Meanwhile, on Mia’s
advice, Cleo and Daphne had moved from the canteen to the observation room next
to Greg’s office. Gary and Greg would interview Collins there.
“What were you doing there?”
Gary asked.
“Claiming what is now
mine,” said Collins.
“Really? You’ll have
to explain that.”
“He did not pay his
fees. He owed me a lot of money.”
“That does not entitle
you to the house, Dr Collins,” said Greg.
“I had an agreement
with Fish and he broke it.”
“Can you prove that?”
Gary asked.
“Can you prove
otherwise?” said Collins.
“Which bank paid you?”
said Gary.
“A proxy,” said
Collins.
“Offshore, I presume.”
“Until recently.”
“And then?”
“Nothing.”
“If Fish was insolvent,
his estate will reveal it, but you can’t jump the guns by claiming his
property, Dr Collins. You’ll have to take your turn with the other creditors.”
“That would be the
first time,” said Collins.
“Come on. If Fish
could not pay his bills, his cashflow must have hit a hitch. Fish’s illegal
activities at the house on the Oxford road will be scrutinized as soon as the
murders of Irene and Maureen have been cleared up, and it now seems that you
were deeply involved as well. Investigating the dead is difficult. We should
have more success with your dealings, Dr Collins, especially your plan to take
on the trafficking of young women.”
“Why should I do that?
I’m a lawyer, not a pimp.”
Greg thought Gary was
taking too long to ‘warm up’ the suspect, as Collins now was. Collins was
pursuing his own line. Greg knew that defence lawyers often resorted to thought
experiments. Was Gary falling for this one?
“Fish was bankrupt,”
Collins insisted. “I don’t think he would have neglected to pay me if he had
been able to. He knew how much I knew about him.”
“And condoned, Dr
Collins,” said Greg. “And that is a criminal offence. But you say he did not
pay you, but instead moved his assets to somewhere you could not get at them.
I’m inclined to think you are spinning us a yarn on that, too.”
“Were you bluffing
about the offshore account?” said Gary.
“No. I helped to
install one and managed it for him.”
“Very convenient,”
said Gary. “So you knew what was in it and could actually help yourself.”
“That was how he paid
me until recently. The little skunk had found somewhere else to keep his money.”
“And to stop your
hands from getting into the till,” Nigel chipped in, unable to resist a comment
aimed at this unbelievably arrogant, corrupt lawyer.
“So you kept an eagle
eye on Fish’s cash reserves, did you?” said Greg, “and the self-service
arrangement collapsed, on the basis of which you were going to help yourself to
the house.”
“Not just to the
house, Greg. To the business!” said Nigel. “Illegal prostitution is more
lucrative than the even the most corrupt legal dealings.”
Gary and Greg
exchanged glances. Had Nigel hit the nail on the head? It would explain why
Collins had gone to the house. He needed to take control of the ‘business’ and
get things moving again. Did Ivan and Olaf know what he was planning?
As far as Collins’s
claims were concernd, the idea that a gangster had installed an offshore
account from which his lawyer, who had helped him to imstall that account,
could pay himself was so unlikely that you could not have invented it.
“Let’s recapitulate,
shall we?” Gary proposed.”You mentioned Fish’s offshore account even though it was
empty. Why would you do that, Dr Collins? What sort of game are you playing?
Did you empty it? Was the guy too late to rescue his ill-gotten gains?”
“No,” said Collins.
“I’ve told you what happened.”
“Honestly?” said Gary.
Collens was getting
nervous. He had shot his mouth off. He had not needed to mention that offshore
account. His one-upmanship was not impressing these cops. They were looking for
a more believable ulterior motive, as well they might.
***
Cleo thought that, too.
Daphne was amazed that Fish was had
nothing in the bank. She had thought he was the rich guy she had dreamt of
meeting one day. Cleo told her that was a fairytale and she should stop
believing in it for all time.
***
“Of course, knowing
that Mr Fish was about to declare insolvency makes you a suspect, Dr Collins,” said
Greg, determined not to let the case slip entirely into Gary’s hands.
“If I had wanted him dead,
I suppose it would,” said Dr Collins. “But there is no future in killing off
clients who are unwilling to pay for services rendered. There are better ways
of addressing the problem, such as acquiring their businesses – the legal ones,
of course.”
“I’m surprised Fish
had any,” said Nigel.
“And that’s what you
were doing at the house, is it?” said Gary.
“Right in one,” the
lawyer replied.
***
“I think it’s time for
at least one of Fish’s acolytes to join the discussion, Nigel,” said Gary.
“Which one?” Nigel
wanted to know.
“Who are you talking
about?” Collins asked.
“You’ll see,” said
Gary. “Drink another coffee while we wait.”
To Nigel he indicated
that Ivan the barman would be first on the carpet.
“Is your coffee doped?”
said Collins.
“No. But we can lace
it with something fortifying if you prefer.”
“Cognac or Bourbon?”
