Love You Dead (50 page)

‘
Yossarian?
’ Guy Batchelor said. ‘Yossarian was a character in that amazing novel,
Catch-22.
One of my favourite books.’

‘Can you elaborate?’ Grace said. ‘Apparently he’s repeated it several times, in a state about it.’

‘He was the central character,’ Batchelor said. ‘Shit, I read it a long time ago. He was paranoid that people were trying to kill him, I seem to remember.’

Grace wrote down the name,
Yossarian
, in his policy book. ‘It would be helpful, Guy, if you could look into this further.’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘Tooth is currently undergoing further tests and I hope to have an update later today. Meanwhile he is under police guard in hospital.’

He looked down at his notes again. ‘OK, now on to Operation Spider, where the news is not as good as I’d hoped. First, I’d like to commend DS Potting, who’ll be here in a
minute, for his bravery. None of you will be aware of this, but he was our undercover operative. He placed himself in great danger, and we have sheer luck to thank for him still being with us
today. The unintended victim of the bomb was a suspected member of the car theft gang, and a known offender, Dean Warren. He has been identified from fingerprints on an intact arm recovered at the
scene. From what we are able to establish so far, Warren appears to have decided Saturday morning was a good time to steal this car.’

‘Didn’t you say in an earlier briefing that Stonor and Warren are associated, chief?’ Frowning, Guy Batchelor stood up and went over to the family tree pinned on one
whiteboard, and pointed out the connection.

‘Drinking buddies, they have been for years,’ Dave Green said.

‘Yes, you are correct, Guy,’ Grace replied. ‘My hypothesis is that Shelby Stonor attempted to burgle Jodie’s residence on the night of Tuesday 24th February. This accords
with information Jodie provided us with during interviews yesterday. Prior to, or during, this bungled burglary attempt, in which Stonor may have been fatally bitten by one of the saw-scaled vipers
that Jodie kept, he saw this recent-model Mercedes and passed information on to his mate Warren.’

‘That’s what friends are for.’ Guy Batchelor said.

‘I don’t want any of you to underestimate just how close Norman came to driving off in that car. It’s by sheer luck he is still with us. Whilst we are here this morning to
celebrate good news, I want all of us to reflect, for a moment, on the dangers that face us daily in our work. Something for which we all too rarely get any public recognition. I can talk openly
about Norman being the undercover operative as he has decided that was his first and last deployment undercover – and I don’t think any of us can blame him.’

He was distracted for a moment by Potting entering the room, clutching a sheet of paper, then went on. ‘Jodie is still in custody – we were able to get a forty-eight-hour extension
to keep her in, but frankly we need more evidence. She’s so damned clever. All we’ve got against her is circumstantial at this moment, and it may be difficult to convince the Crown
Prosecution Service to bring a case.’

‘What about the theft of the two hundred thousand dollars and the memory stick, Roy?’ Tanja Cale asked.

He shook his head. ‘No one’s reported the theft – the information we have from the NYPD is from one of their intelligence sources. It’s probably drugs money – and
we know it’s counterfeit. I don’t think anyone’s going to be reporting it.’ He gave a knowing smile.

‘How strong is all the circumstantial evidence on her, boss?’ Batchelor asked.

‘Probably not strong enough. A sister who died, when she was with her, when they were teenagers. Her first husband who died from a snake bite. Her fiancé who died when she was with
him, in a French ski resort. Her second husband who died from a snake bite in India. The Financial Crimes Unit are doing what they call
following the money.
The searches of all three
premises linked to Jodie have revealed a number of passports, birth certificates and credit cards in different names. But it could be months before they come up with enough evidence – and
even if they do, we’re looking at minor fraud. We need to find something – I don’t know what – some hard evidence.’ He turned a page of his notebook.

‘So we know Jodie was with her sister, her first husband, and her fiancé, when they died. She was on honeymoon with her second husband of just a few days when he died, also from an
apparent saw-scaled viper bite. I have serious concerns about this latter death, but I have no substantial evidence to support these concerns, at this stage.’

‘What concerns do you have, sir?’ asked DS Cale.

