Concrete Evidence (23 page)

“Tell them that the stuff we found in the garage, the DVD and the file need to be transported now,” he spoke slowly to keep anger from his voice. “Anything else we find is a bonus. They can send the van back for the rest later.”

Annie walked deeper into the shed and tried to shift the images from her mind. Jackie Webb, her face wet and glistening like fresh meat. Jayne Windsor sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of what was to come. Her decapitated head on the dressing table, money shoved into her mouth. The images flashed by like a carousel of the damned. She faced the filing cabinets and took a deep breath. The contents could be totally unrelated to their case. They knew that he worked online. It could be his records but somehow, Annie didn’t think that it was.

“I’ll take the left hand side,” Stirling’s gruff voice made her jump. She was lost in her thoughts. She looked confused. “Are you okay, Guv?”

“I’m fine.”

“If it helps, it knocks me sick too.” Stirling smiled thinly. 

“It just makes me feel sad,” she said walking to the filing cabinet on the right. “Sad and incredibly angry.” She breathed deeply and opened the top drawer. It clattered against its rollers and dropped at an angle.

Empty.

Stirling opened the left hand side. He looked at her and shook his head. Annie opened the remaining two drawers quickly.

Empty.

Stirling followed suit with the same result. “They’ve been cleared out.”

“What about the middle cabinet?”

Annie bit her lip and opened the top drawer.

Empty.

She bent slightly to open the middle drawer.

Empty.

“We’re not going to find anything more damming than we have already,” Annie muttered as she opened the final drawer. It clattered to a stop and something rattled loudly against the metal. She frowned and stared inside. “Bloody hell!” she gasped. “I’ll take that back,” she said as she stared at an evil looking hunting knife. One side of the blade was razor sharp and caked in dried blood; the serrated edge on the other side had pieces of flesh wedged between the teeth. The smell of decomposition drifted up to her like a familiar but unwanted guest.                  

               CHAPTER 28

                                                   36 Hours Later

              “Interview with Tod Harris,” Annie began, “present DI Annie Jones, your names for the record please,” she prompted.

              “DS Stirling.”

              “Kate Bartlet, defence lawyer for Tod Harris.” She paused and nudged him. “Say your name for the tape, Tod.”

              Tod Harris coughed nervously, “Tod, Tod Harris,” he stuttered. The cramped interview room made him feel claustrophobic. He looked decidedly pale for a man who had been in the sun. The pain from his stab wound had become a dull ache, gnawing at him. The painkillers took the edge off but little more. “Can I just say for the record that I’m in severe pain following a mugging. I have nine stitches in my back and I’m not happy about being dragged from Spain in handcuffs without any explanation.” He glared at Annie. “They refused to talk to me all the way back.”

              “We charged you before we left,” Annie interrupted him. “That was explanation enough until you had legal representation with you.”

              “I cannot remember anything. I was under anaesthetic,” he protested. “I didn’t have a Scooby Doo what was going on.” He had decided that he was going to aggressively deny everything. He had made his mind up before the Guardia officers had even arrived at his hospital bed. Attack was the best form of defence. It had worked with his previous rape charge so he didn’t see why it wouldn’t work this time. “I’ll be claiming for a flight back to Spain when this farce is over and seeking compensation too.” He snapped arrogantly. Inside, he didn’t feel anywhere near as confident as the man he was trying to portray. “This is bullshit.” Kate Bartlet nudged him again and threw him a scolding glance. “What is your problem?” he snapped at his brief. “You’re supposed to be on my side. This is bullshit and you know, it is!”

              “Let’s just listen to what the detectives have to say, Tod.”

              “It will be bollocks!”

              “Have you finished?” Stirling growled. Tod nodded and sat back in his chair. He winked at Stirling and smiled sarcastically. The bolts that fastened his chair to the floor denied it any lateral movement making it uncomfortable to sit on even for short periods of time. He shifted his weight but couldn’t find any relief from the pain in his back. “Are you ready to begin?”

              “As ready as I can be,” Tod grinned. “I can’t smile wide enough I’m so happy to be here.” He stopped smiling and frowned. “Get on with it and get me out of this dump.”

              “I would get used to your surroundings, Tod,” Stirling glanced at Annie and a silent communication past between them. “You could be here a while.” They shared an understanding that their suspect had no idea how much evidence they had against him.

“Can you tell us what you do for a living,” Annie asked casually.

              Tod seemed to relax a little. “I’m self employed as a copy writer,” he smiled. “I write content for company websites. Mostly in the gaming industry.”

              “And you live with your mother at 42 Princess Drive, Liverpool, right?”

              “At the moment. I travel a lot so my flat was always left empty,” he shrugged and blushed a little. “She’s not been well so I moved back to help out.”

              “Admirable,” Annie smiled thinly. “I’m sure she’s very grateful.”

“She is actually.” Tod’s face turned dark with anger.

“I don’t doubt it,” Annie replied flatly. “I’m sure she’s ever so proud that her son is on the sex offender’s register.” His eyes narrowed and he had to restrain himself from responding aggressively. Annie gauged his reaction. He was highly strung and that would work in her favour. “Do you recognise this woman?” Annie asked pushing a photograph of Jayne Windsor across the table.

              Tod glanced at it and shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

             
Lie
, she thought. She noticed that he twitched slightly when he lied. It was subtle but it was there. A movement of the shoulders, only slight but perceptible to the experienced eye. “You don’t remember meeting her at a nightclub?” Annie pushed an image from the nightclub to him. “This is you with her in Flatfoot Sam’s isn’t it?”

