Chapter 16
806 Words
16
By the time Jack and Wendy had got back from John Lucas’s house, the team had begun gathering together all the information they had relating to the man and his past. Having had Lucas booked into the custody suite, they’d left him to sit in a cell while they gathered everything they needed for the interview.
They knew they’d have twenty-four hours in which to speak to him and gather enough evidence to convince the Crown Prosecution Service to authorise charging Lucas. If that time passed, they’d either need to request an extension — something which was far from guaranteed — or release him.
‘There’s quite a lot of information on the armed robbery case itself, and even more on things John Lucas said afterwards, while he was in prison,’ DC Ryan Mackenzie said. ‘Two men were convicted over the Trenton-Lowe robbery. One of them was John Lucas. He blabbed more or less straight away about who else was involved. He named Galloway, but later retracted that. Afterwards, he’d only ever give the nicknames. The officers who questioned him at the time suspected he knew their real names, but didn’t want to say.’
‘Why would he do that, though? I mean, if he was blabbing anyway, why not go the whole hog?’ Wendy asked.
‘To make us think he’s told us everything,’ Culverhouse said. ‘Seem like you’re being helpful and cooperative, but hold a load back. Tried and tested.’
Ryan continued. ‘The names he gave were Footloose, Peter and Bruno. Now, the officers at the time assumed Footloose was Freddie Galloway, otherwise known as Footloose Freddie. That was no surprise to anyone. They later found out that Peter was actually a man by the name of Benjamin Newell.’
‘Why Peter?’ Steve asked.
‘Comes from “Peterman”, a slang term for a safecracker. He was the one who was meant to break into the safe and steal the cash. But something went wrong. In interview he said he was told the safe was a completely different type. Said the information was duff. He wouldn’t blame it on anyone in particular, though. Again, the general consensus was Freddie Galloway.’
‘Another motive for murder,’ Culverhouse interrupted. ‘If you’re due a huge wad of cash and some dozy bastard f***s it up by giving you dodgy info, you’d want to do something about it, wouldn’t you? Might be worth looking at Newell’s finances and recent history. See if there’s something that might’ve urged him to act now.’
‘Well that’s the thing,’ Ryan said. ‘Why wait that long? Newell was only in prison for three and a half years. He could’ve done Galloway over any time he wanted. Why wait until now?’
‘Because doing it the day he got out of prison would’ve looked a bit too obvious, don’t you think? Look how quickly we descended on John Lucas when we realised he’d been released the same day Freddie Galloway’s place burnt to the ground. That’s why I’m not convinced it was him.’
‘What if it was Newell, and he’d done it that day because he knew it’d frame Lucas?’ Steve offered.
‘Possible,’ Culverhouse replied.
‘Thing is,’ Ryan continued, ‘There are a number of statements from prison officers and other people Lucas had spoken to. He regularly and openly spoke about how Galloway had “done him over” and left him to face the music alone. Galloway — assuming he’s Footloose — and this Bruno guy left via the back entrance and managed to escape. Lucas and Newell — Headache and Peter — went back out the front.’
‘Headache?’ Culverhouse asked, his face contorted.
Ryan shrugged and shook her head slightly. ‘No idea. Never got to the bottom of that one. But they were stopped by a patrol officer who heard the call over the radio. He was in the area at the time. He recognised Lucas, and made the stupid mistake of telling him so. He took a bullet to the head. When he came round in hospital he gave Lucas’s name and they matched gunshot residue found on his clothing. Seems he’d been so confident he’d killed the officer, he didn’t even bother to chuck his clothes in the wash. Newell was driving the getaway van. He drove off after Lucas shot the police officer, and was stopped less than half a mile down the road. He drove into the side of a chip shop trying to escape from traffic officers who tried to pull him over for having no insurance.’
Culverhouse guffawed. ‘You couldn’t make it up. What a bunch of twats.’
‘Lucas was the one who seemed to suffer most. He got the longest sentence, obviously, for pulling the trigger. Apparently he was more than willing to give up all sorts of information by the time he was up for parole. Possible he was trying to buy his way out, but the parole board said he seemed genuinely remorseful and that he wanted to help.’
Culverhouse snorted. ‘Yeah, we’ve seen that before. It’s amazing how many born-again-Christians pop up six weeks before their parole hearings. John Lucas might’ve been able to pull the wool over the parole board’s eyes, but I’m something different altogether.’
‘You can say that again,’ Frank Vine muttered under his breath.
Culverhouse, although blessed with supersonic hearing, pretended not to hear him.
‘Right. Well, I think we’d better go and have a word or two with Mr Lucas, don’t you?’
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