Shape of Snakes

LEAVENHAM FARM, LEAVENHAM, NR

DORCHESTER, DORSET DT2 XXY

Alisdair Fielding

The Office of the Commissioner

London Metropolitan Police

New Scotland Yard

October 7, 1999

Dear Alisdair Fielding,

Please inform the commissioner that, not only do the charges mentioned in your letter fall short of my expectations, but 1 had already foreseen three of them when I encouraged Alan Slater and Michael Percy to be honest with the police. Both men were fourteen years old in 1978, therefore any charges now amount to little more than a technicality unless you intend to try them as adults in a juvenile court. The charge against Maureen Slater is equally valueless, as it will depend on the jeweler's identi fication of her after twenty years.

I presume the commissioner is offering these charges by way of a sop to keep me quiet for another few months while his officers continue the pretense of investigating Ann Butts's murder. If so, he has dangerously underestimated my commitment to justice for my friend. I repeat what I wrote at the beginning of the report I submitted in September: Ann Butts was murdered because a regime of racial hatred and contempt for handicap was allowed to fester unchecked in Graham Road.

I have no intention of letting this rest. Unless you come back to me within a week with more positive news, I will approach the press.

Yours sincerely,

M. Ranelagh