Ten Guilty Men (A DCI Morton Crime Novel Book 3)

by Sean Campbell

  ‘Isn’t it always?’ Morgan-Bryant said. ‘What are you planning on charging my client with today? Probate fraud, again? Or a little public indecency?’

  ‘Just murder.’

  ‘Murder? What evidence do you have?’

  ‘Your client returned to her sister’s home after leaving her birthday party.’

  ‘To apologise. She has already explained that to you.’

  ‘And she concealed her journey with a spare Oyster card,’ Morton said.

  ‘That one’s easy to explain. She bought that for a friend who visited London, and it’s been in her purse ever since. All Oyster cards look identical, so Brianna must have mixed them up.’

  ‘You’ve got an answer for everything, don’t you? Brianna confessed to killing Ellis less than an hour ago, in my presence.’

  ‘My client had a knife held to her throat! If that isn’t a classic example of duress, I don’t know what is.’

  ‘And then there’s the fact that your client is inheriting three million pounds’ worth of prime real estate.’

  ‘I don’t see how that’s a crime.’

  ‘It goes to motive,’ Morton said. ‘Miss Jackson, did you visit Sparks Rehabilitation Clinic with your late sister?’

  ‘Well, yes, but–’

  ‘And is it not true that she wanted to get clean?’

  ‘Yes, but–’

  ‘And you’re the one that’s been selling her pentobarbital, aren’t you?’ Morton bluffed. He didn’t have any proof yet.

  ‘No comment,’ Brianna muttered.

  ‘You don’t need to comment. I’ve got a team searching your home now. If we find nembies, I’m sure that’ll more than enough for magistrates.’

  ‘She said no comment, Mr Morton.’

  ‘Right. Then we’ll park that until my team gets back. You were receiving money from your sister each month.’

  Brianna nodded. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Two thousand pounds?’

  ‘About that much.’

  ‘Why?’ Morton asked.

  ‘She was helping me out,’ Brianna said. ‘London is expensive, and I don’t earn much.’

  ‘You can’t spend much either. Your flat can’t be much more than a hundred and fifty square feet. I assume, by the way, that you’ll be declaring the last seven years of gifts for inheritance tax? By my calculations, that’s, let’s see, a hundred and sixty-eight grand at forty percent – about £67,200 or so you owe HMRC. Plus interest.’

  Brianna paled, and looked over at her lawyer in dismay.

  Morgan-Bryant turned towards Morton with a cold stare. ‘Mr Morton, I wasn’t aware that you were a tax accountant. Do you fancy doing my VAT returns for me? No? Then perhaps you could ask a relevant question next.’

  Morton bristled. ‘Miss Jackson, did you kill Ellis?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘So you didn’t bash her head in with a rubber pool brick?’

  Brianna’s jaw dropped. She sat there, stunned.

  ‘Miss Jackson,’ Morton prompted again. ‘Did you or did you not bash your sister in the back of the head with a rubber pool brick?’

  ‘My client won’t be commenting on that.’

  ‘Did you ditch the body in the pool to make it look like drowning?’

  ‘No comment,’ Brianna said tersely.

  ‘And did you set up Kallum Fielder by asking Gabriella Curzon to steal money from his wallet?’

  ‘It was a prank! We wanted to see if he’d argue with Gabby. It was a test–’

  ‘Because he was going to propose to her?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Glad you brought that up,’ Morton said. ‘Isn’t it true that if Ellis married Kal, you’d never inherit the house?’

  ‘She isn’t a lawyer, Mr Morton. She wouldn’t have the expertise to answer that question.’

  ‘Perhaps you can answer that one then.’

  ‘I could, if you’d like to give me eight hundred pounds an hour for my services. I may be a lawyer, but I’m not your lawyer,’ Morgan-Bryant said.

  ‘Eight hundred an hour? Blimey. How are you affording that, Miss Jackson?’

  ‘Our funding arrangement is none of your business, Mr Morton. Stop going off on tangents and present your evidence. Then either charge her or let us go.’

  ‘Miss Jackson, what time did you return to the house?’

  ‘I don’t know. Half twelve maybe?’

  ‘After you exited the District Line service at Kew Gardens?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did you go straight back to Edgecombe Lodge?’

