Money Can Kill

by Wonny Lea

  The officers went in first to ensure the safety of the paramedics and they were the first to call out the good news.

  ‘The boy’s alive! He’s just about alive but he’s very sick.’ As Philip, the senior paramedic spoke his colleagues were working on their patient and in no time at all the boy was receiving oxygen and intravenous fluids.

  ‘He’s unconscious and needs expert paediatric attention, and I don’t know if he’ll survive the journey to the hospital,’ Philip explained to Martin. ‘We’ll get him there as quickly as we can. What’s his name?’

  Martin looked at the deathly white body of the seven-year-old child as the paramedics stretchered him past.

  ‘He’s Jason Barnes,’ answered Martin. ‘I’ll get on to his mother straight away – she’s desperate to know where he is. I just hope she can reach him before he gives up on us. God only knows what trauma this poor kid has endured.’

  Even before the ambulance siren had faded Matt had been on the phone to DC Cook-Watts and given her the news. She was with Tina and they would now be on their way to the hospital. All everyone could do was pray that she would see her son whilst he was still alive.

  A familiar white van pulled up and Alex and the SOC team were briefed. ‘It’s brilliant that the boy is alive,’ he said. ‘The news from the ransom team is that the kidnapper has been picked up. It was done according to your instructions as soon as they got your call that the boy had been found. There was always the possibility that the boy wouldn’t be Jason but from the description given by the 999 caller it was worth the risk.’

  Matt was taking another call and confirmed to Martin that the man picked up and in possession of the ransom money was indeed Dan Painter. Martin knew from Tina’s confession that Dan was Jason’s father and there were so many questions he wanted to ask him. How long had he known about his son? How could he just leave the boy like that, possibly not even knowing if he was dead or alive? Martin was impatient to interview this evil bastard and spoke to Alex.

  ‘There’s nothing I can do here so it’s all yours and it would be good to know who has been in and out of this place recently. To begin with, the car he used has been traced to a Diane Evans and having interviewed her I am convinced that she wasn’t involved. It’s her sister Susan that I would like to speak to as I’m positive that Painter didn’t do this on his own. I’m going to have a quick word with the neighbour who made the emergency call and then I’m going to see what Painter has to say for himself.’

  A few minutes later Martin and Matt were surprised by one of the people who was waiting for them next door. When they had left Diane Evans earlier she had expressed an overwhelming desire to get some sleep and now Martin was beginning to doubt what he had just said to Alex. It couldn’t just be a coincidence that she was now sitting in the house next to where the boy had been found – she had to be involved in some way.

  Before he had time to ask what the hell she was doing there Diane got a whole load of stuff off her chest.

  ‘Hello again, Chief Inspector,’ she began. ‘I expect you’re wondering what I’m doing here and so it’s best that I tell you everything.’ She went on to explain how she had initially just set out to warn her sister that the police needed her to explain about the car.

  ‘I knew as soon as you told me that the car had been seen at St Fagans that Susan must have taken it. Honest to God, I still can’t believe that she had anything to do with snatching the boy – she must have just got my keys for Dan Painter to use. Perhaps I shouldn’t have come to warn her but she is my sister and you’d do the same for your sister, wouldn’t you?’

  Martin said nothing and Diane rambled on with the rest of her account of events up to the point where Mark had dialled 999.

  Everything she said was too unbelievable not to be true and Matt even had to hide a grin as he imagined Diane Evans and Mark Davies falling into a heap as they returned from their over-the-wall escapade. Mark had his foot up on a chair and his ankle was very swollen and all he did was nod from time to time as Diane related the details of their activities.

  When she had finished Martin asked if she had any idea where her sister was now. ‘With him, I expect, but what I told you this morning is the truth, I haven’t seen her lately.’

  Mark interrupted. ‘I have, I saw her yesterday morning. She was next door waiting for Dan who had been somewhere on foot – not like him at all, he drives everywhere. Anyway, I saw them both get into Dan’s car and drive off and I got the feeling they were off on holiday, but according to Diane he was there earlier today without her.’

  Patiently Martin got all the details of the comings and goings next door and pieced them together in his own mind. He had some ideas about what could have happened but he had no ideas regarding where Susan could be now.

  Diane asked a question. ‘Do you think my sister and Dan Painter did the kidnapping, and have they had the ransom money?’

  Martin could see no reason for not telling Diane the latest. ‘Dan Painter did collect the ransom money but it was just before we got your call that a boy matching Jason’s description had been found. Consequently we picked Painter up and he’s been arrested.’

  ‘What about my sister?’ Diane asked. ‘Was Susan with him, and has she been arrested too?’

  ‘No, your sister has not been arrested and as far as I am aware she has not been identified on any of the surveillance cameras that we put in place around the area where the ransom money was left.’ Martin looked enquiringly at Matt who confirmed his understanding.

  ‘So maybe my sister isn’t involved after all,’ Diane said hopefully.

  ‘It’s unlikely that she had no involvement. At the very least it looks as if she gave your car keys to Dan Painter to avoid him using his own for the actual act of snatching Jason. That definitely muddied the waters from our point of view, and although it was easy to trace the car to you we had no way of making a connection between your sister and Painter. Now if you had told us earlier that they were an item we could have found the boy a couple of hours ago.’

