Backlash (50 page)

‘You do that and I hope she advises you that it would be in your best interests to tell us the truth about everything!’ Langton shouted.

Anna thought that Langton was going to reach over and grab Bradford by the hair and shove his face down onto the table. But before he could launch into another likely scenario of what might have
happened that fatal evening, Bradford began to punch his own chest. His fists smacked hard into his flesh, ape-like, but far from an animal show of superiority, it was a pitiful show, his last
fight, before he broke down and the floodgates opened.

T
he following morning the team gathered in the incident room at 9 a.m. for an update briefing from Mike Lewis and Anna about the previous
day’s interviews and interesting developments concerning Timmy Bradford working at the nightclub in the Mile End Road. The same club that Angela Thornton had been to the night she was
believed to have been abducted and murdered. Langton stayed in Mike’s office, listening to the recorded interviews they had already had with Bradford and preparing for the further interview
with him that was to take place after the briefing.

The interview of Timmy Bradford, again with his solicitor Mary Adams present, started at just after 10 a.m. Anna, Barbara and Joan were all in the viewing room, eager to see if
Langton would finally get Timmy Bradford to tell the truth and confess to his involvement in Angela and his mother’s deaths, but more importantly if he would reveal Oates’s involvement
in the crimes.

‘I tell you, I reckon there’ll be floods of tears again in that room,’ Barbara said with a serious look on her face.

‘Bradford looks pretty calm to me,’ Joan replied.

‘No, not him, bloody Langton if he doesn’t get Bradford to roll over this time!’ Barbara retorted amusingly, causing everyone to laugh loudly.

Mike had turned on the recording equipment and Langton was about to start his questioning when Miss Adams interjected.

‘As you are aware, Detective Langton, I had a lengthy consultation with my client both last night and this morning. He has informed me that he had not told you the truth previously, as he
was afraid of Henry Oates who is clearly a violent and dangerous man. Mr Bradford is now prepared to tell you about both his mother’s and Angela Thornton’s deaths. He is also willing to
give evidence against Oates at trial.’

‘Thank you, Miss Adams, for advising your client to assist us,’ Langton said before again being interrupted by Miss Adams.

‘However, he maintains, and will explain why in detail, that the deaths of both women were not in any way premeditated.’

‘Let’s start with Angela then, Timmy. Tell me about how you met her and the night she died,’ Langton said, and then sat back in his chair, anticipating only partial truths from
Bradford.

‘I was working at the nightclub in Mile End and I’d seen Angela there a few times and I asked her out once but she said she had a boyfriend. Henry knew who she was as well cos I
pointed her out and told him I fancied her.’

‘Where was that?’ Mike asked.

‘The nightclub. I’d got Henry a temporary job there under a false name, cash in hand, while another bloke was off sick. It was to make up for him not getting work at the chalk
quarry. I can’t remember the exact night, but Henry was with me and we’d finished work and were going back to my flat in Bow in my car.’

‘The red Fiesta?’ Mike asked.

‘Yes. I saw Angela by the Mile End Tube Station; she looked drunk and was staggering about, carrying a bottle of alcopop and her shoes. I stopped and asked her if she was okay. She said
she had missed the last Tube home and didn’t have enough money for a cab,’ Bradford told them in a subdued voice.

‘Timmy. I need you to speak up so the recorder picks up everything you are saying,’ Mike told him.

‘Sorry. It’s just so hard because I lied to her. I said I didn’t have any insurance and had been drinking so I didn’t want to risk driving her all the way out to
Epping.’

Langton sat up and leaned towards Bradford, expecting him to say that he and Oates then left Angela in the street and someone else must have picked her up and killed her. He was surprised when
Bradford went on to say that he offered Angela a lift home, thinking at first that she lived locally, and she got in the car. Once in the car she said she lived in Epping so he lied about the
insurance and drinking. He realized how drunk she was and, wanting to take advantage of this, he told her that he had a spare room at his flat and she could stay there for the night and get the
Tube home in the morning.

