Let the Dead Speak

by Jane Casey

  ‘I know.’ He pulled another face. ‘This is going to sound really weird. As if the rest of it wasn’t, I mean.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘Eleanor. She didn’t like Kate. At all. They were obviously very different. They’d made different choices in life. Eleanor disapproved of Kate, but I think she envied her too.’

  I frowned. ‘So why wouldn’t she have wanted you to pursue a romantic relationship with Kate?’

  ‘Um. Because Eleanor thinks of me as her property.’ He grinned. ‘I know it sounds strange but she’s never liked any of my girlfriends. I met her first – did you know that? I was the one who introduced her and Ollie.’

  ‘Did you have a relationship with her?’ I asked.

  ‘Nothing serious. She was saving herself for marriage. To my brother, as it turned out.’ A smirk. ‘But I don’t think she’s ever quite given up on me. And she hated Kate. She’d probably have kicked me out for immoral conduct and being a bad influence on Bethany.’

  ‘So you had sex with Kate,’ I said. ‘Once?’

  ‘Once.’

  ‘Did you use a condom?’

  A muscle tightened in his jaw. ‘No. She didn’t mention it and I didn’t have one on me. Is that illegal now?’

  I ignored the question and made a note. ‘Was it consensual?’

  ‘Was it— what the hell are you implying?’

  ‘I’m not implying anything. I’m asking if Kate wanted you to have sex with her.’

  ‘Yes. Yes, she did. She initiated it.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

  He looked wary. ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because you lie when it suits you. You’ve lied to me several times already in this interview, haven’t you? And then you changed your story when you got caught out.’

  ‘Oh, come on.’

  ‘Do you remember what Kate was wearing on the single occasion you and she had sex?’

  ‘Not much by the time I was finished with her,’ he snapped.

  ‘Before that.’

  ‘No. Not in detail.’

  ‘The shirt with buttons – you remember that, don’t you?’

  ‘Yeah. I mean, sort of.’

  ‘Is this the shirt?’ I picked up one of the evidence bags from beside my chair and flattened it out so he could see what was inside. The shirt was unbuttoned. Two of the buttons dangled by threads and a third was missing.

  ‘It could be.’

  ‘Was she wearing a skirt or trousers? Jeans?’

  ‘I don’t remember.’

  ‘Did she go up the stairs in front of you?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, she did.’

  ‘So you were looking at her walking in front of you.’

  He rubbed his mouth with a hand. ‘Yes. OK. It was a skirt.’

  ‘This skirt.’ I laid it on top of the other evidence bag: a navy-blue cotton A-line skirt.

  ‘Looks like it.’

  ‘The forensic testing we did showed that your DNA was on the inside of the skirt. Your seminal fluid was all over it.’

  He shrugged. ‘So?’

  ‘So was she wearing it when you had sex?’

  His face twisted. ‘Do you want all the details or something? Does this turn you on?’

  ‘I’m trying to get your version of events, Mr Norris. At the moment we can’t ask Kate for her story. All we can do is look at the evidence. Your account so far doesn’t match up with the evidence we’ve got.’

  ‘I’m telling the truth.’ He was staring at me, his eyes locked on mine.

  ‘You said you took her clothes off, but that’s not true, is it? You took off enough clothes to be able to have sex with her.’

  ‘Look, no one was lighting any candles or scattering rose petals on the bed. It was a quickie.’

  I put another evidence bag on the table: a plain white bra, lightly padded. There was a very small brownish mark on the edge of the left cup: Kate Emery’s blood. ‘Is this the bra she was wearing?’

  ‘I have no idea.’

  ‘Your DNA was on it.’

  ‘Then it must have been.’

  ‘Tell me about the blood.’ I held the bag so he could see it: a smudge, nothing more.

  He shook his head. ‘I can’t.’

  ‘Did you hurt her?’

  ‘No. Not deliberately. Not as far as I was aware.’

  ‘Did you scratch her?’

  ‘I might have.’

  ‘Did she scratch you?’

  ‘I don’t remember.’

  ‘This is the last item we found. It’s a pair of knickers. I don’t know if you can see their condition through the evidence bag.’

  He glanced at them briefly, then stared back at me. ‘Say it.’

