Murder Ring (A DI Geraldine Steel Mystery)

by Leigh Russell

  ‘Well, that’s exciting too. We’ve got no idea what’s going to happen.’

  Geraldine didn’t answer. In a way Sam was right. They couldn’t be sure what might happen when they reached the car repair yard. All they knew for certain was that Lenny had been there earlier that day. He might still be hiding there. And they knew he was armed and dangerous.

  24

  THERE WAS STILL about an hour of daylight when they approached the car repair yard where Gina had reported that Lenny was hiding. It was located just off the A504 near Seven Sisters tube station, at the back of a church. With the approach roads blocked by patrol cars and police vans, there was no way Lenny would be able to leave unseen, if he was still on the premises. As Geraldine and Sam jumped out of the car a helicopter roared by overhead, its bright light sweeping the area. Geraldine hurried over to a sergeant manning the cordon.

  ‘We’re just waiting,’ he said.

  Nothing was happening, but the atmosphere was tense. All at once a loud voice rang out. A stocky bald man had approached a uniformed constable and was shouting at him.

  ‘I demand to know what’s going on. Who the hell’s in charge here?’

  Geraldine walked over to him. ‘Mr Berry?’

  ‘Yes, Alfred Berry. That’s my name. And this is my car repair outfit, and it’s all perfectly legit so I’ve no idea what the hell you think you’re doing here. All I can say is, whatever you suspect is going on here, you’re making a serious mistake’

  After introducing herself, Geraldine asked if he had given anyone a key to one of his lock-ups. He was adamant he had not, nor had he noticed anything unusual.

  ‘I was out at the scrapyards all day, I visit them most weekends. I came by to lock up. Now, are you going to tell me what the hell’s going on?’

  ‘Armed response unit’s one minute away,’ a sergeant called out.

  ‘What the fuck –?’ Alfred spluttered, rubbing the top of his bald head nervously as he glanced up at the helicopter circling overhead.

  ‘We’ve had a report that an armed fugitive is hiding in one of your lock-ups,’ she answered. ‘If you know anything about it, you’d best tell me right now.’

  Alfred shook his head in helpless dismay. Geraldine hesitated to send him home. There must have been a reason why Lenny chose this particular site for his hide out. She thought Alfred was telling her the truth, but she could be wrong. If she sent him away, he might be on the phone to Lenny straight away to warn him. At the same time, she couldn’t allow Alfred to stay where he was. The whole area had to be kept clear. As the armed response unit moved swiftly into place, she told a constable to take Alfred to the police station where he would be safe.

  ‘Hang on,’ he protested, ‘why don’t I just go home? That’s far enough away from here to be safe.’

  ‘I don’t have time to discuss this now, Mr Berry. Just accompany the constable, please. As soon as the suspect’s secured, you can be on your way.’

  ‘What if he’s not secured? What if he’s not here at all?’

  Grumbling loudly, he was led away. Geraldine looked around. Everything was ready. She nodded at the negotiator who picked up his tannoy.

  ‘Lenny! We have this entire site surrounded. You can’t possibly get away from here.’ He paused. ‘Lenny, we want you to come out now with your hands above your head. Be sensible, and no one’s going to get hurt.’

  There was no answer from the lock-ups. The negotiator let his arm fall to his side before he turned to Geraldine.

  ‘It’s going to be a long night. Do you want to go home and get some sleep?’

  ‘I’m not tired.’

  ‘We could go and get something to eat?’ Sam suggested hopefully.

  The negotiator nodded, misunderstanding. He raised his loudspeaker again.

  ‘Lenny! Are you hungry? We can get you something to eat. What would you like?’

  He turned back to Geraldine. ‘What would appeal to him?’

  ‘Anything but prison food,’ Sam muttered.

  ‘Shall we bring his girlfriend here?’ Geraldine asked. ‘He won’t know she told us where he was.’

  The negotiator nodded and Geraldine made the call. It was getting dark by the time a car arrived with Gina. One of the female constables who had brought her explained to Geraldine that Lenny’s girlfriend had been reluctant to accompany them.

  ‘If you hadn’t told us to mention that she might get her ring back, she’d never have agreed to come with us. I’ve no idea what that was about, but it worked a treat.’

