The Rapunzel Act, page 37
Constance moaned and then coughed to cover it. Judith gave a sigh and switched off the recording. Rochelle crumpled to her knees. Dawson surveyed the scene before him. He hoped Jason would come quietly now, given the presence of all these women. His back wouldn’t handle a fight.
48
‘So Nicki Smith and Ellis Harper knew each other?’ Judith, Constance and Dawson sat in an airless room at Hackney police station. In one interview room was Ellis, sitting with a lawyer, in a second, Nicki, on her own.
‘They met in around 2013, when she was still Nicki Sampson. Moved in together. She had tried to turn her life around, after some convictions when she was young. She got a job with Huawei, out in Hong Kong. Pretty amazing, given her background. He decided to follow her.’ Dawson answered Judith’s question.
‘And then what?’
‘They lived together. He started an interior design business and began working on the homes of wealthy people. He made a big point of promoting Western design. But he wasn’t hugely successful. She was the main earner.’
‘Then what?’
‘A car crash. She was driving, no seat belt. She had to stop work for rehab. Word is that Ellis ran away back to the UK, leaving Nicki behind in the hospital.’
‘And she was pretty cross with him for ditching her?’
‘Maybe. If we believe what she said to you at Rosie’s house. Whatever happened, she was still in love with him, but he had moved on, to Laura. Nicki pulled herself together, stopped moping and Nicki Smith was born, new name, new identity, sadly old tricks. She sets herself up as a kind of campaigner for hire, shows up at events and brings a crowd with her. She’s suddenly in demand.’
‘Was her interest genuine?’
‘I doubt it. With the increase in celebrity attention for all these causes, it gave her access to lots of wealthy people. Once she became more well known, she would offer her time, usually free of charge, to help organise demonstrations and publicity. But, at the same time, she was looking for opportunities to blackmail them – badly kept secrets she could exploit.’
‘And one of them was Rosie?’
‘She targeted Rosie in 2017, not long after her return from Hong Kong. She knew about Debbie from Ellis and she sensed, rightly, that Rosie was touchy about Debbie’s transition. She didn’t ask for much money, though, not relative to Rosie’s earnings.’
‘It wasn’t about the money,’ Constance said. ‘It was a way of getting Ellis to notice her again.’
‘Pretty extreme way, then.’
‘Did she take the video?’
‘Yes, she followed Debbie around for a while. The performance was a gift.’
‘All her complaining about the third runway was a front, then?’
‘Yes and no. It fitted her agenda, but she was also setting things up, trying to get Rosie’s personal email. Then she sent Rosie the video of Debbie, with the nickname Rapunzel, and asked for money.’
‘And, as we now know, Jason persuaded Rosie to pay up?’
‘Debbie said Rosie wasn’t interested in conventional security, said the danger was all online. Now we know why she said that. How much do you think Nicki stole?’ Constance asked.
‘Hundreds of thousands. That’s why she could be so generous with her time.’
‘And that’s why you didn’t want me to ask you about the money leaving Rosie’s account, when you were in court?’ Judith added.
‘Yes, but I couldn’t believe you would do as you were told, for once. We knew about the payments out of Rosie’s account, but we didn’t know what they were and we hadn’t found the Rapunzel folder.
‘My team did some digging on Ellis, her stepbrother; school dropout. We couldn’t be sure where he had gone when he left the UK, but you helped with that Judith, with the design stuff.’
‘Design stuff?’ Constance asked.
‘I suggested to Uncle Ellis that I might like some interior design tips,’ Judith said. ‘He couldn’t resist sending me his favourite projects. It was quite touching how proud he was of his work, but he’d labelled them by address, which I passed on to Charlie…’
‘The Hong Kong police, with typical efficiency, made some enquiries, and showed Nicki’s photo around too. He’d taken her to more than one of his clients’ homes. She had a good eye for colour, they said.’
‘How did you know Nicki sent the video? Greg said he couldn’t trace the emails.’
‘No, but the camera she used gave her away. Mr Winter rang us early Tuesday to tell us about the emails and the video. Then, well, you know, he came over here a couple of hours later. Said he could see that the video had been filmed on a phone with a special zoom lens, only been made for the Chinese market, by one or two manufacturers, something about “lens flare”. I didn’t listen too much, but he was pretty certain.’
‘And one of those manufacturers was Huawei.’
‘It was. Changed her name, kept her phone. Funny what people get attached to. It was lucky I was here, actually. I had been told to clear out by the end of the day and I wasn’t minded to hang around.’
‘Then you knew?’
‘Well, it still required some working out, connecting the pieces, as you like to say.’
‘I saw the Huawei packing crates in her office,’ Constance said. ‘I never thought it was important. I even had photos of them.’
‘So that’s Nicki, Rapunzel and the money,’ Judith said.
‘I liked her,’ Constance said, ‘when I met her. I liked Nicki. Is that bad?’
‘Did you?’ Judith stared at her.