‘We’ve pulled in a number of experts to help us with this. Dr West, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, examined Carmichael’s body, and had two major issues.
Unfortunately, because it had been embalmed, any opportunity for an effective second post-mortem had gone. But he said he was bothered by the lack of any discolouration – ecchymosis –
around the puncture mark on Carmichael’s leg, which he would have expected to have been present following a bite from a saw-scaled viper. He also categorically said that the location where he
was allegedly bitten by this snake is not the creature’s natural habitat. He was at the Crocodile Park in Borivali East, outside Mumbai, according to what Jodie subsequently told the cruise
ship’s doctor. But James West said this snake typically lives in open, dry, sandy terrain – under rocks, at the base of thorny plants.’

He paused. ‘West knows the Borivali Crocodile Park well – he’s spent time there. He says the exact area of terrain where Carmichael was bitten is swampland, and that a
saw-scale viper would not go near that.’

‘Is it possible she brought the snake with her and planted it there?’ DS Exton asked.

‘Well, I think that stretches credulity – even by this lady’s standards,’ Grace said. ‘They were on a minibus from the ship to the crocodile park, so she’d
have had no opportunity to buy a snake anywhere en route. Prior to that they’d been at sea for several days. It’s possible she had smuggled one out of England and had it in her cabin,
hidden in a suitcase, but I think this is improbable – and besides, we have no real evidence. In reality the only charge she could be facing at this moment in time is killing Rowley
Carmichael, and as you’ve heard we’re not there yet.’

Norman Potting raised a hand. ‘I think I may be able to help with that.’

All eyes were on the Detective Sergeant. ‘Whilst I was operating this past weekend as a UC in Jodie’s house, I took the opportunity to look around late on Friday
night while she was asleep. It was part of my brief.’

Far from looking shaken by his close brush with death, Grace thought, Potting seemed animated.

‘I also had the chance of a bit of a snoop around while she was making me dinner – actually, I’m quite glad I won’t have to endure another of her meals, she’s not
that great a cook.’

Several of the team laughed.

‘I didn’t find anything in the rest of the house, except her cat was very insistent on scratching the wall we now know was a false door to her reptile room, but I did notice a
strange appliance in her kitchen. She told me it was a domestic freeze dryer, and that she had it because it was the healthiest way to preserve vegetables – flash freezing them. Later that
night when I’d gone to bed, I googled freeze dryers, and saw the one she had was considerably more elaborate than a domestic one – it was a very expensive industrial-grade
one.’

‘What are they used for?’ Exton asked.

‘Flash freezing food of all kinds – and chemicals – in fact, almost anything. They remove moisture and are apparently a way of preserving not just food but the potency of drugs
and chemicals,’ Potting replied. ‘In the morning when I heard her in the shower, I went down to the kitchen and had a snoop through the drawers of her freezers– she had two very
large freezers, one in the kitchen and the other in a pantry. Most of the drawers were filled with frozen rodents – mice and rats.’

‘Sounds like a suitable diet for this witch,’ Batchelor said.

Potting grunted agreement. ‘One of them would have been a lot tastier and less tough than the steak she cooked – or rather
cremated –
for me. Anyhow, I had a good
rummage through, and beneath several layers of the things I found a stash of unlabelled, rubber-stoppered vials.’

‘Containing what, Norman?’ Grace asked.

‘Amber crystals – I had no idea what they were, and I wasn’t about to taste one to find out – luckily. They all looked identical, so I took one, wrapped it in a freezer
bag I also found in there and pocketed it, intending to bring it straight here and have it sent for analysis. But in view of the subsequent events, I contacted the Head of Forensic Services in
Guildford, told her my suspicions and asked if the analysis of the vial could be fast-tracked. To avoid any possible breach of chain-of-evidence argument by a brief in court, I drove it there
myself on Saturday morning.’

‘What were your suspicions, Norman?’ Tanja Cale asked.

He held up the sheet of paper he had brought in earlier, and gave a broad smile. ‘I was late for this briefing because I was waiting for the emailed result to come through. I have the full
details from the lab here, if anyone would like to read them. But to cut through the technical jargon, the vial contained freeze-dried venom from a saw-scaled viper.’

