Wrongful Death

by Lynda La Plante

  ‘I’d like to listen to a copy of Donna’s interview, so I’ll e-mail you a password for my Dropbox account and you can load the file and anything else of interest onto that.’

  Joan looked terribly depressed.

  ‘Cheer up, I’m not going for good,’ Anna told her. ‘I’ll be back before you know it and whatever case I am allocated I’ll ask for you to come on board.’

  Joan was becoming more tearful, which only made Anna more eager to leave, sadly reflecting that as often happens with the Joans of this world, they just step that bit too close for comfort.

  Donna Reynolds looked composed and quite glamorous, in a Chanel suit, large pearl earrings and matching necklace – not at all like someone who had just finished a long consultation with her lawyer. Ian Holme QC, who had come straight from court to represent her, was in his late fifties, had piercing blue eyes and a large head with a wave of swept-back grey hair. He was tall and thickset with big broad shoulders and large hands, and, in his black court jacket, matching waistcoat and grey pinstripe trousers, created a tremendously imposing impression.

  Donna nervously looked at her wristwatch as Mike Lewis and Dewar entered the room and sat down opposite her and Mr Holme. Mike noticed Donna’s watch was a diamond-encrusted Rolex and thought it was probably worth more than his family estate car. He introduced himself and Special Agent Dewar, explaining that she was on work experience with the Met. Mr Holme looked over the rim of his half-moon glasses and remarked that Lady Lynne had made him more than aware of exactly who Agent Dewar was and he hoped her conduct would be more professional this time round. Dewar had been warned by Mike about the lawyer’s fierce reputation and thought it best not to respond.

  Mike switched on the DVD recorder and recited the caution to Donna, who listened intently, clenching her hands together on her lap. Mike said that he would firstly like to go over the statement she made to DI Simms back in November 2012. Holme confirmed that he had discussed the statement with Donna during their consultation.

  ‘So you were at the Lynne Foundation Charity Ball all night on the fifth?’ Mike asked her.

  ‘Yes, and I stayed in the hotel overnight.’

  ‘You never left it?’

  ‘No, except to go to the ladies’ room and eventually bed,’ Donna said, confused by Mike’s insinuation.

  ‘This was also verified by Lady Gloria and Aisa Lynne,’ Mr Holme interjected.

  ‘That’s not true, is it, Donna?’ Mike looked Donna in the eye.

  ‘Are you suggesting that Lady Lynne and Aisa are lying?’ Holme asked.

  ‘No, Mr Holme, I’m suggesting Donna is, and they were totally unaware she left the hotel.’ Mike opened the case folder and got out a CCTV picture of Donna’s Mini leaving the hotel car park. It had been edited to remove the date and time stamp. He placed the photograph on the table and turned it round for Donna to see, pointing to the vehicle’s number plate.

  ‘Is that your car?’

  ‘Yes,’ Donna said nervously.

  ‘Do you know where and when this picture was taken?’ Mike continued. Donna stared at the picture and shook her head.

  Mike took out a duplicate photograph with the time and date stamp on and placed it on the table for Donna and Holme to see.

  ‘Ten o-five p.m. on the fifth of November 2012 leaving the Savoy underground car park,’ Mike said and then placed another picture on the table, again pointing to the time and date stamp. ‘Eleven fifty p.m., your car returning to the same car park.’ Mike was expecting Mr Holme to object that he had not had access to the pictures before the interview, but he didn’t.

  Donna looked startled as she turned to Holme. ‘I swear it wasn’t me driving.’ Holme raised his hand for her to stop and explained that the police were not obliged to disclose all their evidence prior to the interview.

  ‘My client has said it was not her and I notice that the driver is not visible in any of your pictures. Do you have any CCTV footage that clearly shows Donna Reynolds driving the vehicle in and out of the car park?’ Holme said in a calm and precise manner.

  Donna began to shake and was close to tears. Mike pressed her, asking if it wasn’t her driving then who was it, to which Donna replied she didn’t know. Holme leaned over and whispered to his client, who nodded to him repeatedly during their hushed conversation.

  Holme tapped the table with his pen. ‘I was at the Charity Ball that night and as I recall the hotel had a valet parking service. Are you aware of that fact?’

