Tennison

Chapter thirteen

On the return journey to the station Bradfield stopped at Old Street Magistrates’ Court. Jane waited in the car whilst he spoke with one of the magistrates who, after hearing his information on oath, signed and issued a search warrant for the Collinses’ house and car.

Bradfield got back into the driving seat and handed Jane the search warrant. ‘OK, what made you suspicious about the car?’ he asked.

‘To be honest I wasn’t actually sure if there would be a car in the garage.’

‘Just answer the question.’

She started to explain about needing the bathroom, and how she had gone upstairs because the vicar was using the one downstairs. He impatiently pushed her to get to the point.

‘At first I went into the master bedroom by mistake, and I noticed a few framed photographs on the dresser. One was of Mr Collins standing beside a red car which at a glance looked like a Jaguar, but when I took a closer look I realized it wasn’t. Then I remembered you asking him what vehicle he drove.’

‘He said it was an old Bristol that belonged to his father.’

‘I’d never seen a Bristol car before today, and it made me think that, maybe, Eddie Phillips was mistaken.’

‘Listen, I’d appreciate it if you kept this between us — I should have asked him what colour his car was and I should have picked up on the similarities in shape when Mr Collins told me he owned a Bristol.’

Jane nodded in agreement to his request and he remarked that it would be a positive move forward if they got a match on the Bristol car’s carpet to the fibres on Julie Ann’s body.

Jane hesitated before continuing. He’d leaned over so close she felt the need to move away from him a fraction.

‘There’s another bedroom next to the master bedroom which must be Julie Ann’s.’

‘You had a look in there as well?’ he asked, somewhat surprised.

‘No... I really needed the bathroom.’

‘Is there a point to this apart from your bladder?’

‘Yes, sir, there’s a box room, which I thought would be the bathroom, but it wasn’t.’

‘Get on with it.’

‘The box room contained a small single bed and a wardrobe, but I didn’t have the time to look round. As I closed the door I noticed four screw marks on the outside and two sort of straight-line indentations. Also on the doorframe at the same height were two more screw marks. I had a closer look and—’

‘Don’t tell me, you couldn’t hold it in any longer and had an accident?’ he said, exasperated by her waffling.

She was offended by his remark as she was being serious. ‘No I did not. I wondered if there were similar marks on the inside as well so I had a quick look. No screw marks but quite a few rubber scuff marks and scratches, like someone had been trying to kick the door open.’

He looked at her. ‘From the sound of it that door had a lock on the outside at some time.’

‘Yes, that’s exactly what I thought, sir. Most likely to keep someone locked in. I wondered if that’s where Julie Ann had been kept while she was missing for the two weeks before her body was found.’

He leant back against the seat. ‘Well, that puts a whole new perspective on the case. George Collins was really having a go at me about not finding his daughter’s killer or coming up with any new evidence. I never got so much as a hint that he or his wife could be involved. If they are they’ve both lied from day one.’

Jane thought of her discussion with Dr Harker. ‘Sometimes the guilty use anger, criticism or confrontation to detract from their guilt and the suspicion of others. They are even capable of weeping, not for the crime they have committed but for themselves.’

Bradfield smiled. He knew she was repeating Harker’s words.

‘Don’t treat everything you read or hear as gospel — people don’t all react in the same way and I find it hard to believe his wife’s grief is in any way a cover.’

‘What about his, though?’ Jane asked cautiously.

Bradfield said nothing. He made no acknowledgement of her input and sat staring ahead as he drove, mulling over his interaction so far with George Collins. He suddenly turned, took his hand off the gear stick and patted Jane’s knee.

‘When I told him we believed his daughter was dead he seemed shocked and distressed. Then when he left the room to go upstairs I thought he was going to collapse and I just got to him before he toppled over. If he was acting it was an Oscar-winning performance. Also there’s that scene at the mortuary, hurling the chair? If you are right he had to have known all along she was dead, which means he fucking locked her up in the bedroom, gave her a good beating with something then strangled her before dumping the body.’

‘Do you think he raped her as well?’

‘God forbid, but it’s possible. I have to say that was the most opportune piss you ever needed.’

She didn’t find it amusing, but had no time to reply as he pulled into the station yard, screeched to a halt, grabbed the warrant from her hand and was out of the vehicle like a shot, heading for the incident room.

Striding in, Bradfield asked Kath where everyone was. She replied that they were all out on enquiries by the Regent’s Canal, or on their way to Coventry. As Jane came in behind him he told her to go back downstairs and arrange for a uniform officer to be on standby to drive them to the Collinses’ house. He also wanted her to use the control-room radio and get two detectives to park up near the Collinses’ house and notify him when the guests were all gone.

