Fireflies

by Menon, David

  ‘How’s Ollie, sir?’ Rebecca asked as she and Jeff made their way down to the interview rooms.

  ‘Not entirely surprised’ said Jeff who’d been trying to damp down the uproar that Jonathan Freeman’s allegations against Ollie Wright had caused. The squad room was on fire with it all. ‘He’d had the feeling that Freeman was cooking something up against him. He’s now made a counter charge of racism against Freeman who now contends that because the squad are all lined up behind Ollie then there’s some kind of anti-Semitic conspiracy going on. It’s added power to his cause. He’s going to the press with it all. This is not going to look good’.

  ‘How do you think it feels for me? I was sleeping with Freeman’.

  Jeff felt a rush of embarrassment before asking. ‘Did you have any idea of his feelings?’

  ‘I had a feeling that Freeman held certain prejudices but I shrugged it off’ said Rebecca who was ashamed of the way she’d turned a blind eye to Jonathan Freeman’s obvious racism. She shouldn’t have let sex get in the way of that. ‘I didn’t really give it any serious thought to be honest’.

  ‘Well now is the time to think about it seriously because you’ll need to tell what you know to Chief Superintendent Chambers’ said Jeff. ‘Maybe we can head off an official enquiry and Ollie can get out from under the shadow Freeman has placed over him’.

  ‘Ollie is no anti-Semite, sir’.

  ‘Of course he isn’t’ said Jeff. ‘And one way or another we’ll prove that. But for now let’s get to Sophie Cooper. I want results and conclusions and I want them today’.

  Rebecca wasn’t quite sure how to read Sophie Cooper. She was some ways defiant, some ways contrite, some ways looking for any excuse to get herself out of trouble. She was a complicated picture but no more so than either she or Jeff had dealt with before.

  ‘My client is prepared to do a deal, detective’ said Barbara Matthews, Sophie Cooper’s brief. ‘She will tell you everything she knows about the murder of both James Clifton and Piers Jones in return for immunity from prosecution’.

  No chance, thought Jeff. ‘I’d like to hear what your client has to say first before I agree to any deal. DS Stockton?’

  ‘Sophie, what happened after you switched ID cards with Melanie Cartwright and left your crew reporting centre on the night of the murder of James Clifton?’

  Sophie took a deep breath. ‘I needed justice for the way James had betrayed me. I was possessed by this need to get my own back. Clarissa was waiting for me outside and I got into the car with her and headed to her place. I got changed there and then we sat and waited for a call from Andrea. Andrea had two phones, one that she used for normal stuff and one that she used for other things’.

  ‘Why was Andrea Kay doing all this for you?’

  Sophie smirked. ‘When Clarissa and I were sent to Willowbrook comprehensive she was desperate to be friends with us. We accepted that because we saw her as someone we could use’.

  ‘Did she murder Kim Barnes in the Manchester Hilton three years ago?’

  Sophie took a deep breath. ‘Yes’ she said.

  ‘At your instigation?’

  ‘Yes again’ Sophie answered with a sideways glance at her lawyer. ‘I felt very betrayed by Malcolm. I wanted him to suffer and to cry as many tears as I had when he dumped me for that bitch. I wanted revenge but I didn’t just want to get even. I wanted to go further. I really wanted him to feel such intense pain for the rest of his life for having dared to betray me. So the three of us, Clarissa, Andrea, and me came up with the plan to rip his wedding night apart. I felt right about doing it. That may sound abhorrent to you but it’s what I needed’.

  ‘So tell us what happened with James Clifton, Sophie?’

  ‘Look, am I going to get my immunity or what?’

  ‘I don’t think you’re in a position to call the shots, Sophie’ said Jeff. ‘You’ve already confessed to conspiracy to murder in the case of Kim Barnes and you’ve implicated two other people. Now carry on with what you have to tell us and then I’ll decide on what happens next’.

  ‘I just want this over with’.

  ‘Then carry on talking and don’t stop until you’ve told us everything we need to know’ said Jeff. ‘And don’t even think of playing any games with us’.

  ‘Games! You think I’m just playing games?’

  ‘We don’t know all of what you were doing yet, Sophie’ said Rebecca, firmly. She was surprised by how easily Sophie Cooper was capitulating. There was a look of disturbance on her face that was holding down her usual defiance. ‘We haven’t got all the answers we need from you yet, not by a long stretch’.

