The officers gathered around the outer door with the ‘Ram-it’ in the hands of one of them.
He shuffled his shoulders, flexed his fingers on the handles of the thirty-inch, thirty-five pounds of solid metal tubing with a flattened end. He swung it backwards about two feet to gain the necessary momentum, then let it swing towards the door.
Fourteen thousand pounds of kinetic force burst the door open with one blow. The officer pivoted out of the way.
The Support Unit teams raced in and bounded up the stairs in a well-practised drill.
At the top of the stairs they split and hit the doors.
Twelve seconds after entry the shout went up: ‘Suspect located — neutralised — bedroom.’
Henry Christie jogged up the stairs to — the bedroom where he saw Spencer, naked, lying spreadeagled on the bed, a rather flaccid erection meandering up from his ginger pubic hair. A young boy who looked no more than nine, also naked, was sitting next to him on the bed.
‘ Found this one, too.’
Henry turned at the voice. An officer was holding another youngster, this time a girl, who had only a towel wrapped loosely around her.
Henry looked at Spencer and arrested him for murder.
‘ One arrested — no problems,’ Danny informed Henry over the radio, just moments after he had cautioned Spencer and thrown a pair of trousers at him.
‘ Received,’ he replied. ‘Ditto — no problems either, just a couple of house-guests, probably mispers.’
‘ Understood.’
‘ We’ll probably be at the nick before you, so we’ll book our chap in, then I’ll call you when the coast is clear.’
‘ Roger,’ Danny replied.
Henry turned his attention back to Spencer, who was making a meal of getting dressed. ‘Get your fucking clothes on,’ the DI growled, ‘or I’ll drag you naked through the streets of Blackpool and show everyone what a pervert you are.’
Spencer eyed him unsurely; decided he was probably telling the truth.
He was fully dressed within a minute.
Spencer was processed into the custody system fairly smoothly. He was quiet and easy to deal with, saying little, exercising none of his rights until he found out where he stood. When he was sitting in a cell, Henry radioed Danny to bring Gilbert in.
By this time he had been sitting in the back of the van in the rear yard of the police station for about fifteen minutes, getting increasingly restless.
Danny opened the van doors, then the inner cage door.
Gilbert eased himself through the gap.
‘ You are going to look so stupid,’ he told Danny.
‘ Yeah, right.’ She pointed to the back door of the police station. ‘I believe you made an official visit here a few weeks ago, so you’ll know the way to the cells.’ She pushed him gently. He snapped her hand away.
‘ Don’t ever touch me.’
‘ Don’t make me have to.’
He walked to the door. Behind him one of the uniformed officers imitated his rolling gait, blowing his cheeks out like a trumpet-player and forcing his belly out. Danny laughed silently… but the smile dropped from her lips as, right at the back door, the one and only police witness in the case appeared in the company of a social worker and literally walked straight into Gilbert.
‘ How could that have happened?’ FB demanded furiously. ‘Your most vital witness walking right into the main suspect. Come on — how?’
‘ I don’t know, sir,’ Danny admitted. ‘It just happened — one of those things. I feel bad about it. It should not have happened… just an unlucky coincidence.’
‘ Someone should swing for this,’ FB blazed.
Henry had watched him browbeating Danny for long enough. ‘What’s done is done,’ he said reasonably. ‘No one’s to blame for it. Grace had been handed over to Social Services and was leaving the station.’
Danny slumped heavily onto a chair. They were all back in Henry’s office.
‘ I’ve really cocked up again, haven’t I?’ Danny admonished herself. She was close to tears. ‘I did it with Claire, now I’ve done it with Grace.’
‘ What do you mean?’ FB asked.
‘ I mean I promised Grace we’d protect her if she gave evidence and look what happened.’ Danny shook her head in frustration. ‘Slap-bang into him. You should have seen his face. As soon as I get the chance I’ll visit Grace, spend some time with her, reassure her. She’ll need all the support we can give her now.’
‘ Fine, do that,’ FB said. ‘Now, where are we up to?’
‘ Gilbert’s in with his solicitor; Spencer hasn’t requested one. Danny and a DC are going to interview Gilbert first,’ Henry explained.
‘ No,’ FB said firmly to Henry. ‘I want you and Danny to interview them both.’
‘ Why?’
‘ Because I say so, that’s why. I want the best interviewer on this, and that’s you.’
Henry didn’t know whether to be pleased or pissed off. On the one hand he was glad FB had said something nice about him for once; on the other, it wasn’t his job to interview.
‘ I want those bastards charged and convicted of murder, Henry.’
‘ Is this place bugged? Can they hear what we are saying?’
Gilbert and his solicitor, Maurice Stanway, were in the solicitor’s room. Stanway had been Gilbert’s brief for almost twenty years. They knew each other well.
The room was basic. One table screwed to the floor, three plastic chairs. They faced each other across the table. Gilbert’s bulk overflowed his chair and the thin metal legs sagged.
‘ It’s always possible, but I doubt it,’ Stanway said. ‘Believe it or not, they’re pretty ethical these days.’
‘ Fools,’ Gilbert laughed. ‘So, what’s going to happen now?’
‘ You’ll be interviewed, probably fairly cursorily at first. They’ll establish a few facts, ensure you know why you’ve been arrested, things like that. Then they’ll start asking you questions, probably hoping you’ll crack before they declare any real evidence at this stage.’
‘ In other words, they’ll offer me the chance to confess?’
‘ In other words, yes.’
‘ And if I don’t?’
‘ They’ll start to declare evidence, bit by bit. Forensic, direct evidence from witnesses… hoping you’ll admit.’
‘ What forensic do they have?’
‘ I don’t know yet. We’ll have to wait and see.’
‘ They won’t have any.’
‘ You sound certain.’
‘ I am.’
‘ They may well have witnesses.’
‘ They have. I saw her when I came into the station.’
‘ All it takes is one witness,’ Stanway stated.
‘ I think they’ll rely heavily on her.’
‘ Her testimony may well be enough — at least to get you charged and put before a court. But let’s see how it pans out, shall we?’
‘ Okay.’
‘ Will the police find anything at your house, Charles?’
‘ Books, videos, magazines, photographs… you know the sort of thing.’
‘ Anything to link you to the dead girl?’
‘ No.’
‘ Well, that’s good. Let’s go and see what they’ve got.’
Ninety minutes later Gilbert and Stanway were back in the solicitor’s consulting room. They were buzzing, feeling very confident.
‘ You handled the questions skilfully, Charles. I applaud you.’ They shook hands and sat down. ‘So,’ Stanway said, ‘that was the opening salvo.’
‘ And pretty tame it was, too.’
‘ If you’re sure about the forensic side of things, I’d suggest they will have only the girl’s eyewitness testimony. And, of course, Ollie Spencer, who has not been interviewed yet, nor requested a solicitor.’
‘ In that case, you should offer your services. I would hate for him to say anything stupid.’
Stanway nodded.
‘ When will I be out of here?’
‘ Oh, they’ll keep you in as long as possible. They always do in cases such as these.’
At midnight Henry Christie and Danny Furness were sitting on a bench on the promenade, near to Central Pier. From having been a cold day, the night had become idyllic and still. The tide was way out. The sky was clear and the moon almost full. It was even quite mild, verging on warm.