West of the River. David Dalby
around one am to two am.
Again….What was happening at that time of night….day…whichever you chose it was an odd time for people to be up and around.
What was Gloria doing?
The medical report mentioned she was sitting down, but that didn’t help. Sitting down, doing what?
Neither the responding officer, nor the arresting one had anything at all to say about that.
Hannah McShane had arrived at the house prior to ten pm. Otherwise the security guard would have seen her.
Would he? Hazel wondered. In his statement the guard, Andrew Simpson, stated he didn’t see her arrive and that he had a clear view of the street. So far as Hazel could see no one had bothered to check on that.
Simpson had not seen Hannah McShane arrive, but he had seen her leave. Just after two in the morning. He saw her running away from the house and called the police.
Hazel couldn’t find a time for the police logging the call. Evidently Simpson had called the local station at Elm Street. Was that standard practice? Hazel didn’t know. Neither did anyone else either as there was no reference to it.
That Simpson hadn’t chased after her was unsurprising. These private security guards looked fine and good on paper, but in the real world they were just private citizens in uniform. They had no powers beyond those anyone had. Also, they were only insured for the area they covered.
If the guard had chased Hannah, and caught her outside Keys Court he could have been injured in the struggle, in which case he wouldn’t receive compensation. Also, if she’d been injured and sued, the company wouldn’t consider itself liable and Simpson would be in serious financial trouble.
Hazel looked to the other eye witness reports. Those that the prosecution had so relied on.
Thomas Mitchell, retired school teacher.
Helen Trent, assistant bank manager.
They both stated they saw Hannah McShane, pursued by the security guard, running down the street. Hazel checked the times, just after two am.
Why were they up?
What made them look out of the window?
Did they know Hannah McShane?
None of those questions and more hadn’t been asked.
“This is all useless.” Hazel said, and looked up at the other detectives, all looking back at her. She sighed and stood up, “If anyone wants me I’ll be doing Elm Street CIDs job.”
“Detective Sergeant Hazel Louise Vernon.” The red haired woman in the business suit looked up at the senior detective from Elm Street. “Who is she and why did you make such a mess of the investigation.” The first part was the question. The second was a statement and not one that went down well.
“What mess? We followed the evidence. We got the girl who did it. We had witnesses. It was an open and shut case. No problems.” Detective Chief Inspector George Raeburn sat back in the client’s chair and folded his arms.
Solicitor Camilla Ruthven let out a long sigh, “As far as I can there were nothing but problems. Hannah McShane was acquitted.”
“Yes, but I assumed you’d have ways to solve that problem.”
Camilla looked at Raeburn for a long time. Then she said, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, George. Mostly because I’m going to pretend you never said it. You say this McShane girl is guilty.”
“We have eye witnesses. Two of them. Three if you count the security guard.”
“Why wouldn’t we count the security guard, George?”
“I meant we have enough eye witnesses to get a conviction.”
“You didn’t get a conviction though did you. What you got was an acquittal.”
“I know but….”
“I asked around, George. It did take me a while but I discovered it was not just an acquittal. It was a unanimous one. No one on the jury believed she was guilty.” Camilla shook her head. “This isn’t good, George.”
“I don’t see the problem.” Raeburn said. “So she got off, who cares?”
“You have no idea, George. But let’s say more people care than you imagine and those people are very highly placed. We were told, by you, that you had evidence linking the McShane girl to the murder of Gloria Kelsey. We were told, by you, that it was solid evidence. No one could dispute it. Well it seems at least twelve people did dispute it and now the investigation has been kicked upstairs to the Crime Squad. People we don’t really know since the re-shuffle. People, if I’m brutally honest, we have no reason to know and have no desire to know at the moment. We have someone following Sergeant Vernon. It’s early days yet but she does seem rather more intelligent and able than anyone in your department.”
“There’s nothing wrong with any of my people.”
“George, they are incompetents who do what I…we…tell them to do. That’s about the limit of their abilities. With any luck Sergeant Vernon will actually discover who the real killer is. I’m fairly confident no one working for you will.”
“We found the killer. Hannah McShane. We had witnesses.”
“You keep saying that, George. But no one believed your witnesses. They were not credible. I don’t know why they weren’t credible. Not yet, but no one believed them. You had no murder weapon. No blood on Hannah McShane. No DNA or finger prints. No evidence at all.”
“She had a shower or bath, changed her clothes, threw the knife in the river.”
“George, I could destroy that assertion in my sleep, and she did have decent legal representation.”
“She did it. She killed the woman.”
“Gloria.”
“Yes, whatever.”
“Did she? Or was she just someone picked up in the general area by your people? George, I want you to understand we take this seriously. We’re not looking for a scape goat. We don’t some random person for this. We want whoever did it.”
“Hannah McShane did it!”
“Then I want evidence of that. I don’t want supposition and guesswork. Maybe she did do it. Maybe she is guilty and got away with it. We want to know one way or the other. It’s not going to be you or any of your squad who find out. We can’t trust you to do anything that simple.”
“My squad did find out. It’s Hannah McShane.”
“You are to work with Detective Sergeant Vernon.” Camilla said.
“I’m not going to….”
“You are to work with Detective Sergeant Vernon. I expect full cooperation with her. Give her any information or help she asks for. Be polite. Be helpful. Don’t mention me or Victor Monk or anyone else you may know around here. If you have to insist Hannah McShane did this…”
“Of course she did. There’s no one else.”
“….then do so, but don’t expect her to listen to you. It’s her investigation and the results we’re interested in.”
“You want to know what she finds out.” Raeburn said, nodding.
“Yes but we can find that out without any help from you, thank goodness.” Camilla said. “OK you may go.”
Annoyed, Raeburn stood, shoving his chair back. The thick carpet absorbed the sound making his angry exit less than he would have liked.
The door of the conference room banged behind him. A moment later another red haired woman in a dark suit stepped out of a side room.
“You never did think Hannah was