by S G Read
‘I will check that Inspector Moore.’ Gerald answered and the phone went dead.
Clayton looked at the receiver in his hand.
‘Very abrupt, isn’t he?’ He commented.
‘He is into computers big time, so what can I say, Rebecca answered. ‘I asked him once if he could make it sing, so he did!’
‘A singing computer; whatever turns you on.’ Clayton declared.
They spent the next four hours trying to find out if any of the group had police records, so that they could run their fingerprints against those from the watch and the cable tie. Bill had already run the prints through the system and came up with enough matches to make the search a waste of time. Now they were trying to find one match in this group.
‘I think I am going mad.’ Clayton announced, after he had discounted another set of prints.
‘I know what you mean, they are so close all the time and it doesn’t help that the group has so many in it with police records.’
The sudden arrival of the CI at his desk stopped that conversation dead.
‘Good after noon, sir.’ Clayton said politely, wondering what his beef was this time.
‘This Leslie Felltham murder, I am getting some flak from the locals, it appears that he was well liked in the community and they want answers. Where are we on that case?’
‘We have no real leads but we feel it might be linked to the Deng Lee murder. He might have seen something and when he tried to hurry away, someone panicked and he found himself dead.’ Clayton answered. ‘The Deng Lee murder has thrown up some likely suspects and after Gerald has done his thing, we will pull them in for questioning.’
‘And that might lead to solving the Felltham murder?’ The CI asked, watching Clayton’s face.
‘We feel it might very well do that, sir.’ Clayton answered without batting an eyelid.
‘Good, I am going to put out a press release to say that the culprit is known and will soon be in custody, so don’t let me down!’ The CI turned on his heel and walked away.
‘Liar, liar, pants on fire.’ Rebecca exclaimed.
‘I had to tell him something, didn’t I? Besides it well may be the case.’
‘One day I am going to measure your nose, sir.’
‘It is a good honest Roman nose, sergeant, and has ferreted out quite a few murderers when there has been nothing to go on, a bit like now.’ Clayton protested, touching the tip of his nose as he did so.
‘I thought that was your gut instinct, sir. Is that Roman as well?’ Rebecca answered with a smile.
‘My gut is quite happy with the way things are going, thank you very much, sergeant.’ Clayton answered. ‘Have you matched up those prints yet?’
‘No, you know I haven’t, I’d be doing ruddy cartwheels!’
‘Now that, I would like to see!’ Clayton declared.
‘I’ll have you know I can still do cartwheels, I will prove it when we put these cases to bed.’ She retorted. ‘I just hope Gerald finds someone who has bought a pair of those trainers.’
Bill arrived.
‘Hello Bill. I hope this is good news?’ Clayton asked.
‘I think it is Kemo Sabe. I saw the searches going on, so I searched for fingerprints to match our two partials again.’ Bill answered.
‘I thought they were no good for a conviction?’ Rebecca asked.
‘They aren’t and being partial prints we got a number of matches as you know.’ Bill answered.
‘How many matches?’ Rebecca asked.
‘Seven hundred at the moment but that is after going through Interpol’s list!’ Bill answered.
‘Seven hundred!’ Clayton declared. ‘How does that help us?’
‘Well as you have a group in mind, I decided to try to find one from that group.’ Bill answered.
‘That is what we have been doing for four hours!’ Rebecca declared.
‘My system is not as antiquated as yours. It came up with a hit from the group Gerald is checking up on and that was from Interpol!’
‘Now that is good news,’ Clayton declared, ‘we would have never found him on Interpol’
‘No. It appears he got into a fracas over his daughter in Paris and ended up being arrested. They never discard prints over there, just in case.’
‘That is just the sort of leverage I need to get someone to talk.’ Clayton declared
‘If there is anything to talk about!’ Rebecca argued.
‘Pessimist!’ Clayton retorted. ‘Thank you, Bill, excellent work as usual.’
‘I don’t like to disappoint, Kemo Sabe.’ Bill replied and left them talking.
‘Arrange to have them all picked up in the morning and I hope by then we have someone who bought those trainers.’ Clayton ordered.
‘My pleasure, sir but shouldn’t we wait until we have all the information?’
‘No, I like someone to come into the interview room with new information during the interview, it unnerves the person I am questioning!’ Clayton answered.
Chapter 4
The people in question were rounded up, early in the morning. It took a lot of man power and they waited until the children were at school, or should have been at school, before they arrived to escort them to the police station. They were taken to separate rooms, so that they did not discuss anything. If it was man and wife, they were separated as well and put in separate rooms.
Clayton sat in his office and made notes on his pad, while the people brought in for questioning were waiting for him to start. The first two brought in were a man and wife, and they were taken to separate interview rooms. Clayton thought that if they were innocent they should have had no idea about reason for the need to question them, so he would listen intently to what they said before the interview started and pounce on any mistakes.
When the first pair had waited long enough, he and Rebecca walked in to where James Richards sat, laid the two files on the table in front of him and sat down. When he did not protest but merely waited to be questioned, Clayton’s gut feeling was that he was involved. An innocent man would ask why he was there!
