Death's Privilege (27 page)

‘Toy with?’

‘It soon turned to extortion. Her boss was a lonely woman, her husband had left her and she took pleasure in screwing around with people. Too old to do it herself, and Leilani was the perfect candidate. By then, she’d got a taste for the cash and her payments weren’t enough. She started taking money from the guys too.’

‘How was she meeting them?’ Sarah found the story a little suspect, and wanted to check some facts.

‘No idea.’

‘Did you meet any of them?’

‘A couple. I went on dates with a couple. It was fun. All I had to do was lead them on, flirt with them and dump them. It was silly, really. We played characters. I was the lonely single mum, she was sometimes a high-flying business woman, a brokenhearted damsel or an upper-class seductress looking for a bit of rough. She was a natural at it. We got a kick out of it. I got paid and we weren’t harming anyone.’

‘I guess this place isn’t rented on inheritance then?’ Sarah had known the answer since the first time they'd met.

‘The only things I bought with honest money are stuffed in those bags.’

‘Seems like a good set-up. What changed?’

‘She couldn’t stop. Wanted more and more, and when they wouldn’t do what she wanted, she decided they had to die.’

‘Scott Enderson?’

‘The gaming nerd?’ Moretti rolled her eyes.

‘Who murdered him?’

‘One of them, I don’t know which.’

‘You called Enderson before he died. Why?’

‘I tried to warn him. He wouldn’t listen. I already had your lot round here asking about that. He was obsessed; Leilani has that effect on men. She found out I tried to stop it and she went nuts. She went out of her way to make it up to me, sorted me and Sheila out the room at the Oxlaine, but I’d seen enough to know I wanted nothing more to do with her.’

‘Who supplied the cocaine?’ Sarah wanted to get as much information out of Moretti, now that she'd finally started being honest.

‘I bought it. I bought it from Dibbles. Not directly, from one of his boys. You can’t buy drugs in this town without buying from him. He’s a jealous fucker, and before you give me a speech about doing the right thing and locking him up, he’s untouchable. There’s only one way to sort out men like him.’

‘Give evidence. Help lock Leilani away at least.’ Sarah knew she wouldn’t convince Moretti that legal methods were the right way to go, but had to give it a try.

Moretti smirked. ‘I can’t go to court, we’ve been through this. I’ve got kids to think about.’

‘Kids?’

‘Kid.’

‘Valerie Goddard, the owner of the Oxlaine and Leilani’s boss, is dead. She poisoned herself and four others. Three victims survived.’ Sarah said the words coldly, but Mark being one of those victims was still very much at the forefront of her mind.

‘Dead?’

‘Died at the hospital.’

‘She’s gone?’

‘You’ve got nothing to fear from either of them.’

‘It’s not that simple. There are others. Others addicted to her money, her way of thinking. People will do anything for money, and men for anything in a short skirt. Going to court won’t change anything. It doesn’t change my decision. I can’t put my son at risk. I’m sorry. It’s bad enough I’ve told you about Dibbles, but I’m guessing you’re already one step ahead of me on that one.’ Moretti stood up and walked towards the door. ‘I need to get going.’

‘Wait. She used a young girl in one of her blackmails. I need to know who she is. If you don’t help with anything else, just tell me where to find her. Please. No records, no statement. Just a name, where she is and how I contact her.’

Moretti stopped. ‘Keep her out of this. Leave it to me. I promise you she’s okay.’

‘Sally, that’s not good enough. She needs our protection.’

‘Your protection? How’s that been working out so far?’

‘She’s a little girl. I need to know she’s safe. It’s something I can’t just take your word for.’

‘You need to promise me she’ll be okay.’ Moretti looked beaten.

‘I’ll do the best I can.’

‘That’s not a promise where I come from.’

‘But it beats lying to you. You know better than I there are never any real guarantees.’

Moretti paused. ‘If I trust you, you let me walk out of here. No arrest. No returning on bail and no court.’

‘If you don’t show up, they’ll issue a warrant. I won’t stop you leaving, but I can’t promise I won’t chase you once you’re gone.’

Moretti paused. Sarah understood her hesitation. Putting her trust in a police officer, after a life of being hounded by them was a big decision. ‘Okay. You’re about to find out all about the person you’re dealing with. If anything happens to her, I’ll hold you personally responsible. And, believe me , that's not something you want.’ Moretti went to the top of the stairs. ‘You can come down. It’s okay. She’s one of the good ones. I think.’

