Episode 20 - Almost done and dusted

Saturday

“You are not to get involved in Cooper’s murder case, Cleo,” Robert said as he got ready to leave for the shop.

“I’m already involved, Robert, but I’ll take it carefully.”

“Your nipper is sending messages that he wants to see the light of day, Cleo.”

“What’s a nipper, Robert? I hope you aren’t referring to my baby with that awful word.”

“It isn’t nasty, Cleo. You hear it a lot in this country. You could say bambino or kid.”

“Dorothy called it a bun.”

“Ha ha ha. In the pudding club. Bun in the oven…”

Robert was still chuckling when he went to open his shop. He was living a lie and digging himself in further and further, but he had decided that was his only alternative. If Cleo wanted a child, it was a lucky break that she was having one and he would leave it at that. He loved Cleo in his own way and wanted her to start loving him.

***

Gloria was sleeping late. On Friday evenings she taught her line-dancing course and was glad to have a restful morning next day. Standing in the shop all day was strenuous at her age, though she could line-dance all night if called upon. When she finally got to work, she was eager to chat up the customers and learn the newest gossip. She did not have to wait long. An excited Hilda Bone crashed in breathlessly for a roast, chops, steaks, bacon and sausage rolls for tea . She was excited and could not wait to tell everyone in the queue all about the shooting at the bistro.

“Who told you, Mrs Bone?” Robert asked. He never ceased to wonder how news got round so fast.

“Local radio,” said Mrs Bone. “I always listen in. You never know what you are going to hear next. Were you there, Mr Jones?”

“No, I wasn’t,” said Robert.

“But I’ll bet Miss Hartley was.”

“Was my daughter in a shooting?” Gloria asked.

“No, Gloria! No, Mrs Bone! Cleo had nothing to do with it.”

“That’s not what the radio said.”

“What did it say?” Gloria asked, indignant that she should have missed something.

“A gangster came in, dragged a man out of the bistro and shot him dead,” said Mrs Bone.

“Didn’t they say anything about my daughter, Mrs Bone?” Gloria now sounded disappointed rather than shocked.

“They said a private detective had been there, but she had been as shocked as everyone else. I assumed it was Miss Hartley.”

And that was the truth, of course. No names given or picked up by Hilda Bone. Someone must have phoned the radio with information, but may only have known half of it. Any one of the guests at the bistro could have phoned in.

Robert wondered if an informant would be paid. If so, the police could probably trace him. But was there any point? Robert decided there were more important things in life. He would not bother. Nothing had happened to Cleo. That was the main thing.

***

Cleo drove to HQ quite late. She was a little perturbed about the baby. Supposing it decided to arrive at HQ? The doctor had already totally miscalculated the birth date. She had heard somewhere that women with a wide pelvis could fool doctors, or rather, the babies could.

***

Dorothy went to HQ on an early bus. She had phoned Gary early and arranged to officially identify the assassin from a range of suspects. An identification parade was something Dorothy had only experienced second hand in movies, so she was quite excited about one in which she had the starring role. She was quite sure she could tell immediately which person had shot Jack, but it wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be, as a number of ruffians had been positioned in front of the numbers.  She was most relieved that she tipped on the right one, since, as she told Gary, they all looked pretty much like gangsters. Gary informed her laughing that two had been unshaven policemen, one was a window cleaner and one was a cook in the HQ canteen. Dorothy was embarrassed. She had taken such a long time to decide that Gary thought she had not really looked at the assassin at the time.

“You don’t think we would let five gangsters stand next to one another, do you, Dorothy?” he said.

“I thought I was meant to take my time,” she retorted, ignoring the sarcasm, “so I did. You must admit that it was a rather rough crowd, whoever they were.”

“Well, you chose the right gangster, Dorothy, so thanks for that,” consoled Gary. “Would you like to come to my office for an espresso? Cleo will be here soon and then we can go over the events of last night.”

“Only if someone will please tell me why they’ve been hiding information about Jack from me.”

“Of course. You’re entitled to know, Dorothy.”

“I was entitled not to be allowed to meet such a dangerous character a second time,” said Dorothy.

