Tennison (36 page)

Kath returned to Bradfield’s office a few minutes later and told him that Stonex was really pissed off with O’Duncie and the first thing he said was, ‘I don’t like being made to look like a clown, Terry.’

‘Well, let’s just hope he persuades O’Duncie to play ball. Otherwise we may still have unsolved murders on our hands.’

‘That was a stroke, sir, holding back about the girl being fifteen and Julie Ann’s fingerprints in the bedroom.’

‘I’ve never met her parents and haven’t a clue how old she is, but then neither’s Stonex. As for Julie Ann’s prints, well hopefully they might be there, but it wouldn’t prove he killed her,’ he said casually.

Kath knew he didn’t always play by the rules, but she’d never realized how canny he was and he’d certainly put the wind up Cato Stonex.

‘Do you think O’Duncie will confess now?’ she asked.

‘I fancy him more for killing Eddie Phillips, but to be frank there are some things that don’t add up with him and Julie Ann. If he killed her in that shithole squat for the money then it would more likely have been just after she ran off from her dad’s, but why bring her body all the way over to our patch? Why not dump or bury her somewhere out of town on the A40 or shove her in the canal like Eddie?’ He checked his watch again and stood up stretching and began pacing the room.

‘You want a cup of coffee?’ Kath asked, not wanting to question his valid points.

‘No thanks.’ He lit a cigarette and continued pacing up and down.

It was another ten minutes before two PCs escorted the handcuffed O’Duncie and Cato Stonex to Bradfield’s office. As they entered Stonex gave a discreet nod to Bradfield to indicate that his client was going to talk. The bruising from the broken nose had spread around O’Duncie’s eyes and he had fresh pieces of cotton wool plugged up each nostril. He was very subdued and sat next to Stonex opposite Bradfield and WPC Morgan.

Stonex handed over a short statement signed by O’Duncie in which he retracted all the allegations he had made against DS Gibbs and Bradfield, confessing they were a malicious attempt to get out of trouble. Bradfield asked Kath to take it through to WPC Tennison to give to A10 when they turned up to interview her. He waited for her to return before commencing the interview. He didn’t actually have to do so, but he liked watching the flash lawyer sweating and his client unable to keep his head up and look at him.

‘You are now aware of the serious charges against you, and we know you were intimate with Julie Ann Collins, so I suggest—’

Before he could finish O’Duncie leaned forwards. ‘She came to my place all on edge and looking a mess. She needed a place to doss down and told me her father had beaten the shit out of her with a golf club. I admit I’d slept with her a few times, but she was always up for it and there was nothing illegal, but this time she slept in one of the bedrooms downstairs.’

‘How long was she at the squat on this occasion?’ Bradfield asked.

‘Four, five days, maybe a week tops. She just lay around all day smoking dope. I asked her if she was OK and she said she was in pain and being sick. I thought it was just her kidneys actin’ up from the beating her dad give her. She became really strung out and started pestering me for heroin, so I gave her some for nothing an’ then she wanted more. I said she’d have to pay and she said she wanted to, and she was all kind of crazy sayin’ she’d been raped and was scared to say who it was as she reckoned he’d kill her. I wanted her to get out, but then she said she’d got a lot of cash. I swear before God I didn’t believe her, but then she got all serious and showed me a big wedge of money saying we could do some dealing together as she knew junkies at the Hackney drug centre where she was on a rehab programme.’

‘Was it the Homerton Hospital where your sister works?’ Bradfield asked and he nodded.

‘I said I needed to see a main dealer for supplies first and I was short on cash. She gave me one and a half thousand quid upfront to buy some good gear, and we’d agreed to cut the heroin down with powdered milk and then I would pay back what I owed her from the proft.’

‘Wait, wait a minute, Terry. You expect me to believe she just handed over the cash? What, you think we are fucking dumb? No way would she trust you with that amount of money.’

‘She did, listen to me, she knew the dealer so she was happy about it all. He’d been screwing her an’ she said if I tried to fuck her over she’d get him to sort me out.’

‘I need the name and address of your supplier.’

‘Shit, man, I can’t do that – it’ll be like puttin’ my head on the chopping block. I swear on my life I was gonna talk to Dwayne Clark to make the deal with a bloke in Manchester, but when I went round to his place he wasn’t there and his missus said he was in Coventry.’

