by DS Butler
DI Tyler looked disappointed that his dramatic update hadn’t gone to plan. He had obviously been expecting a slap on the back. “Um, well,” Tyler carried on reading from his notes. “The lower ground floor laboratory had been trashed, but the head of the research group said nothing was missing.” DI Tyler looked up.
“No missing aconite?” Brookbank asked.
Tyler shook his head and Brookbank was silent for a few moments. Charlotte could imagine the thoughts going through his head. He was bound to send someone from the team down to Oxford now. Potentially, the break-in could be linked to the animal rights group, and it could be how whoever targeted Weston acquired the poison.
After DI Tyler had been thoroughly grilled, Brookbank moved on. “DC Leonard, did you find anything from the CCTV outside Weston’s offices?”
Leonard nodded. “We have been looking through the footage. Fifty-eight people entered the building that morning; we are still in the process of tracking them all down for questioning. We have also sent out communications to everyone who works in Mason House, asking for anyone with information to contact us directly. We plan to speak to everyone who was in Mason House that day.”
The discussion turned to resourcing for some minutes, and Brookbank assigned more team members to assist Leonard in the questioning of the staff employed at Mason House.
DC Leonard reported on the search of Weston’s residence in Richmond. So far, the team hadn’t found anything that could explain Weston’s illness. A neighbour reported seeing him leave for work at eight on Monday morning, looking healthy enough.
DC Webb passed on the information he had gleaned from the car park attendant. He explained that a young lad hung about the car park most days of the week and plastered the cars with fliers, something Richard Porter, the car park attendant, was quite unhappy about.
He told Webb he noticed the boy looking more suspicious than usual that day, and had even suspected he might try to break into one of the cars. Interestingly, Porter told Webb the lad had disappeared around the same time as Weston was taken to hospital and he hadn’t seen him since. Webb had a possible ID on the boy and was looking into it.
“Good work, I think following up on that should be your priority.” Brookbank turned his attention away from Webb and back to his printed agenda.
Twenty minutes later, Brookbank summed up the case so far and made sure everyone was clear on their tasks.
Before he left the room, Charlotte approached Brookbank. “DCI Brookbank, could I have a word?”
“If it is a quick one; I’ve another meeting to get to.”
“The doctors treating Sally Turner said she has improved enough for visitors. You mentioned you would like me to be present at her interview.”
He looked at his watch. “Look, give me half an hour, then we’ll sit down and plan out an interview strategy.”
*
After Charlotte had gone through the interview questions with Brookbank, Mackinnon walked over to her desk, grinning.
“Do you want the good news or the even better news?” he asked.
“What is it?”
“I got some preliminary results from the lab.” He waved a few printed charts at her.
“What?”
“Nothing official. But she gave me these printouts from the HPLC trace.” He squinted at them and pointed to a couple of peaks on the printout. “Apparently, this looks like an aconite metabolite.”
“Metabolite?”
“A breakdown product. It’s…”
“I know what a metabolite is. I’m the one with the science degree. Remember? I meant how did you get this from them?”
She glared at Mackinnon. He could even charm the lab staff and make them give him a result before it was official.
Unbelievable.
Did he flirt with the head of the lab to get this? Surely not. The head of a lab was a woman called Margery Wilcox. Margery with her baggy tights and hairy mole.
Charlotte shuddered.
30
After listening to Wolf for just fifteen minutes, Ted knew he had misjudged him.
Wolf described how he had worked in farms, slaughterhouses and even once in a pet shop with a hidden camera and recorded evidence that had led to several successful prosecutions.
The way he described the animals suffering and the conditions people kept them in made Ted feel sick.
“How do you manage to see that every day?” Ted asked.
“It’s not easy. The first thing you want to do is rescue all the animals straight away, but it doesn’t work like that. It takes time. You need to collect the evidence and in the meantime, you can’t do anything that will blow your cover because that would ruin any chance you have of saving them.”
