False Witness

by Michelle Davies

  He dashed into the lounge and snatched the sheets of paper up. If Gayle read what he’d written about the Pavilion and Gus and Benji and everything else he’d been caught up in, any hope he had of prolonging this reunion would be destroyed.

  Taking a deep breath, Alan ripped the sheets into tiny pieces and tossed them in the bin.

  85

  Belmar floored it down Mansell’s backstreets, gears grinding on the steeper inclines, while Maggie relayed the details Umpire had given her.

  ‘Poppy was dropped off in the playground by her parents but never made it to her classroom. Her teacher remembers seeing her at the back of the line as the kids came inside but then she vanished. The school can’t check CCTV to see exactly what time she went and in which direction because – get this – the caretaker’s buggered off and his office is locked and the spare key can’t be found.’

  ‘Donnelly’s gone as well?’

  ‘Yep. Umpire’s sent Nathan round to pick him up.’

  ‘I can’t see Poppy being with Donnelly, though.’

  ‘I can’t either. Right now I don’t think she’ll trust any man.’

  ‘Not even her dad.’

  ‘Especially not her dad.’

  They exchanged grim glances. Thanks to Maggie slotting the last piece of the puzzle together, Ewan Hepworth was now their main suspect in the murder of Violet ‘Ruby’ Castle. A warrant had been issued for his arrest and Maggie and Belmar were on their way to the Hepworths’ address to bring him in.

  ‘How did you guess Ewan was one of Ruby’s clients?’

  ‘It was what Imogen said to me and Carmichael about Benji taking a dislike to Ewan because he was horrible to women. She said Ewan had turned down her advances in a nice way, so I knew it couldn’t have been how he was with Imogen that made Benji wary of him – the kid must’ve witnessed Ewan mistreating someone else. My next guess was Julia, but then Benji had never met her as far as we know, and Ewan was a devoted dad to Poppy so it couldn’t have been her either. So it must’ve been some other woman – and then it dawned on me Ewan was the man in the story Benji wrote. He described the man as having a round, shiny head like a skeleton’s – well, Ewan’s is like that because he shaves his hair down to a grade one. Then everything about Benji and Poppy being on that wall started to make sense.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘I think Benji told Poppy what he’d seen her dad getting up to and they were on that wall because he offered to show her exactly where it happened, but she refused to believe him and possibly pushed him to shut him up,’ said Maggie. ‘That’s why she screamed the place down when we said we thought Benji had in fact witnessed Ruby’s murder – Poppy thought he was making the whole thing up and there we were confirming it.’

  ‘So she killed Benji and her dad murdered Ruby.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘Jesus,’ Belmar breathed. ‘That poor kid.’

  ‘Which one?’

  They lapsed into silence for a few seconds and Maggie tried to imagine how Poppy must’ve felt when she found out the friend she’d pushed to his death had been telling the truth all along. Benji had been trying to warn her, not upset her.

  ‘Do you think Julia has any inkling of what her husband’s done?’

  ‘The murder, definitely not, and I don’t imagine she’s aware he’s been sleeping with prostitutes either. Renshaw didn’t know about her partner and she’s a detective. I think men like Ewan probably go to great lengths to cover their tracks,’ Maggie mused. ‘Lila definitely recognized his picture when I showed her, though, you could tell by her reaction. Hopefully once we arrest him she’ll ID him properly. Here, take a right at the next junction, it’s a short cut.’ As Belmar slowed down at the traffic lights, he nervously cleared his throat.

  ‘I know now’s probably not the time, but I’m dying to tell you something and I don’t know when I’ll get another chance today. It’s good news,’ he said quickly.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Allie’s pregnant.’

  ‘Whaaat?’

  Maggie screeched so loudly Belmar’s foot slipped off the clutch and the car bunny-hopped forward, almost bouncing them through a red light.

  ‘Bloody hell, Maggie! I would actually like to live long enough to be a dad if you don’t mind!’

  ‘You’re having a baby!’ she cried. ‘Oh, mate, that’s brilliant news.’

