Howard Linskey - The Dead

‘Yes,’ I answered, ‘he told me to get away from there. “Find Sarah,” he said, “take care of her” and that’s what I did. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since.’

‘Oh Davey,’ she collapsed into my arms, sobbing, ‘I’m so sorry… I’m so, so sorry… I’m so ashamed I doubted you.’

‘That’s alright,’ I told her, ‘it doesn’t matter now.’

I didn’t want to talk about it anymore because her shame was nothing compared to mine.

Everyone knew my link to Henry Baxter, so it didn’t matter that I was in the public gallery. Opposite me, Matt Bell listened intently to the court proceedings, taking copious notes. Things didn’t get properly interesting until the third day of the trial, when our barrister took centre stage.

Detective Chief Inspector Argyle, who headed up the original case into the murder of Leanne Bell, took the witness stand. Argyle couldn’t have been far from retirement age. He stood in the dock in his crumpled grey suit and M amp;S tie and, when our barrister cross-examined him, he stared out at the court like a rabbit caught between headlights.

‘Detective Chief Inspector, the investigation into the murder of Leanne Bell was a large and extensively-resourced one,’ Julian Aimes reminded him, ‘involving more than thirty detectives, all of whom reported to you.’

‘That is correct,’ he answered, in a strong Bristolian burr.

‘During the course of this investigation, your team interviewed a large number of people, did you not?’

‘We did.’

‘How many?’

‘I can’t recall the exact number, but it was significant.’

‘One hundred and seventeen.’ Aimes prompted him.

‘If you say so.’

‘Whether I say so or not, that is the number, according to the documentation provided by the prosecution. Are you now telling me this is inaccurate?’

‘Of course not. I’m just saying I couldn’t remember, but it sounds about right to me. If that number has come from the prosecution, I have no reason to doubt it.’

‘Nor have I. One hundred and seventeen people spoken to in the course of your lengthy investigation into Leanne’s murder,’ Aimes told the jury. ‘I have the names of each and every one of them detailed here, but there is one name missing from the list, isn’t there Detective Chief Inspector?’

‘Is there?’

‘Yes there is,’ Aimes assured him, ‘Henry Baxter’s name is not on the list. Why not?’

‘Well,’ the Detective Chief Inspector looked uncomfortable, ‘we didn’t consider him to be a suspect… at that time.’

‘Why was that, I wonder? Sounds like a bit of an oversight to me. Here is a man who lived within a couple of miles of the girl and he is not even interviewed by you, despite having a link to Leanne and her friends due to the piano lessons that have already been mentioned in court. Yet you did not even bother to interview him. That’s little more than police incompetence, isn’t it?’

‘Not at all. We never received a complaint from any parent whose child had piano lessons with Henry Baxter. It’s only in hindsight that they seemed suspicious. We weren’t aware that he was giving free lessons and other incentives to young girls who visited him. There was no evidence to suggest the man might have been responsible for her death.’

‘Really? No evidence. None whatsoever? I find that very hard to believe.’

‘There was none. Nothing that would lead us to believe he was Leanne’s killer.’

‘Ladies and gentleman of the jury, you just heard it from the lips of the chief investigating officer; there was no evidence to link Henry Baxter to the murder of Leanne Bell.’

‘At that time,’ countered the DCI, realising too late that he had been baited into a trap while trying to defend a charge of incompetence.

‘And there is still none,’ said Aimes, firmly.

‘There is DNA evidence,’ replied the police officer.

‘Yes, well, we shall demonstrate how the DNA evidence is very far from reliable and, since it is the cornerstone of the prosecution case against Mr Baxter, I expect him to be acquitted. I put it to you, for the time being at least, that aside from the DNA sample, there is absolutely no other evidence against Henry Baxter. Is there?’

‘Well no,’ admitted the DCI, ‘but the DNA evidence is enough.’

‘Is it?’ asked our lawyer, ‘the jury shall be the judge of that.’

After the break for lunch our lawyer went for the DCI once more.

‘You have arrested and charged Henry Baxter with the murder of Leanne Bell and wish us to believe that you did not carry out this arrest lightly.’

‘No. I mean yes, of course we did not do it lightly. The police are not in the habit of arresting people on serious charges for the fun of it.’

‘In other words, an arrest in a murder case isn’t something the police do without considerable thought. You would expect us to read into the fact that Mr Baxter has been arrested for the murder, that he is your chief, your only, in fact, suspect in this case.’

‘Absolutely.’

‘But he is not the first man to be arrested for the murder of Leanne, is he?’

There was a long pause before the DCI answered, ‘No, not the first, no,’ he muttered.

‘How many people have been arrested for this poor little girl’s murder, prior to the arrest of Henry Baxter?’

The DCI took a long while to answer. You could almost hear the cogs whirring in his brain as he struggled to find the form of words that would be least damning. In the end he settled on a single word, uttered quietly, ‘Four’.

We all heard him say it, just, but our lawyer went for maximum impact, ‘Could you speak up, please, so that the members of the jury can hear your answer?’

‘Four.’ He said it loud and clearly now, but no less reluctantly.

‘Four?’ the barrister’s tone was incredulous, ‘but I thought you did not arrest members of the public for murder lightly and yet, on your own admission, Henry Baxter is the fifth person to be arrested for this murder. How can that be?’

‘Well, there was evidence at that time… sufficient evidence to warrant… look, it’s not a simple matter of… you have to weigh up the evidence and sometimes you arrest a suspect in a case when you don’t yet have the full picture but, in the course of an interrogation, more facts become clear. That can lead to a charge of murder and, in the fullness of time, a conviction, but it could just as likely lead to a situation where no further action is taken.’

‘Mmmm,’ Aimes paused, as if ruminating on that last statement, ‘would you please reveal to the court the identity of the first man arrested for the murder of Leanne Bell.’

DCI Argyle looked as if he would rather have had a tooth pulled from his mouth than the name he was about to offer up. Eventually he said, ‘Matthew Bell.’

‘And please explain what relationship Matthew Bell had to the dead girl.’

‘Father.’

‘He is Leanne’s father?’

‘Yes.’

‘So what was the evidence which led you to believe that Matthew Bell could possibly have killed his only daughter?’

The delay in replying spoke several volumes, ‘There were statements to the effect that the relationship between Leanne and her father had been strained.’

‘Statements from whom?’

‘Neighbours.’

‘How many neighbours?’

‘More than one.’

‘So, two then?’

Through gritted teeth, ‘Yes.’

‘Can you be more specific regarding these statements? What was it exactly that the neighbours reported seeing or hearing that gave you cause for suspicion?’

‘Arguments, raised voices, the father shouting and the girl shouting back. That kind of thing.’