Poisoned Cherries

Chapter 42

I had hoped that my day was done, but no such luck. I had just finished speaking to Susie when the phone rang again. ‘I need to see you,’ said Ricky. ‘There’s been a development on the Anna Chin investigation.’

We agreed to meet half-an-hour later, in the Oxford Bar, where real detectives are supposed to hang out. Ten minutes after that, I knew that it never rains but it pours. Ricky told me that the police had released Corporal Adam Cruikshank, Anna Chin’s paratrooper boyfriend, pending further investigation.

‘He’s got a petrol transaction slip from a filling station in Canonmills,’ he said. ‘The time on it doesn’t prove absolutely that he couldn’t have killed Anna, but he’d have had to be some driver. They still like him for it, but there’s absolutely no evidence to place him at the scene, so until they find some, they’ve had to let him go.’

‘Mmm.’ I muttered. ‘Still, it keeps them away from Alison.’

‘Aye, but. .’ said Ricky, ominously. ‘There’s something else. Even if this lad had found out about his girl and David Capperauld, he couldn’t have killed him. I made some enquiries of a close-mouthed military source of mine. When the boy David was done, Corporal Cruikshank was jumping out of a plane on a training exercise in the Middle East.

‘Only we know about that connection. Only we know about the attempts to set up Alison. They still mean that the same person committed both murders. The police are barking up the wrong tree with the soldier. I can’t tell them that, but sooner or later they’re going to find out.’

The guy with the beard had become my big concern, but he wasn’t my only one; as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t forget about Alison. I had hoped that the corporal was the end of our troubles on that score; now he had been hit on the head as a likely suspect, and she was still a thorn in my flesh.

It wasn’t that I was too worried about her, though. Hell no, I had my own position to think of. After all, Ricky and I had messed up the crime scene and we had hidden information from the police that would have led them straight to the most obvious suspect.

Yes, we had done it for the best of motives. . we believed that Alison was innocent. . and I was cool about that. We had also done it very well, so there was no reason why anyone should ever find out; unless, of course, . and this was my one niggling doubt. . the police found out about David and Anna and put the thumbscrews on Alison herself.

Ricky had told her to deny everything and say nothing else, if it came to that, but still, she was flaky under pressure.

All in all, I reckoned, and I said as much to Ricky, the sooner the real killer was caught the better it would be for everyone.

‘That depends who it is,’ he muttered darkly. The Oxford was busy, as always, but we had wedged ourselves into a quiet corner.

‘What the hell do you mean by that?’ I demanded.

‘The real killer’s got it in for Alison, Oz. He’s done two people and tried to frame her for both of them. To all intents and purposes he succeeded the first time, and if it hadn’t been for a police car being in a traffic accident, she’d be remanded in prison right now, and wouldn’t be coming out again until she was past fifty.

‘Whoever’s done that had a bloody good reason for it; when we find out what it is, we might not like it.’

‘Have you asked her about it? I know you two have been pillow-talking, after all.’

‘Yes, I’ve asked her, as directly as I could. She swears she hasn’t a clue who or what could be behind it.’

‘And do you believe her?’

He looked down into his beer and nodded.

‘If that was me talking,’ I said, ‘you’d bloody laugh at me. You’d go on about the power of the furry purse to blind you to the obvious, and in the end I’d agree with you. Jesus Christ, for years I thought Prim was Mary Fucking Poppins.’

Ricky chuckled. ‘Aye, and that you were Bert the chimney sweep, I suppose. You’re right, though; that’s exactly what I have told myself. And I still believe her. So do you, come to that. You never thought she killed Capperauld, and you know she didn’t kill Anna Chin, because someone set her up to be caught.’

‘Sure, but believing that she doesn’t have a clue why all this has happened, that’s something else.’

‘Nonetheless, I do.’ He finished his pint, went up to the bar and ordered two more. ‘You’re right about something else too,’ he said, when he returned. ‘Two correct in one night; that’s good going for you.’

‘Thanks. What is it?’

‘We do need to catch this character. He knows about the connection between David and Anna; clearly he does, because he’s killed them both. At the moment, as far as we’re aware, he’s the only one who does, but if the police don’t tie in Alison in the next few days, then, sooner rather than later, he’s going to find a way to let them in on the secret.

‘If we allow that to happen, my famous friend, for all I’ve told Alison to act wide-eyed and innocent, chances are we are all waist-deep in the shit.’

‘So where do we begin to look for him?’

‘Stick a pin in a map of the city. That’s as good a way as any in the circumstances. Do you have any bright ideas?’

‘What connects the two killings?’

‘It’s a triangle. That’s what we’re meant to think. Maybe it is. Maybe Alison knew about it from the start. Maybe we’re just a pair of saps and she is just playing us along. Maybe she made those anonymous phone calls to herself. .’

‘And maybe she fixed that accident to the police car?’

‘Yes. At the end of it all, that’s the one lucky break she’s had, and that’s why I believe all the rest of it. So to come back to your question, what connects the two killings?’

‘Torrent.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘He was a client of Alison and David’s; he was Anna Chin’s employer; he was putting pressure on Alison when all this happened. And he’s dodgy in business, as we know from Susie. Yet when I spoke to him, he was as nice as nine euros, handing out treats like he was Scrooge on Christmas Day.’

‘But so what?’

‘But so it’s all we’ve fucking got! We need. . bugger it, you need to get in there and see what you can find. You’re his security consultant; start a complete review in the wake of Anna’s murder, and while you’re at it, look for anything that might help us here.

‘Otherwise, we’re not just waist-deep in the shit. Any minute now the tea-break’ll be over and it’ll be back to standing on our heads.’