A Dreadful Past (23 page)

‘Soon as you help us, Janice, just as soon as we get what information we need, you can go back to your cell and get your head down and have a good long kip.' Webster spoke encouragingly. ‘You do know who you are and where you are?'

‘Janice Moore, twenty-two years old and this is H.M. Women's Prison Wroot in Lincolnshire and today is Saturday the seventh of May.'

‘Good girl.' Yellich smiled. ‘We had to ask you that. We have to make sure that you're the full shilling, despite your temper outbursts.'

‘Oh, I'm all here. They asked me questions like that when I came here, like who is the Prime Minister and what's my date of birth. I answered all the questions and the prison psychologist smiled and said, “All right, you're all there, nothing wrong with you psychologically speaking so there's no need for you to go into the vulnerable prisoner's unit or the hospital wing.” So they put me in the main population. They drugged me up … the old liquid cosh, but I'm not in with the head cases.' Janice Moore's speech was slow and slightly slurred. ‘But I am calm now, I just want to sleep. The vase … yeah … I gave it to Billy Watts because I owed him some money.'

‘Yes, we know.' Yellich sat forward. ‘Now, listen, Janice. Pay attention, this is important. Tell us … where did you get the vase from?'

Janice Moore forced herself to focus on Yellich. ‘Will this get me into more trouble with the police? I don't like prison … blue isn't my colour.' She forced a smile. ‘I think I'm more of a red girl. I always did like red.'

‘Well, frankly, Janice,' Yellich held eye contact with Janice Moore, ‘you'll be in a lot more trouble if you don't tell us where you got the vase from.'

‘OK … OK, so I'll tell you,' Janice Moore replied in a slow manner, as if forcing herself to focus. ‘Anne Graham gave it to me.'

Yellich and Webster turned to each other.

‘Anne Graham,' Yellich turned back to look at Janice Moore, ‘Anne Graham … the woman who lives on Tang Hall, the woman who used to clean for a living … mother of Gerald Womack? That Anne Graham?'

‘Yes, her, that woman, but I didn't know that she used to clean. I always thought she was on the dole like the rest of us. A lifelong doley.' Janice Moore continued to clasp her legs to her chest. ‘But yes, she is Gerald Womack's old mother.'

‘She gave the vase to you?' Webster pressed. ‘Gave it to you?'

‘Yes, she gave it to me,' Janice Moore replied in her slow voice.

‘It's quite valuable,' Yellich continued. ‘Why did she give it to you? She must have liked you a lot. Or she owed you for something.'

‘It was more like I did her a favour.' Janice Moore gave a slight shrug of her shoulders. ‘More like the second reason. I did her a favour once.'

‘What favour? When?' Webster asked. ‘Tell us about the favour you did.'

‘When? A couple of years ago, I think … possibly more.' Janice Moore once again seemed to gaze into the middle-distance, and then she managed to refocus on Yellich. ‘Possibly three years ago, come to think of it, but time flies so maybe it's even more than three years ago.'

‘What favour?' Yellich pressed. ‘Come on, Janice. Concentrate.'

‘That I won't tell you … I don't want no trouble. The favour, well, it really was for Gerry, not Miss Graham … and I don't want him in no trouble. I mean, if I tell you there will be no point in me doing the favour for him,' Janice Moore protested. ‘I mean, will there?'

‘Gerry Womack is dead.' Webster spoke in a calm, matter-of-fact manner. ‘You won't be getting him into any trouble – no one can get him into any trouble now, so you can tell us all about the favour you did for him.'

‘Dead!' Janice Moore gasped. ‘Gerry Womack is dead. Gerry …?'

‘Yes,' Yellich confirmed. ‘He's very dead. His throat was cut. It happened yesterday. We are informing Miss Graham now, breaking the bad news.'

‘Oh …' Janice Moore's head sagged. ‘Oh … Gerry Womack is dead … So that means he was murdered? Who … I mean … by who?'

‘The “who” is what we are trying to find out and the “who” of it links to the vase.' Yellich pressed once more. ‘So tell us all about the favour you did for Gerry Womack, Janice. Tell us all about it.'