“You are right and in retrospect we were wrong,” said Gary.

“When I asked Cleo if there was something she wanted to tell me about Jack, she said there wasn’t. That was a lie, Gary.”

“A little white one, Dorothy.”

“A little white what?” asked Cleo, who had arrived at Gary’s office in time to hear those words.

“A lie, Cleo. You lied to me about Cooper and I’m angry about that.”

“I’m sorry. It was not such a good idea. I wanted to protect you and avoid your finding out that Jack Cooper was a wanted criminal.”

“And if I had gone off with him into the night? What would you have done then?”

“I think Greg would have followed you.”

“That’s rich. You ordered a body-guard for me. I wondered about Greg being there, but didn’t have a chance to ask. He was flirting with that girl.”

“We didn’t know you had noticed him,” said Gary.

“I notice everything,” said Dorothy. “Well, nearly …”

“Greg was there to make sure you were OK, Dorothy,” said Gary. “I didn’t think Greg was Sergeant Fielding’s type. Life’s full of surprises.”

“Your assessment of human nature is wanting, Gary. It’s amazing that you would even hazard a guess at who is meant for whom,” said Dorothy. “And as for being married… talk about the pot calling the kettle black.”

“Touché!” said Gary. “But love and marriage are not interchangeable,” said Gary. “For instance, I love Cleo, but she thinks she is duty bound to stay with a person she does not love. She has confused marriage and love.”

“I hope you are working on that, Gary,” said Dorothy.

“I hope Cleo is working on that,” said Gary.

***

Dorothy turned to Cleo.

“I hope you learnt a lesson from my silly predicament of trying to keep a love alive that was stone dead.”

“Do we have to discuss that now?” said Cleo, who wanted to direct the conversation into less murky waters, but Dorothy was understandably more interested in Jack Cooper’s past life than Gary’s present one.

“Are you OK, Cleo?” Gary said.

“Just a twinge,” said Cleo.

“Tell me what Jack did that made him so dangerous that he had to die!” Dorothy said.

Between them, Cleo and Gary told Dorothy as much as they knew about Cooper’s activities. Dorothy was horrified.

“All those years wishing he would come back,” she moaned. “All those years in which he had forgotten all about me, and me wishing I had gone to Canada – to join forces with a felon!”

“He wasn’t the man you remembered, Dorothy. Criminals are not usually born, they grow into it,” said Cleo.

“Criminal energy is generated for many reasons,” added Gary. “I could spend six months telling you about crimes committed by people who were harmless, innocent and often naïve up to that moment.”

“But he must have been up to his evil deeds for decades,” said Dorothy. “I wasted my life on him!”

“Even so, I’m sorry he’s dead, Dorothy,” said Cleo.

“I’m not sure if I’m sorry,” said Dorothy. “But if I am, it’s because I did not have time to give him a piece of my mind.”

“Which bit would you have given him, Dorothy?” Gary asked.

“Assuming I had known the facts, I would have turned him in.”

“And I’d have preferred a confession to a corpse.”

“We were too late, Gary,” said Cleo.

"I didn't know there was going to be a shoot-out," said Gary laconically.

“There wasn’t one. I don’t think Jack was armed,” said Dorothy. “But I was and a fat lot of good that did me.”

“If you had tried a shoot-out you would probably not be here talking now,” said Gary.

“But there’s no point in crying over spilt milk,” said Dorothy, “or assassinated gangsters, for that matter.”

“What about poor Greg?” said Cleo. “He must feel awful.”

“He was not paying attention and not fast enough to prevent what happened,” said Gary. “But he’s new to the game and I did not tell him how much danger was involved. They were just to take care of Dorothy.”

“But you weren’t pay attention, either, Gary,” said Dorothy. It’s time you two didn’t have to go places to be together.”

2Guilty,” said Gary.

“You should not have sent that young policewoman on a duty call with him,” said Cleo.

“I didn’t know he was going to fall for her hook, line and sinker, did I?”

“Anyway, he didn’t have time to react, Gary,” said Dorothy in defence. “That gangster grabbed Cooper by the arm and more or less dragged him out of the bistro. We can be grateful that he didn’t shoot Jack and me at the table.”