‘Yes, sir. Which two officers do you want?’

‘I don’t give a toss — any two will do. I’ll be in my office and get someone to bring me a coffee,’ said Bradfield, raising his voice, impatient now to search the house.

Just over an hour passed before all the guests were gone. Jane was about to inform Bradfield when he walked in snapping an elastic band between his fingers as he approached her.

‘I want you on the search to deal with Mrs Collins as she’s likely to have a nervous breakdown when she hears why we’re there. Here, for you — tie your hair back, Veronica.’

He flicked the elastic band onto her desk and she looked at him, puzzled.

‘Veronica Lake was a movie star who always had her long hair loose. Oh never mind, she was well before your time anyway,’ he said, and went to his office to get his jacket.

Kath looked over with raised eyebrows.

‘Getting on well with the guv, I see? Sergeant Harris’s nose will be even more out of joint. What exactly is the big development?’

Jane was collecting her bag from the drawer and was about to explain everything to Kath when she heard a loud whistle from the corridor and Bradfield’s voice.

‘Come on, come on, let’s go, Veronica!’

When they arrived at the Collinses’ house there were no cars in the drive and the garage door was shut. Bradfield spoke with the two detectives assisting him and they all walked up the path together. He rang the doorbell and stepped back with the warrant in his hand. The sound of a dog barking went on for a few moments before George Collins opened the door. He was wearing an apron and rubber gloves, and looked taken aback. Bradfield explained that he had a search warrant and that he needed to speak to him.

‘It really isn’t convenient — my wife is sleeping and I have to finish the washing up. We’re both very tired—’

‘I’m sure you’d rather I spoke with you here than down at the station, Mr Collins,’ Bradfield said in a stern manner as he stepped into the house forcing Mr Collins to move backwards.

‘What’s happening? Is this to do with my daughter? Have you got some new information?’ Collins asked nervously.

Bradfield didn’t answer his question but introduced the two detectives and told the uniform officer to remain by the front door. Jane thought it strange that a clearly agitated Mr Collins didn’t even ask why they wanted to search his house. He just led them into the living room which had now been cleared of all the glasses and dirty plates.

He started to remove his apron. ‘I won’t be a moment. I need to let the dog out as he scratches at the door.’

Bradfield made him even more uneasy as he followed him into the kitchen where there was a small white elderly terrier who yapped for a moment before he was put out into the garden. Mr Collins removed his rubber gloves and tossed them onto the side of the sink. Rows of wine glasses had been rinsed and neatly placed on the draining board ready to be dried.

As they both returned to the lounge Mr Collins rolled down his shirtsleeves, buttoning the cuffs.

‘My wife is sleeping,’ he repeated, looking as if he didn’t really understand what was going on.

‘My officers need to search Julie Ann’s room.’

He looked surprised. ‘Why?’

‘We didn’t do it before because she hadn’t been home for over a year. It’s just in case there are any little notes, bits of paper, etc — anything that might help us track down her killer as it could have been someone she’s known for years.’

Collins said her room was second on the left upstairs and sat nervously on a wing chair by the fireplace, his bony hands clenched together.

A relaxed Bradfield gestured for Jane to sit on the sofa as he stood in front of the fireplace. She was interested as to how he was going to approach questioning Mr Collins and the news that he was now a suspect in his daughter’s murder.

DS Lawrence popped his head into the living room and Bradfield introduced him to Mr Collins before taking him to one side and saying he wanted Paul to start on the Bristol car which was in the garage. Lawrence said he’d have a cursory look at the carpet, but to give it a thorough examination he’d need to have it removed to the lab.

Bradfield turned back to Mr Collins. ‘DS Lawrence will need to take a carpet sample from inside your car, so if you could give him the keys we can make a start.’

‘What on earth for?’

‘We have a witness who saw your daughter getting into a vehicle of a similar colour and shape to yours, and we also found red carpet fibres on her clothing,’ he said, and paused to gauge Collins’ reaction.

‘They could have got on her when she was last home,’ Mr Collins said defensively.

‘Well, according to you and your wife that was well over a year ago and it would be unlikely any fibres from your car would still be on her,’ DS Lawrence remarked.

‘Then why do you need to examine it?’

Bradfield spoke quietly, lying. ‘It’s just for elimination purposes and standard procedure in this sort of case. Now if you would kindly give us the keys to your car we can make a start.’

Collins replied that the keys were in the cutlery drawer in the kitchen. He also expressed great concern about any of the carpet being cut as it was in perfect condition and he would like to be present to witness any damage, should it occur.

