Fireflies (8 page)

He went back out to the squad room where Ollie was frantically looking for his wallet.

‘Is this what you’re looking for?’ he asked as he held the wallet in the air between them.

‘Where did you find that?’ Ollie asked.

‘In the corridor, mate’ said Jonathan. ‘It must’ve slipped out your pocket’.

Ollie stared at him. ‘Is that right?’

‘Hey, don’t look at me like that, mate’ said Freeman in a voice
raised up so that the rest of the office would hear. ‘I mean are you accusing me of stealing it or something?’

‘I’m not saying anything of the sort’ said Ollie, suddenly aware that the room had gone quiet. They must all be listening and Freeman had timed it perfectly. ‘Don’t put words in my mouth’.

‘Do you know what? I’m getting to really resent your attitude towards me’.

Ollie could’ve laughed.
‘My attitude towards you?’

‘And there you go again turning it on me’ said Freeman. ‘Look, don’t communicate with me unless it’s about the work, mate, okay? Because you clearly have an issue with me personally and I’m just not going to allow you to abuse me in that way’. He paused and when he was sure the rest of the office had turned back to what they’d been doing he leaned forward towards a startled Ollie and whispered. ‘So next time you’re at your black policeman’s association dinner remember that racism goes both ways and you’re not going to bully me into a submissive belief in a so-called multi-cultural society so don’t even try’.

Ollie was completely lost for words and sat down heavily in his chair.

‘Okay, Tina’ said Jeff Barton after he and Rebecca had come back into the interview room armed with some new information that the search team had discovered at Tina Webb’s flat. Tina was now sitting with a solicitor beside her but it hadn’t taken away the look of sheer terror on her face. Jeff reminded her that she was still under caution.

‘You’ve kept me here for hours’ said Tina. ‘You can’t keep me here all this time it’s not fair’.

‘Fair on who, Tina?’ Rebecca asked. ‘You or James Clifton?’

Tina was exasperated with this line of questioning. ‘I kept telling you before that I don’t know what happened to James Clifton. Why won’t you believe me?’

‘We’ve searched your flat, Tina’ Jeff continued. ‘I’m afraid it’s now a lot more serious than before’.

‘Why?’ asked Tina in a panicked voice. ‘You won’t have found anything there that makes me look like a murderer’.

‘For the benefit of the tape I’m holding two clear plastic bags, one with a foil wrapped strip of tablets and the other with a blood stained kitchen knife in it’ said Jeff. ‘Are these items yours, Tina?’

‘No, I’ve … I’ve got no idea’.

‘Well that’s strange because they were found in your flat’ said Rebecca.

‘They can’t have been!’

‘We’re not in the habit of lying, Tina’ said Rebecca. ‘We leave all that to the criminals’. 

‘The drug is
Rohypnol’ said Jeff. ‘It’s more commonly known as the date rape drug. And the blood on the rather large knife which looks more like a meat cleaver to me has been confirmed by forensics as being that of James Clifton‘.

Tina burst into tears. ‘This isn’t happening. I don’t know anything about these things’.

‘But they were found in your flat, Tina’ Rebecca repeated.

‘Yes, I know, I heard you the first time but I don’t know anything about them!’

‘Why did you kill him in such a violent way, Tina?’ asked Rebecca.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’.

‘Was it because he’d hit you?’ Rebecca went on. ‘Anybody would’ve reacted badly to that, Tina. Nobody would blame you if you’d decided to hit back’.

‘But I didn’t’.

‘Why did you invite him back to your place, Tina?’

‘Because I liked the look of him’.

‘And?’

‘Because I wanted to have sex with him’.

‘And the object of your desire slapped you for your troubles’.

‘I told him to get out, that’s all’.

‘You were affronted. He’d crushed your pride. You were ready to give him the night of his life and all he wanted you to do was piss on him’.

‘The filthy bastard’.

‘Yes, Tina, the filthy, perverted bastard’.

