Doing the Best I Can_A Manchester Crime Story featuring DSI Jeff Barton

by David Menon

  Rashid laughed. ‘Same old then’. He’d first met Barton years ago when he was going out with Rashid’s younger sister but the relationship kind of fizzled out after a while and although Rashid would’ve liked to have seen it work because he really liked Barton, he didn’t think that his conservative and traditionally minded parents would’ve approved of their daughter marrying a non- Muslim. He and Barton had remained good friends though ever since and Rashid and his wife had been guests at Barton’s wedding to his late wife Lillie Mae.

  ‘So what have you done with our June Hawkins? She’s usually in your shoes at this stage of an investigation’.

  ‘She’s on leave’ Rashid answered. ‘Gone off on a river cruise of Vietnam and Cambodia with her sister Beth apparently. So you’ll have to put up with me’.

  Barton introduced Rashid to DCI Wright who could see that the two men were close. They then put on their protective clothing and moved to where the young girl’s body had been found. The sight of the naked female body made both Barton and Wright wince. She was only young, maybe in her twenties. Her skin was porcelain white which made the black burn marks even more striking. Barton knew they didn’t need to go down the route of identification because they knew, from who her parents were and it was them who’d called it in, that her name was Stacey Donaldson and fiancé of that suspect in the Karina Kowaleski murder, Scott Delaney.

  ‘Well, as you can probably see, the cause of death to this young lady looks like electrocution. I’d say she was placed somewhere, like on a chair for instance, and restrained because of the marks on her wrists, ankles and other places. Electrodes were placed exactly where you see the evidence of the black marks’.

  ‘The poor girl’ said Wright. ‘How long had she been dead, Dr. Ahmed?’

  ‘Call me Rashid, please, and no more than a few hours’ Rashid answered. ‘I’d say twelve at the most’.

  ‘Just like Karina Kowalewski’ said Barton.

  ‘Ah, yes’ said Rashid. ‘The Polish girl who was also found electrocuted. June Hawkins handled that one before she went on holidays’.

  ‘No charges were made against the suspect they had because I understand there was no clear evidence of his guilt’ said Barton. ‘But that suspect was the boyfriend of our victim here’.

  ‘Well that’s a bit of a coincidence’.

  ‘I know’ said Barton. He wondered for a moment what would happen if Scott Delaney, the said suspect who DS Masters said he wouldn’t charge because he didn’t believe in his guilt does turn out to be a killer? Would it mean that justice wasn’t served because of a combination of the circuit’s meddling and DS Masters sheer incompetence? He still had his money on the former but there was always that shadow of a doubt.

  ‘And that could shine a whole new light on things’ said Wright.

  ‘You can say that again, Ollie’.

  When Barton and Wright rang the bell outside the front door of the Donaldson home Barton knew they may be in for a frosty reception. Or even a potentially violent one. Stacey Donaldson’s parents had been adamant that their daughter’s fiance Scott Delaney had been responsible for the murder of Karina Kowalewski. All they had to support their assertions were the time old suspicions of parents who think their daughter chose beneath her and for her fiancé to have had sex with a woman who later found dead just proved they’d ben right all along. But to carry that through and charge someone for murder is a rather different thing altogether.

  ‘Nice place’ Wright remarked as he and Barton walked up the drive to the Donaldson house. It was a large, rambling kind of place set in lots of ground with a verandah going all the way round at first floor level.

  ‘It’s a bit sort of empire looking don’t you think?’ said Barton.

  ‘Oh yea for sure’ said Wright who then turned round and took in the sight of the Peak District hills stretching out as far as his eye could see and blending with the Yorkshire dales beginning to show on the distant horizon to the east. ‘Fantastic view though. I’d never tire of looking at all that’.

  Barton pressed the buzzer just outside the front door.

  ‘This isn’t going to be easy, Ollie’ said Barton with a sigh. ‘Mark Donaldson will no doubt want to blame us for what’s happened to his daughter. He’ll say we should’ve arrested Scott Delaney for the murder of Karina Kowalewski and if we had then his daughter would still be alive’.