  Geraldine nodded and walked over to Gina. Carefully, she explained that they wanted her to stand with the negotiator while he tried to make contact with Lenny. They were hopeful he was still there. She didn’t add that it would prove an expensive mistake if he had already moved on. The helicopter alone was a costly piece of equipment, not to mention the armed response team. Gina was trembling.

  ‘I did see him here,’ she stammered. ‘He was in the end lock-up and he wanted cash off me. I give him my last twenty quid but he wouldn’t tell me what he done with my ring. He’s a bastard and he deserves to be banged up again. I hate him so much!’ She burst into tears.

  ‘Gina, you can help us. This is Jonathon. He’s a skilled negotiator. He’s going to try and make contact with Lenny, and he might want to ask you some questions.’

  ‘What sort of questions?’

  Jonathon’s smile was tense. ‘First off, Gina, can you tell me what he likes to eat?’

  ‘To eat?’

  ‘Yes. We want to make him comfortable. That way we can gain his trust. If he’s hungry, he’s more likely to fly off the handle and end up shooting someone.’

  Gina looked surprised. ‘Lenny ain’t got no gun. He ain’t going to shoot no one.’

  Geraldine and Jonathon exchanged a glance. ‘Very well,’ he replied, his voice almost devoid of emotion, ‘but will you help us get him out of there?’

  ‘Well, he can’t stay in there forever,’ Gina said.

  ‘Will you help us, Gina?’ the negotiator asked again.

  She shrugged. ‘Don’t look like I got much choice. But I don’t get why you don’t just go in there and get him out. If you ask me, all this is a whole lot of fuss over nothing. Ain’t you lot got nothing better to do on a Saturday night? It’s only Lenny in there, ain’t it?’

  There was a sudden hush. Something was happening. A voice was yelling from inside the lock-up where Gina had reported seeing Lenny.

  ‘I ain’t done nothing,’ he was shouting. ‘I was with my mum when that bloke got shot. I know who told you I was here but don’t you believe a word that lying bitch tells you. Look what she done to me. Fucking bitch. I know it was her.’

  The negotiator’s calm voice boomed through the PA system, drowning out the sound of Gina’s shrill retort.

  ‘Open the door, Lennie,’ the negotiator urged. ‘Come on out so you can talk to the police and tell them what happened. They’re waiting to hear what you have to say.’

  ‘Like fuck they are.’

  Slowly the door opened.

  ‘Come out with your hands above your head!’

  ‘Whatever he’s done with the gun, it’s not in his hand,’ someone said, and it sounded as though everyone watching exhaled in unison.

  25

  ADAM LISTENED IN quiet disapproval while Geraldine outlined her reasons for organising such a large-scale back-up team to arrest Lenny.

  ‘Granted he’s now in custody, we’re still talking about apprehending one man who was hiding in a shed,’ he said. ‘When I gave you a free hand to do what was necessary, I never expected you to take so many officers with you. And I can’t see why you wanted a helicopter. It’s not as if you were conducting a search of the area, because you’d been told exactly where the suspect was hiding, and the yard was surrounded. He couldn’t get away.’

  Geraldine reiterated that they had reason to believe the suspect was armed at the time they received a tip off about his whereabouts.
r />   Adam nodded. ‘But there’s still no sign of the weapon?’

  A team had been searching the area all night without success. The gun could be anywhere.

  ‘It wasn’t found at his flat, or at his mother’s place,’ Geraldine confirmed, ‘so it seemed reasonable to assume he might have it on him, if he actually shot David.’

  ‘Well, let’s hope he’s prepared to cooperate fully now we’ve got him.’

  Geraldine hoped Lenny wouldn’t realise that without establishing his prints were on the weapon, they would only be able to prove he had been with David, not that he had killed him. Lenny was the only person who could tell them where he had disposed of the gun, perhaps together with the ring that Gina wanted back. Geraldine was slightly intrigued by her obsession with it.

  ‘Lenny give it to me,’ was all she would say.

  Given that Gina had informed the police where to find Lenny, the ring could hardly have sentimental value for her. Presumably Gina believed it was worth a lot of money.

  ‘The only way he could get hold of an expensive ring would be if he nicked it,’ Sam said, as they sat over an early breakfast in the canteen. ‘He’s only just come out of prison. And he didn’t stay out for long,’ she added cheerfully.

