A Long Way Down

by Ken McCoy

  The bandaged head nodded as thoughtfully as a bandaged head can nod.

  ‘That’s all very neat and tidy.’

  ‘Oh heck!’ said Fiona. ‘You mean too neat and tidy.’ She knew Sep only too well.

  ‘You know I never trust neat and tidy. What makes you think he was framed?’

  ‘Because Graham Feather was a man of means and he’d no need to steal three grand. He had ten times that in the bank in cash, plus a good house.’

  ‘Ah,’ said the hole in the bandage. ‘Was he a vengeful man by nature?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I assume you got this information from Mrs Santiago.’

  ‘How did you know?’

  ‘Educated guess. Did she not know him well enough to answer that question or did you forget to ask her?’

  ‘Of course I asked her. She wasn’t sure how vengeful he might be after three years in prison.’

  ‘How long had he been working there?’

  ‘About seven years prior to him being locked up.’

  ‘She must have met him quite a few times in that seven years and yet she couldn’t tell you if he seemed a vengeful man.’

  ‘During the seven years she’d known him he’d never been an innocent man locked up for three years.’

  ‘Good point, but he’ll have had three years of vengeful thoughts boiling up inside him as he sat in his cell. The question is, could it turn a good man into a killer?’

  ‘Who knows?’

  ‘Not me, that’s for sure. Maybe it’s a double bluff to point the blame at him.’

  ‘And who’s pointing the blame?’ asked Fiona.

  ‘I don’t know … Mrs Santiago?’

  ‘Sir, I have no idea how that brain of yours works. Maybe you being wrapped up like that has confused it.’

  ‘Or maybe all this darkness and solitude has enabled me to see through the smoke screens these people put up.’

  ‘Why would Mrs Santiago try to frame an innocent man for her husband’s murder?’

  ‘Well, she wouldn’t, would she? Look, Fiona, I think there’s a lot more to this than we know about, a whole lot more. You know, Winnie’s a genius with computers, maybe she also knows a thing or two about share trading. I’d have her working with me on this, so should you. Forget the cuckolded husbands for the time being and try to open up a lead down the share trading route. Have a talk with the two brothers who work for the firm, but don’t rule out this Graham Feather chap.’

  Graham Feather’s ex-wife watched as the two children ran up the drive of their father’s house for their monthly visit. Their ambition was always to get to the door before their father opened it. Jenny felt the usual pang of guilt, wondering if she’d been too hasty in divorcing him while he was in prison. Her new husband didn’t match up to Graham in many ways, certainly not in the children’s eyes and there was always the problem of whether or not he was actually guilty of the crime. He still maintained that he’d been set up by Santiago and if that was true she’d only added to the injustice the world had heaped upon him. Her new husband was handsome and ten years younger than Graham. He was also jobless and bone idle. She was lucky that Graham hadn’t contested ownership of the house, but she wasn’t surprised. He’d done it for the sake of the kids. It was their home. The children reached the door before it opened and banged on it, shouting, ‘Daddy, we’re here.’ But the door didn’t open. They knocked again but the door remained closed. This was most unlike Graham.

  The children, a ten-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl turned to look at their mother. She got out of her car, walked up the drive and tried the door. It was locked. She banged on it herself but to no avail.

  ‘I don’t believe this. It seems your daddy isn’t in.’

  ‘Maybe he’s gone to the shop.’

  Jenny bent down and opened the letter box, looking through into the hall. She let it slam shut and sat down on the step with her head in her hands. With shaking hands she took out her mobile and stabbed 999 into the keypad.

  ‘Emergency, which service, please?’

  ‘Police and ambulance, please.’

  ELEVEN

  Fiona was standing beside Sep’s bed once again. The Treat With Caution had been removed from his name board and replaced with his name and the name of his consultant.

  ‘Are you inside there, Mr Black?’

  ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘Me.’

  ‘Mr Black’s not available at the moment, would you like to leave a message?’

  ‘Yes, tell him to ring me when he’s able. I have news of his attack.’

