‘She only gave me £1,500 then left. I swear before God she left, man, and that was the last time I saw her. I never killed her, she left the squat a day or so before she was found dead. I can prove where I was: me and my girl went to the Chelsea Hotel, I even checked in under my real name.’
‘The underage girl you were with when we arrested you?’
‘Yes, but she told me she was eighteen... we spent some of the money Julie Ann had given me on a few nights there, expensive meals, champagne, and bought a load of clothes and shoes in Carnaby Street. We were in the hotel room when it was on the news that she was dead, man. I got scared shitless so I just lied cos I honestly dunno what happened to her.’
Bradfield felt like it was two steps forward and a big hole-in-one going back.
O’Duncie’s alibi had a ring of truth about it and could easily be checked out with the hotel and young girl. Feeling depressed Bradfield pulled out the photograph of Eddie Phillips from the envelope and pushed it towards O’Duncie.
‘So what happened with you and Eddie?’
The room was stinking from the sweating O’Duncie as he looked at the photograph. He yet again glanced helplessly to his solicitor.
‘Just answer the question, Terry,’ Stonex said.
‘He’d been at the squat a few times with Julie Ann. They were on the same drug-rehab programme where my sister worked. After Julie Ann died he turned up saying he was scared because you lot wanted him to give the name of the dealer they used.’
‘The dealer is the man known as Big Daddy? The man you planned to score off using Julie Ann’s money?’
O’Duncie reacted, and slowly nodded his head.
‘Yeah, all right, yeah, but I never met him, I swear on my life I dunno him and last I heard he got nicked in Manchester. I know he’s a fuckin’ nightmare if you cross him and Julie Ann was terrified of him. I only done business through his sidekick Dwayne, an’ he can get crazy, kicking your head in.’
There was a pause as O’Duncie swallowed and coughed before he continued.
‘Anyway, Eddie was fucked up when he come round to the squat, he was stinking of puke and crying. He said because Julie Ann had been murdered, he was being hounded by you lot, but he swore he’d never mentioned me.’
‘Did he say anything about Julie Ann being pregnant?’
‘Yes, but I knew it wasn’t mine as I never shag junkies without protection because of hepatitis, and it couldn’t be Eddie’s as he was a right little nerd. I didn’t know she was pregnant till Eddie said so, and Christ only knows whose it was as she was a right slag.’
‘Do you know if Big Daddy raped her?’
‘Not for certain, but it wouldn’t surprise me, having heard what he’s like.’
‘And how did Eddie end up in the canal, Terry?’
By now O’Duncie’s shirt was soaking wet with sweat, which ran in streams down the sides of his cheeks.
‘Look, I admit he was a pest, but he’d done me a favour by not telling you lot she used to stay at my crash pad. He wanted to hang out away from the heat, so I said he could stay for a few days. Someone in the house gave him a pair of my old trousers and a shirt and he left. If they give him any gear it wasn’t from me cos he had no cash.’
Bradfield sighed and drew back the photograph of Eddie and stacked it on top of Julie Ann’s.
‘We will check out your alibi. You will now be charged with drugs offences and be held in custody to appear at the Magistrates’ Court where we will ask for you to be remanded in custody. Kath, go get someone to help you take him down to the charge room with Mr Stonex, but open the fucking windows in here first.’
A few minutes later Kath returned with a uniform PC to assist her with O’Duncie. As they left the room Cato Stonex remained behind and said he wanted to have a quick word with DCI Bradfield.
‘You pulled a fast one and lied about speaking with the allegedly underage girl and her parents.’
Bradfield shook his head. ‘You’re long enough in the tooth to know how the game’s played, Cato; besides you were only worried you’d fucked up by interviewing a juvenile alone.’
‘We’re not so different: all said and done we both have a job to do.’
‘Maybe.’ Bradfield paused. ‘Where the hell did you get a name like yours from anyway?’
‘It’s a Saxon surname, Bradfield, and whether or not I like my Christian name is none of your bloody business.’
‘Right Cato, mate-o, it’s not my business but I don’t take bent money from drug dealers for payment.’
‘For what it’s worth I don’t think he killed Julie Ann and nor did Dwayne Clark.’
‘What! You met up with Dwayne?’
‘He called me. He has a cast-iron alibi. He was in Coventry to meet up with Joshua Richards, but as you know he got arrested. I’ve told Dwayne he’s making a bigger hole for himself by hiding and advised him to come in voluntarily to be interviewed.’
‘What about Eddie Phillips? Did O’Duncie or Dwayne kill him?’
‘I don’t know and that’s not my problem to solve, but no doubt we will meet again soon,’ Stonex said and left.
An angry Bradfield went to the incident room to speak with Jane about her interview with A10. She told him that once they saw the retraction statement by O’Duncie they only asked her a few questions and she confirmed his and DS Gibbs’s version of events. They informed her that no further action would be taken and DS Gibbs would be returned to duty immediately. Bradfield said nothing, he didn’t even smile, but returned stony-faced to his office slamming the door shut behind him, too preoccupied with the case to react to the good news.
It went from bad to worse later that afternoon as the knowledge that O’Duncie’s alibi had been verified quickly spread round the incident room. The Chelsea Hotel manager confirmed that O’Duncie and his girlfriend, who they discovered was seventeen, had been staying there. The initial excitement over O’Duncie’s arrest palled: their killer was still out there.
Bradfield ordered another search of the squat in Ashburn House on the Pembridge Estate by DCs Ashton and Edwards. He wanted to know if there was anyone else now staying there who had known Julie Ann, or had fresh information about her or Eddie Phillips. It was late afternoon when Bradfield and DS Lawrence, who were going over the forensics in Bradfield’s office, were interrupted by a knock at the door and DCs Ashton and Edwards walked in.
‘No one was at the squat, sir, but we found this.’ A sheepish-looking Ashton held up a dirty black bin bag.
‘It definitely wasn’t there when we first searched the place,’ Edwards nervously added and Ashton agreed.
Bradfield and Lawrence looked inside the bag. Amongst potato peelings and dirty used takeaway cartons there was a rucksack.
‘It matches the description of the one Julie Ann Collins had,’ Ashton said.
An angry-looking Bradfield grabbed the bin bag from Ashton and went to the incident room where Jane was sitting at a desk filling out some index cards. Bradfield told her to move and as she got up he cleared a space on the desk. Lawrence laid out some sheets of newspaper, put on some protective gloves and handed a pair to Bradfield who removed the rucksack from the bin bag and began to search through it. First he took out a worn-looking ‘English History’ exercise book, with ‘Julie Ann Collins’ written in large letters on the front, and placed it on the table. Lawrence picked the exercise book up and began to flick through it while Bradfield removed items of clothing from the rucksack and placed them in a pile on the table. Lawrence held the book open for Bradfield and Jane to see. ‘She was a bright girl, and look at her neat and tidy handwriting. I wonder if she was maybe thinking about going back to finish her education.’