Lynda La Plante: Backlash

‘Do you go to the dog tracks on a regular basis?’ Mike asked.

Bradford nodded but seemed surprised by Mike’s sudden line of questioning.

‘Yeah I do, dogs, horses, I like a flutter.’

‘On the night you say Henry Oates broke into your flat…’

‘Me mother let him in.’

‘Sorry, yes of course, you have said that the reason you weren’t at home until midnight was because you were at Wimbledon dog track,’ Mike reminded him.

‘Yeah, I’m a regular there, why? It’s the truth.’

‘Back a few winners, did you?’

‘No, I was on a real losing streak, tearing up the betting slips all night, not one winner.’

Langton tapped the table twice with his pen and took over the questioning.

‘You’re definitely on a losing streak, Mr Bradford, a very big one, because on that specific night the track was closed for refurbishment,’ Langton remarked.

Bradford blinked and then gave a half smile, unsure of who would ask the next question.

‘No way.’

‘Let’s not mess around any longer, because you are very close to being arrested on suspicion of assisting an escaped murderer.’

Bradford opened and closed his mouth.

‘I don’t understand what’s going on here.’

Langton began opening a file in front of him.

‘Why you got me here? I thought it was about me money.’

‘Is it about the money, Mr Bradford? We know you were in touch with the NatWest Bank in New Malden before Mr Oates came to your mother’s flat.’

‘This isn’t right.’

‘So do you agree that before Mr Oates stayed at your flat you had already arranged-’

‘Listen, my mother wanted me to get ten grand out so we could go on a luxury cruise, that’s why I was doing all the arrangements, and it just coincided with Oates turning up.’

Langton leaned back in his chair, smiling.

‘You are a very good actor, Mr Bradford, in fact so good I think you could have taken it up as a profession, but right now I am getting very tired of this performance. I believed you and Detective Chief Inspector Lewis here also believed you, that big act in the Kingston Lodge Hotel about how fearful you were for your mother – that was, I suppose, partly due to nerves. I mean, you didn’t expect to get picked up, did you? But then you played it to the hilt, didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU?’

Langton slapped the table so hard the water bottles jumped.

‘She was already dead, wasn’t she? WASN’T SHE? All that bullshit about Oates threatening to hang her – what’s the matter with you? You think we’re so dumb we can’t get a time of death for her? That we can’t get evidence that she was never hanged? Strung up, yes, but she was already dead, wasn’t she?’

‘I want a solicitor.’ Bradford kept his head down.

‘Well now that I’m arresting you for not only harbouring Oates, but also on suspicion of being complicit in your mother’s murder, you can have one.’

Mike Lewis then cautioned Bradford and took him to the custody area to be booked in and the duty solicitor Mary Adams was called to represent him.

Anna went into the viewing room to watch as soon as she got back to the station. Barbara got up to leave as Anna sat down.

‘No, stay put, I need you to fill me in on what’s happened to date.’

‘Well, he’s denying that he had anything to do with his mother’s death, he’s admitted lying about going to the dog track, but he said he was forced to do it because Oates had tied his mother up and threatened him. He’s also said that his mother had asked him to withdraw ten thousand in cash to pay for a cruise and she had signed the necessary papers. He claims Oates found them and then threatened to kill his mother if he didn’t withdraw the lot and give it to him.’

Anna looked at the monitor screen as Langton suggested that they now go from the beginning again as Bradford was plainly lying.

‘I’m telling you the truth.’

‘Really? Then how do you explain that your mother was already dead before Oates had even escaped from the quarry?’

Anna sipped her coffee, watching Bradford’s reaction, which did not give much away. He was drinking from a bottle of water, then turning the cap this way and that.

‘What’s he got on you?’ Langton asked.

‘Who?’

‘Henry Oates. What’s he got on you to make you hide him and then get the money out?’

Bradford shook his head and mumbled something inaudible.

‘Listen to me, Timmy, we know someone called you from payphones reverse charge, you knew he was coming to your mother’s flat, so why didn’t you call the police?’

No reaction.

‘You are an intelligent man, Timmy. If you are protecting him…’

‘I’m fucking not.’

‘So what made you let him into your flat? Why did you help him?’

There was no reaction, and then Anna leaned forwards as Langton searched through a file and whispered something to Mike. Mike reached for a separate file on the trolley and passed it to Langton.

‘Have you ever seen any of these girls, Timmy?’

Out came the photographs of their victims, each one laid flat in front of Bradford, but he shook his head over and over again.

‘I’ve never seen any of them, I swear before God.’

Langton quietly told Bradford that they were the young women that his friend Oates had admitted to killing.

‘Jesus Christ, I had nothin’ to do with them. I’ve never seen any of them before in my life.’

Langton gathered up the photographs and stacked them on the edge of the table like a pack of cards.

‘It’s hard for me to believe that. You see, I can’t understand why you would let him hide out in your flat, unless you were involved. You were the one who originally took him to the quarry, you-’

‘I had nothing to do with any of them.’ Bradford was becoming very agitated and starting to sweat.

‘You expect me to believe you? You’ve lied about your mother. She was eighty-two years old, wasn’t she? You think she deserved to end up dead, strung up on a pulley over her bath?’

‘No,’ Bradford replied quietly.

‘What happened, Timmy, did she find out you were trying to steal her money, caught you red-handed faking her signature on a cheque and you argued?’

Bradford was beginning to break, his body language indicating that he was finding it hard to control himself. His hands were clasped at his sides and he was still sweating, with stains spreading under the armpits of his denim shirt.

‘Let me tell you what I think happened: you had this argument with your mother and you snapped, you didn’t mean to hurt her, you couldn’t stop yourself, you needed that money and…’

‘She wouldn’t give it to me.’ Bradford blurted it out.

Anna stood up and looked to Barbara.

‘Got him, he’s going to spill the beans.’

‘You want a coffee?’

‘Nope, I need to make some urgent calls,’ Anna said as she left the room.

The next time Anna saw Barbara was when she hurried into the incident room an hour later.

‘DCS Langton wants the gold bracelet from the evidence locker room.’

‘How’s it going in there?’ Anna asked.

‘Well it’s not really, they still haven’t broken him.’

Anna raced down into the basement to unlock the evidence cage with Barbara hurrying alongside her.

‘He’s opened the floodgates, we’ve had tears and at one point he even tried to get on his knees to beg forgiveness. Bradford’s got a lot of debts from his gambling and there’s some heavy guys onto him so he needed to get some cash to pay them off.’

Anna began to dig around for the bag containing the gold bracelet. ‘Did he explain why he helped Oates?’

‘No,’ said Barbara as Anna handed her the little bag. ‘He won’t say it.’ She held up the bag. ‘Maybe this is connected?’ Then she hurried back to the interview-room corridor to hand over the bracelet.