Dead in the Water

by Wilfred Jules

  She pulled out her phone and called DC John Ryan. She told him to expect a call from Ronnie Henderson to join him to watch the enhanced CCTV Monday morning. Then she asked him to request Moira Kelly for a list of all boats that had come in and left again in the week leading up to 11 May and all boats that had left after 11 May, with crew list or at least a contact number, both foreign and British boats. There should not be that many at this time of the year John thought. Then he told her that uniform had brought in Brandon and Rowena Nicholson and they had put them in separate interview rooms. Their solicitor was on the way. She instructed him to inform Vik and her when the solicitor had arrived because she wanted him to follow the interview with her in the viewing room while Vik and Ajanta talked to them.

  When she had hung up on John, her phone immediately rang again. Ben called to say he had arrived with Josephine and Helen Devos. She instructed him to put them in separate rooms as well and wait for her. Get them some coffee or tea. Act as if they are not suspected of anything. She wanted to wait until after the interview with the Nicholsons.

  She went back to the conference room and googled the contact details for ‘The Royal Escape’ race. The organizer, the Sussex Yacht Club, based in Shoreham to her surprise and not in Brighton Marina, had a secretary’s office that was open Monday to Friday. But next to the contact details there was a picture with the volunteers for the race. She checked the names in the police computer and started calling their number. The first one did not pick up, but the second one, Keith Marsh, did pick up. She explained who she was and if he was able to tell her if Bert Devos had been enrolled for the next edition of The Royal Escape which she saw was going to happen at the end of the month. He had to go to his computer and pull up the list first. She was not surprised to hear that Polaris did not feature among the list of participating yachts.

  She sat deep in thought for a while. What had Bert Devos been playing at that had eventually cost him his life?

  *

  At eleven thirty-four John came in to say that Alistair Holloway had arrived and was with Rowena Nicholson. She went to the monitoring room to witness the interview where she was joined by John Ryan. The interview room was a bleak windowless room with a simple table and four chairs. Rowena Nicholson and Alistair Holloway sat side by side. They were whispering to each other. DI Vik Gorti and DS Ajanta Ghani came into the room and Ajanta started the recording. Everyone in the room introduced themselves first for the tape.

  “Can I ask why you are subjecting my client to this interview, inspector?” the solicitor asked.

  “It will become clear in a moment, Mr Holloway,” Vik replied in his customary smug way. “However, first I will ask DS Ghani to officially caution your client.”

  Alistair Holloway was obviously baffled and kept his silence while Ajanta read his client the official caution, after which, Vik said:

  “Mrs Nicholson, in your earlier statement you confirmed that your son Brandon was at home the night of Monday 11 to Tuesday 12 May, which is last Monday night. You checked in on him at one AM you stated. Do you wish to stand by that assertion?”

  Rowena Nicholson replied without hesitation that she did.

  “Mrs Nicholson, we have reason to believe that you lied to us and that indeed you persist in that lie right now.”

  “Hold it right there, inspector,” the solicitor invervened. “That is a rather bold statement that I hope you can substantiate with fact!”

  “Details received from Mrs Nicholson’s service provider O2,” Ajanta responded, “show Mrs Nicholson’s mobile phone was in London that night and it arrived in Brighton not before two-thirty am.”

  “Unless your client can explain that, Mr Holloway, there is no way she could have seen her son lie in his bed at home at one am,” DI Vik Gorti continued.

  Alistair Holloway asked for a moment alone with his client immediately. The detectives conceded that, switched off the recording and the mikes in the room and left. DCI Ianthe Seymour met them at the vending machine outside. After five minutes they went back inside, and Ianthe went back to the monitor. As soon as they had started the recording again, the solicitor said that Mrs Nicholson wanted to make an additional statement. She spoke:

  “Monday night 11 May I was in London with friends. We had dinner and drinks and then we returned to Brighton. I had a little too much to drink. I thought I had arrived back home at one AM, but it may have been later. I am not so sure of that now any longer.”

