Roxanne, p.26
Roxanne, page 26
Freeman said, ‘Fewer drugs? Because she’s been kept on them, to stabilise the mood-swings, they said.’
‘It is early days. I would need to speak with you again before making significant changes – you as the named family member. But yes, one thought is to taper off drug doses and begin a new kind of talking therapy. To let her face the pain, but slowly, in a structured and gradual way.’
Something surprising happened. The policewoman’s expression remained alert and intelligent but there was a momentary softening around the eyes. She looked away and down, into her shoulder bag, took out her mobile, though the doctor had heard nothing, and read a text message. Still not looking up, Cara Freeman said, ‘Apologies. Work,’ and then she fussed around in the bag for a few more seconds.
Displacement, thought Yelena Kaminski – maybe you too could benefit from some meaningful talk.
On the way to the lounge, Freeman said, ‘Turning this place into a beacon sounds expensive. Are the fees going up?’
Yelena said, ‘Not my department. Maybe, eventually? May I ask you something about that?’
‘Yes.’ The visitor had regained her composure entirely.
‘You didn’t know Isabel for very long. But you pay these fees. It is a lot of money every month. Tell me to mind my own business, of course.’
Freeman said, ‘I don’t pay the fees. It comes through my account but it’s my mother’s money.’
‘I see.’
Obviously she didn’t, couldn’t, and Freeman continued, ‘The first place was NHS. It was all right but all right wasn’t good enough. I talked to my mother and she said, find somewhere better. She has paid the fees for nearly two years.’
Yelena said carefully, ‘Under the circumstances, that is remarkably generous. I mean, what you told me about your father…’
‘She’s a remarkable woman.’
Matter of fact, as if she’d just pointed out that the walls here have been recently repainted. And she walks briskly, someone who accelerates towards trouble and danger. Yelena said, ‘Perhaps one day she will come? I’d like to meet her.’
‘I doubt it. She’s never met Isabel.’
‘Oh… But maybe, if things change? If they improve?’
‘She has early stage dementia now, so it isn’t very likely. Here we are, then. I can see Isabel hasn’t changed her favourite seat.’
Yelena had to take another look, sideways. Some people are stronger than others but everyone can break in the end. Detective Chief Inspector sounds like an important job, a tough job. That’s where you go to hide, isn’t it?
Freeman said, ‘So you’re going to come in and see how she is with me?’
‘If you don’t mind, just for a few minutes. That would be useful.’
The young woman in the window seat was taller than her visitor, but not by much. Someone had put her into a summer dress, a blue and white floral print, for the occasion and her hair had been nicely brushed. She was brunette, but the April sunshine brought out natural highlights of coppery red. She wore no makeup but in any company she was a beautiful girl.
Freeman said, ‘I think she always recognises me but she doesn’t always acknowledge I’m there. Sometimes she doesn’t say anything, and we just sit. It can be rather one-sided. Just so you know…’
The doctor shrugged as if that was normal around here and opened the door. Two other residents sat in front of a wide-screen television, watching a programme about how to renovate a French chateau and run a weddings business – they seemed engrossed in it and didn’t look around when the door opened. Cara Freeman led the way across the lounge to the semi-circle of chairs that faced out of the bay window and said, ‘Hi, Isabel.’
After a few moments, the gazing ended and she turned her head to say, ‘Hello.’
Freeman said, ‘I’ve brought someone with me today.’
The head turned again, acknowledged Yelena graciously and said, ‘You haven’t brought her very far. She works here.’
Yelena made no attempt to suppress a smile as Freeman said, ‘Yes, you’ve met Doctor Kaminski before but I only met her today for the first time. May we join you?’
Isabel said, ‘It would be strange if you didn’t after driving all that way.’
Freeman’s look to Yelena said plainly enough, the best she’s been in months, but it was Isabel who spoke again. She said, ‘This is my sister.’
Yelena said, ‘Yes. We thought we’d visit you together for a change.’