‘You are Mr. James Richards of 12 Amber Close and you are husband to Mrs. Emily Richards, is that correct?’ Clayton asked formerly.
‘It is.’ James Richards answered.
‘You have been brought in for questioning about the murders of Deng Lee of the scout hut in the chase, which can be accessed from Amber Close, the close you live in and the murder of Leslie Felltham of 12 Golding Gardens. Do you have anything to say at this moment in time?’
There was no reply.
‘Where were you on the night of the fourteenth of June, between the hours of eight PM and six AM Mr. Richards?’
‘I spent the night in bed with the wife, we went to bed about eight and made love before falling asleep.’ James Richards answered.
‘And she will confirm that?’
‘She will.’
They both stood up.
‘Interview suspended at nine minutes past ten AM.’
They walked into the interview room next door. This was the woman they thought had phoned in to tell them where the drug dealer lived.
‘Where’s my husband and why are we here? We’ve done nothing wrong!’ Mrs. Richards ranted.
‘The interview with Mrs. Emily Richards, wife of James Richards started at ten minutes past ten AM on the sixth July.’ Clayton announced to the recorder, ignoring her ranting. ‘You are Mrs. Emily Richards, wife of James Richards of 12 Amber Close?’
‘Yes I am, well you know that as you took me from there this morning and might I add, against my will!’ Emily Richards answered.
‘Where were you on the evening of the fourteenth of June between the hours of eight PM and six AM?’ Clayton asked.
‘I was indoors with my husband. We watched television until eleven o’clock and then we went to bed!’ She answered.
‘That does not concur with your husband’s account of the event of the evening. Did you know that lying to
the police is an offence?’ Clayton asked and watched her face intently.
‘We watched television and then went to bed, if James says anything different it is him who is mistaken!’ Emily insisted.
‘Interview terminated at twelve minutes past ten AM on sixth of July.’ Clayton announced and Rebecca stopped the recording.
They returned to the interview room with James Richards waiting in it.
‘The interview with James Richards resumes at fifteen minutes past ten AM on the sixth of June.’ Clayton announced, after he had turned on the recorder.
‘Do I need a solicitor?’ James asked.
‘I don’t know Mr. Richards; do you need a solicitor? Usually the innocent don’t need one but I can get the duty solicitor to come in, if you think you need it?’ Clayton answered. ‘Your account of the evening in question differs from that of your wife and I just need clarification on that.’
‘We were indoors all evening, I might have been mistaken about which night we made love but if we weren’t making love we would have been watching television.’ He answered.
‘So you would like to change your story. You say now you were watching television on that evening.’ Clayton asked to clarify his account.
‘We must have been and I was mistaken about which day we made love.’ Richards answered.
‘I am not satisfied with your answers and I am afraid I am going to order a DNA test and fingerprints to be taken to eliminate you from our enquiry.’ Clayton explained and left with Rebecca after turning off the recorder again.
His was the set of fingerprints they matched the two partials they had. Clayton could have said that but to do it this way was designed to make him sweat for a while. An officer stood in the room while they waited for the constable with the fingerprint kit to arrive.
‘What do we do with them now, sir?’ Rebecca asked before they went into the next interview.
‘Take samples and let them go.’ Clayton answered.
‘But by the time we bring them back in, they will have a perfect story!’ Rebecca exclaimed.
‘Yes they will and they will be very relaxed at it. I did not bring up the fingerprints in that interview so that I can introduce it at the next interview, when all will be present, it one room.’
‘Are you being sneaky, sir?’
‘As sneaky as I can be to catch some killers.’ Clayton replied. ‘I think we have the killers here and they will get away with it unless I can somehow put a wedge between them and having a match to Richards’ fingerprints, however tenuous, will give me that wedge; I hope!’
They walked into where Emily Richards was fuming.
‘We will be taking a DNA sample and your fingerprints, Mrs. Richards and then you will be taken home.’ He announced, before she could speak and they moved on to the next interview.
‘You are Victor Thomas of The Limes, Wellborough Avenue?’ Clayton asked when he was sitting opposite the man and the recorder was set.
‘I am.’ The man answered.
‘Where were you on the night of the sixth of July, between eight PM and six AM?’
‘I was with my wife, until I went down the pub at nine o’clock to see my mates and then I went home at eleven and we went to bed.’ The man answered.
‘Thank you very much.’
‘What is all this about?’ The man asked.
‘I am investigating two murders that happened on the same evening, please wait there while I conduct the interview with you wife.’ Clayton asked politely.
The interview with the wife was over soon and they were on their way home, her story was the same as his story, word for word. The rest of the interviews went the same and the only two who got the story wrong were the Richards.
‘They are as guilty as sin.’ Clayton declared, when he back was sitting at his desk.
‘But how do we get them to confess it? There is not enough evidence to charge them, so if we did it would be thrown out of court.’ Rebecca complained.
