Horsey Mere (DI Tanner 5), page 12
‘On the basis of what my client has just confessed to, I’m going to have to insist that he undergoes a full psychological examination before you can take this any further.’
‘Er, I’m sorry,’ Tanner laughed, ‘but that isn’t going to happen.’
‘But you have to agree that he’s not of sound mind. Not even close. Certainly not when he threw that petrol bomb. I mean, the guy believes a coven of witches cast a love spell on him, of all things.’
‘So he says, but unfortunately, he hardly has a track record of telling the truth.’
‘Which is why we need an expert’s opinion.’
‘Well, OK, but not until I’ve finished interviewing him.’
‘I’m sorry, but I can’t allow my client to sit there confessing to every major crime that’s ever-taken place in Norfolk, when it’s abundantly clear that he’s a sandwich short of a picnic.’
‘That’s a legal term, is it?’
‘You know what I mean.’
Tanner glanced down at his watch. ‘Tell you what, we’ve only got another half an hour before we have to either charge him or release him. After that, you can do what you like.’
‘You do know that you’re wasting your time, don’t you?’
‘I’m not sure I do.’
‘The minute a psychologist diagnosis him as being insane, whatever he’s said in there will be inadmissible.’
‘That’s not true, and you know it.’
‘His defence solicitor will easily be able to argue that his poor mental health meant that anything he confessed to couldn’t have been the product of either his free will or rational intellect, nor could he have been aware of his legal right against self-incrimination.’
‘That may be presented as an argument, but it doesn’t mean a court would be swayed. He’d first have to be diagnosed as being mentally ill. At the moment, I’m far from convinced. Personally, I think he made up the whole thing just to give him an excuse for having petrol bombed that shop.’
‘Then I’d at least like to have time to counsel him, before you go any further.’
‘Presumably to advise him to keep his mouth shut.’
‘As is his right.’
‘Very well,’ Tanner sighed. ‘You’ve got as long as it takes me to make myself a coffee.’
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
DESPERATE FOR A coffee, Tanner arrived in the kitchen to find that not only was the carafe empty, but there was no more left in the cupboard for him to make himself anymore. Left with the choice of either an instant or a cup of tea, shuddering at the thought of both, he made his way out to reception to take a look in the storage cupboard located along a narrow corridor near the back of the building.
Turning in, he nearly walked straight into PS Taylor, escorting Mr and Mrs Chadha out to the carpark at the back. A bout of social awkwardness had him smiling around at them all to ask, ‘Are you all done?’
‘They’ve provided fingerprints, DNA samples and a statement, sir.’
Mr Chadha made a point of catching Tanner’s eye. ‘There was actually something we forgot to mention, Inspector, when you were talking to us before.’
Tanner found himself glancing down at his watch. With the progress they’d been making with Roy Carter, he was convinced they’d found their man. If what they had to tell him was to add to the evidence, so much the better, but if it wasn’t, they’d simply be wasting his time. And with less than half an hour to go before they had to charge him, he didn’t have much of it to waste.
‘Is it not in your statement?’
‘We weren’t sure if it was relevant.’
‘But you feel you need to tell me now?’
‘We thought it might be important.’
Realising he was wasting time by just having the discussion, Tanner asked them to continue.
‘It was the evening Anya went missing,’ the husband began. ‘We were sitting watching the TV together when she suddenly got up to announce that she was going out.’
Tanner waited for him to continue; one hand wrapped around his watch in an effort to highlight the fact that he didn’t have very long.
‘Was that it?’ he eventually asked.
‘Then she fainted.’
Struggling to see how either could have been relevant, he was about to tell them to give any information they had to Taylor when he heard the man continue.
‘She fell over backwards, hitting her head on the coffee table.’
Tanner’s mind stopped dead in its tracks.
‘She hit her head?’ he repeated, staring.
The husband nodded.
With Tanner wondering if the only reason they’d decided to mention this was because they knew a team of police forensics officers were about to descend down on their house, he thought for a moment before asking, ‘Was she hurt?’
‘She was bleeding a little.’
‘And yet she still went out?’
‘She said she felt OK.’
‘Right,’ Tanner replied, his tone overflowing with scepticism.
‘To be honest,’ the man continued, ‘at the time we were more concerned as to why she’d fainted.’
With the growing suspicion that she hadn’t done anything of the sort, and that they’d come up with the story to help explain what forensics were going to find, Tanner decided to play along.
‘Had she ever done so before?’
‘Not that we know of.’
‘Maybe it was because she stood up too quickly. I understand that’s often the cause.’
‘That’s what we thought, which made us wonder why she had. She wouldn’t normally announce that she was going out like that, not after we’d settled down to watch TV together, and never so late, either.’
Curious to know where they were going with this, Tanner postulated, ‘Maybe a friend messaged her, asking her to come out?’
‘Her phone was in the kitchen.’
‘OK. So… what was on TV?’
The man sent his wife a questioning look. ‘It must have been the news.’
‘It was the election,’ the lady replied, with an affirming nod.