  ‘Of course!’ Geraldine slapped herself on the head. ‘It’s so obvious! Lenny stole the ring from David. It’s the one Laura was so upset about losing.’

  ‘If it is Laura’s engagement ring, it must be worth a few thousand quid.’

  ‘No wonder Gina wants it back. We need to get Gina to confirm it’s one and the same. This could be really important. Even without the murder weapon, if we can prove Lenny robbed David, we’ve got a case. How could we not have seen that straight away? That’s what comes of working through the night.’

  ‘Without supper,’ Sam added, as she scooped up another mouthful of egg and beans on her fork. ‘I told you we should have gone and got something to eat last night. I knew it was a mistake, missing supper.’

  ‘Come on then. We need to see Laura and then –’

  ‘Bloody hell, Geraldine, let me finish this first. It’s a sin to waste good food, and besides, a few more minutes won’t make any difference.’

  Before long they were on their way to David’s house. Laura didn’t appear surprised to see them. She nodded as Geraldine explained what they wanted, and went to fetch her wedding album.

  ‘He only took it away a couple of weeks ago,’ she explained tearfully as she handed over the album. ‘One of the little clasps had worked loose and I wanted to have it fixed so the stone wouldn’t get lost.’

  Flicking through the pages, Sam selected an image that showed the ring distinctly. ‘Can we take this?’

  ‘Yes, if it helps, but I’ll get it back, won’t I? It’s a memory…’

  Geraldine and Sam hurried back to the police station to have the image of Laura’s finger blown up and enhanced. They now had a reasonably clear image of the ring to show Gina.

  Wary at first when she saw them on the doorstep, Gina let out a yelp when Geraldine held up the photograph.

  ‘Where’d you get this?’ she asked, snatching the picture from Geraldine.

  ‘Does that look like the ring Lenny gave you?’

  ‘That’s it. That’s definitely it. That’s my ring, so you can give it me now?’

  ‘Look very carefully, Gina. Are you sure?’

  ‘Course I’m sure. Think I don’t know my own ring when I see it?’

  Inconclusive in itself, Gina’s response gave them one more piece of the jigsaw. It was time to question Lenny. With any luck, they had sufficient evidence to put enough pressure on him to make him crack.

  ‘Let’s not set too much store by it,’ Geraldine said, as they drove back to the police station. ‘There’s no guarantee Gina would be prepared to testify in court. Even if we subpoena her, she could retract, or say she doesn’t remember exactly, she thinks it might be the same ring –’

  ‘She’d say anything to get her hands on that ring.’

  ‘That’s probably true, but it’s not hers anyway, is it? So she won’t get it back whatever happens, even if it turns up.’

  They agreed it had probably been disposed of through a fence, the diamond sold separately and the gold melted down and reshaped. It would never come to light.

  ‘Our best chance still is if we can get Lenny to confess.’

  ‘That pathetic little weasel won’t hold out for long. What’s up?’ Sam added. ‘What are you looking so down about? We’ve got him haven’t we? Whatever he says makes no difference. We know it was him.’

  ‘What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Isn’t that the principle we’re supposed to be upholding?’

  ‘No. That’s for the jury to decide. Our job right now is to get Lenny to admit he shot David Lester.’

  ‘If he shot him.’

  ‘Of course he did. Bloody hell, Geraldine, one night’s sleep missed and you turn to jelly.’

  Geraldine laughed. ‘Well, let’s hope you’re right and he buckles without any trouble.’

  ‘I am right. You know I am.’

  Aware that they were more likely to force Lenny to confess if they approached the interview confident of his guilt, Geraldine didn’t answer. As they drove through the London traffic, she tried to ignore her lingering doubts about where Lenny could have got hold of a gun straight after leaving prison, and how he could have disposed of David’s leather jacket. There had been no sign of it at his flat, and Gina had emphatically denied ever having seen it. Sam was convinced Gina had sold it, which seemed likely. But they were now in the realms of speculation where it was also plausible that someone else had taken the jacket, a possibility that opened up entirely different theories about David’s death.

