Beyond Evil

Chapter Fifty-Four

Horne looked to Murch.

‘So go on, I’m listening,’ Sheldon repeated. ‘Why now?’

Murch and Horne exchanged glances, until Murch held out his hands in a gesture to continue.

Horne sighed. ‘Amelia called us,’ he said. ‘It was last week. She said she was worried about Abbott, but she wouldn’t tell us why. She just said we had to get him out. She seemed agitated. No, more than that. She seemed scared.’

Sheldon remembered what Charlie had said, that the calls had been made after she had spoken to Billy Privett.

‘You had no idea at all about why she was worried?’

‘No. There was something wrong, we knew that, but if Abbott had contacted her, she would have told us, because he would have contacted her in order that she could pass it on. Or he could have called us directly. We could have gone up there and pulled him out, and we were talking about doing that.’

‘How?’

‘Just go up there and arrest him. Produce a fake warrant, for non-payment of fines or something.’

‘So why didn’t you?’

Horne looked at Murch, who was silent, with his arms folded.

‘Because we weren’t sure,’ Horne said. ‘We thought that perhaps Abbott was biding his time, so as not to attract attention.’

‘But Amelia’s call came last week. What has changed? Why this week?’

Horne started to look more nervous. He rubbed his thumb on the palm of his other hand, as if he was trying to rub some dirt away.

Sheldon stepped closer. ‘No more bullshit,’ he said, his voice quieter. ‘I want the full story. This is cop-to-cop, so it stays confidential, but I want to know.’

The two men exchanged shrugs and raised eyebrows, and then Horne relented.

‘Amelia called us again, the morning it was discovered that it was Billy Privett who had died. She told us that Billy had called her the day before, said that he was going to keep out of the way for a while, that he was going to that hotel. On the way into work, she saw the police cars there. When she tried to call him, she got no reply. So she called us. She was angry now, and more scared. Someone had tried to break into her office. So we went to see her.’

Sheldon thought back to what he had been told, that the two men in suits had been seen coming out of Amelia’s office, and they had gone looking for Charlie in his home.

‘You found Amelia’s body, didn’t you?’ Sheldon said.

They both nodded.

‘And then you broke into Charlie Barker’s home.’

They nodded again.

‘We were worried for him as well,’ Horne said. ‘We tried his phone, but it was switched off, and so we kicked in his door to find him. Except that when we got in there, we saw him running away.’

‘He thought you were after him,’ Sheldon said. ‘He didn’t know who you were.’ When neither Horne nor Murch said anything, he continued, ‘What did Amelia tell you at her office?’

‘Not enough,’ Horne said. ‘She said she had specific instructions from Billy. She was to disclose what Billy had told her, but everyone had to find out at the same time.’

‘Why?’

‘Maximum effect, I suppose. She said there wasn’t too much of a rush, because Billy was dead.’

‘Except she hadn’t planned on herself being in danger,’ Sheldon said. ‘Amelia had prepared copies for the local police, and the BBC, the local paper, and to Ted Kenyon. Billy knew he was in danger. He feared for his life. Billy’s instructions were to send this out if he was killed, so that the truth wouldn’t stay silenced. Billy was scared, that’s all. That’s why he stayed quiet.’

‘So why hasn’t anyone received them? They must have been sent yesterday?’

Sheldon gave a rueful smile. ‘Her secretary didn’t realise the importance, because Amelia hadn’t told her what they were, and so she just didn’t get round to sending them. Mason’s group pinched the discs.’ Then something occurred to him. ‘You don’t seem surprised.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Your involvement with Amelia was to get John Abbott into the group. That had no connection with Billy Privett.’

‘We didn’t know at first, but then when Amelia called us after Billy was killed, we started to wonder about it. When Amelia was killed, well, it became more than a guess.’

‘So why didn’t you tell me?’ Sheldon snapped. ‘I was in charge of the Billy Privett investigation then. You should have come to me.’

Horne started to say something, and then he stopped and looked at the floor.

Sheldon stepped closer. ‘It was time to cover your arse, wasn’t it?’ he said, glowering. ‘You’d lost your undercover man, and so you thought that if Henry’s group had killed Billy Privett, then perhaps Abbott had taken part. How close am I?’

Horne nodded but didn’t look up. ‘Too close.’

‘So you let them stay free because you were protecting your department?’ Sheldon said, incredulous. ‘They killed Amelia the next day. If you had passed this on, we could have locked them up straight away. Amelia would have been alive.’

‘I know,’ Horne said, all the resolve gone in his voice.

Sheldon sat back down on the windowsill, shaking his head.

‘Chief Inspector Dixon,’ Sheldon said. ‘She has looked worried the last couple of days. Is that why? She let you onto her patch and you’ve caused mayhem?’

Horne shook his head. ‘Dixon doesn’t know about Abbott.’ He exhaled noisily. ‘You might as well know. Dixon couldn’t know about Abbott.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because Dixon’s daughter is with the group.’

Sheldon paled. He remembered how Dixon acted when he brought Lucy into the station, when everyone thought she was Billy’s housekeeper.

‘It was Dixon who arranged for Lucy to be seen with Ted Kenyon,’ Sheldon said, trying to work it out through his head. Now, it seemed clearer. ‘It was done to stop him campaigning and getting too close to the truth. She was protecting her daughter.’

‘That’s how we read it now,’ Horne said, ‘but we hadn’t known there was any connection with Billy Privett.’

Sheldon went to the door. Before he got there, he turned round and said, ‘What’s the name of Dixon’s daughter?’

‘Gemma,’ Horne said. ‘Gemma Dixon.’