Bradfield looked at DS Lawrence who was experienced enough to realize he wanted to be on his own with Mr Collins.

Lawrence produced a roll of clear Sellotape from his bag and said that he would take tape liftings of the car’s carpet fibres, and that way there would be no need for a cutting. Lawrence turned to Jane and told her she could assist him to see how it was done. She would like to have stayed and listened to Bradfield question Mr Collins: since the post-mortem and Harker lecture forensics had fascinated her and she was loath to miss the opportunity to learn something new.

‘Can you let the dog back in, please, and shut the kitchen door so he can’t get out?’ Mr Collins requested as Jane left the room.

Bradfield opened his notebook and began flicking back through the pages.

‘Had you in fact seen your daughter Julie Ann more recently?’

‘No,’ Collins replied unconvincingly and his Adam’s apple moved up and down his neck.

‘That’s a lie, isn’t it?’

Collins twisted his head, but did not respond.

‘Don’t make this difficult for me — for your own good it’s time you started telling the truth, so no more lies.’

‘I am telling you the truth.’

‘Did you pick her up outside Homerton Hospital about two weeks ago?’

‘I swear to you I didn’t! I don’t even know where Homerton Hospital is.’

‘Well, how do you explain the same colour fibres from your car getting onto her clothes?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe she got into another car with the same type of carpet.’

Jane walked back into the room as Bradfield was about to challenge Mr Collins on his remark.

‘Excuse me, sir...’

‘I’m busy talking to Mr Collins, Tennison,’ Bradfield said sharply without even turning to look at her.

‘I’m sorry, but—’

‘Wait outside,’ he said, raising his voice as he glared at her.

His abruptness made Jane nervous, even though she was only doing as asked. ‘DS Lawrence wants to speak with you.’

Bradfield was irritated, but he knew if Paul Lawrence wanted him he must have discovered something important.

‘Stay with Mr Collins,’ he said as he stomped out of the room.

DS Lawrence was standing by the car in the garage. He had a magnifying glass in one hand and was examining a single strip of taped fibres he had lifted from the boot carpet.

Bradfield spoke as he approached. ‘I know the bastard’s lying — he started bricking it when I asked him about the last time he saw his daughter. They’re a match, are they?’

DS Lawrence looked up slowly; he didn’t need to say anything. Bradfield could see from the look on his face that the fibres didn’t match.

‘Don’t you need to look at them under a proper microscope to be sure?’ he asked with concern.

‘Yes, but I’m ninety-nine per cent certain the fibres from the Bristol are not the same as the ones we found on Julie Ann — the type of weave looks different. It’s a lovely car, 1962 Bristol 407 with beige hide seats in immaculate condition.’

‘Shit, this can’t be right. I know he’s hiding something from me. Could she have got in this car without picking up fibres from it?’

‘Yes, like I just said the seats are leather and if he brought her back here and killed her he may have borrowed, or had access to, another car to dump the body.’

‘Good point. But only he can answer that so I’m going to ratchet it up a notch with him.’

‘If you want to make him sweat then call his bluff, tell him you got a phone number off the doctor’s notepad at the clinic.’

‘But we drew a blank on that.’

‘He’s not to know — just see what he has to say. In the meantime, I want to have a look in her bedroom and the box room as well.’

‘OK, there’s two officers already up there now.’

‘Remember the red fibres were mostly on her socks and in her boots. Well, if she was walking around on a carpet up there then—’

‘I hear you, and I’ll spin the phone number, see what reaction I get.’

They went back into the house and DS Lawrence went up the stairs as Bradfield checked the phone on the hall table, jotting down the number in his notebook.

He was about to return to the living room when DS Lawrence peered over the banisters.

‘I think we may have got lucky up here — the carpet in the box room has red fibres that are much more similar in weave and colour to those on Julie Ann.’

Bradfield hurried up the stairs to join him. DS Lawrence pointed to the screw marks on the box-room door and said they were not very old, and in his opinion a clasp for a padlock had been screwed to the hallway-side door and frame.

‘The tiny splinters in the screw holes are still fresh and the straight-line indents were probably caused by the clasp being forced against the door when it was being kicked from the inside. Have a look at this.’ He stepped into the room followed by Bradfield and pointed to the lower half of the door.

‘A shoe print from the sole of a boot, and scuff marks.’

Bradfield knelt down beside Lawrence to take a closer look. ‘I can see scuff marks, Paul, but not any from boots.’

