The events at the meeting that Wednesday had taken their
toll on Dorothy. For a start, she was very disappointed in Gary. Why was he
messing around with Silvia Barnet? Was he rejecting Cleo? Was all that drama
surrounding her actually marrying Robert just so much hot air?
***
Dorothy did not enjoy her visit to Courtney’s nursery care
home next day. Dudley Courtney was seemingly putting a brave face on a terrible
situation, thought Dorothy, except that he was extremely nervous. One could not
describe his attitude to his wife’s murder as normal. He didn’t seem to be at
all sad. He could not promise to reveal the arrival of a new baby to the pseudo
grannie. Was Courtney cautious or simply criminal? Did he have a police record?
Had Gary taken steps to find out?
Dorothy got out of that care home as fast as she could and
phoned Cleo on her mobile. She thought Courtney was a number too big for her.
There was something shifty about the guy. She did not want to be alone with
him. Cleo said she would phone Gary immediately.
“Do you want to do that, now you….”
“Yes, Dorothy. This is business. How Gary gets his pleasure
is no longer my affair.”
“Oh dear,” said Dorothy.
***
“I hate to bother you, Gary,” Cleo started, “but Dudley
Courtney…”
“So you’ve been there, have you, Cleo? You should have
consulted me first.”
“Why, in heaven’s name?”
“Because he’s already on the list of suspects and I do not
want to put him on his guard.”
“Awesome, Gary! You didn’t tell me he was a suspect. I
thought he had completely escaped your scrutiny.”
“He’s kept a low profile all this time and Roger wondered…”
“Roger?”
“He seems to have smelt a rat.”
“Very perspicacious of him!”
“As it happens…”
“In case you are interested, I’ll fill you in on Courtney, Gary,
or at least on Dorothy’s reaction to him.”
“Of course I’m interested,” said Gary, thinking how irritating
Cleo could be. Cleo was thinking the same of Gary. Did his short temper have
something to do with Sybil?
“Haven’t you slept with her yet, Gary?” Cleo asked. “You sound
a bit frustrated.”
“What?” stuttered Gary.
“Listen, Gary. I have no claims on you and I don’t expect
you to avoid sex or anything else with Sybil if that’s what you want.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” lied Gary.
“You do, damn you,” said Cleo. “Just get on with it, for
Christ’s sake!”
“But the baby?”
“What baby?”
“Ours.”
“Mine and Robert’s, Gary. Please remember that.”
Cleo was furious with Gary, with herself and about the whole
situation. She would end it now.
“I think I’d better tell you what Dorothy told me, Gary.
Let’s forget your love life for a moment.”
“I’d rather you did, Cleo.”
“What? Forget my love-life with you?” said Cleo. “Already
forgotten, Gary. Now you can get on with Sybil without giving me a thought.”
“You know it’s not like that.”
“It is now, Gary.”
“Meet me at Romano’s.”
“No. Introduce Sybil. She can go there with you.”
“I do believe you are jealous, Cleo.”
“Does that matter? I have a guy at home, Gary.”
“You don’t love him.”
“I’ll start.”
“So tell me what Dorothy told you,” said Gary, shocked at
himself and Cleo for the quarrel they were having.
“Dorothy consulted Courtney about the possibility of him notifying
us if her granddaughter turns up with an unwanted baby.”
Gary could not be accused of having a vivid imagination so
he was invariably astonished at Dorothy’s, though he should have remembered
that she had used that ruse before.
“Quite apart from it being too dangerous for Dorothy to get
involved, she hasn’t got a grandchild and Courtney could easily check on her
and find out that she was making up her story,” said Gary.
“She used the same story at Social Services and they didn’t know
who she was,” said Cleo.
I’m sure that Courtney knows Upper Grumpsfield personalities,
Cleo, and Dorothy is one.”
“OK. Point taken.”
“So how did Courtney react?”
“Non-committal, but shifty. Dorothy thought he was nervous.”
“That comes as no surprise. He’s a doctor who was struck off
the register for irregularities concerning drugs.”
“When did you find that out?”
“Roger found out. He has only just told me,” said Gary.
He was furious with himself that he had not looked into Mr
Courtney’s past and was now having to tell Cleo a white lie to save face.
“I would not be surprised if you knew earlier and forgot to
tell me, Gary,” said Cleo, who was just as irate.
“I didn’t know you were pursuing that angle,” Gary retorted.
“So you did know about Courtney’s past, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know you were also going down that track, so it’s
six of one and half a dozen of the other, damn you.”
Gary was shouting now. He was distraught and Cleo wasn’t
letting him get away with it, especially since he had sent her to hell.
“Damn yourself, Gary.”
“Sorry.”
“You should be.”
“Courtney is a doctor so that explains how he met Ruby
Singleton and how he got into the baby racket if he did,” said Gary, shocked at
what he had said to Cleo in anger.
