pleasant evening, didn’t we?’ He sat back upright again. ‘There was no reason I should not call her. Especially after she had come on to me that first evening.’
As Langton played the tape, he watched Daniels’s reactions: his smirking glances at Anna and the manner in which he leaned close to Radcliff to whisper. After the conversation finished playing, Langton stopped the tape.
‘You admit that this is your voice speaking to DS Travis?’
‘Yes. Why on earth should I deny calling her?’
Radcliff leaned forwards across the table and wagged his finger at Langton. ‘What possible justification can you make for taping my client’s private phone call?’
‘We were concerned for DS Travis’s safety.’
‘Concerned?’ Daniels’s mouth gaped.
‘We had reason to be concerned. Your so-called “date” was under our supervision. Part of this tape recording was made whilst your client was inside DS Travis’s flat.’
‘What?’ Daniels was losing his temper.
‘She left her phone recording whilst you were in her flat. DS Travis was working undercover for our investigation.’
‘For what reason?’
‘I would say that is fairly obvious: you were a suspect in our murder enquiry. And I would say she did a very good job. You remained unaware of her intentions and we got the result we wanted.’
Daniels leaned forward, almost occupying the entire width of the table. ‘Which was what?’
‘We were able to confirm that you had gained access to DS Travis’s flat. And from that you were placed under surveillance.’
‘I was in her flat that night at her request. So what?’
‘You had previously gained illegal entry to DS Travis’s flat.’
‘No.’
‘We have a set of your fingerprints, Mr Daniels, taken from DS Travis’s flat.’
‘And I have just told you that I was her guest. It would be strange if you didn’t find my prints there.’
‘These prints, Mr Daniels, were removed from the premises prior to the first evening you spent there.’
Lewis produced the picture frame in an evidence bag. ‘This frame was brought in by DS Travis before you spent time together in her flat. The fingerprints were subsequently matched to a bank note you handled at the Opera House.’
Daniels twisted his neck as if it was stiff.
Langton continued, ‘Previously, you described McDowell as a fitness freak, running a successful nightclub?’
‘Yes, that was twenty years ago, yes.’
Langton replayed the moment of the taped phone call, when Daniels described McDowell as a pitiful drunkard. ‘How did you know Mr McDowell was now, twenty years later, a drunkard, if you had not seen him recently?’
‘It’s a foregone conclusion; he was a heavy drinker then.’
‘But then he was also a successful businessman. You said so yourself. How did you know about his present circumstances?’
‘It was a wild guess.’
‘I put it to you it’s a bit more than that, isn’t it? You mentioned his present state of inebriation twice, so I put it to you that you had seen Mr McDowell recently.’
‘No, that is not true.’
‘You also seem to be privy to information about certain items that were recovered from McDowell’s home.’
Daniels nudged Radcliff with a sly smile. ‘This is obviously entrapment. The woman, Travis, told me about McDowell’s condition. She also told me about the handbags they found at his house.’
‘Handbags?’
‘Yes, you found three of the victims’ handbags. I know that. She told me.’
Langton rewound the tape. ‘Please listen to the call again.’
Daniels was becoming really tetchy. ‘This is entrapment.’ He turned again to Radcliff. ‘This tape is rubbish. They probably doctored it.’
‘Just listen to the tape recording please, Mr Daniels.’
It was played again. Radcliff listened intently; he then leaned to one side to stare at Anna, before returning to an upright position, listening and tapping his notebook with his pen. When the tape recording ended, Langton moved the recorder aside and ejected the tape.
‘Mr Daniels, are you prepared to take part in an identity parade?’
Daniels pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘I am a well-known actor. It is farcical for you to expect to be able to assemble twelve men who resemble me. If you could, my career would certainly be in jeopardy,’ he laughed.
Langton couldn’t hold his tongue: ‘I would say that is a foregone conclusion.’
Anna shifted in her seat. She couldn’t quite fathom why Langton had taken the pressure off the Melissa questioning. She could feel the interview losing momentum and Daniels seemed to feel it, too. He was becoming more expansive and constantly swung his body away from his chair. Sometimes he seemed more interested in what was happening outside as they heard people passing back and forth.
‘So you decline to agree to participate in an identity parade?’
Radcliff tapped the table with his pen. ‘I agree with Mr Daniels. Owing to my client’s celebrity, the notion of an identification parade is ludicrous.’
Radcliff looked at Langton. ‘I am confused as to why you wish my client to take part in an identification parade anyway, especially if Mr McDowell has no connection to the charges relating to Melissa Stephens.’
‘But he was connected to the other ten victims. Mr Radcliff, I believe your client was involved in their deaths. And the very fact that your client knew that three of the victims’ handbags had been recovered from McDowell’s premises makes me suspicious that he, in actual fact, planted the incriminating evidence.’
‘Just how do you come to that conclusion?’
Langton drew the tape recorder closer to him again. ‘Listen to a section of the tape again. DS Travis never makes any mention of “handbags”, plural; she actually says “handbag”. It is Mr Daniels who uses the plural on the tape. It is Mr Daniels who, in front of you and as recorded on video, has said that three bags were recovered.’
‘It was just an assumption.’ Radcliff waved his hand airily. ‘He knew there were a number of victims you were investigating.’
Langton slapped the table with the flat of his hand. ‘An assumption? It’s the exact number: not one, or two, but three! He describes McDowell as a drunkard, yet this is a man he supposedly has not seen for twenty years.’
Radcliff was becoming agitated. ‘Are you telling me that you intend charging my client with another murder, apart from Melissa Stephens? Or perhaps more than one?”
‘That is a possibility, yes.’
‘How tedious,’ said Daniels. ‘All right, I’ll take part in your parade, but it’s all a terrible waste of time.’
There was a knock at the door and DC Barolli stepped in. Langton duly noted his arrival on the tape. Langton glanced at a note Barolli handed him and the plastic bag that he carried. ‘I suggest we take a five-minute lavatory break,’ Langton told everyone. When Daniels snapped that he didn’t require one, Langton good-humouredly replied that he did. He took the bag from Barolli and produced a baseball cap, which he placed on the table. He noted the introduction of the cap for the tape and held it up for the camera to see. When Radcliff stood up, Langton offered to show him the bathroom facilities.
Lewis passed Anna the note Barolli had brought in. While Daniels watched her, she read the message that McDowell was en route to the identification viewing room where Barolli had selected a line-up of officers and other station employees of Daniels’s height and build to participate in the ID parade.
Daniels leaned across the table, towards Anna.
‘You two-faced little?’
Lewis said sharply: ‘Mr Daniels, sit back in your seat, please.’
