The Royal Baths Murder

by J. R. Ellis

  ‘Carry on,’ said Oldroyd, aghast at this twisted desire for infamy.

  ‘I came quietly back to Harrogate and laid low. I met Steve at the Baths and I knew I’d found my faithful accomplice. I told him how Damian had treated me and how upset I was. I played it up, of course, and he was outraged. The poor man dotes on me. I knew Pat Hughes was potentially a problem, as she was the only person around the Crime Writing Festival who might have remembered my relationship with Damian, so I monitored her by turning up to offer my PR services.’ She giggled. ‘That’s a good one, isn’t it, Chief Inspector? Me offering advice about public relations.’

  ‘I imagine you’d be very good. PR is all on the surface, isn’t it?’

  ‘Well, thank you, Chief Inspector, and you’re right. But you’ve seen how good I am at acting parts. Pat and Amanda were hugely grateful to me for my help. It’s a pity about Pat. I liked her; right up to the moment I smashed her over the head.’

  Oldroyd took a moment for that comment to sink in before continuing. ‘I take it you have some experience of diving?’

  ‘A little. I’ve done a lot of sports in my time. My gymnastics was useful when I had to squash into that basket. It makes you very supple. I’ve always kept strong and fit.’

  ‘So you were ready in time for this year’s festival. How did Steve take to the idea of murder?’

  She smiled at Oldroyd. ‘He didn’t like it to begin with, but Steve is round this, you see, Chief Inspector.’ She held up her little finger. ‘It didn’t take long for me to persuade him that Damian deserved to die. Steve wanted to prove himself to me. He said he’d always lacked determination to get what he wanted, so I goaded him. I said if he really wanted a future with me, he would have to show he was made of strong stuff. Poor fool. He did it by helping me with the murders.

  ‘Steve had access to everything at the Baths, so I developed this plan. Brilliant, wasn’t it? You’ll have to admit. Steve drilled the holes for the breathing tube and smuggled me in. You know what happened next. It was extremely satisfying to be carried out of there right in front of you. I don’t know how I stopped myself from laughing.’

  ‘It started to go wrong when Pat Hughes rang you, didn’t it?’

  Her demeanour changed and, for a moment, she looked like a cross, sulky child. ‘Poor Pat. Why didn’t she keep her mouth shut? Actually, it was my fault. There’s never a perfect crime, is there, Chief Inspector? Always something the killer forgets. I was beginning to think she’d forgotten about Damian and me. It was a while ago and she never knew much about it, only that Damian had shown an interest in me. She never said anything to me when I was playing my PR role, so I thought we were in the clear. Unluckily for her, something must have jogged her memory. We had to get rid of her as soon as possible after she called me in case she went to you. I took her phone but I knew you’d trace the call to Steve’s flat eventually, even without it. So we had to turn our attention to you.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘I know all about you, Chief Inspector, and what a fine mind you have. I thought if we eliminated you, then we’d have a better chance of toughing it out. No one else would be able to work out how the first murder was done, and Steve could explain the call somehow. I had a hunch that you were the kind of person not to share your theories until you were sure about them. We’re proud of our ideas, aren’t we? We like to keep them secret and ours.’ She leaned forward to Oldroyd with a chilling air of intimacy. Oldroyd drew back. ‘Then the police would fall back on the mugging theory. They’re mostly mugs themselves, aren’t they?’ She giggled at this witticism. Oldroyd thought how accurate her hunch about him was. Andy bridled at the insult to the police.

  ‘I was surprised how easily we were able to lure you to Brimham Rocks.’

  ‘I was off my guard that day. I’m not perfect either.’

  ‘No. I had Steve to help me push the rock over. I was looking forward to seeing you crushed underneath but your dashing sergeant sprang to defend you.’ She blew Andy a kiss. He had no idea how to respond.

  ‘And then Susan Lawrence appeared.’ Oldroyd prompted her to continue.

