Money, Mishaps and Murder

by David Beard

  ‘We didn’t, you bloody did but once again I think you are on the right track.’

  *

  They spoke with Milner and explained in detail what had happened based on the evidence of the Addleson brothers. They gathered in the team’s main office and Smalacombe laid out what they had discovered.

  ‘The Superintendent has asked me to debrief you all with the discoveries concerning the Crossworth and Lynley Murders.’ She had not but he felt it necessary to butter her up and leave the group with the understanding that she too knew it all. After all, she was the SIO. Smalacombe had made her familiar with the general theme but she had not had the time to analyse what was a complicated issue. She had decided that it served her purpose to play along.

  Smalacombe continued, ‘We now know who murdered Heather Lynley but we will need a concerted effort to clear up the final piece of this mystery. This is what we are sure of…’ There was a dramatic pause as he looked around to check everyone’s attention. ‘Crossworth hatched up a plan to destroy Giles Sable but it all went wrong and he ended up in the canal instead. However, it was Crossworth who killed Heather Lynley.’

  There were mmms and aahs after this statement and Smalacombe pressed on with a theme that was going to be difficult to express without confusion. ‘Sable is the guy who was demolishing A Gate Services with his hacking and Lynley had destroyed him when they broke up; he lost everything including his dignity.’

  ‘Crossworth and Lynley had also split and he wanted her dead. Crossworth considered that Sable had a good motive to murder her too and so he decided to frame him for it.’

  ‘But, let’s be clear, Crossworth also had a good motive to murder Lynley. They had fallen out, big time and he knew, with the aid of a private dick, that Lynley was compiling evidence regarding his corruption with the local district council. This was correct but some of his other assumptions were not. Unfortunately for him, he thought Rollisade was responsible for organising the hacking; he had no knowledge that Lynley was also behind that, which would have provided yet another motive anyway.’

  ‘If Crossworth had all of the facts, he would have known his scheme was compromised because Sable and Lynley were once again friendly. Lynley’s subterfuge in contacting Sable kept him in the dark. That was the one thing that killed them both.’

  ‘Crossworth had become the victim of Lynley’s fury and he wanted to be rid of her. I repeat; Crossworth’s idea therefore was to murder her but frame Sable for doing it. It now gets complicated,’ he warned.

  Sheldon shook his head and assessed it already was a mystery so how could it get more convoluted. He knew the details better than everyone else but even he was having difficulty in keeping up with it.

  Smalacombe carried on, ‘Crossworth knew he would be a suspect so the idea was not to deny his differences with Lynley but to imply that Sable was framing him for the murder.’

  ‘You said, he was framing…,’ someone piped up.

  ‘That’s right. Both ways. Crossworth set a plan so that it appeared that Sable had broken into Rosten House, stolen his shotgun, took it to Dartmoor and shot Lynley. All this would be reinforced with phoney evidence: Sable had stolen the car keys, which were planted in his home and when in Rosten House he wiped the computer, which would fit with Sable’s expertise, and of course the hacking. This would put Sable away forever, which was the sort of retribution of which Crossworth approved and he was rid of Lynley with no blame. The gun would have been left at the murder scene of course. Furthermore, it could have been months before she was found.’

  ‘May I butt in, sir,’ Emily spoke up and Smalacombe nodded. ‘Sable knew of the place where she was murdered and had visited it many times with her. We are pretty sure it was where his wife found them, which destroyed his marriage. It was Crossworth who tipped her off by the way. All of this fits in with Sable’s probable guilt. Thank you, sir.’

  Smalacombe took a breath, took a sip of water and restarted. ‘You’re right, Sergeant, but unfortunately, it all went wrong. Not surprising, I would say, as it was too clever by half. The problem was Lynley was not alone; someone else was there at the time. At the moment we can’t see how Crossworth could have overlooked that.’

  Emily interrupted, ‘I don’t think he did, sir, but that was another part of the plan that went wrong. I think Mr Macine, the private detective may well have some information to clarify this.’

