A Dreadful Past (13 page)

‘Murder!' Watts gasped. He looked appealingly to Yellich and then at Webster. ‘I never heard nothing about no murder.'

‘Well, that's what this is about, Billy,' Yellich snarled. ‘The big “M”. The vase you sold to the antiques dealer was stolen from a house and three people were murdered during that break-in – a man, his wife and their daughter.'

‘Who was blind,' Webster added coldly. ‘There won't be much leniency shown to those who did that … and we'll get them. It's just a matter of time. You can be sure of that – well sure. And Spike here, well, he won't be around when you come out after serving a twenty-year stretch, will you, Spike?'

The dog barked once, as if in response to his name.

‘Life.' Watts sighed. ‘Life … life …'

‘Yes, life,' Yellich repeated, ‘and what will poor Spike do then? Poor thing. So come on, Billy, be sensible. It's not funny and you're in a real mess here so it's work for yourself time. It's work for you and Spike time.'

Billy Watts sank back in his chair and put both his hands up to his forehead, covering his eyes. ‘Me and Spike … we love each other. It's not true what they say about Staffies; it's all down to how you treat them. Treat them bad and they'll be bad.'

‘So we believe,' Yellich replied coldly. ‘A bit like human beings in that sense … I suppose you could say that but the vase, Billy, if you'd be so good as to save your theories about animal welfare for another time.'

‘OK, OK,' Watts lowered his hands, ‘I'll tell you. It was some bloke who owed me money. He hadn't got any reddies but he had this old vase. He said it was worth three figures so I took it – I reckoned it was the only way I was going to get paid but I told him if I don't get three figures I'll be back and I'll take the balance out of his face 'cos I'm well handy with a blade.'

‘We know.' Somerled Yellich shifted his position in the chair in which he sat. ‘We saw the photographs of your last victim. His face looked like a jigsaw puzzle with three or four pieces missing. You don't mess about, do you?'

‘Well …' Watts shrugged. ‘You have to stick up for yourself. If you don't push around you'll get pushed around. I learned that a long time ago. So I took the vase. I got three figures for it. Just. I was happy because that's more than he owed me. I came out on top.'

‘So who is the geezer who gave you the vase?' Yellich asked.

‘Perhaps I should tell him first.' Watts looked at Yellich, then at Webster.

‘Perhaps you should stop trying our patience,' Webster snarled. ‘Like Mr Yellich just said, we're getting hungry. Very hungry indeed.'

‘I don't like ratting on people.' Watts glanced to his left and then to his right. ‘I'll need to give him fair warning.'

‘So he can vanish in a puff of smoke?' Yellich spoke with undisguised anger. ‘No, perhaps you should tell us first and tell us now. Think, Billy: twenty years … that's a long time inside. Spike won't survive in kennels, not if he's your best friend like you claim he is.'

‘Janice Moore.' Billy Watts spoke with a clear note of resignation. ‘I got it from a lass called Janice Moore.'

‘A lass!' Yellich gasped. ‘You said it was a bloke who gave it to you.'

‘A girl … a geezer … so what?' Watts wailed. ‘Does it really matter?'

‘You just didn't want to admit that you'd carve a girl's face open and do so for less than a ton. Some big man you are!' Yellich snarled. ‘A real tough guy you are.'

Watts shrugged.

‘So where do we find Miss Janice Moore?' Webster eyed Watts coldly. ‘And we want the correct address this time, Billy, or we'll do you for obstructing the police with their inquiries.'

‘She's inside,' Billy Watts replied flatly. ‘She was given three months for possession with intent to supply. She got sent down just two days ago.'

‘That's useful.' Yellich smiled just as his mobile phone rang. ‘She'll be nice and easy to find. Very nice and easy to find.' He took the phone from his pocket and read the incoming call. ‘It's the boss,' he said to Webster. Yellich then put the phone to his ear. ‘Yes, sir?' he asked and then listened. ‘OK,' he said, ‘got that, yes, sir.' He switched off the phone. ‘The boss wants us back at the station,' Yellich told Webster. ‘There's been a major development, apparently.'

