Down Down Down

by L M Krier

  ‘Unfortunately for you, though, Mr Warren, both geography teachers from your school had perfect alibis, as you know. One was in hospital in traction after a rugby accident. The other had had to replace him at the last minute on a field trip up in Scotland. Otherwise he might well have been at home, and possibly without an alibi.

  ‘Having ruled both of them out, did you or your defence team have any other theory on the meaning behind the circle and the four points?’

  ‘I’m not sure where you’re going with this, Chief Inspector. As I’ve already said, we were in the invidious position of having to prove my innocence, not simply to disprove my guilt. I know about the song of that name, of course. I wonder if you know, perhaps, that the phrase “ring of fire” in that context is allegedly a euphemism for the female genitalia. That theory didn’t advance us in our defence any more than any other.

  ‘May I now ask you a question, Chief Inspector?’

  When Ted didn’t immediately react, Warren ploughed on.

  ‘What exactly is the purpose of your visit here today? Are you, in fact, reopening the case and re-examining the evidence on which I was wrongfully convicted?’

  ‘I’m afraid that’s not in my remit, Mr Warren. I’m merely making enquiries into some apparent similarities between various cases. That’s all.’

  Something in Warren’s expression changed. As suddenly and perceptibly as a switch being thrown. The grey eyes became colder, harder. His jaw clenched. His anger was palpable.

  He leaned forward. Put his elbows on the table which separated him from Ted who braced himself, alert to any sign of danger.

  Then Warren lowered his head into his hands. His voice was quiet, muffled.

  ‘I wonder if you’d be kind enough to call the officer, please. I have the most appalling migraine. They can be triggered by strong scents. I’m afraid your aftershave is overpowering. I need medication, and a lie down.’

  ‘Honestly, Ted, don’t worry about it. As I said, I can’t discuss confidential medical matters with you but I did say it might possibly be an issue. Strong fragrance can trigger migraines. And the trouble with them is it’s one of those conditions where it’s not possible to say categorically whether an attack is genuine or not. I’m a sufferer myself. I can’t tell you how many lessons I bunked off at school by using it as an excuse. Ironically, given Warren’s profession, mostly science lessons, which I didn’t enjoy.’

  The liaison officer, Katie Pilling, was walking with Ted to another private visiting room where he would be meeting his childhood friend, Martin Wellman, who was doing time.

  ‘I know you can’t breach confidences either, but was your meeting with Warren of any use to you?’

  ‘He’s an interesting character,’ Ted replied evasively. ‘As you said, total denial of any involvement in the fatal arson. And to an extent, I agree with him. Conviction by default, in a sense. The prosecution wasn’t very strong but his lack of an alibi, plus some of the circumstantial evidence, was clearly what swayed the verdict against him.’

  They’d reached a room with another officer waiting outside.

  ‘Same thing again here, Ted. Just tell the officer when you’ve finished talking to Wellman and someone will escort you off the premises. I hope this interview is more fruitful for you.’

  Martin looked up with a smile of evident pleasure when Ted walked into the room. He was in a minority of actually being quite happy to be inside. After his time living rough on the street, it probably felt like a decent hotel, with plenty to eat, regular showers and clean clothes.

  ‘Hello, Ted. This is a nice surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see you. They didn’t tell me who my mystery visitor was. You’re looking good. Love the aftershave.’

  Ted grinned at him. ‘Sorry about that. Covering up for a death I had to deal with. I hope the fumes don’t knock you out.

  ‘I’m here to ask a favour from you, Martin. Feel free to say no, of course, if you like. Do you happen to know a prisoner called William Warren? He’s doing life for a fatal arson.’

  ‘Johnny Cash? Everybody knows Johnny.’

  ‘Why do you call him that?’

  ‘He does cleaning duties. A Red Band. Model prisoner. Never puts a foot out of line. But he’s got this habit of humming under his breath when he’s doing the mopping. That Cash song, Ring of Fire. Not loud, or anything. Almost like he doesn’t realise he’s doing it. That’s what got him the nickname, although most people don’t call him that to his face. He commands a bit of respect.’