“Do you think Cooper even knew who the guy was?” Cleo asked.

“Of course he did,” said Dorothy. “He was startled to see him at the bistro, but the man said something about having a message from home for him. That could have been a secret code, couldn’t it?”

“Or a message from the syndicate,” said Gary.

“What syndicate?”

“Cooper was probably one of a gang in the timber-stealing trade.”

“What?”

“Copeland - that’s the killer you identified - was probably also in that gang. I’ve no idea if he was originally on Cooper’s side, since there are usually rival gangs,” said Gary, “but in the end he was probably carrying out instructions to get rid of Cooper.”

“He wasn’t the guy I talked to on the phone,” said Dorothy. “You should probably be looking for a third gangster right now.”

“That Oxford’s pad. I’ll get them to look for him, but I’m quite sure he will have got the hell out of it, whoever he was.”

“One thing is certain,” Cleo sad. “Someone had traced Cooper as far as Oxford and if Copeland didn’t do that, he followed it up by dealing with him.”

“We know Copeland was at Cooper’s flat in Oxford because Greg took a photo. He drove the Rolls Royce that brought Cooper to the bistro the first time,” said Gary. “But that does not mean there was no third guy in the flat.”

“Rolls Royce? Wow!”

“I thought Jack had come alone to the bistro,” said Dorothy, “I didn’t see anyone.”

“You weren’t meant to, Dorothy,” said Gary.

“The two men looked as if they were friends on Greg’s photos,” said Gary. “Something must have happened that changed everything so drastically that Sid Copeland was instructed to serve as a contract killer rather than possibly warn Cooper that the gangster knew he wasn’t dead.”

 “How did Copeland get here?” Dorothy asked.

“I’ve no idea,” said Gary.

“Jack said he’d come in his car, but I didn’t see one,” said Dorothy.

“Copeland dropped him off here,” Cleo suggested.

“Copeland received a message on his phone instructing him to kill Cooper, so he did,” said Gary. “We know that much. His mobile phone was confiscated and analysed.”

"We did not know what sort of a guy Cooper was," said Cleo. "Greg and his colleague trailed the Rolls back to Oxford as a precaution after your first date, and after that Gary did research in Canada.”

“You have been busy,” said Dorothy bitterly. “I don’t suppose it occurred to anyone that I was involved, too.”

“It could have been too dangerous for you, Dorothy,” said Cleo.

“It was dangerous for me, Cleo. Look what happened! What if I had wanted to go with Jack that time or this time, for that matter? What if I’d invited him to my cottage?”

“He was dead before you could do that, Dorothy,” said Gary.

“Am I supposed to interpret that as a narrow escape, Gary?”

“They might have kidnapped you, Dorothy,” said Cleo.

“I don’t suppose you considered any of those possibilities before I arranged to see him again, Did you?”

There was a long silence broken only by Cleo asking Gary what would happen to Copeland.

“He’ll be charged with murder and sent down for manslaughter if it cannot be proved that the killing was premeditated. He could be extradited.”

“It can’t have been a spontaneous act if he dragged Cooper out of the bistro?”

“I didn’t see him draw a gun in the bistro,” said Dorothy. “But you said earlier that the man had probably been sent by the syndicate to kill Jack.”

“I don’t think we can prove that, Dorothy. But the Canadian police might be able to. Copeland can be extradited on request and I’m sure the Canadian police have a list of crimes they want him for.”

“One thing is certain, Dorothy” said Cleo. “You are out of danger now that Cooper is dead.”

“Cold comfort,” said Dorothy.

“So we should move on, Ladies,” said Gary.

“So what about the third guy you mentioned?” said Dorothy. “Should I look for him myself?”

“You have a point, Dorothy,” said Gary.

***

“Do you want me to leave now?”

“Certainly not, Dorothy,” said Cleo. “We want to hear your ideas on the Dr Marble murder.”

“We’ve discussed that already, Cleo,” said Dorothy, who was too shocked about Jack Cooper to think of anything else. “I think we should first be sure who killed Mrs Coppins.”

