ask you again: did you come back to Exeter on Monday the twelfth of May?’
‘You have no right to ask me all these questions. I know my rights. Are you accusing me of something? I didn’t kill my husband; why don’t you find the person who did!’ She stands up. ‘I’m leaving.’
‘Please Mrs. Warner; surely you want to find out who killed your husband?’
‘Well it wasn’t me.’
‘Sit down, Mrs. Warner, please. And tell us, where did you go from the Exeter airport when you arrived there at ten-twenty in the morning on the twelfth of May? We have proof that you arrived in Exeter airport at that time and that you drove off from there in your car. Where did you go? Did you drive to Tersel Woods and meet with your husband? Did you kill him because he didn’t want to have children with you?’ Greene had raised his voice just a little and looks straight at Estelle.
Estelle gasps and her eyes narrow. She says very calmly in a low voice, ‘I’m not saying anything else without my lawyer. I know my rights. Unless you are going to arrest me, you have to either get my lawyer here or let me go. Which is it going to be?’ Estelle stands up and looks at Greene. ‘I’m going.’
‘Very well Mrs. Warner, I’m not arresting you at this time. Please have your lawyer give me a call today and please do not even think about leaving Faukon Abbey. We’ll get the uniforms to drive you home. I’m sure we’ll talk again soon.’
Greene asks the WPC to take Estelle out of the interview room. He remains seated.
Ford comes in. ‘So did she know? Did she do it?’
‘She did know about the vasectomy. She admitted as much. She refused to say anything about where she went on May the twelfth. That was a great find, Terry. She definitely had both the opportunity and the reason to kill her husband.’
‘But did she do it, sir?’
‘I don’t know,’ Peter sighs, ‘I really don’t.’
The officers walk back up to their office.
‘What did Pratt have to say for herself?’ Peter asks Terry.
‘She was indeed the one who kept the Warner’s flat clean. She went there once a week, normally on Tuesdays but a few times on other days. She also said that more often than not, she had to carry out plenty of empty bottles. It seems Mr. Warner had used the flat for partying.’
‘Robert Hughes said they used to “chill out” – I assumed that meant a lot of beer. Did she have to clean up anything else except dirty dishes and empty bottles?’
‘Oh yes, sir. She claimed that more than once the bedsheets had very recognizable stains, and at least twice she found women’s’ underwear either wrapped in the sheets or in the bathroom.’
‘I see. Is she prepared to testify to that?’
‘I think she would be. I think she’s realizes that Estelle isn’t likely to stay around here much longer and she’ll be out of a job no matter what. Besides, I don’t think she likes her much.’
‘But you be
lieve Mrs. Pratt is telling the truth, that she’s not telling us this to get back at Estelle or something?’
‘Yes, I do believe her.’
‘Very well then. Let’s wait and see what Estelle’s lawyer has to say. Since we now know that Estelle came back from the Scillies in the morning of the twelfth and flew back in the evening, let’s try to figure out where she went from the airport. Check if you can get data from the traffic cams, whether you can see her leaving the airport. And see if she went anywhere near Eric Warner’s party patch. Did you find out when he had his vasectomy?’
‘I’ll review the traffic cams. Why do you think she would have driven to Exeter, instead of Faukon Abbey?’
‘Well, she wanted to have children, right? He, apparently, not so much, and he had not even bothered telling her that. Considering how those two got together while he was still married to Maggie, and Robert Hughes with his “no-wives” approach, he was clearly back playing the field. And now we have it confirmed by Mrs. Pratt, so maybe Estelle suspected something, and decided to catch him in the act?’
‘Could be. I’ll get on with the cameras, sir.’
Friday 6th of June
Dr. Percy Slater
Peter Greene is driving with Terry Ford to see Dr. Slater, who is conducting a post-mortem examination on Selena Harris, as requested by the coroner.
‘Good morning to you both,’ Slater greets Peter and Terry as they arrive. ‘I’m just about finished with your latest body.’
Both officers cover their noses and mouths with masks handed to them by Slater’s assistant. The smell in the room is quite strong.
‘Good morning to you too. What have you found out about her?’ Greene says.
‘Ms. Harris was a very sick woman. She wasn’t old. She was only 64, had no arterial clogging, and clean lungs. But she had advanced last stage breast cancer, which had metastasized. However, it wasn’t the cancer that killed her. Ms. Harris died from what seems to have been a heart attack. Not clear what caused her to have one – toxicology results are pending. She would in all likelihood have died in less than a few months’ time anyway; the cancer had spread all around her body.’
‘No way of telling if she killed herself or if she was helped on the way?’ Greene asks.
‘No really no, her body was in fairly bad shape by the time she was found. I can tell you though that there were no marks of any sort of external violence on her, no wounds, no ligature marks. Her stomach contained a bunch of pills, some only partially dissolved. There was also some brownish liquid, which looks like coffee, which is what was found in that cup found next to her. Due to the cancer, she was most likely on a lot of medication – if you bring me those I can see if she might have taken an overdose, or if there was something wrong with them. As you know, some medications can have lethal side effects if taken in the wrong combination. Toxicology results so far do not show any overdose.’
‘There were no pill bottles or anything of the sort near where she was sitting,’ Ford says.
‘Anything else?’ asks Greene.
‘No, nothing that isn’t consistent with cancer. Get me those pills and I’ll check.’
‘Thank you, we’ll get those to you today,’ Greene promises.
DI Peter Greene
Greene and Ford walk to Greene’s car. As soon as they are seated, Greene turns to Ford and looks at him.