  ‘Thank you, Sergeant. Number one job then! What we have to do is to discover who this other person is. We will want you all to go over again all the relationships that Lynley had and all her contacts. There is something we have overlooked.’

  Smalacombe looked across to his sergeant, ‘Sergeant, is there anything further you would like to add?’

  ‘Where do I start? Thank you, sir; I think you have provided us with a clear explanation of a very difficult story.’

  There were rumblings in the background of, ‘Clear? You’ve got to be joking,’ followed by a few suppressed giggles.

  Emily pressed on, ‘There are a number of other things of which we need to remind ourselves. There is a mysterious daughter of Crossworth’s who has not come forward to claim her inheritance. It may be she doesn’t know of it but if she does, she may be implicated in this. We know that the person we are looking for is Samantha Peckham’s father, who is not Michael Lynley by the way. We need to find the relationships Heather Lynley had some twenty five years ago.’ She looked back to her superior indicating she had finished.

  ‘Well, I think that’s about it. Lots to do I’m afraid.’

  *

  After the meeting the two retired to Smalacombe’s office as usual.

  ‘You said you have ideas about the third party, Emily?’

  ‘Olivia told me that Herbert Battle had a fling with Heather when they rented one of his cottages. The timing is about right with regard to Samantha’s birth and I think we should check him out and get a DNA sample from him.’

  ‘I’ve been thinking along those lines and done a few checks. He lost his driving licence last year for drunk driving. Don’t know why but he wasn’t fingerprinted. That puts into question how he could have got down there…Don’t interrupt, I know, he could carry on driving illegally but surely, if he had such a problem, he would have arranged for her to take him. The lines along which I am thinking are, she booked a double room at Woodlands and someone didn’t turn up.’

  ‘The point is, Dexter, whoever it is, he had known Heather for a very long time and, as we suggested just now, all the clues are in an older era.’

  ‘Could be a long list; another bloody month of investigation. My point is she was well known at the Woodland. Do you think she would have been at ease to turn up with somebody else?’

  ‘People do change partners these days, Dexter. Heather was certainly more relaxed about these things than most of us, as you have just suggested. She had not been there since her break up with Crossworth, so the gap may have been convenient. In any event, Battle had a problem on that Friday. I have checked things out as well,’ Emily riposted. ‘There was a difficulty with a tenant in Tiverton who set fire to his flat apparently. The local force were considering arson but have accepted that it was an accident. The guy had had a few drinks and had fallen asleep with a cigarette. He suffered some burns himself I believe. Battle had a lot of clearing up to do I suspect. It would certainly have postponed any outings to Dartmoor.’

  ‘Has anyone checked the tenant out?’

  ‘I hope so.’

  Smalacombe continued, ‘That is no, from my perspective.’ Emily looked puzzled. ‘Think about it. This can’t be a coincidence.’

  ‘Another long shot, Dexter?’ Emily made an inane comment because she was annoyed with herself that she didn’t consider there was a connection but such things did not pass by her superior.

  ‘Well, we’ve got to see Battle. We can nip out now.’

  *

  The detectives had not seen Herbie Battle in the flesh before and both were surpri
sed by his appearance. Smalacombe assessed him as a smoothie, with what was left of his grey hair carefully trimmed and combed and he smelt of posh soap. He was tall and slim and wore a plain blue shirt with a cravat. It was all finished off with a pair of designer jeans. From Emily’s perspective he was a man concerned about his appearance and he was tidy, quite good looking. However, she didn’t like his choice of clothing, in particular the cravat.

  The two showed their passes and Battle ushered them into his front room. It was very masculine, there were no knick-knacks but a couple of abstract paintings decorated the wall. The mantelpiece had a clock on it and a photograph of a woman in holiday mode by a yacht. The room was austere, beige, very clean, and everything, even the newspaper, had its place. They sat and began their conversation.

  ‘Mr Battle, we understand you knew Heather Lynley.’

  ‘She was a tenant of mine, with her sister many years ago.’

  ‘And you kept in touch.’

