Unravel a Crime - Tangle With Women (27 page)

What was missing were the
complete files that must have existed covering Black’s attempts to act as
selling agent for the properties. If Martin was to be believed they would be
here in this dingy part of the Black Country. The correspondence that Lisa had
discovered had obviously included to try and demonstrate in some way that
Black’s valuations had arisen out of the normal course of business and were not
a forensic exercise for the benefit of the case.

Whoever had made the decision
to include them was either blind or foolish.

Old Hill Police Station had
been built by the Staffordshire Constabulary, at some time in the late 19
^th
century, long before the West Midlands County Council and it’s Police had been
formed. Jonny had regularly come out here to prosecute when working in
Birmingham; it meant profitable travel and subsistence expenses which he did
not get in Birmingham, where he was but a short walk from the Victoria Law
Courts. It also was a refreshing change of scenery.

The Magistrates Court was
immediately next door, and had the words ‘Police Court’ written over the door.
That was the Victorian way of thinking. The Court was there to deal with those
who had been arrested by the Police. In the days when a Defendant could not
give evidence in his defence, he probably stood little chance of the local
worthies who comprised the Magistrates Bench disbelieving the Police Sergeant
who ran the Court.

It had probably been a fine
building when it was first built, but years of industrial grime now made it
look distinctly downmarket. Jonny suspected that it would not be long before it
was closed, and such policing as now existed would probably be carried out from
one of the nearby large towns in the name of efficiency. Old Hill would rarely
see a copper.

Brakespeare pulled into the
yard at the rear, as Lisa had directed. He was sorry that the journey was over.
It had been an enjoyable journey and the conversation had flowed easily.

“
Right here we are; let’s see
what the world has in store for us now.” he announced as he pulled the
handbrake on. They left the car and went round to the front of the Station. It
was dark and dank. There seemed little sign of life as Brakespeare pressed the
button in response to the invitation ‘Please ring for attention’ on the
counter.

It was not long before Durkin
appeared, and Brakespeare recognised him immediately.

“
Hello Jonny mate.” He said.
“Didn’t think I’d see you again. Come through”. He lifted the flap at side the
counter, looking enquiringly at Lisa as he did so.

“
This is my assistant Lisa
Barnes.”

Durkin nodded at her
appreciatively

He led them through the
building and back into the yard. Taking a key out of his pocket he opened what
were once stables for the police horses.

“
Here you are, mates.” Durkin
announced. “All yours.”

The building was stacked with
several times as many boxes of papers as they had received.

“
Do you know what is what?”
asked Lisa

“
Thought you’d ask that.” Said
Durkin, and pulled a sheet of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket. “If
you look each box is numbered on the side and on the top. This is a list of
what’s in them.”

He handed the list to
Brakespeare. It was on National notepaper.

“
You didn’t make this list?”
asked Brakespeare

“
No, it came from the National.”

“
Mick Martin.”

Durkin looked a little
surprised. “You know him.”

“
Of him.”

“
Spoken to him?”

“
Maybe.”

Durkin nodded his head
thoughtfully. He knew to keep at a certain arms length.

“
I’ve not looked in the boxes
myself. Can’t think that there’s anything in them that’s going to alter
anything. Open and shut case – nothing in it. Total waste of time. Do you know
what you’re looking for?”

It was now Brakespeare’s turn
for thought. It would be wrong for him to discuss the case with Durkin, the
officer in charge. On the other hand Durkin had just made it clear that, as Joe
had said, he thought that there was no case to answer – and he was still here
in a declining outpost in the Black Country. Perhaps it would help to put in a
Fifth Column.

Brakespeare turned to the
officer.

“
We’re looking for evidence of
possible fraud by Redshaw, Linden and Steele.”

Durkin gasped.

“
Say that again?”

“
You tell him Lisa. My
assistant here discovered it.”

Lisa threw Brakespeare an
anxious look, but outlined to Durkin what she had found.

“
So Black cannot be an
independent expert, after all.” said Durkin almost to himself. “But whose he
defrauding?”

“
Whoever has paid him his
fees.” Said Brakespeare. “Obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception? We
reckon his valuations are distinctly dodgy – in fact, we don’t think that the
valuations are worth the paper that they are written on.”

“
Can you prove it.”

“
Lisa?” Brakespeare indicated
to the girl that she should recount her original findings. Dutifully Lisa
recounted the contents of her graphs. She had remembered the figures and
percentages, and calmly and scientifically trotted them out to the astonished
Durkin.

“
Well?” asked Brakespeare.

“
You’ve certainly done your
homework,” said Durkin admiringly. “I thought that there wasn’t a case because
there was no evidence that your man Newberry had had anything to do with most
of the valuations, and it also seemed to be his word against Black’s as to what
the values were, but I never thought of doing what you’ve done. Then, I’m just a
time serving woodentop,” he added self deprecatingly.

“
We need people like you to
keep us lawyers in business.” joked Brakespeare.

“
But you say that at the time
that Black was being paid to give valuations to the national, he was also
trying to get commission for finding a buyer?”

“
Looks like it and that’s what
we’ve come to find out; to see if there is any more correspondence which
incriminates him, or rather his firm, because there were more than him involved.”

“
Mind if I have a look with
you?” asked Durkin.

Brakespeare looked at Lisa, as
if she was able to advise him. She looked back blankly at him.

“
Well I can’t see anything
wrong about that.” Brakespeare thought out loud. “After all if we use any
evidence, then the Prosecution are going to see it; or are you going to tell
them first?”

