Delayed & Denied (8 page)

‘Not at the time, no. But later, maybe a week before she died, she told me that she had spoken to him. That’s why I always assumed he’d done it, I suppose.’

‘Why? Because he was angry? Violent, maybe?’

‘No, not that. She said that he’d been OK about it. And I got the impression that she was feeling really guilty about the whole thing.’

‘That’s understandable, surely.’

‘Yes, of course, but I just had a sense that it wasn’t just me she was feeling guilty about. I thought that there was something else.’

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know. It was just a feeling, and it was all so long ago. Look, Mr…..’

‘Dixon. Do you think that she might have been involved with someone else as well as you? Is that what you’re saying?’

‘No, not that. Well, maybe. It’s possible, I suppose. Sharon was just one of those people who was always hoping for something better to come along. You know what I mean?’

‘I do, doctor, I really do. But then sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel really is just an oncoming train, isn’t it?’

Andy Hall was driving when Dixon called to update him, and he had to turn off the Kathleen Edwards CD he’d been playing to try to get Grace back to sleep.

‘He shoots, he scores’ said Dixon.

‘You know I’m not great with sporting metaphors, Ray. But am I to assume that your trip was productive?’

‘It was, aye. First, one of the nurses confirmed that it was possible to get hold of drugs, back in the day. Unused doses given to patients who nodded off, or died or whatever. Easy to pocket, apparently. And I found your Dr. Fleming too. What Burke told us about him was true too, he admitted it. He says that he broke it off with Sharon, and that she told Adam, just like he said. But Foster also said that he thinks she might have had a first reserve.’

‘Speak English, Ray. She was seeing another man as well as him, is that it?’

‘He seems to think it was a possibility, aye.’

‘Any chance that Fleming is our man, then? Maybe he’s inventing this third man, just to distract us.’

‘No, sorry, Andy, but I just don’t see it. He wasn’t bothered about me asking questions, not really, like. What he was shitting himself about was that he’d been playing away, and it might all come out now, because he’d only been married for a few years when he was shagging Sharon Burke. He didn’t seem remotely concerned that he might be a suspect.’

‘All right. But did you ask him what he was doing on the day that Sharon vanished?’

‘I did, aye.’

‘And what did he say?’

‘He looked it up on the computer. Believe it or not they archive all of the doctor’s diaries, and he was on duty that Friday afternoon. He clocked on just before 2pm, and finished at midnight.’

‘And you asked him what else he could remember about that day?’

‘Aye, of course. He just looked at me like I was mad, and he made sod all attempt to make anything up. Like I said, Andy, the bloke’s no killer. Not sure I could say the same about his wife, based on how scared of her he looked.’

‘You’re not serious, are you? Do you think she could be a suspect?’

‘I was joking, mate, but I suppose we can’t rule anything out completely at this stage. But where are you at, anyway?’

‘On my way to Ainstable.’

‘You seeing Billy Wilson?’

‘Detective Chief Inspector William Wilson retired, if you don’t mind.’

‘Like that, is it?’

‘It is. But listen. You said that the records of staff are computerised, and they go all the way back to ’95?’

‘Aye, that’s right.’

‘Good. Do me a favour and check something out for me, would you, Ray?’

Grace started crying as Hall was asking his question, and Dixon laughed.

‘And they say that policemen are getting younger, don’t they?’

‘I think that’s just supposed to be a relative thing, Ray, not an absolute. And I’m planning to feed and change Grace before I go in to see Billy, so with a bit of luck she’ll sleep through the whole thing.’

‘Very much did as Billy did through most of his career.’

‘You knew him, then?’

‘Only slightly. A right lazy bastard, I thought. I took over a case from him once, and it took me about two shifts to get the bloke who’d done it nicked. I got the impression that Billy’s DS wasn’t much better than him, neither. Billy led his team by example, if you see what I mean.’

‘I do. Well he doesn’t do email, so I spoke to him on the phone about all this, and let’s say he wasn’t exactly forthcoming. He told me that he’d rather have his piles removed with pliers, but since he reckoned that I’d only bad-mouth him to all and sundry if he didn’t agree to meet me he said he’d give me half an hour. Just to get rid of a bloody toffee-nosed know-it-all like me, he said.’

