by Bill Kitson
‘I’ve been following up on the abattoir lead, and I think I might have got something useful. You remember that the butchers share the yard with an undertaker? Well, I spoke to their managing director and he told me something interesting. They lost a member of staff a while back, a man who worked as a hearse driver and pallbearer. He had to resign on health grounds, because sadly, he’d been diagnosed with a serious illness. In fact, it was terminal. The man was part Caribbean by birth, which caused a lot of ribbing at work, because his colour didn’t match his surname — which is White.’
Nash looked at her; then transferred his gaze to Mironova. ‘White, wasn’t that the name of Wes Stanton’s common-law wife?’
‘It was indeed,’ Clara responded.
‘That’s not all,’ Andrews continued, ‘I found out something else about Amy White. Not only was she seemingly the mother of Clyde White, the man who worked for the undertaker, but she was also the estranged wife of Gus Harvey and the mother of Dale Harvey.’
‘Where is Clyde White now?’ Nash asked when he and Clara had recovered from the shock of Lisa’s revelations.
‘His illness got the better of him. He died last weekend. His body is in the undertaker’s Chapel of Rest, awaiting funeral instructions. If none are forthcoming, he will be cremated once the undertaker gets official permission.’
* * *
The team now faced a frustrating wait until reports came back. The first they received was from analysis of the note Clara had collected from the Gazette offices. Having eliminated anyone else who might have handled the note, including Becky, the deputy editor and the crime reporter, the forensic department reported having lifted an unidentified partial print from the corner of one sheet of paper.
Shortly after getting this, another development loomed when Pearce received the file on Denise Potter’s suicide back from Tom Pratt in Netherdale. Tom had attached a query to the file, which showed that he still retained his detection skills. The note suggested that the suicide of a teenager who had ended her life in such dramatic fashion might have had high profile locally. In view of that, there could well be photographs that were taken at the time and printed in the media, and that these photos might be of some use.
‘If there are any in existence,’ Clara told Pearce, ‘they would probably have appeared in the Gazette around the time of the article you found. If I were you, I’d ask Mike to follow up on that lead. I believe he has some influence there.’
Pearce grinned. ‘That’s a different way of putting it, but I think I’ll do it.’
* * *
A couple of days later, Viv presented the team with a photo that was obviously a copy taken from the newspaper’s back editions. It was not of particularly good quality, but in the centre of the shot was the dead girl’s father, and alongside, her only other living relative, her sister Fiona. As soon as Mironova and DC Andrews saw the photo, they commented how like the fair-haired Fiona was to a younger version of Katy Morgan, the woman they had met at the flat below Georgina Drake’s.
‘We’re both sure it’s the same woman,’ they told Nash.
‘I can’t see it,’ he replied.
‘No, but you’re not a woman — and, as far as I’m aware, you don’t use hair dye,’ Clara added scathingly. ‘We can both see a strong resemblance. What we can’t believe is that she did all those murders alone.’
‘Perhaps she had help from Clyde White before he became too ill,’ Lisa suggested.
‘That would certainly fit the facts that we do know,’ Clara agreed.
Nash was examining the photo closely and didn’t reply for a minute. ‘That could be so,’ he said eventually, ‘but perhaps she had assistance from more than one person. I can’t be certain, because the quality of this copy is so poor, and the person I’m looking at is at the side of this photo, but I think I recognize someone else in this shot, even though it was taken a long time ago. The person I’m looking at might well have been Jack Burrell’s girlfriend, in which case it would make sense.’
‘Who are you talking about?’
Nash pointed to the edge of the photo. ‘That girl there. You’ve met her, Clara, what do you think? Add a few years, and I reckon that could very well be Toni Chandler, my fitness instructor, who is the woman who found Burrell’s body in the Bishopton swimming pool.’
‘That doesn’t prove she was his girlfriend, though,’ Clara pointed out.