Cleo remained cool though she was appalled by Gary’s words.
“ Why the ‘if’? Find out, Gary. He’s a doctor, whether he’s
on the register or not. That opens up a plethora of possibilities.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Do you want more tips from me?” said Cleo.
“I need you, Cleo.”
“Correction. You need tips,” said Cleo. “OK. How about this
one? Courtney might be cold-blooded enough to murder someone – his wife, for
instance - if she was worried about the baby trading being found out after
Devonport was murdered. Is it possible that he killed Devonport, too?”
“Why would he murder Devonport?”
“Dorothy is into motives. We’ll discuss it and I’ll ring you
back.”
Seeing as he had nothing better to suggest, Gary fell in
with Cleo’s proposition.
“Ask Chris if that old guy Singleton was killed by a shot of
something lethal. Or shall I ask him?” said Cleo.
“I’ll do it, Cleo”
***
Since the phone had been on loud, Dorothy had heard
everything, but had refrained from commenting as Cleo had shaken her head to
indicate that she shouldn’t make her presence known. Now she was plainly
disgusted at Gary’s negligence and cruel words.
“I think Gary simply assumed that Mr Courtney is on the
level despite his record,” said Dorothy, and Cleo wished she could have a good
cry about what was happening between Gary and herself. “Gary doesn’t kill women;
he just swaps them around,” said Cleo.
“Men don’t kill their wives, Cleo. Gary isn’t criminal; he’s
emotionally bereft and trying to cope with life without Cleo by comforting
himself with an ex-hooker.”
“Let’s keep my affair out of this,” said Cleo. “It won’t get
us anywhere. Gary ha been negligent. No amount of emotional twaddle can
disguise that fact.”
“I agree. He didn’t consider an involvement by Dudley
Courtney at all, and to be honest, neither did we, until now the man has
stepped into the limelight?” said Dorothy.
“That’s the whole point, Dorothy. Courtney has kept out of
the limelight by not making himself conspicuous, let alone suspicious. Have we
been pursuing the wrong guy all this time?”
“But Akbari is guilty of multiple crimes, some of which we
can’t define yet,” said Dorothy. “Apart from theorizing about Akbari’s role in
this mess, we haven’t done anything, Cleo. And neither has Gary.”
“Then it’s high time we did.”
***
The phone rang. It was Gary.
“I’ve just received the report from the commission that
struck Courtney off the medical register, Cleo. He was an obstetrician. I
expect abortions, still births and the rest were also on his list of
achievements. We’ll get him in for questioning.”
“It would also explain involvement in what Ruby Singleton
stood for, wouldn’t it?”
This time Dorothy did not wait to be shushed by Cleo, but
joined in the conversation quite belligerently.
“They could even have worked together,” she said. “Some
women are not insured and would pay Courtney privately. He would not be reported
for illegally practising his profession because that was not something anyone
would talk about.”
“Hi, Dorothy! Since you’re listening in, you can tell me
what you think about our new murder candidate’s personality.”
“Well, I met him for the first time today. He could be a
Jekyll and Hyde sort of person. Shifty eyes. Didn’t look straight at me once.”
“So we’d need the opinion of a psychiatrist.”
“I’d recommend that. I once knew a dancing teacher in London
who went shop-lifting then wondered where she’d got all the new items from.”
“Thanks for that, Dorothy. Who do you think he murdered,
then?”
“His wife, the Devonport woman and possibly Ruby Singleton
in league with Akbari.”
“That doesn’t leave Akbari with many.”
“Assuming he killed anyone. I should have thought he had
enough to do getting his prostitutes sorted out. Knowing what we do about Banu
Akbari’s medical condition, that death might even have been a case of mercy
killing. The drug he gave her was a pain-killer, wasn’t it?”
Gary was lost for words. Cleo looked wide-eyed at Dorothy.
Where did she get all those ideas? That could mean that Banu and Akbari had
been in contact and that she had probably followed instructions. She might even
have asked Akbari for help in the form of euthanasia.
“I’ll bear all that in mind, Dorothy,” Gary said after a
pause..
“And I’d thank you to take me seriously all the time, Gary.”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“I’m consulting you now, aren’t I, and as usual you’ve hit
the spot!”
“You’re welcome, Gary. I’ll be baking at the weekend. Like
to bring your new flame along?”
Cleo had to laugh and Gary took it all in good grace.
“We’ll be there. 4 p.m. on Saturday.”
“Great!”
When they had finished phoning, Dorothy made a thumbs-up
sign to Cleo.
“If you won’t fight for him, I’ll have to,” she said.
