Dead Sweet: A D.I. Turnbull mystery (18 page)

"Of course he doesn't understand," his mother said. "Malcolm's not a killer, that's just ridiculous."

"Mum be quiet." Malcolm stopped her, "I'll go with them."

"But Malcolm you didn't do it, you can't have."

Malcolm rose from the table and turned to his mother, grabbing her hands in his. "No mum, I didn't kill anyone, but they won't believe me unless I go with them. I will go and answer their questions, ok?"

Malcolm's mother began to cry.

"Come on mum, wipe your eyes, everything's going to be ok." He turned back to Todd and Candace. "Well come on then, take me away." He said, holding out his hands.

Todd was unsurprised by Malcolm's actions. In his experience suspects had many ways of attempting innocence; there were the screamers, protesting their innocence and only going back to the nick kicking and screaming, fighting their accusers and telling everyone and everything that they were not guilty. Then there were the talkers, those who barely drew a breath as they continuously denied the accusations, either talking themselves out of the shit or even further into it. Malcolm was going to be the calm acceptor of his fate, someone who would play a game with Todd. He fully expected Malcolm to call a solicitor on arrival at the police station and then spend the rest of the investigation making no comment. These were the most frustrating cases for Todd. Talkers tended to forget the lies they had told, making it easy to pick their stories apart, but when a suspect said nothing, Todd only had evidence to go on. He had to prove beyond doubt that Malcolm had been at each murder and had committed the acts of violence against the victims. Todd was only too aware that the only evidence he had was a semen sample and a sketchy description of a man in a grey suit with a...

"Suitcase." Todd said aloud.

"Guv?"

"Malcolm, do you own a black suitcase?"

"Yes."

"On wheels?"

"It has wheels on the bottom, it's more of a bag."

"Do you carry it with you?"

"For work," Malcolm mumbled.

"He takes it to his interviews," his mother agreed, "It's got his paperwork in it hasn't it Malcolm?" she walked out into the hallway and Todd heard a door open then shut. Malcolm's mother returned with a large black briefcase on wheels.

"This is it," she said, wheeling it over to where they stood and placing it on the table in front of Todd."

"Open it please Sergeant Whelan." Todd ordered.

Candace felt around the suitcase for the zipper, then opened the lid of the briefcase. It came up revealing more than a dozen chocolate bars and bags of liquorice twists."

"All there bar the lollipops," gasped Candace.

"What's wrong with that?" his mother asked, "He gets hungry, don't you Malcolm?"

Malcolm stood quietly looking at the floor.

"Get the scenes of crime here now," Todd said, pulling Malcolm by the handcuffs which held him. "Come on Malcolm, you've got a lot of talking to do."

Friday 12
th
July 2013

17:00 hours

"It's Friday 12
th
July 2013, the time by my watch is now 17:00 hours. I am Detective Inspector Todd Turnbull, an officer with the Metropolitan Police. I am in the room with?"

"Detective Sergeant Candace Whelan."

"Malcolm, if you could give your full name and date for birth for the record please." Todd asked.

"Malcolm Lawrence Chadwell, First of April 1966."

"Mr Brown, I am Malcolm Chadwell's solicitor."

"Thank you." Todd made a note on the paperwork in front of him.

"I would like to say something before we start," the solicitor interrupted. Todd felt his stomach sink as he could hear the beginnings of a 'no comment' interview coming from the solicitor's mouth.

"Yes?"

"I have advised Mr Chadwell to make no comment during this interview." The solicitor confirmed Todd's fears.

"Ok, just to let you know Malcolm, that is advice your solicitor has given you, but it is advice only. You are the person who has to stand up in court and you are the person who will ultimately be facing prosecution or prison if you are found guilty at court. This is your one chance to give your version of events to the police, do you understand?"

"No comment." Malcolm looked at the table in front of him.

Todd gave a heavy sigh and continued with the necessary rights and legal requirements he had to read to Malcolm before he could get down to asking him any questions. Once he had completed the formalities he began.

"Now Malcolm you are here today because a young lady is lying in hospital fighting for her life and unfortunately her boyfriend, Wayne has lost his battle for life. I have also given disclosure to your solicitor of two other murders which we are investigating and which we believe are connected to the happenings of this morning. We would like to ask you questions about these murders and whether you have any knowledge of them or how they happened. Can we begin by you telling me just what you were doing this morning?"

"No comment."

Todd didn't feel as though he had the energy to continue with the interview. There were many questions to ask about all three murders and he knew the interview may take over an hour. In his mind, the interview was finished already, Malcolm was never going to speak, and this was all just a waste of time.