‘Could you tell me why you didn’t collect Ms. Harris’ medicines when you were there? I asked you to go there and make sure no evidence was missed. It is normal procedure, is it not?’
‘Sorry sir. I assumed the techs would collect them,’ Terry says quietly, hanging his head. ‘I didn’t check if they did. I will drive there and get them myself and bring them to Dr. Slater today.’ Ford clasps his hands.
‘See to it.’
Nothing more is said, and Greene drops Ford off at the police station. Peter drives again to Penzance to talk with Maggie Warner. He needs to find out once and for all where she was when Eric died.
On his way there, the lab calls Greene about the phone found in Selena Harris’ flat. It was the phone that was used to call 999 about Eric Warner – it seems they have finally found the missing witness. On the phone they found only one text message “Are you really sure you want to do it?” from an unknown number. The response from Ms. Harris’ phone was “Yes, I am!” No other records were saved on the phone. There are no previous calls nor are there any contacts.
Greene calls Ford and asks him to get in contact with the phone company to find information about both the sender of the text and the owner of the phone. He gets to Penzance; the rain has stopped. He finds a parking spot and walks to the B&B. While he enjoys seeing her and visiting her kitchen, he reminds himself that Maggie is still a possible suspect in what now looks more than ever to be a murder inquiry.
Maggie greets him and they go to her tiny office again. He explains that this is really the last chance for her to come clean about where she was on the twelfth of May. Otherwise, he would be forced to take her in and she’d have to explain to the prosecutor.
Maggie sighs and apologizes, saying that it wasn’t her decision not to tell Peter. She then asks if she can make a quick call. Greene leaves her to it and goes out of the office. She closes the door behind him, he can’t hear what is being said. After only a few minutes, Maggie opens the door and asks him to come back in. ‘Do you want a coffee?’ Greene nods. He follows her to the kitchen and she jokes, ‘Oh, you want to make sure I’m not leaving the country.’ He smiles a bit sheepishly.
Once they have their coffee cups and madeleines, Maggie apologizes for not telling the truth before and says again that she wasn’t able to tell him until she got approval.
She had left Penzance on the afternoon of Sunday the eleventh to get to London. She had closed her B&B for three days. In London, she had stayed with her father, William Boxton, and then accompanied him on Monday to Edinburgh. He had medical appointments on Monday and Tuesday. They came back to London on Wednesday the fourteenth and she had continued on to Penzance that same evening.
‘The reason I didn’t tell you about this before was that my father didn’t want the information about him visiting doctors to come out. As soon as he had heard about Eric’s death and that the cause of death was unclear, he was sure there was going to be an inquest. Since inquests are public, and Robert Hughes as well as others could well have visited the inquest, they could have found out. My father wanted to make sure his partners in the law firm he had founded were told first. That’s why I had to call him now to make sure I could tell you all about it.’ Maggie bows her head.
‘Tell me about what?’ Greene asked.
Maggie sighed. ‘That he has Alzheimer’s and that he’s going to retire soon. And that he wants Trevor to take over from him.’
‘But surely his partners agree on that? Trevor is his son, right?’
‘Law is a very competitive area. And while you’d think a founder’s son, who is well qualified, could take over, that’s not always how things go. You see, Trevor is gay.’
‘What has that got to do with anything in this day and age?’ Greene raises his eyebrows.
‘Apparently the other two partners are of the opinion that being gay and dealing with mergers and acquisitions can lead to untold consequences.’
‘Like what?’
‘Guess they have watched the Cambridge Spies on TV a few times too many and seen how gays can be blackmailed or pressurized to do dastardly deeds. Or, more likely, they just are good old-fashioned homophobes.’ Maggie rolls her eyes.
‘Really? Sounds to me like they needed an excuse to have someone else take over from your father.’
‘That’s what my father believes too, so he wants is to make sure he can arrange it all himself before that snake Hughes gets the chance to sink his claws into the throne.’
‘Hughes? Robert Hughes?’
‘Yes, Robert is the most senior since Eric left, and he is a good lawyer. And he has thre
atened to leave. He apparently has a lot of customers, and if he’ll takes those with him, that could decimate the firm.’
‘What would have happened if Eric was still there?’
‘Most likely Eric would have been the successor, although Trevor hates – hated - him, mostly on my behalf. Eric was a good lawyer, even if he was a totally despicable human being.’
‘While I’d like to take your word for all this – and I’m sorry to have to ask – but can I get your father’s phone number as well as the name of the doctors you visited on that Monday and Tuesday? Also, where did you stay in Edinburgh?’
‘Of course. If you call the law firm, they can connect you to my father. You can obviously try to reach him either there or at home, but he’s been very busy planning his retirement. I also thought you’d want to get it confirmed, so here are my train tickets.’
‘And the doctors?’
‘All here.’ She gives him a printout of the private practice website. ‘We stayed in the firm’s flat in Edinburgh. The law firm has a lot of customers in Scotland, so they keep a flat there. It’s a small one with two bedrooms.’
‘Thank you for that.’ I do have a question about Lizzie as well. Does she have a trust fund?’
‘No, why would you think that? We are reasonably well off, but certainly not rich enough for that!’
‘Do you know of any reason why she would think she would have to be twenty-one until she can inherit?
‘Oh, now I understand. She does have some money coming from her grandmother when she is twenty-one. Eric’s mother put some money every month into an account for both girls, it was an insurance or something, starting when they were born. Lizzie will get both hers and Karen’s at that age; it’s not much.’