by Lee Weeks
‘And you, Paula?’ asked Megan.
‘Twelve. It’s all my savings. I really thought we were going to have somewhere together in Spain. The girls, my girls, they’re very fond of him. It’s so hard – so sad.’
‘I know.’ Megan reached out and put her hand over Paula’s.
‘Will the police take our money if they find out it all comes down to fraud? Will we lose it?’ Paula looked for an answer around the table.
‘I don’t know, but in my heart I think the answer’s yes,’ replied Megan. ‘Yes, you will lose everything if they throw Ellerman in prison. So we’d better be careful what we say to the police if they ask.’ Megan lowered her voice for the last part.
‘I agree,’ said Lisa. ‘Just until we get him to sign an agreement. I don’t want to lose my investment. Christ – look at us! How can we all have been so stupid? We’re none of us dumb . . . but we certainly fell for it.’
‘I know what you’re saying,’ said Paula. ‘I have had such a struggle to build up my business and look after my girls but I fell for his schemes. I can’t believe I wasted all this time believing in him.’
‘That’s because he’s a liar and a scammer,’ said Lisa. ‘We shouldn’t blame ourselves for trusting.’
‘How much do you think his wife knows about JJ’s life?’ asked Paula, looking at them one at a time.
Megan shrugged, Lisa shook her head. Emily looked back blankly.
‘Then I think that’s something we should find out.’ Megan went on. ‘We need to know what and who we’re up against.’
‘As far as I’m concerned, she needs to understand that she’s been conned just like us,’ said Lisa. ‘She is at the heart of all this. She seems to be the one person he really cares about.’
‘I don’t believe that,’ Paula said, averting her eyes as the anger around the table turned to sadness. ‘But I do think she must have a lot more in common with us,’ she said as she played with her coffee spoon.
‘We also need her if we are going to get the money back,’ said Megan in a voice that showed she wasn’t going to allow the group to descend into self-pity. ‘It will be easier if she’s on our side. I’ll talk to her.’
‘How do you know JJ won’t be there?’ asked Paula.
‘Because we must carry on as normally as we can. If we’re not careful and clever, he’ll run if we let him. He’ll move on to greener, fresher pastures. There’s still a lot of the UK for him to cover. What we do is – we pretend we don’t believe it or we do believe it but we forgive him. Whatever we choose it has to be believable.’
Lisa was shaking her head. ‘I’ll try and act like I can carry on with the relationship but I can’t guarantee anything.’
‘Well, that’s okay. Whatever works for you. It would seem odd to him if none of us reacted to the letter. You do what you think’s best.’
‘I can do it,’ said Paula. ‘I can pretend like I’m hurt but I’m willing to see both sides.’
‘Um . . . so can I,’ Emily said.
Lisa swung her head back and forth in disbelief.
‘Don’t tell me, deep down, you’re all okay with what he’s done?’ She gestured towards the letter. ‘Don’t tell me you’re just going to bend over and take it?’
‘No. Of course not. I wouldn’t be here otherwise, would I?’ said Paula.
‘I don’t know. You could be here to check us all out. You could have written the letter and maybe there is a place in Spain and you’re the one who’s going to be living in it.’
‘Please.’ Megan called for calm. ‘I know we are all upset about this but we need to keep to the facts. Paula is fond of JJ; we all are, were. I understand this is going to be very difficult for a lot of women. But we are here to teach him a lesson, not to upset one another. And we are here to come out of this with some justice. It’s a good thing that Paula is still talking to Ellerman, we can use it. What about you, Emily?’
‘I haven’t contacted him since the letter arrived. I just want my money back. I thought he loved me. I feel so stupid. I feel humiliated for all of us.’
‘You mustn’t beat yourselves up about falling for it.’ Megan reached out her hands across the table to the other three. ‘I may not have parted with any money yet – but I can see how it happened to all of you. Maybe I would have before long, who knows? I know he was beginning to try and push me in that direction. I am hurting like the rest of you, I thought I had a future with JJ. I will do everything to help you get your money back. I’ve been pretending to him that I don’t know about any letter. I am going to keep that a secret from him. I would be grateful if you all remember that if he phones you. Don’t mention my name. I think the best thing is to lure him down to Dartmoor and we can all confront him there. We can make him sign a contract about the money and investments. We can hand over power to the investors, you. We will all witness it. We’ll be in this together. How does that sound?’