  ‘They’re ripped. Did you rip them?’

  ‘Yes. I did.’ He leaned forward, dropping his voice. ‘Come on, Sergeant. You must have had sex like that in your time. Down and dirty, anything goes. If you haven’t, you’ve been missing out.’

  ‘I’m going to ask you again if the sex was consensual.’

  ‘And I’m going to tell you again, that it was. It was what she wanted. She told me to do it. She was begging me to tear her clothes off and fuck her.’ He threw himself back in his chair, irritated. ‘What was I supposed to do? Say no in case she got herself murdered and I got accused of rape?’

  ‘She kept the clothes. She didn’t wash them.’

  ‘Maybe she wanted a souvenir.’

  ‘A souvenir of what, by your own account, wasn’t very good sex.’

  ‘I don’t fucking know, do I? If I knew why women do the things they do, I wouldn’t be single.’

  ‘Don’t you think it’s possible that she kept them because they were evidence of an unwanted sexual encounter? That if she made a complaint of rape against you, she’d be able to produce the clothes to help prove her story?’

  ‘Is that what you think?’

  ‘It’s what I suspect,’ I said.

  ‘You’ve made up your mind. You haven’t even considered that Kate was pissed off with me. If she wanted to frame me, this would be a good place to start, wouldn’t it?’ He turned to Pettifer. ‘You’re a man. What do you think?’

  ‘I think your explanation doesn’t hold together very well.’

  Morgan nodded, biting his lip. To give him his due, he wasn’t panicking. ‘Did she make a complaint? To the police, I mean?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Did she tell anyone she’d been raped?’

  ‘Not as far as we know,’ I admitted.

  ‘So all you have is a bag of dirty laundry and suspicious minds. And I have to defend myself against an accusation that no one has even made.’

  ‘You can understand why we need to ask these questions,’ I said.

  ‘Oh, I can understand it all right. You don’t have a clue what happened to Kate and you’re hoping I’ll incriminate myself.’ He leaned forward. ‘Not going to happen.’

  ‘Did you talk to Kate again after this incident?’

  ‘No. Kept my distance. I wanted to apologise to her for having been a sweaty mess but I thought it would look as if I was asking for a rematch or making excuses, neither of which I wanted to do. It wasn’t hard to avoid her and that’s what I did.’

  ‘And then Kate disappeared.’

  A slow nod. ‘Yeah. That was a shock. But it didn’t have anything to do with me.’ He had recovered his composure quickly, I noticed: the anger had disappeared as completely as if I’d imagined it. ‘You know, I think you’re looking at this from the wrong perspective.’

  ‘Go on,’ I said.

  ‘If she was yanking strange blokes off the street to shag their brains out, she probably wasn’t exhibiting very good judgement. She didn’t know me. She knew who I was, but she didn’t know if I was a good guy. She might have picked up the wrong kind of person in a bar or on a train or something. Or – or a plumber. An electrician. Someone who came to her house. She was living dangerously.’

  ‘When was the last time you spoke to her?’ />
  ‘When I was leaving the house after I had sex with her. This would have been about six weeks ago. I said “Thank you for having me” and she didn’t so much as crack a smile.’ He shrugged. ‘That was when I wrote her off completely. No sense of humour, no chance.’

  I had never met Kate Emery but I was sure she had been a long way from heartbroken about that.

  ‘What did you think of that?’ Pettifer asked.

  I dropped my notes on my desk and stretched, feeling all the small muscles along my spine complain. I tensed up in interviews and it wasn’t good for me. ‘I think he raped her.’

  ‘You’ll never prove it.’

  ‘Nope. And he knows it.’ I shook my head. ‘There’s something about him that’s not right. Objectively speaking, he’s attractive, physically fit, sort of charming … but I wouldn’t go near him. Too arrogant. He’s the kind of person who sends unsolicited dick pics and gets all hurt when you’re not impressed.’

  ‘Talking about me again?’ Derwent slid across the room on his desk chair. ‘Except you can’t be. You know that the ladies are always impressed with my dick pics.’

  ‘If they’re not expecting much, it’s easy to impress them, isn’t it?’ I said.

  ‘Who are you talking about? Morgan?’ Derwent revolved slowly on his chair. ‘I don’t like him either. I thought he was a turd.’