The room’s thick curtains were already closed, so DS Lawrence flicked off the light, crouched down and shone a torch at an oblique angle onto the door, lighting up the outline of a boot print. He then got out a jar of black powder and a fingerprint brush which he dipped in the powder and began to lightly apply to an area of the door.

‘Add a bit of magic powder and hey presto,’ Lawrence said.

Bradfield was transfixed as the outline of a boot mark and the sole treads slowly and clearly appeared.

‘I thought that only worked on fingerprints.’

‘A little something I discovered recently after a nothing ventured, nothing gained situation. There’s more there, but from memory they look the same size and sole pattern as Julie Ann’s boots, although I can’t confirm that until I do a one-to-one comparison back at the lab. Someone definitely wanted to kick their way out of this room.’

‘There are times when I could kiss you, Paul.’

‘A mere thank-you and a few pints will suffice,’ Lawrence replied.

A smiling Bradfield calmly went back to the living room to confront Mr Collins with the new evidence.

‘Well, it looks like the fibres from your car are not a match to those we found on Julie Ann.’

George Collins said nothing, but the look on his face was a mixture of relief and surprise. Jane was also surprised and felt bad that they had both jumped to conclusions and got it all so terribly wrong.

‘The box room upstairs clearly had a padlock and clasp on it recently — why was that?’

‘I put it on to keep the dog in there when we entertained in order to stop him begging for food at the table. It didn’t work as he just howled for attention, so I took it off and threw it away.’

Bradfield shook his head. ‘That’s another lie, isn’t it, George? A lie to cover up what really happened.’

Mr Collins said nothing but Bradfield was determined to break him.

‘It gets better; for me, that is, not you. You see, the carpet fibres in your box room are the same as the fibres on your daughter’s socks. They probably got there because you made her take her boots off after she kept kicking the door you’d put a padlock on to keep her in.’

Jane felt a surge of elation and paid close attention to Mr Collins. His hands clenched and unclenched, a muscle at the side of his jaw was twitching in agitation.

‘You see, George, we now know that Julie Ann, contrary to what you have stated, did call you. She left an imprint of a phone number she rang from the clinic on a doctor’s notepad. I’ve just checked it against your phone in the hallway and they match.’

Jane knew they had no result from the notepad, and leaned forwards frowning as she watched Mr Collins become even more agitated. Bradfield tapped his notebook and repeated the phone number. He then spoke very quietly.

‘Come on, this is your opportunity to tell me the truth, George. If you and your wife were keeping Julie Ann here to get her off the drugs and you lost your temper with her and lashed out then get it off your chest and tell me.’

‘Oh God, but please, my wife has no knowledge of any of this.’

‘I understand that you don’t want to implicate her, but she didn’t just turn a blind eye, did she? I’m starting to lose my patience. Do you want me to go and wake her up and bring her down here?’

‘No, please no. She was with her sister in Weybridge for the week, she wasn’t at the house — I swear to you she was not here.’

‘Tell me everything, George. It’ll be better for you in the long run.’

Collins took a deep sigh, his hands knotted together and his head bent down as he stared at the carpet.

‘I’m sorry, Julie called my office and they contacted me to say she’d rung. I’d normally have been at work, but I’d taken most of the day off to play in a golf competition. I’d just returned home when they called but I had no contact number for her so I couldn’t call her back.’

‘We have a witness who heard her making a call to you.’

Jane glanced at Bradfield. He appeared totally relaxed leaning back in his chair.

‘Yes, I did speak with her. I’d only been here about half an hour when she rang. She was hysterical and crying, and said she wanted to come home. You have to understand how difficult it was for me.’

‘So what did she say to you?’

‘Well, as usual she was belligerent and asking for money so I put the phone down on her. I was upset — she always made me feel wretched. Then she rang back again a while later reversing the charges from a payphone. She was calmer this time and begged me to help her, repeating over and over that she needed me, and wanted to come home. The truth is I didn’t want to talk to her, but I still loved her and so I relented. I told her she could come home, but she had no money for a bus so I went straight out and picked her up near a hospital in Hackney. She looked terrible, and was shaking and crying.’

‘What time was this?’

‘Erm, she called just after I got home from a game of golf. I’d not played a good round so I didn’t stay on and it would have been perhaps five or five thirty in the afternoon I picked her up.’

He paused and took a deep breath, clearly distraught at recounting what happened, and he continued to look down at the floor.

‘I heated up some soup for her. Her nose was running and she was shaking, her face was gaunt and her body so thin she was hardly recognizable as my daughter. And the clothes she was wearing were awful. I was glad her mother wasn’t here to see her.’