  Jade sighed again. ‘She did. I never expected her to come up from London. She hated Harrogate and she wasn’t shedding any tears at Damian’s demise, but, of course, as he was dead, he would no longer be paying her allowance. She called and threatened me with blackmail. She was a scheming bitch too. It takes one to know one. She had no real evidence but she must have sensed that I was involved and she, like Pat, had only to mention me to you people and that would have been the end. It was too much of a risk to take, so I poisoned her.’

  ‘That was a very effective disguise,’ admitted Oldroyd, although he was privately shocked at the matter-of-fact way she described the murder.

  ‘It was. She made the mistake of telling me she was going to the Murder Mystery Evening. I love a bit of dressing up and impersonation too. I thought the birthmark was a nice touch: just a bit of make-up. A real murder at a Murder Mystery Evening – irresistible! Incidentally, if I’d known you were going to be there, I would have tried to deal with you too.’ She smiled sweetly at Oldroyd, who shivered at the prospect. ‘But I missed that chance: one missed chance and two failed attempts. You’ve got a charmed life, Chief Inspector; not many people escape from me when I’ve decided on their fate.’

  ‘How did you get hold of the cyanide?’

  She looked at Oldroyd, as if pitying him for his naiveté. ‘You can get anything you like on the Dark Web or if you know the right people. No problem.’

  ‘At this point it sounds like you were running to stay still, as it were. You were having to deal with more and more problems, and you knew I was on your trail.’

  ‘We were, and I suppose the stress put us off guard. Earlier this afternoon, Steve came running very agitated to the flat, where I’d been staying ever since I strangled Damian, saying you were on to the blue diving suit and that must mean you were starting to get to the answer. He said you were going to be walking through the Pinewoods and it was our chance to finish you off. I should have stopped and thought about it, but we were desperate by this point. You don’t think clearly when you’re in that frame of mind. So here we are. It’s been exciting and great fun. I’m delighted you’ve been involved, Chief Inspector; it’s been wonderful to pit myself against such a person as you. I’ve always fancied myself as an Irene Adler to a Sherlock Holmes. By the way, I hope you noticed another layer of irony and ingenuity I worked into things.’

  ‘I suppose you mean the copying of the murders from stories written by enemies of Penrose.’

  ‘Yes.’ She smiled. ‘I knew you’d appreciate it, Chief Inspector. It took some working out, especially as we ended up doing more murders than we originally intended. I bet the first got you thinking about those writers and whether someone was trying to frame them. And they were! I had to research the second two a little but fate was kind to me and I found the incidents in the books by Stevenson and Simpson. By then you were probably confused and thinking what sort of a mind thinks of things like that. Well, now you know!’ She was beaming with pride. ‘The only murders that didn’t come out of books were the attempts on you at Brimham Rocks and the Pinewoods. Of course, I didn’t expect that I would have to deal with you, so I had nothing planned and had to move quickly. I didn’t have time to research anything from fiction. How strange that they were the ones that failed! But at least I was pleased with how I managed to lure you to Brimham, Chief Inspector.’

  The last sentence was spoken in the Scottish accent of the fictional Fiona MacPherson. Oldroyd squirmed in his seat. She seemed to have reached the end of her narrative, and sighed.

  ‘Hey ho! There we are. It’s a shame about Steve, but at least he had the honour of assisting a master.’

  Oldroyd had had enough for the time being and brought the interview to an end. She was escorted out of the interview room by two female officers. Andy and Oldroyd went back to the office. Andy collapsed in a chair and
blew out air.

  ‘Well, what did you make of her, sir? Do you think a lot of it was bravado?’

  Oldroyd shook his head and looked grim. ‘No, I don’t. She’s one of the most dangerous psychopaths I’ve ever dealt with. She enjoyed the whole thing. There was a staggering lack of empathy and a truly shocking casualness about her accounts of killing people and manipulating Steve Monroe. I’m starting to feel almost sorry for him. I seem to have been constantly reminded throughout this case that she was small, first in Penrose’s diary and then that line I heard from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Though she be but little she is fierce.” But the character of Hermia in that play is not in the same league for fierceness as this woman. I knew from when I realised the murderer had been carried out in the basket that they must be small. I didn’t think it would be someone who packed such a punch.’