  Diane avoided looking at Martin when he spoke as his words only echoed her own thoughts. She had already worked out what he was saying and felt guilty that her actions may have resulted in a delay in getting the boy to hospital. But at the time she hadn’t felt able to just drop her sister in it with the police, and anyway she wasn’t absolutely certain that Susan was still with Dan.

  She shuffled uncomfortably in her chair and looked near to tears and it was Mark who came to her rescue.

  ‘Look, mate, there’s no need to give her a hard time – she was only looking out for her sister and I would have done the same. Even if the police had come here earlier they would have just knocked the door and gone away again when they got no reply. It was Diane who thought there was something wrong next door and persuaded me to get over the wall. She deserves some credit for that.’

  Mark got a feeble smile of gratitude from Diane and Martin nodded. ‘That’s as maybe, but are there any other things regarding your sister that you could share now. I’m thinking of possible friends she may be with or places she is likely to visit – anything at all? Mark has already told us that Dan Painter and your sister were together yesterday and I will be interviewing him shortly so perhaps I’ll get something from him.’

  Diane shook her head. ‘If there was anything, believe me I would tell you, but my sister is her own person and most of the time I have no idea where she is or who she’s with. I don’t even like her particularly, but at the end of the day she is my sister and family-wise she’s all I have. If she has had anything to do with the kidnapping of that little boy she deserves to be locked up. I just hope she raises her ugly head soon and tells us what the hell has been going on.’

  Martin could see that Diane was fighting back tears and remembered from the interview earlier that she probably hadn’t slept for about twenty-four hours. ‘I would suggest you try to get some sleep, especially if you have to work tonight, but I also suggest that M
ark gets that ankle looked at and if it helps one of our cars will take you to the hospital.’

  Martin didn’t wait for a reply but nodded to one of the uniformed officers as he left. There was nothing more to do here and he and Matt had an appointment with a certain Mr Dan Painter. At the moment the man faced a charge of kidnapping but if the boy died there may be a very different set of charges to answer.

  Chapter Twelve

  Time out

  With the exception of a couple of ten-minute breaks Martin and Matt had spent three hours interviewing Dan Painter, who had not held back on anything regarding the kidnapping. He had confirmed that he was likely to be Jason’s father although it was not something he had known about until recently and it had never been confirmed. For the avoidance of doubt he had shown the detectives the photograph he had taken to carrying in his wallet. It was the one of him as a small boy, and apart from the very different backgrounds it was just like looking at the most recent photograph of Jason.

  The likeness was uncanny but that was where the father-son connection started and finished. There was certainly no paternal love in evidence and Martin was sure that at this moment in time Dan deeply regretted his few minutes of pleasure with Jason’s mother. On the other hand he was equally sure that if things had gone according to plan Dan Painter would have been raising a glass to that coupling from some distant beach in southern Mexico.

  Painter had been apprehended within minutes of picking up the ransom money and then formally arrested and taken into custody. Examination of the surrounding CCTV footage soon tracked him back to his car and then that too was impounded. Alex Griffiths and his team had since crawled all over the vehicle and there was plenty of evidence to show that at some point Jason had been transported in the boot.

  The blue blanket that Jason had been found partially wrapped in on Dan Painter’s bed had left traces of having been in the boot, but more convincingly there were a few strands of that ginger hair that barely needed forensic investigation – they were obviously from the head of a certain seven-year-old boy.

  During one of the breaks from questioning Matt had received an update from Helen Cook-Watts and the news was much better than they had dared hope for. ‘It was a bit like a miracle,’ she told Matt.

  ‘When we got to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit the doctors were standing around shaking their heads and the prognosis for Jason seemed dire. He was already on a ventilator because even the effort of breathing was too much for his small, crumpled body and two separate infusions seemed to be pumping fluids in at the rate of knots.

  ‘Tina went straight over to her son and has not let go of his hand for one second. It’s, by a factor of ten, the longest I have ever seen her go without lighting up a cigarette but she seems to be working some sort of magic on Jason. According to the senior registrar the boy’s condition improved from the moment his mother touched him and he’s getting stronger by the minute. I must admit I queried the science of such a possibility, but the doctors put me firmly in my place and I was told that there is more to medicine than what is contained within medical textbooks.

  ‘Anyway, Tina’s love and the doctor’s skills appear to be bringing Jason back to us, although the next twenty-four hours will still be critical. I’ll keep you posted.’

  Matt relayed the positive news to Martin and the two men returned for the final session with Dan Painter and his duly appointed legal aid solicitor. To his credit, albeit for the first time since his arrest, Painter enquired about Jason, but Martin did not feel inclined to salve any part of the kidnapper’s conscience and didn’t respond to the question.

  Martin was ready to believe the account given by Painter regarding the planning and execution of the kidnapping. No matter how many times he was asked to go over the preliminary stuff there was never any deviation. Painter emphasised how much he wished he had never told Susan Evans about being Jason’s father, and the interview tapes recorded how Susan had begged him to snatch the boy and demand some money.

