Liar Page 16

  But before she’d got to the point where she could take stock of the day, she’d had to deal with the questioning, the embarrassment of having to explain exactly what Henry Lark had done. Had she encouraged him to think she wanted him? Why did she agree to go to Richmond Park with him?

  Sergeant Roper didn’t mince his words with her either. ‘It seems to me, young lady, that you see yourself as a private eye! I know you’re a journalist and that you found the body of Lucy Whelan, but that should’ve been the end of your involvement. Yet you went ahead and wormed your way into the families and friends of all three girls. Then you were attacked in Ravenscourt Park, perhaps by the man the press is calling the Creeper. Now you’ve allegedly been assaulted by the father of the third victim. You have got to see today’s incident as the end of your delving into this business. Put it aside and get on with your life.’

  ‘What do you mean “allegedly been assaulted”? That sounds as if I made it up. Go and see him – I scratched his face. That’s proof, isn’t it?’

  ‘As we speak, one of my officers is interviewing him.’

  ‘He’s a pervert. His daughter was killed, and he tried to sexually assault the one person who was trying to help by getting information to find the killer.’

  ‘Don’t you see that by agreeing to go to Richmond Park with him, you led him to believe you were interested in him that way? When people are in a state of grief, they often reach out to someone for comfort, especially if they believe that person wants them.’

  Amelia felt as if she might explode. ‘He said he wanted to talk to me about Rosie out of doors. It never crossed my mind that he would do something like that. What is it with men? We show concern for you, listen to your problems and somehow that translates to you that we fancy you! Don’t words like empathy, sympathy, concern or caring exist in the male world?’

  The sergeant folded his arms and looked even sterner. ‘I believe your boss is waiting for you upstairs. Go home, Amelia. I know you mean well but let the professionals do the digging and the crime-solving.’

  Amelia leaped to her feet, sickened by his attitude. ‘Well, good luck with that. I found a really worthwhile clue that links the three girls, but I’ll sit back now and see how long it takes you to find it for yourselves.’

  She slammed the door of the interview room behind her and hoped she’d managed to rile him.

  Jack was waiting in the reception area. ‘Bloody hell, Amelia! I got a fright when my pal down here rang and said you’d been brought in. He said you’d been assaulted. Is that right?’

  ‘I’ll tell you about it in the car,’ she said, anxious to get out of the building.

  ‘So was I stupid to agree to go to the park today? Did it sound to you like he was planning to seduce me?’ she finished, as they drove to the office. Jack hadn’t said a word as she’d told him what happened.

  ‘If he thought a park in midwinter was a good place for seduction, the man’s obviously lost his mind,’ Jack replied, with a hint of laughter in his voice. ‘But, then, I wouldn’t expect a man who’d just lost his daughter to try it on with another girl of the same age. So, no, I don’t think you were stupid, just being kind.’

  ‘Thank you for that,’ Amelia replied. ‘The sergeant made me feel really cheap. But I’ve got something I didn’t tell him about. Look!’ She took the photograph out of her shoulder bag to show Jack.

  Jack studied it carefully. Then he grinned, as if he’d finally worked out what he was looking at. ‘All three girls together! God almighty, Amelia, that’s dynamite.’

  ‘I think the common denominator is the Girl Guides,’ she said, and told him the name of the church in Chiswick to which Rosie’s company was attached.

  ‘I don’t suppose I can write this up in the paper, though, it being part of an ongoing police investigation. But if he’s charged with assaulting you, we can do something about that.’

  ‘Oh. Jack.’ She sighed. ‘You know he’ll never be prosecuted. I went with him to the park of my own free will, he’ll say I led him on, and there are no witnesses to what he did. The most damage I could do to him is write what Mabel told me, about Rosie being like Carol in character, a gold-digger who used men. But let’s see what the Guide mistress has to say about Rosie, and find out where and when that camp was. Then I’ll plan what to do. Only I doubt I could really be so cruel to Rosie or her poor mum.’

