Death Rope

by Leigh Russell

  ‘Go on.’

  The woman shifted in her seat and crossed her arms, tapping one upper arm nervously.

  ‘Why have you come to see me?’ Geraldine prompted her gently.

  Jill shook her head. ‘No,’ she muttered, half rising to her feet. ‘I shouldn’t have come here. It was a mistake. I haven’t – I can’t – I don’t know what I was thinking of, coming here like this. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.’

  ‘What is it you wanted to tell me? You had a reason for coming to see me. What is it?’ She leaned forward. ‘Do you know something that might have a bearing on our investigation?’ She paused. ‘A woman’s been brutally murdered. We need to find the killer and stop him from carrying out any more attacks. So if you know anything that could help us, anything at all, you have to tell me.’ She paused to allow her words to register with the other woman. ‘As long as the killer remains at large, any one of us could be his next victim. Imagine how you’re going to feel if you hear that the killer has claimed another victim, while you’ve been keeping quiet about information that could have helped us to track him down.’

  While Geraldine was talking, Jill settled down in her chair again, a worried expression in her face.

  ‘All right,’ she conceded. ‘You’re right. There is something. But I don’t know if I should say anything. It’s probably nothing.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘I might have got this all wrong, but I thought I heard Luciana tell you she was at home on Friday evening. I thought she said she went straight home from work on Friday.’

  ‘Yes, that’s right. That’s what she said.’

  ‘Is this important?’

  ‘It could be.’

  ‘Well, she didn’t.’

  ‘Are you saying she didn’t go straight home?’

  ‘Yes, that’s what I’m saying.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Because she was with me.’

  With some prompting, Jill explained that she and her colleague had gone out for a drink on Friday evening.

  ‘Was this something you do regularly?’

  ‘Now and again. Does that make a difference?’

  Geraldine shook her head. ‘Probably not. So, whose idea was it for you to go out together last Friday?’

  Jill said she couldn’t remember. ‘We just kind of agreed.’

  ‘So you left work together?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And what did you do then?’

  ‘We had a couple of drinks and then went for a Chinese.’

  ‘And were you together the whole time?’

  Jill looked surprised. ‘Yes. I mean, we might have gone to the loo –’

  ‘And what time did you finally part company?’

  Jill shrugged. ‘I can’t remember exactly. We must have packed up around half past five when the shop shut, then we went to the pub for a couple of pints, and then we had something to eat. We left the restaurant around nine. I remember her saying she wanted an early night.’

  ‘So she didn’t get home until after nine?’

  Jill shrugged. ‘I don’t know what time she got home, do I?’

  ‘But you know you were with her, in the Chinese restaurant, until about nine?’

  ‘It must have been around nine, I suppose. But I can’t be sure. Look, I’ve told you everything I know. Can I go now?’

  There was clearly nothing more Jill could tell them, but it didn’t matter. The restaurant would have records of payment, and possibly CCTV footage, to confirm what time the two women had left. Geraldine thanked her and assured her she had been very helpful.

  Before they could act on Jill’s testimony, they wanted to gather as much corroborative evidence as they could. Currently, they had Jill’s word against Luciana’s. Admittedly, if Eddy had been alone on the evening his mother had been attacked, his wife had an obvious motive for concealing the truth, and there was no ostensible reason for Jill to lie. But the situation was not necessarily as clear-cut as it appeared. As yet, they knew nothing about Jill, other than that she worked with Luciana. Reasons might emerge for dismissing her as an unreliable witness, and Eileen felt the case was too flimsy to try and pursue a prosecution.

  Naomi and another constable were despatched to the pub and the Chinese restaurant to retrieve information, and by the end of the afternoon evidence had been logged that confirmed Luciana had indeed gone out with her colleague on the preceding Friday evening. They had been recorded on CCTV entering a pub at five forty, and leaving at ten to seven. Ten minutes later they arrived at a Chinese restaurant. At five to nine they settled the bill by credit card, paying half each, after which they left the restaurant just before nine fifteen. At nine thirty-five, Luciana boarded a bus which would take her to the corner of her street.