‘So you coaxed her back to your flat with the intention of having sex with her and no doubt you then plied her with more drink,’ Langton stated and Bradford nodded.

‘She got so drunk she fell asleep on the settee and I carried her through to my bedroom and had sex with her. She didn’t resist though,’ Bradford said in a feeble attempt to
excuse his actions.

‘Did Henry have sex with her as well?’ Mike asked, deliberately avoiding the fact that it was rape for fear of upsetting the flow of Bradford’s account of what happened to
Angela.

‘No, he slept in the spare room and he was still there in the morning when I was panicking and asking him what to do cos I couldn’t wake her up.’

‘So how did you kill her?’ Langton asked, confused by what Bradford had just said.

‘That’s it – I didn’t. Henry came and looked at her and said she must have choked on her own vomit and died. Henry laughed, he thought it was funny, but I wanted to call
an ambulance. He said no way because they would call the police then we’d be arrested for rape and murder.’

Anna and the others were still in the viewing room and it seemed to them that Bradford, although visibly distraught, was holding himself together and probably now telling the
truth, and his further account of what happened explained why Oates had such a strong hold over him.

Bradford went on to say that he had found himself in an unreal place, terrified of being arrested and consumed by guilt about Angela’s death. Oates had told him that he
shouldn’t worry as he would get rid of the body for him but he needed to use his car to do this. Oates had said that by disposing of the body it made them partners and Timmy owed him.
Bradford never knew or asked where the body had been taken and he thought that Oates had since sold the car or burnt it.

Bradford went on to say that after Angela’s death Oates had contacted him five or six times demanding money. He gave him what he could but about two years ago he told
Oates that he had had enough and if Henry didn’t leave him alone he would go and tell the police what had happened to Angela. After reading about Oates’s arrest in the paper, Bradford
was sure it was all going to come out but he figured Oates hadn’t said anything about it as he was never arrested and was not asked about Angela when DCI Travis came to see him or when he was
asked about the quarry incident at the police station.

Langton decided that it was time to move on to the death of Bradford’s mother, Mrs Douglas.

‘Thank you, Timmy, for telling us about what happened to Angela Thornton, but I now want to move on to the death of your mother. Do you want to continue or would you like a short break to
compose yourself?’ Langton asked.

‘No, thanks. I had been running up gambling debts and I was two grand in debt to a loan shark so I asked my mum if I could borrow some money to pay him off but she refused to help
me.’

‘When was this?’ Langton asked.

‘A day or so before Henry escaped and came to the flat. I was desperate, so while Mum was out I phoned the bank and said that she wanted me to make a withdrawal on her behalf and I asked
what they needed for me to do this.’

‘The cashier said she spoke with your mum for her password and approval,’ Mike informed Bradford.

‘That was me pretending to be her. She kept her bank stuff and password in her bedside table. She obviously guessed I was up to something cos that night she searched my room and found the
letter of authority that I had made up and signed in her name.’

‘Did this lead to an argument?’ Langton asked, wanting to cut to the chase.

‘Yes, in the living room. She was shouting and swearing at me and telling me to get out. I pleaded with her and said I was sorry and she came right up to me, face to face, and said that as
long as she lived she never wanted to see me again and she slapped me.’ Bradford went silent and started to cry.

‘What happened then, Timmy?’ Mike asked.

‘I gently pushed her away; she tripped over the rug and fell backwards. Her head hit the window ledge and then she just slumped onto the floor. There was no blood coming from her head. I
thought she had passed out. I tried but I couldn’t wake her up.’

‘Why didn’t you call an ambulance?’ Langton asked.

‘She was just lying there like Angela. I knew she was dead so I put her in her nightdress and then in her bed. I was going to call her doctor in the morning and say she must have died in
her sleep,’ Bradford replied, staring at the floor with more tears streaming down his cheeks.

‘So if she was already dead before Oates escaped and you let him into your mum’s flat, you must have agreed to help him when he rang you at 3 a.m.,’ Mike said.