  ‘I’ve just been talking to him. An interesting man, but he doesn’t give much away. I need to try to find a way to get a bit closer to him. To find out more about him.’

  ‘And that’s where I come in? I know of him, of course, everyone does. But our paths seldom cross, unless he happens to be cleaning an area I’m being moved through. I don’t see how I can help, really.’

  ‘You know about the Listener scheme? Like Samaritans. Warren is a Listener.’

  ‘But you know me, Ted. I like being in here. It’s better than the alternative. I don’t need any counselling or anything. I only get anxious when it’s coming up to release time and I know I’m quickly going to finish up back on the streets again. It’s only ever a matter of time.’

  ‘Precisely. And it won’t be long before you are coming up for release. So it would seem quite natural if you were starting to get anxious and were in need of someone to talk to. I just want to get a feeling for what he’s like. Could you do it for me?’

  ‘Helping out an old friend? Of course I could. The thing is, there’s something I’d want in return. Something I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like.’

  Chapter Nineteen

  Eric Morgan gave Amelie a nudge to present their findings at the end of the day. To allow her a chance to redeem herself by showing what she was capable of. She was wearing her glasses now. Tortoiseshell frames which gave her a studious look and probably cost a fortune, judging by the brand name on the side.

  She stood up hesitantly and began to speak, her eyes on Ted.

  ‘Sir, Sergeant Morgan and I have spent our time today trying to track down Lucy Robson, as she had seemed to have a possible motive for killing Mr Byrne. If he really had been indecently assaulting her, as the photo tends to suggest.’

  Ted picked up immediately on the use of the past tense in relation to the motive theory and wondered at its significance.

  ‘We haven’t succeeded in finding her at all. Nor any clue as to where she might be now, or what name she might be using. But we did find a girl, Jennifer Bradley, who shared a room with Lucy at the children’s home. What she said gave a bit of a different story to what we were expecting.

  ‘She told us that when Lucy first arrived at the home she spent most of her time in tears, asking for Bernie. When Jennifer finally got her to talk, Lucy told her that Bernie was her next-door neighbour. The person who’d always looked after her and been kind to her when her mother was completely out of it on drugs and incapable of looking after herself, never mind her daughter. An older man, who used to make sure Lucy had food and spending money and whatever else she needed that she didn’t get from her mother. Especially affection. He bought her nice things to wear and took her to get her hair done. That kind of thing. Like an uncle might do.

  ‘But according to Jennifer, Lucy said the two of them were in love. That as soon as she was old enough, Bernie was going to come and find her and they were going to go off together and get married and start a family. They’d already had a pretend wedding.

  ‘Because Bernie was a Catholic, he’d started taking her to church with him. Getting her prepared for first communion and confirmation. All that sort of thing. He got her a first communion dress, with a veil and everything. Picked it out and bought it for her himself. And you know those dresses look a lot like wedding dresses sometimes. They had a little ceremony the evening after her first communion, when she was still wearing her dress. Lucy said it was like a trial run for when she
was old enough to marry him properly.’

  ‘That is about the sickest thing I’ve ever heard.’ Jezza’s voice was full of disgust. ‘What kind of a pervert was this bloke Bernie? Getting a young girl of – what was she then, twelve or so? – to think she was in love with him. Are you going to tell us they had a wedding night, too?’

  Amelie shook her head. ‘Lucy told Jennifer that they did often sleep together in the same bed, but that Bernie was always the perfect gentleman and there was no sex between them. He told her he would wait until she was old enough and it would be all the more special for both of them because they’d waited.

  ‘Jennifer said that Lucy really did talk about him as if she was in love with him. Or sincerely believed that she was. Not afraid of him in any way. Infatuated, she said. And here’s the really weird thing. Lucy told her that for their pretend wedding, and for her first communion earlier the same day, Bernie got her some nail varnish and spent a long time painting her toenails with it, very carefully, so they were perfect. None on her fingers, he told her, because that would attract too much attention and people might take it the wrong way. Just on her toes so they’d be hidden by her shoes and only the two of them would know. And yes, it was a bright red varnish, although Jennifer couldn’t remember whether or not Lucy ever told her the name of the colour.