  Belmar’s grin stretched from ear to ear. ‘We can’t believe it ourselves. When the last IVF failed we didn’t know if we could put ourselves through it again so we gave ourselves a break. Then one evening of cocktails later – boom!’ Belmar mimed himself dropping the mic and Maggie laughed.

  ‘When’s Allie due?’

  ‘Not for ages. She’s only six weeks gone. We’re not telling everyone, just immediate family and best friends.’

  Maggie was flattered to be put in that category. ‘You are going to be such a great dad,’ she said. ‘I cannot wait to see you handle a shitty nappy though.’

  ‘Nah,’ said Belmar, shaking his head. ‘Compared to all the crap we deal with in this job it’ll be a doddle.’

  86

  The chair wobbled beneath Alan’s feet as he reached up into the airing cupboard.

  ‘Careful, you could fall,’ said Gayle.

  She reached over and held the back of the chair with one hand, then hesitantly placed her other on Alan’s calf to steady him. Her touch jolted through him like an electric shock and the chair shifted again beneath his weight before he managed to steady himself. His breathing ragged, he reached up again and pulled down a pillow from the wooden slatted shelves stacked above the immersion heater.

  ‘There should be one each now,’ he said, dropping it onto the carpet. ‘Here are some pillowcases too.’

  He pulled out a bundle of them and climbed down from the chair, wishing Gayle didn’t have to let go of him.

  ‘These have seen better days,’ she scoffed, taking the pillowcases from him. ‘Weren’t these your mum’s?’

  Alan smiled sheepishly. ‘I never got round to replacing them.’

  ‘Oh well, they’ll do for tonight.’

  He hoped their visit might last longer than one night but daren’t ask Gayle what her plans were for returning home. He didn’t want to rock the boat: having his family sleep under the same roof as him for one night was already beyond his expectation and he didn’t want to ruin it.

  ‘I’ll change the sheets on my bed so you can have that as well. I’ll kip on the sofa,’ he said.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Gayle.

  They were standing so close he could see tiny dark hairs feathering her top lip, the only giveaway of the brunette she used to be. She’d had brown hair when he first met her – the blonde came later, after Lacey was born.

  ‘You’ve got nothing to thank me for,’ he said, choked again.

  ‘When did you become such a crybaby?’ she teased, but he could see she was emotional too. He was about to reach out for her hand when Freddie’s voice echoed up the stairs, asking if he could have a packet of crisps from a forgotten multipack Alan had unearthed from the back of a cupboard. With no other food in the house, he’d already decided to splash out and order a pizza delivery for tea, much to the children’s delight.

  ‘Can he have a packet, is that okay?’ Alan asked Gayle nervously, not wanting to make the wrong call. ‘Or will it spoil his tea?’

  ‘Yeah, that’s fine. He’s got hollow legs, that one – never stops eating and never gets full up. Go on, say it’s fine.’

  Alan cleared his throat, then shouted down the stairs.

  ‘Yes, that’s fine, help yourself, Freddie.’

  ‘Thanks, Daddy!’

  It caught him by surprise, being called Daddy again after so long. Half smiling, half crying, he told Gayle it was the best thing he’d heard in ages.

  ‘Good, I’m glad,’ she said. ‘I know you’ve had a rough time and I’m sorry I shouted at you on the phone about that text you sent. I shoul
d’ve stopped to think how you must have been feeling after watching that boy die. Did you know him well, before it happened?’

  ‘Not really. He was pretty new to the school. I think I’d only spoken to him once, and that was to tell him off.’

  ‘What had he done?’

  ‘I caught him in the art cupboard one break time. He should’ve been outside and it’s out of bounds to the kids.’

  ‘Was he nicking stuff?’

  ‘Nah, I think he was just exploring. He hadn’t been at the school long.’

  Alan was suddenly assailed by sadness as he remembered how apologetic Benji had been when he’d caught him in the cupboard. He was a polite lad.

  Gayle touched his arm. ‘Al, what is it?’

