Deadly Alibi

by Leigh Russell

62

  Celia was surprised to hear from Geraldine on a Tuesday.

  ‘I’m kind of at a loose end,’ Geraldine confessed.

  ‘Is everything OK?’

  ‘Oh yes, of course. It’s just that I’m in between cases right now and haven’t got anything pressing to do this afternoon.’

  ‘So you sorted out the double murder you were working on?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Honestly, Geraldine, I don’t know how you do it.’

  Geraldine forced a laugh. They had been through this same conversation many times before. ‘I do it because it’s my job,’ she replied. She almost broke down and confessed that was no longer true, but she didn’t want to worry Celia. In any case, her problem might yet be resolved. It was unlikely, but while the possibility remained that she might be reinstated, there was no point in giving up hope. ‘Anyway,’ she went on, ‘I’m free this afternoon and wondered if you fancied a visit?’

  ‘This afternoon?’

  Geraldine regretted her rash offer at once. She never made last-minute arrangements with her sister. Celia was bound to suspect something was wrong.

  ‘That would be lovely,’ Celia gushed, wiping out all Geraldine’s concerns. ‘I’m so bored sitting around all day like a beached whale. You know the doctors have told me to take it easy, but it’s driving me round the bend. You can’t imagine what it’s like, having nothing to do all day.’

  Geraldine muttered sympathetically, privately stung by the irony of the situation. Half an hour later, she was behind the wheel of her car, speeding out of London. Putting her foot down, she felt a sense of freedom, and remembered what Ian had said about leaving the Met. He was right. There were other police forces. As she left the cramped streets of London behind her, a plan began to form in her mind. Continuing in her present post had become untenable, but she might be able to persuade Adam to support her relocation to a more humble post in a different area of the country.

  York was a long way north, but that might not be a bad result. Celia wouldn’t be happy about her moving so far away, but she would deal with that objection if it arose. For now, it was enough to hope she might still have a future in a job she loved. Working as a detective sergeant hadn’t been so bad. Ian was right about that. In any case, if she moved out of London, taking a cut in her salary would be virtually irrelevant. She could sell her flat. With her inheritance from her adoptive mother’s estate, the equity on her flat in Highbury could be enough for her to buy a decent flat in York outright. Mortgage free, she might even end up financially better off than she was now.

  By the time she arrived at Celia’s house, Geraldine was feeling far more positive than she had been since her traumatic arrest. With any luck, her career was not over, but merely shifting into a new gear. It would be hard to revert to the role of sergeant, but it was preferable to any other future she could imagine for herself. Not much over forty, she wasn’t ready to give up yet. Life would go on for her, and she would continue to serve the cause to which she had dedicated her whole adult life. Nothing would really suffer from her demotion, apart from her pride.

  Celia was pleased to see her. Not for the first time, Geraldine felt a stab of guilt that she visited so infrequently. She determined not to mention the possibility of her moving further away. It wasn’t hard to remain silent on the subject. Celia was so excited to have someone to talk to that Geraldine didn’t need to say much. Celia launched into a detailed account of her most recent visit to the hospital, and her sessions with the midwife, as though nothing else mattered.

  ‘I’m not boring you, am I?’ she asked at one point, with a rare flash of insight.

  Geraldine reassured her she was keen to hear every detail about the pregnancy.

  ‘It’s not something I’m ever likely to experience myself, so this is the next best thing,’ she added.

  Celia accepted that readily enough. Having completed her account of the progress of her pregnancy, which all sounded fine, she turned to the topic of the nursery. She insisted on taking Geraldine upstairs to view the wallpaper, the small wardrobe, changing table, cot and nursing chair.

  ‘We had to get everything new,’ Celia explained. ‘We never thought this was going to happen again – I mean, I’m forty-three and we’ve been trying ever since Chloe was a toddler and she’s nearly a teenager now. So we threw out all the old stuff from when Chloe was born years ago. I had nothing!’ She laughed. ‘I mean, literally nothing!’