  ‘She seemed to be doing it all because she couldn’t be a successful writer, but wanted to be famous. It was bloody weird, wasn’t it?’ said Andy. ‘She was creepy as hell.’

  ‘Yes. The worst psychopaths are the clever and imaginative ones, the ones that can act parts and adopt an imitation of care, tenderness, trustworthiness, if necessary. Beneath it, they’re utterly ruthless and self-motivated. Penrose, Monroe, Pat Hughes, Susan Lawrence, even you and I, were all characters in her complex drama, some of it planned and some of it thrillingly improvised. So even though she’s been caught, she regards it as a success: she’s got her revenge on Penrose and the drama will ensure her infamy.’

  ‘I’ll tell you what else was weird, sir. Do you remember at that second press conference, there was a reporter from some tabloid who suggested the whole thing could be the work of a deranged lunatic acting out a crime story? Turned out he was right.’

  ‘Hell, yes, I remember! No doubt they’ll have a field day with that but we’ll just have to live with it. I’d love to know more about this woman’s background. I’ll bet this is not the first time she’s been involved in criminal activity. Psychopaths are very good at covering their tracks. Anyway, we’d better talk to Monroe.’

  Steve Monroe, sitting in the same interview room with a different solicitor, presented a contrasting figure from that of his partner. He looked exhausted and bewildered, like man waking up from a nightmare. Unfortunately for him, thought Oldroyd, the nightmare was real and there was no waking up.

  ‘Ms Darton has confessed to everything and given us a detailed account, including your part, so I think it’s pointless to deny it.’

  ‘How do I know that’s true?’

  ‘I could go through it, if you like.’ Oldroyd began repeating what Jade Darton had told them. He saw that Steve was shocked and desperate in the realisation that it was all over. ‘Is this what she said she would do, Steve?’ asked Oldroyd. ‘Did she say she was going to tell us everything?’

  Steve looked around frantically, like a trapped animal. ‘No, but I bet you put her under a lot of pressure, didn’t you?’

  Oldroyd smiled at the prospect of trying to put that woman under pressure. ‘No, we didn’t. She enjoyed telling us. She doesn’t mind being caught. It’s all part of her drama. She told us how brilliant she was and how she’d got you to help her. She never once expressed any regret about what’s going to happen to you now.’

  Steve was wild with denial. ‘What are you talking about?’ he shouted. ‘Jade and I love each other. That Penrose got what was coming to him.’

  ‘And the others? They were a bit different, weren’t they, especially poor Pat Hughes?’

  Steve looked sheepish but tried to stay defiant. ‘They were . . . They were in the way. We were going away together after this to start a new life. We couldn’t let anything spoil it. We were going to have our own business: massage, alternative therapies. It would have been wonderful.’ He looked down.

  Oldroyd thought about the bizarre idea of going to Jade Darton for therapy. Then he looked at Steve closely. His voice was soft and kind. ‘Steve, she’s fooled you. She’s a psychopath. It was all clever manipulation, making you believe she was in love with you. She needed an accomplice. She told us that she could twist you round her little finger. She called you the poor man who dotes on her; she said it was a shame.’

  Steve erupted in anger. ‘No, she didn’t, she wouldn’t. She loves me and . . .’ He couldn’t continue. He tried to get up and his arms flailed around pathetically. Then he collapsed in tears, leaning over the table, with his hands covering his face. Despite what the young man had done, Oldroyd found it difficult not to feel sorry for him. Steve began to shake and was unable to speak.

  The solicitor intervened. ‘I don’t think my client can continue at this point.’

  Oldroyd nodded. ‘Very well. Interview suspended.’

  When Oldroyd and Andy arrived back at the office, DC Robinson was waiting with a folder of papers.

  ‘Sir, you need to look at this. It’s what we uncovered in our search about Jade Darton. I think it will explain a lot.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Oldroyd, sitting down heavily in his chair and feeling exhausted. None of them had expected this twist at the end of the case: the revelation of the true nature of the perpetrators and their relationship.

  He skimmed through the main parts of the report and raised his eyebrows. Andy sat opposite him, feeling similarly drained.

