by Adam Croft
‘Yeah, we had a mariachi band in for the night. Fancied a bit of light entertainment. How many bloody witnesses do you think I’ve got? The kids were in bed, it was just us.’
‘So you didn’t leave the house at all? Even for a few minutes?’
Gavin leaned forward. ‘What part of “all evening” didn’t you understand?’
‘Did you know Martin Forbes personally?’
It seemed to take a moment for Gavin to adjust to the shift in questioning. ‘No. No, I didn’t. He was Amie’s boss. That’s about all I knew of him.’
‘Ever meet him?’
‘Once or twice, briefly, if I popped by the office or had to pick Amie up from work or some event.’
‘Did you get on?’
‘We barely knew each other. I can’t say I liked him or disliked him.’
‘So you hadn’t had any recent contact with Martin?’
‘Oh for Christ’s sake, how many times do you want to ask me the same bloody question in different ways? Do you think I’m just going to suddenly “slip up” and give you the opposite answer? It’s ridiculous.’
‘Are you an angry man by nature, Gavin?’ Caroline asked.
Dexter had to force himself to cover his smile, hoping Tanner and his solicitor hadn’t noticed it. It was one of Caroline’s ‘cornering’ questions for suspects: one which had no right answer. Saying yes would potentially incriminate them, and anything else would force them to calm down and moderate their behaviour.
‘You’d be angry if you were in my situation. You’ve been harassing my wife constantly, and now me.’
‘With respect, being asked to attend a police interview isn’t harassment. Nor is us interviewing you under caution. But I understand it must be quite frustrating. Especially considering your past history.’
Tanner’s eyes narrowed. ‘What’s that meant to mean?’
‘You had a similar experience about fifteen years ago, didn’t you?’ Caroline asked, flicking through her papers as if she’d only read a brief mention of it and wasn’t fully appraised of the facts. ‘Ah, yes. Here we are. Your wife — friend, as she was then — was questioned in connection with the suspicious death of a man she’d been in a relationship with. You were her alibi.’
‘With respect, Detectives,’ the solicitor asked, shuffling in his chair like a child saying his first lines in a school play, ‘do you have anything other than coincidence?’
‘Oh yes,’ Caroline answered, smiling. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll come to that. Can you talk us through what happened on the night Russell Speakman died, Gavin?’
Gavin let out a belly laugh. ‘What? No, of course I bloody can’t. I can barely tell you what I did three weeks ago, never mind fifteen years ago. It was a non-event.’
‘You were the alibi for a woman suspected of murder. She wasn’t charged, partially because of your alibi. Partially.’
‘What’s that meant to mean?’
‘We’ll come to it, I’m sure. Shall I read the statement you gave to the police at the time?’
Tanner leaned back in his chair and folded his arms again. ‘Yeah, go on. Why not. I could do with a snooze.’
‘Don’t relax too much. It’s short. But then again it didn’t need to be any longer, did it? “Amie Murray arrived at my house a few minutes after two o’clock p.m. She seemed upset so we went for a walk through the fields towards Brooke. We were out for two and a half hours, then we went back to Oakham because it was going to start to get dark within the hour. We had a few drinks at the Grainstore, then went back to mine, where we both stayed until the next morning.” Does that sound familiar, Gavin?’
‘If you say so.’
‘We know you were at the Grainstore late afternoon and early evening. The staff confirmed it at the time. But there are no witnesses to anything after you left.’
Tanner signed. ‘We’ve been through this. It’s a bit difficult to summon up witnesses when you’re at home on your own. In any case, I wasn’t a suspect. I didn’t need an alibi. All I did was tell your lot where Amie was all night.’
‘Have you always looked out for her?’
‘I’ve always told the truth, yes. I know it might look like a bloody big coincidence from your point of view, but I’m telling you now that’s all it is. So yes, obviously I’m going to be protective of her.’
‘I bet she felt quite safe with you, didn’t she?’ Caroline asked, starting to go in for the kill.
‘I hope so. That’s what spouses are for.’