‘Sounds interesting,' Webster replied and then turned to Watts and growled, ‘Don't get up, Billy. We'll see ourselves out. And don't tell a living soul about our interest in this vase. Not a living soul. If you do we'll find out and we'll be back. We'll lift you and do you for something.'

‘That's good advice, Billy.' Yellich stood. ‘Take Spike for a walk and just forget that we were here.'

‘I'm sorry to call you all back in.' Hennessey leaned forward. Yellich, Pharoah, Webster and Ventnor sat in a semicircle in front of Hennessey's desk. Carmen Pharoah allowed herself a rapid glance to her right and saw a group of uniformed school children in rainwear walking in silence and in Indian file behind a stern-looking and elderly school mistress who carried an umbrella. ‘It may be nothing, it may be nothing at all, but equally it might be a hugely significant development,' Hennessey continued, then went on to relate the information which had been provided by Frank Jenny earlier that day. Upon the conclusion of his delivery his team sat in a stunned silence.

‘So …' Somerled Yellich eventually broke the silence, ‘the Middleton family murder might have been the final murder or murders in … in … what word did you use, sir … a “string” of murders?'

‘Spate.' Hennessey ran his liver-spotted right-hand through his silver hair. ‘I used the word “spate” but “string”, “succession”, “sequence” – all could be used to describe a number of murders which were committed here in York and its surrounding areas about twenty years ago and which the police at the time didn't link together because of the different victim profiles and different methods of murder which were employed. And,' Hennessey held up his index finger, ‘we must be cautious and remember that they may still not be linked but, having said that, yes, equally they might be linked – the differences are the link. The dissimilarity is the similarity.' Hennessey paused and then continued, ‘There are in fact two things all the murders have in common, one being the apparent lack of motivation in all cases. None of the victims seemed to have anyone who would want to murder them, and …' again Hennessey held up his index finger, ‘… in two of the cases there is an indication of a gang of four persons being involved. Four men were observed sighting up the Middleton house before and after their murders, and the farmworker was stabbed a number of times but with four different types of blade. The young woman whose death was made to look like suicide was conveyed a long distance from her usual haunts to the bridge where she was likely thrown into the river. Being engaged to be married as she was makes her an unlikely person to have committed suicide. That implies more than one person was involved to overpower her and carry her away in a car. The dog walker could not have been overpowered and strung up by one person. A gang had to be involved there. Of the spate of murders only the hit-and-run of the young boy and the suffocation of the elderly lady in her flat could have been the work of just one person. So the weight of circumstantial evidence is that a gang was involved in the murders.'

‘Which ties in with what the retired antiques dealer told me, sir,' Yellich offered, ‘that persons who burgle houses and sell or keep what he called the “pay load” locally are “cowboys”. It suggests the motivation to enter the Middleton house was not in fact burglary but murder – multiple murders, in fact. One or two items were grabbed to put the police off the scent, to make it look like a burglary which had escalated into murder, which seemed to have been a successful ploy.'

‘Just who are we dealing with?' Ventnor appealed. His breath was heavy with the odour of strong mints. ‘One psychopath is bad enough, but a whole team of them … it's unheard of.'

Hennessey gently reminded him and the group, ‘If we are dealing with anybody the police may have been correct not to link them – there may simply have been a succession of murders all committed around the same time but by different persons, and there may indeed have been motivation to want to murder the victims in all cases which has not been identified in all cases.' He glanced out of his office window. He noted the rain was easing off and saw blue sky appearing. ‘Or they may have been the random victims of a gang of four.'

‘So, why the sudden start and why the sudden stop?' Webster asked.

