‘Lucky guess maybe, or perhaps she could tell from my clothing and body language or haircut, how would I know?’
‘That’s the thing, Guv; she’s a clever woman. Insightful.’
‘Yes, up to a point. It wouldn’t surprise me if she had claimed rewards before, fiddling the facts to fit the case. If she’s doing that, in the end it won’t stand up. In fact, when we get back to the station see what we have on her; see if she’s claimed rewards before. If she’s taking us for silly Charlies she’s in for a big surprise. We’ll charge her with wasting police time.’
‘I think she’s kosher.’
‘I don’t know what to think, but hopefully we’re a little further forward than we were this morning.’
‘Back to the station, Guv?’
Walter nodded, still thinking about something.
‘I’ll take a bet now that she’s made any number of claims against insurance companies, I’ll bet she knows every trick going, anything to make a quick buck, and if we think that and can see that, imagine what a smart-arsed defending barrister would do. They’d rip her a new one. Geez, that doesn’t bear thinking about. Makes me shiver, just the thought of it.’
‘A tenner,’ she said, starting the car.
‘A tenner what?’
‘A tenner says she hasn’t claimed a reward before.’
‘You’re on, and don’t forget.’
Thirty-Two
Back in the office, Mrs West was missing. She had some kind of quarterly update meeting with the local city councillors, something that Walter would do anything to avoid. Walter glanced at Karen and said, ‘Let’s have a chat in private; there’s an interview room free, there’s something I want to talk to you about.’
Karen stiffened and glanced at him. He didn’t notice for he was looking away toward the interview room door. They went across the office and into the room and closed the door and sat down.
Karen jumped in first, fearing the worst.
‘What do you want to talk about?’
‘The ID parade.’
‘What about it?’
‘I’m thinking of doing something a bit off the wall.’
You and me both, thought Karen, though she didn’t say. Instead she found herself saying, ‘I presume it’s Ronald Speight you want to put up?’
‘That’s just the thing,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to have to do eight or nine bloody ID parades.’
‘So?’
‘So, I thought I’d just do the one, have them all in the same line-up.’
‘But you can’t do that!’
‘Why not?’
‘Oh come on, Guv. You know why. For a start, if you tried to use the result in a court of law any judge would almost certainly throw it out, and for two, surely it’s against the rules.’
‘At this stage I don’t want to use the result as evidence, I just want to get a positive ID on the killer. And as for rules, if by bending one a little it saved another woman from being murdered, I’d say it was worth bending, wouldn’t you?’
‘Of course,’ she said, thinking of her own rule bending.
‘If we know who it is, we can concentrate all our resources on nailing the bastard.’
‘I’m all for that, but it’s a risky strategy.’
‘Okay, your objection is noted, DS Greenwood, that will be in my report, you’ll be in the clear.’
‘That wasn’t what worried me, Guv, you know I always support you where I can. So who do you want in the line?’
‘Speight, Miro, Donaldson, Nesbitt, Flanagan, and Williams. Crocker’s out of the frame, good head of hair, not. We’ll tell them all they’re not the prime suspect; they are there to make up the numbers, due to their similarity to the description we now have of a man leaving Belinda’s place at the dead of night. All we are trying to do is finally eliminate them from our inquiry. It’s in their interests, blah-blah.’
‘I don’t think they’ll buy that, especially that solicitor bloke, Mr Bouffant. He’ll see through it straight away.’
‘Maybe, but we’ll appeal to his community spirit, helping with the police in such a tragic case, et cetera, and we’ll throw in two ringers as well, just as token bodies, nothing to do with the case.’
Karen shook her head and grinned and said, ‘This is one crazy idea.’
‘Yes, it is, but it might just work.’
‘Mrs West won’t like it.’
‘Mrs West won’t know about it, until it’s all set up. Look, I know it’s a bit.... well, very unusual, but sometimes, occasionally, unusual tactics pay big dividends.’
‘It’s not like you, Guv, but okay, if that’s what you want. I’m with you all the way, but I did think you might have used VIPER.’
Walter thought about that for a second and scratched his head. VIPER, the new digital recognition system: Video Identification Parade Electronic Recording, to give it its overlong and rather pompous title. VIPER had it’s place, showing witnesses in the comfort of their own home video line-ups of suspects, but surely it was better in the flesh, where you could smell the fear on the guilty, see the twitchiness in their eyes, and closely monitor their body language. You couldn’t beat up close and personal.
‘VIPER has a place, but not here, not now, especially with a woman who supposedly possesses superhuman powers.’
‘Thought you didn’t believe in all that tosh.’
‘I don’t, but if there’s anything in it at all, I want to have her up close to the killer, to be able to look into his eyes.’
‘If he’s among them.’
‘Yes, Karen, there is that, but at least we’ll know if we are looking in the right place, or the wrong one.’
‘Actually, Guv, talking about doing things a little off the wall....’
A heavy knock came to the door and Gibbons barged in. He didn’t wait to be invited, or to speak; he was straight in there.
‘Did you know, Guv, who’s put up the reward in the Belinda Cooper case?’
‘No. Who?’
‘Only Gareth Bloody Williams!’
‘He can’t do that!’
‘Why not?’ asked Karen.
‘Because he’s a suspect, without an alibi,’ said Walter, ‘when I last looked, and no matter how unlikely a suspect he might be, he’s still in the frame, and he can’t be putting up financial inducements to put someone
