Pale Horse, Dark Horse (The Lakeland Murders)

by Salkeld, J J

  Sanders held up his hand. ‘Sorry, mate, no can do. Barbara will plead to lesser charges, Andy, in return for her full co-operation. That’s a given from here on in. My concern is that the other two could really muddy the waters here, especially with the best legal advice known to man. After a few days any sensible jury won’t know if it’s coming or going.’

  ‘That’s your problem’ said Hall, a little too quickly.

  ‘With respect, it isn’t’ said Val Gorham. ‘We have to look at this in the wider context, Andy. For a start we’ve got the investigative costs to consider. Trying to disentangle the two brother’s versions of events would be hugely costly, and as you say may be a futile exercise anyway. And we have to remember one especially salient fact, that they’re identical twins. Their legal team will have a field day with that, because every single wit will be asked if they can be certain which brother they saw, spoke to or whatever. It would be a nightmare evidentially, and you know it. And, much as it pains me to say this, we do have to accept that their collective financial clout is material in this case. I know it shouldn’t be, but this is the real world we’re living in, Andy. So a worst case from here is that we tie you and God knows how many other detectives into building the case, and we end up having to accept lesser charges anyway.’

  ‘But it’s all there, ma’am’ said Hall. ‘They have to be stone cold on the conspiracy to murder Rupert, surely?’ said Hall.

  ‘Yes’ said Sanders, ‘I’m happy to charge both twins with that, based on what we have now. But the murder of Morrow is more problematic. What would you say to just the conspiracy, and leave Morrow on the books, if they were willing to go guilty on the conspiracy?’

  ‘No way’ said Hall, ‘absolutely no way, Tony. This is murder we’re talking about, not something with no consequences. A man lost fifty years of his life, and someone has to pay for that. I know he was a murderer himself, but that doesn’t change anything.’

  ‘Like Val says, we have to get real here, mate. Both twins will do some jail time, several years apiece, plus there’s the Morrow case hanging over them. You never know, a wit may come forward eventually, and we’ll nail them for that too.’

  Hall shook his head. ‘Two deaths, cold blooded murders, and all they’ll do is a few years in some bloody open prison, with the FT all round. Come on, ma’am, we can’t go for this. Blimey, Tony, anyone would think you’re taken in by all the airs-and-graces.’

  ‘I resent that, Andy.’

  Hall held up his hand. ‘So you should, mate, I apologise.’

  ‘This isn’t getting us anywhere’ said Val Gorham, ‘so before we decide what to go for I have a question for you, Andy.’ He nodded. He knew what was coming. ‘Realistically, will we have any material additional evidence, connected to either case, within the next twenty four to thirty six hours?’

  Hall shook his head. ‘The PM on Rupert isn’t going to tell us anything we don’t already know. And even if, by some miracle, we found something with their DNA on it I’m advised that it would be hard to tell the twins apart anyway, and quite possibly impossible. They’re just not old enough for genetic mutations to have changed their DNA substantially. The lab has already looked at the swabs we took from them and confirmed that’s a non-starter.’

  ‘Then that’s decided then. Tony, so long as your superiors are bought in all the way up the line then make your offer.’ Hall started to open his mouth, but Gorham held up a hand. ‘Don’t bother, Andy, you’re just preaching to the choir, as I believe our American cousins say. None of us likes this, but it’s the world we live in. It’s partly a case of return on investment to date, and partly a case of considering the opportunity cost of you and your team continuing with this investigation. If you spend the next six or nine months on this case, probably adding precious little to what we’ve already got, how many investigations will end up going to caution, or insufficient evidence?’

  Hall tried to intervene again, but Gorham hadn’t finished yet.

  ‘And don’t tell me that the time they’ll do isn’t enough. Of course it isn’t. But it’s still going to be more than that bloke who killed those two teenage cyclists while he was driving pissed got, isn’t it? Two weeks ago I had to try to tell the mother why I thought the outcome was the best we could have hoped for under the circumstances. The best? What a bloody joke.’

  ‘I know that, ma’am, but...’