***
Gary’s laudable next step was to pull in Dudley Courtney for
questioning, and a psychiatrist would be invited to observe the interview from
the neighbouring office that had a one-way mirror. But Gary had to talk to
Cleo. He did not want to be accused of leaving her out of things.
“Do you want to be at Courtney’s interview?” he asked.
“When?”
“This evening. Can you make it?”
“Sure.”
“It depends on us actually getting him here, but come
anyway,” said Gar. “We need to talk.”
“I’ll come,” said Cleo.
***
A patrol car that pulled up in near the house to collect
Courtney was just in time to see him drive off in his car. The officers raised
the alarm, gave chase and the car was stopped on the M4. A packed suitcase was
found on the back seat of Courtney’s car. Fast action led to his unceremonious
arrest after he had tried to draw a gun, but been shot in the calf and overpowered.
The wound was fortunately only superficial. Paramedics were called I, dressed
it and Courtney was eventually driven to Headquarters in Middlethumpton. One of
the patrol officers drove Courtney’s car back to Middlethumpton and parked it
behind HQ. The whole procedure had taken about three hours.
That left a long time for Cleo and Gary to talk. Neither was
willing to start the ball rolling, but eventually Gary did.
“I don’t want Sybil,” he said. “I want you, Cleo.”
“That’s not the impression I got,” said Cleo. “You slept
with Sybil. That was pretty final for me.”
“I didn’t mean to. She overpowered me.”
“You are not serious, I hope, Gary.”
“I’m deadly serious, Cleo.”
“And I’m serious when I say that Sybil is probably better
for you than I ever was, but we’ll keep on working together, if that’s what was
worrying you.”
“No. the most hurtful thing you said was that you were going
to deny me both yourself and our baby.”
“I meant it, Gary. I hate messing around. Let’s just be
friends. You sleep with whoever appeals to you and we’ll just do business
together.”
“Is that your last word, Cleo?”
“It has to be.”
“But we love each other,” said Gary.
“I know, Gary, but we have no future together. Don’t you
understand?”
“No, and I don’t want to,” said Gary. “Stay with me tonight,
please.”
“And sleep in Sybil’s bed, or maybe on the other side. No
thanks, Gary.”
“Well, come to Romano’s with me.”
“I’ll think about it,” said Cleo.
***
Greg, who had been involved in the chase and actually made
the arrest after shooting skilfully to create the most havoc and do the least
harm, accompanied the handcuffed man to Gary’s office. Greg’s strength had
convinced the prisoner on the drive that struggling was pointless. Roger Stone and
the psychiatrist were notified. Cleo joined them in the neighbouring room to
observe the procedure of trapping Courtney into some kind of confession.
“Why were you running away?” Gary asked him artlessly.
“I was not running away. I was about to go on holiday,”
replied Courtney.
“With your wife not even released for burial? You must be
kidding.”
“I needed to get away.”
“Away from what?”
Courtney did not reply. His timing had been faulty.
Brazening it out would have been more sensible. An unpleasant thought came to
Gary.
“Greg,” he said to his colleague who was in the room
together with Nigel after they had brought the prisoner to Gary’s office. “I
think you’d better go to Courtney’s house and check it.”
“No need. I locked up,” Courtney said.
“Every need, Mr Courtney. What about your business?”
“Closed down.”
“And your nursery assistant?“
“Sacked.”
“Did you hear that, Greg? Get into the house and make sure
everything’s as it should be.”
“Now?” Greg wanted to know.
“Now!”
“Hand over the house key, DOCTOR Courtney?” Gary said with
emphasis on the title.
That startled Courtney.
“No,” he said.
“We can break the door down,” Greg said. “Do you want us to
do that?”
“It’s on the car ring,” he said.
Gary decided that searching the man would cause unnecessary
upheaval. Courtney looked as if he would talk, given a little leeway. Courtney
was now playing it so cool that Gary wondered if Dorothy could be right. Maybe
the doctor was schizophrenic.
Greg hurried out, retrieved the bunch of keys and got in his
patrol car, taking Barbara Fielding with him since she was just coming on duty.
There was no time to waste.
“This is urgent,” he explained, telling Barbara what it was
all about.
A brief search of the house was all it took to find the body of the
assistant.
“There’s a dead woman here,” Greg reported to Gary.
“How old?”
“Twenty something,” said Greg. “Stabbed in the back. Barbara
Fielding is with me. No chance of saving the woman.”
“Good. I’ll send forensics. I think we already know who did
it.”
***
“Well, Dr Courtney,”
said Gary. “Operation successful; patient dead again.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Your nursemaid has met with an accident, Mr Courtney.”
“That’s a pity. Nice girl.”
“A slip of the knife; several slips in fact. Why did you do
it, Mr Courtney?”
“Do what?”
“Kill that young woman.”
“Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. I have a
colleague…” Courtney started.
“Do you now, Mr Courtney!”