  He stared into her eyes, saw how concerned she was and before he could stop himself everything came tumbling out – what he’d seen on the wall, the Pavilion, Gus, the fire, everything. He didn’t pause, not even when Gayle’s face froze in horror and she shrank away from him – he had to get it all out, he needed to.

  When he finally finished, Gayle slumped down on the chair and buried her face in her hands. He was desperate for her to say something but he knew he should wait and let her speak first.

  Eventually she sat up, her expression set like granite.

  ‘Here’s what’s going to happen next. You’re going to go downstairs and tell our children that you’ve got to go out for a bit – tell them you’re needed up at the school. Then you’re going to go straight to the police and tell them everything you just told me.’

  He didn’t contradict her, just nodded.

  ‘Will you still be here when I get back, though?’

  ‘No, no, you don’t get to put this on me. Because if I say we won’t be, I know you won’t go through with it and that’s not fair, Alan.’

  ‘I will, I promise. I want to tell them. I want this all to be over. Seeing you, and the kids . . . I want to put things right.’

  ‘You doing that doesn’t mean we –’ she gestured at both of them – ‘are okay. I need time to think. What you’ve done, the lies you’ve told . . . and you letting them use the school for, for that . . . It’s disgusting.’

  ‘I know, but Gus found out I had serious debts and threatened me with my job. If I got sacked from Rushbrooke I couldn’t make my repayments and I wouldn’t have got a decent reference to get another position. I’d have gone under and where would that have left you and the kids?’

  ‘You could’ve told me. I’d have understood.’

  Alan didn’t believe her. ‘You didn’t understand last time.’

  ‘That’s because you lied to me and went behind my back and it cost us almost every penny we had. This isn’t the same – this is someone in authority blackmailing you and exploiting you and putting you in a position where you couldn’t say no to them. I know you’re not a bad man, Alan. Stupid, definitely, but not bad.’

  He managed a smile at that.

  ‘I never did anything with the girls at the Pavilion. There’s not been anyone since you. I need you to know that.’

  ‘That’s not a conversation for now. Go on, you need to go and tell the kids.’

  He was halfway down the stairs when the doorbell went. Opening it to find DC Thomas, an odd feeling of calm settled over him.

  ‘I need you to come with me, Mr Donnelly,’ said the detective.

  ‘I know. It’s time I told you the truth.’

  87

  It took a few minutes for Julia to answer the door and when she did it was immediately obvious why.

  ‘Who did that to you, Mrs Hepworth?’ asked Belmar gently.

  Julia slowly raised her hand to the side of her face, as though she was only noticing for the first time that she was in pain. Her fingertips gingerly traced the vivid red welt joining her temple to her cheekbone.

  Maggie stepped forward.

  ‘Is Ewan at home?’

  Julia jolted at the mention of her husband and her hand flew to her throat, an involuntary gesture of protection.

  ‘Is he here?’ asked Belmar, when she didn’t answer.

  ‘No, he’s not. I don’t know where he is.’

  ‘What about Poppy? Has she shown up here?’

  ‘Poppy? She’s at school.’

  Maggie exchanged a worried glance with Belmar.

  ‘Has no one from the school been in touch?’ he asked.

  Now Julia looked worried too.

  ‘No, why? What’s going on?’

  ‘Poppy didn’t go into class after you dropped her off this morning. The school doesn’t know where she is.’

  Julia’s knees gave way and Maggie sprang forward to catch her.

  ‘Let’s get you inside.’

  They helped her into the kitchen and sat her down at the table.

  ‘I – I haven’t had my phone switched on,’ she said. ‘It’s over there charging.’ She pointed to the counter next to the cooker where Maggie saw a mobile plugged into a USB socket. Going over, she could see the notification light was flashing.

  ‘You’ve had missed calls from the school by the looks of it.’

  Julia clasped her hands anxiously. ‘Oh God, how can they not know where she is?’

  ‘Could she be with her dad?’ asked Maggie.

  Julia looked stricken. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Where is he?’

  ‘I told you, he’s not here.’

  ‘Did he hit you, Mrs Hepworth?’ asked Belmar, sitting down next to her. ‘That looks nasty.’