  ‘This meeting is over, Andy. I’d tell you not to worry about it, that it’s down to the CPS rather than you, and I’d probably tell you not to lose any sleep over it. But I know I’d be wasting my breath. You and your team have done a great job here, a great job, and I have no doubt that the Chief will want to congratulate you personally in due course. But for now you have to let it go. You really do.’

  ‘But Barbara Plouvin doesn’t even do any jail time? Is that right?’

  Sanders nodded. ‘She gave the twins up, Andy, where the body of Rupert was, everything. And even Christopher isn’t trying to tie her to the actual killings, is he? Plus, she’s got young children, and the courts are bound to take that into consideration.’

  ‘I don’t know why. They’re away at boarding school most of the time.’

  ‘That’s as may be, but we need her on our side.’

  Hall shrugged. ‘I know when I’m beaten. And I suppose she’s going to be in a bit of an uncomfortable position when the twins get out. I imagine they’ll want her out of their lives, and off their land, sharpish.’

  ‘It’s even better than that, I’m happy to say. Apparently when they had kids Rupert changed his will, so she copped for the lot in her own lifetime if he pre-deceased her, but a couple of months before he died he changed it, and now she gets bugger all. It all goes straight to the kids, as soon as they’re eighteen. Jenkins was telling me earlier, pissing himself he was. He said he couldn’t believe that such a posh woman knew so many bad words, and could use them so inventively. She didn’t know, apparently. She’s spitting nails now, as you can imagine, I’m sure.’

  Hall smiled. ‘Couldn’t happen to a nicer woman really, could it?’

  ‘She is quite the charmer’ said Sanders. ‘For some reason she asked me what school I went to, and when I told her she said how sorry she was. I wouldn’t mind, but it nearly bankrupted my parents sending me to Eton like that.’

  Hall smiled at his joke, and eventually Gorham did too.

  ‘It’s been a long day, Andy, and you must be bushed. Get on home, you’ve done your bit. In six months time you’ll look back on this as a triumph. An absolute triumph.’

  Thursday, 27th June

  Jane couldn’t wait to get in to work, and she left Hall fast asleep. He’d had too much to drink when he’d got in the night before, which wasn’t like him, even though he hadn’t seemed in much of a mood to celebrate. The Plouvin twins had both been charged with conspiracy to murder their older brother, and Jane was surprised that Hall hadn’t stayed at work until it was all done and dusted. At about eight PM he got a text from Ray Dixon confirming that it was all done and dusted, and Jane thought he looked tired and a bit down when he read it out. But she knew better than to ask how he was feeling.

  For the first time in days it was dry and warm when Jane was setting out for work, and since she was back at Kendal station she decided to cycle in. As she was chaining up her bike she saw Val Gorham’s car sweep into the car park, and Jane stopped, hoping that Gorham wouldn’t have seen her. No such luck. Gorham waited by her car until Jane reached her, still trying to get her helmet unfastened as she walked.

  ‘I envy you being able to cycle to work, Jane’ said Gorham. ‘If I tried to pedal to work I’d have a coronary before I was half way over Shap.’

  Jane made a ‘surely not’ noise, and hoped that would be all.

  ‘Busy day ahead, Jane?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’ Jane kept walking, but Gorham had stopped, twenty yards short of the back door to the station, so Jane knew that more was expected from her. ‘I’ve had the sus
pect in those sexual touchings brought in. Ian Mann’s older brother, Phil, did the right thing. We’ve got the suspect cold for the first one now, and I’m hoping he’ll give us the other two as well.’

  Gorham nodded. ‘Good, good. None of us can control the behaviour of our siblings, but I wouldn’t have wanted any serious issues of that kind concerning the brother of one of my officers. If I remember rightly the third offence had some aggravating features?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  ‘Do you have any forensic evidence or eye witnesses to place this man at the scene?’

  ‘No, ma’am, I don’t.’

  ‘Then don’t be too surprised if he holds out on you, Jane. Even our Duty Solicitors do know when to stick, and when to twist. Anyway, good luck with it. And would you come and see me when you’re done? Anytime this morning would be fine.’