  ‘Mmm, yes, from time to time.’ Up to this point Battle appeared to be relaxed but Smalacombe detected that underneath he was tense.

  ‘Have you seen her recently?’ he asked.

  ‘What do you call recently? She’s dead isn’t she?’ Suddenly the relaxed facade diminished as did Smalacombe’s expectations.

  Smalacombe could see there were limits to Herbie Battle’s cooperation and he felt it necessary to explain his position. ‘Mr Battle, we are not here to question you. If we were, it would be formal at the station and with your representative as well. We just need background information and some help. We know that you knew both victims well; indeed Mrs Lynley very well.’

  ‘Crossworth and I were not friends.’

  ‘You had problems with him?’

  ‘He wasn’t keen on other people making money. I did explain to him once that there was enough of it around for all of us to have some of it. That wasn’t his philosophy.’

  Incidental information and questions carried on for some time and Smalacombe decided that running around the edges had continued long enough and it was time to be more specific. ‘Heather Lynley’s sister has told us you had an affair with Heather when they were in your cottage.’

  ‘Two points, Chief Inspector. Firstly, we were both single at the time, so it wasn’t an affair and secondly, what has that to do with anything?’

  ‘I take your first point and we will move on to the second,’ Smalacombe replied. ‘We have to explore every eventuality, Mr Battle and gradually eliminate each one until we arrive at a conclusion. There is one thing we need to know.’

  Smalacombe knew he had to careful here; he didn’t want to emphasise a link with forensics’ findings. ‘There is a problem with Heather’s will. Would you be prepared to give us a DNA sample?’ Smalacombe had no knowledge of Lynley’s will but he felt the fabrication might cover up the real purpose of the visit. If he was challenged over it at a later date he would excuse himself that it was a simple error; he meant Crossworth’s will. Emily looked across and he sensed she was about to correct him. He frowned and shook his head.

  ‘No, I bloody wouldn’t give you a sample and you have no right even to ask for one and what the hell have I got to do with Heather’s legacies?’

  ‘Now, let me enlarge on this. We do have the right to ask for your DNA and you have a right to refuse. However, we can get a court order if we can show it is necessary in the investigations of a serious crime.’

  ‘To do that you will have to have a watertight reason.’

  ‘And we have. I am not prepared to enlarge upon it. We can either get this off your back pretty quickly or it will drag on.’

  ‘Why?’

  Emily felt it was time to add something. ‘The fact is, Mr Battle we want to eliminate you from all of this. Are you Samantha’s father?’

  ‘What the bloody hell?’ Battle stared at each of them in turn waiting for an explanation. ‘Of course I am not. Heather married Mike and…’

  ‘Samantha arrived soon after.’

  ‘By the way,’ Smalacombe took up the interview once more, ‘Mr Lynley is not her father. Let’s be clear, it is unlikely that you would murder the mother of your child, especially if you have remained friendly with her. As my sergeant has said this could eliminate you from all of this.’ Smalacombe knew that the statistics would disprove his reasoning as murders within families were not uncommon.

  Herbie Battle was clearly set back with this information and it conveyed to both detectives that he was not aware that he may be Samantha’s father. ‘This really is nonsense,’ he stated.

  Smalacombe knew that he had to pretend this issue was not central but something that could lead to other things. It was not necessarily following the facts but he knew if Battle was alienated too much then things would be delayed. ‘We just have an issue with Samantha’s parenthood,’ he explained. ‘It would be in your interests to cooperate.’

  ‘If you expand on this issue then I may do.’

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t. These things have to remain under wraps until we know all the facts.’

  There was a period of silence as each member waited for the other to start up again. Finally Battle relented. ‘OK, I will cooperate but I have to say I am not happy about this and I will be contacting my solicitor.’

  ‘By all means, we are not pressurising you and you can withdraw your consent now if you feel this should have been done in the presence of your solicitor. I just feel it will help you as much as us. That’s why we have approached it in this way.’

  Battle did not back off and agreed to provide a sample as soon as possible. Emily was soon on her phone making arrangements.