  With evidence that Luciana was lying, it was time to arrest Eddy. Before sending a car to pick him up, Geraldine suggested she and Ian challenge him about his financial difficulties in front of his wife. If Luciana could be persuaded to withdraw any support for him, prosecuting him might be simpler. Eileen agreed with her proposal, and Geraldine and Ian set off together. It wasn’t until they were driving away from the police station that Geraldine remembered she had missed lunch.

  52

  There was a disturbance in the hall.

  ‘Shut it, will you?’ Eddy called out, ‘I’m trying to watch the telly here.’

  ‘Guinness?’ a man’s voice said softly, as the bottle of beer was lifted out of Eddy’s hand. ‘There won’t be much of that where you’re going.’

  Eddy spun round. Seeing the police inspector, he leapt to his feet. ‘What the fuck? Give that back!’

  He struggled to hide his apprehension as the detective approached him.

  ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’

  ‘We’d like to ask you a few questions concerning the murder of your stepmother on Friday evening –’

  ‘That’s nothing to do with me. I told you, I was here, with my wife, all evening. You tell them!’

  Luciana began to gabble her way through the story, but the detective held up his hand to silence her.

  ‘Unfortunately for you, we know that’s not true,’ he said.

  ‘We have evidence you were away from home on Friday evening, at the pub and then out for a Chinese meal,’ his female colleague added.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Eddy asked.

  ‘That bitch Jill,’ Luciana burst out. ‘She’s the one who’s lying. I came straight home on Friday –’

  ‘Who’s Jill?’ Eddy shouted. ‘Shut up, Luciana! Don’t say anything! Me and my wife were here all evening.’

  ‘Not according to the CCTV footage we have,’ the detective replied.

  She listed details of Luciana’s movements on Friday evening, with the exact times she entered and left the pub and restaurant and boarded the bus.

  While she was speaking, Luciana’s shoulders dropped, and she looked helplessly at Eddy.

  ‘Tell them they’re wrong,’ he called out in panic, ‘tell them I was with you. Tell them, Luciana! I was here, with you, all evening!’

  Ignoring his protests, the detective repeated they wanted to ask him some questions.

  ‘Before we go,’ the female detective said, ‘there’s something we think your wife might like to know.’ She turned to Luciana. ‘Are you aware of the extent of your husband’s gambling debts?’

  Luciana’s eyes narrowed. ‘What?’

  ‘Don’t listen to her,’ Eddy cried out. ‘They’re lying. They’re trying to turn you against me. It’s not true. I haven’t placed a single bet since I promised you I wouldn’t.’

  The policewoman shrugged and gave him a pitying look. ‘Your husband currently owes over fifteen thousand pounds in gambling debts. He’s maxed out on several credit cards. And of course the loans are all accruing interest.’

  ‘It’s lies,’ Eddy cried out. ‘It’s all lies.’

  In a panic, he attempted to push his way past the policeman who
promptly slapped him in handcuffs and led him out of the house, resisting all the way. He fell silent as the car drove them to the police station. Although he wanted to bawl and struggle, locked in a car and handcuffed, there was no point in trying to escape. The next few hours passed in a blur. His shoes were taken away, while a cheery officer in uniform removed his handcuffs and his wallet and phone, and asked him a host of questions before leading him along a corridor.

  ‘This is all wrong,’ Eddy insisted. He was nearly in tears. ‘You’ve got this all wrong. I had nothing to do with any of it.’

  ‘Come along, sir, and don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to prove your innocence. This way, and be careful not to touch the walls as you go or you’ll set off the alarm.’

  After that, Eddy seemed to be sitting for hours on a hard bunk in a cramped cell, fretting and worrying. At last, just when he thought he couldn’t bear the solitude any longer, the door swung open to admit a thin man with a face that resembled a weasel. In a whining voice he introduced himself as Jonathan Randall, the duty solicitor, and explained that it was his job to protect Eddy’s interests.

