by Ford,P. F.
‘No, that won’t be possible. If you walk through that door, I’ll have you arrested and dragged back in here. I’m afraid these two “idiots” aren’t quite as stupid as you think. Oh, you’ve been clever, there’s no doubt about that, but these two have been even more clever. So, if they’re idiots, what does that make you, I wonder?’
‘This is outrageous. You can’t do this!’
‘I think you’ll find I can,’ said Murray. ‘Now, why don’t you sit down and let’s get this over with.’
Hunter didn’t look quite so smug now, and his tongue seemed to have deserted him. Reluctantly he sat down. Murray nodded to Slater and Norman and walked across to the door.
‘Oh, one more thing, before I leave,’ he said, turning back to Hunter. ‘I should advise you that, as we speak, there are teams of officers at your home, and your offices. They have search warrants, of course.’
Murray let himself out. He was going to enjoy watching this from the observation room.
‘Good morning Mr Hunter,’ said Slater, smiling pleasantly at him. ‘It’s very good of you to offer to help us with our enquiries. We just have a few things we think you might be able to help us with.’
Hunter looked like he was about to spout forth, but Norman cut him off.
‘When we spoke to you before about Mr Winter, you said you’d only met him a few weeks ago,’ he began. ‘Is that still the case?’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Hunter, indignantly.
‘Then perhaps you could explain why your secretary, Mrs Bettsan, told PC Jolly that he had been a client for many years.’
‘She must be mistaken,’ said Hunter.
‘What about Mr Winter’s missing sister, who you said had contacted you out of the blue and was coming in to hear the will being read?’
‘I told you what happened about that,’ said Hunter, impatiently. ‘She was a fraud, an opportunist who chickened out at the last minute.’
‘Or maybe she never existed in the first place,’ suggested Norman. ‘Mrs Bettsan certainly can’t recall her.’
‘I didn’t tell Mrs Bettsan about her,’ argued Hunter. ‘There was no need.’
‘But didn’t you tell us it was Mrs Bettsan who had taken the original call?’
Norman was bluffing, but Hunter didn’t seem to realise.
‘Mrs Bettsan also finds it hard to understand how your alarm system could have failed,’ said Norman. ‘According to her it has a battery backup system and is supposed to be foolproof. It can only be disabled by someone who knows the code, and you change it every week. That seems to narrow it down quite a bit, don’t you think?’
Hunter remained tight-lipped.
‘The problem we had,’ said Slater, ‘is that we assumed all along that the person who murdered Mr Winter had let himself in with the spare back door key from under the mat. But then just yesterday it occurred to us there was another possibility. What if Mr Winter had known the killer? What if the killer had simply knocked on the door and Mr Winter had let him in?
‘He would have done that if he’d known that person for a long time and trusted him, wouldn’t he? But we didn’t have anyone who fit the bill. And then Mrs Bettsan got talking to PC Jolly, and suddenly we had a candidate.’
Slater stopped talking and there was a pause. Hunter sat silently.
‘How are we doing so far, Mr Hunter?’ asked Norman. ‘It’s funny. You seemed to have it all to say when you arrived, but now the cat seems to have got your tongue.’
‘I have the right to remain silent,’ said Hunter.
‘That’s right,’ said Slater. ‘And it’s okay, really. I don’t think you need to say much. We’re pretty sure we’ve got it more or less worked out without your help.’
‘You still might have got away with it all,’ continued Norman, watching Hunter closely for a reaction to his next statement. ‘But we found some old records from Hatton House.’
‘Well, well, well. You didn’t know they existed did you?’ Slater smiled as Hunter’s head jerked. ‘I guess it takes a special sort of idiot to keep digging until you find these things.’
‘It was mostly old records and stuff that wasn’t in the least bit relevant to our inquiry, but then right near the bottom of the pile, we struck gold,’ said Norman, who was enjoying himself hugely. ‘Here. Take a look at this.’
He slid a copy of the legal document he had found the previous evening in front of Hunter. Hunter looked down at the document.
‘Recognise that solicitor’s name and signature?’ asked Norman.
‘That’s nothing to do with me,’ said Hunter. ‘Look at the date. It says 1962. I was barely ten years old then.’
‘That’s right. It’s not you,’ said Norman. ‘But it has everything to do with you. It’s your father, isn’t it? Hunter and son, right? Only it’s not you and your son, is it? It’s your father and you. Your father was the solicitor for Hatton House.’
‘And what does this prove?’ asked Hunter.
‘It proves nothing,’ said Slater. ‘But it gave us a new line of enquiry. You see, up until this came to light, we were sure Sir Robert Maunder was the person we were after. We even had written evidence that accused him of being involved in child abuse at Hatton House back in the sixties.’
‘Yes, and because you accused him of that, he blew his own brains out,’ said Hunter, grimly. ‘And I’m going to make sure you pay for that.’