"Sergeant Whelan, if you would like to continue the interview, you are welcome." Todd offered. Candace looked at him in surprise, it was unusual for Todd to take a backseat in such an important investigation. "Yes sir." She agreed and shuffled through her own paperwork.

"Malcolm, can I ask you why you're going no comment?" She began.

"No comment."

"I think you want to tell me something, you seem like you want to speak, is that the case?"

Malcolm shuffled in his chair, he coughed and briefly looked up but said nothing.

"I am not going to ask you questions right away Malcolm," Candace said. "I'm going to tell you a story first. It's about a young girl at school who was bullied. She was fat, not grotesquely fat; just overweight; her clothes didn't fit her quite as well as the other girls in her class and if she had to run then her belly would jiggle up and down. She was a happy little girl, loved school and loved her family, but then something happened to change her life forever."

Todd looked at Candace questioningly, he didn't understand where the story was going and didn't want to waste time. Candace gave him a look which said, 'trust me' and he decided he would sit back and watch things play out.

"What happened Malcolm was that the little girl got bullied. Every day when she went to school someone would call her a name. Fatty, dumpling, fatty boom boom, truffle shuffle; it got so that if she got up from her chair there would be at least one person with something to say. The other people in the class just laughed, they never stopped the bullying and most of the time joined in. She felt as if everybody was against her, everybody hated her, just because she was different. Do you understand that?"

Malcolm nodded his head and brought his eyes up to meet Candace's.

"Like she didn't fit in." he said.

"Mr Chadwell, please remember my advice." The solicitor immediately chided Malcolm.

"This has nothing to do with the actual case." Candace said, "It's just a conversation."

"Then if it has nothing to do with the case, I don't think we should continue this line of questioning."

"Sorry, Mr Brown, this is my interview and I will continued how I wish." Candace informed him. "Malcolm, did you ever get bullied at school?"

Malcolm nodded.

"So did I; I was that little girl. I was the big fatty in the class. I couldn't hold my head up high; ever. If I ever made myself known in class for any reason I would immediately be pushed back down by taunts and horrible comments. It got so that I just wanted to shrink away from the world; hide myself from eyes, be nobody at all so that I could be left alone just for one minute. I tried to lose weight, I tried to be the person they wanted me to be. I would starve myself for days and feel like I'd done well, but when I went back to school I would just be laughed at. One summer I became anorexic; I was sick every day and lost all the weight. I had to go to hospital and be put on a drip because I had stopped myself from eating, but it was all worth it. I was so looking forward to going back to school and to not be the one that everybody laughed at. I was going to be normal, I was going to fit in."

Malcolm was watching Candace intently, pity and understanding across his face.

"Do you know what happened when I went back to school?"

"I can guess." Malcolm said.

"They
still
called me names. One girl came up to me and said to me, "It doesn't matter that you've lost weight, you will always be the fat girl." It destroyed me. I began to hate them as much as they hated me, do you know what I mean?

"Yes."

"Do you hate your bullies Malcolm?"

"Yes." Malcolm began to cry. "I have been bullied my whole life; it never stops."

"I know just how you feel."

"Even my father bullies me."

"And you hate him?"

"Yes, with every bone in my body I hate him."

"And you hate the girls who bullied you?"

"I will always hate them."

"Is that why you killed them Malcolm?" Candace asked.

"What?" Malcolm seemed shocked. "I haven't killed anyone."

"Come on Malcolm, that's why you hunt these girls down; they are pretty, slim and way beyond anything you could ever be. These are the girls that used to bully you, they are the girls that called you names. You want to get back at them, you want them to hurt as much as they hurt you."

"No."

"I'm right aren't I Malcolm? You killed Mandy Thomas and Penny Baker. You tried to kill Moira Celeste, but you were disturbed by her boyfriend Wayne, so you killed him instead."

"No, no I didn't do it." Malcolm jumped up from his chair. Todd got up as well and moved over to Malcolm, placing his hands on Malcolm's shoulders and telling him to take a seat and calm down.

"I didn't kill anybody. No comment." Malcom said.

"I'll take over from here." Todd said to Candace. "Malcolm, if you didn't kill them this is your chance to tell us what really happened. I don't want to waste my time with you if there is somebody else out there killing these poor girls."

Malcolm, tears streaming down his face, wiped them away with his hand. He looked at his solicitor, who shook his head, but Malcolm turned to Todd and began to speak.