  ‘Yes, given the background to this case I can see all of that coming too, sir’.

  ‘What are your impressions of DS Masters?’

  ‘Hard to say really, sir’ Wright answered. ‘I’ve only just met both him and DC Ng. But they both seem okay so far. I don’t think I can say more than that at this stage really’.

  Mark Donaldson opened the door and immediately regretted it. ‘The police are the last people I want to see this morning. You’re all such gutless wonders these days. Well anyway, I suppose you’d better come in. I know the procedure. I just never thought I’d have to apply it to the fate of my own daughter’.

  Donaldson led his unwelcome visitors into what he called the lounge which had a floor to ceiling window giving the most amazing view of the Hills. Wright could see aircraft in the middle distance that he thought must be approaching Manchester airport. They must be landing from the east today, he thought. The house itself was furnished with stuff that he would probably never be able to afford. Everything was perfectly placed and immaculately polished and he didn’t feel entirely comfortable in this edifice to wealth and the influence that surely came with it. He was almost nervous placing one front in front of the other and he pulled himself together when he realised that it was probably designed to intimidate those who visited and who could never aspire to such grandeur.

  ‘Mr. Donaldson’ Barton began. ‘Please accept our sincere condolences for the loss of your daughter’.

  Donaldson snorted. ‘Does that go for your DS Masters too?’

  ‘Of course it does, Mr. Donaldson’ said Barton who thought that Donaldson looked not surprisingly pretty distraught by what had happened. That would’ve been expected of anyone else but maybe it did prove that Donaldson had a heart after all.

  ‘Mr. Donaldson, would you be okay to answer a couple of questions about your daughter’s recent movements? We can come back at another time if you’d prefer?’

  ‘My wife is in no fit state to talk to you yet, detective’ said Donaldson. ‘She’s upstairs. The doctor has given her a sedative. But as far as I’m concerned you know all about my professional career no doubt and therefore you’ll know that I can handle myself through difficult circumstances however personal they may be. I want my daughter’s killer at the mercy of the justice system sooner rather than later’.

  ‘That’s what we want too, sir’ said Barton.

  ‘That’s rich considering it was your DS Masters who let him through your fingers’ said Donaldson. His face was set. His eyes were cold. They were aimed straight at Barton. ‘He as much as killed her by not apprehending Scott Delaney when he had the bloody chance! By not putting Delaney away for the murder of that Polish girl he’s got my daughter’s blood on his hands’.

  Barton was raging inside. There were some things you could understand when people were in shock and crisis and didn’t have anything left but to throw out shit. But that last accusation went beyond being acceptable.

  ‘I won’t respond to that outrageous accusation because you’re in shock and no matter how you view your own emotional capabilities, I’ll put it down to the shock you’ve suffered’.

  ‘Don’t you bloody dare patronise me with your considerations, Barton! Masters as much as killed her and you know it’.

  ‘Mr. Donaldson, I think you’re clearly too upset to talk to us today. We’ll leave it until tomorrow when perhaps you’ll have had time to reconsider your perspective against DS Masters and allow us the chance to get on with the job of finding your daughter’s killer’.

  Barton and Wright got up and made for the door.

  ‘
You don’t need to go looking for my daughter’s killer!’ Donaldson charged after them. ‘You’ll find him at his office acting as if butter wouldn’t bloody melt. And if you don’t do your job this time then I will’.

  ‘Mr. Donaldson I must warn you very strongly against taking the law into your own hands’ warned Barton. What a bloody joke though. This Donaldson character had taken the law into his own hands along with his friends in the circuit for years. ‘Now I’m the investigating officer on this case and I’m bloody good at my job. DS Masters is and will remain a member of my team. End of. Now whatever else you may have heard about me from whatever source I suggest you ignore it’.

  ‘So you didn’t have an affair with Lena Hermitage?’

  ‘That’s my personal business and nothing to do with finding your daughter’s killer’ Barton retorted. ‘And if you think you can use your bullying ways on me, Donaldson, then you can forget it because you’ll soon find that you’ve picked on the wrong one’.