“I’ll get Jessie Coppins up from the cells,” said Gary. “She can tell us what she saw and you can question her, Dorothy. We should have stuck with her first questioning for longer.”

 “May we listen in on your interview with Copeland?” said Dorothy.

“Of course, Ladies, but Ladies first if you can call Jessie one!”

***

While they were waiting for Jessie Coppins to be brought to Gary’s office, Cleo made fresh coffee in Gary’s espresso machine and Dorothy popped down to the canteen to get them some sandwiches. They had all had an early start and could not possibly wait any longer for sustenance.

Gary was a bit disturbed about Cleo.

“I hope I’m not going to have to deliver Peggy,” he said.

.”It might be a false alarm.”

“Let me know in time.”

“I’m planning to make it to the hospital,” said Cleo, “alone.”

***

Jessie Coppins was sullen. She had been undergoing psychiatric tests and had not been told why, so she had no idea why she was still at Headquarters, but at least it wasn’t the prison.

She took one look at Cleo and announced that the baby would be born that week.

“You all right, Miss?” she added. “I delivered my friend Jackie’s kid a few months ago. It’s easy.”

“Thanks. I’ve booked the hospital.”

“I hope you get there in time then,” said Jessie turning to Gary.

“You’re the father, aren’t you?” she said.

Dorothy looked on appalled. Was her suspicion about to be confirmed?

“You’d better ask Miss Hartley that,” said Gary.

“A woman always knows, said Jessie. “So what do you bloody want me for now, Mr?”

“We need you to repeat what you said about Mr Kelly on the night your mother died, Miss Coppins,” said Gary.

“I bloody told her,” Jessie replied, pointing at Cleo.

“But I want you to tell me,” said Gary, swearing to himself that he would be patient and not lose his temper.

“I don’t remember,” said Jessie.

“Let’s just go through it again, Jessie,” said Dorothy, realizing that the girl did not like being interrogated by Gary. “If I ask you some questions, will you answer them truthfully?”

“Who’s the man in the corner?” Jessie said.

“That’s Nigel. He’s my assistant,” said Gary.

“He’s got nice clean finger-nails,” said Jessie, and Nigel lowered his head so that Jessie could not see him smirk.

“So he has, Jessie, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about.”

“He’s probably good in bed,” said Jessie. “I like clean hands.”

“Now, now, Jessie. Nigel is already taken,” said Gary.

“But I’m better at it, Mr Hurley. If you didn’t have these ladies here …” she said.

Cleo thought she should step in. The girl was embarrassingly promiscuous.

“Why did you go to the farm, Jessie?” she asked.

“To get some kip in the barn, Mrs,” said Jessie. “I’ve told you that.”

“Where were you before that, Jessie?” Dorothy asked.

“Around, Miss.”

“And then you decided to find somewhere warm to spend the night, I expect.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“Why didn’t you go home?”

“I didn’t want to. They would have told on me.”

“Surely not?” said Dorothy.

“The kids don’t always keep secrets, Miss.”

Moving on, Cleo asked Jessie if she had followed her mother to the farm.

“Yes,” said Jessie. “Mr Kelly could be my dad.”

There was general astonishment at this statement. They all knew about rumour, but Jessie thought it was possible.

“Are you sure?” said Dorothy.

“Well, Joe Coppins isn’t,” she said.

“How do you know?”

“He was in the bloody Navy, Miss. I know how long it takes to get a baby.”

“How long, Jessie?” Dorothy asked, not quite understanding what Jessie had in mind. “How long did you take?”

“Come on, Miss. You should know at your age.”

“Just tell me what you mean,” said Dorothy.

“Joe went away in February and I was born in January and he came home in the March after that.”

That was pretty conclusive evidence, they all agreed.

“But that doesn’t mean Mr Kelly is your father, Jessie,” said Dorothy.

“My mum was bloody carrying on with him,” she retorted and Dorothy decided not to ask any more questions in that direction. She couldn’t have without suggesting that Jessie’s mother had had more than one boyfriend at the time.

“But I know someone else who could be my dad,” Jessie volunteered. “Do you want to know?”