"It's true that I was bullied as a kid and people still take the piss out of me now for being fat, well look at me, I am a monster." He cried once more, snot bubbles began to pop from his nose.

"But I'm not a killer. I just like looking at girls. I love girls; especially ones with big boobs. I love Vixen. All I do is look."

"What do you mean by that Malcolm? Where do you look at girls?"

"I go out and I sit in the High Street and I watch the girls. In the summer time they have always got everything hanging out, I like to look at them and think about what we could do together. I go onto internet chat rooms and speak to girls; Vixen used to talk to me on there, I thought she liked me."

"Is that why you were stalking her?"

"I wasn't stalking her," Malcolm said, "I thought she really liked me. Whenever I talked to her, she would always reply; she would say nice things to me and tell me that she loved her fans, that she loved me. I really did think that she wanted to have a friendship with me and that maybe it could lead to something more."

"But she's a super model Malcolm, she has a completely different life behind closed doors." Todd said.

"Yes, I know but I thought that's when she was talking to me. It's like she didn't like her life and wanted to be somewhere else with somebody else, somewhere with me."

"In some of the messages that we pulled off from Vixen's computer, you have stated you wanted to 'feed her'." Todd said, "That you wanted to have sex with her and to use a chocolate bar to penetrate her. What did you mean by that?"

"I don't know. I had seen it on a documentary, I thought it would be fun, I was just experimenting. I've never done anything like that before."

Todd looked at Candace, who looked disbelievingly at Malcolm.

"Really, I haven't," Malcolm insisted. "It was just talk on a computer; it doesn't feel real when you say it online. I don't think I could ever actually do something like that."

"What about the chocolate bars in your briefcase?"

"Look at the size of me," Malcolm indicated his body which was indeed very fat. "You don't get like this by eating lettuce you know. I've got a problem. I eat too much. I haven't got a job and I leave the house to get away from my bully of a father. I spend the whole sorry day sitting on benches watching girls and eating chocolate. That's my life. That's the life I have." He began to cry once more and held his head in his hands.

"Tell me Malcolm, why didn't you allow me to take a DNA sample from you when I came to see you at your house before?" Todd asked. "If you knew you were innocent of the murders, it would have exonerated you immediately; you wouldn't be sitting here now. Malcolm looked ashamedly at the floor.

"No comment." He said.

"Come on Malcolm, it's a bit late to be going no comment, you've told us everything else. Your DNA is at the lab as we speak, they are checking it for me right now against the semen found on the dead girl's body. Tell me why you wouldn't give me a DNA sample before." Malcolm remained quiet. Todd slammed the table with the palm of his hand. "Tell me Malcolm."

"I was outside Vixen's house on the day you were talking about." Malcom whispered.

"Sorry Malcom, I can't hear you. Speak up for the tape please."

"I was outside Vixen's house. I was in the bushes, I had a..."

"What did you have Malcolm?"

"A wank, ok, I had a wank. I flicked it at her window." He gave a little laugh. "Sounds like nothing compared to murder doesn't it? When you came to see me about the calls and stuff and then asked me for DNA I thought you would arrest me for wanking outside her house. I didn't want my mum to know what I'd been doing."

"Where were you this morning?" Todd asked.

"I was on the High Street again; only up the road from the police station. I sit on the bench outside the church. There are stairs there which girls sit on and when the wind blows I can see right up their skirts. There must be CCTV there; that will prove I was there." Malcom said triumphantly. "Yes, CCTV will prove I was in Olinsbury and there is no way that I was killing anyone."

The solicitor began to pack up his paperwork. "May I suggest that we have a break for further evidence gathering and so I can have a consultation with my client?" he asked.

"Yes," said Todd, "This interview is concluded at 17:23 hours." He turned off the tapes and then led Malcolm Chadwell and his solicitor from the interview room. He placed Malcolm into a cell, let the solicitor out with promise of a call back when next required and then went upstairs to his office with Candace.

"What was all that about in the interview?" he asked Candace.

"What?"

"The whole bullying thing; you being a little fat girl. Is all that true?"

Candace laughed, "No, I was just trying to psych him out. Get down to his level; I've never been fat."

"You sounded so genuine, I believed every word you said." Todd told her.

"Yeah should have been an actress," Candace laughed again. "Worked though didn't it?"

"It certainly did. Now can you go down to the council offices and get that CCTV for me please Candy? I need you to check it for Malcolm Chadwell and see if you can verify his story.

"Yes Guv."

"I am going to sit here and cry because I seem to be back at square one."

"It doesn't mean he's
not
the murderer Guv, his DNA could still come back positive."