  Williams had been picked up at half seven, late enough so that the neighbours would see. Nobby Styles had left the blue lights on too, just to make sure. He’d hoped that Williams might kick off, but he hadn’t, and now he was sitting silently opposite Nobby and alongside one of the keenest, and also the youngest, of the Duty Solicitors. Jane had said to Nobby that the age and enthusiasm must be inversely correlated, but he’d just smiled. He often didn’t know what she was going on about.

  Jane took one look at Williams and knew that it wouldn’t take long. Williams looked on the verge of tears, and she didn’t feel remotely sorry for him.

  ‘Mr. Williams, you understand that you’ve been arrested in connection with three sexual assaults?’

  Williams turned slowly to the solicitor, who nodded.

  ‘Aye, I understand.’

  ‘Let’s start with the first one, the assault that took place on the first of this month on the Windermere Ferry. It’s the incident that we’ve spoken about before. You know the one that I’m talking about?”

  ‘Aye. The girl that got felt up in her car. That was me. I was just trying to talk to her, like. That’s all. I would never have harmed her, honest I wouldn’t.’

  ‘So you’re not denying that you left your car on the ferry, having persuaded Phil Mann to drive it off, and that you then hid in the back of Rita Bose’s car, before assaulting her when she stopped.’

  ‘Like I said, I just wanted to talk to her. I didn’t mean to frighten her.’

  ‘Come on, Mr. Williams. You don’t expect anyone to believe that, do you? You hid in the car of a young woman, travelling alone, and grabbed her from behind when she stopped. How did you expect her to feel?’ As she spoke Jane was aware that her voice had grown louder, and she tried to reduce the volume mid-sentence. She was aware that Nobby was looking at her, too.

  ‘All right, but nothing happened, did it?’

  ‘You mean that you didn’t rape her? No, you didn’t. What do you want, a medal?’

  ‘Look, DS Francis’ said the solicitor, who didn’t look much older than Andy Hall’s older daughter, ‘my client is co-operating fully here, and he isn’t denying that he was in the car, and that he touched Rita Bose. However, this was not a sexually motivated attack, and any touching was accidental, brief and on the outside of clothing. I do hope that’s very clear. A charge of sexual touching would not be justified by the evidence.’

  ‘So what about the other two attacks then, Mr. Williams? You’ve admitted one, so why not the other two? Get them off your chest. You’ll feel so much better.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘You seriously expect us to believe that three attacks, within three weeks of each other and all just a few miles apart, were actually perpetrated by at least two different offenders? Think about it, Mr. Williams, what jury is going to believe that?’

  Williams looked briefly at his solicitor.

  ‘That’s as maybe, but I didn’t attack anyone else. That lass from the ferry taught me a lesson, and that’s the God’s honest truth.’

  ‘I don’t believe you. You’re a liar as well as a pervert, Mr. Williams. You’re a cowardly little man who preys on women, isn’t that right?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You’re a pathetic sexual inadequate, aren’t you?’

  ‘Please, DS Francis’ said the solicitor, looking alarmed. Jane felt Nobby’s hand on her arm, and she pushed him away, hard.

  ‘So you like hurting women, but you’re not man enough to own up to what you’ve done? Is that it?’

  ‘That’s enough, DS Francis’ said the solicitor, her face red. ‘I need you to terminate this interview now, then I would like to talk to my client, and then to the senior officer in this station. Is that clear?’

  Afterwards Nobby did what he could, but it didn’t help. He knew it wouldn’t, but he just couldn’t help himself but try.

  ‘You have to keep your distance, Jane. You know that. It’s rule one these days. The days when the bosses would back you up, they’re long gone, love. And when some scumbag walks, or gets yet another fucking caution to add to the collection that would paper their walls if they could ever be arsed to actually decorate the pigsties they live in, then you have to let it go. Now calm down, and get ready to kiss a bit of Superintendent shaped arse to make this one go away. I’d play the sisterhood card, if I were you.’