  Fiona turned to go, with a grin of triumph on her face. The hole in the bandages called after her.

  ‘Come back, you lunatic!’

  ‘Me, a lunatic? With respect, sir, it’s you who’s been in here seventeen times.’

  ‘What news?’

  ‘Graham Feather has committed suicide. All the evidence points to him being behind the murders, plus the attack on you.’

  ‘How did he do it?’

  ‘Hanged himself in his house.’

  There was a silence from under the bandages as Sep considered this news. ‘Was there any sign of forced entry to the house?’

  ‘None. All the windows and doors were locked.’

  ‘Locked? I wonder why? Did he live in a dodgy area? I only lock my door if I’m out or going to bed.’

  ‘What’s suspicious about the doors being locked?’

  ‘Because it tells the police that he hanged himself and that no one else was involved. If any of the doors or windows were left open, there would be a possibility of murder. How old was he?’

  ‘Same as you – forty-eight.’

  ‘A lot of ex-cons don’t like to lock themselves in, did you know that?’

  ‘No, I didn’t. Maybe he locked himself in because he didn’t want to be disturbed. I imagine he didn’t want to be jumping off the landing with a rope around his neck just as someone was coming through the front door.’

  ‘What was the estimated time of death?’

  ‘OK, forget that one. I think it was early hours.’

  ‘Did he have life insurance, because if he did, suicide would invalidate it? An accountant would know that. Have you checked on his life insurance?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I’m guessing the beneficiaries,’ Sep said, ‘would be his children, certainly not his ex-wife. Who was the pathologist?’

  ‘Bloody hell, Sep! What is all this?’

  ‘This is me being an old cynic. One simple suicide solving three murders and one attempted. I think I’d be digging a bit deeper. Did Cock Robin accept it as suicide?’

  ‘Yes, it’s his case. How can I argue with him?’

  ‘Probably you can’t, but I know someone who can. Have you met Feather’s ex-wife?’

  ‘Yes, she seems a decent sort. Her name is Pilkington now. Very shocked at her ex-husband’s death. Not an easy thing to tell the children.’

  ‘Fiona, could you find out about his life insurance and the name of the pathologist.’

  ‘His name’s Dr Missingham.’

  ‘Ah, the copper’s regular man and well-named too. I’m guessing Cock Robin had a word in his ear about it being suicide before he did his post-mortem.’

  ‘Sir, I think you should get out of the habit of calling the DCI Cock Robin and you can’t go round accusing pathologists like that.’

  ‘Fiona, Missingham’s a regular police expert who rarely suffers the inconvenience of being up against a second opinion. Do you think you could get Feather’s ex-wife to come and see me?’

  ‘I wish I’d never bloody well come now.’

  ‘By the way, Cock Robin is a name the DCI gave himself.’

  ‘I’m aware of that, sir.’

  ‘Fiona, just the insurance details and Feather’s ex-wife is all I’m asking you to bring me. If we solve the case, you’ll get all the kudos.’

  ‘Kudos? Is that another word for blame?’

 
Jenny Pilkington was fuming as she drove towards St James’s. Her pillock of a husband had tried to lay the law down with her and had forbidden her to visit Sep Black.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because it’ll be to do with Graham’s death and I don’t want that thieving bastard haunting us after he’s dead.’

  ‘If you must know, I don’t think he did it. I think Charlie Santiago set him up. Why would he embezzle three grand when he had a fortune of his own?’

  ‘I notice he never gave you any of his fortune.’

  ‘He gave me this house, which is more than I ever got off you.’

  The only good thing about the argument was that the kids weren’t there to hear it. They were at school. She had no idea why Sep Black wanted to see her, other than that lesbian cop had told her that Black had his doubts about whether Graham had committed suicide. That was enough to get her there. She was now regretting taking Danny Pilkington’s name and had taken care to leave the kids with their father’s name. This has annoyed Danny.