‘Yes. The Deng Lee murder can sit there unsolved for as long as it likes but I want the killer of Leslie Felltham, he was just a nice old man who tended his garden and somebody killed him.’ Clayton declared. ‘If I can get someone to talk to me about the Deng Lee murder, it might lead me to who killed Leslie Felltham.’
Gerald phoned while they were sitting there.
‘I found a purchase for trainers, it was the same person whose fingerprints were a match, James Richards bought them.’ He announced.
‘Thank you Gerald that is good news.’ Clayton answered. ‘Be sure to log all the hours it took.’
‘I will Inspector Moore, I will.’
Clayton left it a week before he arranged for the same people to be at the police station. This time he had all of them put in the same room, waiting for him. He had his speech prepared and he hoped to be word perfect, just like their alibis. He also had to get his timing right.
‘Good morning. I am sorry to ask you to come in today but new evidence has changed my approach to these cases. I listened to your alibis with some skepticism.’
The word skepticism caused a murmur in the group of people in front of him but it did not stop from continuing.
‘I believe that you, as a group, waylaid Deng Lee, for the express purpose of trying to teach him a lesson and persuade him to move to another part of London. You relieved him of his valuables, which were pushed through the letter box of the homeless charity in the high street, and then buried him, standing up, in the ground up to his neck.’
No one spoke, that was their plan. If no one said anything, nothing could be proved.
‘I have some evidence now but it is incomplete. I know that you James Richards handled Deng Lee’s watch prior to it being posted through the charity shop door, I also have a shoe impression which matches a pair bought by the same James Richards prior to the attack on Deng Lee. I also have a fingerprint taken from the cable tie which was used to immobilise Deng Lee’s hands, again matching James Richards fingerprint. I have all this but it is not enough to convict you.’
There was more murmuring and nodding of heads.
‘The prints are partial and can only serve to say that it might be from James Richards, and as the trainers are brand new, again it only serves to show it might have been him. All in all I have no case against your group so you may go and consider yourselves lucky.’
They stood up as one and started to file out.
‘Except you of course James Richards, I am charging you with complicity in the murders of Deng Lee and Leslie Felltham. We found enough DNA under Deng Lee’s finger nails to convict you…’ His words were drowned out by Emily Richards.
‘That’s not fair! They were all in on it! It wasn’t James’ idea, it was mine and Vic, Vic was the one who planned it!’ She railed on.
Clayton sat there and kept quiet, while the rest of the group tried to shut Emily Richards up but they failed. She was not going to take this lying down and it showed.
‘It was just as you said. We pounced on the little shit and took everything he held dear but we didn’t want to keep drugs money, so James posted it though the letterbox at the charity. Vic and Bob dug the hole earlier in the evening and covered it with planks, to stop anyone falling into it. We just snatched him, took his stuff and shoved him in the hole while he swore at us in Chinese. That changed when he realised that we were deadly serious and then he started to beg us not to do it but we still buried him!’
‘And where does Leslie Felltham come into all this?’ Clayton asked as the rest of the group came back into the room, they knew they were not going anywhere.
‘He doesn’t.’ Victor answered. ‘We didn’t see anyone while we were burying the drug runner.’
All the time this was going on, the recorder was recording and both Clayton and Rebecca felt elated. It was a trick but it had worked and kept on working.
‘So you admit burying Deng Lee alive, for what reason?’ Clayton asked to keep the momentum going.
‘We
did it to persuade him to stop hanging round our school and selling his poison to our children!’ Emily Richards answered, now taking a role as the group’s mouth piece.
‘What was the plan?’ Clayton asked.
‘We were going to leave him there until the morning and then let him go if he would leave the area.’ James Richards answered, taking over from his wife. ‘But when we went back he was dead and we didn’t know what to do.’
‘I told you we should have dug him up and buried him properly near where he was living, no one would have missed him!’ Victor Thomas exclaimed.
Clayton wanted to agree but thought better of it as the recorder was recording everything anyone said. Not a thing an inspector should be recorder as saying.
‘I will arrange for you all to make statements under caution which will be passed on to the public prosecutor and he will then decide what charges you will face.’ Clayton announced and the group was separated again.
Clayton and Rebecca sat in the office later. The group had been sent home despite a possible murder charge hanging over them, they were not seen as a flight risk and Clayton did not think the charge would be murder, but manslaughter, possibly second degree at that.
‘You little liar.’ Rebecca said quietly. ‘I was there when Chastity said that Deng Lee chewed his finger nails, so there couldn’t be DNA under them.’
‘Oh there was DNA under his finger nails!’ Clayton replied.
Rebecca took a stance to say ‘I don’t think so’
‘His DNA was under his finger nails, Rebecca.’ Clayton explained with a large grin. ‘It was a ploy and it worked but it did not help the murder I really wanted to clear up!’
‘No sir, they are adamant that they did not see Leslie Felltham at all during the evening.’ Rebecca replied.
‘So who the hell did kill him and why?’
‘Oh, oh. CI approaching, sir.’ Rebecca warned.
‘I hear you caught the killers of the Chinese man, did they kill Felltham?’ The CI asked, getting right to the point.