‘We didn’t accuse him of that, actually,’ said Norman. ‘But we can talk about that later. Right now we’re-’
There was a loud knock on the door. Slater got up, went over to the door and opened it just wide enough to stick his head through. There was a short, mumbled conversation and then he closed the door and came back to the table. He was smiling with satisfaction. As he sat down, he slid a note across the table to Norman, who read it carefully. Then he looked up at Hunter with a big, beaming smile.
‘It looks like the idiots are on a roll,’ he said, grinning. ‘Guess what we found, already?’
‘Is this going to take much longer?’ Hunter sighed, tapping his fingertips on the table.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Norman. ‘Are we delaying you? Do you have somewhere else you’d like to be?’
‘I would imagine anywhere would be preferable to sitting here listening to you spout this rubbish.’
‘I agree DS Norman can be a little tiresome.’ Slater smiled, seemingly overflowing with bonhomie. ‘Especially when he knows he’s cracked a case. But then, he’s an idiot, right? So what can you expect? So why don’t I take over for a little while? A change is as good as a rest, isn’t that what they say?’
Hunter glared at Slater.
‘You’re going to pay for this,’ he hissed. ‘You won’t even be back directing traffic. You’ll be issuing parking tickets!’
‘Yes. You’re probably right,’ said Slater, looking down at the notes in front of him. ‘Now what was I just going to say?’
Norman leaned over and pointed to a line halfway down the page.
‘Oh yes,’ he said, smiling up at Norman. ‘That’s right. Thank you.’
He turned back to Hunter.
‘You never told us what you thought we might have found,’ he said. ‘D’you wanna hazard a guess?’
Hunter heaved a heavy sigh.
‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Play your infantile game if you must.’
‘We found a mobile phone,’ said Slater.
‘Congratulations,’ sneered Hunter, sarcastically. ‘No, really, well done. I must have half a dozen mobile phones, so it really wasn’t that difficult, was it?’
‘Ah. But the one we found is special, isn’t it?’
Hunter’s sneer slowly disappeared.
‘Do you know what a burner phone is, Mr Hunter?’ asked Norman.
Hunter said nothing.
‘No? Then let me explain. ‘It’s an unregistered pay-as-you-go phone. It’s used by criminals to make a call, says for example to threaten someone, and then it gets throw
n away. That way it’s untraceable.’
Hunter was beginning to look a little sick.
‘I don’t have any pay-as-you-go phones,’ he said, uncertainly. ‘It must belong to my secretary.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Slater. ‘Sure it does. Do you think it’ll have her fingerprints on it, or yours?’
Hunter’s face said it all.
‘You see, the thing is, this particular pay-as-you-go phone has been used to call Sir Robert Maunder. Maybe you didn’t realise his mobile phone was on a contract, or maybe you forgot we could request his mobile phone bills. Whatever. The thing is we have his mobile phone bills, so we know exactly how often you called him using that very burner phone we found. We know how long the calls lasted and what times they were made.’
Hunter stared down at the table in front of him.
‘We’ve also got his bank statements,’ said Slater. ‘And they’ve revealed an amazing coincidence. You see, every time you call him, he goes to the bank the very next day and draws out some money. It must have been like using the hole in the wall for you. Need some cash? Just lean on the old guy and out comes the money, right?’
‘This is rubbish,’ said Hunter. ‘You can’t prove any of this. I was his solicitor. Why would I start blackmailing him?’
‘Oh, you didn’t start it. We believe we can prove your father did that. You just carried it on as part of the family business.’
‘This is preposterous,’ snapped Hunter. ‘My father was a respected solicitor. Why would he blackmail one of his own clients? Don’t forget we’re talking about a man who was chief constable and was given a knighthood.’
‘Ah, but he wasn’t a chief constable, back then, was he?’ said Norman, keen to get involved again. ‘Back then he was a DS, just like me. But he had a weakness. He couldn’t keep away from the ladies. He had an affair with Gordon Ferguson’s wife. Gordon caught them at it and murdered her. DS Maunder was implicated, but he didn’t want anyone to find out.’
‘I don’t know any Gordon Ferguson,’ said Hunter.
‘That’s odd,’ said Slater. ‘You drove all the way down to Portsmouth to see him a few nights ago. The Belmont Nursing Home. Ring any bells, does it? And before you deny it, you have been identified by a member of staff, and you’re on CCTV.’
‘Anyway,’ continued Norman, ‘Maunder had begun to suspect what was going on with some of the kids up there. Once he got dragged into this murder and its subsequent cover up, your father saw the opportunity to trap him and shut him up for good. Maunder’s been paying for that mistake ever since. It also gave your father the opportunity to keep Ferguson under control too. He didn’t have any money, but he could be useful in other ways, right?’
‘You’ll never prove any of this,’ said Hunter, desperately. ‘You’ve no proof and no witnesses.’
‘I have to admit you’ve been pretty thorough there,’ said Norman. ‘We looked everywhere for surviving members of staff, but they all seem to be dead somehow. Except for Gordon Ferguson, but all the time he knew you were out there he wasn’t going to say a thing.’