‘I wanted him out of there’.

‘You wanted to kill him’.

‘I did not!’

‘Come on, Tina. It’s understandable’.

‘Look’ said the solicitor, Ryan Kershaw. He hadn’t been qualified for long but he’d attended several of these police interviews and had already worked with Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton and Detective sergeant Rebecca Stockton. He had some respect for them both but he didn’t think that Tina Webb was guilty of anything other than liking men even though the evidence was beginning to say otherwise. ‘You’re trying to lead my client into a confession for something she hasn’t done and has told you repeatedly that she hasn’t. Now back off, detectives or I’ll advise my client not to answer
anymore of your questions’.

‘Come on, Tina’ said Rebecca. ‘You were seen walking off with James Clifton, you admit taking him back to your flat where he physically abused you, then we find
Rohypnol in your flat together with a knife with Clifton’s blood all over it’.

‘And I don’t know how any of that stuff got there’ pleaded Tina. She was sobbing so much it was making her shake. ‘I wouldn’t even know what
Rohypnol looked like’.

‘Do you really expect us to believe that, Tina?’

‘Believe what you like’.

‘You’re starting to sound boring now, Tina’.

‘That’s because you’re just not listening!’

‘What offends you about stag nights, Tina?’

‘Nothing offends me about them’.

‘You knew that James Clifton was on a stag night’.

‘What’s that got to do with anything?’ Tina blurted out between sobs.

‘Did you add the
Rohypnol to the glass of wine you poured him? We know it was in his system’.

‘No!’

‘But if you don’t know anything about the Rohypnol or the blood stained knife then how do you explain how they got into your flat?’

Tina almost screamed her answer. ‘I don’t know! Look, talk to my family, talk to my friends. They’ll all tell you I couldn’t possibly be involved in anything like this’

‘Can we take a five minute break, detective?’ asked Ryan. ‘You can see how distressed my client is getting’.

‘Yes, well murder does tend to get rather distressing for the victim especially when he gets his genitals hacked off in the process of being murdered’ said Rebecca.

‘And we can do without remarks like that, detective’ said Ryan.

‘We’ll take a break now, Tina’ said Jeff. ‘We need to make some further enquiries’.

‘Please let me go’

‘We’ll make those enquiries and then we’ll come back to you, Tina’ said Jeff. ‘But be prepared to stay here tonight’.

FIREFLIES SEVEN

Jeff pinned pictures of Tina Webb and her two friends Andrea Kay and Donna Price onto the clear plastic mission board in the middle of the squad room.

‘Statements have been taken from both of Tina Webb’s fellow travelers from the night in question’ said Jeff. ‘Ollie? What did they tell us?’

‘Well both Andrea Kay and Donna Price confirm that they shared a taxi that went first to Andrea’s home in Crumpsall and then to Donna Price’s home in Middleton, sir’ said Ollie. ‘The taxi firm has confirmed the journey and the phone companies have confirmed the text messages that both girls sent to Tina to say they were both safely home’.       

‘Do you think she did it, sir?’ asked Rebecca.

‘Well the evidence suggests that she at least had something to do with it but looking beyond that evidence I’m yet to be convinced that she could single-handedly seduce someone into her flat and end up cutting their balls off. I mean, can you?’

‘I admit
there’s a lot of holes in the probabilities and that means the whole thing doesn’t make much sense’ said Rebecca. ‘But if she was working with someone else then who and why? Either she’s too scared to say or we’ve got it all wrong and she’s more dangerous than she looks’.

‘Well we’ve still got some time left’ said Jeff. ‘Ollie? Look again at the CCTV from inside the Paradise club. Try and compare the
behaviour of Tina Webb and that of her two friends’.

‘Sir’.

‘DS Stockton? Let’s go and see Andrea Kay and Donna Price’.

Jeff drove the short distance from the station to the supermarket up on Regent Road in Salford to interview Andrea Kay and Rebecca decided to use the time to do some interviewing of her own.