Greg said, reaching into the cupboard where Gary used to keep a store of the
hard stuff.
“Cognac,” said
Collins.
***
Collins was wary of
what he said when Ivan Davis entered the room. Daphne was horrified. Cleo held
her back only with difficulty from flying into the office to confront Ivan.
“Oh, it’s you,” said
Collins.
“Yes me. Your hireling,
remember?” said Ivan.
“What do you mean by
that?” said Gary.
“It’s not the first
time he has forced me to do something,” said Ivan.
“Shut up,” said
Collins.
“I’m coming clean,”
said Ivan.
“Shut up, I said.”
“Take this person out
of the room and watch over him,” said Gary. “My colleague will show you where,
Dr Collins. His former office is now vacant.”
After that short hiatus,
Gary judged that Ivan was under such pressure that he would actually want to
reveal what had been going on.
“I see you’ve reached
the right decision,” said Gary. “For starters, I’m arresting you for the murder
of Maureen Bishop. It can’t get any worse, can it?”
That was too much for
Daphne. She bounced into Greg’s office and made for Ivan.
“Yes it can,” she
screamed.
Nigel tried to calm
her down, but she was hysterical.
“You didn’t tell me
the gun was loaded with live bullets,” she said. “You skunk. You said I was to
trust you!”
Ivan laughed nastily.
This was pure theatre, mused Gary. Cleo followed Daphne into the office.
“Sorry I wasn’t fast
enough to stop her,” she said.
“I’m glad my chief
adviser came in,” said Gary, resisting the temptacion to embrace his ‘chief
adviser’. “The rest is formality, isn’t it, Mr Davis?”
“The girl wanted Ronnie
punished anyway,” said Ivan, as if that would help his defence.
“I’m not a girl. I’m
20,” Daphne protested.
Cleo mused that people
under stress could swoop on trivialities even if their situation was dire.
“Meaning Maureen,”
said Ivan, adding what amounted to a confession.
“What a pity your
defence lawyer is not here,” said Nigel to Ivan.
“I did not pay
Collins. He paid me,” said Ivan.
“For what?” said Gary.
“Killing off potential witnesses?”
“Did you do that?”
gasped Daphne.
”I left you out, you
silly bitch,” Ivan retorted.
“That’s right. Go the
whole hog, Mr Davis. You have nothing to lose,” said Gary.
“Why don’t you tell us
what happened that day?” said Cleo in a rather seductive tone.
“You mean that I
should confess?” Ivan replied, looking hard at this halfcast who seemed almost
to be on his side.
“If it’s a confession,
spit it out,” said Cleo a little more firmly, thinking of the mincemeat Dorothy
would have made of questioning Ivan. For someone deeply involved in a criminal
organization he was surprisingly naïve.
***
“You tell me,” said
Ivan.
“Did you have a reason
to kill Ronnie fish, or were you acting only for Collins or Daphne?” Gary
asked. “Like killing two birds with one stone.”
“He didn’t use a stone,”
said Daphne, who had lost the plot.
“So you tell us what
happened, Daphne,” said Cleo. “I know you want to get it off your chest.”
Daphne automatically
clutched her bosom. In her own mind she was still a Barbie doll.
“Ivan said Collins had
been in touch and told him to play cops and robbers,” said Daphne.”The idea was
to scare Ronnie, but I didn’t know what for.”
“What for, Mr Davis?”
“He did not pay any of
us for many weeks. And he had sacked me for no given reason.”
“That’s not enough of
a reason,” said Gary.
“What did you do,
Daphne?” said Cleo.
“All of a sudden he
was stretched out face down on the pavement.”
“That was after you
shot him, wasn’t it?” said Cleo.
“Yes, Miss. He was all
bloody.”
“Why did you do it,
Daphne?” said Cleo.
“I thought it was a
game,” the young woman insisted. “Honestly.”
“I hope the judge
believes you,” said Gary, turning back to Ivan.
“Do you have anything
to add to the story, Mr Davis?”
“Olaf loaded the gun.
He must have put the live bullets in.”
“Not a very good
defence, Mr Davis, since you dosed Fish with a lethal dose of that nerve drug.
He would have died anyway.”
***
Gary turned to Nigel,
who had sat himself down at his cornert table and was scratching away at notes.
“I’ll talk to Olaf
now, Nigel,” said Gary.
Turning back to Daphne
and Igor he anouned that he was arresting them both for the murder of Ronnie
Fish.
“The security officers
will take you down to the cells,” he added, ignoing Daphne’s screeching
protests that she was not guilty, and Ivan’s attempt to shut her up before she
accused him any more blatantly. “You can ask for a lawyer, but not for Collins.
He will be otherwiae occupied.”
“What’s going to
happen to him?” said Daphne, who was now tearful and subdued.
“If you can prove he told
you to kill or harm Ronnie Fish, it will help your case,” said Cleo.