  She continued to hold her head high and look the detectives right in the eye, making her contempt obvious for all to see. Vik nodded slowly.

  “Mrs Nicholson,” he said, “This is a murder inquiry. You have given false testimony supplying a false alibi to a suspect. I am charging you with obstruction of the police with the intent to pervert the course of justice. The sergeant here will take you to the custody centre where you will wait until you can appear before the magistrates court.”

  Hearing those words, all of a sudden Mrs Nicholson looked much more subdued.

  “Come on, Detective Inspector! There is no need for that! We have a mother here who made an honest mistake to protect her child!”

  “There is nothing honest about it, Mr Holloway. A man was murdered last Monday night and Mrs Nicholson’s son is a suspect in that inquiry. Your client has given that suspect an alibi, knowing very well it was false. I have the distinct impression the Nicholson family is not taking this seriously. How would they feel if it were Mr Nicholson who had been murdered?”

  Vik lifted his hands against the ensuing protests.

  “However, I am willing to intercede with my boss, DCI Ianthe Seymour, to see if she may be willing to release Mrs Nicholson on police bail immediately without need for custody. But only if you can promise full cooperation from now on!”

  “Absolutely,” Alistair Holloway said, while he cast an angry look at his client, daring her to contradict. “The Nicholson family will do all it can to assist the police in their further inquiries.”

  *

  “Nice one, Vik,” Ianthe grinned when they met outside again. “I liked the ‘intercede with my boss’ one. As if, right?”

  “I just loved to wipe off that arrogant look on her face. These people think they are above the law.”

  “I agree. Let’s hope she learned her lesson. Let me consider if I might be willing to release her on police bail ….. hmm … since you insist, I guess,” she laughed. “Why don’t you go announce the good news and then switch to Brandon while you let her wait in the interview room with a PC to guard her? I’m assuming Mr Holloway will want to be present at that interview as well.”

  *

  DCI Ianthe Seymour and DS Ben Armstrong entered the interview room where Josephine Devos had been waiting for them for over an hour. She was obviously in a state. Ianthe and Ben sat down next to each other.

  “Would you mind if I record this session, Josephine?” Ianthe asked. “Just for the record.”

  Josephine Devos hesitated visibly then nodded her okay. Everyone introduced themselves for the benefit of the recording.

  “Sorry we had to keep you waiting for so long, Josephine,” Ianthe said. “We had to double check some things first.”

  “Why did you bring me here in the first place, chief inspector? And why did Helen have to come and where is she? The sergeant here told me she would be questioned separately.”

  “All in good time, Josephine. You know Helen was caught with coke and we needed to ask her additional questions with regards to the person she purchased the drugs from. At any rate, I think you will agree with me after this interview that it was better she was not present.”

  “And why would that be? I have no secrets from Helen.”

  “Why did you not tell us that you were having an affair with Ricky Rowlands, Josephine?” Ben launched their missile.

  Josephine Devos was clearly taken aback. She hesitated, then said: “Because you never asked me, I guess.”

  “You didn’t think the fact yo
u were having an affair could be important for the inquiry into your husband’s murder?” Ben asked incredulously.

  “No, really not! It was over weeks before this happened! I mean, Ricky did call me a few times but even that stopped before Bert was killed!”

  She was silent for a moment, then spoke again, clearly distressed.

  “Look. I did have an affair with Ricky for like two years. I had already been thinking of stopping. I had decided I didn’t want to risk my marriage over it. I was going to talk to Bert and admit everything and then see if we could make a new start. Then two or three weeks before this happened Helen started to ask me some strange questions about where I had been going on certain dates, which coincided with my meetings with Ricky. And she asked for my calendar for the month to come. I didn’t want her to find out, so I told Ricky over dinner in London that it was over. As I said, he called me after that a couple of times, but he finally stopped doing that, too. OMG, you’re not suspecting me, are you? Do I need a lawyer?”