‘This is bad,' Janice Moore turned her head sideways, ‘bad … but I could still get into trouble for it.' She turned back to look at Somerled Yellich. ‘You see, Gerry did something silly a few years ago, something really silly. He wasn't thinking, wasn't Gerry. He always was a bit given to acting without thinking. That was Gerry. He was under a suspended sentence of two years and he wasn't keen on spending two years inside for a little bit of thieving. It was hardly anything really. There was no evidence against him except a witness, just one witness, who picked him out of an identification parade. So I said he was with me when the stuff was nicked but he wasn't …'

‘You provided a false alibi,' Yellich growled. ‘You're right, that was very naughty, very naughty indeed, but since he's no longer with us I don't think you need worry.'

‘But it was just a bit of scrap metal.' Janice Moore appealed to Yellich and then to Webster. ‘It wouldn't fill a shopping bag but he would have gone down for two years for it. He got two years, suspended for two years, for something and was still under the period of the suspended sentence when he stole the metal off the back of a pick-up.'

‘That's not the issue, but go on.' Yellich sat back in his chair and folded his arms. ‘I think I know what you're going to tell me but it's better coming from you.'

‘Anne Graham knew what I did for Gerry so she gave me the vase,' Janice Moore explained. ‘She said, “I haven't any money, and neither has Gerry, but you can have this – it's quite valuable so keep it safe. Put it somewhere where it won't get damaged. It's been broken and glued up again but it's still worth a bit of money.”'

‘There's a bit of an age gap between you and Gerry Womack,' Webster commented. ‘In fact, there's a huge age gap. You're in your twenties … three years ago you would have been nineteen … Gerry Womack would have been in his early forties. How did you two get to know each other?'

‘My family, the Moores', and the Grahams have known each other for generations,' Janice Moore explained. ‘We do each other favours from time to time. What I did for Gerry that time – well, that was just another one of those favours.'

‘I see.' Yellich leaned forward. ‘So, back to the vase. Did Anne Graham tell you where she got it from?'

‘No … no, she didn't.' Janice Moore shook her head. ‘She just said that she'd had it for a long time and that she was fond of it, but she was so grateful for what I did for Gerry, keeping him out of prison like I did, that she wanted me to have it. So she gave it to me. She's like that is Anne Graham. Very generous.'

‘It's like he's asleep. He looks so peaceful. It's a good way to remember him.' Anne Graham had been called upon by Carmen Pharoah and Thompson Ventnor, who had broken the news of her son's death as delicately as they could. ‘No, there can be no doubt; his fingerprints confirm it. We are very sorry.' It was some time before Anne Graham had recovered her emotions. ‘Yes, please,' she'd replied, ‘I would like to see his body, because only then will I believe it. Only then. Unless I see his body, I just won't believe he's gone. I have to see his body.'

Miss Graham had then been conveyed by car to York District Hospital where they were met by a nurse who had escorted her, Carmen Pharoah and Thompson Ventnor along a long corridor, a very long corridor, which twisted and turned in the basement of the building until they reached a small room, within which was a number of chairs around a low table. Beyond that room was another second room with richly polished wood-panelled walls and a maroon-coloured deep pile carpet. The fourth wall of the room was covered in a thick purple-coloured velvet curtain in front of which Anne Graham, Carmen Pharoah and Thompson Ventnor stood silently in a line. The nurse who had met them and who had escorted them to the viewing parlour had stood behind them. A second nurse had entered the room and took hold of a cord by the side of the velvet curtain and glanced at Ventnor, who nodded. The nurse then pulled the cord downwards in a series of hand-over-hand movements, causing the curtain to silently slide open. The opened curtain had revealed a pane of glass, beyond which lay the body of Gerald Womack wrapped tightly in white sheets so that only his face was visible and, by some trick of light and shade, he looked like he was floating in space. Miss Graham now repeated, ‘It looks like he's asleep.' She turned away from the window and Ventnor nodded at the nurse, mouthed ‘thank you' and the curtain was silently drawn shut.

‘I thought he was going to be pulled out of a wall in a drawer,' Miss Graham commented, ‘like you see on television crime shows.'

‘Not any more,' Carmen Pharoah replied. ‘As you have seen, things are a little different these days. Can we go and sit in the anteroom, please; my colleague and I have a few questions.'

‘Yes.' Miss Graham held back her tears. ‘Yes, of course.'

Carmen Pharoah then assured the nurse who had escorted them to the viewing parlour that they would be able to find their way out of the hospital. The nurse had replied, ‘Very good, ma'am,' and left the two officers and Miss Graham alone in the anteroom, where they sat in the chairs around the low table.

