Dead Guilty

by Michelle Davies

  Maggie made a note of the name as she walked away. DCI Walker would definitely want to pay Johnnie a visit on his boat to quiz him further about Katy’s plan to dump Declan Morris. If what he was saying was the true, the big question was whether Declan really had guessed Katy wanted to end their relationship. The police in Majorca and those drafted in from the Spanish mainland had at one time suspected him of arranging her murder because he was after her savings – what if Johnnie had just given them the more plausible motive of a rejected lover seeking revenge?

  She found Shah and Paulson in the room they were sharing poring over documents spread across the twin beds. Thankful for air conditioning, she flopped down onto the room’s only hard-backed chair and told them about Johnnie and his proclamation that Katy had been planning to give Declan the elbow.

  Shah made a sweeping gesture with his hand over the files on his bed, which was the one nearest to the sliding balcony doors.

  ‘There’s not a single statement in here that backs that up,’ he said.

  ‘I know, that’s what I said to him. He claims he never came forward because he didn’t want to upset her parents,’ said Maggie. ‘According to him, they were the ones refusing to let her end the relationship. Quite how they could force her not to, he didn’t say.’

  ‘What’s his name again?’ asked Shah, reaching for a pen.

  ‘Johnnie Hickman-Ferguson. He was in Ibiza with his girlfriend when Katy was murdered.’

  ‘Hickman-Ferguson? That’s the same surname as the people who owned the villa where she and her parents and Declan were staying.’

  Maggie nodded. ‘His dad, Howard Hickman-Ferguson, is Philip’s best friend from years back and Johnnie is Philip and Patricia’s godson.’

  ‘We should take a statement from Johnnie,’ Shah said. ‘Where’s he staying?’

  ‘On his boat, moored in the harbour.’ She read out the name.

  ‘Why come forward with this now?’ mused Paulson. ‘He’s never said a word for ten years and all of a sudden he’s grown a conscience?’

  ‘I think it was triggered by Philip telling him that Declan’s coming here for the memorial service. He clearly loathes him,’ said Maggie. ‘He’s always believed Declan was capable of murdering Katy.’

  ‘He wasn’t the only one to think that,’ said Shah broodingly. ‘We’ll have to ask the parents about it and whether it’s true they were pressuring her. Ma’am’s always said Katy was happy with him.’

  Paulson turned to Maggie, a sly grin spreading across his features. ‘That’s one for you, DC FLO.’

  Maggie pulled a face back, but she was smiling too.

  ‘I’ve dealt with trickier relatives than Patricia Pope, trust me. I’ve been working my magic on her and she’s even calling me Maggie instead of “you, here”. I think she likes me.’

  Her colleagues exchanged amused looks.

  ‘If you say so,’ said Paulson.

  ‘Wait until Walker gives you the okay with that line of questioning though,’ Shah cautioned. ‘He won’t want ma’am upset unless it’s absolutely necessary.’

  ‘I will, don’t worry.’ Maggie eyed the paperwork on the bed. ‘What are you up to, anyway?’

  ‘We’re about to pick short straws on who goes to interview Terry Evans and who gets Julien Ruiz,’ said Paulson.

  ‘You literally are picking straws,’ said Maggie, eyeing the two clutched in his hand.

  ‘Great,’ said Shah as he picked the shortest one. ‘I get the arsy ex-pat with a fondness for knives.’

  ‘Want to come with me to interview Ruiz?’ Paulson asked Maggie. ‘He might appreciate you questioning him more than me.’

  ‘Why’s that, exactly?’ she replied, guessing what his response was likely to be, but wanting to see if he’d show even a modicum of embarrassment as he said it.

  He didn’t.

  ‘The man clearly likes attractive women and I think he’ll respond well to you.’ On seeing Maggie’s annoyed expression, he shrugged. ‘Where’s the harm in admitting that?’

  ‘The harm is you sounding like you don’t take me seriously as a detective.’

  ‘Of course I do, but I’m also not going to look a gift horse in the mouth when I see one. If the boss was here, he’d be saying the same.’

  ‘Only because he objectifies women as much as you do,’ said Shah crossly. ‘You know what, it’s coming out with outdated bollocks like this which explains why you’re still single, mate.’