‘Sounds good,’ Lisa said. ‘Safety in numbers. Plus, we can force him into action. We might even make the Spanish scheme work. We can make him sign a properly worded contract.’
‘I can help with that,’said Emily. ‘I have access to legal representatives through the school.’
‘Okay, then we all need to set out exactly what we were promised and what we want from it. Let’s do that now, round this table, and then Emily can make a start.’ Megan looked at each woman around the table. ‘Shall we decide what our aims are here?’ They nodded.
Lisa answered: ‘It’s to fuck him over and get our money back.’
‘And to be in control of the Spanish investment,’ said Paula. ‘Say we will go to the police if he doesn’t sign.’
‘I think it’s to get justice, to make him realize he’s been wrong and so terribly unfair,’ said Emily.
‘And I want to make sure he’s too scared to ever contemplate doing this kind of thing again,’ said Megan.
Chapter 36
Willis and Carter arrived mid-afternoon and parked in the police-station car park at Middlemoor Regional Headquarters on the outskirts of Exeter.
A tall, slim, dark-haired man in jeans and a blue-and-black-check shirt called to them as they were on the way into the station.
‘Hello, Dan.’
‘Scott – how’s things? Good to see you.’ They gave one another a man-hug.
Carter turned back to introduce Willis.
‘This is my partner – DC Ebony Willis.’
‘Nice to meet you.’ Scott shook her hand. ‘Did you get your passport stamped coming this far south?’ he said, smiling at her.
‘I did think about it.’
‘How’s Cabrina, Dan?’
‘Good, thanks, mate.’
‘What happened to your stag do, Dan? Croatia, Barcelona? Which is it to be – vodka shots or tequila?
‘Not there yet, mate. We had a kid first. Have to wait for the right time.’
Scott looked at Willis and gave a nod Carter’s way. ‘Is he still planning what he’s going to wear?’ She laughed.
Carter looked at Willis. It was nice to hear her laugh again.
‘Yeah – don’t think so, mate, no time.’ Carter grinned. ‘Too busy with proper crime up in the big city; it’s not all about who stole all the cabbages.’
Scott laughed and rolled his eyes.
‘That’s right, I forgot, it’s a bad world north of Brizztol.’ He laughed. Carter winked at Willis. ‘We can talk in the car.’ He led them over to the blue estate. ‘I’ll take you to see Gillian Forth’s body first.’
‘What kind of a woman was she? Any enemies?’ asked Willis as they drove out of the car park.
‘She was thirty-eight,’ Tucker answered. ‘She worked in the sales department of a car-parts firm. She’d lived in Exeter all her life. She was a divorcee but her husband kept in touch – no animosity there. She never had kids. She was quite highly strung. If pushed she could fly off the handle. But nice most of the time – her workmates liked her. She was kind and fun to be wit
h, they said.’
‘Boyfriend?’ asked Willis.
‘Her workmates said they thought there might be, but they weren’t absolutely sure. There are only two other women working at the company, the rest are blokes. Not sure how much she would have told them. We’ve spoken to friends outside her work and they say they’ve never met him but have heard about a man who visits once a fortnight.’
Carter flashed Willis a look.
‘Interesting.’
‘She didn’t elaborate though.’
‘Did they get a name for him?’
‘John. No surname.’
Carter looked at Willis expectantly. She didn’t look his way; she was staring at Scott’s profile. She didn’t seem to have heard what he just said.
‘This man JJ Ellerman you’re looking into – what’s the connection? Could he be the boyfriend, John? Is that what you’re thinking?’
‘It’s possible,’ Carter told him. Willis took the letter from her bag and handed it to Carter.