  “Only if you think you need one,” Ianthe replied. “You’re certainly entitled to one. We can wait for one if you like. But then of course I will need to caution you.”

  Josephine Devos hesitated again, then shook her head.

  “Josephine, you can stop this interview at any moment and ask for a lawyer to be present,” Ianthe said. “Right now, in all honesty, I don’t think you are guilty of anything.”

  Ben added: “But then I don’t understand why you thought that having an affair with Ricky Rowlands of all people would remain without consequence. You must have known we would consider it to be highly suspicious in these circumstances!”

  “But what do you mean by that, sergeant? Ricky is a gentleman. I don’t believe he’d hurt anyone. We just had a very enjoyable time together. Bert had become a little boring the past couple of years, only interested in his bloody boat. Ricky shared a lot of my interests like art. He took me to musicals! He wanted to take me on a holiday to the Maledives! He’s very well off actually, as you may know.”

  “What kind of business do you believe Ricky Rowlands is in, Josephine?” Ianthe asked.

  “We never talked about his business really, but I know he was into import/export.”

  “Ricky Rowlands is the kingpin of the Sussex narcotics trade, Josephine,” Ianthe offered kindly.

  Silence.

  “No. No. No! You must have that wrong, chief inspector! He’s into import and export. Mainly importing pre-columbian art from Latin America for auction houses and art galleries all over the UK and the Continent! He has quite a collection himself you know!”

  “That’s his legal cover,” Ben replied. “Ricky Rowland’s real business is drugs.”

  They looked at each other.

  “I’m afraid that’s true, Josephine,” Ianthe added softly.

  Josephine Devos stared at her and started to cry.

  *

  Ianthe Seymour decided to have the interview with Helen Devos immediately following the one with Josephine. They had left her in the interview room with tea and asked her to wait. That meant she would miss monitoring the conversation Ajanta and Vik were going to have with Brandon Nicholson, but she expected nothing to come out of that anyway. Ben Armstrong and she walked into Interview Room 3 where Helen Devos sat waiting for them.

  They had barely sat down when Helen Devos startled them by asking:

  “Is this about my mother’s affair?”

  Ianthe looked at her in surprise.

  “What do you know about that, Helen?”

  She shrugged.

  “A couple of months ago, just after New Year, I was out with friends one Friday night. We were walking along King’s Road when my friend needed to have a leak badly. We went into the Grand and while she went to the bathroom, I had a quick look in the Terrace Bar as I had never been in there. I saw my mum there deep in conversation with a man who was definitely not my dad. She was supposed to have gone to Eastbourne for a meeting of the charity she’s involved in, so I was surprised to see her there. I didn’t think anything of it first and just wanted to go over and ask her why she had changed plans, she leaned over the table and kissed the man full on the mouth. I left immediately.”

  “Did you talk to her about it?”

  “Nope. Never mentioned it.”

  “Where was your dad at the time?”

  “He was supposed to be away on one of his business trips. He was thought to be back only Saturday evening.”

  “Why did you think it was an affair?” Ben asked. “It could just have been an old friend she hadn’t seen in a long time. Maybe an old flame even?”

  Helen rolled her eyes at that.

  “Look, I may be only seventeen, but I am not that naïve, right? Anyways, once I started to pay attention, it became obvious soon enough. Going to galleries or musicals in London with ‘friends’, staying over the night. One time I saw her being picked up at the corner of our street by a big Bentley. None of our friends have a Bentley, so the guy must be loaded.”

  “Did you ever find out who it was?”

  “Nope. Honestly, I didn’t want to know either.”

  “And you never mentioned anything to your dad either.”

  “No.”

  She waited a bit.