  Just a husband, a daughter, a baby on the way, and a five-bedroomed house, Geraldine thought. She struggled not to feel a twinge of bitterness. She couldn’t help comparing Celia’s circumstances with her own solitary life, and Helena’s dysfunctional existence.

  ‘So you just had to go out and buy everything new,’ she smiled. ‘Poor you!’

  They both laughed. Geraldine duly praised the rabbits and teddy bears on the wallpaper, the dainty white furniture, and a brightly coloured mat on the carpet. Turning to follow Celia out of the room, she noticed a baby listening device. A thrill of adrenaline ran through her, like an electric current.

  ‘What’s that?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s a listening device.’

  ‘Yes, yes,’ Geraldine interrupted impatiently. ‘I know what it is.’

  ‘But you just asked…’

  ‘Sorry, Celia, but I’ve got to go. I’ve just remembered something I need to do.’

  ‘But you’ve only just got here,’ Celia protested. ‘Chloe’ll be home in an hour, and she’ll want to see you.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but I really can’t stop. This can’t wait.’

  Leaving Celia bemused at the top of the stairs, Geraldine ran out of the house. Putting her foot down, she was back home in record time and leafing through the documents. She couldn’t find what she was looking for. She tried her own record book, but there was nothing there to help her. Wracking her brains, she picked up her phone. This time, Emma didn’t sound as welcoming as before.

  ‘Can’t it wait until tomorrow?’ she asked. ‘We’re about to go out.’

  ‘No, it can’t wait. Please, Emma, I only need to talk to her for a second. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.’

  ‘As long as you’re not going to get her into trouble.’

  ‘I won’t, I promise.’

  Sam sounded bothered. ‘Listen, I spoke to Chris like you asked me to, and he’s giving nothing away. He wouldn’t say a word. I’ll try to contact Louise’s husband tomorrow if I can, but it’s not easy. I do have other work…’

  ‘Never mind all that now,’ Geraldine interrupted her impatiently. ‘Do you remember when we went to the garage? Or rather, when we got back? A sergeant stopped me in the corridor the following day. He was using the car we’d taken to the garage and he said he’d found a listening device someone had dropped under the driver’s seat. You need to find out who that sergeant was, and what he did with the device he found.’

  Sam sounded irate. ‘Geraldine, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. I’m going out.’

  ‘If that device was switched on before we drove out of the garage, someone might have overheard us talking in the car about Louise arriving at Euston on the seven fifteen train.’

  ‘Yes, we did talk about it, I remember,’ Sam interrupted, suddenly excited. ‘We talked about it in the car. But would a device like that have a large enough range to transmit our conversation?’

  ‘If we were talking about it before we left the garage forecourt, then I don’t see why not. We can look into that once you’ve tracked down that device.’

  ‘I’m on it.’

  Without another word, Sam rang off. She had clearly grasped the significance of Geraldine’s suggestion. It might be a false trail, but it was possible Daniel had discovered the time of Louise’s train from Geraldine herself. It was a depressing thought. But if it was true, they must at least make
sure he was caught. They were too late to save Louise. It wasn’t too late to catch her killer.

  63

  First thing the next morning, Sam went to see Adam to tell him what Geraldine had suggested. He was tied up in a meeting with the borough commander all day. There was nothing else for it but to proceed discreetly with her investigation on her own. It didn’t take long to establish who had used the car after she and Geraldine had driven to the garage. She knew the sergeant concerned by sight and set off to find him. He was surprised when she approached him about it, but he remembered finding something he had believed was a baby listening device under the driver’s seat.

  ‘I tried to adjust the seat and it wouldn’t go back. So I took a look, and there it was. I took it to your DI, but she didn’t want it. She said she’d never seen it before.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I hear she’s been suspended. Shame. She was all right, that DI. I don’t suppose there’s any chance she’ll be back?’