Then, with an odd intensity that might have been genuine, it was impossible to be sure, Isabel said to them both, ‘Like brothers in blood…’
The doctor looked to Freeman, who said, ‘Like sisters who ride…’
Isabel followed with, ‘And we swore on that night…’
‘We’d be friends ’til we die.’
The smile was delicate and as fragile as the memories reflected in it, and then the gaze went back to and beyond the window. Freeman looked at Yelena and said, ‘One of Isabel’s favourite bands. We used to sing that song in Camden. It was called…’
She couldn’t remember. It was about loss, about being unable to let someone go. Isabel had left the building but from wherever she was now they heard her voice say faintly, ‘Everglow.’
Chapter Twenty-six
Denise Sterling said, ‘Trudi, we’ll take a short break. Can someone get you a drink? We can do tea or coffee.’
A shake of the head that set loose a tear – Trudi Mercer wiped it away with the back of her hand. Sterling smiled sympathetically and said, ‘Don’t get upset. We’re not trying to frighten you, honestly Trudi.’
In the recording suite, Freeman said to the screen in front of her, ‘Well, we are a bit.’ Then she looked at Waters and said, ‘Denise knows what she’s doing. The last thing we need is several minutes of weeping. Wastes time. More to the point, makes us look bad to a jury. The defence says, surely in this case the police should have advised the interviewee to seek professional support and guidance? With such a vulnerable individual? Then they play the childhood-in-care card. As it goes on, you can see any potential sentence shrinking in front of your eyes.’
Clive Betts had found social services records for Trudi Mercer. She had gone into the care system at the age of eleven after a traumatic family breakdown, and she hadn’t come out of it until she was seventeen, a year after she could legally have done so. She had been fostered once at the age of thirteen but that had ended when she became “too dependent” on the husband of the couple who had taken her in – the records didn’t go into detail. Trudi was described as vulnerable, lacking in self-confidence and easily led; around the table at this morning’s briefing there were nods because that made a lot of sense now.
Freeman clicked the switch on the mike in front of her and said, ‘Just five minutes, Denise. Then go back in with what we discussed – start talking conspiracy. She won’t have a clue what it means, so you’ll need to explain.’
There was a single nod from Sterling, but no look up at the camera. Her work was impressive – Waters was reminded of Maggie Henderson before she became Maggie Murray. He said to Freeman, ‘Even Serena’s managing to look maternal,’ and Freeman said, ‘I’m telling her you said that. Anything else from John?’
Waters checked his phone but there were no more messages since the one confirming Murray was in his car, watching the house in South Wood. That was an hour and half ago. He said, ‘No, ma’am. Perhaps her nerve will hold out.’
Freeman said, ‘Maybe it will. But Melanie Haines will be going through the wringer wondering what this one is saying. We’ll make this last all day if necessary.’
She turned to Priti behind her – ‘Could you fetch us a coffee? Machine-made will do. DS Waters? My treat?’
He declined this generous offer and watched the senior investigating officer’s scribe leave the recording suite, guessing Freeman had something else to say to him. She did.
‘So, I’ve put DI Greene in the picture on this already. I came under some pressure last night from the detective chief super. He said that in future he wants to be consulted, just as a matter of courtesy, before we interview people. I said, what all people? Everyone? Because that’s a lot of consulting, sir. He said, well, no, not every single one, just those we view as significant. So then I said, well, we don’t always know which ones are significant before the interview, do we, and he said, of course not, but we do know when we’re interviewing someone of… And then he did the pause while he finds the perfect word that won’t make him sound like a… Anyway, I said did he mean just lords of the realm and members of the West Heath Golf Club? After that, things went downhill for a bit.’
Waters smiled but he was thinking, not every DCI would share this with a detective sergeant; was she in some way naïve, too honest and open for her own good? Or was she smart in ways he didn’t yet understand? He reminded himself how quickly she must have risen through the ranks because Freeman wasn’t so many years older than him.
She said, with a straight face, ‘He said some hurtful things. He asked me if I was a Marxist.’
