Lynda La Plante - Wrongful Death

Anna chuckled inside. Although Taylor came across as a very fit and hard man he made a rather inept criminal. She asked him to get to the point regarding Josh’s death.

‘Williams had a prostitution set-up going on in the Trojan with high-rolling Arabs, foreign millionaires, film and TV celebs. They paid big money. Five hundred a wank, a grand a blowjob, two grand for sex and those who will do it three K for anal. Williams pocketed seventy per cent.’

‘Did Josh Reynolds know about this?’ Anna asked.

‘Not until I told him, which was a day or two before he died. He was shocked – he’d worked hard to turn the Trojan into a decent club.’

Anna leaned back in her chair to take in what Taylor had just said. She looked at Dewar, who smirked at her as if to say, ‘I told you it was a murder and the suicide note was fake.’

‘So how long had this been going on?’ Anna asked.

‘A couple of months or so.’

‘Tell me, what are you expecting for this information?’

‘My solicitor told me that helping the police about other crimes could be beneficial to my sentence.’

‘I think your solicitor was actually referring to other crimes you may have committed,’ Anna pointed out.

‘I haven’t done any, but you can tell the judge that I helped in a murder inquiry, can’t you?’

‘I’ll be investigating what you said and if it turns out you have deliberately wasted police time you could find that heaped onto the charges you already face.’

‘I swear on my mum’s life that I’m not lying.’

‘Not convincing, seeing she’s the one who shopped you to the police.’

Taylor sat back, unable to meet Anna’s eye after she had questioned him about the truth behind his information.

She looked at Dewar, who had been writing notes furiously throughout the interview.

‘I wonder if I could ask you a couple of questions as part of my work experience?’ Dewar asked, glancing pointedly at Anna.

‘May as well, ’cause she ain’t listening to me no more,’ Taylor said, clearly angry with Anna.

‘Donna Reynolds, Josh’s wife, did you know her?’

‘Yeah, nice girl.’

‘So why did she leave the club?’

‘I think she got tired of dirty old geezers squeezing her arse and tits. They treated her like she was still dancing.’

‘Dancing?’

‘Yeah, she was a lap dancer at the Trojan – that’s how her and Josh met. She wasn’t very good and Josh didn’t like her dancing so he made her the head hostess. Better with her lips than her hips,’ Taylor said with a loud guffaw.

‘Was she overfamiliar with the customers?’

‘If it meant a bit of flirting to get a punter’s money out of his pockets then yeah. She knew how to play the game.’

‘So their relationship was strained. They argued a lot?’

Anna knew exactly where Dewar was going with what was clearly a leading question.

‘I heard them argue sometimes but all couples-’

‘What about? Was it her flirting?’

‘He didn’t like it but he put up with it.’

‘Did they argue about money?’

‘I know they didn’t have much in their pockets. Everything was invested in the club and their flat. Donna was the one who watched the pennies, checked all the cash tills against the receipts every night.’

‘What about Donna and Marcus Williams?’

‘What about them?’

‘Was there anything going on between them?’

‘You havin’ a laugh? She was too good for that bastard. Donna wasn’t that kind of girl.’

‘Did Josh think she was having an affair with any of the VIPs?’

‘He never asked me if she was.’

‘Did he slap her around?’

‘I never saw her with a black eye if that’s what you mean.’

‘Were you and Donna lovers? Did she need you to do her dirty work?’

‘What the fuck are you on!’ Taylor screamed at Dewar and stood up.

‘Delon, please calm down. You misunderstood Agent Dewar,’ Anna said, trying desperately to calm the situation.

‘No, he didn’t. His reaction made that quite clear,’ Dewar said confidently.

Taylor banged his hands down on the table.

‘Fuck you, you bitch. Josh and Donna Reynolds are good people. I told Josh about Williams and now he’s dead. It ain’t rocket science, not even for the fucking FBI.’

‘Sit down and don’t speak to me like that,’ Dewar said firmly.

‘I ain’t no murderer and I’ll speak to you how I fucking like.’

Taylor began to shout for the prison officer, who rushed into the room. Taylor claimed that Dewar was ‘doing his head in’ and asked to be taken back to his cell, at which point Travis held her hand up, indicating to the prison officer that the interview was over.

‘Well, that’s the end of that then. All in all, I thought it went pretty well,’ Dewar said, then flipped the cover of her notebook closed and jumped to her feet, smiling at Anna.

Anna was completely taken aback by Dewar’s remark and her method of questioning a witness. Not only was it, in her opinion, a poor technique, but the agent was also trying to put words into Taylor’s mouth to reinforce her own suspicions. It seemed that Dewar was convinced Donna Reynolds was involved in her husband’s murder even though Taylor was insinuating Marcus Williams was responsible. Anna suspected Taylor was lying, but the reality was that the interview with Taylor, like the suicide note, had raised further unanswered questions.

They walked back to the car in silence. Anna, out of Dewar’s hearing, rang the office and asked Joan Falkland to make an appointment for her to meet with Donna Reynolds and not to mention the murder squad, but just say it was to do with the current owner of the Trojan. She also left a text message on Paul Simms’ mobile asking him to contact her regarding Joshua Reynolds’ suicide.

As they pulled out of the prison car park, Anna asked Dewar what she made of the interview with Taylor.

‘I thought you handled it reasonably well, but if you’d drawn him out more you’d have got the intended reaction I did.’

‘You wanted him to let rip at you?’ Anna asked in disbelief.

‘Yes, it’s about reaction and gauging the truth. I made a false accusation, he reacted with anger, thus from his tone, demeanour and other facial expressions he is telling the truth.’

‘If Donna wanted to kill Reynolds then making it look like a robbery gone wrong at the flat or Trojan would have been a better option. Plus, there’s no insurance pay-out on a suicide.’

‘She’d still get the apartment and his share of the Trojan.’

‘So what’s Williams’ part in this great conspiracy then?’

‘Hard to say until I’ve spoken with him. I doubt he and Donna were lovers but they both had reason to want Josh dead,’ Dewar said with great assurance.

‘So now you think it was either Donna or Williams that killed Josh.’

‘No. I think Donna wanted him dead and maybe she got Williams to do it or arrange it.’

Anna felt it would be a waste of time to contradict any of Dewar’s varying and conflicting opinions, as once again, she seemed to have an answer for everything. One thing she knew for certain was that Dewar would inform Langton of the day’s developments and her skewed beliefs as soon as she had a chance to contact him.

Anna completed her report at home and handed it to Joan the next morning to upload onto the Reynolds computer file. ‘Any luck with Donna Reynolds, Joan?’

Joan replied that she had rung Donna Reynolds’ mobile yesterday evening, claiming to be from the vice squad, and that a DCI Travis wanted to come and see her regarding the Trojan club. Anna sensed that Joan was rather anxious.