  ‘You aren’t doing anything more now, sweetheart. It’s all too dangerous,’ he said. ‘I’ll find the Guide mistress and show her the picture. As for that weasel Lark, I’ll let him know in no uncertain terms what I think of him. He’s a disgrace. No wonder his wife has gone off to stay with her sister. I bet she knows what he is. Now let’s get you home. You’re white and shaky.’

  ‘I haven’t done any work for days.’ She sighed. ‘The others must think I’m your pet, or worse.’

  ‘They don’t. They all understand what’s been going on and, believe it or not, they’re rooting for you. So it’s home for you. Put your feet up and forget about all this.’

  14

  Jack dropped Amelia at her house, warning her to stay in and not answer the door because her police guard wouldn’t be along until six o’clock.

  ‘How long are they going to keep this up?’ she asked, not even opening the car door – she felt so apathetic. After the day’s events she wanted normality again. She didn’t even feel as if she cared who had murdered the girls.

  ‘They’ll keep it up until they think it’s safe to leave you. I expect that means when they’ve got the Creeper in custody. What time will your boyfriend be back?’

  ‘I don’t know that he will be.’ She shrugged. ‘He went to Rugby for a couple of days, and as we had a row before he left, maybe he won’t come back to me at all.’

  ‘I don’t think he can be that stupid,’ Jack said gallantly. ‘A lovely bright spark like you? They don’t come along that often.’

  Amelia turned to Jack. She had grown fond of him and his bulldog appearance, especially since she’d found he had a heart after all. ‘I don’t feel like a bright spark.’

  ‘You will, once you’ve abandoned all this detective stuff,’ he said. ‘That bloke Lark needs a good kicking. I’m going round there tomorrow to put the fear of God into him.’

  Amelia’s smile was a washed-out one. ‘Well, if you do, tell him Rosie wasn’t the angel he painted. She and Carol were tarred with the same brush. Not that I think you would tell him that. For all your bluff and bluster you’d be remembering he loved his daughter.’

  ‘I’ll also be remembering what he did to you, and that might get the better of me. Now clear off, sweetheart. Have an early night and I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  On the dot of six Amelia heard a car draw up and saw that Sam was taking the first shift. She was hungry but didn’t have anything in the cupboard that she wanted to eat. She sat down and switched on the television to listen to the news. That was depressing: first some frightening footage of the carnage at Ibrox Park in Glasgow back in January when sixty-six people were killed in a crush at the football ground. Then it went on to the Vietnam war, showing women and children running from napalm fire. They said the American soldiers were going to be pulled out of Vietnam soon, and Amelia wondered why they had stuck their noses into another country’s business in the first place. The news moved on to various atrocities in Belfast. She couldn’t take any more misery so she switched it off.

  The front doorbell rang and, as always, Amelia looked out of the window. Sam was standing on the pavement gazing up at her. He made a gesture with his hand, which she understood to be a request for tea.

  ‘I’ll go away if you’re busy or your boyfriend’s here,’ he said, when she’d gone downstairs and opened the door to him. ‘But I heard at the station what happened today, and I was worried about you.’

  ‘I’m not busy, come in,’ she said, feeling it was the first good thing to happen that day. She walked up the stairs ahead of him. ‘I’m fine, just a bit fed up.’


  Once he was sitting down by the fire and the kettle was boiling, Amelia said she was most upset at her powerlessness. ‘Nothing will be done to Mr Lark, not even a rap on the knuckles. How dare he think he can treat me that way?’

  ‘Several of us saw his clawed face – you left your mark good and deep there, Amelia. We all think he should be charged with assault, and if you insist on it, he will be. But, as you know, cases like this are usually more damaging for the victim. He’ll get all the sympathy with his daughter murdered and his wife in a state of shock. His defence lawyer will portray you as a floozy on the make, or even worse.’

  ‘I’m aware of all that,’ she said sadly. ‘It’s just so unfair when I was only trying to help him.’