  ‘Well that went well’ said Wright as he drove himself and Barton back to the station. ‘Sir, can I ask you something?’

  ‘I’m afraid I don’t know the national lottery numbers for this week, Ollie’.

  Wright smiled. ‘Okay, well I’ll have to ask someone else about that’.

  ‘So what do you want to know?’

  ‘Was there a history of domestic violence between Scott Delaney and Stacey Donaldson?’

  ‘None at all’ Barton answered. ‘I’ve been all over the case notes and there’s absolutely nothing to suggest anything of that sort’.

  ‘So something to do with that can be ruled out?’

  ‘Yes, I believe it can, Ollie’.

  ‘And you’ve read the case notes, sir. Do you think that DS Masters is right to so fervently believe in the innocence of Scott Delaney in terms of the murder of Karina Kowalewski?’

  ‘Well taking all things into account, yes I do’ Barton answered. ‘I mean he was morally compromised by the circuit who wanted him to charge Delaney whether the evidence was there or not and that would’ve made him defensive and even more determined to stand his ground. I get that. But I don’t think it’s what this is all about. You see, when Karina Kowalewski was found down by the canal in Castlefield there were half a dozen text messages on her phone from her parents back home in Gdansk who were getting worried because they hadn’t heard from her and normally she was pretty regular at keeping in touch. She wasn’t the kind of girl who would deliberately put herself in obvious danger. There were two sets of DNA found on her body, one we couldn’t match with anything in the data base, and one which was identified as belonging to Scott Delaney whose details were on the system because of a fight outside a pub in the city centre a year ago. He got off with that. Now, they brought Scott in which is when he admitted to having had sex with Miss Kowalewski but then they’d gone their separate ways because Scott had to get home. And when you look at it, Ollie, whoever did kill Miss Kowalewski must’ve had some kind of specialist knowledge to be able to electrocute someone in what amounted to an execution style. Scott Delaney had spent his working life in the clean hand world of commerce and when we investigated further it seems he got a tradesman in every time he needed something doing in the house he shared with Stacey Donaldson’

  ‘So how would he have gone about building something that amounted to an …. Well, an electric chair?’

  ‘Precisely’.

  ‘And where would he have put it if he did?’

  ‘DS Masters and those working with him turned the world of Scott Delaney inside out. They followed him and investigated every part of his life every which way. He didn’t have the knowledge to build an execution device and he had nowhere to put it’.

  ‘So the stranger whose DNA couldn’t be identified is our killer’ said Wright.

  ‘Yes’ said Barton. ‘And when Rashid Ahmed comes back with the DNA tests on the body of Stacey Donaldson I’ll bet they’ll match our stranger’.

  ‘But we’re still left with the fact that Stacey Donaldson was murdered in the same way as Karina Kowalewski and the only common denominator between the two is Scott Delaney, sir’.

  ‘Yes’ said Barton. ‘Which makes the picture a lot less clear’.

  ‘Scott Delaney didn’t report Stacey Donaldson missing and she must’ve been so for at least a couple of days’.

  ‘So if we believe that he didn’t murder Karina Kowalewski we have to proceed on the basis that he may have murdered Stacey Donaldson. But the only problem with that is that it blows our earlier theory about Delaney not having the skills to produce an execution chamber’.

  ‘This is not going to be an easy one, sir’.

  ‘I think that may prove to be a bit of an understatement, Ollie’.

  ‘Because if Delaney didn’t kill Stacey Donaldson the we may be looking at a different kind of killer. Some kind of serial killer who’s got his own reasons for doing what he does’.

  ‘Absolutely, Ollie’ Barton agreed. ‘And how are we going to keep the dirty hands of the circuit out of this? Or are we going to discover that their dirty hands are already in it?’

  ‘Which would mean that we’d be pointing our fingers at some pretty big people’.

  ‘Well nobody is above the law, Ollie. Nobody’.