‘We got this about him. Two of the women from this list are now dead. Gillian Forth’s name is on it and so is Olivia Grantham’s, the lawyer.’
‘This is a helluva list,’ Tucker said as Carter showed him the three pages of names. ‘Who are all these women?’
‘These are his conquests,’ answered Willis. ‘He travels all over the country, trying to flog luxury yachts and he meets women from dating sites.’
‘Yeah . . . he has a novel way of finding a bed for the night,’ said Carter. ‘A woman in every town. Whilst he’s there, we also think he cons them out of money. He got Olivia Grantham to invest ten grand. That was made by a bank transfer to his Spanish Hacienda company – a renovations company based in Spain but seeming to do no advertising.’
‘She didn’t die the same way as Gillian, did she?’
‘No, she was murdered by a third party, or several of them. She was lured into a building thinking that she was meeting a man for sex. Instead, she was set up to be raped and beaten by a gang of homeless drunks or gang members, take your pick – who were given large amounts of drugs and drink to get them in the party mood.’
Scott shook his head. ‘You can’t get Ellerman for her murder then.’
‘Could be conspiracy to murder – he could have paid to have it done. We’re going to try and get him for fraud at least – we don’t know if he missold the investments to these women. We’re still trying to find some paperwork but we’re hopeful – Olivia Grantham was a lawyer, she must have written something down. The other women need to press charges. We’re contacting all the women on the list.’
‘What were Gillian Forth’s finances like?’ asked Willis.
‘She didn’t earn a lot of money; friends say she was careful. She had a small mortgage – fifteen grand, thereabouts. Up to six months ago she had twenty grand savings in the bank, then she withdrew the lot. Could be your man Ellerman but equally . . .’
‘House improvements?’ Carter asked. ‘Did she do the attic conversion with it?’
Tucker shook his head. ‘My first thought too but no . . . that was done two years ago. She withdrew it all in cash – twenty thousand – and it didn’t turn up again. She may have accounts elsewhere that we haven’t found yet.’
‘What about this boyfriend of hers?’ asked Carter. ‘Neighbours never saw him?’
‘No. He must have been an infrequent visitor if he existed at all. We’ll have to wait for the phone records.’
‘Meanwhile, we can ask Ellerman if he knew her,’ said Carter. ‘We can ask to see his phone records, save time. We’ll see if that twenty thousand turns up in Ellerman’s bank statements.’
‘He’s not likely to give us permission, guv.’
‘Yeah, I know, but we’ll try,’ said Carter, then turned to Tucker. ‘Did you ask her work if they’d ever heard of Ellerman?’
‘I did,’ answered Tucker. ‘They said he was down as one of their clients. He’s used them for parts for his cars.’
They drove to the mortuary and Tucker introduced them to the technician in charge. He wheeled out the body and began removing it from the bag.
‘This is Gillian Forth.’
The charred remains were shrunken into a boxer’s pose: knees up, arms ready to punch.
‘It’s okay.’ Carter held up his hand. ‘I don’t think we need to get the body out – we can see it fine, thanks.’
‘Okay, call me when you’re done.’
‘Thanks.’ Tucker had the post-mortem report in his hands.
Willis peeled back the bag away from the zip.
‘If there’s one thing that I hate it’s barbecued corpse,’ said Carter, standing back.
‘Yeah, nasty,’ agreed Tucker. He opened the post-mortem report on the trolley and rested it on the end of the body bag. There was also a diagram of the house and where she was found.
Willis was taking a closer look at the body.
‘Her skin is blistered where her clothes were,’ she said, matching up the page of the report to the body. ‘Which means she had begun to try and defend herself against the burning.’
‘She didn’t die from smoke inhalation then?’ asked Carter.
‘She had no chance in hell of getting out,’ said Tucker. ‘She was found here, beneath the window.’ He indicated the spot on the diagram of Gillian Forth’s bedroom. ‘There was one way up to her bedroom in the attic and it was completely impassable as soon as the fire started.’
‘They’re saying now that it didn’t have the necessary planning permission. Is that right?’ asked Carter. He was holding the plan of the house in his hand.
