Two Wrongs (Detective Inspector Ross Reed Book 1) (11 page)

“That will be me, sir.” A short, ginger officer said.

“I would appreciate it if you took a toilet break before you did. Maybe take a paper with you.” Reed suggested, knowing full well that Whitehead wouldn't arrive until the solicitor did, giving them a chance to test Gulliver's character a little.

“Sir.” Replied the officer, beginning to smile.

Reed entered the room and sat opposite Gulliver. Tyler was putting out some files and unwrapping the tapes to put in the recorder.

“How was your night?” Reed asked.

“OK.” Gulliver replied glumly.

“That's good.” Reed made a show of looking around the room, tapping his fingers on the table. Tyler sat down next to him.

“We’re just waiting for your solicitor before we get started.” Tyler said.

After a few minutes of pretending to read some papers Reed exhaled noisily, “Do you want a drink or something?”

“No. Thank you.” Gulliver replied. Looking bored himself now.

“You're sure?”

“Honestly, I'm fine.”

“While we're being honest, tell me why you killed Carmella?” Reed sprung the question.

“What?” Gulliver shouted.

“You heard me.” Reed said, leaning over the table, getting in his face.

“You... You can't ask me that.”

“So you're not denying it.” Reed moved even further across the table.

“Hang on, I haven't got my solicitor here. I know my rights.”

“All guilty people do.” Reed muttered.

Gulliver stood. Reed sat and folded his arms, not removing his eyes from Gulliver's face. Tyler stayed relaxed in her chair. “Fuck this. This isn't right.” Gulliver finally said as he moved for the door.

“Sit down.” Reed shouted loud enough to stop Gulliver. Then the interview room door flew open and a flustered looking solicitor came rushing in, shortly followed by a smirking PC. Reed would have to thank the young officer later for the perfect timing.

“What is going on here?” The solicitor asked, bewildered.

“They're setting me up, that's what.”

Reed held his hands out, palms up and shrugged. Tyler shook her head in mock disbelief at the accusation. After weighing up the situation, the solicitor asked for a few moments with her client, which she was granted. Reed needed a coffee.

Half an hour later, Reed, Tyler, Gulliver and his solicitor, Mrs. Cunningham, began the interview. Tyler started the recordings and stated who was present, the date, time and case number. They ran through some old statements of Gulliver's, asked some routine questions. Then they asked them again to see if the answers were the same. Mostly they were. Time to move it on a little and apply some pressure.

“So to sum up Mr. Gulliver, on the evening of Saturday the 27th of July this year, you first attended Splitz nightclub in Newmarket before giving Carmella Chapman a lift back to Thetford. You dropped her off at the end of Bridgeham Road. Is that correct?” Reed began.

“Yes.”

“Why did you lie about the route you took home?”

“I was scared.” Gulliver answered, looking embarrassed.

“What was it you were scared about Mr. Gulliver?” Reed asked.

Gulliver looked to his solicitor for reassurance. He had lost his confident exterior. It wasn't unlike a child looking to their mother. His solicitor gave him a simple nod to let him know he could answer.

“I just thought if I picked a random route, it would distance me from this whole thing.”

“So you've mentioned before. One thing bothers me with that scenario,” Reed said, pausing a few seconds for effect. “How did you know that your made up route would avoid the site where Carmella was murdered?”

Gulliver looked for some help from his solicitor again. This time she offered none. “I didn't know.” Gulliver said with a shrug.

“OK. Let’s forget that for now. Why did you run from DI Reed and myself yesterday?” Tyler took over.

“I don't know really, I guess I panicked.”

“Oh this is horseshit. ‘Panicked’? ‘Scared’?” Reed made a show of picking some of Gulliver's own words from his statement. “I'll tell you what I think happened that night. Why you really lied. Why you ran from us. You're guilty. You tried it on with Carmella, to her better judgement she told you where to go, then, with your pride stinging a little,” Reed pointed a finger at Gulliver, “You lashed out. I don't know if you wanted to kill her, but you did. Then you panicked and hid her body. That's what I think is scaring you.”

“No. No, that's not true.” Gulliver spat out.

“This is pure speculation, Detective.” Mrs. Cunningham said calmly, her face indicating that this was a complete waste of her time.

“It's my job to speculate, at least until we find the evidence to prove it. And we will prove it.”

“Yes. But for the purpose of the tape, at this stage, it is pure speculation.” Mrs. Cunningham said. She shut the file she had in front of her, making it clear to everyone that this interview was so absurd to her that she didn't need her notes and that the interview should end here.

Reed didn't know what to say. The solicitor was right, it was only speculation. One-nil Mrs. Cunningham. Although Reed didn't know for sure, he was sure Whitehead would be behind the mirror shaking his head in disbelief at how bad the whole thing was going. Reed stood, stretched his back out and shuffled over to the mirror. He hoped Whitehead was the other side. Reed stared himself in the eye, knowing everyone was waiting for his next move. Reed turned to face Gulliver who was looking at the table. Mrs. Cunningham was playing with her immaculate nails.

“We know about the earrings that hide your little secret.” Reed finally said.

No-one was expecting that.

Tyler span round in her chair, showing that her jaw had dropped open in surprise. Gulliver's jaw had dropped open with a mixture of confusion and fear. Mrs. Cunningham's jaw had dropped before she could compose herself enough to re-open her file again, flicking through it frantically. Reed could have sworn he heard Whitehead's jaw hit the floor too.

“What? How do... The earring...” Gulliver tried the art of constructing the sentence without any success.

“Don't say anything Mr. Gulliver.” Cunningham started. “Detective Inspector Reed, if you have any new evidence regarding my client which you wish to use against him, you know full well that you have to make me aware of it.”