As she was speaking, Nash remembered something Toni had told him. ‘He even wears earplugs when he takes a shower,’ he muttered.
‘What?’
‘When Toni was talking about Burrell, she mentioned that he wore earplugs in the shower because of something that happened to him in one of his fights, probably a perforated eardrum. How would she know such an intimate detail if they were merely casual acquaintances?’
‘If your assumption is correct and she was Burrell’s girlfriend, that would certainly give her a motive for revenge, if she was convinced he’d been murdered,’ Clara agreed.
‘And I could see that Clyde White could have had an equally strong reason to avenge the death of his father, Wes. But I can’t see where Fiona Potter fits into that scenario,’ Lisa argued.
‘Remember that sign around Dale Harvey’s genitals that read “RAPIST”?’ Nash prompted them. ‘What if Dale and Chad Wilkinson raped Fiona’s sister? The position in which they were found, one with the dummy in the car, and the hand-written sign on the other, could be intended to point us to that.’
‘That’s one heck of a theory, even for you, Mike,’ Clara suggested. It was clear that both she and Lisa were appalled by the idea Nash had put forward, and the horrific crime it suggested.
‘I admit it’s a wild idea, but judging by what we’ve already learned about them, I don’t think there is very much that was beyond either Chad Wilkinson or Dale Harvey. However, as you pointed out, it is all speculation, very much like so many other parts to this case, we need solid proof. Meanwhile, we can make a start by organising a search of the place where Clyde White lived. That might give us what we need.’
Nash had barely finished speaking when he was struck by another random thought. ‘I think we ought to follow up on that suicide,’ he told Clara. ‘It might be worth having a word with Mexican Pete about her case. Because she was pregnant, they might have taken a DNA sample from the embryo to try and establish paternity. It might be worth checking that against Chad Wilkinson and Dale Harvey’s DNA.’
‘You think Dale might be the father?’
‘If our theory is correct, it could be either him or Chad Wilkinson.’
‘There’s only one problem with your theory, Mike. How would her family know about the paternity?’
‘They might have done if she left a suicide note naming the man or men who had raped her, a note that a family member such as her sister might have found.’
Clara thought about what Mike had said, but only for a few seconds. ‘I’ll ring Mexican Pete right now. Let’s hope we get lucky. We’re overdue a slice of good fortune the way things have been going.’
‘Yes, and while you’re doing that, I think I’ll cite pressure of work and cancel my next training session at the leisure centre.’
* * *
The address given by Clyde White’s employer, turned out to be a small flat in a building on the outskirts of Netherdale, close to the ring road. Having spoken with the landlord beforehand, Nash and Mironova donned protective clothing before entering the premises alongside the forensic team.
The precautions turned out to be unnecessary. The flat was almost empty, with White’s few possessions all packed away in cardboard boxes which were stacked neatly on the far wall of the living room. The fridge had been emptied, and it, together with the freezer, had been switched off, the doors left open to avoid mould forming. It appeared that White, knowing that he was dying, had done his utmost to prevent anyone being inconvenienced by his demise. On the mantelpiece of the fireplace in the sitting room was a collection of env
elopes. They were addressed in turn to the landlord of the building, the funeral director, the local branch of a major bank, and the last one, to their surprise, was headed FAO Detective Inspector Nash, Helmsdale CID.
Nash opened the envelope, a somewhat laborious procedure while wearing latex gloves, and began to read what was essentially a confession. As Nash remarked later, it was one of the saddest documents he had ever seen, both because it emphasized how many lives had been sacrificed to one man’s greed and the lust of others, and also because of the lonely, futile and short existence of the writer.
“Dear Inspector Nash,
We have not met, nor will we — in this life. By the time you receive this, I will be dead, and will answer for my crimes to a higher court than yours. I freely admit that I am the person you have been seeking regarding the recent spate of murders. In owning up to these killings, I have no sense of shame, for the people I selected to die were all worthless in their own way, and deserved to pay for the suffering they inflicted on others. You will notice that I do not refer to them as victims, for by their action or inaction, they allowed the perpetrators of far more wicked crimes than any I committed to roam free to commit further atrocities.
