Death on Dartmoor

by Bernie Steadman

  ‘It’s Neil Pargeter’s case, really. He should pick up the bones. Fox can take the other body.’ Dan checked the time, coming up to four pm. He stood back and rang Neil, hoping he wasn’t in a lecture, and caught him on his way home.

  ‘You may want to do a detour, mate, via The Retreat animal rescue centre,’ Dan told him, ‘we’ve got the missing body parts. And bring your kit if you want to take them away to the lab.’

  Neil was struggling to give a coherent response. Gurgling was the closest Dan could get to describing it. ‘It’s okay, Neil, you can be excited. I’m a bit beside myself, too, because we’ve just found another body, and I have a horrible feeling that we’re not done here. See you soon.’

  Sally’s eyes widened. ‘What d’you mean, we’re not done here?’

  ‘Sal, if I suspend all rational thought I can believe that Merlin Garrett had nothing to do with the drugs manufacture and Ryan’s death, and even believe that he had no idea what was going on right under his nose, but I cannot, will not, believe that he didn’t know a body was hidden in the corner of a field he has worked in for ten years.’ He pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the throb in his foot and stretched his back. ‘Which leads me to the conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, that he may very well be the one who put it there.’

  ‘Wow,’ Sally said, ‘and we thought he was the good son.’

  ‘Yes, we did. Carry on in here, Ben, we need those photos. I’ll wait for the forensic team and meet Doctors Fox and Pargeter when they arrive.’

  Dan beckoned the burlier of the two PCs, ‘Come with me, err…’

  ‘Evans, sir, Gareth Evans.’

  ‘Right, come with me Gareth, we’re going to arrest Merlin Garrett, and you may need to step in. Firstly to help me subdue him, and secondly to take over any of the animal duties he hasn’t finished yet.’

  ‘It’ll be a pleasure, sir.’ Evans grinned, put his vest back on over his protective suit, released the catch on his baton, and checked his handcuffs were easy to access.

  * * *

  Merlin Garrett finished in the kennels, locked the door and stood outside, oblivious to the traffic building towards rush hour over his head. Turner, the bodyguard, stood a short distance away. He wasn’t a talker, and Merlin was grateful. He’d had a lot to think about last night, and today. He had some major decisions to make because of his idiot family.

  The sounds of vehicles arriving at a rush alerted him that something else was happening. He strode to the middle of the walkway, and noticed more police arriving. The forensics van was back and a battered Jaguar had screeched up behind them. What now?

  From that position, he could see three police standing at the far end of the furthest field. They had put up a portable white screen, illuminating the three men who were obviously standing guard. ‘No, he muttered. ‘Not now. Not after all this time.’ He glanced at Turner, decided he was far enough away to make an escape attempt worth it, and leapt over the fence, heading straight for the Topsham Road round the back of the café.

  Turner, caught unawares, yelled, ‘He’s doing a runner!’ and set off after him.

  Dan and PC Evans, coming out of the barn, broke into a run. ‘Evans, get around to the front and out onto the road. See where he’s going.’ Evans charged off, vaulted the gate and ran.

  Dan called Sally, ‘Get me backup on Topsham Road, now. Garrett’s run for it.’ Dan followed Turner, round the back of the café, through a hedge and up onto the shoulder of the motorway support strut. He stopped and stared around him. He couldn’t see either of them.

  Gareth Evans hared around the corner onto the main road. He looked up at Dan and shrugged. Then his mouth dropped open and he pointed to a spot behind Dan’s head. ‘Above you, sir!’

  Dan stepped out from under the shelter of the strut. Above his head, Garrett was pushing through shrubs, scrambling up the almost sheer sides of the motorway banking, closely followed by PC Turner. Dan watched as Turner grabbed hold of Garrett’s ankle, and received a kick in the face. The young PC fell back a few feet, scrabbling for hold on the slick new grass.

  ‘Evans,’ yelled Dan. ‘Get up there after him.’ He edged round until he had clear view of Garrett’s plan. He was trying to get onto the motorway. It was good plan; he could drop back off again wherever he wanted. He called Sally again. ‘Get a couple of cars on the motorway, asap, just in case he makes it up there.’ Then he let go of the strut and forced his way straight up through the shrubs, intending to cut Garrett off if he reached the motorway.