  ‘No. I walked for a bit, thinking. I wanted to word my apology just so.’

  ‘But you think you got back about half twelve. Who was in the house when you got there?’

  ‘Nobody, as far as I could tell. I went in, the lights were off. All was quiet. I assumed Ellis had gone to bed, and I left.’

  ‘That’s interesting. If you arrived at half twelve then you’d have arrived when Gabriella was still there.’

  ‘Maybe it was a little after that, I don’t know.’

  ‘How did you get in?’

  ‘Through the front door...’ Brianna gave Morton a quizzical look as if to ask ‘How else would I get back in?’.

  ‘Was it unlocked?’

  ‘No. I’ve got a key,’ Brianna said. ‘We all do.’

  ‘You all do?’

  ‘Kal, Gabby, Paddy and I.’

  Everyone except Culloden. ‘Is it true you hated your sister?’

  ‘Absolutely not. We had our ups and downs, but don’t all siblings argue?’

  ‘Speaking of siblings, did you know Gabriella is your half-sister?’

  ‘I only found out today when that lunatic took me hostage. She’s the one that killed Ellis. Can’t you see that she’s using me to distract you?’

  ‘You picked up the knife afterwards.’

  ‘I was defending myself!’

  ‘From a police officer?’ Morton gestured down at his bandaged leg.

  ‘Sorry about that.’

  ‘Two inches higher, and you’d have nicked my femoral artery and you’d be having this conversation with one of my colleagues. You clearly don’t have much compunction against wounding other human beings. I think you killed your sister. Your timeline doesn’t add up. You returned after midnight for a spurious reason–’

  ‘To apologise!’

  ‘Why not wait until morning? Why not call or text?’

  ‘I felt bad. I doubled back. And unless you can prove otherwise, I’ll be leaving.’

  ‘Not yet you won’t. I’ve got detectives searching your home right now. Want to tell me what they’re going to find? A pool brick perhaps?’

  ‘Morton, you’re badgering my client. This interview is over.’

  ***

  It took Ayala just ten minutes to find what he was looking for in Brianna Jackson’s flat. The nembies were hidden inside a Ziploc bag in the toilet cistern.

  He called Morton with the news.

  ‘Good work. Get the sample to the lab, and check for consistency with the sample we found in Ellis’ blood. Any sign of pool bricks?’

  ‘Nothing, boss. We’ve searched every inch of this place, not that that’s saying much. How’s it going with our suspects?’

  ‘I’ve got Gabriella to go, but Brianna wasn’t giving anything up. She admitted returning, so we’ve got her in the right place at the right time, which she claims was half twelve–’

  ‘When Gabriella was there alone,’ Ayala said sharply.

  ‘That’s the thing. Brianna claims not to have seen Gabriella, which either means she’s lying or her timing is off. A few minutes could make all the difference here.’

  ‘Do you think she did it?’

  ‘I honestly don’t know. One of the two sisters did it. If Brianna didn’t then Gabriella did, and vice versa. I’m reserving judgement until after I’ve had the chance to interview Gabriella. If you’re going to be quick getting back, I’ll wait for you to join us.’
>
  ‘Sounds like fun. I’ll be half an hour if I swing by the lab. Can you spare Mayberry for a bit?’

  ‘What do you want from him?’

  ‘I need him to fetch the victim’s toxicology report, and the chemical analysis of the pento sample we collected from Walworth Veterinary Clinic. I want to compare those with the sample I just collected.’

  ‘Done. Good work, Ayala. Keep it up.’

  Chapter 57: The Other Sister

  Tuesday April 22nd – 16:15

  Gabriella refused to make eye contact with DCI Morton as he prepared the tapes and introduced the attendees. Instead, she simply stared at the table, her eyes fixed upon the knife she had used to hold Brianna Jackson hostage. Her lawyer, Genevieve Hollis, started talking the moment Morton began the tape.

  ‘My client would prefer to make a brief statement before any questions begin, if that is permissible, Mr Morton?’

  ‘By all means, go ahead. I may still have to ask questions of her, though.’