‘Charming. And he told you exactly how guilty Adam Burke was too, I expect?’

‘He said it stood to reason, and that I should get a proper hobby now that I’ve retired, to keep my mind active. He recommended bowls.’

Dixon laughed. ‘Did he now? I can just see you, Andy, with Grace in one of those back-pack things, bowling down at Abbot Hall of an evening. Get yourself a flat cap to go with it, and then you’d be well away, like.’

It was a long time since Andy Hall had met an ex-copper like Billy Wilson. As far as he could recall they’d started to be phased out at about the same time as manual typewriters. But then Billy had been retired for well over a decade already, and he’d done over thirty in the job before that. So bobbies probably still had whistles when he’d first started, and they were, no doubt, still dab hands at giving cheeky young scamps a clip round the ear.

Wilson didn’t comment when Hall picked up the baby seat from the doorstep, after they’d shaken hands. The house was old red sandstone, the views were terrific, and Hall reflected briefly on the fact that a DCI couldn’t even dream of buying a place like this any more. Wilson led them through the double doors in the living room and out into the garden, and they sat at a large wooden table, beneath a generous sunshade. Hall just caught a glimpse of Mrs. Wilson, as she returned to the house through the back door. She’d left a big jug of squash for them, and two glasses.

Hall complimented Wilson on his house, his garden, and on anything else he could think of. Wilson didn’t look impressed by any of it. But at least Grace was fast asleep.

‘I’ve done some asking around about you, Andy.’

‘Oh, yes?’ Hall was mildly surprised, although as ever he didn’t sound or look it. But it did seem odd that a retired officer who’d been out of the job for as long as Wilson had would still have any meaningful contacts in the constabulary.

‘They say you’re probably the brightest bloke that the force has ever had. Too clever to have been a copper, they say.’

‘I always had a good team round me, that’s all,’ said Hall, smiling.

‘I don’t doubt that. But tell me, why are you getting yourself involved in this? I could barely remember this case, to tell you the truth.’

‘But you do remember it?’

‘I remember that the bloke was guilty, all right. Strangled the wife, dumped her in Loweswater.’

‘Crummock Water.’

‘Aye, Crummock Water. Then he got the guilts, and told his mate. And before you ask, Jack Lee was totally credible, right from the off. Solid alibi too, not a single crack in it.’

‘You mean that he had a solid alibi for the day and night of Sharon Burke’s likely disappearance, don’t you?’

‘Aye, but she was due at work the next morning, at eight o’clock sharp. And she never missed a shift, I do remember that. We checked, and she was as reliable as the morning, was that poor lass. But she never showed up that Saturday, did she? And it’s all because that strange bastard had already killed her, that’s why. And he was a right odd one, I tell you. Those dead eyes, and not a flicker of any emotion, even when we charged him.’

Hall took a sip of his drink. ‘I’m not absolutely convinced that she was dead by the next day, I’m afraid. Though I do hear what you say about her attendance record. And I’ve been thinking about that too, as it happens. So I just had Sharon’s attendance record checked for the weeks before her disappearance. My colleague texted me the answer just now, in fact. And you’re right, she didn’t fail to show for any shifts, but she had been off sick twice, one day each time, in the month before she vanished.’

‘If you say so. Look, what does it matter? The husband didn’t have a hint of a bloody alibi, never even tried to make one up, and the only possible explanation is that he knew if he made something up we’d catch him in the lie, one way or another. Because, Andy, sometime on that Friday he strangled his wife, and that night he dumped the body in the lake. It’s the only possible explanation.’

Hall smiled his calm, reasonable smile. ‘Not the only explanation, Billy.’

‘All right, amaze me. Not that you haven’t already, like.’

‘How’s that?’

‘You must be the only bloody child-minding detective in the whole country, mate. It’s absolutely ridiculous, is all this. You look like a right dick.’

‘I’d explained about Grace on the phone, I thought. But anyway, the reason that Burke had no alibi was actually because he was drugged. Sleeping tablets, most likely.’

‘No way. He wasn’t an addict. We tested for that, straight after we nicked him.’

‘I said he was drugged, not that he took drugs. His wife gave them to him. We think it was because she was going to meet someone, sometime on that Friday.’

‘And we is you and Ray Dixon, I suppose? Takes his turn changing nappies, does he? Anyway, who told you about these mythical drugs? Burke, I suppose.’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘Christ, it’s taken him long enough to come up with that bloody crock of shit.’

‘That’s true, but he had his reasons for keeping quiet, all these years.’

‘Like what?’

‘Loyalty to his wife, for one. But there’s another likely reason, I think. Perhaps he didn’t even want to admit to himself that his wife was looking to pull the wool over his eyes, just a few days after she’d told him that her affair was over.’

‘What affair? We knew something was going on, but we never found out who with.’

‘Oh, that. It was a doctor at the hospital. Your team didn’t speak to him at the time, but he’s admitted it to us.’

Billy Wilson’s face had been crimson enough when Hall had arrived, which Hall had put down to blood pressure and sun, but now it was blood red.

‘Has he now? And I thought you were only supposed to speak to folk who’d been involved in the original investigation? Isn’t that what was agreed?’

Hall nodded, and almost commented on the fact that Wilson was every bit as well-informed as he’d claimed to be.

‘The name just came up, that’s all.’

‘Tell that to the judge, mate. He won’t believe you, any more than I do. So you’ve swallowed Burke’s story then. He’s an innocent man, and I put him away for the best years of his life, did I? Is that what we’re getting round to?’

‘It wasn’t just you, Billy.’

That didn’t seem to be the answer that Wilson was hoping for. When he spoke again his voice was over half way to a shout. Two birds flew up from the lawn in alarm.

‘So who did it then? Jack Lee? This doctor? Because I tell you one thing, Andy. Sharon Burke did not strangle herself, and chuck herself in the bloody lake. So who did it then, smart-arse?’

‘I can’t tell you that. Not because I know and don’t want to, but because I just don’t know. Maybe I’ll never know. But we’ve already made real progress, I do know that.’

‘Progress, my arse. You’re all the same, you university coppers. We should all feel sorry for the bloody cons. If only their mums had given them more hugs as a child, all that.’

‘I don’t…’

‘Well, you listen to me, matey boy. The only way that you’ll ever take this one anywhere is if you can produce hard evidence proving that someone else killed Sharon Burke. And after all this time, you know how much chance of that you’ve got?’

‘Not much, I realise that.’

‘Not much? Absolutely fuck all I’d say. And you can waste your own time if you want to, but don’t you come round here again, and waste any more of mine. You understand what I’m saying?’

Hall got up, said that he understood perfectly, and reached down to pick up Grace’s car seat. To his surprise he saw that she was awake, and had that dreamy, far away look on her face that told him exactly what she was doing at that moment. And he couldn’t have agreed with her more.

He was planning to tell Jane about what a waste of time seeing Billy Wilson had been when he saw her that evening, but he never got the chance. Because he was just turning off the motorway at the north Kendal junction when his phone rang. It was Jane.

‘I was just thinking about you, love’, he said.

‘Same here.’

‘That’s nice to know.’

‘Well it shouldn’t be, Andy. I’ve just come off the phone with the ACC, who bollocked me once, and then did it again, just for good measure. He says you’re out of control. He told me to close you down. Christ, what on earth did you say to old Billy Wilson? It sounds like you set his bloody house on fire or something.’

‘Nothing much. Just that I don’t think Jack Lee’s alibi is anything like watertight, and that Adam Burke may indeed have been drugged by his wife. We’ve got some information suggesting that it’s perfectly possible. Oh, yes, and I told him that we now know for certain the identity of the man that Sharon had been having an affair with. Dr. Fleming admitted it to Ray earlier.’

‘Well, you’re really set the cat among the pigeons this time, Andy. The ACC must be really shitting himself about this, judging by the way he just spoke to me.’

‘I expect he is, and I’m sorry if he took it out on you, love. But we can talk about it when you get home, can’t we?’

‘No, love, that’s why I’m calling. We’re pulling the file from you. No further co-operation, I’m afraid. I told the ACC that you’d go public if he did that, and he said it’s what he expected you to do. I know it’s a shame, love, but you had no real chance of getting anywhere with this one, did you? Not after all these years.’