‘I think it was,’ the husband agreed. ‘They’d just announced the by-election and were interviewing one of the candidates.’
With the realisation that the subject matter had swung all the way back to where the investigation had started, Tanner’s eyes narrowed with curious intrigue.
‘I don’t suppose you can remember which candidate in particular?’
‘I’m sorry, I can’t.’
‘So you’re telling me that you were watching the news, about the by-election, when they started to interview one of the candidates, at which point your daughter suddenly got up, saying she had to go out?’
‘And then she fainted,’ added the husband, ‘falling backwards, onto the table.’
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
TANNER’S MIND WAS a tangled mess of thoughts and ideas as he stood watching Mr and Mrs Chadha being led out through the station’s discreet rear exit. At that moment in time he was unable to decide if their story was simply to provide them with a perfectly innocent excuse for what they knew forensics would find; traces of their daughter’s blood on their living room floor, or if it had been genuine, and that something on the news had caused their daughter to faint before hurrying out the door, never to be seen alive again.
He stared down at his watch.
‘Shit!’ he cursed. It was already gone twenty-past. He now had less than ten minutes to decide what they were going to charge Roy Carter with.
Forgoing the coffee, he spun around, heading back towards the main office.
As he pushed his way through the double doors he saw Cooper charging towards him, his face flush with anger.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ the young DI demanded.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Tanner questioned, his temper flaring. Rarely had he been spoken to in such a disrespectful manner by a fellow officer, certainly not in the middle of the office.
‘Roy Carter’s walked!’
‘What?’
‘His solicitor just led him straight out the front door.’
‘That can’t be!’ Tanner exclaimed, staring down at his watch. ‘We’ve still got another ten minutes.’
‘We only had until twenty-past.’
‘You said half-past.’
‘I said twenty-past!’ Cooper yelled. ‘And where were you, anyway? I’ve been looking bloody everywhere?’
‘I was out the back, trying to find some more coffee, when I bumped into Mr and Mrs Chadha on their way out, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t speak to me in such a disparaging manner.’
‘Why the hell shouldn’t I? It’s not as if you’re my superior anymore.’
Cooper was right of course, and it took Tanner a good second to think of a suitable rebuttal. ‘But I am the SIO!’
‘You’re right, you are,’ Cooper sneered, ‘but only because you told Forrester that I wasn’t up for the job.’
‘I never said that.’
‘And now you’ve just let our prime suspect walk right out the front door.’
‘You said we had until half-past,’ Tanner raged, furious at being blamed for something that he honestly didn’t think was his fault, especially by someone barely old enough to tie his own shoelaces.
‘I told you what time he was due to be released, something you should have known for yourself, being that it’s written as clear as day in the arrest report.’
With the two Dis yelling at each other in the middle of the open-planned workspace, it was only a matter of time before DCI Forrester came charging out of his office.
‘What the hell’s going on here?’ he bellowed, the floor shaking as his vast physical mass stormed its way over the floor towards them.
‘Tanner let Roy Carter walk, sir,’ stated Cooper, stepping to one side to allow the DCI to face his fellow DI.
‘You did what?’
‘I did no such thing,’ Tanner replied, baring his teeth at Cooper. ‘There was simply a mix up with the time. I thought we had until half-past to charge him.’
‘Didn’t you check the arrest report?’
‘Cooper told me it was half past, sir.’
‘I did no such thing,’ Cooper denied, staring over at Forrester. ‘I was trying to find Tanner, to tell him that the suspect was about to go free, but apparently he was out the back, looking for coffee.’
Tanner was teetering on the edge of completely losing it. ‘I was speaking with Mr and Mrs Chadha,’ he seethed, ‘as they were leaving through the back door.’
‘Whilst Roy Tanner was walking out the front,’ Cooper jibed.
‘They had something to tell me, about the night their daughter went missing, which I believe could be vital to this investigation.’
Forrester took a moment to scowl over at them, before growling under his breath, ‘Right, I want you two in my office, now!’
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
FORRESTER STOOD BEHIND his desk, waiting for Cooper to close the door before starting.
‘I suppose one of you had better let me know how you’d been getting on with Roy Carter, before he was allowed to walk out the front door?’
With Forrester’s eyes resting on Tanner, the more senior of the two felt obliged to reply.
‘He’d just admitted to having thrown the petrol bomb at the shop, sir, and that he knew Anya Chadha.’
‘Who’s Anya Chadha?’
‘We believe she’s the girl found at Horsey Mere, sir. Her parents came in earlier, saying their daughter is missing. They recognised the tattoo on her hip.’
‘Christ!’
Forrester sank slowly down into his chair.
‘I assume Roy Carter was still denying any involvement?’
‘I was about to discuss that with him when the solicitor asked to have a word in the corridor.’
‘About what?’
‘He was demanding that his client be given a psychiatric evaluation before continuing.’
‘Why on earth would he ask that?’
‘It was because of the motive Carter had given for having petrol bombed the shop.’