  Mike looked at Dewar. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

  Holme continued: ‘I’ll take that as, no, shall I? My client used the valet service and her car keys were not back in her possession until she left the hotel on the morning of the sixth.’ He smiled smugly.

  ‘You got the car keys from reception, drove to the Bayswater flat, murdered Josh and then returned to the hotel, didn’t you, Donna?’ Mike quickly countered, staring her in the eye.

  ‘Do you have anyone from the hotel reception who can confirm she asked for her car keys that evening?’ Holme interjected.

  Mike admitted he didn’t and was annoyed that the car-park evidence was now less compelling. It irritated him that Holme was guiding Donna and not letting her answer the questions, but he had no choice but to move on. Next, he produced the set of keys for Esme’s flat.

  ‘These keys were found in your car—’ Mike began, but Holmes leaned over and had another whispered conversation with Donna, eventually nodding for her to answer.

  ‘They are keys for Josh’s mother’s flat. I was given them by DI Simms after the post-mortem,’ Donna said, fumbling for a tissue from her pocket to wipe her eyes.

  ‘Why did you go there last Thursday evening after visiting Marcus Williams at the Trojan club?’ Mike demanded.

  ‘You had me followed?’ Donna asked, crying.

  Holme again leaned towards her.

  ‘Mr Holme, would you please allow Donna to answer my questions,’ Mike said, and the steely-eyed QC glared at him.

  ‘As you never disclosed any of this to me, I need to advise Donna accordingly. She is being cooperative and I do not want her to give an answer that may be taken out of context and made to fit your wild theories,’ Holme said calmly and then, turning to Donna, told her to continue. He reached over to a box of tissues on the table and plucked one out, handing it to her. She blew her nose and sniffed.

  Donna then said quietly that after Agent Dewar and DCI Travis had been to speak with her at her mother’s house she couldn’t believe that Josh might have been murdered. She felt as if she was left in the dark, and in that very distressed state she went to see Marcus Williams. Donna insisted she had wanted to find out what Delon Taylor had said and if there was any truth in it. She blew her nose again, crumpled the tissue, swallowed hard and took a deep breath before continuing.

  ‘Before Josh died, I had suspected he was having an affair. At the time he was acting strangely and I became a bit paranoid about it, but I never found anything that confirmed my fears. I thought Josh had sold Esme’s flat to pay off some of the Trojan bank loan and renovation work. After Agent Dewar came to see me at my mother’s, I wondered if he did have an affair and was using his mother’s flat.

  ‘You must have realized he hadn’t sold Esme’s flat when DI Simms gave you the keys?’ Mike said sharply.

  ‘No, I did not. I was given all his belongings in one plastic bag. My mother sorted through it and put his personal belongings in a box for me. I never looked through the box until after DCI Travis and Agent Dewar came to see me.’

  ‘Why then?’ Dewar asked.

  ‘Because your questions made me suspicious again, of Josh having an affair. I found the keys in the box and wondered if they were for Esme’s flat so I went there.’

  Mike placed some photographs of the recovered money down on the table.

  ‘There’s one hundred and fifty-eight thousand pounds here in bundles of a thousand. It was found in a cash bag under the floorboards
at Esme’s flat. Do you know anything about it?’

  ‘No, nothing at all,’ Donna said, clearly shocked.

  Mike asked her if she knew the combination for Josh’s safe and she said she didn’t and neither did she know if he’d had any money in it.

  ‘Can you explain then why your fingerprints and firearms residue matching the gun were on some of the money we recovered?’

  Donna looked stunned and she turned to Holme, trying to make sense of what she had just been told.

  ‘Josh phoned you at the Savoy and said he was ill and was not going into work. It was the perfect opportunity so you sneaked out from the ball.’

  ‘No, I swear I didn’t,’ Donna pleaded.

  ‘Josh was in the living room asleep so you quietly opened the safe, got the gun, made him kneel in front of you and then you shot him,’ Mike said firmly.

  Donna sat shaking her head in disbelief as Holme impatiently drummed his large fingers on the table and rolled his eyes.

