In Vino Veritas
Page 22
‘He was arrested on the same day,’ Harry Vicary replied, ‘as was his brother, Eric, Victoria Keynes’s father. Zolton Lis was charged with the murder of Victoria Keynes and Eric Keynes was charged with conspiracy to murder her. The charges were based on witness testimony from Andrew Cragg and David “Chinese Geordie Davy” Danby, and also on the results of the test firing of the point twenty-two we found when we searched Zolton Lis’s house. Striations on the control bullet matched the striations found on the bullets which Doctor Shaftoe extracted from Victoria Keynes’s body. Once he realized the game was up he gave all sorts of information about the jobs he’d done for Woodhuyse, aka McLaverty, but we’ll still have difficulty proving he ordered the deaths of the men Lis claims he ordered.’
‘No bodies?’ Kathleen Vicary clarified.
‘Yes … exactly; it matters not what is claimed, it is the fact that no bodies have been recovered which will make the Crown Prosecution Service reluctant to act on Lis’s claims, but Woodhuyse doesn’t know that, so he’ll sweat for a while.’
‘But Lis won’t be able to apply for protected persons’ status as a means of getting away with it?’ Kathleen Vicary’s voice contained a note of urgency.
‘No … not a chance … no way.’ Harry Vicary shook his head vigorously. ‘Zolton Lis and his brother Eric will both collect two life sentences for the murders of Victoria Keynes and Audrey Short, but their cooperation, particularly Zolton Lis’s cooperation, means that they might, just might, avoid a whole life sentence, which means they’ll serve less than twenty-five years each … that, though, remains to be seen. It depends on the judge.’
‘Woodhuyse’s team?’ Kathleen Vicary asked.
‘Scattered to the four winds from his lieutenants down to his gofers … All gone, all saving their tails. The Economic Crime Unit boys will probably never find all of them – maybe in the future they’ll be arrested in connection with some other felony, but not in connection with Woodhuyse’s money-washing operation.’ Harry Vicary glanced up at the clear blue, cloudless sky. ‘But the good news is that the ECU found the weight of the sixty million pounds stolen in Southampton. As soon as Woodhuyse’s arrest was made public a haulage contractor came forward. He told the police that they’d found all the loot in an old derelict bus he had in the corner of his yard. It was apparently the case that Woodhuyse had threatened him and his family with serious harm if he didn’t cooperate, and he also threatened to torch the man’s fleet of lorries into the bargain … all thirty-eight of them. It would have put him out of business. The ECU accepted his story and he won’t be charged with any crime.’
‘And the minor players …’ Kathleen Vicary squeezed her husband’s arm. ‘What happened to them?’
‘Well, Cragg and Danby slithered down the protected persons’ mole hole. They’ll give evidence against him and start a new life somewhere north of the River Trent. “Milkie” Raysin … well, he’ll wheeze out his last days in his beloved East End. He is of no more interest to the CPS; he’s a dying man and too peripheral to the case.’
‘Mrs Keynes?’ Kathleen Vicary glanced at her husband.
‘Oh …’ Harry Vicary groaned. ‘Poor, wretched woman … she really is the third victim of the brothers Lis. Penny Yewdall went alone to see her to break the news that for the last twenty years she had been sharing a bed with a man who had fully sexually exploited their daughter from the age of about thirteen, and had also sexually exploited, though to a lesser extent, her daughter’s friend in the Girl Guides – and who knows how many other girls? When Victoria confronted her father and told him she was going to the police, both brothers decided it would be better if Gillian Keynes knew nothing, and so both girls disappeared using Zolton Lis’s specialism in that area. It transpired that Eric Keynes knew of his brother’s service to gangland London, though he took no part in it … They rationalized it away like that. Woodhuyse didn’t know that Lis had murdered his wife. We were obliged to tell him … He was speechless.’
‘Meaning it was better for the brothers Lis if the girls disappeared?’ Kathleen Vicary stared fixedly ahead as she walked. ‘Even if it was his own daughter?’
‘Exactly. They were not at all concerned about Gillian Keynes’s feelings but fortunately, probably at the request of his brother, Zolton didn’t cut up Victoria’s body and it was eventually discovered when a drunken man told an undercover cop all about it.’ Harry Vicary paused. ‘But Gillian Keynes, when Penny broke the news as gently as she could … the poor woman went into a state of shock and Penny had to call an emergency ambulance. She was discharged from hospital a few days later and will probably be on anti-depressant medication for the rest of her life.’
‘As you say,’ Kathleen Vicary commented, ‘she was the third victim.’
A crisp, dry, bronze-coloured leaf fell to the ground immediately in front of the Vicarys. Both noticed it, but neither commented.