smooth teamwork, Lewis always anticipating what Langton would need next.
Radcliff continued, ‘We are all aware of transferral of fibres and as the seats were held for?’
Langton interrupted him: ‘You will remember that these seats were immediately covered with bubble wrap upon being removed, gaffer-taped, to exclude any dust or possible damage to the leather and subsequently taken to Hudson’s garage.’
‘Yes, yes; you’ve told us this. What I am saying is that any one of those people who moved the seats or carried them out of the car or lifted them up into the removal vehicle could have contaminated your evidence.’
‘That is a possibility,’ Langton admitted.
Radcliff seemed momentarily satisfied. Daniels tried to catch his eye as if to congratulate him.
Langton did not miss a beat. Anna thought he played his hand like a professional gambler. ‘However, both of those men have verified alibis for the night Melissa disappeared and we also have sworn statements that the protective wrap around the seats was not removed during their entire time at the garage.’
‘You are treading water, Detective Chief Inspector. With or without alibis, either of these men could have known where her body was left. They could, have returned to her corpse to remove samples of hair or whatever. I’m afraid this does not hold up to scrutiny. How many weeks was it before her body was found?’ Radcliff persisted.
Daniels gave his solicitor a sly smile.
‘Melissa Stephens died the night she disappeared,’ Langton said, drumming his fingers on the desk. ‘The seats were wrapped the following morning; they were never unwrapped.’
‘It is just their word, though, isn’t it?’
‘Not only the word of two mechanics, but also one paint sprayer and the salesman. Also, bear in mind that if the gaffer tape had been removed at any time after being attached, it would have damaged the bubble wrap. Instead, it all remained intact. Therefore, the evidence we retrieved from the car seats was not contaminated.’
Radcliff raised an eyebrow, seemingly confident this would be easily dismissed in court. Anna glanced back at Daniels, who was now appearing more confident, even rocking slightly in his seat.
Langton held out his hand. Lewis passed him a folder. Langton took out the photographs.
‘Photograph one, from file two: a close-up of the bite mark to Melissa Stephens’s tongue.’
This was coming out of left field. Radcliff blinked. He knew nothing about this.
‘Bite mark?’ he said cautiously.
‘Photograph two is from your client’s dental records. It’s a photograph of the impression made by a dentist in Los Angeles. As you can see, Mr Daniels’s teeth have been recently capped. This dental work took place during the month of March this year.
‘These were removed from Mr Daniels’s study.’ Langton withdrew another series of X-rays and photographs. ‘Mr Daniels offered them to us as his original X-rays. As it turns out, they are not Mr Daniels’s X-rays and therefore not his teeth.’
Langton slowly took out of the file an enlarged photograph of Daniels’s mouth, caught in a wide grin. A ruler had been placed alongside it to measure the exact size.
‘Taken as a publicity still from the mini-series Falcon Bay, this photograph is dated two years ago. As you can see, Mr Daniels has a very wide smile and is not yet showing the new capped teeth.’
Daniels leaned forwards, smiling.
‘They made a good job of my dental work, didn’t they?’ he said to Radcliff. But Radcliff had smelled the sting coming and, if anything, looked more inclined to distance himself from his client than to respond to his camaraderie.
‘Another picture of the bite marks to Melissa Stephens’s tongue.’
Langton placed it beside the photograph of Daniel’s grinning mouth. He took out two colour transparencies, placing one on top of the other. ‘As you can see, it was a perfect match before Mr Daniels had his dental work. This proves, without doubt, that it was your client who bit Melissa Stephens’s tongue, just as there is no doubt that Melissa Stephens was a passenger in Mr Daniels’s Mercedes-Benz.’
Radcliff was sweating. He spent a considerable time playing with the sets of photographs. Anna noticed small beads of perspiration appearing on his top lip. Daniels, however, remained impenetrable. Anna thought he had lost awareness of her presence in the room, until he moved a fraction sideways and looked across at her with a barely detectable snarl before straightening up to face Langton. She found herself recoiling in horror. No one else in the room was aware of the intimacy of what had just happened. She could barely make out Langton’s voice above the ringing in her ears.
‘We did not find the tip of her tongue when we tested the contents of the victim’s stomach, nor was it recovered at the murder site. So I’m proposing that your client either spat it out or ate it. Either way, we can prove that it was Mr Daniels who bit Melissa Stephens’s tongue.’
There was a momentary pause in the room while Lewis put the photographs back into the file.
‘I am asking you again, Mr Daniels,’ Langton said abruptly, ‘did you, on the night of seventh February, meet Melissa Stephens??
Radcliff leaned close to his client, covering his mouth as he whispered.
‘Please answer the question,’ said Langton.
‘No comment,’ Daniels said.
Langton sucked in his breath, disappointed. The last thing he wanted was for Daniels to resort to using the ‘no comment’ routine for any further questions. He decided to switch tactics, informing Lewis with a quick note. Lewis nodded and brought out the case file on McDowell.
‘Do you know John McDowell?’
‘Yes.’
‘When was the last time you saw him?’
Daniels shrugged and said he thought it had to be at least twenty years ago.
‘Twenty years ago, McDowell ran a successful nightclub, didn’t he?’
‘Yes, he did.’
Langton planned to talk about McDowell, knowing Daniels would not be able to resist. With the pressure off from asking about Melissa Stephens, Langton continued the tactic of feeding the suspect questions that were easily answered; once more, trying to push him into a corner.
‘Could you describe McDowell to me? We are trying to get an angle on the type of man he is.’
‘Well, he was flashy, loud-mouthed. Ran a string of tarts out of his club. He was a fitness freak too, at the time he was visiting her house.’
‘Whose house was that?’
‘Lilian Duffy’s house,’ he snapped.
‘Could you tell me what your relationship with Lilian Duffy was?’
‘She was a prostitute. She ran the Shallcotte Street house as a brothel.’
‘But what relation is Lilian Duffy to you?’
Daniels chewed at his lip. He hated using the word.
‘Lilian Duffy is what?’ Langton persisted.
‘My mother,’ he said, recoiling back in his seat.
‘You were born Anthony Duffy?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you maintain you have not seen McDowell for twenty years?’
‘Yes!’
Langton pressed ‘play’ on a tape recorder.
‘I am going to play a tape to you; this is of a telephone call you made to Detective Sergeant Travis.’
Radcliff held up a hand. ‘What is this?’
‘It is a tape of a phone call made from your client to DS Travis.’ Langton turned to indicate Anna.
‘You taped the call?’
‘Yes, that is correct.’
Radcliff turned to Daniels. ‘Were you aware of the call being taped?’
‘Of course I wasn’t. We had been out together to see the ballet.’ Daniels smirked at Anna. ‘We had a