  ‘He admitted that he and Kate had a one-off fling,’ Pettifer said.

  ‘He couldn’t do much else, could he?’ Derwent looked at me. ‘But you don’t believe him.’

  ‘He said it was rough sex, but consensual.’ I shrugged. ‘Without Kate, I can’t prove anything.’

  ‘He also said he was shit in bed.’ Pettifer sniffed. ‘He’s an arrogant sort. If he was making it up, he’d have said he was amazing, wouldn’t he? Especially when he was trying to flirt with you, Maeve.’

  ‘There’s a shock,’ Derwent said. ‘Kerrigan is a creep magnet.’

  I put my foot on the seat of his chair and shoved, hard, so he rolled a few feet away. ‘It’s a good point, Chris. That’s a strange thing to make up. But I can’t see any other reason why she’d keep the clothes.’

  ‘Did we find any other DNA in the house?’ Pettifer asked.

  ‘Three other men. We haven’t identified them yet. There’s nothing on the system,’ Derwent said. ‘It fits with what Oliver Norris said about her having visitors.’

  ‘Living dangerously,’ I said. ‘Most murder victims do, one way or another.’

  Pettifer went back to his desk but Derwent propelled himself around to sit beside me. He leaned on my desk, staring into the distance.

  ‘How was Oliver Norris?’ I asked eventually.

  ‘Inconclusive.’

  ‘Still a suspect?’

  ‘Very much so.’

  ‘What did you make of him?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Derwent rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. ‘Watch it, if you like. Let me know what you think.’

  ‘I will.’ Very casually, but because I had to know, I asked, ‘How did Georgia do?’

  ‘Fine.’ He got up and walked away. Over his shoulder, he said, ‘But I missed you.’

  By the time I’d decided how I should respond, he was long gone.

  16

  Metropolitan Police

  RECORD OF INTERVIEW

  Visually Recorded Interview

  Person interviewed: Oliver John NORRIS

  DOB: 05/12/71

  Place of Interview: Colton House, Westminster

  Time commenced: 1235 hours

  Time concluded: 1430 hours

  Duration of interview: 115 mins

  Interviewing Officer(s): DI Josh DERWENT, DC Georgia SHAW

  Other persons present: Mr John PACKARD, Solicitor, JPL Solicitors

  All persons present introduced themselves.

  Tape procedure explained.

  Mr NORRIS confirmed he had had sufficient time for legal consultation. Advised of ongoing right to legal consultation. Caution given, explained and understood.

  DERWENT: Do you know why you’re here?

  NORRIS: Because you want to talk to me about Kate Emery. That’s what you said when you came to my house in the middle of the night. It was completely unnecessary.

  DERWENT: It’s routine. Tell me about Kate.

  NORRIS: She was my neighbour.

  DERWENT: Just a neighbour or more than that?

  NORRIS: What are you implying?

  DERWENT: I think you knew her a bit better than you’re letting on.

  NORRIS: I knew her. [inaudible]

  DERWENT: Could you repeat that?

  NORRIS: I was friendly with her.

  DERWENT: How friendly?

  NORRIS: I – does my wife need to hear about this?

  DERWENT: Go on.

  NORRIS: We were … close.

  DERWENT: What does that mean?

  NORRIS: No comment.

  DERWENT: That’s not how it works, Mr Norris. You can’t opt out of answering the difficult questions. Did you have a sexual relationship with Kate Emery?

  NORRIS: No.

  DERWENT: No?

  NORRIS: Not really.

  DERWENT: What does that mean?

  NORRIS: [inaudible]

  DERWENT: Shall I tell you what we’ve found, Mr Norris? Would that be helpful?

  [Silence]

  DERWENT: The forensic service can say with a high degree of certainty that your DNA was on and inside this used condom, along with Kate Emery’s skin cells and body fluids. Do you know where we recovered that?

  NORRIS: No.

  DERWENT: It was in number twenty-two Constantine Avenue. That house belongs to a man named Harold Lowe.

  NORRIS: I don’t know him.

  DERWENT: Have you ever been in that house?

  NORRIS: No.

  DERWENT: Are you sure?

  NORRIS: I – I can’t.