  Sophie exchanged whispers with her lawyer briefly before continuing.

  ‘Okay …. ‘

  ‘ … the night of the murder of James Clifton if you wouldn’t mind, Sophie?’

  ‘Alright, I’m getting there!’ snapped Sophie.

  ‘That’s better’ said Rebecca.

  ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘Well we’re not used to Sophie Cooper being so quiet and reasonable’ said Rebecca. ‘Usually she’s like a tiger with no teeth’.

  ‘Oh that’s it, belittle me. You lot are so good at doing that’.

  ‘Just get back to the matter in hand, Sophie’ said Jeff.

  ‘I kept Andrea apart from all my other friends and so she could be close to James and report back to Clarissa and me. Then we got a message from her that Tina Webb was taking James home. I screamed out with anger. I hated James at that moment and I couldn’t believe the same thing was happening to me again that happened with Malcolm all those years ago. What is it with me and stag nights? That’s how I lost Malcolm to Kim and that’s how I saw red when it came to James’. She started to cry. ‘We, that’s Clarissa and me, drove round to Tina Webb’s place and waited nearby in the car. A little while later we were joined by Andrea and then we saw James and Tina arrive in a taxi. They went into her flat and we waited again. As you can imagine it was pretty painful for me. Then James came out on his own and Andrea went up to him. I don’t know what she said but she got him into her car where she administered the rohypnol. Then she drove off and that was the last I saw of her or James that night’.

  ‘Did you actually discuss murdering James with Andrea?’

  ‘Andrea knew that I couldn’t take James cheating on me again. I wanted him dead for sure and I knew that Andrea would take care of that for me’.

  ‘Just like that?’ said Rebecca.

  ‘He cheated on me and I didn’t deserve it! I owed him nothing but he deserved to pay’.

  ‘Most people would’ve just ended the relationship and moved on’ said Rebecca who couldn’t mistake the look of absolute hatred in Sophie’s eyes. She was certainly the jealous type alright.

  ‘Yes’ said Sophie who was wiping her face with a tissue. ‘Well I’m not most people and I believe in getting my own back’.

  ‘With murder?’

  ‘If necessary’ said Sophie. ‘Sometimes people have to be taught a lesson they’ll never forget’.

  ‘Is that a little bit of home spun philosophy from your brother Bernie?’ Jeff wanted to know.

  ‘Leave my brother out of this’.

  Jeff leaned forward and rested his clasped hands and forearms on the desk. ‘Well come on, Sophie, all this confession is very useful but let’s get down to what’s really going on here. Where did Andrea Kay get the rohypnol from?’

  ‘I have no idea’.

  ‘I don’t believe you’.

  ‘Are you calling me a liar?’

  ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’m calling you’ said Jeff. ‘Are you really trying to convince us that you had no part in either the murder of James Clifton or Piers Jones except for identifying them to Andrea Kay?’

  ‘That is the truth, yes’ Sophie insisted.

  ‘And Malcolm Barnes? Were you behind his murder as well?’

  ‘I swear to God I knew nothing about that and if you don’t believe me then ask yourself
why I would confess to everything else and not that?’

  ‘Everybody has their limitations and yours is when it comes to the truth’ Jeff went on. ‘You give us so much but you don’t give us it all. I think your brother not only supplied the rohypnol but provided you, Clarissa Dalton-Wood and Andrea Kay with the support of every kind you needed to carry out your evil deeds’.

  ‘You’ve got a trip wire in your head when it comes to my brother’.

  ‘So convince me otherwise?’

  ‘You’ve got all of this so very wrong’.

  ‘Oh is that right?’

  ‘What did you do after Andrea Kay drove off with a drugged James Clifton in her car, Sophie?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘We went back to Clarissa’s place and broke open a bottle of champagne’.

  Jeff and Rebecca looked at each other and shook their heads.

  ‘And you pretended to all the world like you were so distraught’ said Jeff.

  Sophie shrugged her shoulders. ‘Wouldn’t you in the circumstances?’

  ‘Were you present on the night Piers Jones was lured away, presumably by Andrea, and murdered?’