Bradfield was taking notes, but thought Mr Collins was being evasive and considered putting pressure on him to reveal exactly what he did do to his daughter. Realizing it could make him clam up Bradfield thought better of it and flicked through his notes before tapping a page with his pen.

‘So this was roughly about two weeks or so before her body was found?’

Mr Collins nodded and replied that it was a Thursday.

‘When she first called you, what exactly did she say?’

‘I just told you, she wanted money and—’

‘Sorry, yes, you said that, but did she call you “Father” or use any familiar term?’

Mr Collins looked perplexed and shrugged his shoulders.

‘She shouted and was very abusive and I believe she said, “Daddy, you have to help me.”’

Bradfield flicked a page of his notebook and Jane saw him underline something.

‘So what happened when you both got back here?’

Collins straightened up and leaned forwards in the wing chair. ‘On previous occasions when she had turned up unannounced she would make promises, but then steal from her mother’s purse, or take the housekeeping money, not to mention anything else of value that she could sell for drugs, then she’d disappear again. This time I was not going to be hoodwinked by her, so I said she could sleep in the box room. I wanted to make sure she couldn’t leave so I took my screwdriver and put a clasp and padlock on the door. All the while she was making promises: if I helped her she would straighten out and get her life back together. She promised to go back to school and sit her A levels — something I had heard many times before. She agreed to be locked in the box room for her own good, but only if I helped her.’

Bradfield doubted Julie Ann would have agreed to be locked up.

‘Why the box room, and what did she want from you?’

‘There was less in there for her to smash up as she came off the heroin and mostly she wanted money. She told me she had been raped, was now pregnant and had been to see someone in Brixton who would give her an abortion for a hundred pounds. It was hard to believe she was telling me the truth because she looked so wasted and undernourished. However, she said I could go with her so I would know she wasn’t lying.’

He paused and took a deep breath, still leaning forwards staring at the carpet with his hands held in front of him.

‘Go on, Mr Collins,’ Bradfield said, encouraging him to continue.

‘Well, I was shocked, but still wondered if she was telling the truth or after money. I told her that an abortion was wrong and if she had the baby then her mother and I would stand by her and help raise the child.’

His voice cracked as he continued and slowly explained how Julie held his hand, kissing it and promising to be everything he had ever wanted. Tears trickled down the side of his nose. He described how he had sat with her in the box room until she had fallen asleep exhausted. He had then padlocked her in the room before going downstairs.

‘About an hour later I went to see how she was and ask her if she wanted something to eat. I removed the padlock, went in and realized what a fool I’d been.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘I should have checked the rucksack she had with her, but with all the stress I didn’t think to. She was lying on the bed and I saw the syringe on the floor. She must have heard me coming, but it was as if she didn’t care she was so high. I couldn’t believe it. I felt sick and angry with myself for trusting her again.’

He became agitated, wringing his hands as he described how he got a glass of water and threw it in her face before shaking her shoulders to rouse her.

‘What happened next?’

‘I told her how disgusted I was and said that if she really was pregnant what she was doing was appalling and that her baby would be born a heroin addict just like her. She spat at me, screaming that she didn’t care as she didn’t want the baby. Then she said that it was a black bastard who had raped her.’

Jane could see that Mr Collins was becoming highly emotional, but there was also anger in his eyes as he recounted what happened. He said that he had been afraid that he would lose control, so he had grabbed her rucksack and the syringe and then locked the door.

‘She started kicking and screaming to be let out, but I had to keep her in there. I waited for what seemed like ages until she stopped and then I unlocked the door. She came at me in a fury, lashing out and hitting me. In a panic I ran down the stairs to call the police and picked up the phone, but she ripped the line from the socket and went for me again. It was hard for me to believe that she could be so violent, so terribly angry.’ He searched in his trouser pocket, brought out a handkerchief, blew his nose and started crying.

‘Why didn’t you run outside and call for help?’

‘I don’t know. On impulse I followed her into the kitchen where she started pulling all the drawers out looking for the housekeeping money. I was worried she’d find it so I tried to drag her away, but she pushed me backwards kicking out at me with such terrible anger and hatred it really frightened me. I stumbled backwards and she pulled open another drawer, found an envelope, took it out and opened it. I shouted at her to put it back and leave the house but—’

Bradfield put up his hand to stop him. ‘It can’t have been that much if it was just housekeeping, so why didn’t you let her take it and leave? Then you could have called the police without being scared.’

‘No, no, you don’t understand. It was my staff’s weekly wages. I couldn’t just let her take it.’ He began to cry even more.