“Of course,” said Cleo.

“That Dr Marble from the posh villa,” she said. “My mum went cleaning for him. She might have climbed into his bed, too.”

That statement produced stunned silence. The idea that Jessie might be Marble’s child was not only a huge surprise, but also complicated the issue of Dr Marble’s murder. Cleo thought a little more questioning in that direction might be helpful.

“Did you ever go to the villa, Jessie?” she asked.

“I bloody wanted to know, didn’t I?” the girl replied.

“So you went and asked him, did you?”

“I never got that far. Some hag of a woman threw me out before I could see him.”

“Had you told her what you wanted, Jessie?” Dorothy asked.

***

Gary and Nigel watched this fresh drama unfolding. Cleo and Dorothy were coping well with the situation. Gary hoped they would get back to what she had seen Kelly do, but this was also hot stuff.

“Yes, I bloody had,” Jessie said.

“Shall we tell you why she was unfriendly, Jessie?” said Cleo.

“If you want to.”

“Because Mrs Riddle, the woman who sent you away, also has a daughter, and Dr Marble is definitely her father.”

“That makes the girl my half-sister,” said Jessie.

“It also makes you a beneficiary, Jessie,” said Dorothy.

“A what?”

“You are entitled to inherit from Dr Marble.”

“Does that mean I’m rich?”

“I don’t know how much money he had. Jessie. What else do you know about Dr Marble?”

They all waited with baited breath. Nigel scribbled furiously on his note pad.

“He’s bloody dead, isn’t he?” said Jessie.

“Were you there when it happened, Jessie?” said Gary.

***

“I thought you wanted to ask me about Mr Kelly,” the girl said, avoiding Gary’s question.

“Oh, we do,” said Gary, unperturbed.

The girl was on a roll. She was a performer enjoying the reactions of her audience.

“What did you do after following your mother to the farm?” he asked.

“I went into the barn, Mr Cop. Hay and straw are nice and warm. A barn is a good place if you need a bed.”

“Mr Kelly didn’t see you go into the barn, did he?” said Gary.

“He bloody didn’t. I made sure of that.”

“Then you saw him come out of the house, did you?” Dorothy asked.

“I was nearly asleep when I heard a noise, so I looked through a crack in the barn wall. It’s wooden and them planks were nailed all higgledy-piggledy.”

“That was clever of you,” said Dorothy. “What did you see, Jessie?”

“I’ve told you all this before.”

“Then tell us again, Jessie.”

“I saw Mr Kelly come round the corner carrying my mum,” she said.

“Did your mum struggle?” Dorothy asked.

“No. She just hung down, dead like.”

At this point, Jessie draped herself over her chair in roughly the position she had seen her mother in.

“What happened next, Jessie?” Gary asked, repulsed by this female, but fascinated by her stagecraft and timing. She really was a little hussy.

“He went to the pond and dropped my mum in. Just like this,” Jessie said, getting up and going through what Kelly had done when he carried and then dropped the body of her mother into the pond.

“It wasn’t very nice,” she said.

“No, it wasn’t,” said Dorothy.

“But you didn’t scream or go after him, did you, Jessie?” said Cleo.

“No, I bloody didn’t. He might have done the same to me.”

“No one’s blaming you for anything, Miss Coppins,” said Gary. “I expect you just hid in the barn for a while then ran away.”

“Yes,” said the girl.

“I think you have said enough to confirm what we think happened that night, Jessie,” said Gary.

“Can I go home then?”

“No, not yet,” said Gary.

“But what about my kids?”

“Which kids?” Gary asked.

“The two my mom says are hers.”

***

Cleo reflected that there was nothing much amiss with the girl’s emotional reactions. She was in shock as far as her mother was concerned, and going through a nightmare of being imprisoned while probably innocent of any of the charges being brought against her, except for her escape from the prison hospital, which had humiliated the guards. Cleo was starting to regret agreeing with Mrs Riddle on the subject of Asperger’s.

“Jack is looking after the family, Jessie,” said Cleo. “And he knows I can help him if he needs help.”

