** For authors notes, disclaimer etc. see chapter 1
Blonds have more fun 8/?
"Why did Forsythe give you all of this? Do you think he's trying to influence your view on it all?" The boys have been here for half an hour now and we've been sorting all the evidence in the boxes into manageable piles. Now with a glass of wine each and the winter afternoon turning to night outside Jack is going through Forsthye's note book and I can see his scepticism.
"I don't know. That was my thought when he first arrived but the more I talked to him the more I think he's just a good man who has got caught up in a bad situation." I have all of their full attention now and I'm not sure how to put across my gut feeling on the exact seat Jack now is not two hours ago.
"What did he say about Richards? From the notes he doesn't seem to have much confidence in him, was it the same impression you got?" Ah see now I have a dilemma Gerry has asked a perfectly normal and reasonable question but if I tell him about Richards making a pass at me then there's ever chance that when we do meet him again he'll knock him out. If I don't though it would be like lying by omission and I don't like doing that either. We promised each other we'd always be honest about things no matter how upsetting that honesty might be.
"Richards is a slime ball, we had lunch and he brought the evidence boxes, he did a damn good job of trying to portray Forsythe and Louise as incompetent and useless then when I told him I'd get a porter to bring the boxes up he insisted on helping then decided he'd have a go at sticking his tongue down my throat.
"He did what?" See I told you, he's immediately gone off the deep end and even Jack and Brian don't look best pleased.
"Relax I handled it I don't think he'd be stupid enough to try anything again but the point I'm making is that he isn't the most loyal of colleagues he seemed aggressive and determined that I should believe that Forsythe was too blinded by loyalty to his protégé to see what was really going on. Not only that but he's seriously full of himself if I had been less able to handle myself he'd have been very hard to fight off earlier. I don't like him that doesn't mean I think he is definitely the leak though I can't decide about that yet."
"You're not so sure that Forsythe was blinded by loyalty though?" I know Jack can understand the way Forsythe might have been feeling. A long time ago he took me under his wing in the same way that Forsythe seems to have done with Louise. He encouraged me, helped where he could, but if I'd been in trouble or he thought I was getting involved where I shouldn't he'd have reigned me in and my gut tells me Forsythe would have done the same.
"No I think he would have been as prepared to stamp out anything inappropriate with her as he would with any of his team. For now my gut is telling me that there was someone on the inside telling Marx what was going on and that's what got Louise killed."
"Was it Richards though or was he just a mediocre cop who would rather put the blame on anyone but himself?" Brian always cuts to the nub of the matter and this is no different. Gerry is writing names and sticking pictures to the board and I finally feel like we're getting somewhere.
"I'm trying to keep an open mind on it, to be honest, all my instinct is telling me he needs watching and that he could well be in the pocket of more than one criminal including Marx but we've nothing to prove it yet so we need to cover all bases."
"OK well let's look at the facts then, do we have any reason to believe that she was shagging Marx? Other than Richards word for it of course?" God I love Gerry but his way of putting things is nothing if not direct, he has made me smile though. My boys are back with all their little foibles and it's perfect.
"The debriefing notes I have don't indicate an inappropriate relationship." Brian has a small pile of notes spread out on the desk in the corner and is scanning them. "She was debriefed once a week, never at the same time or on the same day, I assume Forsythe did that so as not to arouse suspicion from suspicion from Marx."
"What sort of things is she say in the debriefing do we have recordings?" Recording? Now he's asking! One of the best resources we have when dealing with cold cases is to hear the voices of the people involved, like a story being told from beyond the grave and I don't see why this should be any different just because it didn't happen a quarter of a century ago. "Yeah there's a box of tapes some of interviews with Marx's known associates and some of her debriefings and there's an old tape player I borrowed from reception. You should have seen the face of the young guy behind when I asked, I don't think he's old enough to have ever seen a tape player before let alone used one."
"Well he'd be used to digital downloads and iPods the idea that you one had to have a tape and it meant pushing buttons and recording things would be like something from the dark ages for him." Oh my god the last thing I need right now is for Brian to go off on one of his lectures about changing technology, time to step in.
"Yeah, right let's see what she has to say for herself. Just start with the first one and work through them they won't be long debriefings never last more than 10 or 15 minutes."
He's put the first tape in the player and hit play we've all fallen silent as the voice of Louise Cathcart fills the room followed by that of Michael Forsythe.
"I think it's going ok Michael I mean I'm taking it slowly I've made friends with one of his inner circle a girl called Maria Wilson you might want to get me some background on her and another girl too Anita Dawson. They seem to be closest to him right now."
"Ok I'll get the guys on to that and see if they can pull anything up on them before we meet next week. You are being careful aren't you? I mean if you think for a second that he's on to you or any of his circle are then you tell me and we'll get you out of there. No chances, no heroics that what we agreed."
"Pause the tape and get those names up on the board with any luck there'll be some background on them in this stuff." The sound of Louise's voice has brought it all home to me in Technicolor and suddenly I'm more determined than ever to get to the bottom of it. I know I can't prove it yet but my gut is telling me she was screwed over by someone who should have been on her side and I intend to find out who that was.