  26

  LENNY SAT SLUMPED on his chair, arms folded, eyes fixed on the table, lank hair hanging down over his ears. The harsh lighting of the interview room highlighted a sprinkling of dandruff on his narrow shoulders. His puny figure looked almost childlike beside his brief, who was a large man. As Geraldine gabbled her way through the routine preliminaries, Lenny glanced up and pushed his hair behind one ear with a bony hand, displaying nails bitten to the quick.

  ‘Leonard Parker,’ she began. ‘Shall I call you Lenny?’

  The suspect grunted without looking up. His brief sat beside him watching Geraldine through half-closed eyes. In his early thirties, wearing a tight suit that accentuated his corpulence, he looked smug. Lenny was clearly following his instructions so far.

  ‘Where were you last Monday between ten and eleven pm?’

  Lenny shrugged one narrow shoulder.

  ‘Answer the question. Were you in the vicinity of Wells Street between ten and eleven on Monday evening?’

  ‘I dunno the name of the road I was in. I don’t go round reading no road names.’

  The lawyer frowned.

  ‘So you could have been in Wells Street?’

  ‘My client could have been anywhere,’ the lawyer pointed out. ‘He’s already told you he can’t remember the name of the street.’

  ‘But you admit you were out between ten and eleven on Monday? We know you were in London. Do you remember leaving Oxford Circus station shortly after seven?’ She turned to the lawyer. ‘We have video evidence.’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘But you are unable to remember where you were between ten and eleven that evening. Is that because you were intoxicated?’

  Lenny glanced at the lawyer who was staring at Geraldine.

  ‘I’d had a few pints,’ he admitted. ‘Nothing wrong in that, is there? I’d only just been let out after eighteen months inside. A bloke’s entitled to a few drinks –’

  The lawyer cleared his throat loudly and Lenny fell silent.

  ‘Have you seen this before?’

  Displaying the blown up photograph of Laura’s ring, Geraldine was pleased to see that Lenny looked uncomfortable. For a moment he didn’t say anything. Geraldine put the photog
raph on the table in front of him and waited.

  ‘It’s a ring,’ he muttered at length.

  ‘A very nice ring,’ Geraldine agreed. ‘The suspect is looking at a photograph of the engagement ring he gave to his girlfriend, Gina.’

  ‘It weren’t an engagement ring –’ Lenny broke off in confusion.

  Grasping the significance of the ring, the young lawyer promptly came to his client’s rescue. ‘This is a picture of a very common design of ring, one square solitaire diamond in a plain gold band. Items exactly like this are available in every high street jeweller, pawn shops, markets. It would be impossible to identify a particular ring, and it certainly couldn’t be reliably recognised from a photograph.’

  Geraldine tried again. ‘Did you give a ring like this to Gina?’

  Lenny fell back on his earlier response. ‘I don’t remember.’

  ‘You must have been very drunk if you don’t remember whether you gave your girlfriend an expensive diamond ring –’

  ‘Do you have the ring my client allegedly gave his girlfriend?’

  Geraldine hesitated before shaking her head. There was no point in lying. The lawyer would only demand to see the evidence.

  ‘I thought as much. Well in that case, you can only speculate as to its value. That looks to me like a cubic zirconia ring that you could pick up for a fiver.’

  ‘We can easily obtain the insurance certificate for the ring stolen from David Lester.’

  ‘Which has nothing to do with my client.’

  Geraldine turned her attention back to Lenny. ‘You must have been very drunk if you don’t remember whether you gave your girlfriend an engagement ring –’

  ‘My client has already told you he didn’t give her an engagement ring,’ the lawyer replied before Lenny could answer.

  ‘You must have been very drunk if you don’t remember whether you gave your girlfriend a ring,’ Geraldine said, but by now even Lenny had worked out where she was heading. ‘You don’t remember where you were, you don’t remember whether you gave Gina a ring, you can’t remember much about what you did that evening, can you? Fortunately, I can refresh your memory, because we know exactly where you were and what you did. We have evidence that places you at a crime scene in Wells Mews, off Wells Street. You turned in there by mistake, didn’t you? All you wanted to do was have a few beers and go home. You never intended to harm anyone. But in Wells Mews you came across a well-to-do man who had also taken the wrong turning. There was no one else around. It was too good an opportunity to miss, so you mugged him.’