“What about my new baby, Mrs?”

What about the other one, Jessie?”

“They took it away. Said it was dead,” said Jessie.

Gary and Cleo looked at one another. That explanation seemed familiar. Was the baby racket still in full swing?”

“We’ll get you your baby if that was not true,” said Cleo.

“Thank you Miss.”

“When is the new baby due, Jessie?”

“Quite soon,” said the girl. “After yours, Miss.”

“Who’s the father?” Dorothy asked.

“Someone religious, but I’m not telling.”

“In the prison, Jessie? Was he a padre?”  Gary asked.

“He called himself father and he had some nice sweets he share with me.”

“In your room, I suppose,” said Dorothy.

Quite apart from the implication of a padre giving girls  sweeties that put them to sleep while he abused them, Gary wondered if the baby was being ‘bred’ to sell. He would not talk about that now, however.

“I kept some of the sweeties for later,” Jessie said.

Dorothy was alarmed, as were the other shocked listeners.-.

“Can you give me some to try, Jessie?” she said.

“Yes Miss.”

“What did the father do?” said Cleo, anxious for Jessie to explain in more detail.

“He came to pray with us, Miss. Then he said I needed to pray with him on our own. Then it happened,” said Jessie. “Without the sweeties. That came later.”

“Did you want it to happen, Jessie?” Dorothy asked.

“I didn’t mind. I hadn’t had a priest before; but ‘e wasn’t very good at it.”

“I’m amazed at how you have coped, Jessie,” said Gary. “We must arrange for you to go home soon and we must get at that religious person.”

“He’s respectable, Mr.” said Jessie. “No one will believe me.”

“I believe you, Jessie,” said Gary, “and I can deal with that person if you just tell Miss Hartley who it is.”

“She’s having hers today, aren’t you, Miss?”

“I don’t know. It’s much too early, unless… said Cleo.

“A woman knows,” said Jessie, nodding wisely. “Are you the father, Mr.?”

It was almost a repeat of the dialogue they had had before, but this time Gary said “I hope so, Jessie,” and this time it was Nigel who looked shocked. “It could be.”

Dorothy was starting to hope it was Gary’s baby, but she would never have admitted that to anyone.

“We want you to have your baby in freedom,” said Gary. “Like Cleo, I mean Miss Hartley.”

Jessie turned to him smiling and thanked him.

***

Something happened to Gary at that moment. His heart bled for the girl who was in such a predicament. He looked at Cleo again and was rewarded with a brief nod and that smile he did not want to live without.

“Just one more question, Jessie,” said Gary.

“What?”

“Did you see how Dr Marble died?”

“Is he dead?”

“Did you see, Jessie?” Gary emphasized.

“I looked through the window once, and he was at his desk.”

“But that was not the day he died.”

“No. I was in prison, wasn’t I?”

“No, Jessie. You ran away on the Monday, and Dr Marble was killed after that,” said Cleo.

“I didn’t bloody kill him,” said Jessie. “He was lying on the floor when I went there again.”

“Did you see anyone else in the room?”

“Only Mrs Old Hag. She was fiddling with something behind the desk, but I didn’t see anything else, honest!”

“I expect you were so frightened that you ran off, didn’t you, Jessie?” said Dorothy.

“Wouldn’t you if you got blamed for everything?” said Jessie bitterly.

There was a short silence while Gary decided what to do next.

“Well, that’s the end of this questioning, Jessie,” he said, finally. “I’ll get a doctor to make sure you are OK, and then we’ll get you out of that arrest cell.

“Will you do that for me, Sir?” she said.

Jessie’s change in manner was pleasing to Gary’s ear, and amused Nigel.

“I’ll do everything I can for you, Jessie. I’ve taken a liking to you and I want you to know that I’m a friend, not just another cop.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Thank these two ladies as well,” Gary said, offering Jessie his hand. She made no sensual move. She just shook the hand held out to her and thanked Gary all over again.

Dorothy and Cleo were both quite speechless at Gary’s volte face, and Nigel was flabbergasted for at least a week. What had got into the guy? She was such a common person, and there he was, being extra nice to her.