For many years I believed that justice had failed me. When I was diagnosed with the illness which is killing me, I finally realized that there is no justice or fairness in this life. If there had been, I would be fit and healthy and the evil ones would be ailing. It seems to me that whatever you need from life must be grabbed using only your own initiative and not relying on fate, or others, to decide for you.
Once I had begun my campaign of retribution, it soon became apparent from the answers I received just how far the depravity and evil I was up against extended. It was to put an end to such wickedness that I continued to act as I did. Sadly, I am becoming aware that my work is far from over, but it will be for others to continue, otherwise all I have achieved will be for nothing.
Going back to the reason for everything that has happened: When the judge at the trial of those two hoodlums disputed the verdict of the jury that acquitted them, he referred to the crime they later confessed to having committed as being one of the most heartless in his experience. Even he, in his wisdom, could not have had the foresight to see exactly how heartless it was, and how far-reaching the effects of that appalling decision would be.
Heartless as the original crime was, those who connived together to cover up the guilt were as heartless as the perpetrators. The effect of that decision proved to be the final blow to my mother’s ailing health, and following the verdict I was forced to abandon my own plans for the future to nurse her as she succumbed in prolonged agony to the illness that eventually took her life. To this day I believe that had my father not been murdered by those men, and had they not been acquitted of that crime, my mother’s passing would have been much easier.
Once I was aware of my condition, I determined that as I, who was innocent of all blame, had been condemned to death, so too the others responsible for so much misery and suffering would also have to die, and I began by excising the evil surrounding them, the wickedness that has lain dormant for so long. Achieving what I have does seem to have restored a level of fairness and equality, but it saddens me that I will die before my task is complete. However, perhaps when I am gone, others might be able to persuade those remaining to learn a salutary lesson from all that has happened, and to live a better life in future.
In beginning the campaign, I used what medical training I had acquired before I was forced to abandon my studies after my father’s murder. I operated on and caused the deaths of Georgina Drake, Henry Maitland, Richard Graham and your colleague Detective Inspector Frank Hoyland, who between them were the conspirators who perverted the course of justice at the instigation of Gus Harvey, who blackmailed and bribed each and every one of them.
That is not an allegation; it is the truth, given to me by each of them before they died. Should you look through the boxes on the wall next to you, you will see DVDs marked with numbers. Those discs contain their confessions. Having heard these, I turned my attention to the killers themselves, and began with Chad Wilkinson. My intention was to move on from him to Dale Harvey and then his father, but events and my illness overcame me before I could achieve my goal. Time literally ran out on me.
This confession, if you wish to class it as such, is freely given, and to this end I have summoned up my failing strength to commit it all to paper in my own handwriting, so there can be no doubt that it is genuine. I trust I have done enough and shown enough for you to be able to pursue the only man I have been thwarted in my desire to punish, Gus Harvey. His evil far transcends all the others. His greed was responsible for every misdemeanour committed by others guided by his malign influence. I wish you every success in committing him to the incarceration that is his long overdue just desserts.
Yours Faithfully,
Clyde White.”
Chapter Twenty-three
The discovery at White’s flat posed as many questions as it answered. Chief among these, which even the confession and the evidence provided by the discs failed to address, was the whereabouts of Gus Harvey. He had now been missing for well over a week, and despite a widespread search, no trace of him had yet been found. Once the doctors gave the all-clear, an interview with his son, Dale, yielded no information regarding the fate of the missing millionaire. The talk to Dale Harvey also failed to give any indication of what had happened to him, although the supplementary evidence of his condition when he had been found gave some clue as to what sort of ordeal he had gone through prior to being discovered in humiliating and highly public circumstances.