  ‘May I ask where you were on that fateful day?’

  ‘I was here and no, I have no one to support it. My wife died two years ago,’ he pointed to the holiday photograph. ‘I am sure you have done your homework and you know I have lost my bloody licence so I am pretty much tied to things around here.’

  Emily butted in, ‘We have done our homework and it seems you had a problem that weekend with a tenant.’

  ‘I did: the Friday and Saturday were nightmares. He tried to burn the damned place down. It damaged the people’s flat above him…it was horrendous. I tell you sergeant; there are easier ways to earn a living than renting out property.’

  ‘Why did he do that?’

  ‘You wouldn’t enlarge on your information, as it was, hmmmm…what is it? Sub-judiciary?’

  ‘I don’t think so; the police have dropped all charges. It appears to have been an accident. OK, Mr Battle, we will move on and we will let you know the results as soon as we can.’

  ‘Typical of you lot. It’s too much trouble to chase it up. You let him go and yet you have time to harass me.’

  ‘I can assure you we are not harassing you. If we were you would know the difference,’ Smalacombe clarified.

  ‘Can you call in tomorrow for the procedure?’ Emily asked.

  ‘I can’t drive, you know that.’

  ‘We can arrange to bring you in…’

  ‘What? And with all the sodding neighbours twitching their net curtains?’

  ‘It will be done in a plain car and not with a uniformed officer.’

  As they drove back to the station Emily was concerned about something associated with the interview. ‘Dexter, is Crossworth’s daughter something for us or is it just a civil thing?’

  ‘It’s relevant for us as it may lead to who we are looking for.’ Smalacombe’s mind was on something different. ‘I am relieved that Battle agreed to give a sample. We could have got it anyway but it has saved a lot of hassle. I guess he knew that.’

  ‘Perhaps it isn’t his DNA anyway. That was my reaction. He seemed quite relaxed. The words wrong, tree and barking come to mind.’

  ‘Bugger! What about ‘mad’ as well?’ She’s probably right, as always, he thought. ‘I will get the super to chase up forensics; we can’t wait days for the DNA results. She will have more clout than me.’

  CHAP
TER 16

  On the Friday morning Smalacombe rang Gregory Macine, ‘We need a little more information, Gregory.’

  ‘I will see what I can do. Have you told Manik that I came to see you? I still haven’t been paid.’

  ‘No, I haven’t yet but I promise, if you can fill me in with this stuff, I will be right on to him.’

  ‘You hinted that the last time.’

  ‘I know, but I felt there was more I needed from you. I am sure you had investigated what Heather Lynley was doing on that fateful weekend.’

  ‘I did.’

  ‘And what did you tell Henry Crossworth?’

  ‘I found out that she was seeing an old flame and they were spending the weekend together at the Woodlands.’

  ‘And the old flame was?’

  ‘Somebody called Herbie.’

  ‘Thank you. What was Crossworth’s reaction?’

  ‘He just said it was something he would deal with.’

  ‘And he did?’

  ‘I have no idea.’

  ‘I will ring Manik immediately. Bye.’ Smalacombe honoured his promise.

  Shortly after the phone calls, forensics reported that it was Herbie Battle’s semen and traces of his DNA were found on one of the used tea cups. Smalacombe was elated and immediately set to work to arrest him and bring him in. At the interview, Battle was subdued. His solicitor had informed him of the police report that showed he was implicated and if he refused to cooperate none of the mitigating circumstances would appear, which would be to his disadvantage. He prepared himself for a difficult time.

  When the formalities were completed Smalacombe began the interview.

  ‘Mr Battle, your DNA results tell us you were with Heather Lynley just before she was murdered. We also know that Henry Crossworth knew you were seeing her.’

  Battle nodded, Smalacombe asked him to confirm it in words and he did. ‘I was, but I know nothing of Crossworth’s knowledge in all of this.’

  Battle’s solicitor intervened, ‘We are concerned that you tricked my client with false evidence in order to obtain his DNA sample. We are investigating this.’