  ‘He’s done this before. I unearthed an old offence. Same thing, took a young lady to a park after a lunch together and assaulted her. That was four years ago, and he wasn’t charged because the girl had drunk quite a lot at the lunch, and it was believed she was trying to entrap him in some way.’

  ‘Only a man would think like that,’ Amelia said. ‘Well, probably not you, Sam, but the old-school judges, barristers and the like.’

  ‘I showed it to Sarge, and you might be surprised to hear he was sympathetic to you. He said no woman would claw someone so badly unless they were really fighting to get free. But Lark is a powerful man. He’d have a top-class lawyer, and all you’d get is public humiliation.’

  The door of the flat burst open then and, to Amelia’s astonishment, there was Max. ‘So, what’s this? Personal protection?’ he said sarcastically.

  Amelia could see he was angry, his face flushed and tight-lipped. ‘Sam’s just arrived for his shift and came up to see how I was. I was attacked earlier in the day.’

  ‘Sam is it now? Very cosy,’ Max said. ‘And where were the police while you were attacked?’

  ‘Please stop this, Max,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s been a distressing enough day already.’

  ‘I’ll go back to the car,’ Sam said, getting to his feet. ‘Just to set the record straight, I’ve been here for five minutes. I heard back at the station what had happened to Amelia and I came to ask her how she was before starting my shift. You should be concerned about her, not angry with me.’

  He left then.

  Max shut the door behind Sam and, leaning back on it, folded his arms and looked at her thoughtfully. ‘You’re a liar. There’s not a mark on you. Wanted some attention, did you?’

  Amelia was scared now. His voice was harsh and his eyes so cold. How could he suddenly be like this?

  ‘I am not a liar and get out, please, Max. I won’t be spoken to like that,’ she said, trying not to show she feared him. ‘I would’ve told you exactly what happened, but not now when you are being so nasty. Just go.’

  He leaped forward and punched her in the face so hard her neck cricked with the force of the blow. ‘I know what you are, Amelia bloody White. You play the poor little downtrodden girl with a brute of a father, but it’s just a big act for attention.’

  ‘I’ve never played anything, never even told you about my family,’ she said, and although she was trying hard not to cry, the tears came anyway.

  ‘You’ve got what you wanted, haven’t you? People worrying about you, making a fuss of you and, best of all, the gullible young pig to dance attendance on you.’ He took a step forward and punched her in the stomach, winding her.

  Amelia screamed then, even though she was bent over in pain. ‘Stop it,’ she cried. ‘You said you loved me! Is this how you treat someone you love?’

  He grabbed her hair with his left hand and pulled her upright. ‘Love you? I despise you.’ He slammed his right fist into her cheek. ‘I’ll make you so ugly no man will want you.’

  ‘Oh no you won’t.’ Sam’s voice came from behind Max. He caught hold of his shoulder and spun him round, punching his face. As Max fell to the floor, Sam leaped to him, rolled him over and clamped handcuffs on him. As a last gesture of dominance he used his foot to bang Max’s face on the floor. ‘That’s where you belong, on the floor, lower than dog shit.’

  Amelia could only look on open-mouthed. She remembered she had given the police a spare set of keys, but she had imagined that Sam would be sitting in the car with his radio on, deaf to any cries.

  ‘Max Creedy, I am arresting you for the assault on Amelia White, and for the murders of Lucy Whelan, Carol Meadows and Rosie Lark. You have the right to remain silent, but anything you do say and rely on later in court may be used against you.’

  ‘Murders!’ Amelia repeated, thinking she must have imagined it. ‘Surely not. No, Sam! He might be a bully but he couldn’t have murdered those girls.’ She was shaking from Max’s attack, and in pain, yet she still felt she had to defend him.

  Sam looked round at her. ‘Sit down, Amelia. I’ll come back to you as soon as he’s been taken away.’

  ‘I didn’t murder anyone,’ Max bellowed out. ‘She’s a liar if she told you that.’

  Sam caught hold of Max’s arm and hauled him to his feet, then pushed him towards the door.

  At that point Amelia heard a police siren and, looking out of the window, she saw another police car pulling up with two officers inside it.