‘So how did Toby enjoy his weekend with his grandparents?’

‘He had a great time, thanks’ said Jeff. ‘He’s driving me and our Lewis mad with his social life. He’s always got to be here, there and everywhere. He’s going to spend this weekend too with Lillie Mae’s parents. They’ve got family over from Hong Kong and they want to show him off’.

‘You won’t know what to do with yourself’.

‘You’re right’ said Jeff, quietly. ‘Although it depends on how this case builds. I’ll probably sleep my way through much of it to be honest because I’m knackered’.

‘That’s no life for someone in their mid thirties, Jeff’.

‘Maybe not’ said Jeff. ‘But it’s the life I’m in and I’ve got to make the best of it for Toby’s sake. He’s got to grow up as happy as he can be without his Mum around’.

‘You wouldn’t be selfish if you thought about what you needed once in a while’.

‘Well this is just my way of dealing with things at the moment, Becky. I didn’t expect to lose my wife when we’d only been married four years and had a beautiful baby boy. We’d have probably had more children and it isn’t fair but then life isn’t and we come across that all the time in our job’.

‘I just don’t want you to deny yourself the chance to be happy if that chance came along’.

‘Don’t worry about me, Becky’ said Jeff. ‘But I do have to be careful about who I let into my life in future. I come as a package with the best little boy in the world. Any woman is going to have to accept that’.

‘But Jeff, a woman who’s worthwhile will fall in love with you the man first, not you the father. Only then will she be able to give her best to the both of you’.

Jeff paused for a moment. Becky made a lot of sense with what she was saying but he couldn’t even contemplate being with another woman yet. He had been thinking that his carnal needs were beginning to open the door on his reluctance to get involved with someone again. But in fact all it had done was tell him that he was missing sex and he wasn’t the sort of man who could treat a woman like a prostitute. It wasn’t only women who thought that the best sex came out of genuine and mutual feelings between two people.

‘Anyway, what about you?
You haven’t been seeing anybody for a while. Anybody on the horizon?’

‘Jonathan Freeman asked me out the other day’.

‘I thought you two were getting along rather well’ said Jeff who’d also noted a spot of tension between Freeman and Ollie Wright. He didn’t know what it was about but he wasn’t going to mention it to Rebecca if she had romantic inclinations towards Freeman. ‘You should go for it’.

‘I should?’

‘Well he’s fit, good-looking, and even he laughs at my jokes. Yeah, go for it. Life is short. Trust me, I know’. 

‘This is not a formal interview, Andrea’ said Rebecca as the three of them sat in the manager Paula Jones’ office. ‘We’re just checking up on some enquiries with regard to your friend Tina Webb?’ We understand that she’s one of your best friends?

‘Yes she is’ Andrea confirmed, proudly. ‘But I’ve already made a statement’.

‘And we’re just following that up’.

Andrea was incredulous. ‘Oh please don’t tell me you really think Tina murdered James Clifton?’

‘Well why do you think that assumption would be wrong?’ asked Jeff.

‘Because she couldn’t kill anybody’ Andrea insisted. ‘It’s barmy’.

‘What is she like?’ asked Rebecca.

‘Tina? Well she’s kind, she’s loyal and she’s funny. I confide everything about my life in Tina because I trust her’.

‘And is she like that with all of her friends?’

‘Well I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t be because she’s just like that’.

‘Would anyone seek to repay that loyalty by lying for her?’

‘Hey now just a minute’ said Andrea. ‘Don’t you try and put words in my mouth to give you the answer you want’.

‘I was merely asking you a direct and straightforward question, Andrea’.

‘Rubbish. You were trying to get me to say something negative about my friend’.

‘She says you don’t go out on the pull in the same way that she does’

‘Oh so now you’re painting her as a slut, are you?’

‘No, Andrea’ said Rebecca slowly. ‘I just want an answer to my question, please’.