‘I mean, what with your background and everything. I imagine she felt very... no, not safe. That’s not the word I want. Protected.’ Caroline watched as Gavin Tanner’s jaw tensed. ‘Do you think she felt protected, Gavin?’
‘I don’t know. Are you trying to insinuate something?’
‘No, not at all. I just imagine she would’ve felt pretty secure with you wanting to look after her. Especially considering your dad was Chief Constable of Rutland Police.’
Tanner was silent for a moment. His solicitor looked like he was about five miles out of his depth. ‘What’s that meant to mean?’ Tanner asked.
‘Did your old man pull a few strings, Gavin? Don’t worry, I get that Russell Speakman wasn’t the nicest bloke on earth. Not by a long shot. I’d hazard a guess there were more people glad he was gone than missed him. I imagine your old man knew that as much as anyone. So what happened? She came over to yours, told you what a bastard he was, you spent a couple of hours walking and talking about how much he’d upset her, had a few drinks, then... what? Decided to go over and have it out with him?’
‘For Christ’s sake, this is ridiculous. You didn’t have a single shred of evidence then, and you don’t have one now, either. Stick me on a lie detector test. Do what you have to do. I don’t care. This is all a complete waste of time.’
‘I’m afraid polygraphs don’t tend to be admissible in court, largely because they’re nonsense,’ Caroline said.
‘Yeah, well that makes two things that can be described like that, doesn’t it?’
Caroline forced a smile. ‘We’ll see, Gavin. We’ll see.’
37
Caroline and Dexter left the interview room and glanced at their watches simultaneously.
‘Jesus,’ Dexter said. ‘Hardly worth going home at this point. Might as well nip to Boots for a toothbrush.’
Caroline straightened her spine and pushed her shoulders back, feeling and hearing the vertebrae cracking as she tried to settle into some sort of skeletal comfort. ‘I don’t know what I’m more worried about,’ she said. ‘Missing out on sleep or lying down and not being able to get back up again.’
‘It’s your age. Us young’uns can go all night. That’s not a come-on, by the way.’
Caroline laughed. ‘Don’t worry, Dex. I didn’t think in a million years it would be.’
‘We might as well call it a night,’ Dexter replied, thumbing a gesture towards the interview room. ‘If we keep him up any longer his brief’ll want to start claiming torture through lack of sleep.’
‘I know how he feels. Get custody to escort him back down the corridor to our finest luxury penthouse suite and we’ll carry on in the morning.’
They headed up to the incident room to collect their things, and Caroline decided to give her email inbox one last check. She was glad she did.
‘Dex. Look at this.’
Dexter walked over, his eyes red with fatigue. ‘What’s up?’
‘We’ve got the data back from Gavin Tanner’s car tracker. It says here it doesn’t track actual journeys, only start points and end points.’
‘Okay. Is that a bad thing?’
‘That depends. It shows his car being started at his home at 6.23 on the evening Martin Forbes died. The next time the engine goes off, he’s back at home again at 7.56pm.’
‘So can we prove exactly where he went in the meantime?’
Caroline looked at the screen again, trying to work her way through the possibilities. ‘Tha
t, Dex,’ she said, ‘is the million pound question.’
38
Back at home, Caroline found Mark waiting up for her, but the atmosphere was frostier than it needed to be. He had a wonderful way of pretending nothing had happened if he’d been the one at fault in an argument, but if it was down to something Caroline had said or done he could be in a mood for days. He always came round eventually, but Caroline wasn’t interested in waiting. She wanted to iron things out, even if that meant grovelling.
‘Look, I’m sorry about the other night,’ she said as she sat down on the sofa. ‘I know how hard you’ve been trying and I know it’s no excuse, but what I’ve been through... it really messes with your body. And your mind. I just... I can’t explain the things it changes.’
‘Changes?’
‘Not the way I feel towards you. I promise. Please, never think that. It’s entirely me. It’s so difficult to explain. It feels like a part of me has been taken away. I mean, it has, but you know... It makes me feel differently about myself.’