  He could see Garrett and Turner on the concrete maintenance ledge that ran across the roadway below the bridge. Turner had Garrett’s shirt in his hand and was attempting to slow his ascent. Dan wanted to tell Turner to let Garrett go, it was higher than the lad realised, and not worth risking his life if he fell. Instead, he pushed up faster, slipping and sliding, cursing his foot, which was swelling in his boot, until he could grab hold of the concrete ledge and pull himself up onto it, breathing heavily. The noise was deafening here, as much the physical rumble of cars over tarmac as the sound of engines. He felt it in his bones as he edged his way along the ledge.

  Evans, showing initiative, had run across Topsham Road and climbed up the opposite metal strut, rather than battle shrubs and follow Dan. He was only metres from where Turner was shouting at Garrett that he was under arrest. Both officers closed in on Garrett.

  Dan trotted along the ledge, holding onto the supporting struts wherever he could. Below him the strobing lights of an area car pulled onto the pavement and more officers emerged. He couldn’t hear any cars arriving above his head, but that wasn’t a surprise, he couldn’t hear much at all. He trusted that they were there.

  Garrett stared quickly around him, tore his shirt from Turner’s fist and began the climb up the concrete sections onto the motorway. Turner looked at Dan. There was no way Dan could order the lad up onto the motorway, so he began the climb himself. He ripped off the latex gloves he’d been wearing and found a handhold in the rough finish of the concrete blocks. It hurt his fingers.

  Garrett’s feet disappeared over the barrier and Dan, leaning backwards, caught a glimpse as Garrett ran left, towards the estuary. He hauled himself up and over the barrier, battered by the speed and rattle of lorries so close on the inside lane. Behind him he heard Evans and Turner flinging themselves over the barrier and onto the hard shoulder.

  He didn’t wait, but set off as fast as he could go, ignoring the pain in his foot and half-walking, half-running, chased Garrett along the hard shoulder. Garrett was in front of him, but not fit, and Dan gained on him. Through his head as he ran flashed the fact that Garrett outweighed him by about fifty pounds. Could he take him down on his own?

  He needn’t have worried, Evans flashed past Dan with a turn of speed that would give him a medal in a championship and rugby-tackled the big man down onto the hard shoulder. Dan threw himself onto Garrett and held onto his heaving, bucking shoulders. Evans held onto his legs so that Turner, running up last, could get the cuffs on him.

  Then they sat and waited for a few minutes, until they got their breath back, ignoring the beeping of horns and yells of motorists as the rush hour heated up and the air shimmered. ‘PC Evans,’ shouted Dan, ‘please caution Mr Garrett.’

  Evans stood up and pulled Garrett into a seated position. ‘What are we charging him with, sir?’

  ‘Evading arrest, reckless endangerment. Oh, and suspicion of murder, PC Evans, suspicion of murder.’

  48

  Merlin Garrett sat on the plastic chair in interview room one. Dan peered at him through the window while he waited for Sally. Garrett was staring at the table top, arms crossed over a substantial gut. Dan found him hard to read, and he didn’t have an interview strategy other than to present the guy with the facts and see what he said. Garrett had declined the duty solicitor. Dan was relieved as it was Paul Fowles again, and he would have had to find another solicitor from somewhere. Three separate solicitors, three separate barristers.
The Garrett family were going to cost the public a fair old sum when he got them into court.

  Sally edged backwards through the door holding papers and photographs. ‘Right, boss, got pics of the new body, the car, the heads and hands, the Boggies and a copy of the mortgage deed.’

  ‘Good work. How are they getting on at The Retreat?’

  ‘It’s mad out there. Fox has the body, reckons the entomologist will be able to date death to within a six-month period. Male, from the clothes he was wearing. From state of the bones and teeth, somewhere between forty and fifty years old at time of death. Oh, and the RSPCA are all over the place and have a team in there for the night, along with a couple of PCs from shift.’

  ‘Neil Pargeter?’

  ‘Happy bunny. He’s taken off the heads and hands to the lab at the hospital. Not much to do there except make sure they belong to the Stewarts.’

  ‘And The Retreat?’