  He was rewarded with an eye roll from Paulson. ‘I do all right, trust me.’

  Shah caught Maggie’s eye and smirked. ‘He last had a date in 2013.’

  She didn’t respond, already tired of the banter. It was making her wistful for her CID department back in Mansell, which had as many women as men working there and where the thought of her not being equal to her male colleagues or how she looked being a factor in her ability to do her job rarely crossed her mind. Between Paulson and her Met colleague Mealing, she was beginning to wish she’d never left.

  21

  Julien Ruiz was not remotely taken aback to find the police on his doorstep.

  ‘I’m surprised it’s taken you this long. I understand you’ve been in Saros since Friday evening.’ He gave a shrug and aimed a smile in Maggie’s direction. ‘Not much gets missed in this place.’ He stood aside to let them pass. ‘Please, come in.’

  Ruiz’s circumstances had obviously moved on since 2009 and a smartly furnished one-bedroom apartment in a newly built block had replaced the hostel he’d bunked in back then. All that spoiled it was the pungent odour of cigarette smoke permeating every corner.

  ‘I’m afraid I don’t have long to chat,’ he said. ‘I have a plane to catch.’

  ‘Where are you going, Mr Ruiz?’ asked Maggie, eyeing the passport he’d left out on the table in the front room. Beside it was a leather weekend bag packed with clothes. Ruiz leaned over and zipped it up in one smooth action.

  ‘Somewhere to escape the circus,’ he said with a sigh. ‘I know how people’s minds work in this town and even though I was cleared of any involvement, fingers will still point.’ He smiled again. ‘I presume that is why you are here?’

  Ruiz was one of those men that age adored. The past decade had honed his looks, vanquishing the plumpness of youth and giving him an even more alluring edge. His hair was darker and slicked back off his face with product, but Ruiz looked far more attractive now, at thirty-three, than he did in the photo of him and the mother and daughter he holiday-romanced.

  ‘Why would we want to do that if, as you say, you’ve already been cleared?’ asked Paulson without a trace of friendliness.

  ‘Officer, we both know that mud sticks,’ said Ruiz, his Spanish accent sliding off his tongue like liquid honey. ‘Why else would British officers be at my door?’

  ‘I’m Australian actually, mate,’ said Paulson, like it mattered.

  Irritated, Maggie shot him a look as she asked Ruiz again where he was going.

  ‘London. I’m going to stay with some friends.’

  ‘Heather and Bernice Cooper?’ said Paulson with a chuckle. Maggie realized he was referring to the mother and daughter in the tabloid story and grew even more annoyed. If he carried on antagonizing Ruiz they might not get anything out of him.

  Luckily for them, Ruiz had a sense of humour.

  ‘Ah, the lovely Cooper ladies,’ he grinned. ‘I hope they got their money’s worth selling their story.’

  ‘We understand your parents weren’t happy about it,’ said Maggie. ‘That must’ve been difficult.’

  Ruiz fixed her with a look she couldn’t quite decipher, then shrugged.

  ‘My parents are hard people to please, so I gave up trying a long time ago. I see no reason in conforming to a life of domesticity just to make them happy. Why should I apologize for the company I keep? It’s also why I stayed in Saros. People expected me to leave, but I liked it here and my friends were here. It was my home.’

  Paulson gave him
what Maggie took to be a sympathetic nod. Suddenly Ruiz the playboy was meeting his approval.

  ‘How long will you be in London for?’ asked Maggie.

  ‘I don’t know for sure. A few days at least,’ said Ruiz.

  ‘You haven’t booked a return ticket?’ asked Paulson.

  Ruiz waved his hand airily. ‘Next Saturday, I think that’s when I’m back.’

  Maggie’s eyes narrowed. ‘You do have a return ticket, don’t you?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said, flashing her another smile, one that didn’t quite meet his eyes. He reached into the side pocket of his holdall and pulled out a printed boarding pass that showed his return flight.

  ‘It’s a good thing we caught you before you left,’ she said, handing it back.

  Ruiz let out a long, strangled sigh.

  ‘There is nothing new I can tell you. We met, we talked, that was it.’

  ‘You’re sticking to your statement that you never slept with her?’

  Ruiz eyed Maggie suspiciously. ‘I am. She was a nice girl, but I didn’t take advantage of her.’