‘How so?’ Mark asked, his voice soft. For the first time in a long time, she felt as if he was finally listening, actually taking in what she was saying.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, trying to put it into words. ‘Less of a woman. Less attractive. Less... sexual.’
Mark nodded slowly. ‘I get that. But, I mean, you were all dressed up. Made up. Candles, red wine. The expensive ones. Then after all that... I was just surprised, I suppose. I thought you wanted to.’
‘I did.’
‘And I’m not trying to belittle what you’re going through, but for me, after all that, to have you suddenly change your mind...’
‘I didn’t change my mind.’
‘You did.’
‘No, I just realised I couldn’t jump straight in with two feet and expect to immediately feel twenty-one years old again. It’ll take time. Small steps.’
Mark nodded. ‘Okay. Well, I’m willing to try if you are.’
‘Of course I am. I have been.’
‘You’ve been kind of cold. Distant.’
Caroline swallowed. ‘I know. I’ve been trying up here, though,’ she said, tapping her head. ‘It might not seem like it from the outside, but there’s a lot of work to do in there before it’ll show much.’
Mark took her hand. ‘I know. And I’m always here to support you through it, alright? I just need you to tell me what you want. I can’t keep guessing and getting it wrong. I need you to lead this and help me out too.’
‘Okay,’ Caroline replied, smiling, but unsure as to how this was going to play out. Regardless, she had hope. It had to be worth all the effort of trying. Otherwise, they had nothing. ‘It’s a deal,’ she said.
39
There were always aspects of the job which some officers enjoyed and others didn’t. For Caroline, one of the most enjoyable aspects was interviewing suspects. There was a logic to it, a tried and tested process which got results and gave her a huge amount of satisfaction.
It was, of course, frustrating at times not to be able to walk into the first interview, dump all the evidence on the table and wrap things up there and then, but the key was to let the suspect do that work for them.
The first interview was about establishing the facts, letting the suspect weave their own narrative, even if it was clearly contrary to what the officers already knew. In effect, they were giving them enough rope to hang themselves. At that point, they’d regroup and reassess, compile everything then go back in for the second interview. That was when those bombshells would be dropped. The suspect wouldn’t be in a position to make up excuses and ways of wriggling out of it, because they’d already committed to a position the police could now prove was false. This was the position Caroline felt they were now in, and she was looking forward to it immensely.
‘Okay, Gavin,’ she said once the second interview had begun the next morning. ‘In your last interview you told us a couple of things we found quite interesting, to say the least. You stated that you’d stayed at home on the night Martin Forbes died. Do you want to make any amendments to that statement?’
‘No, I do not.’
‘Gavin, your car has been seized and is being searched, as has the clothing you were wearing that night. Are we going to find anything there that’ll incriminate you?’
Gavin didn’t seem so certain in answering this question. ‘I don’t imagine so, no.’
‘You don’t imagine so? You don’t sound sure.’
‘Well I don’t know what you’re looking for, do I?’
‘You must know if there’s anything incriminating. If you didn’t kill Martin Forbes and weren’t involved in his murder, there won’t be, will there?’
Gavin crossed his arms. ‘Then there won’t be.’
‘We’re also looking through your mobile phone and laptop. Do you think we’ll find anything there?’
‘I didn’t know you’d taken my laptop,’ Gavin said, his eyes narrowed.
‘Oh yes. You’re under arrest, Gavin. That allows us the power to enter your property, search for evidence and remove anything we think might be of interest or value to our investigation.’ Caroline watched him, trying to gauge his reaction. ‘You’ve gone a bit quiet, Gavin. Perhaps I should ask you another question. Have you been in touch with Martin Forbes recently? In the days leading up to his death, perhaps? I know we’ve already asked you this, but I think it bears repeating at this point.’
Gavin’s solicitor leaned in slightly towards him. ‘You don’t have to answer any questions you’re not comfortable with.’
‘No comment,’ Gavin said.
