One Dead Witness (49 page)

‘
Thank you. That’s very thoughtful,’ Henry said.

‘
Before we commence, though, I would like you both to take the
oath.’

The usher moved in silently and handed Henry a Bible which he
took in his right hand and swore to Almighty God to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Danny did
likewise.

‘
Mr Christie, why don’t you want these men to get
bail?’

‘
Firstly, they are charged with murder, an offence for which I
believe bail should not be granted under any circumstance. Both men
are wealthy people with huge liquid assets. I believe that if given
bail, both would abscond and by abscond, I mean leave the
country.’

‘
I object!’ Stanway interrupted loudly. ‘My clients would be
more than happy to surrender their passports.’

‘
It’s very easy to get forged passports,’ Henry said patiently.
‘Your Honour, I know for a fact that the defendant Gilbert has
connections with the underworld in the United States. He was
recently arrested for indecent acts with a child whilst in Miami,
but was released without charge. The person he was arrested with is
an active member of the Florida underworld - a gangster in other
words. The forgery of passports is common to such people. I believe
we would never see either defendant again.’

‘
Is it true you have little evidence against them for the
murder charge?’ the Judge asked.

Henry wondered how to flower it up. He decided to go straight
for the jugular - and sod it. ‘It’s true our evidence, at this
moment, relies substantially on a statement taken from a witness
who is now dead. I do not believe it is a coincidence that this
young girl was murdered as a result of giving the police a
statement. I firmly believe Gilbert ordered her murder.’

It was the first time Henry had openly voiced such an opinion.
He watched Stanway’s non-verbals and thought he saw the whole of
his body wobble.

‘
This is an outlandish suggestion,’ Stanway retorted. His face
was red. ‘My client has absolutely no connection whatsoever with
this incident and to suggest it is so is preposterous and, were we
not in a court of law, scandalous.’

‘
Quiet!’ Mrs Ellison snapped.

Stanway drew in his neck, like a tortoise into a
shell.

‘
We believe,’ Henry went on, ‘that if released, Gilbert will
continue, in whatever way he can, to pervert the course of justice.
He’s a powerful man who rides roughshod over people to get what he
wants. I am also sure he is involved in a paedophile network which
may be international in its scope. Several items the police have
seized point to this as being much more than supposition. There is
no doubt he is heavily involved in child sex-abuse and his release
will only allow him to continue his activities.

‘
Finally, there is the murder of another young girl. Her body
was discovered recently in a shallow grave near Darwen. We suspect
Gilbert to be involved in this.’

‘
Evidence?’ Mrs Ellison asked.

Henry coughed. He glanced at Stanway, then back at the Judge.
‘Could I speak to you privately, Your Honour?’

‘
This had better be good, Mr Christie. The fortunate thing for
me is that I have the power to administer appeals as I see fit. Mr
Stanway is not impressed at being ejected from the
chamber.’

‘
I understand - but it is good.’ Henry went on to detail the
story of the disappearing witness in America and the fact that if
this witness could be found, Gilbert would definitely be facing
another murder charge. Henry concluded the story by saying, ‘I have
just received a phone call to say the witness has turned up again
and is willing to give evidence.’

‘
So what are you saying?’

‘
I’m saying that if Gilbert gets bail, we have a good chance of
never seeing him again. If
he stays in
custody - on remand - and we bring this witness back from America,
we can arrest him and deal with him without any problems. From what
I can gather, this witness is very jittery indeed. We need to act
with due speed.’

Mrs Ellison nodded thoughtfully. ‘I’ll give you until Thursday
to get this witness back into Britain and accordingly I shall
remand both defendants until that day ... then it’s back to the
Magistrates’ Court. If
you haven’t got a
witness by then, you will have to appeal to the lower court again
... and there is a very good case for releasing Gilbert on
bail.’

‘
That doesn’t give us much time,’ Danny observed bleakly. ‘Two
days. How are we going to manage it?’

‘
It’s better than nothing.’

They were on the M6, Henry driving south towards Preston. The
CID Mondeo was touching a hundred and beginning to reek of burning
oil.

‘
You’re such a pessimist, aren’t you?’ he said.

‘
Just answer me this - how the hell
are
we going to manage it? A
reluctant witness, one who’ll only speak to me . . . come on, how?’
Danny’s hands made a gripping gesture.

‘
That’s what we’re going to sort out now when we see FB at
Headquarters. I’m going to put to him that we send you on a plane
to Miami today and you can bring her back and at the same time take
a statement off her in mid-Atlantic. We’ll get her into protective
custody as soon as she lands and then slap Gilbert with
a-’

‘
Hang on, hang on!’ The implications of what Henry had just
said struck her. ‘So you want me to go to America? Drop everything
- just like that! Henry ... hold your horses!’

He swerved into the fast lane to avoid a lorry which pulled
out unexpectedly.

‘
Henry, all I plan to do this week is crash out. I am
absolutely knackered and the last thing I want to do is fly to
Miami and back in a day. It’s an eight-hour flight each
way!’

‘
Would you rather see Gilbert walk?’

‘
You know I wouldn’t. That’s not the point.’

‘
I’ll arrange first-class seats. You can stretch out and sleep
all the way over. You might even get to do some sightseeing. It
won’t be that bad.’

She shook her head, unimpressed. ‘I’m not going. Why don’t you
just get her dumped on a plane at that end and we’ll meet her over
here. That would make more sense and it would be
cheaper.’

Henry fell silent. ‘You’ve got a point, I suppose,’ he said
eventually. ‘We can’t make you go.’

‘
But I want to go.’

‘
What?’

‘
I really, really want to go and bring her back and charge
Gilbert with another murder. . . part of me, a big part of me wants
to do that. But I’m just exhausted. I’m probably on the edge of a
nervous breakdown too and I don’t want to have it three thousand
miles from home.’