  Julia began to cry. ‘It’s my fault, not his. I was nagging him to tell me something and I should’ve stopped.’

  ‘Don’t blame yourself for his actions,’ said Belmar gently.

  ‘But I goaded him! He wouldn’t have hit me otherwise. He’s never done it before.’

  Maggie took a breath. ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but we think your husband has been violent towards other women he’s come into contact with. We believe him to be dangerous and it’s vital we find him before he hurts anyone else. Do you have any idea where he might be?’

  ‘Sorry, you’re not making sense. What other women?’

  In the phone call with Umpire before they left Lila’s bedsit, Maggie had asked how much they should tell Julia about her husband. Umpire said he would leave it to her discretion, but what they must avoid at all costs was Julia tipping Ewan off. Now, watching her reaction, Maggie knew they couldn’t trust Julia not to warn him. The bit she’d seized on wasn’t him being violent or considered dangerous, but that there were other women involved – put a different way, possible replacements for her. Despite how appallingly he treated her, Julia would put Ewan first and always believe the best of him; it was the classic, desperate mentality of a woman indoctrinated by an emotionally abusive spouse.

  ‘Julia, we need to find your husband,’ said Maggie, shooting Belmar a look so he understood not to say anything else. ‘If he was with Poppy, where would he have taken her?’ Julia wiped her tears as she tried to think. ‘Maybe swimming? They like going to the Lido.’

  ‘I don’t think your husband will have taken her to do an activity.’

  Julia’s confusion turned to alarm. ‘Wait, you said Ewan’s dangerous – you think he would hurt our daughter? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.’

  ‘Poppy didn’t want to go home with him yesterday. She seemed scared.’

  ‘Not of him. It was the situation and all those questions you were asking her. That’s why she was upset . . .’ She tailed off. ‘Ewan said people would try to tell me things about him and that it was my fault.’ She got to her feet. ‘I think you need to go now. I want you to leave.’

  Belmar got to his feet too. ‘What about Poppy? Don’t you want to help us to find your daughter?’

  ‘Of course I do,’ she said. ‘But if Ewan comes back and finds you here he’ll be really upset.’

  Maggie could see they were getting nowhere and they couldn’t afford to waste any more time. Poppy w
as the one person who could implicate Ewan in Ruby’s death because of what Benji had told her.

  They needed to find her before he did.

  88

  Driving back to the station, Maggie called Umpire and put him on loudspeaker so Belmar could hear too.

  ‘Ewan’s not here and Julia says she doesn’t know where he is,’ said Maggie. ‘Any sightings of Poppy yet?’

  ‘No, but Donnelly’s been brought in and he’s admitted being the last person to see her at school. They had words, then she ran off and he doesn’t know where she might’ve gone. But that’s not all – he’s about to give a statement confirming he did witness her push Benji off the wall to his death.’

  ‘What he said during his 999 call was correct then?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So why’s he been lying?’ asked Belmar.

  ‘Donnelly’s been covering up for the people running the prostitution ring that Ruby was part of, and presumably Lila still is. You know the Pavilion building in Rushbrooke’s grounds, the one that burned down? That was where the girls took their punters – Donnelly claims he was forced to open up the building for them to use. He thought that if we wrote Benji’s death off as an accident we wouldn’t find out.’

  ‘Bloody hell,’ remarked Belmar. ‘I can’t believe he’d let prostitutes use a primary school for meeting johns. I damn well hope we’re throwing the book at him.’

  ‘He’s asking for a deal. He says he’ll give us the names of the people behind the racket in return for immunity. He’s implied that some of Mansell’s best-known public figures are involved.’

  ‘You can’t let him off the hook,’ said Maggie angrily. ‘What about Imogen? He should be punished for her sake, for telling lies and holding up the investigation.’

  ‘But, Maggie, if more senior officers like ACC Bailey are involved, we need to put a stop to it and that means cutting a deal with Donnelly to get the information. For all we know some of the girls involved could’ve been trafficked and let’s not forget one of them was murdered.’