“It takes a special kind of person to do this kind of work, Ted. Wolf here is a legend.” Paul was back to his normal, grinning self and punched Wolf playfully on the arm.
Ted nodded.
“Have you ever been caught taking photos? Did anyone get suspicious or work out what you were trying to do?” Ted asked, leaning forward, mimicking Wolf’s own hunched-over posture.
Wolf hesitated before sliding up his t-shirt. “A couple of times.”
As Wolf lifted his t-shirt higher, despite the dim light, Ted could make out an angry, red, raised scar that ran six inches across Wolf’s midsection.
“What happened?” Ted asked, unable to take his eyes off the scar.
“I got slashed with a knife by the owner of a slaughterhouse.” He slid his t-shirt back down.
“Shit...”
Wolf nodded. “It was a long time ago, and it hasn’t happened since. I am much more careful these days.”
“How?”
“Well, for one thing, I never tell anyone my name and I always move on after every case. I got this...” he pointed to his torso, “...after a case. He felt he needed to teach me a lesson.”
“Sick bastards,” Paul said.
Ted looked up; he had forgotten Paul and Jayne were still in the room.
“What are you working on now?” Paul asked.
Wolf smiled, and it occurred to Ted that when he smiled, perhaps he did look a little wolfish.
“You know I can’t tell you that.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Paul said, holding his hands up.
Paul bit his lower lip, turned to look at Ted and said, “Actually, Ted, we invited you tonight because Jayne and I thought you might have what it takes to do something like this.”
Paul hesitated and waited for Ted’s response.
Ted was glad of the dark for the first time as he felt his cheeks flush.
“You think I could do that kind of stuff?” He hunched up his knees and hugged them against his chest. He rested his chin on his knees and grinned, glad they couldn’t see how flattered he felt.
“Well, perhaps not exactly like Wolf. I mean he has been doing this for a long time. But we need someone who is just as committed as Wolf for something else we have been planning.” Paul waited for his words to sink in before continuing. “It’s a big risk and not everyone could do it.”
Wolf nodded, his face serious. “I would do it myself, but I am in the middle of something right now.”’ His voice trailed off.
Paul put a hand on Ted’s arm. “We need to know how far you are willing to go, Ted.”
31
Paul and Jayne left Ted and Wolf to talk alone. Ted, tired of sitting down, paced around the room. He felt absurdly happy. Paul had asked him just how far he was prepared to go for a cause like this.
Ted had somehow been able to resist a corny one-liner: all the fucking way, baby!
Despite his good mood, he still found the house oppressive.
After getting directions from Jayne to the local Chinese, Ted and Wolf headed out.
They walked companionably down the road in the direction of the restaurant and passed a group of teenagers who giggled behind their hands and whispered loudly over the state of Wolf’s clothing. Ted was feeling too good to be brough
t down by something so trivial.
Once they had passed the teenagers, Ted turned to Wolf and asked, “What made you decide? I mean at what point did you realise you wanted to do this?”
Wolf smiled and shook his head. “When I was little, I wanted to be a fireman.” He kicked a loose stone as they walked past several parked cars.
“I turned vegan at thirteen. My mother went along to a meeting about animal cruelty and that was it. The next day the whole family gave up animal products. Then, as I got older, I realised how much cruelty was occurring on such a massive scale. I knew I needed to do something. I didn’t think I could stop it, but I hoped I could do something to reduce it.”
“Are you going to be able to eat at this Chinese place then?” Ted asked.
Wolf nodded. “Sure, they’ll do stir-fried vegetables or something like that, I’m sure. How about you, Ted? What made you join the cause?”
Ted hesitated and his pace slowed. “My stepfather,” he said and then started walking faster.
Wolf increased his speed to match. “Your stepfather?”
Ted gave a curt nod and folded his arms across his chest.
“I guess he didn’t inspire you in a positive way?”