‘Go on.’
‘Well,’ began Tanner, with a degree of trepidation, ‘he said he thought Anya Chadha was a witch, sir, and that her and her friends had cast a spell on him.’
‘I see,’ Forrester replied, still scowling. ‘And he managed to say that with a straight face, did he?’
‘He did come across as being surprisingly sincere.’
‘So I suppose it was a witch’s spell which made him throw the petrol bomb?’
‘Not exactly, sir, no. He said the spell was to make him fall in love with her.’
‘I don’t think women need to cast spells on men to make them fall in love with them. A bit of makeup and a short skirt normally does the trick.’
A fleeting smirk lifted the DCI’s face, before reverting to his previous scowl.
‘But it doesn’t explain why he petrol bombed the shop though, does it!’
‘Carter went on to say that he thought Anya had been using the shop as what he called a “coven”, sir, as that’s where she’d meet with her friends. He said that burning it down would break the spell.’
‘Then I think his solicitor was right. The guy is in desperate need of psychiatric help.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Tanner agreed, feeling able to relax his stance a little.
‘Unfortunately for you, Tanner, that only means you’ve gone and let a dangerous psychopathic lunatic walk out the building scot-free!’
‘Then we’re just going to have to re-arrest him, sir.’
‘Oh yes, of course. Silly me. Why didn’t I think of that?’
Tanner knew what was coming next.
‘Oh, hang on. I remember now,’ Forrester continued, his words dripping with condescending sarcasm. ‘Because somebody’s going to have to find some new evidence before being able to do so!’
The room fell into an awkward silence.
‘So, Tanner? What’ve you got?’
‘As in new evidence, sir?’
‘That’s right,’ the DCI confirmed, locking his sausage-shaped arms over his barrel-like chest.
‘Well, sir, nothing yet, but… ’
‘Then how the hell are you going to re-arrest him?’ Forrester yelled back, with such vehement fury that the windowpane rattled in its frame.
With no answer, Tanner made the sensible choice to remain silent.
‘I suppose that also means he’s likely to have been the one who strung her up?’
‘I’m not so sure about that.’
‘Oh, really, and why’s that, may I ask?’
‘It was what I was talking to Mr and Mrs Chadha about, sir.’
‘Then you’d better enlighten me, hadn’t you.’
‘The night their daughter disappeared, they told me that they were all watching the news together when she suddenly got up to say that she had to go out.’
‘Is that it?’
‘They said that she then fainted, sir, falling back to hit her head on the coffee table.’
Forrester steepled his fingers together.
‘So, you think they may have had a domestic, ending up with her dead?’
‘There’s more, sir. I went on to ask them why they thought she’d suddenly announced that she had to go out, given the lateness of the hour. It turns out they were watching the news, just after the by-election had been announced. Apparently, one of the candidates was being interviewed. That’s when she suddenly stood up and fainted.’
‘Do you think they could be telling the truth?’
‘I don’t know, sir, but I’ve asked for a team of forensics to head down to their house. If we can find evidence that they’ve been to Horsey Mere recently, then I think it may well have been a domestic argument that got out of hand, which they then attempted to cover up. If not, then perhaps their story is true; that there was something their daughter either saw or heard on the news that made her react in such a way.’
‘Did they say which candidate was being interviewed when their daughter fainted?’
‘They said they couldn’t remember.’
Forrester thought for a moment.
‘Where are we with the by-election candidates?’
‘We’re still digging into the Drummonds. As you know, we’re particularly interested in having a look at their finances, but we’ve been unable to gain access, thanks to the private equity firm they use who are still refusing to release records without a court order.’
‘I take it you’re in the process of acquiring one?’
‘We are.’
‘How about Susan Sutton?
‘We’re still waiting to hear back from forensics, but at the moment she’s at the bottom of the list, being that she seems to lack any sort of a sensible motive.’
‘So that leaves our BNU candidate, Nick Carter, the person who just happens to be the father of the boy you allowed to walk out the door, the one who believes he’s had a love spell cast on him which he’s confessed to ridding himself of by burning down the shop he says they used as a coven. Tell me, Tanner, don’t you think the fact that one is the father of the other is a little bit too much of a coincidence for us to continue to ignore?’
When put like that, Tanner knew he was right.
‘Maybe we should bring Nick Carter in for questioning?’ suggested Tanner.
‘With zero evidence that he’s been involved in any of this?’
‘Maybe not for the murder of Anya Chadha, but we do have that picture we found of him shaking hands with Patrick Hopkins, when he’d denied having ever met the man.’
‘Jesus Christ, Tanner, is that really the best you can do?’
‘It’s a start, sir.’
‘Is it?’
‘Well… ’ Without simply repeating what he’d just said, Tanner closed his mouth.
Forrester allowed the room to fall into a sterile silence.
‘I’m afraid I think that you’re going to have to approach this from a completely new angle.’
‘I’m happy to hear any suggestions, sir.’
‘How about focussing your efforts on what actually seems to be connecting everything together?’