  ‘I really must object, Superintendent Lewis. Nearly every question you have asked is based on evidence that was not disclosed to me. You are trying to entrap my client, so I would like full disclosure and a further consultation with Mrs Reynolds before any more questions are put to her.’

  Mike knew he had no grounds to object to Mr Holme having a consultation break, and decided that he would disclose further information regarding the recovery of the Ferrari beforehand. As he looked through the case file for a photograph of the car, Dewar took the opportunity to question Donna.

  ‘You faked the suicide note that Josh left on his laptop, didn’t you?’

  ‘No, I never even knew it was there, the police found it,’ Donna whimpered and again wiped her eyes with the tissue.

  Mike Lewis began to explain to Dewar that as Mr Holme has asked for a consultation break, they were obliged to allow it, but Holme interjected, saying that he had been served with a printed copy of the suicide note and he was interested to hear Agent Dewar’s reasoning why she thought Donna had written it.

  Holme patted Donna’s hand. ‘Are you happy to continue?’ he asked, and she nodded.

  Mike knew that the validity of the suicide note would have to be put to Donna at some point so he let Dewar continue.

  The agent asked Donna to look at the copy of the note.

  ‘Let me just point something out to you, Donna. The design of the note is wrong for someone about to commit suicide. It’s set up for an audience, written in the past tense and full of grammatical errors. It is clearly fake.’

  ‘I don’t understand. I swear to you I didn’t write it. I never even knew about it until DI Simms spoke to me,’ Donna wept.

  Mr Holme leaned forward, resting his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand as he looked at the suicide note.

  Dewar was about to continue but the lawyer interrupted her: ‘A very astute observation, Agent Dewar. Tell me, are you a recognized expert in the field of forensic linguistics?’

  ‘I have studied it and written a paper on the subject,’ Dewar replied smugly.

  Holme shook his head and raised his eyebrows, clearly not impressed with Dewar’s reply.

  ‘Are you a recognized linguistics expert under the United States Supreme Court “Daubert” test? Or a mere dabbler in the subject?’ Mr Holme asked disapprovingly, neatly demonstrating his knowledge of American law.

  Mike could feel Dewar tensing up beside him as she clenched her hands together. ‘I am conversant with the “Daubert” test, however—’ she started to say but Mr Holme interrupted her and remarked that ‘being familiar’ was not good enough, so he would refresh her memory and enlighten Superintendent Lewis regarding the “Daubert” test.

  The way Holme took over the interview was beginning to make Mike tense as well, as the arrogant man removed his half-moon glasses and swung them round in his hand.

  ‘The expert must have sufficient knowledge, skill and experience of the subject matter and acknowledged stature in an academic or other peer community.’

  Dewar’s cheeks flushed red as she realized she had been found out and her opinions would count for nothing in a court of law. Although she had also wanted to ask Donna about her 999 call to the police, she realized it would now be futile as Mr Holme would again challenge her reliability as an expert. Her embarrassment turned to resentment at being belittled in front of Mike Lewis.

  ‘Do you always believe in a client’s innocence?’ Dewar challenged Holme, who sat back in his chair and wafted his hand.

  ‘Good Lord, no,’ he replied honestly with a chuckle, then deliberately paused before continuing: ‘But I do believe Donna Reynolds.’

  Mike Lewis took control of the interview and asked Mr Holme if he had read Pete Jenkins’ forensic report about the blood spatter. The lawyer confirmed that he had and remarked that it was interesting that the report was made from photographs many months after Josh Reynolds’ death and not as a result of observations made at the time.

  Mike knew that Holme was implying that the original scene investigation was a total farce. Feeling the pressure, Mike pressed on, glancing towards Donna.

  ‘The conclusion of the report is that your husband did not shoot himself and was in fact murdered, then the gun was placed in his hand to make it look like a suicide.’ Mike took a calculated risk and put a photograph of Josh’s dead body down on the table in front of Donna. She looked briefly at the picture then began to tremble uncontrollably and burst into a fresh flood of tears.

  ‘I didn’t kill Josh. I swear it. I didn’t kill him. I loved him. I loved him!’ As expected, and hoped for by Mike, a very angry Mr Holme objected to Donna being shown the photograph.