  Jenny identified Sep from the name at the back of his bed. The fact that he was encased in bandages offered her a further clue, but this was a hospital and plenty of people wore bandages.

  ‘Sep Black?’

  Sep was dozing and the voice only just punctured his subconscious.

  ‘Huh?’

  She placed a hand on his shoulder, just enough to alert him to her presence but not enough to hurt this badly damaged man.

  ‘My name is Jenny Pilkington. You wanted to see me.’

  ‘Jenny … erm … ah, Jenny Feather, as was?’ said Sep, through his mental haze.

  ‘Jenny Feather, as I wish I still was,’ said Jenny, still cross from her confrontation with Danny.

  ‘Ah … er, yes. I asked Fiona to get you to come and see me. Give me a moment, I’m trying to remember why. Being mummified like this tends to affect the brain.’

  ‘I assume it’s to do with my ex-husband’s suicide.’

  Sep’s voice came through the hole, which was surmounted by two eyeholes through which she could just see his eyes. ‘Can you see me all right?’ she asked.

  ‘Just about. You’re very pretty. Am I right?’

  ‘That’s not for me to say.’

  ‘You have brown hair and … brown eyes. Very beautiful brown eyes, if I may say so.’

  ‘Mr Black, if you’re trying to chat me up for some reason, I must tell you that I’m forty years old and I know every chat-up line that was ever invented.’

  ‘Yes, a pretty lady like you would experience many chat-up lines. Have you heard that one before? Damn! I thought I’d just made it up. Sorry, forgive me. It’s very boring inside all this lot and along you come to brighten up my dark world.’

  ‘Why did you want to see me?’

  ‘Erm … that’s a good question. “Why” is always a good question. Ah, I remember now. Do you know if Graham had any life insurance? No, that’s information I wanted Fiona to bring me. Would you know, by any chance?’

  ‘He did but it was invalidated by his suicide.’

  ‘Who was the beneficiary?’

  ‘Our two children. They’d have got a quarter of a million between them. He kept up the payments during his time in prison and even after our divorce.’

  ‘Ah, a man doesn’t divorce his children.’

  ‘That’s right. I understand you were once married.’

  ‘Yes, it was a poor marriage. Tell me, Jenny, how are you fixed financially?’

  ‘Not fixed at all. My present husband is out of work, although Graham left me five thousand in his will, which amazed me.’

  ‘Would you be willing to risk a couple of thousand in an attempt to prove he was murdered?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You see, in this living tomb of mine I have time to think things through with amazing clarity and it strikes me that Graham would have made some attempt to disguise his suicide as an accident, if only for his children’s sake. A car crash perhaps, or a drunken fall under a bus. Both of those would have triggered an insurance payment and would have been far less awkward than hanging himself.’

  ‘I never thought of that. How would spending two thousand help me prove it was murder?’

  ‘By investing in a second opinion. You need to see a solicitor and tell him you’re not happy with the pathologist’s report and you want your own pathologist to take a look at him. But you need to do it quickly before they dispose of the body.’

  ‘Two thousand? Is that how much they charge?’

  ‘That’s what it’ll cost. Possibly on the top side but you don’t want to get caught out.’

  ‘And am I allowed to do that?’

  ‘A quarter-million-pound insurance policy says you are. It might not work but I’d say the second pathologist, if he’s told what to look for, might find evidence that Graham was murdered and his murder made to look like a suicide. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.’

  ‘Are you saying the first pathologist was bent?’

  ‘Not at all, but he might well have been influenced by a conclusion that the police had already arrived at. Some of them are very busy people and overlook tiny but important details. A second pathological report often turns up things missed by the first pathologist.’

  ‘Do you think there’s a good chance? It’d be great for the kids. He left them all he had but that five grand he left me was all he had in readies. He left them his house which has only about twenty grand equity in it and that’s if we get a decent market price. It could be we owe money on it.’

  ‘It could be I’m wrong,’ said Sep, ‘but I think it’s worth a two-grand gamble.’