Heart-warming.

Sarah saw a thin pair of legs at the top of the stairs as a young girl descended and came fully into view. She didn’t look at Sarah, just at the floor and occasionally flicked her eyes up to meet Moretti’s smiling face. Sarah hadn’t seen Sally-Anne smile like this since they’d met. They’d only ever been confrontational, all warrants and interview rooms. Sally-Anne playing the villain and Sarah playing the hero. Here, they stood side by side, two mothers looking at a vulnerable child, both wanting the best for her and both thinking they knew what that was.

The girl cradled into Sally-Anne’s shoulder and hid her face from Sarah. She caught a glimpse, a glimpse of a familiar look.

‘Sarah wants to talk to you about what happened. Is that okay?’ The girl sobbed and nodded. She gripped onto Sally-Anne.

‘Hello. I’m Sarah. I just want to talk to you for a moment or two. We won’t go anywhere if you don't want to, we’ll stay right here and Sally-Anne will stay here too.’ She nodded. Sarah moved to the left to try and get some eye contact. She wore an emerald necklace, the same one worn by Sheila Hargreaves the night she died. The girl raised her head and the likeness was devastating.

‘Sarah, meet Poppy White. Taryn’s little sister.’

‘Excuse me, who?’

‘Taryn. Crazy Taryn who you’ve just nicked.’

‘That woman who was about to knock your door through? That was Leilani Hayes.’

Moretti gave her a blank look. ‘No, it’s not. I don’t know anyone by that name.’

Dales stood with another officer at the back of Mavenswood station. Poppy had agreed to come and speak to a member of the Child Protection Team about what had happened. It was a step towards her helping the case, but for now all Sarah cared about was that she was safe. Moretti was gone. Sarah had watched her drive away with her son. According to the rule book, she should have brought her in then and there. Knowing she had no intention of returning for her bail date gave her a power, and a responsibility, to arrest her to prevent her skipping court. She’d traded that for Poppy’s welfare.

Poppy didn’t have much. Everything she owned was in the rucksack Sally-Anne had packed for her, which Sarah held in her hand. Moretti hadn’t mentioned the emerald necklace and Sarah hadn’t asked. Strictly speaking, she should return it to Sheila’s family, but they weren’t likely to want it. Poppy seemed to like it, and it was best she kept it. She’d called Dales and filled him in on the details on the way back.

‘Hello. Poppy, is it?’ Poppy didn’t look at him. Just nodded. Sarah shook her head. Poppy had sat in the back of the Getz in complete silence on the way back. The likelihood of her talking to a strange new man was pretty slim. ‘This is DC Bhaduri. She’s an officer here with the Child Protection Team who wants to talk to you about what happened.’

‘Hi, Poppy. You can call me Asha.’ DC Bhaduri gave a little wave with her right hand. ‘Let’s go upstairs, get you a drink and find somewhere to have a chat.’

‘Okay, Poppy. If you go with Asha, I’ll come and see you soon.’ Sarah mouthed a thank you as they went in the rear entrance of the police station.

‘Asha’s been in CPT for years. She’ll get through to her.’ Dales opened the back door and they walked upstairs.

‘How’s everything going here?’

‘Searches are ongoing. Joel and Hayward are turning over the house. Interview teams are getting ready to go in to get an initial account from Hayes. There are plenty of outstanding actions to be done. MCT are here, which has been a nice little reunion,’ said Dales.

‘I can never tell when you’re being sarcastic. What’s Semples said?’

‘That’s been slow going. We’ve been taking breaks every ten minutes with not much coming out in between. So far, we’ve talked about their history. They go way back and he’s clearly besotted with her. When I go back in, I’m going straight after the difficult answers. More importantly than that, we’ve had the drugs report back. It’s clean.’

‘Clean?’

‘The cocaine Sheila took, in the amounts we suspect she took it, shouldn’t have killed her.’

CID was packed. The power-suited MCT detectives stood out from the rest. Pinstriped navy, slate grey, pitch black. Pink and bright blue shirts, not a standard-issue CID lilac in sight. Wizened men and stern-looking women, all at the top of their game. Uniformed officers put brown paper exhibit bags into clear plastic bags and sealed them with tie-wraps, shouting numbers and times to the youngest-looking team member, who dutifully noted them down. Their sergeant brought out a tray of steaming tea to keep her troops marching. Blue-shirted SOCOs sat at the next pod along, typing their statements and updating notes on crime scene record templates. Food runs had been done and there wasn’t a pod without a plastic box of some sugary snack on the end of it. It was the busiest Sarah had ever seen the office.