Waters said, ‘Grounds for a tribunal, ma’am. Ideological harassment.’
‘And, entirely unrelated obviously, he wants me to bring John Wilson into the squad to replace the one who shall remain forever nameless.’
Ah. This was what she wanted from him – a reaction to that idea. Waters didn’t conceal his surprise. Freeman continued, ‘He says this will strengthen the squad and build bridges with the rest of the investigation teams, Wilson being so respected. This might rub off on the rest of us and then we’d be respected too.’
He tried to picture it, tried to imagine a typical morning briefing with Wilson in the room, and then she said, ‘You can speak freely, Chris.’
He said, ‘Serena doesn’t get on with him, full stop. He didn’t impress Denise much when we were working on Eden Street – I don’t know how she feels about him now. The same for Clive. Murray can work with anyone, and he’s known Wilson for a long time.’
‘What about you?’
Priti returned with a single plastic cup on a plastic tray. Freeman accepted it, thanked her, took a sip and pulled the usual face. Waters said, ‘As you know, DC and Wilson had a long and complicated history. Because I was partnered with DC, I got involved at times. But I don’t have any personal problems working with him.’
Freeman said, ‘So you think I should consider it?’
She would push you into uncomfortable places, sometimes. Aware of Priti Hussain now, Waters said, ‘There might be a question about wider allegiances, ma’am,’ and he saw the instant of recognition light up her plain but oddly interesting features.
She said, ‘Exactly. Not in a million years. The last thing I need for my birthday is a Trojan horse.’
He caught the look from Priti that said, is it her birthday, did we get a card? Then there was a bleeping sound. Freeman pressed the iWatch on her left wrist, put a finger on the microphone and said, ‘That’s five minutes, Denise. Push on.’
Sterling said, ‘Conspiracy is always a serious charge, Trudi. It means that two or more people have got together and planned to do something bad, something against the law. We in the police know that most things we have to deal with aren’t planned. Something happens and people make the wrong choice, they give in to temptation – like they see the keys in a car and they nick it there and then, just because they could. That’s not conspiracy, that’s just stupidity. But if two people planned to steal that car, like the day before they said this is how we’re going to do it, and if we can prove they did, they’re in trouble. They’re going to get a much longer sentence.’
Trudi Mercer had big, brown eyes. They were wide apart – her most appealing feature, giving her an air of youthful innocence – and she was wide-eyed as she listened to the detective sergeant who was talking to her about conspiracies, charges and sentences. Both of the women officers seemed nice, much nicer than the men who had interviewed her the last time.
The older one continued, ‘So, Trudi, you need to remember what I’ve just explained to you, because we’ve spoken to a lot of new people since you were last here, and there have been some developments. Also, we’ve got new evidence from people’s mobiles and from Roxy’s car. That’s why we’re talking to you again.’
The girl was blinking but she was taking some of this in, and Waters thought, a pity we can’t zoom in with this camera. And if I was in the room, I’d be able to sense whether her breathing was changing, whether she was swallowing with any difficulty.
Trudi said, ‘Are you talking to Mel again?’
‘Not yet. But we will be soon. We wanted to talk to you first, Trudi.’
Lacking in self-confidence, easily led… There was surprise on the girl’s face at the thought someone wanted to talk to her first, as well as fear. She said, ‘Why me first?’
Denise looked at Serena, who said, ‘Because, Trudi, we haven’t found out anything that makes us think you’d plan to do anything bad to another person. You’ve never been in trouble with the law, have you?’
A shake of the head.
‘And you’ve never done what Denise was talking about? You haven’t planned to hurt anyone?’
This time just a motionless silence. Waters saw Freeman’s hand edge towards the microphone, but she stopped herself, saw him watching and said, ‘She’s almost there…’
Serena said, ‘We knew you wouldn’t do that, Trudi. So if someone did get hurt, it wasn’t planned. It was an accident, wasn’t it?’
‘Don’t know what you’re on about.’