‘Okay. Can you have a look at these for me, please?’ Caroline replied, passing two sheets of paper across the desk. ‘Do you recognise them?’
‘No comment.’
‘They’re emails. Between you and Martin Forbes. Can you tell me the date on them please?’
‘No comment.’
‘It was very shortly before Martin died, wasn’t it?’
‘No comment.’
‘In these emails, Gavin, you ask Martin to meet you. He suggests Monday evening — the night he died — at the exact location where his body was found the next morning. That’s the arrangement that was made. Do you have any comment on that?’
Gavin looked at his solicitor.
‘You don’t have to answer that.’
‘I do,’ Gavin said. ‘I really do. Because I know where this is going, and I know how it looks. But it’s not the case. Yes. Okay. I arranged to meet Martin that night. I went there. You’ll probably find mud on the tyres that matches Seaton, if that’s what you’re looking for. But Martin didn’t turn up. You have to believe me. He wasn’t there. That’s why I went home.’
‘Why did you want to meet him?’
Gavin sighed. ‘Because Amie told me about the argument they’d had. He’s been trying it on with her for months. She keeps turning him down. Obviously. But she got the feeling he’d been using that to justify being an absolute arse to her ever since. He kept slagging off her work, talking down to her in front of people, calling her in for endless meetings to stop her finishing projects and then complaining that projects hadn’t been finished. He basically tried to make her working life hell because she wouldn’t put out for him. So yeah, I wanted to have a chat with him. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t on, that I knew what’d been happening and that he needed to stop. But he didn’t turn up.’
‘What time did you arrive?’ Caroline asked.
‘Just before seven. Ten to, I think.’
‘And how long did you stay?’
‘Until half past. It was obvious then he wasn’t going to turn up and had just pussied out of it.’
‘Did you stay in your car the whole time?’
‘God yes. It was cold and drizzling. I stayed inside with the heaters on.’
Caroline and Dexter exchanged a look. ‘And did you see anyone else around?’ Caroline said.
‘No-one. A couple of cars
drove past on the road, but no-one stopped. No-one on foot either, but that was hardly surprising.’
It was always a risk to change the line of questioning at a time like this, but Caroline wanted to see how he’d react. ‘Did you suspect there might be something more to the relationship between Amie and Martin?’ she asked. ‘That maybe it wasn’t just unwanted attention, but that perhaps something had been going on between them?’
Gavin’s jaw tensed. That told Caroline all she needed to know. ‘No,’ he said. ‘She’s not like that. She’s not that sort of woman.’
‘Okay. Back to Monday night. What happened when you realised Martin hadn’t turned up? Did you try to call him?’
Gavin shook his head. ‘No. I don’t have a number for him. I only had his personal email address because he’d sent some jokey forwarding thing to Amie a while back and she’d forwarded it on to me. But I did email him to call him a coward.’
Caroline and Dexter looked at each other again. ‘When was this?’ she asked.
Gavin shrugged. ‘Around that time. Half seven-ish. Just before I left Seaton and came home. I was bloody fuming that he’d got me all the way out there, left me sitting in a sodding car park for over half an hour and not bothered turning up.’
Caroline jotted a note in her book, in deliberate view of Dexter. Make sure they check G’s sent items.
‘Did you definitely send that to Martin’s email address?’
‘Of course I did. Who else would I send it to?’
‘I was just wondering, because we didn’t find it in Martin’s inbox. It’s a bit strange that he’d delete that email but not the others, isn’t it?’
Gavin shrugged again. ‘I dunno. I can’t answer that for him, can I? All I know is I replied to the existing thread, so there’s no way it went anywhere else.’
Caroline tried to formulate her thoughts, but found she was struggling. It all seemed so clear, but at the same time completely the opposite. The evidence seemed to be growing, and there was definitely something suspicious about Gavin’s behaviour. But she was doubtful there was enough for a charge. An extension awaiting further evidence and results from forensics, yes. But she was also cautious about putting too much stock in one suspect. She’d made that mistake before.