  ‘I’m not at liberty to discuss it,’ Sam snapped and he lowered his eyes with a shrug. ‘Now, what happened to that listening device?’

  ‘I asked if she wanted it and she said she didn’t,’ he replied, suddenly defensive. ‘It’s not like I didn’t tell anyone.’

  ‘That’s OK, we didn’t need it then, but now we do need it. Listen,’ she went on, less aggressively, ‘we think it might help us with our investigation, so can you tell me what you did with it?’

  He frowned. ‘Honestly, I can’t remember. I asked around at the time, but no one claimed it. After that, I suppose it went into lost property. You can try there anyway. I can’t think what else I would’ve done with it.’

  Sam thanked him and hurried away to check the lost property. The listening device was there, along with a selection of watches and other small items. Placing it carefully in an evidence bag, Sam sent it straight off to be checked for fingerprints. She marked the request ‘urgent’. Then she returned to her desk, trying to suppress the wild hope that her efforts might help get Geraldine reinstated. The thought that she might be permanently removed from her post was too dreadful to contemplate. Geraldine was by far the most dedicated and effective colleague Sam had ever worked with, and besides that, they had developed a genuine friendship. Sam was not sure how she would control her feelings if Geraldine was kicked off the force, just for trying to help her sister.

  ‘It’s not fair,’ she had complained to Adam. ‘I thought the whole point of our work was to help people. How can you condemn her when she was only trying to save her sister’s life? Anyway, aren’t we allowed to be human in this job?’

  Sam knew she was probably blotting her own record by speaking to the detective chief inspector so bluntly, but she didn’t care. Geraldine deserved better treatment than he had given her.

  Adam had glared coldly at her. ‘I’m sure Geraldine would be the first to admit that she can’t continue under the present circumstances.’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean. You know perfectly well she’s the best DI in London…’

  Adam had merely shaken his head. ‘If you have nothing further to say, then I suggest you return to your work. We still have a murder case to solve. Unless you can provide evidence that Chris killed Louise Marshall? No? I thought not. Now, get back to work and we’ll both forget about your outburst just now. If your DI is in serious trouble, she has only herself to blame. Believe me, no one could be more disappointed than I am about what she did, but there’s no way she can carry on here after the way she behaved. She appreciates that as much as I do. You’d do well to think of your own position before you open your mouth like that again.’

  The only way Sam could show her support for Geraldine was by helping her disgraced colleague to solve the case. If they succeeded, Adam would have to acknowledge that he needed Geraldine to keep working. He might agree to overlook her one mistake in a long and illustrious career. The thought of Geraldine’s troubles spurred Sam on. Her next task was to re-examine all recent purchases of chisels. They had already searched for evidence that Chris had bought one recently, without any success. It was a massive undertaking, and she set a team of constables to work on it. Her justification for the man-hours spent on it was that she wanted to check for evidence that Chris could have bought the murder weapon. But along with Chris’s credit card details, she had discreetly instructed them to look for a purchase made on Daniel’s credit card. If Adam found out, she would have to talk her way out of it. In the meantime, the search went on.

  At lunch time, she nipped out of the police station and called Geraldine.

  ‘Hi, it’s me. Emma’s lent me her phone.’

  ‘Thank you. And thank her. So, any news?’

  When Sam brought her up to date with the latest activity, Geraldine’s gratitude moved Sam. More than ever she determined to assist Geraldine to solve the case. After lunch, she received a message that a partial oily fingerprint had been recovered from the listening device. There was no match for it on the system. Somehow she had to obtain Daniel’s fingerprint, but she had to get hold of it without arousing his suspicion. If Geraldine was right, and he was guilty, he was hardly going to welcome any interference from Sam. He might even complain about her if he suspected she was onto him, in which case there was a risk Adam would realise she was working with Geraldine. If he decided to take Sam off the case as well, she would never be able to help her friend. One of them, at least, had to be working on the inside.