  ‘That’s the worst bit,’ she sighed. ‘The RSPCA will close it down if Merlin is found guilty, and disperse the animals to other sanctuaries in the area. Then I guess the place will be part of the estate of the Stewarts’ family in New Zealand. They’ll probably sell it. It’s such a shame. For all their murderous ways, the Garretts did love those animals.’

  ‘I know. Pity they never showed the same respect for humans, isn’t it?’ He chewed the side of his thumb nail and flashed her a glance. ‘Sally, I need a favour.’

  ‘Sure,’ she said, ‘name it. Then I will have power over you forever.’

  He lowered his voice. ‘Can you track where Rufus the cat will be taken, please? I still want to get him for Claire. She’s heartbroken that he’s being taken away.’

  Sally laughed. ‘Leave it with me. I’ll find him for you. Can’t let police work get in the way of true love, can we?’

  ‘Thanks, appreciate it,’ he said. ‘I suppose that means I can’t prank you like you did with me over the car?’

  ‘Too right,’ she said. ‘You owe me.’

  ‘Right, got it, I am in your debt forever. Let’s go and shake the tree.’

  * * *

  Merlin looked up as they entered, his hairy face white under the outdoor tan. Sally went through the introductions for the video.

  ‘Do you need a drink, Mr Garrett?’ she asked, ‘and do you feel fit enough to answer our questions tonight?’

  ‘And if I say no, I’m not fit, that your rugby-playing idiot dropped me so hard I’ve skinned my hands and hurt my knee, you’d let me go home?’

  ‘No, but nice try. We easily have enough to hold you here for several days. We were following protocol, is all. Our difficulty is to decide what to charge you with first.’

  Sally put the pictures of the Bog Bodies on the table. ‘You must have been watching the news,’ she said. ‘Recognise these two?’

  Garrett stared, fascinated, at the yellowed bones of the skeletons. ‘No heads and hands,’ he said. ‘Are these the Bog Bodies?’

  ‘They are, indeed.’ She picked another couple of photos and laid them out in front of him. The photos were the ones she had taken when the remains were resting in the box in the pit in the barn. ‘What about these?’ she asked.

  He picked up the first photo and held it closer to his face. ‘Where did you find these?’ he asked Dan.

  ‘In the barn, in a shallow pit. Dug by you, perhaps?’

  Garrett threw the photo down. ‘I didn’t do that, it’s sick.’ He wiped his hand across his mouth.

  ‘But you do know who did it, don’t you?’ asked Dan.

  Garrett put his head in his hands and heaved out a sigh. ‘Course I do. That psychopath of a brother of mine. Wait a minute, are you telling me Moss killed those people and buried them on the moor? Really? Why?’

  ‘Come on, Merlin,’ said Dan, ‘You’re not telling me you didn’t know the Stewarts? After all, you used to work for them.’

  Garrett looked up, hands clawing his face into a mask of shock. ‘What?’ he whispered, scanning the photos of the bones as if they would give lie to the statement. ‘What? You’re telling me these are the bones of Brian and Ailish? But… but they went back to New Zealand…’ He shook his head violently, pushed away from the table and stood in the corner of the room.

  Dan stood too, but was pulled back down by Sally. ‘Give him a minute,’ she said.

  Garrett leaned against the wall, arms folded above his head, and choked back tears. Pushing away from the wall, he yelled, ‘Moss, I know you’re in here somewhere. If I get hold of you, you’re fucking dead, this time. You hear me? Dead.’ He banged his fists against the wall, rattling the windows and doors in their old wooden frames.

  Sergeant White, flanked by PC Evans, tapped at the door and opened it. ‘Everything alright, sir?’ White asked.

  Dan nodded. ‘Fine, thanks, Sergeant. Mr Garrett has just discovered an unpleasant truth about his brother.’ He turned back to Garrett as the door closed behind him. ‘Moss is in hospital, Merlin, remember? Why don’t you come and sit down, and we can talk this through?’

  Garrett scrubbed his face with his hands and righted the fallen chair. He sat down on it, rested his hands on his knees and stared at the tabletop, heaving out shuddering breaths. ‘You have to believe me,’ he said, ‘I thought they’d gone back to New Zealand to retire. I was working for them just at the time when Ma and Pa were really getting bad with each other, and the Stewarts took me in, gave me a job I love. Saved me, I guess.’ He wiped his nose with his sleeve, and Sally passed him the toilet roll that she had brought in the previous day. ‘I can’t believe it. He’s a nutter, but why kill them? What had they ever done to him?’

