‘So you went back the next day...’
‘I went and collected the phone and computer.’
‘But you left the engagement ring,’ said Spence.
‘I took them up to the woods and used her fingerprint to get into them. Computer didn’t care if it was a live finger or a dead one but the phone was harder to fool. I went back a few times and when the batteries ran down, I dumped them in the woods. I never thought about the ring.’
‘And that’s where you got the contact records of her clients,’ said Spence nodding his understanding.
Easton was looking as if he had started to enjoy himself. He made a gun gesture with his hand and pointed it at Spence with a clicking noise.
‘What about the dress?’ asked Spence.
‘One of the times I went back, I saw it just lying there and I thought, if she wanted to wear it so much, she could. I put it over her. Then, I saw I could get her arms into it. She looked good in it. I took a couple of pictures.’
Morgan screwed up his nose, his distaste obvious. ‘When we found her, the ink had washed off the sign you left with her. What did it say?’ he asked. He knew it may not be relevant, but he was curious.
Easton looked pained and he spoke quietly. ‘It said “I’m sorry,” and I was. Then his demeanour changed again. He picked up the picture of Abi Slater and brandished it at the detectives.
‘I watched her defend the thieving bastards. In fact, I think she did that one,’ he pointed to the picture of Crook, ‘Yes, I’m sure she got him out so he could rob more people. Solicitors are as bad as crooks.’
‘Cheers,’ said Brian Gault quietly without looking up.
‘Interview terminated at twelve fifteen,’ said Spence and both officers rose from their chairs.
‘Not bothered about the other one, then? Is that cos he’s a junkie?’ asked Easton.
Chapter 90
Friday 6th March
‘You don’t have to tell them anything,’ said Gault, now looking distinctly rattled.
‘You see, I’m right,’ said Easton. ‘You’re all wankers. You hadn’t even sussed that there’s another one. Nyah nyah.’ He raised his thumb to his nose and waggled his fingers at them. Morgan and Spence exchanged a look then resumed their seats and let the recording continue.
‘Tell us, Danny,’ said Morgan.
‘And PC Plod here slept right through it.’
‘I think we should take a break,’ said Gault.
‘I don’t want to take a break. These tossers need to know how useless they are.’
‘And you’re the man to tell us, eh Danny?’ said Spence.
‘Why not? Someone has to.’ He waited for the officers to respond but neither spoke. ‘I was walking past Mrs Cooper’s house and I saw this bloke sneak up the drive. He looked as if he was up to no good, so I followed him. I thought he was a burglar.’
‘When was this?’ asked Morgan, although he already knew.
‘Day you were moving in; about midnight, or soon after.’
‘What were you doing there at that time?’
Easton thought before he replied. ‘If I’m out of an evening, I always take a loop past Mrs Cooper’s house. Can’t trust the police to look out for it.’
‘Then?’ asked Morgan.
‘I followed him up the fire escape. He was quick; I’ll give him that. I stopped and watched him through the window for a while, then I went in and stabbed him.’
‘What did you stab him with?’ asked Spence.
‘I had my pocket knife with me.’ He smiled as if he’d answered a trick question successfully.
‘Is that the same knife you threatened Mrs Cooper with?’
‘I already said I was sorry for doing that. I like Mrs Cooper. She’s been kind to me.’
Morgan thought they must both know different Mrs Coopers. ‘Is it the same knife?’ he repeated his question. ‘We’ll be able to tell when forensics look at it.’
‘I doubt it. I gave it an hour in the ultrasonic bath at the home.’ Sly grin again.
‘You say you stabbed him. Where did you stab him? How many times?’
‘Do you not believe me, or something?’ Easton crossed his arms. ‘No wonder you lot can’t lock people up. You don’t believe them, even when they admit something.’ He gave a dramatic sigh. ‘I crept up behind him while he was bending over and stabbed him a couple of times in the back. What more do you want? I’m getting tired now.’
‘Okay, we’ll take a break,’ said Morgan and nodded at the recording unit. Spence made the announcement and pushed the button. ‘Are you going to take further instructions, Mr Gault, or shall we arrange for Danny to be returned to his cell?’
Gault looked at his watch. ‘I think I need to contact the office,’ he said.
They waited for the arrival of a custody officer who escorted Easton to the cells while Gault packed his pad and papers into his briefcase. ‘I’m not even sure he’s fit to plead.’ he said.
Spence shrugged. ‘Some of them put on an act when they see the evidence mount up, but he seems proud of what he’s done. There’s a righteousness about him.’
‘I’m no expert,’ said Morgan. ‘But it doesn’t look like an act to me. We’ll see what a psych assessment comes back with.’
The men shook hands and Gault headed for custody reception and the fresh air of the car park while Morgan and Spence went upstairs to tell DI Patel she had a confession for Carl Raynor’s murder.