  PACKARD: My client is very distressed.

  DERWENT: My colleague will give you a tissue, Mr Norris. Would you like some water?

  NORRIS: [sniffing] No.

  DERWENT: How do you explain the used condom in Harold Lowe’s house?

  NORRIS: I know this looks bad. It is bad. I should never have done it.

  DERWENT: What did you do?

  NORRIS: OK. I’m going to tell you everything that happened. Everything. I’m not going to lie any more. I was very taken with her. Obsessed. Out of my mind. I knew it was wrong. I’ve been married for a long time and I’ve never been unfaithful. I’ve never wanted to be. Marriage is a sacred union and I love my wife. That’s the whole point. I love her. I don’t want to hurt her. I don’t want her to know …

  DERWENT: Know what?

  NORRIS: I got to know Kate. I got to know her better than Eleanor realised. I spent quite a bit of time with her. I got in the habit of popping round when Eleanor was out and Chloe was round at our place. I was lonely, I suppose. She was good company and she was fun. I started off thinking that I was there because I wanted her to join our church, but I was wrong to use that as an excuse. It wasn’t true. She let me talk about God and prayer and so forth, but it wasn’t why I was there and I knew it. I should have walked away from temptation but I was weak. I was weak.

  DERWENT: Did you have an affair with her?

  NORRIS: Not at first. Then – then I couldn’t help myself. But I didn’t want Eleanor to find out. I couldn’t think about what would happen. It would destroy her. You mustn’t tell her.

  DERWENT: When did it start?

  NORRIS: After she came to our church. I wouldn’t have— I couldn’t have encouraged her to come if we’d already been— but it was only a few times. Five. Six, maybe.

  DERWENT: Explain to me why you were in Harold Lowe’s house.

  NORRIS: I was worried that Eleanor would see me going into Kate’s house. I thought I could come round the back way, but Kate said she had a better idea. She had a key to the house on Constantine Avenue. She told me we wouldn’t be di
sturbed. Otherwise we could only meet when Chloe was away, or out, but it was too risky. I wasn’t always able to get away when Chloe was out, so it was … frustrating. But when we had the house, we could meet there and Kate could keep an eye on her house so she’d know when Chloe got back.

  DERWENT: And you met there for sex.

  NORRIS: Yes.

  DERWENT: Did you drink while you were there? Smoke?

  NORRIS: No.

  DERWENT: Did you have sex without a condom?

  NORRIS: No. Never. I had no idea we’d left one behind, obviously. I thought we’d been pretty careful about tidying up. Kate cleaned the room we used. It was wrong to use someone else’s house, especially for that, but it seemed like the only option.

  DERWENT: Apart from not having an affair.

  NORRIS: Apart from that. But we had decided to end it. She had decided, actually. I was sorry, but it was a relief too.

  DERWENT: Tell me about the last time you spoke to Kate.

  NORRIS: I went round to her house last week. She asked me to come over. Chloe was out with Bethany at the cinema. Eleanor was at choir at the church. I said I had a sore throat so I had to stay at home.

  DERWENT: When was this? What night?

  NORRIS: Monday.

  DERWENT: Time?

  NORRIS: I don’t know. Eight? Eight thirty? We had a glass of wine. I brought a bottle over.

  DERWENT: How did she seem?

  NORRIS: She was a bit on edge. I felt I was in the way. I – well, I got annoyed with her.

  DERWENT: How annoyed?

  NORRIS: I didn’t shout or anything.

  DERWENT: Were you physically violent?

  NORRIS: I didn’t hit her, if that’s what you’re suggesting. I was hurt that she wanted to stop seeing me. I was angry with myself for not being strong enough to end it. I didn’t want it to stop. We were in her kitchen, drinking wine, and I said I’d go. I was in a bit of a huff.

  DERWENT: Was that the end of it?

  NORRIS: No. She apologised. And then we kissed. And then – then she – um – she performed a sex act on me.

  DERWENT: A sex act.

  NORRIS: Oral sex.

  DERWENT: That’s surprising, considering the conversation she’d initiated about breaking up with you.

  NORRIS: Things progressed. Obviously.

  DERWENT: But she’d told you she didn’t want a sexual relationship.