Piece Of My Heart

“Go ahead.”

They sat in a semicircle around Banks’s desk so they could all see. “Well,” Winsome began, pulling out the first sheet, “let’s start with twelfth January, 1969. Top Rank Suite, Cardiff.”

“What happened there?” Banks asked.

“Nothing. At least not at the Top Rank Suite.”

“Where, then?”

“Hold your horses a minute,” said Annie. “Let Winsome tell it her own way.”

“I spoke with the archivist at one of the big newspapers down there,” Winsome went on, “the South Wales Echo, and he seemed surprised that somebody else was asking him about that particular date.”

“Somebody else?”

“Exactly,” Winsome went on. “It seems that Nick Barber did quite a bit of background work before he went up to Yorkshire, specifically into the Mad Hatters tour dates between the Brimleigh Festival and Robin Merchant’s death.”

“Which makes me wonder why he needed to check the web sites at Eastvale Computes and jot what he found down in the back of his book,” said Annie.

“John Butler, the editor at MOJO, told me that Barber was meticulous about checking his facts,” said Banks. “He checked everything at least twice before he went after a story. I should imagine he was getting it right, preparing for another chat with Vic Greaves.”

“Makes sense,” said Annie. “Go on, Winsome.”

“Well, sometimes he had to contact the local papers to see if they kept back issues, but mostly he didn’t need to. Most of what he wanted is available at the British Library Newspapers Catalogue, and he could read the papers on microfilm at the library’s newspaper reading room. His London phone records, by the way, show quite a few calls to the library, as well as to the local newspapers concerned, in Plymouth, Cardiff and Brighton.”

“What did he discover?”

“In the first place,” Winsome went on, “I should guess that he was simply looking for reviews of Mad Hatters performances. Maybe a few little quotes from the time to spice up his article. As you said, sir, he was thorough. And it looks as if he was also trying to get a broader context of the times, you know, little local snippets about what was going on that day in Bristol or Plymouth, what was of interest to the people there, that sort of thing. Background.”

“Nothing unusual in that, either,” Banks said. “He was a music journalist. I imagine he was also scrounging around for any old photos or live bootleg recordings he could find.”

“Yes, sir,” Winsome said. “Obviously he couldn’t research every gig – they played over a hundred towns and cities during that period – but he did cover a fair bit of ground in the reading room. I’ve spoken to the librarian he dealt with down there, and she was able to give me a list of what he did get around to and fax me prints from the microfilm reader of the newspapers for the three dates in question. She was very helpful. Sounded quite excited to be part of a police investigation. Actually, it was the issues on the days after the gigs that interested Barber, of course.”

“Because that was when the reviews appeared,” said Banks.

“Exactly. Well,” Winsome went on, there’s nothing especially interesting in the reviews. Apparently they were in good form that night, even Vic Greaves. It’s another item of news that I suspect was more interesting to Nick Barber.” She picked a sheet from her pile and turned it on the desk so that Banks could read it. “I’m sorry about the quality, sir,” she said, “but it was the best she could do at short notice.”

The print was tiny and Banks had to take out his reading glasses. The story was about a young woman called Gwyneth Harris, who was found dead in Bute Park, near the city center of Cardiff, at six o’clock in the morning of thirteenth January, by an elderly man walking his dog. Gwyneth had, apparently, been held from behind and stabbed five times in the heart with a blade resembling that of a flick-knife. There were no more details.

“Jesus Christ,” said Banks. “Linda Lofthouse.”

“There’s more,” said Annie, nodding to Winsome, who slipped out another sheet.

“Monday, twentieth April, 1970. The Brighton amp; Hove Gazette, the day after the Mad Hatters played at the Dome there. Not very well, apparently. The reviewer mentioned that Greaves in particular seemed barely conscious, and at one point Reg Cooper had to go over to him and direct his fingers to the right keys for the chords. But there’s a piece about a young girl called Anita Higgins found dead on a stretch of beach not far from the West Pier.”

“Stabbed?” said Banks.

“Yes, sir. This time from the front.”

“And I suppose the same thing happened at the third circled gig?”

“Western Evening Herald, Wednesday, twentieth May, 1970, a review of the Mad Hatters gig and an item about Elizabeth Tregowan, aged seventeen, found dead in Hoe Park, Plymouth. This one was strangled.”

“So if it was the same person,” said Banks, “he was getting bolder, more daring, more personal. The first two he didn’t even want to see him, the third he stabbed from the front and the last he strangled. Is that all?”

“Yes, sir,” said Winsome. “There may be more, but these are the only three Nick Barber got around to uncovering. It must have been enough for him.”

“It’s enough for anyone,” said Banks. “If you count Linda Lofthouse at Brimleigh, that’s four girls been murdered within close proximity to a Mad Hatters gig. Were any of them at the concerts? Had they any connection with the group?”

“We don’t know yet,” Annie said. “Winsome thought it best to bring you up-to-date as soon as possible on this, and we’ve still got a lot of legwork to do. We need follow-up stories, if any are available, and we need to get on to the local forces, see what they’ve got in their archives. You know we never give everything out to the newspapers.”

“There’s one more thing,” Winsome said. “It might be of interest, I don’t know, but the Mad Hatters were on tour in France most of August 1969.”

“So?” said Banks.

“The flick-knife,” said Winsome. “They’re illegal here, but you can get them easily enough in France. And I don’t think they had metal detectors all over the place back then.”

“Right,” said Banks. “Excellent work. So where does this lead us? Before he left for Yorkshire, Nick Barber found out about a trail of bodies after Mad Hatters gigs in the late sixties and early seventies, starting with that of his birth mother. Clearly the local forces at the time had no communication about these killings, which isn’t surprising. Even as late as the eighties lack of inter-force communications botched the Yorkshire Ripper investigation. Stanley Chadwick thought he’d got his man, for good reason, so he had no further interest in the case. He also had problems of his own to deal with. Yvonne. Besides, one of the victims was strangled, not stabbed. Different MO. Even if Chadwick had come across the story, which is unlikely, it wouldn’t have meant anything to him. And who’d be looking at the Mad Hatters as a common denominator?”

“Clearly Nick Barber was,” said Annie. “Before his second interview with Vic Greaves, on the day of his murder, Friday, he went to Eastvale Computes in the morning to verify his dates, and he made a note of what he found – what he already knew – in the back of a book he was carrying. We already know from the landlord of the Cross Keys that Barber was in the habit of carrying a book with him when he went for a drink or a meal.”

“Lucky for us he was so thorough,” said Banks, “seeing as all his other research material was stolen.”

“So you think Vic Greaves is the killer?” Annie asked.

“I don’t know. When you put it like that, it does sound a bit absurd, doesn’t it?”

“Well, somebody killed those girls,” Annie argued. “And Vic Greaves was definitely around for each one.”

“Why did he stop?” Banks asked.

“We don’t know that he did,” Annie answered. “Though I’d guess he just became too disorganized to function. Obviously Chris Adams’s been shielding him, protecting him.”

“You think Adams knows the truth?”

“Probably,” Annie said.

“Why would he shield Greaves?”

“They’re old friends. Isn’t that what you said Tania Hutchison told you? They grew up together.”