Morgan and Patel were drinking coffee in Morgan’s office.
‘Johnson’s happy,’ said Patel. ‘It won’t last, but he’s happy for now.’
Morgan shook his head. ‘I know I should be too, but I’m having doubts. He looks like my brother-in-law, so I see how people thought it was Steven in a relationship with Abi Slater, right up to her murder. I can also see how killing Crook and the Maguires fits with his so called mission, and now that I’ve seen he has a temper, I can go along with him losing it and killing Wyatt and Abi Slater. But Raynor doesn’t fit. He was a junkie, there’s no sign left with him and he didn’t get a warning letter. He was stabbed and suffocated, not strangled. He just doesn’t fit.’
‘You’re looking for reasons to make him not fit,’ she replied. ‘He’d already killed Abi, but Raynor was his first avenger killing. It doesn’t fit the modus operandi because he hadn’t developed one by then. He followed a dodgy looking burglar into your mother-in-law’s house and stabbed him with what he had to hand. His pocket knife. With everything else he’s done since then, he must have forgotten he had to smother Raynor too. The CPS are happy. Don’t be such a party pooper.’
Morgan was shaking his head. ‘We’re missing something.’
Chapter 91
Wednesday 1st April
Four weeks later.
The door was open, and Nick Morgan was waiting in Dorothy Cooper’s lounge when she returned from her morning walk. He saw she was startled, but she recovered quickly.
‘Nicholas, this is a surprise. I’d offer coffee, but you probably won’t be staying long.’ He hadn’t imagined that saving her life would improve their relationship, and it hadn’t.
She hung her jacket behind the door ‘What can I do for you?’
Morgan waited until she had made herself comfortable in her usual chair.
‘I’ve come to update you about Danny Easton.’
‘Ah, yes. Poor Danny. I believe he’s undergoing psychiatric evaluation to see if he’s fit to plead?’
Morgan’s smile was without warmth or humour. ‘Of course, you’ll be getting your updates from Brian Gault since you’re paying his fees.’
Dorothy Cooper closed her eyes and stretched her neck backwards. ‘I knew it was a mistake to tell Samantha. She always was one to tell tales.’
‘When she told me, it didn’t make sense. Why would you be paying for Easton’s solicitor after he held a knife at your neck?’
‘That’s none of your business,’ she rasped.
‘Then, I got to wond
ering why he came to see you that morning. The morning he held a knife at your neck, I mean.’
‘You don’t have to keep saying it, I know what happened.’
‘The manager said she heard an argument. Was that because he wanted something from you? Money to pay a solicitor, for example?’
‘And why would he come to me? That’s just preposterous.’
Morgan nodded his agreement. ‘I thought that... at first.’ He leant his shoulder on the wall so that she had to turn in her chair to see him. ‘He’s pleaded guilty to the murder at Cliffside,’ he said.
‘Has he? My goodness.’ Her face betrayed that she already knew.
‘It’s interesting. Forensics found Danny’s DNA on a cushion used to smother Raynor, but no trace of Raynor’s blood on Danny’s pocket knife.’
‘So? I couldn’t be less interested.’
‘So, and here’s where you should get interested, Dotty. The pathologist has excluded Danny’s pocket knife as the weapon used to stab Raynor. The blade isn’t long enough.’ Morgan saw a flicker of something cross her face. Doubt? Fear? It vanished before he could be sure.
‘We know that Danny was at Cliffside and that he smothered Carl Raynor. We also know that he carries a knife which doesn’t fit the stab wounds in Raynor’s body. It’s a puzzle.’
She smiled with saccharin sarcasm. ‘You’re the detective.’
He stepped towards her and brought his face down to hers. ‘And I’m good at it,’ he said. She averted her face, but not before he registered her distaste.
‘Steven came to help me install the new insulation at the house on Sunday.’ Her head snapped back. He had her attention now. ‘He was using a folding knife which was just like the example the pathologist said we should look for. In fact, he let me borrow it. It was really, really clean which was odd, because he told me he’d had it for years.’
‘Steven isn’t involved in any of this,’ she hissed. ‘He doesn’t have it in his nature.’
‘And if you were the detective, Dotty, you would know that people often act out of character when they’re angry.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘And Sam told me that Steven was angry when he left you, the day before we were supposed to move in. He told you he was going to move in himself that night, didn’t he?’
She looked frightened now.
‘This is why you should be interested,’ he repeated. ‘Because, you see, I believe Danny Easton did see a dodgy man going into Cliffside, but it wasn’t the addict he saw, it was Steven. Danny followed Steven up the fire escape and watched him go into the back bedroom where Carl Raynor was bending over the cabinet preparing lines of drugs. Steven was still smarting about us getting the house and Sam taking over the business. He was still raging after the argument he’d had with you and he needed to take it out on someone. He pushed his way in and he stabbed Raynor. And that’s where I think you’re right – it’s not in his nature – so he botched it.