  ‘Yes’ said Sophie. ‘It happened more or less the same way as with James. He came out of Annette Bryson’s flat and Andrea used whatever charms she has to get him into her car’.

  ‘And neither you nor Clarissa saw Piers or Andrea again that night?’

  ‘No, we didn’t’.

  ‘Whose idea was it to try and blame Tina Webb for Clifton’s murder, Sophie?’

  ‘Andrea’s’ said Sophie. ‘Clarissa and me just told Andrea what we wanted her to do and she just did it in the best way she saw fit. She was like a puppy. A stupid, obedient little puppy’.

  ‘Who would even kill for you’.

  ‘That’s about it, yes’ Sophie confirmed.

  FIREFLIES NINETEEN

  ‘It looks like she struggled’ said June Hawkins, the pathologist who was crouched down over the body of Tina Webb which was still halfway out of Andrea Kay’s bedroom door. ‘Her neck is broken but there are marks on the back of her neck and at the top of her back. I think she’s been hit with something or had something pushed up against her neck and then pressure applied. She must’ve been terrified in those last few moments’.

  ‘I don’t think we need to draw up a list of suspects’ said Jeff. ‘This is Andrea Kay’s work’.

  ‘And Tina Webb must’ve been bloody angry with her if she’d found out that someone she thought was her friend had in fact set her up for murder’ said Rebecca.

  ‘Well Andrea Kay clearly got the better of her’ said Jeff. ‘Just like she’s got the better of us all this time’.

  ‘You should get a lot from all that lot’ said June, gesturing her head towards all the pictures and clippings from Andrea Kay’s ‘secret’ wall behind the lockable screen.

  ‘Discovering that was probably what got Tina Webb killed’ said Jeff.

  ‘So you’ve charged Sophie Cooper and Clarissa Dalton-Wood I understand?’ June asked.

  ‘Yes and you should’ve seen the commotion’ said Jeff. ‘Sophie Cooper completely lost it. She started screaming and then she tried to lift one of the chairs and throw it at us. Clarissa Dalton-Wood was a little better but she couldn’t begin to imagine how a poor little rich girl like her could possibly be placed in a standard cell’.

  ‘Like there’s a non standard cell?’ June questioned with a smile on her face.

  ‘Exactly’ said Rebecca.

  Jeff was satisfied that they were reaching the end of investigations into the murders of James Clifton and Piers Jones. But then there were the murders of Malcolm Barnes and now Tina Webb. There was something occupying his subconscious that was making him restless. Everything was pointing at Andrea Kay. But what if they were wrong?

  ‘We need to talk to Andrea’s grandmother’ said Jeff.

  ‘She’s sitting in the lounge’ Rebecca explained. ‘She found the body when she came home from shopping and not surprisingly she’s pretty upset’.

  Rebecca followed Jeff downstairs where he pulled up a stool and sat next to Andrea’s grandmother, Marjorie Kay.

  ‘Mrs. Kay, I’m really sorry to have to ask you this’ Jeff began, his voice and manner as gentle as he could make them. ‘But did you have any idea of what your granddaughter was up to?’

  ‘No’ Marjorie answered, swallowing her tears and staring into space. ‘She was such a sweet child. She had her dolls and her toys. My daughter was a good mother but her heart was broken by her husband Brian. I could bloody well swing for that man. He destroyed my daughter’s life and now he’s destroyed my granddaughter’s too’.

  ‘How has he destroyed Andrea’s life, Mrs. Kay?’ Jeff asked, gently.

  ‘By marrying that bitch of a woman Helen he made a choice between her and Andrea. She never got over it. She must’ve been driven mad by the sense of betrayal. Oh God I should’ve known! I never asked why she kept her bedroom door locked even from me. I indulged her. I over compensated for what she’d lost and it’s led to all this’. She started to weep. ‘A lovely young girl like Tina dies in my house and my Andrea … I’ve lived here over fifty years. My late husband and I brought up Andrea’s mother here and this is where I gave Andrea sanctuary when she couldn’t live with her step-mother anymore’.

  ‘Mrs. Kay, none of this is your fault’ said Jeff, gently. ‘You mustn’t blame yourself’.

  ‘Then who is to blame? Somebody has to be’.