  According to Painter’s version of events she got him to believe that it was no more than he deserved because Tina Barnes should never have kept him in the dark about his son. Over and over Painter insisted that there was never any intention to harm the boy and he would have followed through on his promise to tell Tina where to find her son as soon as they were on the plane.

  ‘The boy getting sick was nothing to do with me,’ he protested. ‘I remember my own kids spiking a temperature and looking very poorly and then the next day they were up to all sorts of mischief. It’s what kids do, and it’s the same with Jason, isn’t it?’

  If Painter was fishing for information about the boy his luck was out and all he got was a tongue-lashing from Matt. ‘How would you know if it’s the same with Jason? You left him for dead and how you left him is how we found him, so that’s something else you have to answer for.’

  Although Dan was able to stick to what had actually happened prior to the kidnapping, his recollection of events following the act was a different kettle of fish and changed with each telling. At first it was that he and Susan had fallen out and she had left him to sort the boy out on his own. Dan said that they had taken Jason straight to his house and that’s when he and Susan had quarrelled.

  ‘Do you expect us to believe that she would walk out on you when the most difficult phase of the operation was complete and you had two tickets for Cancun tucked under your dashboard? You and Susan Evans were seen driving from your home yesterday, just after Jason was snatched, and she wasn’t with you when you returned this morning. Was Jason in the boot of your car when you both drove off, or had you already left him where we found him?

  ‘According to an eye-witness you and she were the best of friends when you left here, so when did this so called quarrel happen? When and where did you and Susan Evans part company and where is she now?’

  The sudden barrage of questions from Martin completely unnerved Dan Painter and he fell back on the familiar ‘no comment’ position, suggested by his solicitor and so often used by criminals when the going got tough.

  Undeterred, Martin persisted and reiterated how important it was for them to interview Susan Evans.

  ‘We know you were both in this together and we need to hear her version of events so that the Crown Prosecution Services can decide on appropriate charges. When exactly did you last see her, and did she give you any idea where she was going?’

  All Dan Painter did was close his eyes to shut out the sight of this determined detective, but it was enough to wake Susan in his mind and she spat bits of decaying teeth and gum so realistically in his direction that he physically ducked.

  His sudden movement, followed by an unexpected bout of sobbing gave his solicitor the opportunity to bring the session to an end. It was agreed that no further interviews would be conducted until the next morning, and Painter was escorted to the cells followed by his solicitor but not before he had demanded an update on the condition of Jason Barnes.

  ‘My client has every right to know what the position is with the boy. The fact that he is sick is regrettable but Mr Painter can hardly be blamed for that – it would have happened in any event.’

  ‘Bloody hell,’ responded Matt. ‘What are you people like? ‘It’s true that the boy’s sickness may have nothing to do with the kidnapping, but leaving him without the medical attention he needed was in my view tantamount to killing him.’

  The solicitor looked shocked. ‘So the kid is dead then?’ he asked sharply.

  Martin responded. ‘That’s not what my sergeant said. He was simply giving what I have to say is a shared opinion on Painter’s actions. The situation with Jason is that he is at the University Hospital of Wales on a ventilator and fighting for his life, and that’s all I can tell you.’

  A few minutes later Martin and Matt stood in Interview Room One and considered their position. ‘For some reason when the news came through about Jason’s disappearance I had a bad feeling, and my initial thinking was t
hat it was the work of a paedophile and I couldn’t even bring myself to think of the possible outcome. I certainly didn’t think that he had been kidnapped and held to ransom. I suppose that was based on the fact that the call came through about a pupil from Holly Road School, and I wouldn’t expect any of the parents there to have bank balances to support the requirements of a ransom demand.’

  Matt took a mouthful of the coffee they had picked up after leaving the interview and then nodded. ‘Yes, that’s what I thought too. It just goes to show that we don’t know who we rub shoulders with in the local shops. Would you ever guess if you saw Jason and his mother in the supermarket that she is a multi-millionaire? Apart from her excessive nicotine habit I quite like the woman, but if she was having trouble coming to terms with her fortune before all this God only knows how she’ll cope now. She’ll be the subject of media attention for at least a few days and again when the case gets to court, and there will almost certainly be people out there more than happy to help her during her hour of need but with at least one eye on her money.’

  Matt continued. ‘The really sad thing is that I believe if Painter had told her that he suspected Jason was his son she would have been OK, with it and they may even have sorted some sort of relationship. There’s a sizable age gap between them and at the moment Painter looks like a broken old man but he’s fundamentally a decent-looking bloke. And can you believe that photograph of him as a kid – it’s just like looking at Jason. What’s the plan now, guv?’

  ‘Well, to my complete amazement, I can see no reason not to make good our arrangements to celebrate Shelley’s birthday. Jason is in good hands, Dan Painter is safely locked up, and the world and his wife are looking for Susan Evans. With any luck we’ll be interviewing her tomorrow and the rest of the day will be taken up with a press conference, getting some more out of Painter, and sorting out the reports. Providing the news stays positive regarding Jason then things will be done and dusted a lot sooner than I would have expected, so I’m off home and I’ll see you later.’