  Maggie glanced at Paulson and gave him the briefest of nods. They had already agreed their interview strategy before arriving at Ruiz’s apartment and she knew what was coming next now Ruiz had spouted his first denial.

  ‘Here’s the thing, Mr Ruiz. If you’re so keen to escape the circus as you call it, you need to start telling us the truth,’ said Paulson. ‘Otherwise we might just have to haul you back to London ourselves on charges of perverting the course of justice. Don’t mistake us for the idiots who investigated Katy’s death the first time round and ballsed it up – we know what we’re doing and we know when a witness is lying. Ten years is a long time to keep up the pretence, mate.’

  Ruiz faltered. ‘I haven’t been pretending.’

  ‘Ten years ago you shouted your conquests from the rooftops. The statements taken from the guys you shared a hostel room with confirmed it: you liked to brag about the many women you had sex with,’ said Maggie. ‘But Katy was different. Why? Was it non-consensual, is that it?’

  It took Ruiz a moment to register what she was saying. Anger darkened his face, then his mouth twisted into a smile that made Maggie’s skin crawl. He might be attractive but he was still a sleaze.

  ‘I do not need to rape women to have sex with them.’ He let out another sigh, then folded his arms. ‘What is your real agenda here, officers? Why don’t you get to the point?’

  ‘The British couple who sold their story were adamant that you and Katy were flirting and that she’d asked them about the efficiency of Spanish condoms. Given your track record and reputation, we find it hard to believe you turned down sex with her,’ said Maggie.

  ‘Yeah, I’m not buying that age was a factor,’ said Paulson. ‘She was above the age of consent, you weren’t breaking any law.’

  ‘We think the only reason you lied about sleeping with her is because of how it looked after she was found murdered,’ Maggie added. ‘It would’ve put you right to the top of the list of prime suspects.’

  ‘You’re forgetting I had an alibi for the entire time she was missing,’ said Ruiz, more amused than angry now. ‘I swear to God I did not have sex with Katy Pope.’

  Maggie regarded him for a moment as a thought suddenly crossed her mind. Why hadn’t any of them considered this before?

  ‘Sex doesn’t just mean intercourse though, does it?’

  Ruiz looked first at her, then at Paulson.

  ‘Don’t look at me,’ said Paulson. ‘She asked the question.’

  Ruiz sank down onto the sofa and cupped his knees with his hands.

  ‘Well? Did anything else happen that wasn’t actual penetrative sex?’ Maggie asked him.

  Another sigh. ‘Okay, we kissed.’

  ‘Is that all?’

  ‘Fine. We fooled around a bit, but then Katy said it was a bad idea and she wanted to leave. I promise you nothing else happened. I would never continue with a woman who had changed her mind.’

  He sounded sincere.

  ‘Why not tell everyone that?’ asked Maggie.

  ‘I thought it would make everyone think I was guilty of doing more. It was ten minutes of foreplay that could’ve landed me in prison for something I didn’t do and frankly it wasn’t worth it. Nor did I want to blacken the poor girl’s name after her death by admitting she’d been unfaithful to her boyfriend.’

  ‘It would’ve given Declan a motive,’ Paulson said to Maggie, ‘if he had known what she did. He could’ve killed her in a jealous rage.’

  Ruiz shook his head. ‘He never knew. He came to see me after that couple came forward and I told him what I told the police. The poor guy was grieving, why add to his misery?’

  Maggie thought back to her earlier conversation with Johnnie.

  ‘That evening in the bar, did Katy talk about Declan at all?’

  ‘Yes, I was aware she had a boyfriend. She didn’t seem bothered about cheating on him. In fact, it was because of him that we got chatting in the first place.’

  ‘How’s that?’ asked Paulson.

  ‘Her mum had said something about the boyfriend that upset Katy, so she stormed up to the bar to get another drink.’

  ‘She had more than one drink?’

  ‘By the time she left she’d had three cocktails.’

  That was two more than Patricia claimed she’d had.

  ‘Did she tell you what her mother had said?’ Paulson asked.

  Ruiz nodded. ‘Her mum was talking about when he might propose. Katy thought it was ridiculous – she wasn’t yet eighteen and she had her whole life ahead of her.’ He stopped, abashed. ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘There’s nothing about this row in your statement,’ said Paulson. ‘Why didn’t you tell the police this at the time?’