  Mid-afternoon she called Geraldine to keep her posted. Geraldine agreed with Sam’s thinking and suggested she try and find the original copy of Daniel’s statement. If any of the prints on that matched the partial print on the listening device, they would have enough evidence to bring him in for questioning. Examination of the CCTV and the records at the garage might also help.

  ‘If we can prove the dates on the documentation when Chris’s van was in for repairs were tampered with, that would really help too,’ Geraldine suggested. ‘But before we can get a search warrant, and seize all their records, we need evidence of his guilt. It’s down to you, Sam.’

  ‘If it’s there, I’ll find it,’ Sam promised.

  Never before had she been so aware of the weight of responsibility that attached to her work. Used to following instructions and working as part of a team, she was uneasy knowing the success of the investigation rested on her shoulders.

  ‘If all else fails, you’ll have to go to Adam,’ Geraldine added.

  Sam didn’t say that she had already been to see him, and he hadn’t been interested in her suggestions, or sympathetic towards Geraldine.

  64

  Sam phoned the fingerprint team and pressed them to hurry. She was almost bursting with impatience when they finally called her. The result was worth waiting for. There was a clear print on the statement Daniel Saunders had sent them that matched the partial one found on the baby listening device. He had handled both.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Sam asked.

  ‘I’m sure it appears to be a match.’

  ‘But it’s only a partial print on the device.’

  ‘There’s enough there for us to use.’

  ‘Is it enough to hold up in court?’

  The fingerprint expert laughed at her anxiety. ‘It’s as positive as fingerprint evidence can be, as positive as if we’d had a complete print in both places. You know fingerprint evidence isn’t infallible, but there must have been a reason you sent us these two prints and asked us to match them. This wasn’t a random selection. So you can certainly use this probable match as supporting evidence. We do appear to have a match. And I suspect the chances of that happening by complete coincidence with two sets of prints you’ve pulled together for other reasons are highly unlikely.’

  They hadn’t yet found any evidence that Daniel had recently bought a chisel, but that was hardly surprising. He could have bought it with cash, or borrowed or stolen it. The chisel might hav
e been in his possession for years. He might even have found it in Chris’s shed. Looking for proof that he had bought the murder weapon was likely to take a very long time, and might never yield a result. Armed with evidence that Daniel had motives for killing both Jamie and Louise, and that he had known where to find them both, Sam decided it was time to make a move. But before she could effect an arrest, she needed to speak to Adam. She went to wait for him outside his office. If necessary, she would stand there all night. At half past four he returned. He didn’t look pleased to see her.

  At first he tried to dismiss her, telling her he had to deal with paperwork arising from the meeting he had just attended.

  Sam took a deep breath. ‘This is important, and it can’t wait.’

  ‘It’s not about Geraldine, is it?’

  ‘No. It’s about arresting the man who murdered Louise Marshall.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I know who did it, and I have evidence to back up what I’m saying. But I need your permission to go and arrest him, and we need a warrant to search his home and place of work I think.’

  Adam raised his eyebrows. ‘I see. Well, you’d better come in and talk to me.’

  It was nearly half past five by the time Sam arrived, and the garage was about to close. As she drove into the forecourt, accompanied by a male sergeant and two more patrol cars, the lights in the office were switched off, leaving the building in darkness. The doors to the workshop were still open, and the interior was lit up. A couple of men in oily blue overalls were working on a car. One of them looked up as a third mechanic put down the spanner he was holding. At the same time, a girl emerged from the office and trotted over to the gate. A female constable stopped her.

  ‘I’m afraid the office has just shut,’ the girl said.

  Sam and her companion climbed out of their vehicle. One of the patrol cars turned and blocked the exit, while officers from the other one guarded the pedestrian access. The two mechanics continued working on the engine they were fixing. The third one strode out of the workshop, wiping his hands on an oily rag.