  ‘While we’re on the subject of nail varnish,’ she went red in the face as she carried on speaking, although her voice didn’t waver, ‘can I just say it’s entirely my fault that the bottle in with Byrne’s possessions was overlooked. Nothing to do with Virgil at all. I was stupidly not wearing my specs because I hate them, so I missed it, completely. Sorry.’

  She sat down hastily, now going bright red from the neck up.

  Virgil threw her a broad grin of approval. Ted smiled at her in recognition. It couldn’t have been easy for her to make the admission in front of the whole team.

  ‘So if she really did think she was in love with him, where does that leave her motive to kill him?’ Martha asked.

  ‘Jilted lover?’ Mike suggested. ‘He never came back for her after promising he would. She felt abandoned by the man she thought she was in love with, so she went after him to get revenge.’

  ‘That’s a bit bloody drastic,’ Jezza snorted. ‘He may have broken her heart but did that warrant cutting off his todger? Not to mention chopping his fingers off while he was still alive.’

  ‘Clearly we need to find Lucy Robson as a matter of some urgency. To eliminate her from our enquiries, if nothing else. Any ideas on how, anyone?’ Ted asked them, giving Jezza one of his looks about her last remark.

  ‘Guv, I thought Amelie and me could tackle that tomorrow. We need to go back and talk to the parish priest, now we know about the first communion. I find the clergy in general not all that forthcoming unless you know exactly the right questions to ask them. Someone may well have noticed Byrne being rather too close to the girl. Maybe tongues started to wag.

  ‘If she’d really wanted to find him, the first thing she’d have done when she left the home would probably have been to go back to her old address and start asking questions. But before that, why wasn’t she trying to make contact? Writing to him? Letting him know where she was and asking him to get in touch?’

  ‘Do the dates tally? Had Byrne left there by the time she left the home?’ Jo asked. ‘And I agree with Eric. We need to find out if she made any attempt to contact him in the intervening time.’

  ‘He left very soon after she was taken into care, and Amelie and me need to find out why. If it really was this big love affair, I can’t believe he would just have gone away without trying a bit harder to find her. Something must have happened to convince him it was time to move on. Perhaps things were said after the mother died and that’s why he decided to move away, sharpish. I suppose the mother’s death was definitely a self-inflicted overdose, was it? If we knock on the right doors and ask the right questions, we might just find out what it was all about.’

  ‘In the absence of any other suspect to date for Mr Byrne’s death, we definitely need to find Lucy Robson,’ Ted agreed. ‘Even if it’s just to eliminate her from our enquiries. And that’s a good point about the mother. We’ll check up on the circumstances of her death. Anything else on the Byrne case?’

  ‘Boss, is it worth starting to ask to take samples from chainsaws and loppers from the various tree surgeons and the like we’ve identified?’ Virgil began then, seeing Eric Morgan open his mouth, he hurried on, ‘and yes, sarge, I know, anyone could have a chainsaw in their garden shed but we need to start somewhere. Otherwise we’re just treading water on this one, it seems to me.’

  ‘You’ve spoken to all of them now?’ Jo asked him.

  ‘All of them except this Tam Lee, the small outfit who had their kit stolen. I can’t get hold of them at the moment. I’ve left a couple of short messages. Nothing too specific, just asking them to get in touch, but I’ve not yet had an answer.’

  ‘Either run off their feet with work, or they’ve gone out of business,’ Jo suggested.

  Virgil shook his head. ‘If they have gone under, it’s very recent. There’s no mention of it on the Companies House website.’

  ‘Boss? What do you think?’ Jo asked him. ‘Time to take samples? I don’t know much about chainsaws myself. Eric, would you routinely clean yours thoroughly after cutting up your latest victim?’

  ‘Funny man,’ Eric growled. ‘I do clean and oil mine after every use, but I’m meticulous like that. Forensics could certainly still find traces of human bone and goodness knows what else though, even on one which had been cleaned, no doubt. But that’s going to be one hell of a big job, isn’t it, guv? You’re in charge of the purse strings, but will the budget really stand a big operation like that based on what’s pretty much just a hunch?’

  ‘I’m talking to the bosses tomorrow, so I’ll see what they say. It’s something to keep in mind, but I’d much prefer us to find Lucy Robson first. If anyone knows Mr Byrne thoroughly, it must be her. And let’s not rule out the possibility that when he lost her, he simply moved on to grooming another young girl.

  ‘What’s the latest on the arsons?’

  ‘No vicars, boss,’ Martha told him. ‘Nor tarts, either. At least not in fancy dress. I checked at the karaoke pub, and at all the other pubs in the vicinity. I also did some door-to-door. I took a Uniform officer with me this time, in case I came face to face with a suspect. It occurred to me that someone might have been having a private party with that as a theme, but if they were, we didn’t find any trace of it by asking around.

  ‘I also got to thinking about that phrase from the witness. About thinking the person was in fancy dress, then not being able to say what gave them that idea. It could have been a parish priest going about his business, of course, going with the dog collar theory. Maybe, with the bag, going out to perform last rites or something. So if it’s all right, I could try to follow that up tomorrow. Check with local Catholic churches, then working out from there.’

  ‘Not just Roman Catholic,’ Jezza corrected her. ‘Church of England does it too.’

  Seeing Martha’s querying look, she went on to explain, ‘Religion isn’t my thing but my kid brother Tommy is a mine of sometimes useful information on anything and everything.’

  ‘Thank you, I’ll bear that in mind, although it will be more legwork, of course. I was also thinking of what type of person might be out and about carrying a bag and looking as if they might be in fancy dress. Apart from sports clubs, as I’ve drawn a blank on that so far. And I imagine most people doing sports change before and after them, rather than walk home through the streets in their gear. So they wouldn’t look as if they were in fancy dress.’

  ‘I certainly do for kickboxing,’ Jezza put in. ‘You wouldn’t catch me even crossing the car park in nothing but a skimpy layer of Lycra. And it’s a bloody good job our Maurice isn’t here or he’d come over all unnecessary at me saying that.’

  ‘I’m t
he same with weight-training,’ Virgil agreed.

  ‘I have, on occasion, had to come straight in to the nick from a martial arts session without changing first,’ Ted told them. ‘But not from choice and always with a top layer on and my belt in my pocket.’

  ‘What about plumbers?’ Amelie suggested. ‘Could they be out on emergency repairs, in their overalls and carrying a bag of tools?’

  Jezza sighed theatrically. ‘Have you ever tried to get an emergency plumber round here? Especially out of hours?’

  ‘No, but don’t some insurance companies provide twenty-four-hour breakdown cover?’

  Jezza gave her a patient older sister smile as she said, ‘You’ve been watching too many adverts on TV. We could look at it, though. Anything’s worth a shot.’

  ‘I have another possible lead for us after talking to Mr Warren. He was not very forthcoming, it has to be said. Steadfastly maintaining his innocence. He did say one thing that might we worth looking at, though. Steve, perhaps one for you to read up on, see if it takes us anywhere. He talked about the other Ring of Fire. Not the song but the volcanic one in the Pacific Ocean. I asked him about the circle with the cardinal points marked, which was used to start the fires. He said it was more like the signature of a geography teacher. It’s a long shot, but a possible one. The case notes already show it was neither of the geography teachers at the same school. But let’s look into any former teachers from there. Or even supply teachers who taught geography.

  ‘Once I told Mr Warren it was not my role to reopen his case, he lost all interest in me, pleaded a bad migraine, which may or may not have been genuine, and got taken back to his cell. But the liaison officer gave me details of all the visitors he’s had, which is not many. He does get one every three or four weeks from a young man who shared a cell with him for a time. Duncan Dooley. Specialist subject, burglary.