Roy Grace’s mind was spinning. There had been no ecchymosis around the puncture mark in Rowley Carmichael’s leg. Which was strong evidence that however the venom had got into his
system, it hadn’t been through a snake bite. That had been confirmed by Dr West. He’d also confirmed that the geographic location where Carmichael was purportedly bitten was not terrain
where this snake would be found. Grace stood up, balling his fists. He was so excited he could have hugged Potting. ‘This is really good, Norman, well done. This is going to help us
enormously.’

An hour later, back in his office in a far happier mood, Roy Grace did not imagine today would get any better. But it was about to.

As he sat in furious concentration, hammering out his statement of facts to present to the Crown Prosecution Service for their consent to charge Jodie with the murder of Rowley Burnett
Carmichael, his phone rang.

‘Roy Grace,’ he answered.

It was the London Interpol detective he had spoken to before, Tom Haynes.

‘Sir,’ he said, sounding more good-humoured than the last time they’d spoken, when the man had been rather stiff and formal. ‘I have some information regarding your
suspect Dr Edward Crisp that I think you will like.’

‘Tell me?’

‘Lyon police have him back in custody.’

‘They do?’

‘He was arrested early this morning.’

‘This is brilliant news – how – what happened?’

‘Apparently we have a French farmer to thank. His wife got up at her usual early hour to milk their cows, and saw a grubby-looking man stealing clothes off their washing line. Her husband
detained him with his shotgun. I don’t have all the details at this stage, but I understand he was filthy, exhausted, frozen and possibly relieved. He didn’t put up any
resistance.’

The image of arrogant Crisp spending the past week covered in excrement from his escape through the prison sewer system, and grubbing his way furtively around the French countryside, appealed to
Grace. ‘Excellent news, Tom. I’ll notify the Extradition Service right away. Perhaps the French prison service can keep a closer watch on him than the last time.’

‘They’re pretty embarrassed by what happened, sir. I don’t think he’ll have a second chance.’

‘Please thank everyone involved.’

‘I think it was sheer luck that they got him.’ He was silent for a moment, then he said, ‘I guess we all need luck.’

‘The harder I try, the luckier I get?’ Grace said.

‘Thomas Jefferson,’ the detective replied. ‘It actually goes something like, “I find the harder I work, the luckier I get.”’

‘That’s it!’

‘There’s another, from Franklin D. Roosevelt, sir: “I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early
worm.”’

Grace smiled. ‘You’re well up on your American quotes, Tom.’

‘I am American.’

Almost immediately after he had finished his conversation with Tom Haynes, Grace received an update email from Michelle Websdale confirming the findings of the toxicology
report in Goa. Rowley Carmichael had definitely died as a result of venom from a saw-scaled viper.

At lunchtime Roy received the final piece of the jigsaw.

As soon as he had left the interview with Jodie, yesterday, with the snake fang locket, he had secured it in a sealed exhibit bag and then contacted Dr Colin Duncton, a Home Office pathologist
who had developed an expertise in the interpretation of wounds and weapons.

He had spoken to the man over the phone, explaining what he wanted, and the pathologist had agreed to come down to Brighton Mortuary the next morning. He also informed the Coroner’s
Officer of his action.

He was about to call the mortuary to see how Dr Duncton was getting on, when the pathologist rang him.

‘Detective Superintendent, I believe I have the good news you were hoping for. I’ve carried out a microscopic examination of the puncture-mark wound on the right ankle of Rowley
Carmichael, believed to have been caused by a snake bite – a saw-scaled viper?’

‘Correct.’

‘I can tell you first that that wound was not caused by an ordinary snake bite, and I can categorically state that the wound was caused by Exhibit RG4, the snake fang that one of your
officers handed to me this morning. On examination of that snake fang, I was able to detect striation marks – in particular, a number of specific ridges, furrows and unique irregularities to
the surface and point of the fang which are identical with the incision wound. In my opinion, this snake fang caused that wound. In addition, I have arranged for it to be examined in a forensic
science lab, as I believe they will find minute fibre traces from the deceased’s trousers. Do you have them?’