Hunter looked briefly relieved, as Norman had hoped he would.
‘There’s a problem for you, though,’ said Norman. ‘Gordon didn’t die yet. We know you poisoned him when you were down there the other night, but he’s a tough old boy, and he ain’t dead yet. He’s going to die very soon, and if he lasts until the weekend it’ll be a miracle, but we told him we were going to bring you in here and you wouldn’t be coming back out, so guess what? He told us who the ringleader was up at Hatton House. He also told us how, when that evil man died, his son had carried on terrorising him.’
There was another knock on the door. This time Norman went. When he came back his grin was even wider.
‘It’s not looking good for you, is it?’ he said. ‘They’ve just unearthed a CD given to you by Mr Winter. I bet it’s identical to the one we have.’
Hunter’s face fell.
‘Oh boy.’ Norman laughed coldly. ‘You didn’t know we had our own copy? See, Mr Winter might have trusted you enough to let you into his house the night you murdered him, but he obviously didn’t totally trust you, so he made a copy for us too, in the event anything should happen to him. As you know, he thought it was Maunder who was the ringleader, but I figure he guessed your father might have been involved too.’
There was another knock on the door. This time it swung open and Bob Murray stuck his head into the room.
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ he said, ominously. ‘Could I have a word, with both of you?’
They trooped out to join him. Norman wondered what could have gone wrong this time.
‘I’ve just had the chief constable on the line,’ said Murray, looking deadly serious.
‘Don’t tell me we’re suspended,’ said Slater.
Murray looked at Slater hard, and then he broke into a broad smile.
‘Not this time,’ he said. ‘Apparently Sir Robert Maunder had planned to take his own life. This morning the CC received a letter through the post from Sir Robert. It’s a suicide note in effect, but in it he confesses to being involved in covering up the murder of Ferguson’s wife. He confesses to having known about the child abuse but not having the guts to do anything about it. He chose his career and reputation over those kids’ lives.
‘He also names John Hunter’s father as the leader of the child abuse ring, and as his blackmailer. He claims the present John Hunter carried this on. He also confesses to having been blackmailed into paying to have Mr Winter and his sister silenced. He couldn’t live with himself any longer.’
‘I’m not surprised he couldn’t live with himself any longer,’ said Norman. ‘I don’t think I could have lived with myself for five minutes.’
‘Yes,’ said Murray. ‘But not everyone has your moral compass, Norman.’
They stood in silent thought for a moment before Murray spoke again.
‘Right,’ he said. ‘I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to charge anyone over the historical child abuse, but we’ve got enough evidence to charge Hunter with two counts of murder and blackmail for a start. You can add another murder charge when Ferguson dies, and we ought to look back at the deaths of all those staff members who’ve died.’
Slater and Norman stood there.
‘Well go on, then,’ said Murray. ‘Get on with it.’
‘Right, boss,’ said Slater.
He turned to Norman.
‘Who’s going to do the honours, you or me?’
‘Aw, heck. I don’t know. Whose turn is it?’
‘I can’t remember,’ said Slater, fishing in his pocket for a coin.
‘Here you go,’ he said. ‘Heads or tails?’
‘Last time we did this I ended up watching a PM,’ said Norman. ‘I’m sure that coin’s double-headed…’
***
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All the Dave Slater Mystery Novels can be purchased individually, but you can save money by buying them in two book sets. The next one combines books 4 & 5 from the series.
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The two novels in this set are:
When Diana Woods is found stabbed to death in her kitchen, DS Slater and DS Norman Norman are plunged into another major investigation. The finger of suspicion quickly points at Diana’s estranged husband, Ian – a bully who regularly abused his wife. But as Slater learns more, he begins to wonder if everything is as it seems. When a new suspect appears on the scene, it seems that Slater’s instincts were right. But the evi
dence seems just a bit too convenient, and Slater and Norman have to face the possibility that their suspect is being framed – and they could be back to square one.
When DS Dave Slater is called from his bed in the middle of the night, he is horrified to find that the flat belonging to his colleague, DS Norman Norman, has been set alight. His relief at being told Norman wasn’t inside at the time quickly turns to concern, as no trace of the missing officer can be found. As the minutes stretch into hours, and DS Slater starts to dig into the circumstances surrounding Norman’s disappearance, he discovers that the involvement of a mysterious Russian man could mean Norman is in an even more dangerous situation than first feared. With a new DI in charge – who just so happens to be a woman – and more twists and turns than a rollercoaster, DS Slater faces a race against time to find Norman before it’s too late..
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Find out where DS Dave Slater first appeared!
If you enjoy these Dave Slater books, you might be interested to know you can download a collection of my Alfie Bowman novellas for free! These five stories – An Unlikely Hero, Missing Without Trace, An Unnecessary Murder, Who Kidnapped Billy Bumble, and A Handsome Stranger are available in one collection. This is the series from which DS Dave Slater evolved.
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