‘You are walking right into it, sunshine. You said you were not at the squat when Julie Ann was murdered – that was a lie, you killed her and kept all the money, right, RIGHT?’

O’Duncie was sweating and twisting his body in his chair.

‘No, honest, it’s like I just told you. Dwayne wasn’t at his place so I just went back to the squat with the cash, but she wasn’t there and when I asked where she was one of the kids said she’d gone to Hackney for a few days. Then I heard she’d been murdered and I was scared to admit she had been dossing down at the squat because you’d think I killed her.’

Bradfield tapped the table with a pencil.

‘So let me get this straight: you admit Julie Ann was living at the squat, and she gave you a large sum of cash to buy a job lot of heroin, is that right?’

‘Yeah, that’s right.’

‘Why Manchester for the drug deal? I mean that’s a good distance. Surely you know dealers closer to London?’ Bradfield said, strongly suspecting Joshua Richards, aka Big Daddy, was the dealer.

‘Listen, I’m telling you the fuckin’ truth. Besides, heroin’s much cheaper outside of London and we was asking for a big load of it.’

‘I see . . . Why didn’t Julie Ann go with you to see Dwayne?’

‘Because she felt sick, throwing up all the time.’

‘Did she tell you where she’d got the money from?’

‘No and I didn’t ask. Obviously I thought it was nicked, which I now know it was cos Mr Stonex told me it was her dad’s.’

‘You’ve got a fucking answer for everything, Terry.’

‘It’s the truth, man.’

Bradfield started jotting down some figures from the notes Jane had given him about the recovered money.

‘We know she stole just under £2,000 from her dad, you had £1,380 that matched the serial numbers, so IF she gave you one and a half grand what you do with the other £120?’

O’Duncie looked anxiously at his solicitor who said nothing.

‘I don’t do maths,’ he said nervously.

‘Oh right, unless it involves heroin, that is?’

‘I don’t do hard stuff either – check my body, there’s no needle marks. I just told you I never got to do the deal, that’s why I still got the cash.’

Everyone was shocked when Cato Stonex suddenly banged his pen down on the table in anger.

‘Enough, Terry, you’re digging a big hole and guaranteeing yourself a long prison sentence, so I suggest you stop messing about and tell DCI Bradfield the truth.’

‘OK, OK . . . like I said I never done the deal cos Dwayne was already in fuckin’ Coventry and I couldn’t get hold of him. I lied to Julie Ann and told her I’d given the money to Dwayne who had to go out of town to get the gear and we’d have to wait until he got back.’

‘So she was still at the squat waiting for the drugs?’

‘Yeah, but I give her some Quaaludes and she said she was gonna go and shack up with Eddie over at Hackney and arrange some deals with the clinic junkies. She said she’d be back and threatened me again if I tried to stitch her up.’

By now he was sweating so much his face was dripping and he kept on wiping himself with the sleeve of his shirt.

‘She only gave me £1,500 then left. I swear before God she left, man, and that was the last time I saw her. I never killed her, she left the squat a day or so before she was found dead. I can prove where I was: me and my girl went to the Chelsea Hotel, I even checked in under my real name.’

‘The underage girl you were with when we arrested you?’

‘Yes, but she told me she was eighteen . . . we spent some of the money Julie Ann had given me on a few nights there, expensive meals, champagne, and bought a load of clothes and shoes in Carnaby Street. We were in the hotel room when it was on the news that she was dead, man. I got scared shitless so I just lied cos I honestly dunno what happened to her.’

Bradfield felt like it was two steps forward and a big hole-in-one going back.

O’Duncie’s alibi had a ring of truth about it and could easily be checked out with the hotel and young girl. Feeling depressed Bradfield pulled out the photograph of Eddie Phillips from the envelope and pushed it towards O’Duncie.

‘So what happened with you and Eddie?’

The room was stinking from the sweating O’Duncie as he looked at the photograph. He yet again glanced helplessly to his solicitor.

‘Just answer the question, Terry,’ Stonex said.

‘He’d been at the squat a few times with Julie Ann. They were on the same drug-rehab programme where my sister worked. After Julie Ann died he turned up saying he was scared because you lot wanted him to give the name of the dealer they used.’

‘The dealer is the man known as Big Daddy? The man you planned to score off using Julie Ann’s money?’

O’Duncie reacted, and slowly nodded his head.