  She watched from the window as Sam handed Max over to them. They put him in the back of the car and drove off. Sam locked his car and started to walk back towards the house.

  The pain in her face and stomach was awful. She had just got to the mirror over the mantelpiece when Sam came in.

  ‘How did you get back here so fast when he told you to go?’ she asked, looking in horror at her face, which was already turning purple, her eye beginning to close.

  ‘I could see in his face he was going to hurt you,’ Sam said. ‘So I called it in just in case. I didn’t even get into the car – I was downstairs with the door open. When you screamed, I ran up.’

  ‘But you arrested him for the murders! Please tell me I haven’t been in here with a killer!’

  ‘We suspected him right back at the start of this,’ he said. ‘There was something about the way he was so close when you found Lucy. He called the police, then made a move on you. But there wasn’t any evidence to charge him. Anyway, never mind that now, let me look at your poor face. Have you got any ice in your fridge?’

  He made her sit down on a chair by the table, opened the ice box in the fridge and tipped the contents of one of the ice trays onto a clean tea-towel and then held it to her cheek. ‘Any loose teeth?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. The ice was soothing but she felt suddenly dizzy.

  The next thing she knew she was on the floor, Sam bending over her. ‘You fainted,’ he said. ‘Good job I was right there. Now let’s get you up onto your bed.’

  ‘He punched me in the stomach too,’ she said, in little more than a whisper. ‘It hurts!’

  Once on the bed he got her to hold the ice pack against her face, then lifted her sweater and unfastened the waist of her jeans.

  ‘You’re going to have a nasty bruise there, too, tomorrow,’ he said. His hand felt cool and soothing on her stomach. ‘But to be on the safe side, and check there are no internal injuries, I’d better take you to Casualty to get you looked at.’

  ‘Why did he pretend to love me if he’s a killer?’ she asked, tears running down her cheeks.

  ‘Amelia, he may turn out not to be a killer, but he isn’t what you think. He isn’t an accountant, and he hasn’t got family in Devon.’

  Amelia looked at Sam in horror. ‘He’s been lying to me? Didn’t he ever love me?’

  Sam smoothed her hair back from her face. ‘I don’t want to say anything that will upset you more, but I don’t think people who kill have brains that work in the same way as the rest of us. He may have felt at the start it would be wise to keep you close as you were so interested in Lucy Whelan. Maybe he did fall in love with you, Amelia – you’re a lovely girl.’

  ‘How could he love me and treat me like this?
’ she asked, touching her swollen eye.

  ‘I expect the violence towards you came on as it seemed to him the web was closing around him. You must tell me everything he told you about himself, but I think we’ll find a good part of it was lies.’

  ‘And he called me a liar! I haven’t told him any lies, not one.’ She turned the good side of her face towards the wall, still holding the ice pack to her cheek, and sobbed.

  ‘Don’t cry, Amelia. I’m sorry he turned out bad, but you’re young and gorgeous, even if that isn’t the kind of thing a police officer is supposed to say, and you’ll meet someone better, someone you deserve.’

  Three hours later they were back after a trip to the police station to make a statement and have her bruises photographed, then to Casualty where an X-ray proved she had no internal injuries.

  Sam bought some Chinese food on the way home – he said it wouldn’t need much chewing – and came in to share it with her.

  Amelia was calm now. What a fool she’d been to trust Max so implicitly, she thought. His real name wasn’t even Max. It was Brian Caulderhill and he came from Southend. She still didn’t know whether he was really into amateur dramatics, could sing or rock-climb, but the chances were that he had made all that up too.

  ‘But why did he go on about buying a house?’ Amelia asked Sam, who was dishing up. ‘He would’ve been found out immediately.’

  ‘I suspect his plan was to get the house in your name. While we were at the hospital, they did a search in his room two doors down. They found a lot of money, acquired, no doubt, through something illegal. I got a message on my radio while you were being X-rayed. They’ll be looking into that now. I think perhaps his plan was to make a big gesture by giving you the house he wanted.’