  Holme raised his voice. ‘Forensic science, like your interview tactics, can be wrong. Your behaviour is underhand and oppressive. I demand a break for consultation.’

  Mike quickly turned off the recording equipment. He then stood, picked up his case file and the photographs and told Mr Holme to let the custody sergeant know when he was ready to recommence the interview.

  Dewar followed Mike out of the room, racing to catch up with him as he strode down the corridor.

  ‘You had her on the ropes there, why stop?’ Dewar asked but Mike said nothing. ‘The tears and sniffling are a big act, just like her sham 999 call. You should have kept going at her or allowed me to.’

  Mike stopped in his tracks.

  ‘If I want your opinion I will ask for it. I wanted Holme to break the interview before you screwed up again. He lured you right into his trap and played you for a fool. I should have listened to Anna and taken her into the interview,’ Mike said with anger.

  ‘But I’m right, the suicide note is a fake.’

  ‘You don’t get it, do you?’ Mike said, shaking his head.

  ‘Get what?’ Dewar asked.

  ‘Holme knows it’s a fake, and I’ve no doubt he agrees that Josh was murdered, but he’s saying, and making a very good job of it, that it wasn’t Donna.’ Mike, exasperated, continued to walk on. ‘I warned you, I told you not to get in a head-to-head with Holme.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Mike, it won’t happen again.’

  ‘Too bloody right it won’t because Barolli will be doing Donna’s next interview with me.’

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Wanting to look her best on arrival Stateside, Anna was wearing a white silk shirt and a new black-and-red woollen pinstripe suit as she waited for the driver Langton had arranged to pick her up from the flat and take her to Heathrow. The tailoring line of the one button jacket and A-line slit skirt accentuated her curvaceous figure.

  Anna had never been inside Terminal Five and was impressed by the size and design of the white-steel-and-glass structure. Staring up at the departure board, she searched for the 10 a.m. British Airways flight to Dulles International Airport, Washington.

  ‘Bit overdressed for an eight-hour flight, aren’t you?’ she heard Langton’s voice say from behind her. She turned to greet him and saw that he was wearing a wh
ite T-shirt, grey cotton jacket, matching cargo trousers and trainers, with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

  ‘Good morning, sir, how nice to see you too. The FBI will be impressed by your fine attire,’ Anna said with a sarcastic smile.

  ‘Cut the “sir” crap, Travis, you know it’s James out of the office,’ he said, totally ignoring the rest of her remark.

  ‘I got here early so I’ve checked in already. The desk is this way,’ he added, and walked off without even offering to carry her case or laptop bag.

  Anna told the check-in assistant that she was travelling with Mr James Langton and asked if she could sit next to him on the flight.

  ‘I’m sorry, Miss Travis, Detective Chief Superintendent Langton was allocated the only upgrade we had to Business Class.’

  Anna turned and glared at Langton, who had appeared beside her.

  ‘I can’t believe your bare-faced cheek, using your rank and profession like that.’

  ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get,’ he said, shrugging his shoulders, and casually walked off, telling her to get a move on.

  After going through security to the departure lounge, Langton asked Anna if she fancied a bit of breakfast as they still had over an hour before the flight. Anna said she did and pointed to a nice-looking restaurant.

  ‘Too stuffy and I fancy a pint of Guinness with a full English, so we’ll go to the Wetherspoon pub over there,’ Langton announced.

  Anna was in two minds whether to tell him he could go to the pub on his own but before she could say anything he was off again.

  Anna was slowly eating her bacon sandwich and Langton was at the bar getting his second pint of Guinness when a text message came up on her phone. It was Joan telling her that she had uploaded the first Donna Reynolds interview onto her Dropbox account and that Mike Lewis had thrown Dewar out of the interview. She’d added a ‘PS’ not to forget the latest issue of Gardeners’ World.

  ‘Who’s that from?’ Langton asked, peering over her shoulder and taking a sip of his Guinness. Anna laughed as the brown froth left a moustache above his upper lip. Realizing what she was laughing at, he went to wipe his mouth on his sleeve. Anna tutted at him and pushed his hand out of the way, then used her napkin to get rid of the froth.