Ted turned to Wolf and opened his mouth, but the words couldn’t make it past the lump in his throat. He just shook his head.
They came to a halt outside the restaurant, Hong Kong’s, and peered in through a gap in the net curtains, looking at the menu stuck against the inside of the window.
“It doesn’t look busy,” Wolf said as he opened the door and entered the restaurant.
Once they were settled at a table with drinks and the waitress had taken their orders, Wolf said, “You don’t have to talk about it anyway. It is enough that you are committed. It doesn’t really matter why.”
“It’s just that I don’t really talk about it much.”
Wolf nodded and sipped his drink.
“Dog-fighting,” Ted said, looking at Wolf for his reaction.
Wolf grimaced. “Sick.”
Ted nodded, feeling the lump come back to his throat. They sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping drinks.
“My stepfather kept pitbulls. When I was twelve, he let me name one of them and he said she was mine.” Ted smiled “She was gorgeous: shiny coat, big eyes. I called her Tina after a girl at school I had a crush on.”
Wolf laughed. “I bet that pleased the girl.”
Ted smiled. “So anyway, Tina was white and tan and had the sweetest nature. He’d have between four and eight dogs at any one time and he kept them in kennels at the bottom of our garden, but Tina lived in the house with me.”
Ted paused as the waitress brought out their sizzling food.
“Every few weeks, one of the dogs would disappear, and he would get another one to replace it. At first, he tried to convince me I was mistaken, but when I kept on at him, he told me they had gotten sick, and he had to take them to the vets. I was only twelve, and I bought it.” Ted raised his hands. “I know, pretty stupid.”
Wolf frowned and shook his head. “You were twelve years old. Of course, you trusted him; he was the adult.”
Ted nodded and carried on in a subdued voice. “One night, I was supposed to be in bed asleep, but I got up for a glass of water and I saw my stepfather with Tina. I stood there in the kitchen, watching as he led Tina to the front door and put her leash on. He didn’t notice me as all the lights were off. I was just so worried that he was taking her to the vets, like the others, and I would never see her again.”
Ted paused to take a deep swig from his lemonade.
“I guess he wasn’t taking her to the vets,” Wolf said through a mouthful of rice.
Ted shook his head. “No. I got dressed, as quickly as I could and followed him. He didn’t take the car so I wondered if he was just going for a walk. I followed them for a while and they headed to the industrial area near our house. They entered a huge, grey warehouse, but I hung back as there was a man standing at the door. I walked around the outside of the building and waited. Eventually, the guy left his post at the door and I slipped in. It was packed in there. I could hardly move and I couldn’t see Tina or my stepfather. I just saw a load of men standing around, drinking and smoking. None of them paid any attention to me. I just stood there, trying to work out what I should do.
“There were loads of pitbulls there with their owners. All the dogs were leashed or in cages. Then I saw the ring, although I didn’t realise what it was at first. It was made out of wood with a badly stained carpet on the floor. I didn’t realise it then, but the stains were blood from previous fights.”
Wolf winced and stopped eating. “Sick bastards.”
Ted nodded and swallowed before continuing, “I moved through the crowd towards the ring and I saw my stepfather standing in the ring with Tina, holding her by the collar. She seemed upset and kept wriggling to get free. He stepped out of the ring, but he still held her by her collar. Then it got really quiet. The music stopped, the shouts turned to whispers, and I thought, this is my chance to say something.
“I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew something wasn’t right. A man put another dog in the ring with Tina. It was a black pitbull, and it strained against its collar, like Tina. Before I could call out, they released the dogs, and the shouts were deafening. I got pushed forward by the crowd.
“The dogs circled each other for a bit. Then they snarled, snapped and growled at each other, before springing apart to resume circling, weighing each other up. When the fighting started, it was so furious, so fast, that I couldn’t follow it. I pushed forward, trying to get in the ring to stop it.”