‘Why on earth do you keep such a large sum of money in the house?’ Bradfield asked in surprise. Mr Collins told him that he always got the cash from the bank on a Thursday and made up the pay packets on the Friday morning at work, but he usually took the money back to the office and locked it in the safe.

Bradfield asked why he hadn’t done so this particular Thursday and Collins seemed exasperated, explaining that he’d been to the bank before he went to the golf club and had come from the bank to change into his golf clothes and collect his clubs.

‘I tucked it away in the kitchen drawer and hadn’t thought any more about it because after her call I had been in a hurry to collect her.’

‘Did Julie Ann know you always went to the bank on a Thursday? I mean could she have called you at your office that day because she knew you’d have money?’

Collins’ body sagged as he lifted his hands and shrugged.

‘Yes, she could very well have remembered, but she had not been to the office more than a couple of times and a good few years ago.’

‘So you say she attacked you and then you ran down the stairs?’

‘Yes, then she was in the kitchen pulling out the drawers, and I honestly had not thought about it until I saw her find the envelope. She tried to leave with the money, but I couldn’t let her take it as my staff would have nothing to live on for the week. I tried to stop her leaving but she pushed past me into the hallway.’ He started to sob and looked up at Bradfield. ‘I didn’t mean to do it, I swear I didn’t, they were just there.’

‘What was there?’ Bradfield asked.

‘My golf clubs. They were still in the hallway where I’d left them earlier. I can’t even really remember exactly how it happened — I was so angry with her. She tried to open the front door so I just grabbed a club from the bag and hit her.’

As he began to sob and shake profusely Jane was shocked that even in anger he could do this to his pregnant daughter. Bradfield waited for him to calm down and asked how many times he struck Julie Ann.

He wiped his nose. ‘I don’t know, two or three times maybe... She fell to the floor and was rolling around moaning. I suddenly realized what I’d done and begged her to forgive me... but she screamed that she’d report me to the police and have me arrested. Some of the money had scattered on the floor so I picked it up, and I was so disgusted with what I’d done that I told her she could have it. But she said nothing, went limp and just lay there curled up in a ball.’ He paused, then shaking his head he said repeatedly, ‘I thought I’d killed her.’ Jane watched as the man broke down, sobbing wretchedly.

Bradfield waited for him to regain some composure, feeling little sympathy for George Collins; he should have controlled himself and never have hit Julie Ann, but it never ceased to amaze him how people could turn on those they loved the most. To make matters worse Collins had never even considered trying to call an ambulance, instead going into the living room and pouring himself a brandy to calm his nerves.

‘Julie Ann was clearly not dead, so what did you do?’ Bradfield asked, masking his revulsion for the man in front of him.

Mr Collins continued in a pained low voice, ‘I suddenly heard the front door slam and ran back into the hall. I couldn’t believe it. She’d gone, leaving the few notes that had fallen out of the envelope on the floor. She’d taken the rest of the money and her rucksack was gone. When I realized I rushed outside, but she was already running off down the road.’

‘Did you chase after her?’

‘No, I had nothing left in me to go after her, but I wish to God that I had. I had never raised a hand to her before that day and I am totally ashamed of what I did.’

‘Did you hear from her again?’

‘No, but I now know for certain she only came here looking for money that day. She faked being unconscious and I felt betrayed as everything she said was lies, even the fact she was pregnant. It wasn’t until you told me at the station that the pathologist discovered she really was pregnant that I knew she’s told me the truth about that. I wish to God I’d never played golf that day, then I would have taken the money back to the office safe and there would have been nothing for her to steal except the housekeeping.’ Collins’ grief had turned to anger.

Bradfield tapped his notebook. ‘So you say she took her rucksack. Was there anything she left in the box room that might help us?’

‘I don’t know, I just removed the padlock so my wife wouldn’t know Julie had been here and threw the hypodermic needle and some dirty clothes into the bin, then shut the door.’

‘She definitely never tried to contact you again?’

‘No, I swear to you. And my wife was away and has no knowledge of Julie being here. I am too ashamed of what I did to tell her. The first time I knew any more about what happened to her was when you came here to tell us she was dead. I have been consumed with guilt and worst of all I never got the chance to tell her how sorry I was and that I still loved her, no matter what.’ Jane watched as Collins started sobbing again, his head in his hands.

‘On the day and evening before her body was discovered, where were you?’ Bradfield asked quietly and calmly.

‘Where was I? Surely you don’t still think that I could have had anything to do with her murder?’ Collins looked up, surprised. ‘I was at work and afterwards I was here with my wife all night. We actually had our neighbours over for dinner, so you can ask them to verify it.’