‘Miss Graham,' Carmen Pharoah began, ‘two of our colleagues have visited Janice Moore in prison.'

‘Janice.' Miss Graham nodded. ‘She's a good girl who does some silly things … she has a bit of a temper. I've known her all her life. I know her family well. The Grahams and the Moores – we go back a long way but always in a friendly manner … we are not feuding.'

‘So our colleagues have been informed by her,' Carmen Pharoah continued. ‘They visited her in H.M. Prison Wroot this morning.' Carmen Pharoah paused. ‘Now, Anne … you don't mind if I call you Anne?'

‘No.' Anne Graham kept up the fight to hold back her tears. ‘No, I don't mind. Please do so if you wish.'

‘Your son was murdered,' Carmen Pharoah stated in a soft voice.

‘Yes, you said so.' Anne Graham glanced at the top of the low table.

‘I am sure you want to do all you can to help us find his killer or killers,' Carmen Pharoah added. ‘So we're on the same side, you and I.'

‘Yes … yes, I do … all I can. And yes, we're on the same side in this.' Anne Graham spoke with a grim determination. ‘Of course I want to help. What parent wouldn't want to do that?'

‘Good.' Carmen Pharoah smiled encouragingly. ‘Now, Anne … Janice Moore told our colleagues that you gave her a Wedgwood vase for helping Gerald out. She said that she provided a false alibi to prevent him going to gaol for two years when he stole a little bit of scrap metal while he was still under a suspended sentence. We're not bothered about that, not in the slightest – we won't be prosecuting Janice Moore for that, but is that true? Is it true that you gave Janice a Wedgwood vase?'

‘Yes … since she's told you anyway.' Anne Graham breathed deeply. ‘Yes, Gerald could not have survived two years inside; him being so small, he'd be just a punch bag for any lag who was angry about something. And two years in prison for a few pounds of metal that was hardly worth anything at all. So yes, I really was grateful to Janice. The vase … just an old vase which I had had for years; it had been dropped and repaired but it was Wedgwood and it was the most valuable thing I had and I wanted her to have it. I was so grateful to her for providing the alibi which kept Gerald out of gaol.'

‘You know that it was a Wedgwood vase?' Thompson Ventnor confirmed.

‘Yes, I used to clean for Mr and Mrs Middleton, like I told you, and they had quite a collection,' Anne Graham explained. ‘They had about thirty pieces, all told, so I knew it was a piece of Wedgwood pottery.'

‘All right, now,' Carmen Pharoah sat forward, ‘where did you get the vase from, Anne? Can you remember?'

‘Yes, Gerald gave it to me … it must be twenty years ago now that he gave it to me. Oh …' Miss Graham put her hand up to her mouth, ‘… you're not going to say that he had anything to do with their murder? You're not going to tell me that? Not my Gerald, he was too small … he couldn't hurt anyone. He was a thief but he was never violent. He was too small for violence.'

‘We don't know if he was involved,' Carmen Pharoah stated, ‘but did you recognize the vase as coming from the Middletons' home? You cleaned there; you must have become familiar with items in the house.'

‘Yes, I did get to know the household items,' Anne Graham nodded in agreement, ‘but not the Wedgwood pieces. I cleaned the front of the glass display cabinet where pretty well all the bits of Wedgwood were kept but I wasn't allowed to clean inside the cabinet, and Mrs Middleton also told me not to clean the one or two bits of Wedgwood that were outside the cabinet which were on shelves and on windowsills. She was very particular about that was Mrs Middleton. Very particular. I was to lift the vases up and clean the surface they stood on but not clean the vases themselves. Milady insisted on doing that job herself. Cleaning items of value was not to be entrusted to little Mrs Mop from Tang Hall who called once a week. So I didn't get to know the vases well enough to recognize them individually but I did recognize the vase Gerald gave me as being a piece of Wedgwood because I had got to know how to recognize Wedgwood pottery by cleaning at the Middletons' house.'

‘I see.' Carmen Pharoah smiled. ‘That would explain why you didn't recognize it as coming from the Middletons' house. Now, Anne, one more question which is equally vital in helping us catch your son's killer or killers. Can you think back about twenty years to the time when Gerald gave you the vase, the time when he used to wear winkle-picker-style shoes?'