  ‘My client would like to put it on the record that she feels a great deal of remorse for her actions today. She would like to make it clear that she had no intention of threatening Brianna when she attended the funeral, but went into a state of agitation when she heard Brianna discussing her home renovation plans for Edgecombe Lodge. After the funeral, the party travelled to the crematorium, where Brianna denied my client the chance to speak at the Committal Ceremony. Brianna told my client that “only family get to speak” and that “she was no sister of hers”. Brianna went so far as to call my client a “mongrel half-blood”. It was at this point that my client snapped. She has no memory of anything that happened after that point.’

  Here we go. Time to set up a dodgy defence. ‘She doesn’t remember anything? Then let me refresh her memory. She held a knife to Brianna Jackson’s throat, and had an entire room subject to her whim, including me. We have an audio recording if you’d care to listen to it.’

  ‘That won’t be necessary. My client admits what she did, knows it was wrong and is truly very sorry for what she did. This was not a planned act–’

  ‘Not planned? Why did she have a knife then?’

  ‘If you’ll allow me to finish please, Mr Morton. I will ensure my client answers your questions but you have to allow me to explain her position before then. The knife was brought to the scene by Brianna Jackson. It was a craft knife made of Damascus steel that Ellis received from her father on her eighteenth birthday, and Miss Jackson wished to see Ellis buried with it. It was set aside with all of Ellis’ personal effects prior to the cremation.’

  Morton nodded. It made sense. Only the body and the coffin could be loaded into the chamber.

  ‘We would therefore like to offer a guilty plea in consideration of your prosecutor making a sentencing recommendation. Pursuant to the B3-4.3A guidelines, this was a minor kidnapping committed without planning, and by a person suffering from severe grief. She had just lost half of her known family.’

  Morton waited, in case Hollis was going to carry on. ‘Very well. I’ll speak to the prosecutor about that, but it is out of my hands. I still have a few questions, Miss Curzon.’

  Gabriella looked up from the knife at the sound of her name, but seemed dazed, confused even.

  ‘How long have you known that you were related to Ellis and Brianna?’ Morton asked.

  Gabriella shrugged. ‘Forever. Ever since she came to my school. We’ve got the same birthmark. Our father had it too.’

  ‘What birthmark?’

  ‘A half moon and stars,’ Gabriella said. She stood and lifted her shirt to expose her navel. ‘See?’

  Morton looked at it carefully. Gabriella did have a darkened area that looked like a crescent moon surrounded by splotches that could generously be interpreted to be stars.

  ‘Ellis saw this mark?’

  ‘Yes. When she photographed me. We got to talking afterwards, and the truth came out. That was the summer I moved down to London to become a model, and I stayed on her couch.’

  ‘You assumed from a birthmark that you were related?’

  ‘Not just that. Ellis spoke to her father. They argued about it, but a DNA test eventually proved that I was his. Her mother never found out, but I was just glad to have a family.’

  ‘You grew up in the system?’

  Gabriella nodded.

  ‘How was your relationship with Brianna before Ellis’ death?’ Morton asked.

  ‘Cordial. She never accepted me as her sister, and we had little in common. To tell you the truth, I always thought she was jealous of my relationship with Ellis.’

  ‘If you two weren’t close, why did you conspire to steal from Kal?’

  ‘We didn’t steal. I always intended to give him the money back. He wanted to marry our sister, and we needed to know that he trusted her. He didn’t.’

  ‘When was this little charade planned?’

  ‘At the party. It was pretty impromptu. Brianna said we should do it.’

  ‘You set up an argument on Ellis’s birthday. Your timing is impeccable,’ Morton said with only a trace of sarcasm.

  ‘We had to. He was planning on proposing that night.’

  ‘Kal was going to propose on her birthday?’ Morton said.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Interesting. Miss Curzon, I have a few delicate questions I need to ask. If at any point you’d like to pause to consult with your lawyer please say so and I will vacate the room. Is that OK?’ Morton asked. It was a little late to really build rapport, but he needed Gabriella to be amenable to answering his questions as fully as possible.

  She nodded.

  ‘I understand Ellis was intending to go into rehab.’

  ‘Yes, she was. We visited a rehab clinic a couple of weeks back.’

  Morton bolted upright. ‘You visited Sparks Rehabilitation Clinic with Ellis? When?’