‘Yes. It’s true.’
‘What was found in the room with her?’ asked Carter.
‘Usual bedroom furniture: bed, chest of drawers, mirror on the wall, photo . . . of what? We don’t know. There was also a tablet computer, glass from more than one drinking glass and her phone.’
‘It was too early for her to be in bed,’ said Willis. ‘Was there any evidence that someone else was there, Scott?’
‘In the 999 call she made, she said there was no one else in the house with her. Are we done here?’ asked Tucker. Willis nodded. Tucker called the technician in.
‘Do we know how it started? asked Carter as they walked back to Tucker’s car.
‘It started at the front door. We haven’t found out what was used yet – some kind of inflammable liquid was poured through the letterbox.’
‘Can we go and see Gillian Forth’s house now? And it would be good to talk to anyone we can about her boyfriend,’ said Carter.
‘No problem. It’s not far.’ Tucker started the car. ‘Where are you two staying tonight?’ Tucker looked from one to the other; his eyes settled on Willis. Willis shrugged. ‘Let me take you out and show you some of the sights of Exeter. You can stay in the accommodation at Headquarters.’
Carter grinned. ‘Woo-hoo. Not sure if we can take the excitement, hey, Eb? He turned round to wink at her. Carter could swear she was blushing.
They drove to the cordon surrounding Gillian’s house and parked up.
‘That’s a nasty sight,’ said Carter as they got out of the car; the house had a blackened front to it. The windows were intact on the ground floor. The skylight and part of the roof was burnt out, a gaping black wound in the roof’s structure. ‘You have to seriously hate someone to want them to die like that.’
‘Yeah – the intention to kill was there from the start.’
‘This road is on the way out of the city, isn’t it? Does it get much traffic coming through?’ asked Willis.
‘Only during work hours. It’s not a short cut. Most people go on the bypass. It’s quiet in the evenings. There’s no trouble with parking on this street.’
‘Any recent reports of trouble that might lead up to this kind of thing? Anti-social behaviour? When was the last arson attack you had in the city?’
‘Last summer we had a school set on fire,’ replied Tucker. ‘We have a couple of kids
for that. We’ve looked into her company – no court cases pending, no customer complaints, mainly praise for the company.’
‘So, this is personal then,’ said Carter as they stood outside the front of the house. They could see the white of the SOCO forensic team moving past a window upstairs. The blackened stairwell was in front of them as they looked through the open door.
‘Can we talk to the neighbours again?’ asked Carter.
‘Be my guest.’
They knocked on the door to the right of Gillian’s house. It was answered by a man in his late seventies.
‘Hello, Mr Tiller, it’s Detective Sergeant Tucker again. Sorry to bother you. These are two detectives from London who are helping to investigate what happened next door.’
‘Terrible. Terrible shame.’
‘Did you know Gillian well, Mr Tiller?’ asked Carter.
‘Well enough. I’ve only been here a couple of years. If she saw me then we would stop to speak. She was a nice woman. Kept herself to herself.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘Terrible shame.’
‘Did you ever see anyone visiting Gillian, Mr Tiller?’ asked Willis.
‘Like friends, you mean?’
‘Anyone really. What about in the last week?’
‘I don’t see much at all. The weather’s been so bad I haven’t ventured far.’
‘Do you have a car?’ asked Willis.
‘No, dear – not any more.’
‘Do you know the people who have cars on the street?’
‘Yes, I suppose so. When I go down the Spar shop at the end of the road I see the same cars. One of them belonged to Gillian; that’s the blue one over there.’ He pointed to a Polo.
‘Do you know anyone else’s?’
‘That white one down there, with the dog sticker on the window, that belongs to a man and his friend, they live at number 85, that’s three doors the other way. Then there’s the lady in 89 – she has a green hatchback, three-door.’
‘You have a good eye for cars, Mr Tiller.’ Tucker picked up the thread of the conversation.
‘Is there any car you see sometimes and don’t know who it belongs to?’ asked Willis.
Tiller thought about the question and nodded.