‘This is the bit where I have to use my imagination a little, or even my experience as a detective. We know that a fight ensues from the disturbance to the dust on the floor, so maybe Raynor starts to get the better of Steven.’ He pointed his forefinger at her. ‘Danny’s been watching from the fire escape and that’s when he piles in to help. Raynor tries to escape, but Danny follows him into the master bedroom and finishes it by smothering him.’
‘Why would he do that? You’re talking shit.’
Morgan had never heard his mother-in-law swear. Not ever. He was sure now that he was close to the truth.
‘Danny likes you. He wouldn’t want to see your son hurt, or worse. But now he has something on you. I don’t know when he told you what he’d done... what he’d done to help your Steven, I mean, but I think it was when he came for money and you argued. How much are you paying, Dotty, apart from Brian Gault’s fees? It must be quite a lot because he’s going away for a long time and his mother will need looking after.’
‘He’s not fit to plead,’ said Dorothy. ‘He’s not right in the head. Anyone can see that.’
‘He’s taking a risk if that’s the game he’s playing. I know people who’ve ended up in high security psychiatric hospitals because they think it’s an easier option than prison. They can end up as damaged as the rest of the inmates.’
‘That’s not my worry.’ Her smile returned.
‘Maybe not.’ He buttoned his jacket and got to the door before turning. ‘Has Sam told you that we’re staying together? That your little plan to puppet master her away from me and fix her up with your smarmy, posh solicitor friend hasn’t worked. Has she told you that?’ He shook his head, ‘No? I didn’t think so.’ His turn to smile. ‘Do you know why I’m so determined to save my marriage?’ He waited but got no response. ‘Because it pisses you off so much, it’s worth it.’
‘We can talk about it when I come for tea on Sunday.’
‘I don’t ever want to see you in our house again,’ he said.
‘But it’s not your house, is it? It’s my house and when I’ve gone, it will be Samantha’s house. You’ll just be the live-in maintenance man.’
He came back and rested his knee on the arm of her chair so he could get closer to her. She was looking away from him and he raised her chin forcing eye contact, their noses only a couple of inches apart. ‘Don’t make the mistake of thinking that I’ll forget about Steven. I can’t prove it at the moment, but you haven’t won anything here.’
Her face twisted and she snarled, ‘“Won anything?” I haven’t even started competing.’
He whipped his hand away and strode to the door slamming it shut behind him. At top of the staircase, his phone rang. ‘DI Morgan.’
‘DI Morgan, its Sergeant Ramsay from Ops. We’ve got a couple of officers on the beach at Gullhaven Cove. They’ve reported a death. Body in a beach hut.’
‘I’m on my way,’ he said and quickened his pace.
Author’s Note
Like DI Nick Morgan, I too have relocated to the south coast of England following a varied career in forensic toxicology, scientific instrumentation sales and professional skills development.
The pivotal role played by the Magistrates’ Courts in “Make You Sorry” is inspired by a period of over ten years I served as a criminal court magistrate.
Throughout the novel I have used U.K. English spellings and colloquialisms and have taken a few liberties with the geography of Hampshire and Dorset as well as police structure of these two counties.
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Acknowledgements
I completed the first draft of “Make You Sorry” during the first nine months of 2018 and then spent more time than was healthy editing and tweaking. My thanks to Eve Seymour; Author and Hannah Bond; Publishing Executive at Bookouture, for their positive and valuable contributions to the process.
I must also thank the pathologist (who wishes to remain anonymous) who advised me where to stab my first victim to ensure his blood would drip down the chandelier and all the other individuals who gave me insight into police service procedure and politics.
When I chose my route to publication I turned to Debbie at The Cover Collection whose ‘can do’ attitude to customer service made a difficult decision very easy.
There are numerous friends and family members who have listened patiently while I have droned on about plot problems and writer’s
block but I especially want to recognise Joyce and Mark. Joyce took Nick Morgan’s life down a path I hadn’t planned, but for which Maisie is eternally grateful. Mark, my Synopsis Superhero, spent hours of his life honing my words, offering suggestions and encouragement and wasn’t afraid to scold me when I needed it. Brave man!
Finally, my thanks to my mum who never stopped believing, even when I did.
Copyright
This eBook edition published by Christine Rae-Jones 2020
Copyright © Christine Rae-Jones 2020
Cover design by ©TheCoverCollection.com
Christine Rae-Jones asserts the moral right to be identified as author of this work.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, incidents, locations portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locations is entirely incidental.
eBook Edition ©June 2020
www.christinerae-jones.com
Make You Sorry Page 29