The team discussed this and other matters at a meeting convened and chaired by Superintendent Fleming. ‘So far all we have to show for this investigation is a dead man’s confession and one person still unaccounted for,’ she told them. ‘I would like some constructive ideas as to how to find that missing man — alive or otherwise, so we can look towards wrapping this case up.’
‘It isn’t quite as straightforward as that,’ Nash told her, ‘there are a number of crimes dating back several years still unaccounted for.’ He listed them: ‘There is the suspected rape of the girl, Denise Potter, the murders of Wes Stanton and Jack Burrell, and the suborning of jurors, witnesses and a police officer at the trial that resulted in the acquittals. They still have to be answered for, and there is at least one person, Dale Harvey, in a position to stand trial for all those offences; if we can gather evidence against him. The easiest way would be by getting him to confess to his part in them.’
‘I think Dale Harvey can consider himself extremely lucky that White was failing in health and was unable to finish him off in the same way as the others,’ Lisa Andrews commented. ‘It’s a shame he can’t remember much about where he was being kept, apart from it being a cold dark room with no exterior light source.’
‘I thought we’d established that it must have been the abattoir,’ Fleming stated.
‘No, that must be wrong,’ Nash contradicted her. ‘For one thing the abattoir is in regular use by Lee Giles and the other butchers, and for another, there are windows high up, covered with grating to let air circulate. They would also let light in. No, Dale Harvey — and probably the others — were kept somewhere else, and the abattoir was only used for the final operation, the one that allowed the blood to be collected in the tank. We have to look elsewhere for their prison.’
‘Oh good, just when I thought we were on the way to getting everything settled.’
Nash smiled at Fleming’s sarcasm, but continued, ‘I think we should look at who might have been involved with White in the abductions and murders. We know the victims weren’t kept at his place, because there is nowhere matching the description Dale gave at his flat. We do know, or think, that he was held prisoner along with Chad Wilkinson, so why kill one and not the other? If they were both involved in the rape and murders, as we suspect, that doesn’t make sense, unless White
was too ill to finish the job. That, in turn, suggests that it was not White who placed Dale in that humiliating posture and took the images of him that appeared on the internet. I think we should look elsewhere, and I think the best place to start would be with Fiona Potter. I believe she might be responsible for what happened to Dale, and also for Gus Harvey’s disappearance.’
‘That runs contrary to your argument, surely,’ Fleming objected, ‘Gus Harvey had nothing to do with what happened to her sister. If we believe what White alleges, that was down to Dale Harvey and Chad Wilkinson. Fiona Potter has no argument with Gus Harvey.’
‘No, but her friend Toni Chandler, who we believe was Jack Burrell’s girlfriend certainly had an argument with him. If she knew that Gus Harvey had ordered Jack Burrell’s murder, she would have been keen for revenge. It’s possible that all three of them were involved from the beginning. How else would Fiona Potter and Clyde White know one another, except if they were introduced by a mutual acquaintance? Added to that, consider the way that comedian Dickie Donut’s body was found, with the wires that supported him being strung from hooks in the ceiling. To put those in place would have been an arduous task for most people, but it would have been simple for an athletic person such as Toni Chandler.’
* * *
Once the meeting was over, Clara went to Nash with an idea. ‘Going on from what you said earlier, I was thinking that if the block of flats where Georgina Drake lived is still for sale, the flat below will be unoccupied. We should check it out. It might be a good idea to send Forensics in to give it a once-over. If it was Fiona Potter who occupied the flat, it would be better if we had solid proof rather than having to rely on our eyesight, and we can’t be absolutely certain it’s the same person. The image in that photo just looks a lot like a younger version of the woman we met as Katy Morgan.’
Nash looked at her for a moment. ‘Occasionally, Clara, you come up with a really bright idea.’ He qualified the compliment by adding, ‘it’s a shame it doesn’t happen more often. I’ll see what I can do. I’ll check with the landlord that the place hasn’t been cleaned top to bottom first, otherwise we could be wasting our time.’ He picked up the phone.