‘That I don't know,' Hennessey leaned back in his chair, ‘but I do know a person who could – well, who at least might be able to answer that question. I will go and see her.' He paused and collected his thoughts. ‘Now, the thing is, and this is my conjecture … just as a serial killer begins by perpetrating non-fatal assaults then “graduates” to his or her first murder then I see no reason, no reason at all, why a gang of serial killers shouldn't do the same. So, I have asked the collator to send me the files on all unsolved assaults in the twelve months leading up to the first murder of the series of murders in question – that being the hit-and-run murder of the young boy on his bike. And here we are.' Hennessey patted a pile of files on his desk. ‘There were indeed a number of unsolved assaults in those twelve months, but if we dismiss the less serious ones, the punch-ups which we know to have taken place between rival gangs where of course no one saw anything, the “road rage” incidents and the “domestics” wherein the injured partner decided not to press charges, and if we focus on the more serious assaults where there really were no witnesses, incidents wherein the victim was hospitalized, then these five stand out.' Once again Hennessey patted the files on his desk with his large, fleshy hand. ‘We have a man who was walking home late one night who was set upon and beaten unconscious; we have an elderly lady also knocked to the ground and beaten up until she too lost consciousness … We have a taxi driver dragged out of his cab and assaulted with such severity that he was hospitalized for a number of weeks; we have a working girl who was beaten up and robbed of her night's takings, whereas, and possibly interestingly, the taxi driver was not robbed of his takings, and we have a young man who was attacked in the street one night and left with a fractured skull.' Hennessey paused. ‘Now what might also be interesting is the frequency of the above attacks in that they are quite regularly spaced timewise. Each of the five attacks took place with a time gap of approximately six to eight weeks from the previous attack. So the first attack in the year preceding the first unsolved murder was of a middle-aged man walking home one night. He was left on the side of the road for someone to find and raise the alarm. Six weeks later the taxi driver was attacked but not robbed, then ten weeks later the elderly lady was attacked. Five weeks after that the working girl was attacked and robbed, then seven weeks after that the young man was attacked and left with a fractured skull. And then, six weeks after that, the twelve-year-old boy was knocked off his bike and fatally injured. Then the murders began, but the serious assaults seemed to stop.'

‘What was the frequency of the murders?' Yellich asked.

‘You anticipate me, Somerled,' Hennessey smiled, ‘and the answer is that the time gap between each murder averages about two months. The same pattern of regularity, the same difference in victim profile and method of murder but with a little more time between the murders than there was between the non-fatal attacks.'

‘That links them.' Webster's jaw set firm. ‘For my money that links them as sure as eggs are eggs.'

‘It's a fair and reasonable indication that they are indeed linked but it's only an indication,' Hennessey cautioned. ‘We must not rush out fences – mustn't do that. But I think it's sufficient to proceed on the assumption that they are linked.'

‘So, no known personal motive in the non-fatals … similar to the murders though a more frequent regularity of occurrence, similarly different victim profiles and strong indications that a number of felons are involved. I'm with Reginald on this one.' Yellich sat back in his chair. ‘I confess that gives me the appetite to want to look for the same group of felons for both the non-fatal attacks and for the murders. It makes me want to find a gang of four who did it for kicks and who are still out there. Possibly.'

‘I confess I am inclined to agree with you, Somerled – you and Reginald both.' Hennessey also sat back in his chair. ‘Mr Middleton didn't know what he was going to start when he bought the Wedgwood vase from the antiques dealer and then brought it into the police station. But if the gang were indeed in their twenties when they were seen sighting up the Middleton house they'll be in their forties now and probably no longer a gang, so it's going to be difficult to track them down, especially if they were passing through York … if they were university students, for example.'

‘Not university students, surely?' Carmen Pharoah gasped.

‘Why not?' Hennessey smiled at her. ‘Why on earth not? They're human beings; they can commit crime. In fact, in terms of the use of illicit substances and problems caused by alcohol excess, the student body is quite criminal, and there have been a number of high-profile murders among university students over the years. So why not?'

‘My wife was at Edinburgh University,' Webster added. ‘She once told me that of a couple of male students she knew, both from very privileged backgrounds, had attended fee-paying schools and their parents were senior professionals whose idea of fun was to steal a car and drive it to another city and dump it there, steal another car and drive it back to Edinburgh. So I agree. We might be looking for university students.'