Gary thought it quite likely that Courtney was talking about
himself. The psychiatrist came into the office to sit opposite Courtney.
“Well, Dr Courtney,” he said. “Nice to meet you again.”
“I don’t think I know you…”
“Maybe you don’t remember. What was that about your
housemaid?”
“I found her dead in my kitchen,” said Courtney. “I don’t
know how she got there.”
“Come, come, Doctor. Tell us the truth. It’ll help you and
us.”
“My wife was having an affair.”
“Who with, Courtney? Gary asked.
“The guy at the bistro.”
“We’ll check on that, Courtney,“ said Gary.
“It might have been someone else.”
“So she had to die for it, did she?” said the psychiatrist.
“Women who betray their husbands all have to die.”
“And women who talk too much?”
“They have to die, too.”
“Can we talk about this another time, Mr Courtney? I’m in a
hurry today,” said Gary.
“Of course. I’m always available for consultations.”
Courtney was clearly mentally disturbed. Gary was not even
sure the man knew where he was. The psychiatrist left the room. Gary followed
him to ask him what his first impression was.
“The man’s bipolar and crackers,” he told Gary. “Just keep
him here and get a medical doctor to give him some kind of sedative. I’ll be
back in the morning. I expect you’ll get a full confession then, assuming the
homicidal half of Mr Courtney can be persuaded to come out of the shadows.”
***
“Let’s put Mr Courtney to an arrest cell, Nigel. We’ll search
him first and remove anything likely to cause injury, including his shoes.”
Nigel had spent the who interview writing notes at the back
of the office.
“He’s schizophrenic,” he diagnosed. “Get a guard, Gary. He’ll
be too strong for me.”
Before transfer to the cell, Courtney was searched by the
guard. Gary did not think Courtney was carrying a scalpel or razor blade around,
but the guy was inventive. He was not to evade justice by committing suicide.
Once Courtney had been taken to the cells, Cleo and Roger moved
to Gary’s office, but not without Roger wanting to know what had happened
between her and his colleague.
“You are both my friends and I’d like to help,” Roger said.
“He’s helped himself, Roger.”
He doesn’t give that impression,” said Roger.
“He slept with Sybil,” Cleo said. “That’s Anna’s mother. The
ex-hooker will no doubt keep Gary entertained.”
The bitterness in Cleo’s voice was unmistakeable.
“You married the wrong guy, Cleo.”
“He might have slept with her even if we were married,” said
Cleo.
“Never, Cleo. He is just frustrated and sad.”
“I know that, Roger. So am I.”
“Then don’t drop him like a hot cake. He needs you. We all
need you.”
The dialogue ended when Gary and Nigel returned.
***
“What a monster that guy Courtney is, sane or insane,” said Cleo, eager to get
off the topic of her shaky relationship with Gary.
“Do you think he killed the Devonport women too, Cleo?” said
Gary.
“Chris can give us a line on that, surely,” said Roger.
“I think the psychiatrist was being optimistic when he said
Courtney would confess,” said Gary. “It looked to me as if the guy was
indulging in a little rough justice according to his whacky principles.”
“Typical schizophrenia, Gary,” said Roger. “One thing is
crystalizing.”
“And that is?”
“Akbari could be in the clear, after all.”
“We’ll find plenty to charge him with. Until it’s all sorted
out, we can hold him on the charge of assaulting the vicar,” said Gary. “He is
definitely guilty of that.”
“Don’t be disappointed if Courtney does not have to stand trial.
I can’t judge if the man is play-acting, but a psychiatrist can, and a second
opinion will back up any diagnosis.”
“That means we have our murderer but he’ll get away with
it,” said Gary.
“He won’t get away with anything, but if he’s sick in the
head he’s not responsible for what he did. You’ll have to accept that, Gary,”
said Roger.
Roger realized that Gary was panicking. The whole
investigation had been a mess. The only apparent success so far had been the
arrest of two suspects, one of whom was mentally deranged and the other one
innocent of most if not all the murders. Roger decided to contact Cleo at home and
visit her to discuss the case with her and Dorothy.
Gary was eventually left alone in the office with Cleo.
“So Dorothy was right,” she said.
It felt like capitulation for Gary to have to admit that,
but he did.
“You’re learning, Gary. Congratulations!”
“We should have realized we were dealing with a madman,”
said Gary.
“Come on! The murders were logical and followed a pattern.”
“But I should have smelt a rat. I just hope Chris is
prepared to spend the night sorting out who killed who!”
“That’s the spirit. Talk in the morning, then.”
“Romano’s first?”
“I’m sorry if I hurt you. I hurt myself more.”
“I’m sorry if I hurt you, Cleo.”
“I have no claims on you,” said Cleo. “But it felt like you
were being unfaithful.”
“I was, Cleo.”
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