  ‘When we find your granddaughter we may be able to find the answer to that, Mrs. Kay’ said Rebecca. ‘Have you any idea where she might have gone?’

  ‘No’ said Marjorie, crying unstoppable tears. ‘I’ve known my granddaughter for all of her years on this earth and yet now I understand I don’t know her at all’.

  ‘Mrs. Kay?’ asked Jeff. ‘What is the relationship like between Andrea and her father now?’

  ‘Well … they don’t see each other as far as I know but maybe that’s something else she’s kept behind my back. I’ve looked after her all these years … I just can’t understand why she’s acted the way she’s done’.

  ‘What about her relationship with her step-mother Helen?’

  ‘Oh that’s a relationship that will never heal’ said Marjorie. ‘Andrea blames Helen for the death of her mother and so do I. It was Helen’s affair with Brian that caused the heartbreak that led my daughter, Andrea’s mother, to commit suicide’.

  ‘Could you think of a situation where the relationship could be repaired?’ Jeff went on.

  ‘No’ said Marjorie, firmly. ‘But like I say, I never thought my granddaughter would be capable of killing someone so don’t quote me on anything’.

  Jeff and Rebecca got back to the squad room and Jeff was consumed with the idea that they were looking in the wrong place.

  ‘Sir?’ said Ollie. ‘I’ve just had the editor of the Manchester Evening Chronicle on the line. He said that a journalist of theirs, Sharon Bellfield, went to interview Brian and Helen Curzon at the Mayfair hotel two days ago’.

  ‘And?’

  ‘She was supposed to file her copy on the interview straight after but they haven’t heard from her since, there’s no answer at her flat and her mobile is going straight to voicemail, sir. She wasn’t due any leave and the editor has checked with her family. They haven’t heard from her either’.

  Jeff stood and thought for a moment and then said ‘Alright, people, this is what we’re going to do. DS Stockton and myself will lead a squad of uniformed officers to the Mayfair hotel to bring Helen Curzon in for questioning. All the way through this investigation we’ve known that if Andrea Kay is our killer then she must’ve had help, right?’

  ‘But it can’t have been Helen Curzon, sir’ Rebecca reasoned. ‘Andrea Kay detests her step-mother’.

  ‘That’s true’ said Jeff. ‘But I think Helen Curzon will give us the final answers. Don’t ask me why. Just go with me’.

  Just before they were about to leave for t
he Curzon home another call came through. This time it was from Anita Patel, former employee of the Curzon’s at the Mayfair hotel, who was calling from Mumbai with information she’d told to the reporter from the Manchester Evening Chronicle but which she thought she really ought to tell to the police.

  Andrea Kay had already administered the rohypnol drug to her father Brian. She’d stripped him naked and was getting ready to relieve him of his manhood.

  ‘You really don’t feel anything for him, do you’ said Helen who was standing behind Andrea in the lounge of her house out on the edge of the Saddleworth moors.

  ‘Do you?’

  Helen turned her eyes to the view out of the window. It was possible to see the two counties of Derbyshire and Yorkshire plus the start of the urban conurbation of Greater Manchester but that’s not what was occupying her thoughts today. She and Brian had bought the place when she thought nothing would be able to offer even the remotest threat to their happiness. But that joy had been soured. Anita Patel was just the latest in a long line of affairs that Brian had humiliated her with. And yet she’d done everything for him. She’d brought out the best in him and restored his confidence after that miserable bitch of his first wife had sucked all the joy out of his soul. She’d worked night and day building up the business and making sure they had a future. Then Brian had risked it all by going into business with that evil crook Bernie Connelly. They’d brought prostitution into the Mayfair. How fucking dare they! She’d wanted to establish a legitimate business and that’s what she had done. Brian and his friend had ruined everything. She knew that the only reason they were experiencing a high occupancy rate was because of the ‘other’ services they offered and that’s why she’d agreed to Andrea’s little plan. If she could do something to damage the reputation of the business to the extent that it couldn’t even survive as a glorified knocking shop then she and Brian could cut their losses and sell from under the nose of Bernie Connelly. They could’ve then added what money they did make to what they would’ve made from selling the house and then bought something on the continent right away from everything. But then she’d discovered Brian’s affair with Anita Patel and something had snapped inside her. She ran out of strength to keep up the brave face. It was over.