  “Look. I wondered if I should confront her with it, or if I should tell my dad. But it’s their life and their marriage. And who knows what might have happened if I made it a thing. So, I decided to shut up about it. The knowledge already depressed me enough. It destroyed the image I had of a perfect marriage. Pretty naïve, huh?”

  “I don’t think that’s naïve,” Ianthe replied. “All children want their parents to be happy together and stay together forever. And you never mentioned it to anyone?”

  “I was still with Brandon when I found out, so I did mention it to him. But he didn’t care. He’s quite certain his parents each have someone else as well. By the way, that’s when I tried out the ‘sweets’ he kept offering me. Gave me a better feeling for a little bit. But I realized it was fake, just like their marriage was. So, I gave it up again.”

  “Do you think Brandon knew who it might have been?”

  She looked pensive for a moment.

  “Not sure. He told me he’d seen her with a Brighton big shot, but he didn’t say who it was. That was just before he dumped me. I have to add I believe she may have stopped seeing him before all this happened.”

  “What makes you say that,” Ben asked.

  “About a month ago the so-called charity meetings, the outings in London with friends etc all stopped suddenly. She was at home most of the time, even when my dad was away.”

  “Thanks for that, Helen,” Ianthe said. “That was immensely helpful. Your mother is in the other interview room. You can both go now. I think you need to do some serious talking. You can ask reception for a taxi to go home.”

  They got up. At the door Helen hesitated, turned around and asked:

  “Do you think my mother may have anything to do with my dad’s murder?”

  Ianthe looked at her and replied:

  “While everyone is a suspect until we find out what really happened, I don’t think your mother has anything to do with it, really.”

  The relief was obvious on Helen Devos’s face.

  *

  After the meeting with Helen Devos, Ianthe Seymour and Ben Armstrong went to the Conference room. Minutes later they were joined by DS Ajanta Ghani and DI Vik Gorti. They did not look happy.

  “No luck?” Ianthe asked.

  “We confronted Brandon with the location data of his phone, but he just said they must be wrong. He sticks to his statement that he was at home the whole night,” Vik replied.

  Ajanta added:

  “His solicitor asked for a time-out, which we gave them, but even after that he didn’t change his statement and even refused to comment. To be fair, I had the impression Alistair Holloway was just as frustrated as we were with his behaviour.”

  “That mea
ns that whatever he must have been doing is actually worse than what he has been charged with. It is possible of course that he was aware that we would be able to track the whereabouts of his phone. He may have gone to downtown Brighton, left it there hidden somewhere, then went to the Marina to kill Bert Devos, returned to pick up his phone and go home.”

  “It does sound a little far-fetched, doesn’t it, guv?” Ben asked.

  “It does,” Ianthe admitted. “Any good barrister will shoot this full of holes in front of a judge. He might have lost it in Brighton, and someone might have brought it back to his place for instance. It does nothing to take away suspicion from him, but it doesn’t help us either. We need a lot more hard evidence.”

  “What do we do now?” Ajanta asked. “He is still waiting for us in the Interview Room.”

  Ianthe thought for a moment.

  “I think we should additionally charge him with obstruction but release him on police bail if he accepts the previous conditions that he has to stay at home at least until he appears before the magistrates, which will probably be late next week. My assumption still is they will refer him to Crown Court but also release him on bail as he doesn’t have any priors. What do you think, Vik?”

  DI Gorti was obviously surprised by the question but nodded.

  “I think you’re right there, Ianthe. I suggest we impose that he stays at home, but we don’t keep uniform in front of his house any longer. Doesn’t make sense to me. He isn’t going anywhere.”

  “All right then. Ben and Ajanta, can you please take care of this? Thanks.”

  After they had left the room, Ianthe remained with Vik. She said:

  “What do you think about the involvement of Ricky Rowlands, Vik? Obviously, you know him quite well. I think he is quickly becoming our prime suspect.”

  “I still find it hard to believe, Ianthe. It’s just not his MO. Fine, he had motive with the affair, but still.”