              “I don’t think so.” Tod flushed. “The image isn’t very clear. It might be.”

              “It is you, Tod isn’t it?” Annie pressed. He shrugged nonchalantly but didn’t answer. She pointed to the image and looked him in the eye. “That is you with Jayne Windsor, isn’t it, Tod.”

              “It could be I suppose.”

              “Do you remember talking to her there?”

              “No.”

Annie saw the twitch again. “Are you sure?” she pushed another picture towards him. “This is an hour later. Same club, same girl. This is you with her.”

“I don’t remember her.”
Twitch
. 

              “Funnily enough, there are quite a few photos of you with her. You don’t leave her side except to go to the bar.” Stirling added nudging the picture closer again. “She was a Special Constable. A serving police officer. Did you know that?”

              “Interesting,” Tod shrugged. “And I should be bothered why?” he asked sarcastically.

              “Oh, you should be very bothered,” Stirling smiled coldly. The urge to break his jaw was intense. “She must have told you that she was a police officer?”

              “Like I said, I don’t remember talking to her.”

              “Look again.” 

              He looked at the picture and shook his head. “I talk to a lot of women in nightclubs,” Tod sneered but the way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down told Annie that he was worried. His throat was dry, a classic symptom of lying and he couldn’t meet her gaze. Annie knew that he was lying through his teeth. “I meet women online and I meet women in town.” He smiled at Annie. “Lots and lots of women.” He shrugged. “I can’t be expected to remember them all, can I?”

              “Must be a nightmare for you but I’m surprised you can’t remember her.” She lifted the photo in front of his face. “Are you sure that you don’t, really?” Annie frowned. She pushed another photo to him. “Well let me help you to remember.” Annie lifted her index finger and feigned helpfulness. “You may have a lot of girlfriends but you gave this one,” she pointed the photograph, “her name is Jayne Windsor, a lift home in her own car the same night as these pictures were taken.” She paused for effect. “Remember her now?” Tod glanced at the photograph. He flushed red and swallowed hard. “This is you leaving the club with her, you see?” Annie looked him in the eye. He couldn’t look back at her. She placed another photograph in front of him. “And this is you bundling her into the front seat of her car, see?” Annie stared into his eyes. “Do you remember her now?”

“Can’t say that I remember her clearly.” Tod shook his head. “I may have taken her to her car but that’s just the type of guy that I am.” He appeared almost genuine. “If I can help someone, I will.”

“You like to help people?” Annie asked smiling. She held up another photograph. “Well, this is a picture of you ‘helping’ her friend, Jackie Webb, from the stairwell of the car park into the back of the car.” Annie turned to Stirling and showed him the picture. “He does like to ‘help’ doesn’t he, Sergeant?”

“Clearly.”

“I’m surprised that you don’t recall ‘helping’ two women back to their car?” Tod’s face darkened at their sarcasm. “Anything coming back to you yet?” He folded his arms and tilted his head to one side. A narrow smile touched his lips. “What is so amusing?” Annie asked.

“You are. I’m enjoying watching you sweating your pretty little head,” he grinned. “You’re quite attractive considering.”

“Tod!” Kate Bartlet said shocked. It was obvious that he was referring to Annie’s false eye. “I don’t think that is helpful. Just answer the Inspector’s questions.”

“Oops, sore subject,” Tod shrugged. “I was just passing a compliment, that’s all.”

“I’m glad that you feel comfortable enough to make light of the situation but this is very serious.” She paused and tapped the photo. Annie felt anger rising inside her. She swallowed and returned her focus to the pictures. “If you think it’s funny so far, then you’ll find this absolutely hilarious,” Annie looked directly at him. “This is you with both Jayne Windsor and Jackie Webb.” His eyes flicked to the photo. He swallowed hard again. “You’re on camera getting into the car and driving them away,” Annie smiled coldly. “See how funny that is?”

“I think he’s lost his sense of humour,” Stirling added.

“As much as I enjoy the cut and thrust of mental jousting, Tod,” Annie shrugged. “But I think we’ve messed about enough now, don’t you?” she smiled coldly. “I’ll ask you once more. Do you recognise them now?”

              Tod sat in silence for a few moments. His eyes were fixed on the photographs but Annie couldn’t work out what was going through his mind. Suddenly, he looked up, smirked and held up his index finger. “You know what, now that I’ve seen their pictures properly, it’s all coming back to me,” he nodded thoughtfully and rubbed his chin.

“Tod, your acting is forced and unconvincing,” Stirling said gruffly. “It is also very annoying so pack it in and get on with it!”

“Can you throw your gorilla a banana or something please, Inspector, he’s becoming aggressive,” Tod sneered and looked at Stirling. “Calm down King Kong, who rattled your cage?” Tod smirked again. Stirling looked ready to explode. “Okay, Inspector.” Tod held up his hands. “So you have pictures of me in their car,” he shrugged nonchalantly and looked down at his fingernails. “So I drove them home, so what?” Tod shrugged. “They were as drunk as skunks. I was helping them out that’s all. Like I said, I love helping. It’s just part of who I am.”

“Where did you drive them to?”

Tod frowned. “Wherever home was. I cannot remember. I took them home and called a cab.”

              “That was very good of you,” Annie smiled thinly. “You’re a real model citizen.”

              “I try my best.”

              “So to summarise, you left the nightclub with Jayne?” Annie tapped the photograph.

              “It looks like I did.” Tod shrugged. “Like I said before, I can’t really remember much about it.”

“Tell me how did Jackie Webb get from the club into the car park stairwell?” Annie frowned. “She didn’t leave the club with you did she?”