  ‘If you really want to help me, get me out of here,’ Eddy said. ‘This is all a mistake. You have to make them understand, I had nothing to do with my stepmother’s death. You have to believe me. She was like a mother to me. Why would I want her dead?’

  The lawyer stood perfectly still, his head on one side, listening.

  ‘The point is,’ he replied at last when Eddy fell silent, ‘your stepmother left a considerable estate, which you are due to inherit. In fact, you’re her sole heir. You do know that, don’t you? And it’s not helping your cause that you’ve incurred such a substantial debt. Since you have a motive, the police are investigating whether it’s possible you could have been responsible for her death. But they haven’t arrested you, and as long as you stay quiet, I’ll have you out of here in no time. Just leave it to me, and don’t worry. It’s my job to get you out of here, and I will. There’s no need to make a fuss. They can’t hold you.’

  He led Eddy along a maze of corridors to an interview room where the two detectives who had brought him there sat facing him across a small table. With a nod at Eddy, the lawyer dropped into a chair beside him. The detective asked Eddy again what he had been doing on Friday evening. Muttering curses under his breath, Eddy repeated that he had been at home with his wife.

  ‘How many times do I have to tell you, for fuck’s sake?’

  ‘You’re going to have to do better than that,’ the female detective said.

  She repeated what she had already told him about Luciana’s movements on the evening of his stepmother’s murder.

  ‘What do you mean?’ he blustered.

  ‘It means you can stop telling us you were with your wife on Friday evening, because we all know that’s not true. We have proof, so you’re not helping yourself by lying.’

  When he tried to bluff his way out of it, the lawyer leaned over and warned him to stop talking, then requested a break.

  ‘They have evidence your wife was out with a friend on Friday evening,’ he explained when he was alone with Eddy once more. ‘We’ll have to come up with another line of defence.’

  Eddy shook his head. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘I think the only approach now is to confess, and then we can take steps to convince the jury you weren’t in your right mind when it happened.’ He frowned, thinking. ‘Were you drunk at the time? Certainly you were in a rage. It wasn’t a straightforward killing, was it? She must have –’

  ‘No,’ Eddy cried out in a panic. ‘No, that’s not true. You’re supposed to be on my side.’

  ‘I am. But the problem now is that you lied to give yourself an alibi. That’s not going to sit well with a jury –’

  ‘Never mind that, the point is, I didn’t do it. I’ve never killed anyone.’

  ‘So you say, but you can’t prove it, and now you’ve lied to the police –’

  ‘I can prove I didn’t do it, because I wasn’t on my own on Friday evening. I was –’ he broke off, uncertain whether to trust the lawyer.

  ‘Go on.’

  Eddy bit his lip. If he said anything about his movements on Friday evening, the police would want to speak to Abe to confirm Eddy’s alibi. Even if Abe agreed to cover for Eddy, which was highly unlikely, the police would easily discover that Eddy hadn’t been in the pub with Abe at all, and they might unearth what the two of them had been doing on Friday evening. Not only would he still have no alibi, but once Abe knew his name had been given to the police, Eddy’s life would hang by a thread. The worst the police could do to him would be to lock him up. Abe would kill him.

  ‘Nothing,’ he muttered. ‘It’s nothing. I didn’t do it, that’s all.’

  ‘You said you were with someone else on Friday evening. Who was it?’

  Eddy shook his head. ‘No one,’ he mumbled. ‘It was no one.’

  The lawyer gave him a quizzical look but said nothing.

  53

  The mood at the police station was purposeful, but good-humoured. Only the previous day everyone had been speaking in hushed tones, with solemn expressions. Today Geraldine heard her colleagues chatting and laughing together. No longer ensconced behind her desk, Eileen walked around with a broad smile plastered across her face. Although Eddy hadn’t yet confessed to murdering his father, aunt and stepmother, the case against him was beginning to look watertight, his false alibi seeming to clinch the case against him. When Geraldine pointed out that the collapse of his alibi didn’t prove his guilt, no one paid serious attention.

