Evil Turn (Nathan Hawk Mystery) (35 page)

There isn’t much more to say about the case, really. Fairchild got in touch with my solicitor friend, who told her to go and stay in France for a couple of weeks, get her story straight, then return and face the music. He conducted the orchestra quite brilliantly, in my opinion. She wound up doing time but not as much as we’d all expected. Furthermore she served it in a prison he approved, one where she didn’t have to spend all day looking over her shoulder just because she’d once been a policewoman.

Other guilty parties were given sentences of varying lengths, thirty years being handed down for the double murder. No parole. Of the others I remember thinking they’d all be young enough to reboot their lives once they got out.

Angelica Carter told their stories extremely well, over and over again, and I admit to being irked by her laudatory prose about Tom Blackwell. She was quoted endlessly, on television and radio news, documentaries, blogs, newspapers. One sentence stood out. “The driving force behind solving this case was Commander Tom Blackwell, who carried out his search for the truth with courage and inspiration, reminding us yet again that our police service is the finest in the world.”

In other words he’d got someone else to do his dirty work for him. And taken the credit.