Ivan and Daphne were
led away. Daphne tried to hold Ivan’s hand, but it was shaken off. No chance of
them swopping alibis or excuses in future. That love affair was over before it
started.
***
With the assassination
pair out of the way, Olaf was brought in by a security guard.
Gary wasted no time on
niceties. Niegel went back to his table and started a fresh page.
“Why did you put live
bullets in Daphne’s gun, Mr Lewis?” Gary started, determined not to hold the questioning
for a minute longer than he had to.
“Who told you that?”
said Olaf. “That little hooker?”
“Does it matter who
told me? I think we can assume that was you who loaded the gun. Did you have
any particular reason?”
Gary should be excused
for asking that seemingly innocent question. The questioning was leading
nowhere.
“I did not know she
was about to shoot Ronny,” said Olaf.
“Didn’t you know about
Ronnie’s financial problems?”
“Of course I knew.”
“You also knew that
Daphne got mad at Ronnie because he had not awarded her the attention she
wanted.”
“She only wanted his
cash,” said Olaf. “She moved on to me after that and I decided to let her
escape.”
“So she was being kept
at the house against her will, was she?”
“Not her. I told you she
wanted Ronnie and he did not respond thee way she wanted. After that she she
tried me. We had a good reason to let her go, quite apart from her making a
nuisance of herself,” Olaf said.
“I’m curious,” said
Gary.
“She was a very poor
hooker. The clients complained about her.”
“So it all had to be
sweetness and light at Fish’s house,” said Cleo. ”Untalented hookers were
disposed of, one way or another.”
“Daphne did not have
the right attitude. Hookers don’t love their managers.”
“She wasn’t a hooker
before was sold to the Fish establishment by Mr Black, Mr Lewis,” said Cleo.
“Jet Black was only
paid to make suggestions.”
“Really?” said Gary.
“So his trafficking of young women was only making suggestion, was it?”
“Daphne was easy prey,
he had told me over the phone,” said Olaf.
“It gets nastier every
minute,” said Cleo.
“So Daphne played the
system without knowing what that meant, and presumably because she was high,”
said Gary. “And you are innocent, I suppose. Providing a silly young woman with
a gun and then loading it with live bullets was presumably an innocent gesture
from a compassionate friend, was it?”
“You could put it like
that,” said Olaf. “The drugs are innocent pick-me-ups, designed to light the
fires, as it were. Daphne did not have any fires to light.”
“Did you know that
Ronnie Fish was going to be assassinated with that gun?” Greg asked, mainly so
as not to be let out of Nigel’s report.
“No.”
“What else don’t you
know?” said Cleo.
***
“I think we’ve
finished the questioning, Mr Lewis,” said Gary. “For the time being I’ll arrest
you for being an accessory to the murder of Ronne Fish.”
“But I wasn’t,” said
Olaf, for the first time dropping the air of unconcern that he had adopted.
“Prove it,” said Gary.
“Prove that you were not in league with Jasper Collins to take over Fish’s
establishment by rendering him bankcrupt.”
Olaf had not reckoned
with this twist.
“It was Jasper’s
idea,” he blurted out.
”Now we’re getting
there. Would you like to explain in more detail?”
“He called the tune,” said
Olaf. “Ivan was sacked for cooking the books.”
“And that insensed him
so much that he was willing to get rid of his boss, I expect,” said Cleo.
“You knew it would,
didn’t you, Mr Davis?”
“I thought Ronnie’s
and my rejection of Daphne would be helpful, but I did not tell them to kill
Ronnie. Bankruptcy would have been enough to get him out.”
“You didn’t tell them,
But Jasper Collins did, and you will have a hard time proving that you were not
involved.”
***
“That’s it then,” said
Gary, when Olaf had been taken to an arrest cell.
“You’ll have to arrest
Collins,” said Nigel. “Get the job done, Gary, then we call move on.”
“You’re right, Nigel.”
***
Without any kind of
preamble Gary arrested Jasper Collins for the murder of Ronnie Fish.
“You’ll have to prove
it and you can’t,” said Collins.
“We can,” said Gary.
Collins burst out
laughing.
“No one can prove
anything, Mr Cop. You are deluded,” said Collins as bracelets were slipped onto
his wrists.
“Not quite as deluded
as you, Dr Collins,” said Gary. “Take him away!”
***
“What a nasty piece of
work,” said Nigel.
“He’d likr us to think
he’s as mad as a hatter, but he isn’t,” said Cleo. “He’ll plead insanity and he
won’t be the first to get away with it. I expect he’s groomed enough clients to
know how.”
“He won’t get Olaf on
his side, Cleo, because that would implicate him,” said Gary.
“He almost had me
brainwashed,” said Greg. “Congratulations, Gary. I was wrong to think you were
intruding in my job.”
“Don’t mention it,
Greg. I quite enjoyed it!”
“Nobody else did,”
said Nigel.
"I beg to differ," said Cleo. "But we are all glad to see the back of those guys."
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