‘I will do that, Mr Collins. Exactly how much money did she take?’

Collins stuffed his handkerchief back into his pocket.

‘It was about £2,000, well, minus the notes she left behind, which I think were maybe about a hundred.’

Bradfield let out a slow whistle. ‘New notes?’

‘They were sequentially numbered £5, £10 and £1 notes. Whenever possible I always use the same teller and ask for the cash like that as it makes it easier to count off and check the individual pay packets are correct. I had to go back to the bank on Friday morning to withdraw more cash. The teller was surprised to see me and she asked if there was a problem. I didn’t tell her what had happened, but said that I’d had an unfortunate situation and she jumped to the conclusion I’d been robbed. She gave me a list of the serial numbers for the notes I had withdrawn.’

‘Do you still have it?’

Collins looked confused.

‘I think so. I came home with it in my pocket.’

‘I would like a copy of the serial numbers, Mr Collins.’

‘Will it help your investigation?’

‘The fact that your daughter had so much money makes her vulnerable and may be another motive for her murder. There wasn’t a penny on her when we found her body and she obviously didn’t have an abortion. I doubt she blew two grand on heroin in just over a week, but the serial numbers may help us to trace Julie Ann’s movements after she left here, and hopefully trace the person who killed her.’

Mr Collins nodded. Bradfield tipped his head at Jane to indicate that she should accompany Mr Collins. She followed him to the kitchen; the dog was asleep in a scruffy old basket. Mr Collins pulled out a drawer that was crammed full of receipts.

‘It’s the odds-and-ends drawer so I may have put it in here.’ He tipped the contents out onto the kitchen table, seeming much calmer now that he’d confessed.

Bradfield walked slowly up the stairs and could see that DS Lawrence had unscrewed the box-room door from its hinges to take back to the lab for further examination. He asked Lawrence if he or the detectives searching Julie Ann’s room had found a rucksack or anything else of interest.

Lawrence held up a small quilted shoulder bag with worn cotton and velvet patchwork squares, on which some of the stitching had come loose.

‘This is a typical hippie-style bag and was hidden under the mattress in the box room. There’s a sort of concealed side bit in it, a bag within a bag, containing some drugs paraphernalia and other stuff. I’ll log everything back at the station and take anything useful for examination at the lab.’

He handed it to Bradfield who glanced inside and saw an unopened clean syringe, matches, used spoon with burn marks and a rubber tourniquet for tying round the arm when injecting. There was also a small empty plastic bag with tiny traces of white powder left in it.

‘Looks like she forgot this in her hurry to get out of the house,’ Bradfield said, and nodded towards the master bedroom. ‘Mrs Collins stirred yet?’

‘No, and we still need to look in there,’ Lawrence replied.

‘I’ll get her downstairs and then you can have a discreet look round without her knowing,’ Bradfield said, and checked his watch. He told his two detectives they could go back to the Regent’s Canal to search for any witnesses to the Eddie Phillips incident.

‘Are you arresting Mr Collins?’ Lawrence asked, but Bradfield didn’t answer as he walked towards the master bedroom.

He tapped on the bedroom door and waited. He tapped again and slowly opened the door to peer into the room. The curtains were closed and Mrs Collins was wearing a sleeping mask with the plum-coloured eiderdown pulled up to her chin. He moved quietly across the room towards her and noticed the photographs of Julie Ann on the bedside table. There were more photographs of her at various ages along the dressing table and on the chest of drawers. One photograph showed her in a tutu and ballet shoes, her tiny hands holding the edge of the net skirt. It was almost incomprehensible that this sweet angelic child, with beautiful eyes and a small Cupid’s bow mouth, had become the ravished junkie they’d found strangled on the playground nudging one of the roughest estates in Hackney.

He went over to the curtains, swishing them back. Mrs Collins remained asleep so he nudged the bed with his knee, but there was still no response. He turned as Jane walked in and handed him the list of serial numbers which Mr Collins had found.

Bradfield looked at Mrs Collins and whispered, ‘It’s like she’s in a coma. I’ve opened the curtains and nudged the bed. You’d better wake her as I don’t want to give her a heart attack. Just verify exactly when she went to her sister’s and when the neighbours came for dinner.’

‘She’s probably exhausted after the memorial service. Should I tell her about her husband’s confession?’

‘No, that’s up to him. Besides, it will come out in the long run.’

‘What are you going to do?’ she asked.

He paused at the bedroom door.

‘About what?’