Ted paused, remembering arms pulling him back and people shouting at him. His stepfather had spotted him struggling, shouting and calling to Tina. He had stared at Ted as if he wanted to rip him apart. Ted looked down at his food, now cold, but he wasn’t hungry anymore.
Wolf tossed down his fork, his eyes shining. “That’s horrific,” he said, his voice hoarse.
Ted rested his elbows on the table and put his head in his hands.
“Tina saw me. That was the worst bit. Maybe she heard me call out to her. For a fraction of a second, she looked at me, and then the black pit took its chance and clamped its jaws around Tina’s throat and it didn’t let go.”
Ted kept his head down, remembering.
32
DC Charlotte Brown and DC Collins sat beside Sally Turner’s hospital bed. Sally sat on top of the bedcovers, looking remarkably well, considering her ordeal.
Sally smoothed her nightgown over her skinny legs. “I have told you everything I can remember.”
Charlotte smiled. “I know, and we will try and finish this as quickly as we can. This whole thing must have been very difficult for you.”
Sally nodded. “Yes, it has. The whole thing has been awful. I’m stuck in here and there is nothing to do. It is so boring.”
“Perhaps we could get you some magazines?” Charlotte eyed the TV in Sally’s private room. “Maybe some DVDs?”
Sally nodded. “That would be good, thanks,” Sally said, not looking thankful in the least.
“Could you tell me, in your own words, what happened on Monday, the twelfth of March, when you found Mr. Weston?”
Sally sighed. “Again?”
“Yes please.”
Sally twisted a silver ring on her finger. “Mr Weston sent me off to get lunch as usual. We had a bit of a row before I left because he told me he required me to work on Friday. I didn’t want to. I had booked Friday off work, but he made it understood I really didn’t have any choice if I wanted to keep my job.”
“Sounds like he was quite a demanding boss? Did he do that sort of thing often?” Collins asked.
Sally shook her head. “Not really, maybe a few times. He wasn’t that bad all the time. I’ve only been working for him for a few months.
“To be honest, I was thinking of jacking it in. He had some really strange habits, and h
e could be a bit...well, a bit weird at times.”
“In what way?” Charlotte asked.
“Well just little things. I mean, take next weekend he said I had to work on Friday. I was going to a party on Saturday and I needed to go shopping for an outfit, but he wouldn’t listen. And he sent me off to get his sandwiches for lunch and the queue was huge. I mean really massive and I just knew when I got back that he would give me a hard time about taking so long. But it wasn’t my fault the queue was out the door. It’s the only decent sandwich place near the office, and it is busy enough normally with all the office workers, but for some reason, on Monday, it was even busier than usual, and there was only one girl working, and she wasn’t very good and took ages. So although it wasn’t my fault, I just knew he would be doing his nut back in the office.” She paused to take a breath.
“And when you got back?” Charlotte prompted.
“When I got back, I expected him to be standing there, ready to have a right go at me, but he wasn’t, so I knocked on his office door, but there was no answer. I called out to him a couple of times. I thought maybe he had fallen asleep, but I heard him moaning, so I opened the door. And that’s when I found him on the floor and I called for an ambulance.”
“Did you notice anything unusual?” Collins asked.
“Well, yes. Mr. Weston lying unconscious on the floor.”
“I mean anything other than that, perhaps a smell or a sound? Anything that wasn’t familiar?”
Sally paused, thought for a moment and frowned. “No, nothing. He looked terrible, and he was moaning.”
Sally screwed up her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Some seconds passed before she looked down again and shook her head. “No, nothing. It was just a normal Monday morning.”
“The post? Any visitors?” Collins asked.
Sally shook her head.
“What about anything you might have had to drink or anything you had to eat?” Charlotte asked.
“Well, there was the coffee. We have a coffee maker in my section of the office and I make that every morning. Mr. Weston and I both drank that...”
She broke off and her mouth gaped opened. “The biscuits...”