  ‘Well, the two grand will come from Graham, so maybe I owe it to him to get the truth. But who would want to murder him?’

  ‘Jenny, let’s take this thing one step at a time. See your solicitor and instruct him to set the wheels in motion. If nothing else that’ll keep his body available. I’ll give you the name of a pathologist who won’t miss a thing.’

  ‘I’m guessing it’s a woman.’

  ‘That’s a very good guess, Jenny … and very true. Her name’s Alicia Tempest, she’s very good and very thorough. I know her well, so I’ll prime her with my own suspicions.’

  ‘What if you’re wrong?’

  ‘If I’m wrong she’ll soon let me know.’

  ‘So will I, if it costs me two grand.’

  Jenny walked away, smiling to herself that she’d been charmed by a heap of bandages and even more determined to dump that useless husband of hers; especially if the kids had a quarter of a million coming their way. Knowing him, he’d get his hands on it somehow and that would be the end of it. Thank God she’d resisted his many entreaties to put her house in joint names. Oh, how she wished she’d stood by Graham, who was ten times the man Danny was. If he’d been murdered, it was her duty to help as much as she could to find the killer. It fleetingly crossed her mind that it might be Danny. He’d done six years as a soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan, so killing wasn’t beyond his capability. But why? What would he gain from it? He knew she’d still carried a torch for her ex-husband, a torch that had shone brighter by the day. He must have noticed that. If it turned out that Graham had been murdered she’d mention Danny to Sep Black. It’d be one way of dumping him.

  She was smiling to herself as she left the hospital and headed for her car – her first smile since she’d seen the suspended body of her ex-husband through his letter box. She was also wondering what Sep Black looked like under his bandages. She already knew he was divorced.

  TWELVE

  September 2015. St James’s Hospital. Leeds

  It was seven weeks since the attempt on Sep’s life and Fiona had made scarce progress with her investigation. She and Winnie had gone together to bring Sep home. The bandages were no longer on his head and his body, apart from his left shoulder, was no longer trussed, but he still had a pain in his right leg. It was why he needed the wheelchair they’d brought him. He wasn’t entire
ly happy with it.

  ‘Couldn’t you have got me one of those motorized ones?’

  ‘The doctor recommended this, as the exercise will do you good,’ said Winnie.

  ‘I’m doing physio four times a week. That’s exercise enough for me.’

  ‘I’ve arranged for a physio nurse to come round to the house so you don’t have to be trailing here all the time.’

  ‘How much is that costing?’

  Winnie pulled an exasperated face and said, ‘Oh, shut up, Sep, you curmudgeonly old sod! You can limp here four times a week, if you prefer.’

  ‘That’d be good exercise,’ suggested Fiona.

  ‘Did you check on Danny Pilkington?’ Sep asked her.

  ‘I did. He claims to have been at home in bed when Jenny found Graham Feather’s body. She confirmed he was there when she and the kids left the house and he’d been there all night and at home the previous evening.’

  ‘And the time of death was what?’

  ‘Between four and six in the morning.’

  ‘I suppose that rules him out. Jenny will be disappointed.’

  ‘She’s his alibi,’ said Fiona. ‘She’s managed to kick him out though. Apparently she gave him a couple of thousand and told him to clear off.’

  Winnie gave Sep a suspicious look. ‘I gather she’s been to see you a few times.’

  ‘Yes, she has, purely business. Alicia Tempest, our new pathologist, found signs of manual strangulation. His death wasn’t caused by the rope he was found hanging by. She ascertained that death occurred prior to the hanging.’

  ‘How would she know that?’ said Winnie.

  ‘No idea, but it was fairly apparent according to Alicia Tempest. The first pathologist should have spotted it. Tempest, who has an impeccable reputation, presented the new findings to the coroner, hence the new verdict of unlawful killing. With it no longer being a suicide verdict, the insurers have agreed to pay out in full.’

  ‘Ah, I wondered why she went for a second opinion. I imagine Dr Missingham no longer has an impeccable reputation.’