‘Not at first. Henry was hysterical and said he was on the run and needed a place to stay. I lied and told him my mother was in hospital after a heart attack but he phoned again and made
threats about Angela, saying that he had kept her gold bracelet and the police had found it, so I went and picked him up in Soho,’ Bradford told them.

‘I have to say, Timmy, as unbelievable as it all sounds I doubt you’d be capable of making it up. What I’d like to know is how the hell your already dead mother was found
hanging in the bathroom?’ Langton asked, trying to keep up with Bradford’s astonishing account of what had happened.

Bradford told Langton and Mike that he hadn’t wanted Oates to see his mother’s body, because he would yet again have another hold over him, so he removed the bath
panel and laid her on a dressing gown behind the panel before borrowing a friend’s car and picking Oates up in Soho. Then on the way back to the flat he told Oates that while his mother was
ill in hospital he had made an arrangement with the bank to withdraw ten grand and he would give Henry half of it to help him get out of the country.

‘What on earth were you going to do with your mother after Oates left?’ Langton asked incredulously and looked at Mike, who seemed as confused as he was.

‘Well, it was all happening so fast I wasn’t sure. At first, if Henry took the money and left, I was going to call the police and say that he had tied me up but I escaped and then
found my mother hanging from the pulley and you would think he had killed her.’

‘You said “at first”, so the second option was . . .?’

‘Kind of forced upon me when you lot nabbed me after I got the money from the bank.’

Both Langton and Mike noticed the change in Bradford’s demeanour. He had stopped crying and was smiling as he went on to explain how, even after they had apprehended him at the Kingston
Lodge Hotel, he still tried to turn the tables on Oates and frame him for his mother’s murder. Langton and Mike were initially confused about the telephone call Bradford had with Oates from
the hotel, but all was revealed as Bradford explained that although Oates had said he was edgy, the clock was ticking, and he might kill someone, Henry wasn’t referring to Timmy’s
mother as he thought she was in hospital, and the same thing when Timmy said at the flat that he wanted to see his mother. Langton was annoyed with himself as it dawned on him that it was after
Oates had put the phone down that Bradford started pleading for him not to kill his mother. Langton realized that Timmy Bradford, like Oates, was not as stupid as he looked – they were both
streetwise quick thinkers.

Insult was added to injury for Langton as Bradford explained that Oates had never threatened him, other than about Angela’s death, and when Henry was taking his time
counting out the money he had gone to the bathroom and removed his mother’s body from behind the bath panel and hung her from the pulley with her dressing-gown cord. He took the stepping
stool from the kitchen and put it beside his mother. Bradford went on to say that he knew the police would soon burst in as he saw the camera drill start to come through the wall, so he went back
into the living room, knowing that Oates had already said he would tie him up and leave after he had dyed his hair. He had figured that even if Oates denied murdering his mother the police would
never believe him and not only would he be rid of Oates for ever but he would get his mother’s money as well. He said that he had even considered stabbing and killing Oates at one time and
saying it was self-defence, but he didn’t have the bottle to physically murder someone.

At the conclusion of the interview Langton informed Bradford that he would be charged with the murders of Angela Thornton and his mother, and also with perverting the course of justice and
harbouring Henry Oates.

‘I swear I didn’t mean to kill them, it was accidental.’

‘Well it won’t be accidental if a jury convicts you of murder, Mr Bradford!’ Langton said as he got up and left the room.

It had been yet another exhausting day full of surprises. Langton, although irate that Timmy Bradford had had him over, more than once, was nevertheless pleased that he and
Mike Lewis had finally got out of him what seemed, as amazing as it was, to be the truth. Certainly the post mortem results confirmed to a large extent that his account of his mother’s death
was true, and where Angela was concerned he did not appear to be a cold-blooded killer, and ironically this might be something that Oates could confirm.

Now it was time for the final onslaught: the last interview with Henry Oates, before having him formally charged with all the other murders they had uncovered as well as
perverting the course of justice by disposing of Angela Thornton’s body. Armed with the new information from Bradford, the team began to prepare for the final interview.