‘Mr Collins — are you arresting him?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t condone what he did to his daughter, but he’s suffered enough with her death and he and his wife need each other right now.’

Jane was touched by Bradfield’s compassion. She looked round the room and wondered if the many pictures of Julie Ann had in some small way influenced his decision not to arrest George Collins.

Jane leant over the bed. ‘Mrs Collins... MRS COLLINS.’ She gently nudged Mrs Collins’ shoulder.

When she’d finally awoken, Mrs Collins confirmed everything her husband had said about her being in Weybridge on the Thursday and the neighbours coming for dinner. She was understandably concerned as to why the police were at the house so soon after the memorial service and Jane said they were just following up on some information and that her husband would tell her all about it. The reality was that Jane didn’t have a clue what George Collins would say to his wife or how he’d explain the missing box-room door, but that wasn’t her problem.

As she left the bedroom she saw DS Lawrence in the hallway.

‘I hear you impressed Dr Harker with your knowledge on fibre transfers — he said you were the only one in the class who thought of it. Now, I wonder where you got that from?’ he said with a cheeky grin.

Jane blushed; it hadn’t crossed her mind that Harker and Lawrence might actually work together.

‘Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him you were at Julie Ann Collins’ post-mortem, or that you got it from me. Harker was very impressed, though, and not just with your knowledge,’ he said with a wink, making her blush again.

‘Take a bit of advice from an old sweat like me. You’re a sharp cookie, Tennison, and the stuff with the Bristol and the screw marks on the door was a good spot. But never try to run before you can walk, not in this job. As a probationer it’s always best to keep your eyes and ears open and mouth shut, or you’ll fall into a heap of shit before you know it.’

During the journey back to the station in the uniform patrol car Bradfield sat in the front passenger seat flicking the pages of his notebook back and forth and going over everything George Collins had said.

‘That’s a shedload of money his daughter nicked. It meant she was flush with cash for the two weeks before her body was found.’

‘Do you think the serial numbers can help trace where she was over that period?’ Jane asked.

‘Be a bloody lucky stroke if they did. The money could be anywhere by now, especially if she was buying smack with it. That cash will have been moved around faster than a ferret. Two grand is a lot of bloody money, and scumbag drug dealers like Big Daddy and Dwayne “Shoes” Clark are probably the sort of people who’d kill to get their hands on it.’

‘Interesting that she told her father she’d been raped — do you think that was true?’

He sighed. ‘I dunno. She lied about most things and slept with punters for a living, so even if she was alive nobody would believe her, or would just think that rape goes with the risky territory, so to speak.’

‘If we find who strangled her he’s guilty of a double murder because he killed her child as well.’

He slowly turned in his seat to look at her.

‘Sadly, no. If an unborn child dies because of injury to the mother rather than injury to the foetus it’s neither murder nor manslaughter. You could never prove the intention to kill, or transfer of malice. Even child destruction under the Infant Life Act wouldn’t stick as the foetus was too young.’

‘How do you know all that?’

‘CID course when I was first made detective. We had to learn all the different acts and offences off by heart. Fail an exam and you were out — back to uniform.’

‘Sounds pretty intensive.’

‘It was, and still is,’ he said, and paused.

‘It’s not easy to become a detective then...’

‘We need to find the bastard, or bastards, who killed Julie Ann. So far we seem to keep moving one step forward and then end up back at square one. Now, I’d really appreciate it if you kept quiet and let me concentrate.’

‘Yes, sir, I’m sorry,’ she said, surprised, as he’d done most of the talking.

At the station they joined DS Lawrence, who’d returned before them and was now checking over and listing the items taken from the Collinses’ house. The contents of the patchwork shoulder bag were laid out on a table, the drugs paraphernalia to one side and the rest to the other. Lawrence stood beside Bradfield as they looked over some thin, cheap-looking silver bracelets, elasticated beaded necklaces, some plastic toy animals and an unused Tampax. DS Lawrence made a joke about it being effing useless considering her condition. There was also a cheap bright pink lipstick, and an empty purse made of Moroccan leather with a broken clasp. A medical card in the name of Julie Ann Maynard was for the Homerton Hospital Drug Dependency Unit, and then there were scraps of paper with names and contact numbers. Bradfield told Jane to copy all the names and numbers down and start making criminal-records enquiries on them, and DS Lawrence could then take the paper for fingerprinting, along with the empty plastic bag of what had most probably been heroin.

Jane looked down at the items on the table — the bracelets reminded her of Janis Joplin who had worn so many bangles on her wrists. Some words from Joplin’s ‘Piece Of My Heart’ began to sing out in Jane’s mind: