Persecution

by R. C. Bridgestock

  ‘The last thing that we need is journalists, photographers or any other media asking questions, and second guessing what is happening before it gets underway,’ she told Connie, the press officer.

  DS Mike Blake picked up a black marker pen, and concentrated on the white board, upon which he broke down the police personnel available, and put them into teams each headed by a team leader who would be in charge of each group.

  Charley pointed to the large picture of Cordelia which was attached to the second board, along with her physical description and that of her clothing. The information, in capital letters, had been written in the same black marker pen, but some words were in blue, highlighted and underlined in red. ‘I want to emphasise that our victim’s hair was this vivid pink colour, so if the suspects have been near Cordelia, it is possible there could be strands on their clothing,’ said Charley.

  When Mike took over from the SIO, she had time to consolidate her thoughts, and further theories. To her knowledge, the suspects had nothing to do with the university, which negated her earlier thoughts about the attacks being linked, but coincidences didn’t sit well with detectives.

  ‘Any questions?’ Mike asked, which brought Charley instantly back from her reverie.

  The end of the briefing was met with silence.

  ‘Let’s get this sorted, ladies and gents,’ she said, with feeling, as the meeting broke up.

  Within the hour, the teams were ready at their designated locations, and waiting impatiently for the signal to strike.

  In Maddox’s case, they were taking no chances; a door ram was used, and officers were in the house very quickly. As DC Bill Whitehill had predicted, quite correctly, Maddox kicked off violently, as expected on this occasion. Like a bullock that didn’t want branding, he was seconds away from being tasered for the second time in his criminal career, when he was eventually subdued and handcuffed by Bill.

  What was unexpected was that his girlfriend was present, and until Maddox was removed from the premises to the awaiting transport, she screamed, and she screamed loudly. However, with Maddox out of the way, Tricia Carmichael calmed down very quickly, and was allowed to dress before being handcuffed, and led out of the premises to another vehicle for transportation to the cells.

  The search of the house began, without interruption.

  Beth Green was arrested from her place of work, a nail bar in the town centre. She seemed to go into shock when being told that she was being arrested for murder, and was led away in handcuffs. Her boss, far from impressed with the unwanted attention to her business, sacked her on the spot.

  Beth was taken directly to the cells, and officers went to her home address to do the searches.

  Kirsty Webb was located and arrested at home, where she was sitting eating breakfast with her mother. Officers told her why she was being arrested, but unlike the others, officers searched her room whilst she was present, with the repeated shouting from her mother in the background.

  ‘If you have done what they are saying, then you are no daughter of mine,’ Mrs Webb told her.

  Back at the police station, Charley felt a mild irritability which sleep deprivation often brought. She needed air. Turning, she opened the small window, and relished the waft of cold air for a moment or two, until her attention was drawn to some of the team returning, some with prisoners, others with evidence bags. The elation of the early morning calls on the suspects, and subsequent searches, coupled with real progress, felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Although she was well aware that this was not yet over, her team had managed to round up all their suspects, some of whom were presently in the custody suite being booked in, or already languishing in a police cell. Placed intentionally in separate areas where they could not communicate with, or see each other, they awaited their respective legal advisors’ attendance, and the rest of the team continued searching.

  The words, ‘Boss, we’ve had double success and have seized the relevant trainers, and Beth Green’s shoes, that are believed to be the ones that left the marks on Cordelia’s body,’ brought a smile to Charley’s face. Charley’s fears that they would have been disposed of were unfounded, and she couldn’t be more pleased.

  Bill’s eyes were smiling when she looked up at him standing at the office door. ‘Didn’t I tell you Maddox had a thing about his trainers?’ he said, just as Charley’s phone rang. Bill turned to join the others who had returned, pumped up with success, and rowdy with it.

  Eira White at Forensic told Charley that human skin particles had been found on the stone that had been dropped on Cordelia’s head, and from those minute fragments she had managed to extract DNA, which, although there wasn’t a match on the system, could be considered for any future suspects.

  Charley immediately informed Eira of the main suspect’s details, Maddox’s previous convictions for violence, and updated her on his arrest, and the outcome of the searches so far.

  ‘The footwear and clothing seized will be on their way to you before the end of the day,’ said Charley.

  ‘Maddox’s footwear will go for further detailed examination, and I’ll get to work immediately on highlighting the points which make them an exact match with the marks on the body.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Charley with deep gratitude. ‘That means that we can use the information in the interviews.’

  ‘Do you think any of them will roll over and tell you what happened?’ asked Eira.

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ Charley confided, ‘but I have every intention of keeping the team on standby to carry out any urgent enquiries which will assist with building a case against them, whilst we have them detained.’

  ‘I guess the race against the custody clock has started then? Twenty-four hours, is no time at all.’

  ‘Tell me about it, eight hours’ sleep, tea breaks, food breaks, rest breaks, toilet breaks, and time spent with solicitors are all in the prisoners’ favour.’ Charley’s laugh was one of sarcasm.

  * * *

  Two hours later pre-disclosure had taken place with the detainees’ legal representatives, and Charley was having a pre-interview meeting with the officers involved.

  ‘How’d it go,’ said Charley, an hour later, seeing the long, downcast faces of Bill and Mike, their disappointment evident after their first ‘no comment’ interview with Maddox.

  ‘You need to ask?’ Bill said.

  Charley watched the interview with Maddox’s girlfriend on screen in the office. She heard Tricia Carmichael say much the same, but her body language was not that of someone arrested for murder, but rather of a young woman who had taken a fancy to one of her interviewers, Ricky-Lee. ‘That could work to our advantage,’ Charley noted.

  By contrast, Beth Green and Kirsty Webb talked profusely to their interviewing officers. They told them which pubs they had visited, how much they had drunk, which was ‘an excessive amount by anyone’s standards’, according to Helen Weir and Lisa Bayliss. They told them where they had gone afterwards, and how they had eventually got home.

  During the next round of interviews, the four would each be asked about the fact that some of the footwear seized was a positive forensic match to the marks on Cordelia’s body. Charley, like the rest of the team, awaited each of their responses to the damning evidence.

  At the debrief the information was shared.

  ‘Beth Green apologised for not telling the truth in the first interview, and whilst crying throughout this interview, she told us that, in their inebriated state, they had all walked past where Cordelia was lying, said that they thought that Cordelia was off her head on Spice or something similar, and continued by telling us that her pants were round her ankles, and her top had been removed. She said that they had laughed at her before the realisation hit them that she could be dead. Beth expressed regret that they hadn’t got help for the victim, but could offer no explanation other than they were all very drunk as to why not. Apparently, Maddox had walked over Cordelia to see if she moved, and when she di
dn’t he encouraged Beth to do the same. She admitted that it was a stupid thing to have done, but in her defence, she tells us that she was very drunk. She denied murdering anyone, and told us that that was God’s honest truth.’

  ‘When you asked her about the stone that had been dropped on Cordelia’s head, what was her response?’ asked Charley.

  ‘No hesitation. Immediate and total denial,’ said Lisa.

  Helen nodded her head in agreement. ‘She also stated that there was no stone on her head when they saw her, and repeated emphatically to us that they didn’t kill her.’

  ‘Why didn’t they call an ambulance, if she was unconscious? Didn’t they have any concerns that she was half-naked?’

  ‘Beth told us that Cordelia was also on the game. Apparently well-known as a prostitute.’

  Charley raised her eyebrows. ‘Anyone else said this in interview?’

  The SIO’s question resulted in shaking heads, and both mumbling no.

  ‘Do you think that she’s genuine?’

  Helen and Lisa were in agreement. ‘Absolutely.’

  Suddenly Charley felt the first sensation of a stone falling to the pit of her stomach.

  ‘Could this really be the truth?’ Charley asked.

  Kirsty Webb in her first interview corroborated what Beth Green had said, adding that although herself and Tricia Carmichael had been encouraged by the others to walk over the pink-haired lady, they hadn’t.

  Most important to Charley was that both Beth and Kirsty were emphatic about the fact that Cordelia’s head was uncovered.

  Chapter 19

  Morning came at last. Charley had slept fitfully, excited at the prospect of hearing what the ones arrested on suspicion of murder said in their subsequent interviews.

  The dilemma for Charley was, were this group of four the murderers? She could put them at the scene, and it had been established that two of the four had trodden on Cordelia, that much was not denied, but there was no evidence that they had anything to do with the stone being dropped on the victim’s head. It had been established that it was this stone which had killed her.

  Armed with a list of questions, the teams set off to conduct the interviews, each with a spring in their step.

  However, as the day progressed and the separate portions of information were combined, Charley began to fit together the pieces of the jigsaw which slowly but surely began to mirror the day, diluting what progress on the enquiry she thought they had made.

  Tricia Carmichael was less emotional and more pragmatic in her second interview. She told Ricky-Lee and Annie Glover that she was used to seeing people lying in doorways, and off their heads on drink or drugs. She was a woman of the world. However, it hadn’t registered with her that the pink-haired lady could actually be dead. And, she likely wasn’t dead because there was no stone on her head.

  Last but not least Maddox, encouraged by Bill after he had spent a night in the cells, finally broke his silence, and corroborated what the women had said in his statement.

  ‘Did you kill Cordelia Le Beau?’ Mike asked him.

  At the very least both he and Beth Green were guilty of an assault. Being inebriated was not a defence, merely a mitigating factor.

  ‘No,’ he said categorically, with not a hint of body language to suggest to Bill, who had interviewed Maddox many times during his boyhood and as an adult, that he was not telling him the truth.

  The fact that the four hadn’t given Cordelia the help that may have saved her life, didn’t make them killers.

  Charley discussed the criminality of the four detained with Mike, and then with Jacki Stanley at the Crown Prosecution Service.

  ‘The limit for police bail is twenty-eight days,’ said Jacki, to Charley.

  ‘Twenty-one days is sufficient,’ Charley reassured her.

  It was agreed that after interview all four would be given police bail to return to Peel Street Police Station in three weeks’ time. Which meant that they could live at home, and go about their normal duties whilst investigations continued. A failure to comply would mean they risked being arrested and brought before the Magistrates’ Court, which might then decide to remand them in custody.

  During the day, incoming telephone calls into the Incident Room consisted mainly of attempted hoaxes, and mischief makers. Each call prompted an action to be undertaken by an officer, and had to be investigated.

  ‘Up to now they have been perpetrated by members of the public getting their kicks from wasting police time,’ Wilkie informed Charley who had asked him about the information received after the appeals in the press, as she was passing his desk on her way to make coffee.

  In preparation for her debrief, Charley re-read the notes of those interviews that they had managed to conduct.

  ‘I want an update from Forensic with regards to the DNA on the stone,’ she told Mike. ‘Maddox is a big lad and probably has enough muscle to lift the stone by himself,’ she said.

  ‘Ah, but did he? That’s the burning question?’

  ‘We will have to let the evidence speak for itself. If it’s positive we don’t have to wait for him to return on bail to the police station, we can re-arrest with new evidence, and charge him then with murder.’

  While the SIO waited for the results to come in from Forensic, she picked at the cheese salad sandwich which Winnie had collected on the sandwich run, even though she had previously brushed aside the fact that she needed to eat. Her stomach was now in knots. Heavy black stratus clouds had been replaced by high cirrus wisps, and reflected her inner turmoil. Everything hinged on the results of the DNA from fragments of skin found on the stone; damning evidence along with what they already knew, if it was a match for anyone who had been arrested. She had formed an idea of how things would pan out should that be the case, and her excitement and impatience mounted minute by minute.

  The results were in, and in less time than it took for her to look up from her sandwich at her computer screen, and register what she read, Mike was entering her office. He had a piece of paper in his hand.

  ‘The DNA, it’s not a match,’ she said, monotone.

  He looked enquiringly at the SIO. ‘For our four?’

  ‘For anyone on the national database.’

  ‘Which would suggest that the murderer is of previous good character.’

  ‘Yes, either that or he’s never been caught before.’ She rankled at the thought.

  ‘Could it be possible that our four disturbed the murderer that night?’

  Charley opened her drawer. ‘Maybe,’ she said. Finding what she was looking for, she extracted a pen and a notepad and started to write. ‘They’re on bail at the moment so there is no need for a knee-jerk reaction. I want to be sure about the next course of action. The last thing we want to do is charge someone with murder who was not responsible, but on the other side of the coin, neither do I want anyone to escape justice.’ She pushed the notepad to the side, and took the paper that Mike offered to her.

  ‘It’s an update from the hospital,’ he said, by way of an explanation. ‘They’re pleased with Cath Crowther’s progress. It is hoped she will make a full recovery, and they are about to move her out of ICU to a general ward.’

  ‘I’ve no doubt she will make a full physical recovery, but she’s likely to require counselling for some considerable time.’

  ‘Any further finds of interest in the search of the wheelie bins?’

  ‘Yes, apparently they’ve recovered an empty adhesive tube and a gun applicator from the top of one of the bins. Both items, I am told, appear new.’

  Charley pursed her lips and added a note to the list on her notepad. ‘I wonder if they contain the same adhesive from the bin lid in which Cath was found?’

  ‘Our next step is to see if the items were purchased locally, and if so, does the store have CCTV which might assist us in identifying her abductor?’

  Charley’s smile reached her eyes. ‘Good work. Unbeknown to some, just because there have been arrests ma
de, it doesn’t mean that that’s the end of the case,’ she said.

  The SIO looked studious.

  ‘Penny for them?’ Mike said.

  ‘It concerns me that if the adhesive is found to be a match, it shows that he has been planning this. He has purposely sought out the adhesive and an applicator for when he required them, not if. It also tells me that he wasn’t only thinking about abducting Cath Crowther.’

  ‘You think he intended to kill her from the outset?’ asked Mike.

  ‘I do, and not only that, I for one think that he thought he had done so when he disposed of her body. He must be caught and stopped before he can strike again.’

  Chapter 20

  The next day the Incident Room was up and running early, before daylight properly manifested itself. A strong breeze blew across the backyard, as if the weather was eager to help. However, with it came the questions about the enquiry expenditure. The Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Bobbie Stokes asked Charley to stay behind after the morning meeting. He spoke to her in an authoritative paternal tone. The tone always made her hackles rise.

  ‘I am aware that at this stage in the enquiry, developments motivate and inspire the workforce, and in light of new-found information overtime is not an option. But, by the nature of our profession, to which the responsibility of rank is added, this also means that decisions have to be made about a future course of action, which may be impeded by our peers owing to budget restrictions, at both Force and Divisional level,’ he said.

  The Divisional Commander saw Charley’s jaw tighten. She was smiling but it wasn’t a pleasant smile.

  ‘The enquiry is moving at pace,’ she said firmly, and purposefully. Her voice was controlled. Inside, the anger was rising. Her skin tingled as though she was covered in a prickly rash. ‘And, I won’t let finances get in the way of catching a murderer. If there are cost-effective lines of enquiry to be made then you can be assured that I’ll make them, but whatever is necessary, I want it made known to the powers that be that I am, and always will be, fully accountable for everything. My officers were working with due diligence, providing value for money, and if anyone says otherwise…’