‘She seemed genuine. I admired that she was working class but was doing something important with her life. Then, when I found out she’d copied everything she wrote to Rosie from someone else, I was disappointed in her. And then, when she appeared at Rosie’s and declared her love for Ellis, I just felt sorry for her.’
‘Don’t,’ Dawson said. ‘Blackmail is just plain nasty – preying on people’s fears.’
‘What about the money she stole? Is it all gone?’ Constance asked.
‘We haven’t found it yet. But that’s strictly off the record.’
‘And you can’t ask her victims, I suppose.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because most of them still want their secrets kept.’ Dawson smiled at Judith again.
‘Why did you suspect Jason?’ Dawson said.
Judith and Constance were both silent.
‘I think it was the painting,’ Judith said, and they both laughed.
‘What painting?’
‘I was joking. Connie, you got there first, I think. You tell.’
‘I should have realised earlier, but it was only when we were at Rosie’s house that Ben told me Jason had been over the night after the murder to console him. I couldn’t think of any reason on earth why he should lie about that.’
‘You did brilliantly getting his confession,’ Dawson said.
‘Rochelle helped, didn’t she? I’m not sure he would have cracked without her watching him.’
‘Do you think she knew?’ he asked.
Constance shrugged. ‘Even with Rochelle, I still thought he was never going to get there. He would’ve taken hours, if Judith hadn’t kept hurrying him along.’
‘It had been a long ten days. I just wanted a drink.’
‘So it was all because Rosie wanted to leave the show?’
‘And because she didn’t appreciate him,’ Constance said, shivering at the memory. ‘He was jealous of her.’
Judith stood up and slapped her hand down on her thigh. ‘So that pretender criminal-profiling woman was right all along. Ha! On day one. We didn’t need a trial after all. And I called her a charlatan.’
‘You admit it, then, that Court TV got it right first time. We could team up with her for our next case. Save a lot of tax payers’ money.’
‘A lucky guess, that’s all. There is one very important player in this whole puzzle whom we have yet to acknowledge, though,’ Judith said, tapping Constance on the arm.
‘Who’s that?’
‘I never thought I would say it, but let’s hear it for Belle the dog, digging up the second glove!’ Judith laughed at her own joke. ‘She’s saved your bacon this time, hasn’t she, Charlie?’
‘Yep. Although being framed by man’s best friend, is probably a fairly unusual conclusion for internal affairs to draw.’ He laughed aloud and Constance and Judith followed suit.
* * *
‘Somehow, with all these loose ends to tie up, we seem to have missed our celebratory drink,’ Judith said, as they left Hackney police station and walked towards the glass high-rise of the City of London.
‘Where would you like to go?’
‘Ooh somewhere low-key and dark, I think. Now I’m a celebrity, I have to keep a low profile. Don’t want to find myself on the front cover of The Sun, with my underwear on show, do I?’
‘I know somewhere perfect,’ Constance laughed, ‘but I’ll only accompany you on one condition.’
‘No, I refuse to work with the psychologist on our next case.’
‘Not that. I think you should call Greg,’ she said.
‘What?’
‘If only to say thank you. Just call him, OK. I think he’d really like that.’
* * *
‘Tonight, we report on the shock ending to Debbie Mallard’s trial. For those of you who have just tuned in, Debbie Mallard is innocent and has already been released.’ Katrina was wearing a white blouse with a bow at the neck and navy trousers, considerably more demure than usual.
‘And Rosie Harper’s co-presenter of eight years, Jason Fenwick, is in custody,’ Chris added. ‘More on that later.’
‘That’s right, and on the show tonight we have Jeremy Laidlaw, prosecution counsel, to talk about the trial, and Lynn Harris, her neighbour, to tell us all about the Rosie she knew and loved.’ Laidlaw sat to Karina’s left and Lynn to her right. Each was beaming at the camera.
Andy was in the studio with Graham next to him. He had checked, but the secret room was open tonight, with no one inside. Andy wondered if he should say something to Graham about Greg, that he’d been a good choice of substitute, but he didn’t want to sound like he was sucking up and, if Graham had wanted their views on Greg, he would certainly have asked.
Andy had given Katrina his usual list of possible topics for the show, and this time she had focused on one of them, nodded thoughtfully and said she wanted to use it. Andy’s face had flushed with a mixture of pride and relief. He had a feeling the next three months would be fun after all.
* * *
Constance sat on her sofa in her pyjamas, with her knees tucked up to her chin. She had texted Judith when she got in: For once, I can’t wait to watch Court TV tonight, to see Debbie’s face! You? but received no reply.
Then Constance’s phone beeped, but it wasn’t Judith. It was Greg. Meeting Judith for dinner on Saturday to celebrate your win. Will you join us? his message read. Constance glanced at it, before turning her phone to mute. She would decline, politely of course, leave the two love birds alone to kiss and make up, but not tonight.
* * *
On Court TV, Katrina was speaking again.
‘But we should take things one step at a time. The first big event, early this morning, before the sensational adjournment, was the sharing of a video which has melted hearts across the globe. This is Debbie Mallard, in character, as Disney’s Rapunzel, singing the moving words which Rapunzel sings when she is finally released from her prison to join her beloved prince. So here it is, the song from the film Tangled. This is “I See The Light”.’