Reed didn't reply. He was shocked now. If Mrs. Cunningham hadn't have wasted time opening her file again, looking to see if she had missed the part about the earrings, which she hadn't because it wasn't there, Gulliver wouldn't have stuttered a few telling words out.

‘The earring.’

Reed had taken a massive gamble by telling Gulliver they knew about the earrings. Not only with the interview and case, but his job too. They didn't even know Carmella was wearing any earrings the night she was killed. The earring? What bloody earring? And what part did it play?

All eyes slowly settled on Reed again. He wasn't spontaneous by nature but this felt good. Reckless almost. After thinking it through, Reed said, “For the benefit of the tape, I would like to withdraw my last statement regarding earrings. It was a complete mistake on my part. This interview is now finished.”

Reed left the room with no objection from anybody. Just looks of bewilderment. Having just managed to shut the interview room door behind him, Whitehead came thundering round the corner. At least he thought it was Whitehead, the sheer rage on display was distorting his face a little.

“What in the blue fuck was that?” He shouted, the voice revealing it was in fact Whitehead.

“An interview, sir.” Reed replied, walking away.

“A bad one. We don't even know she was wearing any earrings.”

“I think we do now, sir.”

Gulliver, under his solicitor's advice, was going to stay in custody for a couple of hours whilst his home was searched under Mrs. Cunningham's supervision. After this, if nothing major was discovered at the flat, he would be released on bail conditions, surrendering his passport and signing in at Thetford Police Station once a day.

Reed, Tyler and two police constables would conduct the search. The official reason for the search was to look for any correspondence between Gulliver and Carmella. They would also make sure there was no other clothing that could have matched the description of what Gulliver had been wearing on the night Carmella was murdered. Although he had submitted a pair of white Nike trainers, a yellow t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, it didn't necessarily mean he had given the correct ones. Every man and his wife knew they were really looking for earrings.

The lounge smelt of beer cans that had been used as ash trays. Reed doubted Gulliver ever opened the windows for some fresh air, probably because cannabis was too expensive to let the smoke drift outside. There wasn't too much furniture to sort through so Reed left it to the others while he went through to the kitchen.

The kitchen wasn't dirty, it wasn't clean either. The linoleum floor was covered in crumbs and had a greasy feel to it. The crumbs had obviously been swept off the work surface which looked fairly respectable. The cupboard doors had been decorated lightly in grease. Reed opened the drawers and cupboards; it was all a bit bare, and there wasn't even a junk drawer which he had always assumed was standard with any residence. The fridge was stocked well with lager. Chips were equally available in the freezer and there wasn't a lot else in-between.

When Reed turned to leave, Mrs. Cunningham was stood in the doorway. He offered a smile and waited for her to move. She didn't.

“Found any earrings yet?” She asked.

“I have no idea what you're talking about.” Reed replied, letting his smile grow a little. Mrs. Cunningham waited a few seconds before offering a smile of her own and stepping aside slightly, forcing him to squeeze past her. She followed him up to the bedroom to where Tyler and the other two police officers were now searching.

Reed started to feel stupid being here. His outburst at the station was stupid. Now they were searching for something they didn't even know existed. Even if they did, Carmella could have removed them herself and left them at the club to be hoovered up and binned. She could have left them in Gulliver's car and he binned them, threw them in a lake or out of the window as he was driving down the A11. He hadn't exactly shown himself as a truthful person and it might explain his reaction at the station.

“I've got earrings.” One of the officers shouted.

Reed turned to Mrs. Cunningham and gave her his best 'Well would you believe it?' look, but his joy was short lived. There were lots of earrings. Six pairs in total. Unfortunately, they were all still attached to the little velvet boards they were sold on. They were all the same style and colour. On closer inspection, Reed was convinced they matched the Chapman's description of the pair Carmella could have been wearing the night she was murdered. They were all studs with a coloured stone. What was Gulliver doing with all these? Maybe he was planning a few false leads, spread some around the county and let the police waste their time chasing them up.

All the items were bagged up and documented as potential evidence under the watchful eye of Gulliver's solicitor; photos were taken so Mr. and Mrs. Chapman could take a look to see if they looked similar to the ones they thought were missing from Carmella's bedroom.

Reed went outside and had a cigarette as he walked through an alleyway that led to Thetford High Street. Old flint buildings were mixed with new shop fronts. There was a nice buzz of traffic and people were busy going about their business, careful not to make eye contact with anybody. Reed got takeaway coffees for himself and Tyler. He drank and smoked his way back to Gulliver’s flat. Kate was in and out of his head, making it hard to make sense of anything else. He would be thinking of earrings, and then a vision of Kate modeling the pair he had bought her for Christmas would pop into his head, taking his breath away a little.

The earrings that were found at Gulliver's home were taken to the Forensics Department at Wymondham where tests would show if they had ever been worn. If they had, skin cells would hopefully be present so they could get some DNA.

When Reed got back to his office, he locked his door and let himself get swallowed up by the soft black leather chair Kate had bought him a few months back. Was it a guilty gift? He didn't even know how long she had been seeing this new bloke. How did they meet? What was his name? Reed knew they had to sit down and talk about it all but he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear it. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his head of all of the jumble.

For a couple of scary seconds, Reed thought he was being shot at. In fact, if Tyler wasn't peeking through the small square window at the top of his office door, he probably would have ducked for cover. He had drifted off to sleep. She looked frantic, she knocked in quick succession again.

“Are you alright?” Tyler asked as he let her in.

“I was. What do you want?”

“An earring has been found.”

Reed was still waking up. An earring. One. Just like Gulliver had indicated when Reed had had his inspired outburst. ‘The earring.’ Gulliver had said amongst other stuttered words. “Where?” Reed finally got out.