‘
Tell you what,’ Henry began persuasively, ‘you go, bring her
back, then leave her with me. Then take a few weeks’ leave from
Friday. Go away - out of the country for a while. Crash out in
Spain or the Bahamas.’

‘
But you’re short-staffed. Other people are on
leave.’

‘
We’ll manage. Just do this last thing for me. I know you’re
completely shell-shocked and I know you’ll be even more knackered
with two long flights under your belt in quick succession, but do
it and then take as much time off as you need. I’ll square it with
FB. I would really appreciate it.’

‘
Shit! You could talk the knickers off a nun. I’ll do
it.’

‘
Brilliant! Now all I have to do is convince FB to send you. As
you said, it won’t be cheap.’

‘
You mean this conversation could have been for nothing? You
don’t even know if he’ll pay for me to go?’

‘
Well, I certainly don’t have the authority to spend probably
well over five grand in air fares, do I?’

‘
Henry, you are a real bastard.’ She punched him on the arm.
Hard.

He came off the M6 at junction 29, and cut across south of
Preston to Police Headquarters at Hutton.

He did not notice the grey Jaguar which shot past him,
motoring south, driven by Maurice Stanway who was carefully
rehearsing the words he would be saying to his clients down at
Risley Remand Centre, near Warrington. He knew Charlie Gilbert
would not be a happy man.

‘
That is one hell of a lot of money.’ FB read the figures again
and again and did some calculations in his brain, subtracting the
amount from some budget or other. ‘Anything cheaper?’

‘
Yeah.’ Henry’s lips were pursed like a cat’s bottom, his
annoyance beginning to show with FB’s penny-pinching ways. ‘There’s
no doubt a three-hundred-quid return on a charter flight, cramped
up like a sardine, no legroom, no space to sleep, shit food,
swollen ankles.’

‘
And there’s something wrong with that?’

‘
With respect, sir - yes, there is. This is, after all, a
business trip, not a holiday flight.’

‘
But the price! We could buy another helicopter for
this.’

Henry shook his head impatiently. ‘It’s either that - Business
Class - or she won’t go. Will you, Danny?’ He turned unexpectedly
to her, bringing her into the conversation.

Up to that point Danny had simply been a spectator. She was
thrown for a few seconds. ‘No,’ she said finally.

FB glowered at her. Then
his
lips pursed into the shape of a cat’s arse. He
knew he was being railroaded. With dignity, he conceded defeat.
‘What must be, must be,’ he shrugged.

‘
If nothing else she deserves a bit of pampering after what
she’s been through,’ Henry said patronisingly, wishing his words
unspoken when he saw Danny’s angry face.

‘
When can we get her on a flight?’ FB asked, a note of
resignation in his voice.

Henry consulted his notes, taken during a conversation with a
travel agent with whom the Force often dealt. ‘There’s one tonight,
arriving four a.m. our time, eleven p.m. theirs.’

Danny quickly worked that one out. ‘I don’t fancy that,’ she
said disgustedly. ‘That means leaving here at eight tonight. No,
thanks. I want a decent night’s sleep before I go.’

‘
Shit,’ Henry said under his breath. ‘That starts cutting
things a bit fine then. There is an eight a.m. flight tomorrow,
landing in Miami at 4 p.m. our time, eleven a.m. their time. That
means you’d have to pick the girl up and do a quick turn around,
catch a six p.m. flight back from Miami, which would land back in
Manchester at seven a.m. our time on Thursday morning.’

‘
Jesus,’ Danny said. She closed her eyes and sighed. Sixteen
hours, two eight-hour flights almost back to back. Not recommended
for anyone in any condition. However, Henry’s promises about the
days following made her decision. ‘I’ll do it. Just make sure that
when I land back in Manchester on Thursday morning, you are waiting
for me, probably with a hearse, because I’ll be all but
dead.’

They both looked at FB whose face wore the mask of pain of a
man who was having to fork out money from his own wallet. ‘Okay,
get it booked.’

Henry reached for the phone.

‘
Oi! What do you think you’re doing?’

‘
I was going to use your tele-’

FB was shaking his head. He jerked his thumb towards the door.
‘Find another.’

Out in the corridor Danny remarked, ‘You don’t let FB walk all
over you, do you? He usually flattens people.’

‘
He’s done that in the past, but since he pulled a particularly
dirty trick on me a while ago, which nearly got me shot to pieces,
I don’t take any shit from him, ACC or not. And that’s not meant to
sound like bragging. He owes me a lot ... now, where can I find a
phone? I know, let’s go out to the Divers’ hut. We can get a brew
there as well.’

‘
The Divers’ hut?’

‘
Yeah. I used to be a police diver donkey’s years ago. Did a
couple of years on the branch when it was a part-time thing;
there’s people on it I know well.’

Ten minutes later Henry had booked Danny on the flight to
Miami and, over a cup of tea, was showing her the intricacies of
some diving equipment, boring her to death in the
process.

‘
I’m sorry to say bail was refused.’ Stanway’s voice was
weak.

‘
On what grounds?’

‘
Likely to abscond, interfere with witnesses, but the Judge
said the case must be reviewed on Thursday and every week
thereafter if necessary.’

‘
What exactly does that mean, Maurice?’

‘
It means, Charles, that if the police have found no further
evidence against you, you will be released, probably with bail
conditions.’

‘
I sense a “but” at the end of that sentence.’

‘
I think they will have evidence, but not concerning Claire
Lilton. It’ll be evidence about the body of the girl they found in
Darwen. I did some checking on the way down, via the mobile in the
car, with a friend I have in the CPS. They’re sending an officer to
the United States to bring a vital witness back who will give
evidence against you.’