‘And it’s the most downloaded song so far, this year,’ Chris added.
When Debbie had finished singing and taken her bows, the video panned out to the Court TV hosts.
‘That’s so beautiful,’ Katrina said, blinking back a tear.
‘Yes, it is,’ said Chris, wiping both his eyes.
49
Constance and Judith sat in Rosie Harper’s house. The front window and back door were thrown open and the autumn sun streamed in. Debbie sat opposite them in a flowery dress, with matching hairband.
‘You moved back in here?’ Judith began.
‘Ben was so keen. I couldn’t disappoint him,’ Debbie shrugged. ‘And I always hated my flat. This gives us a bit of time with Rosie around us, I think.’
‘How have you been?’ Constance asked.
‘I should be ecstatic, I know; victory snatched from the jaws of defeat and all that.’ Debbie fiddled with the beads on her necklace. ‘But I miss Rosie. I know she wasn’t perfect, but who is? And I go back through that day, what we said to each other, how I behaved. I told her she was being selfish, that she should think more of what was best for Ben, when I had been the selfish one. If I could turn back the clock…’
‘It’s always the way,’ Judith said. ‘We always want one more day, hour, minute with people we love.’
Constance stared one moment too long at Judith.
‘Will you go back to coaching?’ she asked.
Debbie rubbed her hands together. ‘The girls still want me, they said, so I’ll be back there, once things have settled down.’
‘But I heard you had a special visitor?’ Constance said.
‘John Bane, the England captain. He came to see me yesterday. He said I shouldn’t rule out returning to the premiership, said he would back me if I was interested… I don’t think I will.’
‘You’re quite a celebrity now,’ Judith said. ‘You could probably do photoshoots for the rest of your life.’
‘And I saw the interview you gave to the Mail. It was good, positive stuff,’ Constance said. ‘Very novel, beginning with some football in the local park. The photos were fabulous.’
‘It’s good to play while I still can,’ Debbie said.
‘Why didn’t you tell us about your neurological problem?’ Judith asked.
Debbie looked at both women. ‘I’ve had symptoms for a couple of years, but I try to ignore them. They aren’t sure what it is. Sometimes my hands shake. They think it might be the beginning of Parkinson’s. I told you I was taking paracetamol, but it was some tablets prescribed to help.’
‘If it’s Parkinson’s…’
‘It will affect my movement, yes. But football has been my life for twenty-five years; I can’t just stop.’
‘But you don’t have to hide now.’
‘Rosie’s death and all the press coverage has given me back my freedom. It’s all out there; nothing to hide any more. Truly transparent. Someone’s even started a Twitter account called “When Danny met Debbie” and it has two million followers. None of that would have been possible without the cameras.’
‘Hm,’ Judith grunted.
‘Will you take John Bane up on his offer, then?’ Constance asked. ‘He is the England captain after all.’
‘You mean, maybe I can become the UK’s first wheelchair-bound, female, transgender Premier League coach? I’m not sure we’ve come that far.’
‘Why not?’ Constance said. ‘You should embrace the experience,’ thinking of Greg as she spoke.
‘How’s Belle?’ Judith asked.
‘I’ve been making a big fuss of her. Jason must have found my gloves lying around and it was the perfect opportunity for him to frame me, but he hadn’t counted on Belle burying one of them. I would never have suspected him, you know, not in a million years. I didn’t like the guy much from the odd occasion we met; not that I really knew him. I kept my distance, him the same, but I thought he genuinely cared about Rosie, about her career and wellbeing. I thought he was a decent human being. I could never see him being violent either. He always seemed so…fragile, you know, like a paper bag blowing in the wind.’
‘He pulled the wool over our eyes too,’ Judith said. ‘For a while,’ she added hastily.
‘Will there be another trial?’
‘No. With his full confession on tape, his lawyer advised him to plead guilty. He’ll be sentenced soon. He’ll get a minimum of fifteen years, but the prosecution will argue for more, say it was premeditated, that he abused a position of trust – anything to get the sentence increased,’ Constance said.
‘And how’s Ben?’ Judith asked.
‘He’s gone back to school. He missed the first couple of weeks, but they’ve helped him out. He’s going to keep his acting going too.’
‘And Laura?’
‘Laura is having a hard time.’
‘Poor Laura.’
‘She feels very…deceived.’
‘By Ellis.’
‘By the world. He’s still pretending he cares about her. Can you believe it?’
‘Maybe he does? He did look after her and Ben for all those weeks, before your trial.’
‘He’s all false. It’s all an act. He never really accepted Rosie’s achievements. He thought he should have had what she had, despite having only a fraction of her talent. Whatever he says about loving her, he didn’t. He resented her. Maybe it wasn’t his fault. Their parents put Rosie on a pedestal and Ellis couldn’t even get to the bottom step. That’s why he kept asking for handouts, and Rosie agreed, because she could afford it, and she felt guilty for her success.