  ‘Good God!’ said Oldroyd at last. ‘You’re right, Robinson.’ He pushed the file over to Andy. ‘She’s got enough form to fill an old filing cabinet. She came from Harrogate originally. Her birth name was Diana Pearce. Her mother was a drug addict and couldn’t cope, so she was brought up in care. She got expelled from school for attacking someone with a razor blade. At sixteen she was out of control and running some kind of drugs racket in Leeds. Then she stabbed someone and served a sentence in a juvenile detention centre. This is where she must have got her education, and she seemed to reform for a while. When she was released, she went to college to do a mature access to higher education course and then to university in Manchester to do English and Creative Writing. She must have decided she wanted to be a writer. She was disciplined for plagiarism at one point. That’s ironic, isn’t it? She’d also changed her name to Jade Darton and was supplementing whatever grant she got with a number of illegal activities. Manchester police arrested her for soliciting and she was suspected of dealing in drugs again.

  ‘She drifted back to this area after university and presumably was looking for ways to get established as a writer. She thought Penrose was her way in. She searched him out rather than the other way round.’ Oldroyd laughed and shook his head. ‘Bloody hell. He had no idea what he was getting himself into. He thought she was just another naïve, young, aspiring female writer that he could exploit and string along. Little did he know he’d met his match big time, and he ended up being part of her drama.’

  Andy was scanning through the report as Oldroyd was talking. He put the folder on to the table. ‘God, that’s dark, sir. I can’t even begin to get into the head of someone like that. It’s just too strange. I can cope with ordinary motives. Money, jealousy, you know . . . but this is beyond me.’

  ‘People like that don’t think and react in the same way as the rest of us.’

  Andy looked up at his boss. ‘What makes somebody like that?’

  Oldroyd thought for a moment. ‘Good question. All badly damaged people have been through traumatic experiences as a child, and I’m sure she was no exception. Whether that’s enough to explain it, I don’t know. And I don’t think anybody really knows; that’s the uncomfortable truth.’

  ‘What about Monroe? He looked completely wrecked. I’m not excusing what he’s done but what you said to him was right. He was completely manipulated by her. I was almost sorry for him.’ Andy looked guilty.

  ‘Don’t worry, me too. He was a good subject for her: physically strong but emotionally weak, nowhere near as clever as her and easy to control.’

  ‘He must have known that what they were doing was wrong, though.’<
br />
  ‘With part of himself maybe, but he was obviously infatuated with her and did what she told him. People like her can be oddly magnetic, even though it’s all an act. It’s strange how sometimes people, like Steve Monroe, can’t see the truth, usually because they don’t want to. He believed in the dream of their future life together.’

  ‘Well, his infatuation has ruined his life. He’s going to go down for a long time.’

  ‘Yes. Maybe if she admits actually carrying out all the murders and he cooperates with us, a clever barrister might be able to argue that she was exerting psychological control, especially with the evidence of her background. The problem is that when they see how small she is beside this tall, strapping chap, it’s not going to be easy to make that case; the instinct of judge and jury will be to think the opposite.’ Oldroyd shrugged. ‘We’ll have to see.’

  Derek Fenton was called in to Chief Superintendent Walker’s office early the next day. He was puzzled to see the presence of another DI sitting at the side of Walker’s desk.

  Walker was reading papers in a folder, but he stopped when Fenton came in, and took off his reading glasses. He looked at Fenton with a grim expression and the latter began to feel alarmed.

  ‘Right, Derek, sit down.’ He took up the folder. ‘I’ll come straight to the point. There are some serious allegations against you concerning your relationship with a councillor, Jack Sandford.’

  Fenton’s stomach lurched. ‘What allegations, sir?’

  ‘That you have taken bribes and not investigated allegations against him properly. You were assigned to that case in which Sandford was accused of favouring his wife with a contract for some designs for the Royal Baths.’

  Fenton was stunned and speechless.

  Walker continued. ‘I’ve seen your report on that case and another on the evidence you had and how you conducted the investigation. I’ve also seen photographic evidence that you have had recent meetings with the man you so recently investigated. That in itself is highly suspicious, is it not? There’s also some suggestion that this may have been going on for some time.’