‘Yeah, all right, yeah, but I never met him, I swear on my life I dunno him and last I heard he got nicked in Manchester. I know he’s a fuckin’ nightmare if you cross him and Julie Ann was terrified of him. I only done business through his sidekick Dwayne, an’ he can get crazy, kicking your head in.’

There was a pause as O’Duncie swallowed and coughed before he continued.

‘Anyway, Eddie was fucked up when he come round to the squat, he was stinking of puke and crying. He said because Julie Ann had been murdered, he was being hounded by you lot, but he swore he’d never mentioned me.’

‘Did he say anything about Julie Ann being pregnant?’

‘Yes, but I knew it wasn’t mine as I never shag junkies without protection because of hepatitis, and it couldn’t be Eddie’s as he was a right little nerd. I didn’t know she was pregnant till Eddie said so, and Christ only knows whose it was as she was a right slag.’

‘Do you know if Big Daddy raped her?’

‘Not for certain, but it wouldn’t surprise me, having heard what he’s like.’

‘And how did Eddie end up in the canal, Terry?’

By now O’Duncie’s shirt was soaking wet with sweat, which ran in streams down the sides of his cheeks.

‘Look, I admit he was a pest, but he’d done me a favour by not telling you lot she used to stay at my crash pad. He wanted to hang out away from the heat, so I said he could stay for a few days. Someone in the house gave him a pair of my old trousers and a shirt and he left. If they give him any gear it wasn’t from me cos he had no cash.’

Bradfield sighed and drew back the photograph of Eddie and stacked it on top of Julie Ann’s.

‘We will check out your alibi. You will now be charged with drugs offences and be held in custody to appear at the Magistrates’ Court where we will ask for you to be remanded in custody. Kath, go get someone to help you take him down to the charge room with Mr Stonex, but open the fucking windows in here first.’

A few minutes later Kath returned with a uniform PC to assist her with O’Duncie. As they left the room Cato Stonex remained behind and said he wanted to have a quick word with DCI Bradfield.

‘You pulled a fast one and lied about speaking with the allegedly underage girl and her parents.’

Bradfield shook his head. ‘You’re long enough in the tooth to know how the game’s played, Cato; besides you were only worried you’d fucked up by interviewing a juvenile alone.’

‘We’re not so different: all said and done we both have a job to do.’

‘Maybe.’ Bradfield paused. ‘Where the hell did you get a name like yours from anyway?’

‘It’s a Saxon surname, Bradfield, and whether or not I like my Christian name is none of your bloody business.’

‘Right Cato, mate-o, it’s not my business but I don’t take bent money from drug dealers for payment.’

‘For what it’s worth I don’t think he killed Julie Ann and nor did Dwayne Clark.’

‘What! You met up with Dwayne?’

‘He called me. He has a cast-iron alibi. He was in Coventry to meet up with Joshua Richards, but as you know he got arrested. I’ve told Dwayne he’s making a bigger hole for himself by hiding and advised him to come in voluntarily to be interviewed.’

‘What about Eddie Phillips? Did O’Duncie or Dwayne kill him?’

‘I don’t know and that’s not my problem to solve, but no doubt we will meet again soon,’ Stonex said and left.

An angry Bradfield went to the incident room to speak with Jane about her interview with A10. She told him that once they saw the retraction statement by O’Duncie they only asked her a few questions and she confirmed his and DS Gibbs’s version of events. They informed her that no further action would be taken and DS Gibbs would be returned to duty immediately. Bradfield said nothing, he didn’t even smile, but returned stony-faced to his office slamming the door shut behind him, too preoccupied with the case to react to the good news.

It went from bad to worse later that afternoon as the knowledge that O’Duncie’s alibi had been verified quickly spread round the incident room. The Chelsea Hotel manager confirmed that O’Duncie and his girlfriend, who they discovered was seventeen, had been staying there. The initial excitement over O’Duncie’s arrest palled: their killer was still out there.

Bradfield ordered another search of the squat in Ashburn House on the Pembridge Estate by DCs Ashton and Edwards. He wanted to know if there was anyone else now staying there who had known Julie Ann, or had fresh information about her or Eddie Phillips. It was late afternoon when Bradfield and DS Lawrence, who were going over the forensics in Bradfield’s office, were interrupted by a knock at the door and DCs Ashton and Edwards walked in.