“
Definitely not. I got more or
less thrown off this case, but I might tell the Chief Constable if there’s any
hanky panky been going on with the National. He might be able to use that to
his advantage.”

“
Chinese proverb say ‘Many
hands make light work.’” said Lisa with an innocent look on her face.

“
Right let’s make a start.
Here’s your list, where are the National to Redshaw correspondence files?” he
asked Durkin.

It did not take long for the
files to be identified.

“
You carry on”, said Durkin.
“I’ll make us some tea.”

It was clear that someone had
been through them, because much of the correspondence had been taken out of
it’s retaining tags, and some of it had been placed out of date order, and even
out of context. Only selected bits had been included in the prosecution papers.

“
What do you think?” asked
Lisa.

“
I think that we’ve found what
we are looking for. It’s quite clear from the correspondence that Redshaw
Linden and Steele were actively engaged in trying to sell properties; Black was
more than an independent valuer. I think that we ought to see if we can get
these files copied.”

“
Tea’s up.” Called Durkin’s
voice from the depths of the Station.

“
An invitation we can’t refuse”,
said Lisa. “Come on, we can come back to these later.”

Durkin ushered them into what
must have been his office. It had been lavishly equipped some time soon after
the Second World War, and nothing seemed to have changed. It had the smell that
old offices have; stale tobacco; ink, paper and dirt.

On Durkin’s chipped, stained
but imposing desk was a tray with a large brown teapot and three Staffordshire
Constabulary mugs; Staffordshire Constabulary side plates and a selection of
biscuits.

“
Welcome to Durkin’s domain.
As you can see we’re giving you the red carpet treatment. Take a seat. How do
you like it.”

“
White, no sugar.” Said Lisa.

“
Same” added Brakespeare.

“
Take a seat then, while daddy
serves.” said Durkin, and both sat down on the plain wooden chairs. Durkin
obviously had time on his hands, and the visitors were a welcome interruption
to his day.

“
So, you’ve seen what we’ve
got. What do you want to do?! he asked.

“
Well it hasn’t taken long to
find what we’re looking for, and the rest seems to be just irrelevant.”

“
I thought so too. I don’t
know why the National dumped their scrap paper on us.”

“
So who sorted it. Some of it
we’ve seen before; it’s part of the exhibits.”

“
A couple of women from the
C.P.S. in London spent best part of a week here, almost a year ago. They sorted
what they wanted to copy, and took the copies away with them.”

“
So you have a copier here?”

Durkin laughed. “Yes, don’t
ask me why. It’s the only new thing that this station’s had in the last 20
years. It’s an ‘all bells and whistles’ job. Used to be in Police HQ at Lloyd
House, I’m told. I think they must have replaced it with one with even more
bells and whistles.”

“
Do you think we could use
it.”

“
No problem.”

“
What about paying for the
stuff we want.”

Durkin thought. “Well I
suppose I should ask the Inspector about that, but he’s based in Sandwell.
There’s only me here in the C.I.D department. In fact I am the C.I.D. There’s
only one uniformed copper on each shift, here and he’s out on patrol.”

“
Do you mean that there’s only
two people here at any one time?” asked Brakespeare incredulously.

“
Not necessarily. If we have
to go out, we lock the station up.”

“
But what if you need help.”

“
We just radio Sandwell and
they send someone over. Today I’m in charge, so take as many copies as you
want; make a note of the number of sheets and I’ll send a memo to the
Inspector. You may get a bill for it.” He smiled. “On the other hand, you may
not! Just one thing though.”

“
What’s that asked Jonny.

“
Can I see what you’re
copying. If there’s something going on as you suggested, I’d like to know what
the evidence is.”

Again Brakespeare looked at
Lisa, who shrugged her shoulders.

“
No problem. Can’t see any
secrets to hide.” he said.

“
Not for you to hide perhaps,
but there may be some for the National.”

“
Are you hoping we’ll find
something?”

“
Put it this way, I’m still
stuck here because I did a proper job. I prepared the case, and couldn’t see
that there was any way that your man Newberry should have been charged. I’ve
got a lot of flack for that. So has the Chief Constable, especially now that
the London C.P.S. have taken the case on. I think that the National are just a
little too eager to want someone, preferably your Mr. Newberry, to be nailed
for something. That to my mind means that they’ve something that they want
covering up. If I can find something against them – with your help of course,
then I might, just might, be able to do myself a favour.”

“
Should we be talking like
this?” Lisa asked Brakespeare anxiously.

“
Probably not, but it’s all
off the record isn’t it?” he asked Durkin.

“
We’re not having this
conversation are we. I’ll have to put in a report as to what’s gone on today,
but as far as I’m concerned, I shall be just checking what you have copied and
the number of pages.”

Brakespeare nodded
appreciatively. Durkin was an old hand. He could never have had this
conversation with a young officer trained in political correctness. Both men
were in their different ways, interested in seeing justice done. On behalf of
the Police, Durkin was entitled to know what papers they were copying. If he
had his own motives, that was a matter for him.

They made small talk while
they finished their mugs of strong tea, and ate some of the biscuits, so fresh
that Durkin must have gone out to buy them that morning.

“
Right?” said Durkin. “How are
we going to play this.”

“
Any ideas?” Brakespeare asked
Lisa, as now seemed the habit.

“
Sure,” she smiled. “What we
need to do is sort out those files. The correspondence needs putting back in
chronological order; then we need to make sure that there are no letters
missing from one file which appear on the other, and then take copies of the
files.”