  FIVE

  Barton and Wright got out of the lift at the second floor of the small ten storey office block that was next to the tramway as it meandered its way through the business area of Salford Quays. The whole block housed the main offices of several small companies, one of which was Delaney Business Consultancy. The large glass door opened onto a reception desk behind which sat a young woman with long and free flowing shiny black hair down to her shoulders and a small round mouth covered in dark red lipstick. The short sleeved white shirt opened to expose the top of her breasts and what looked like a very short skirt to be wearing at work completed the ensemble that made Barton think that when women say they don’t dress to attract men’s attention they’re downright liars. So who was she dressing up for? Her boss?

  Barton and Wright held up their police badges.

  ‘We’d like to speak to Scott Delaney, please’ said Barton. As he finished he noticed a small suitcase on the floor by the woman’s feet and he could clearly see the name on the label ‘Gina Lombardi’.

  ‘I’m afraid … ‘

  ‘… Gina, please don’t waste our time. Just get your boss for me, please. This is an urgent matter’.

  ‘Well you’re too late’ she announced as if she was the kid at the party who’d outshone everyone else with her presents and was ready to boast about it. ‘He left for Germany on a business trip this morning. He won’t be back for several days’.

  ‘Do you know where we can contact him?’ asked Wright. ‘Germany is a big country. Can you narrow it down for us?’

  ‘Yes but that’s internal company information and therefore classified’.

  ‘Now look, this is a police investigation so print off that itinerary because I’m sure it’s in your system’ said Wright, firmly.

  Barton nodded at the suitcase just behind Gina’s desk. ‘Planning on joining him, Gina?’

  Gina became very red faced. ‘Why would you think that?’

  ‘Because of the suitcase?’

  ‘Oh that … oh that just contains some personal bits and pieces I’m shifting from my parents house to my new apartment’.

  ‘Is that right?’ asked Barton who didn’t think she sounded at all convincing.

  ‘Yes’ said Gina, defensively. She then turned to her computer to look for the itinerary that this police person was desperate to get her hands on. ‘Why wouldn’t it be?’

  ‘No reason’ said Barton who then noticed that the door to Scott Delaney’s office was slightly ajar. He went straight up towards it but just before he got there it closed and locked shut.

  ‘Unlock the door!’ Wright demanded. ‘I saw you. You must have some kind of switch under your desk’.

  ‘I can’t le
t you go in there’.

  ‘Unlock this door Gina or I will charge you with obstruction!’ Barton demanded.

  Gina did as she was told and Barton and Wright went inside. Scott Delaney standing there with a suitcase in his hand.

  ‘Are you Scott Delaney?’ asked Barton.

  ‘Yes?’ answered Scott nervously.

  Barton introduced himself and Wright. ‘Mr. Delaney, are you aware that the body of your fiancé Stacey Donaldson has been found and it looks like she died in the same way as Karina Kowalewski?’

  ‘No, I didn’t know’.

  ‘Well we’ll need you to come to the station with us to answer some questions’.

  ‘Don’t bother sparing any of my bloody feelings will you’

  ‘Well you didn’t report her missing and here you are about to leave the country’ said Barton. ‘And you were trying to hide that from us. Can you see how that looks? All your previous assertions about not being involved in the murder of Karina Kowalewski start to look rather thin. I mean, you haven’t even asked me what happened to Stacey. Don’t you care?’

  ‘Of course I care!’

  Gina Lombardi then burst into tears and dashed back to her desk where she sat back down and buried her face in her hands.

  Barton stretched his arms out innocently. ‘Was it something I said?’

  ‘You’re off this investigation, Barton!’

  Barton really did hate Chief Constable Ronald Hermitage. He was such a massive fucking tool. And he had such bad breath. Barton thought he must gargle with bloody dog shit or something. He came charging through the station and stopped when he was right in Barton’s face. It took Ben all his time not to start heaving. The man must be getting desperate for some reason. He was behaving in such an undignified and professionally inappropriate way.

  ‘No way, sir’ said Barton after he’d ushered Hermitage into his office and closed the door.

  ‘Are you forgetting the command structure here, Barton?’

  ‘No, sir’.

  ‘Then I’m instructing DS O’Hagan to take over. This is Scott Delaney’s fiancé we’re talking about and I don’t think you’re capable of being objective where he’s concerned’.