  ‘A few Saturdays back.’

  Interesting. Brianna claimed she was the one who visited Sparks with Ellis. ‘When was she intending to go into rehab?’

  ‘When she got back from New York. I was going to...’ Gabriella’s voice trailed off.

  ‘You were going to what, Miss Curzon? Go with her? I’m not interested in any drugs offences you may have committed.’

  ‘Yes. I wanted to do it with her, but I couldn’t afford it.’

  At two grand a week nor could I.

  ‘I haven’t taken anything lately,’ Gabriella continued. ‘Not since...’ She rubbed her hands over her stomach.

  ‘How far along are you?’

  ‘Fifteen weeks.’

  ‘Congratulations,’ Morton said. ‘Aleksander Barchester is the father, isn’t he?’

  ‘Yes. We’re going to be so happy together. I can’t wait for baby Victoria to be born.’

  ‘It’s a girl then?’

  ‘I haven’t had the test, but I hope so. I shouldn’t say that, should I? I’m supposed to say I’m fine either way as long as it’s healthy.’

  ‘Yes, you are,’ Morton said. ‘But Aleksander was sleeping around, wasn’t he? With Ellis?’

  ‘No! No, he wasn’t!’ Gabriella thumped her fists on the table.

  ‘I’m afraid he was. We found his DNA on her bed sheets.’

  ‘That bastard!’

  ‘That must have made you mad.’

  ‘It would have if I’d known. You think I killed her. You’re wrong. I’m sorry I took Brianna hostage. I shouldn’t have snapped like that, but I’m not a bad person. I own up when I do things wrong.’

  ‘You only own up when there’s irrefutable proof of it in the form of a policeman who witnessed the entire ordeal and taped it. That isn’t courage. It’s trying to salvage a deal from the prosecutor in light of overwhelming evidence. Don’t pretend to be some sort of saint, Miss Curzon.’

  Gabriella sat there, stony faced and open mouthed, at a loss for words.

  ‘After Kallum and Aleksander left the party, did you see Brianna at all?’

  ‘No. Not once. I
had a drink with Paddy, then we left.’

  ‘But he left you alone for a while, didn’t he?’

  ‘Yes. I finished my drink, and went outside for a cigarette. I didn’t see Brianna, honest.’

  ‘That just doesn’t line up with what others are saying. We know you were alone about half twelve. That’s the same time Brianna came back.’

  ‘Maybe I missed her. It’s a big house.’

  ‘But if you were smoking outside then she’d have had to walk right past you.’

  ‘I did go to the bathroom, come to think of it.’

  ‘At exactly the moment Brianna came in?’

  ‘I guess so. Stranger things have happened. I’m not lying, Mr Morton. I didn’t kill my sister. Why would I lie to you?’

  Chapter 58: Beyond Reasonable Doubt

  As Morton waited for Kieran O’Connor to arrive, he couldn’t help but admire Kieran’s office. Kieran’s latest secretary had the place looking much tidier than on Morton’s last visit. The piles and piles of papers were gone, and the ratty old desktop had been replaced with a sleek new iMac and a digital photo frame which scrolled through various pictures of Kieran and his fiancée Miranda, whom Morton had never met.

  Morton fiddled absent-mindedly with a Newton’s Cradle that he found on a side shelf, watching the toy click-clack back and forth. When he heard footsteps, he hastily hid it out of sight underneath the desk.

  ‘Sorry I’m late. Judge Milner kept us behind. Did Beatrice offer you a coffee?’ Kieran asked.

  ‘She did, thanks. Nice lass. How long has she been working for you?’

  ‘Two weeks now. This,’ Kieran swept his arm across the overly-neat office, ‘will never last.’

  ‘You never know. You might be a changed man.’

  ‘She can digitise my files all she likes, but I’ll still print ’em out before I read them.’

  ‘Tree killer.’

  ‘What can I say? I like it how I like it. And I get results.’

  The lawyer had a point.

  ‘Now then. Ellis DeLange. Where are you on this? I’ve been fielding calls on a daily basis. We need to be seen doing something.’

  ‘We’re down to two suspects,’ Morton said. ‘Both in the house at the time of the murder. Both with motive and opportunity. One of them took the other hostage yesterday.’