  ‘So how come your mother and brother ended up living and working at The Retreat with you?’ asked Sally.

  ‘I persuaded Ma to buy it off them, so we had somewhere to live, and a job, after the old man lost everything we had. Brian was so pleased it was going to us. He knew I’d look after the animals better than he could. He was a bit of character, was Brian. Not always, you know, what you’d expect…’ He choked back a sigh. ‘Whatever, doesn’t matter now. So we moved in and have been running it ever since.’

  ‘Can you take us through the buying of the place? Where did your mother get the money if your father had left you destitute?’ asked Sally.

  ‘She had some hidden from Dad, she said. I didn’t question it. I was working the place, trying to teach Moss what to do, too. Useless tosser. I was busy.’

  ‘Can you remember when they actually left? Did they have luggage, etc?’

  He screwed up his eyes and looked over Dan’s shoulder. ‘I think, it was a long time ago, but I think Moss and Ma took them to the solicitors, then drove them to the airport in London.’ He nodded, ‘Yeah, I looked after the place and they went up for the day, to see them off.’

  ‘But you didn’t see them go?’

  ‘No. They never got there, did they?’ His face crinkled into tears again.

  Sally leaned forward. ‘Merlin, we think your mother may have been working with Moss to kill the Stewarts. Look,’ she put the copy of the mortgage deed on the table. ‘As you can see, the names on the deed are the Stewarts. Annie never bought The Retreat. She just moved in and got them out of the way.’

  Garrett stared at the mortgage deed document.

  Dan watched emotions flittering over his big face as he assimilated the information and knew that Merlin had genuinely not known about the murder.

  ‘She fainted,’ he said, ‘Ma. Couple of weeks back when it was all over the news. Her and Moss were watching it, and she fainted.’ Comprehension dawned. ‘Jesus, they were in it together, weren’t they? Her and her little favourite.’ He shook his head, repeatedly, tears flinging from his eyes onto the floor.

  ‘We’ll give you a short break, Merlin, I’ll send in a cup of tea, and we’ll be back in a while, okay?’

  Garrett didn’t respond. He was lost in making sense of what had happened. Disgust and shock threatened to unhinge him totally. They left the room
quietly, and got PC Evans to stand outside the door.

  49

  ‘May need suicide watch on this one, tonight, Sally,’ he said. ‘He really didn’t know what they’d done, did he?’

  ‘No, he didn’t,’ said Sally, peering through the one-way glass. ‘How the bloody hell do you live with that? That your mother and brother are murderers? How did they live with it?’ She shuddered. ‘I’ll get him a drink and inform Whitey that we’ll need twenty-four-hour cover on him. When do we show him the other pictures?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Dan rubbed his chin. ‘He did leg it and nearly get us all killed on the motorway as soon as he saw us in the corner of the far field. And why would you do that if you’re innocent? The question, Sally, is whether he is the good son or not.

  ‘My suspicion is that our new body is Barry Garrett, the father, and I wouldn’t put it past any of them to have done away with him. I looked at his record; ABH, GBH, theft, aggravated burglary, smuggling, possible DV, the list goes on.’

  ‘Domestic violence?’ Sally asked.

  ‘It would fit the profile.’

  ‘I feel awful now. I totally discounted it when Annie said that was why she’d thrown him out. She’s such a big woman, I thought it might be the other way round.’

  ‘Too right. You wouldn’t mess with her unless you always had, and you’d always got away with it. No DV reported so far, but we could check the hospitals for admissions. But Annie’s tough, maybe she just took it until she couldn’t stand it any more.’

  ‘Yeah, and until Moss was big enough to help her sort Barry out.’

  ‘Reasonable scenario, but it still doesn’t explain why Merlin ran,’ Dan said.

  Sally tucked her photos and papers under one arm and put her hand on the outer door. ‘Unless Merlin killed Barry, and stuck him in a part of The Retreat nobody visited except him.’

  He thought about it and nodded. ‘Also makes sense. Okay, go get him a drink, and one for us, I’m parched. I’ll get someone to check the hospital admissions, just to see what records they have on the family. Be back here in a few minutes.’