  Ruiz shrugged again. ‘They didn’t ask. They were only concerned with whether we’d had sex, not what we spoke about.’

  ‘We’d like you to make a new statement, clarifying what you’ve just told us,’ said Maggie as Ruiz got to his feet.

  ‘Now? But I have a flight to catch in two hours. I don’t want to miss it.’

  She looked to Paulson. ‘Well?’

  ‘We can arrange for you to give your statement to one of our colleagues at Belgravia police station while you’re in London. Give me a contact number and I’ll sort it out.’

  Ruiz gave them his mobile number.

  ‘Katy was a nice girl. She didn’t deserve what happened to her,’ he said. ‘And I am sorry I wasn’t more truthful back then. I thought I was doing her parents a favour by not sullying her memory.’

  ‘You did yourself a favour too,’ said Maggie matter-of-factly.

  Ruiz turned on the full beam again.

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of self-preservation, officer. Why should I destroy my life for a girl who was meaningless to me?’

  22

  Philip was so absorbed in his conversation with Johnnie that he didn’t see Declan approaching them until it was too late.

  ‘This is a surprise,’ said Declan, before putting his hand out to Johnnie. ‘I didn’t know you were coming out here too.’

  Johnnie ignored the handshake on offer and looked down at the table, his expression one of thinly disguised disgust. Declan gave an exaggerated sigh.

  ‘Are we really still playing that game?’

  Johnnie’s head snapped up. ‘Meaning?’

  ‘Pretending I don’t exist, the dirty looks, filling Katy’s ears with poison.’

  ‘I said nothing that wasn’t true,’ said Johnnie levelly.

  ‘Course you did.’

  The depth of animosity between the two men startled Philip. When George had first brought Declan home from uni, the two of them and Johnnie would go out for drinks and seemed to get along swimmingly. What on earth had gone on between them since to stir up such hostility?

  Flustered, Philip asked Declan how his flight had been.

  ‘It was
fine, thanks. It was an early start though.’

  ‘You must be in need of coffee. Do join us.’

  Johnnie glowered with disapproval, which didn’t go unnoticed by Declan.

  ‘I don’t think I’ll bother. I know where I’m not wanted.’

  Johnnie looked up and smiled at him sardonically. ‘Shame you couldn’t take the hint ten years ago.’

  Declan’s hands curled into fists at his sides as his face darkened.

  ‘Please, the pair of you,’ said Philip desperately. ‘This is neither the time nor the place.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Philip,’ said Johnnie, clambering to his feet.

  They looked such opposites, Johnnie in his scruffy shorts and vest, hair unkempt, Declan in smart, navy linen shorts and a white polo shirt, not a hair out of place.

  ‘I can’t be around this arsehole. Katy deserved so much better.’

  ‘What, someone like you?’ snarled Declan. ‘Don’t make me laugh. You still think you knew her better than me, don’t you? You gave her such a hard time and she hated you for it. Did you know that?’

  Philip stared up at them both, bewildered.

  ‘A hard time for what?’

  The anger that had propelled Johnnie to his feet was suddenly replaced by a look of anguish.

  Declan let out a snort of laughter. ‘What, you’re surprised she told me? Katy couldn’t help herself. You did everything you could to poison her against me but it didn’t work.’

  Johnnie seemed to recover then, the anger blasting back. ‘We both know Katy had had enough of you and she couldn’t wait to go to uni and leave you behind.’

  ‘Haven’t you got bored of saying that by now? Not a single one of our friends ever heard her say that. Where’s your proof?’

  Johnnie locked eyes with Philip and for a moment he appeared to be on the verge of saying something. Then he shook his head.

  ‘Deny it all you like,’ Johnnie spat, his voice tremulous, ‘but deep down you know it’s true. Katy had had enough, but you wouldn’t let her go.’

  23

  Walker returned from Palma late afternoon and in the foulest of moods. The reception he’d received at the Dirección General de la Policía – the head of policing – in Palma had been perfectly pleasant but it was still a tricky meeting, as he was now explaining. He’d summoned Maggie and the others to his room for a debrief of the day’s events, and the four of them were sitting outside on his balcony again nursing soft drinks.