  ‘Oh, fuck off, Nobby’ she said, ‘and just leave me alone.’

  When Jane finally called Andy he was already in Penrith.

  ‘You want me to come down and talk to Gorham?’ he asked when she’d explained what had happened. ‘It’s just admin from here on with the Plouvins, worse luck, and the CPS suits have all gone now, so I can easily work from Kendal.’

  ‘Christ, no, Andy, that’s the worse thing you could do. No, I’ll take my bollocking from Gorham and see how it goes.’

  ‘OK, just remember, if she talks about anything on your record, anything disciplinary, say you want the Union rep in on the conversation. That should make her be careful at least.’

  ‘How do you do it, Andy? How have you managed it, all these years? How do you live with all the politics, all this politically correct fucking health and safety blame the parents bullshit?’

  Hall laughed. ‘No better than you do, I expect. I just internalise it a bit more successfully, I suppose.’ They both knew he was veering back towards personal issues, her constant pleas for him to talk about his feelings about her, about his divorce, about almost anything. ‘But listen’ he said, trying to get the conversation back onto a practical track, ‘make sure that you get the charges you want on Williams anyway. At the very least he’s going to be branded a sex offender in court, and he’s going to be on the Register. So if he tries anything in future we’ll have every right to knock him up at four in the morning, won’t we?’

  Jane went quiet. ‘I hope I haven’t blown it, that’s all.’

  ‘Don’t worry. He came across on the Rita Bose assault, whatever it goes down as, and that’s something. Plus, he got chucked across a bedroom in the middle of the night by a woman half his size, which must have got his attention. All being well he’s realised that he’s picked the wrong kind of offending. Pound to a penny we’ll never see him again.’

  By the time Jane knocked on Val Gorham’s door she was calmer. She’d sent a text to Nobby, apologising, and he’d said that he got worse grief at home on a daily basis, and not to give it another thought. Jane had met Nobby’s wife at a Christmas do, and she wasn’t entirely sure whether or not he was serious.

  But Val Gorham was serious.

  ‘Sit down, DS Francis. I’ve just spent forty minutes with that young Duty Solicitor, and I’ve just got off the phone with the CPS. Tim Williams will take a caution for the assault on Rita Bose, but it’s not sexual touching, and he won’t go on the Register. The other two stay on the file, and he will be made aware what that means.’

  ‘But, ma’am...’

  ‘No, you listen to me. You’re very lucky not to be the subject of a formal complaint, which would undoubtedly have gone against you, and the price of that esc
ape was a reduction in the charges against Williams. That girl looks as if she should still be at school, but she offered the CPS a pretty well-judged deal. So what you need to understand, DS Francis, is that your utterly unprofessional behaviour in that interview today cost you a conviction for sexual touching, it’s as simple as that. So let’s pray to God, or whatever it is that gave us the likes of Mr. Williams, that he doesn’t offend again.’

  Gorham paused, but not for long enough for Jane to say anything. ‘Now, I’m going to ask you a question, and don’t give me any of that time of the month nonsense or you’ll be checking lorry tyres on the M6 for the next five years. But what the hell got into you? I’ve listened to that tape and it’s absolutely shocking, like you forgot everything you’ve ever learned.’

  ‘I don’t know, ma’am, I just don’t. There was something about him, that’s all. Maybe it was the fact that he attacked someone in our street. It’s crazy I know, but I did think he might have been after me the other night. Andy did too.’

  Gorham looked steadily at Jane.

  ‘I see. Well, that is possible, I suppose. But there’s a price to be paid for this, Jane, even if there’s going to be no formal disciplinary procedure.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  ‘I will speak to the head of professional development, and we’ll see what courses you should attend. I expect there’ll be several, and I also expect to hear that you have excelled in all of them in due course. Is that understood?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  ‘I also raised the possibility of a transfer, didn’t I? Well I’m afraid that door has now closed, at least for the moment. I’m sorry, because I had very high hopes for you, Jane, but you need to understand that the way you behaved is not acceptable, not in contemporary policing, not under my command. I expect you’re disappointed, aren’t you?’