You can spot the coached responses – that one didn’t fit with those Trudi had given moments before. Serena shook her head as if she was sad and disappointed, and handed it back to Denise. The two of them made a very good double act despite the occasional clash of their personalities.
Denise said, ‘We think you do know what we’re on about, Trudi, and we’re giving you an opportunity here. The person who tells the truth first gets a lot of credit later on. You know what I’m talking about – when the judge is handing out the sentences.’
Like Freeman, Sterling had sensed they were close to a breakthrough, but sympathy alone wouldn’t be enough. The mention of judges and sentences was intentional. The detective sergeant continued, ‘We told you we’ve spoken to a lot of people now. One of them is Eileen Montgomery.’
Trudi shifted in her seat as if it was growing more uncomfortable by the minute.
Sterling said, ‘She’s handed over all the files from the agency. We can see who has been seeing who and we can go back years if we need to. We can see why there was bad feeling among some of the girls. Why someone who did what Roxy did would become unpopular.’
She leaned in a little. ‘We know Roxy didn’t take any of your regular clients, Trudi, but she took someone else’s, didn’t she?’
More shakily now, ‘Don’t know what-’
‘I’m on about? I’ll keep trying, then. I’m on about the fact that we know Roxy’s car didn’t leave your house at seven that Saturday night. Its satnav tells us that. We know that someone drove it to Marborough a couple of hours later. We know that only two people had access to the keys, other than Roxy herself. You and Melanie. We’re pretty certain now that it was you who drove the Mini to Marborough.’
This took everyone by surprise. Freeman looked at Waters and said, ‘Are we?’
He said, ‘Not an idea I recall discussing at length, ma’am.’
They both looked back at the monitor to see where Denise was heading now.
Sterling said, ‘And I’m on about the fact that when we arrest you and seize your phone, Trudi, it’s going to show that you drove to Brian Riley’s house in Marborough. It’s going to show that you haven’t been telling us the truth, and-’
‘Arrest me? I never been to Brian Riley’s house!’
‘It was either you or Melanie who drove the Mini that night, Trudi. And Mel had been there before, hadn’t she?’
For the first time, Trudi Mercer tried to pick her words with care, tried to construct an answer that fitted the evidence she thought had been disclosed to her, and Waters knew at that moment she was doomed.
Trudi said, ‘Brian Riley was one of Roxy’s. Mel used to see him but she hadn’t in a long time. Roxy was going to see him that night. That’s where she went.’
Sterling was onto it immediately. ‘When you were first interviewed, the two of you said you never talked about clients at home. You told us you didn’t know who she was seeing that night. So that was a lie, wasn’t it?’
Even a simple soul like Trudi knows that if you admit to one lie, you have opened the box that can never be closed again. But there was no way back for her now.
‘Yes.’
‘You both knew she planned to see Brian Riley that night?’
‘Yes.’
And that made Brian Riley seem almost honest. If he had told the truth about that, why would he lie about who came to see him instead? Freeman looked at Priti and said, ‘Can you make a note? I want DNA from Riley’s home and Melanie Haines’ room,’ and then to Waters, ‘I know there’ll be historic stuff between them but let’s cover all the bases.’
Things had gone quiet in the interview room, with both detectives allowing Trudi Mercer to grasp what had just taken place – she had admitted lying to the police in an earlier interview. Telling the truth brings an odd sort of relief, especially to someone unaccustomed to lying, and they hoped she was experiencing that now. Then Serena said, ‘Trudi? Is your phone in your handbag?’
The bag was on her lap and every detective watching saw the fingers tighten onto it involuntarily. Serena said, ‘Take it out, Trudi. Put your mobile on the desk.’
The fear was coming to the surface now, draining the colour from the girl’s face. She said, ‘You’re going to arrest me. I know you are.’
Serena said, ‘Trudi, you’re not under arrest now. I’m still giving you the chance to help us out, and to put your side of the story first. Remember that. It’s important, and you can’t go back later and do things differently, however much you wish you could. Put your phone on the desk. I won’t touch it.’