  ‘Why do you think he lied about being with his wife if he didn’t have something to hide?’ Naomi asked.

  Geraldine frowned. ‘I’m not saying he’s not guilty. He could well have been up to something that Friday evening. But we have no evidence to confirm he was killing his stepmother. He could have been doing – well, something else that evening. Maybe he was seeing another woman and he doesn’t want his wife to find out. And there’s nothing to link him to a dangerous dog.’

  ‘Let’s examine the spate of murders in this family,’ Eileen interrupted. ‘First, Eddy had access to his parents’ house where his father was hung. Killing him would have taken not only physical strength, but knowledge of the house and its structure. There was no forced entry and the execution of the hanging was fast and efficient. Whoever hung Mark knew about the position of the banisters, and was able to gain access to the property to set up the murder before it actually took place. Second, we know that Eddy might well have wanted his stepmother dead because he was in serious financial difficulties which he was desperate to keep hidden from his wife. So not only did he have a compelling and urgent motive for eliminating both his parents, but it now turns out he’s unable to provide a credible alibi for his movements at the time of either murder. So he had the opportunity. Finally, Amanda was convinced her brother was murdered, and she was also murdered. She was in her slippers when she died, miles from home, so although she wasn’t attacked where she lived, she must have left the house with someone she knew well. She would hardly have gone out in her slippers if she was with a stranger. Everything points to Eddy.’

  Geraldine bowed her head. She was doing her best to suppress her reservations about Eddy’s guilt. What Eileen was saying made sense. It certainly appeared that all three victims had been killed by someone they knew, and the list of possible suspects was short. As time went on, the case against Eddy seemed to be growing stronger. But just because there was no other obvious suspect didn’t make it any more likely that Eddy was guilty.

  That afternoon, the custody sergeant contacted her to say that Eddy wanted to talk to her. Promising to report back to Ian as soon as she had spoken to the suspect, she made her way down to the cell where she found him lying on his bunk with his arms behind his head, apparently asleep.

  ‘Eddy?’ she called out softly.

  He grunted without opening his eyes.

 
‘Eddy, sit up and talk to me.’ When he didn’t stir, she added, ‘I’m not convinced you killed your family, but I can’t help you if you refuse to talk to me.’

  He sat up at that. ‘What do you mean you’re not sure I did it?’ he asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. ‘Why don’t you let me go home, then?’

  ‘It’s not that simple.’

  ‘It never is with you people,’ he grumbled, but he didn’t lie down again.

  ‘You do know you’re accused of killing three people,’ she began, but he interrupted her.

  ‘I know. That’s the reason I want to talk to you. I thought this was just going to be about my stepmother. If it was just one murder, I might have been tempted to take it on the chin, go for a light sentence, you know, say we had a row or something, and go down for a few years. Only now that lawyer is saying you’re trying to pin all three murders on me. Three? I’ll never get out, will I? They’re going to send me down for life. So I’ve been thinking, and I’ve decided. I’d rather be done for robbery.’

  Geraldine was puzzled. ‘You need to explain to me what you mean by that.’

  He glanced around. ‘There’s no recording going on in here, is there?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘Look, when my dad died, I was at work, see? But there was no one else with me. And when my aunt died, I can’t remember what I was doing. It’s not like I keep a diary of everything I do. Anyway, it didn’t matter then because no one was accusing me of killing them. But when my stepmother died, suddenly I’m the number one suspect. But the crazy part of it all is that I do know where I was when she was killed. I was in a car, driving, with a bloke I know. So it couldn’t have been me killed her. So I’m not your killer.’

  He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms.

  ‘Who was with you when Charlotte was killed?’

  He shook his head. ‘I can’t tell you that.’

  ‘Eddy, if you don’t give me the name of whoever you were with, then you don’t have an alibi.’

  ‘Are you calling me a liar?’

  Geraldine sighed. ‘A jury isn’t going to take your word for it, and neither is my boss. Without a witness, you don’t have an alibi.’