Condemned by R.C. Bridgestock (love books to read TXT) 📕

‘You enjoyed that, didn’t you?’ Wilkie said, when he eventually caught up with Mike outside the Incident Room. As the pair walked into the office, Charley was waiting to greet them.

‘Nice work,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen that pompous prig so docile.’ She walked behind them, a hand on each of their shoulders. ‘I’ll be giving his details to the National Crime Agency. He’s as guilty as the others. I’m sure of it.’

Wilkie sat at his desk and Charley and Mike walked towards Charley’s office. Annie put down the phone. ‘Boss,’ she shouted. Both detectives turned. ‘The team searching Thomas’s car… they’ve found a key and fob in the sun visor. It relates to a locker at the theatre.’

Chapter 41

Ricky-Lee pulled his chair beside Wilkie’s desk. He handed him a brown paper bag, tied with an elastic band.

Annie was sat at her desk opposite them, quietly reading Raglan’s statement.

‘I’d ’ave put money on Thomas’s arse dropping out…’ Ricky-Lee said thoughtfully.

‘Good job you didn’t,’ said Wilkie. ‘Raglan’s just made a statement basically canonising JT. The boss told us she wants Thomas charging.’

‘Makes me wonder who Raglan is more frightened of, Dixon or Thomas?’

Wilkie peeked into the bag full of assorted broken biscuits and smacked his smiling lips together. ‘I’m glad you’re not knocking a lass off that works in’t ironmongers,’ he said. ‘Put t’kettle on.’

Ricky-Lee stood up, and collected the others’ cups from their desks. ‘There’s no way Thomas is clean.’

‘According to Raglan, he’s cleaner than a duck’s fart.’

Annie glanced over her computer screen, ‘Slippery as an eel, more like,’ she muttered. ‘I wonder what Mike and the boss will find in the locker?’

‘What’s Raglan actually said in his statement?’ said Ricky-Lee.

‘He blames his drug addiction, which he says started as medicinal,’ said Annie.

‘Of course,’ said Ricky-Lee.

‘He actually talks about Thomas rather fondly,’ said Annie.

Wilkie sat at his desk opposite Annie, screwing up his face. ‘We know he’s not as green as he’s cabbage-looking though, as our lass says.’

‘He knows more about James Thomas’s business ventures than he’s letting on,’ said Annie.

Wilkie nodded his head. ‘He knows which side his bread is buttered, that’s for sure, and when to keep his gob shut.’

‘What’s interesting is that he talks about the night of the shooting in his statement, but in his first interview he declines to tell us who shot Hussain. He says that he was sitting in an armchair, when Brittany Dixon indicated to him that there was a gun in the rucksack, by his side. At the time, Hussain had a gun to Brad Dixon’s head apparently, and he was threatening him, eyeball to eyeball. Raglan admits to retrieving the gun to pass to Brittany, at her request apparently, but says that whilst he was doing so the gun went off. He also admits the Dixons paid the rent by supplying him with drugs for his personal use.’

It was some time before Charley and Mike appeared back in the Incident Room from their investigation at the local theatre. Bags of exhibits filled Mike’s arms. ‘We had to wait for Neal Rylatt to photograph the contents of the locker in situ,’ said Mike, laying the exhibits on Annie’s desk.

‘A handgun,’ said Annie.

‘A loaded handgun,’ said Charley.

The young detective looked up at Charley questioningly, ‘Hussain’s, do you think?’

Charley shrugged her shoulders. ‘Either way, we need to arrest Thomas now for possession of a firearm, and he needs interviewing again. Annie, call his solicitor will you. Let’s get things moving.’

Charley sat down next to Wilkie.

‘What’re you thinking happened, boss?’ he said.

‘I think that the four of them somehow disarmed Hussain, and held him on the floor whilst they put a bullet in his head. Like the pathologist said, it was an execution, not an accident, as Raglan claims in his statement. But we may never know for certain who actually pulled the trigger.’

‘I’m glad I’m not eligible for jury duty. This murder enquiry is going to be a nightmare for each and every one of them,’ said Annie.

Charley gave her a tight smile. ‘Unless of course, the Crown Prosecution suggest that this was without doubt, a case of joint enterprise. Which would mean we charge them all with murder and in the evidence show that they were all complicit with what went on.’

‘But Dixon’s defence team are sure to try and confuse the jury by playing out the different possible scenarios, emphasising that they must be absolutely sure what happened on the evidence that is put before them in court, in order to make the decision for the verdict,’ added Wilkie.

‘That would be nothing new for the defence, Wilkie, but the prosecution would lay out everything before them and make it simple for them to understand. But remember, it’s our job to put the evidence, and the offender, before the courts. Occasionally jurors get it wrong but that’s very rare. I think they’ll convict them of the murder.

There was a notable change in Raglan in his final interview with Annie and Ricky which had been set up to talk about the content of his written statement. The estate agent was trembling with such vigour that the interview had to be suspended shortly after it had started.

‘We will have to accept that we have got all we are going to get from Raglan,’ Charley later told the team at debrief.

Once the debrief was finished, Charley headed to update Chief Superintendent Stokes before returning to her own office seeing a chance for a moment or two of silence. She leaned her head back on her office chair headrest with her eyes closed. She was tired; her eyes were aching. She was waiting for the Crown Prosecution Service to call her when Mike and Wilkie walked into her office. Their rowdy entrance startled her.

‘We have good news and bad news, boss, which would you like first?’ asked an eager Wilkie.

Charley covered her mouth with her hand to