She went into the kitchen and put the kettle on. All the cupboards were open and the tea and coffee stashes lined up on the sideboard for everyone to share. Guests in the office would normally pop a few pence in a jar whenever they took a teabag, but with so many officers from across the county here working on the poisoning case, Sarah assumed an amnesty was called given the circumstance. It was a nice gesture, especially so as she was out of red berry tea and C Rota had an entire box full. She made two cups and carried them back to her desk.

‘I’ve updated Manford on Poppy. He’ll set some actions once Asha’s obtained a first account. Leilani’s been further arrested for blackmailing Joel and causing a minor to engage in sexual activity. I let them know about her link to setting up the meeting, so she’s been nicked for that too. MCT are going to put a first account interview into her.’

‘So, what’s next on the list for us?’

‘Sit tight and wait. Manford doesn’t want us getting into anything else if something urgent comes up from the Poppy case.’

‘I can’t just sit here.’ Sarah was eager to keep going. Stopping would only give her the time to reflect on the day, something she didn’t want to do just yet. Given too long to sit and think about it right now would only leave her in a gibbering mess in the corner of the office. She needed to stay busy, stay useful and stay contributing as much as she could. ‘Do you know what name she gave in custody?’ Sarah logged into NSPIS.

‘Leilani Hayes, I expect. Why’d you ask?’

‘Because that’s not her name. Moretti’s known her for years and says it’s Taryn White. She drew a complete blank when I mentioned the name we know her by. Joel said she gave the name Naomi. He thought it was to keep her anonymous on an online dating site. It’s clearly more sinister than that.’ Her NSPIS record confirmed she’d given Leilani Hayes to the custody sergeant.

‘Sarah Gladstone, is it?’ An unusually tall man in a grey suit stood holding an investigator’s notebook by his side.

‘Mike Bosden. Didn’t think I’d see you out this far. Money tight? Having to scam the mileage expenses claims?’ Dales took the opportunity to take a dig at his old colleague.

‘Dales.’

‘Yes, I’m Sarah.’

‘I’m DS Bosden, MCT. I’m on the interview team for Leilani Hayes. We’ve just been down there to talk to her and she’s being belligerent and refusing to come out of her cell.’

‘Sounds about right.’

‘Unless she’s interviewed by you.’

Twenty-Six

‘All you have to do is follow the plan.’ Bosden had given her his interview plan prior to them coming down to custody. It wasn’t like the basic ones she was used to writing. It had detailed timelines, boxes for different topics and all three pages were peppered with bullet points highlighted in various colours. Sarah had spent some time reading through it and was fascinated by the way Bosden organised the information from the case. ‘This won’t be the only time we interview her. This first one is going to be very basic; we’re just going to ask her to account for knowledge of Enderson, Goddard and Hargreaves. If she’s talking, we’ll probe a little more. We’re going to film it too. It’s nothing to be overly conscious about. Once we get started, you won’t even think about the cameras.’ Sarah nodded. ‘Are you okay being in there? We wouldn’t normally put you so close to the suspect, given the nature of the case.’

‘I’ll be fine.’

‘Just so you know, it wasn’t my decision. We don’t tend to pander to suspects. She should be interviewed by whomever we send down and if she doesn’t answer questions because of that, we’ve given her opportunity and that’s the end of it.’ His stone-face suggested he was already fed up with Leilani, and he’d hardly even met her. ‘She’s a suspect for conspiracy to murder, not a diva shouting demands from her changing room.’

Sarah smiled at his analogy. They waited by the custody desk for Sergeant Smith to sign them out some tapes for interview. He handed Sarah a small printed sheet of paper. She signed her name and took two sealed discs from him.

‘You okay with this, Gladstone?’ Sergeant Smith furrowed his brow, seeming to question the decision to let her interview and her ability to do so with one simple facial expression.

‘Yes, I’ve got DS Bosden with me, who I’m sure will steer me in the right direction if needed.’

The solicitor’s room door opened and Mr Bells popped his head into the corridor and shouted they were ready. ‘Ahh. DC Gladstone. Nice to see you again. My client seems very fond of you.’