Stolen (41 page)

Even now, nearly four months later, she still felt the raw pain of separation. She thought she could’ve borne it better had she held her, fed and changed her, and studied every detail about her. At least then she would have her little face imprinted on her very soul, and her smell in her nostrils and the touch of her skin would be for ever there in her mind. But she’d had all that stolen from her.

A policewoman told her earlier that she mustn’t worry too much about going to Holloway, because when it got about that she’d stabbed someone in self-defence, she would be admired. Did that mean she’d have to pretend to be a hard case? Somehow she didn’t think she could fool anyone for very long.

‘I’d like to go over that part just one more time to clarify it,’ DI Bryan said to Ramsden.

He had come back to the hospital, as he said he would, with another officer and a tape recorder. Waiting for them was Mike Branning, the duty solicitor on call that evening, to make certain Ramsden had legal representation.

It was of course very unusual to have such an interview in a hospital, but because of the special circumstances – the possibility Ramsden might die, or be repatriated to the States if he survived, and because Lotte Wainwright had been charged with killing his wife, while it now appeared that it was he who did the killing – the top brass had given the go-ahead.

Bryan hadn’t expected for one moment that Ramsden would cooperate and tell the truth. He thought the man was such a practised liar and confidence trickster that he probably wouldn’t know the truth if it stared him in the face. All Bryan was really hoping for was that the overall tone of the statement would reveal the man’s character, that he would be at a loss to explain certain things, and that would be enough to get Lotte off the hook.

But maybe the prospect of meeting his Maker shortly had clarified Howard’s mind, for right from the start of the interview he abandoned the structure of lies he’d told earlier.

He said it was pure chance that they had come upon Lotte being raped in Ushuaia and that taking her back to their suite on the cruise ship was nothing more than common kindness. But he went on to say that Fern quickly became very attached to her, as if she was a daughter. That was why Fern asked her to join them at the Dorchester and then offered her a job as their housekeeper/PA.

Bryan didn’t think that was absolutely true – he was fairly certain the couple had earmarked her for something more lucrative for them almost as soon as they rescued her in Ushuaia – but he let it pass.

Howard said he thought Fern’s initial idea for Lotte to have a baby for her was to create a kind of idealistic perfect family unit where all three adults would live in harmony and bring up the baby together.

‘So you would in fact have had two wives?’ Bryan remarked.

‘Fern didn’t see it that way,’ Ramsden said indignantly.

Bryan was fairly certain that to Ramsden this was the sole attraction for as they got further into the interview it was patently clear he had never wanted a child of his own.

It was equally clear that the couple were breathtakingly arrogant, for they believed that they were offering Lotte the opportunity of a lifetime. Just the incredulous way Ramsden spoke of her refusal showed how egotistical they were and how used to getting their own way.

He said they offered her a compromise in that if she wanted out after the baby was born, they would give her a lump sum of money and keep the baby themselves.

Up to this point it didn’t sound as if they were actually imprisoning Lotte, only using a kind of moral blackmail on her to have a baby for them. But it was apparent that Lotte lost the chance and even the will to escape when they began drugging her. Howard claimed it was only a mild sedative which removed anxiety. Fern stepped up the dose several days before the night they were to try for a baby. She said this was to make Lotte ‘more receptive’.

Howard skirted around the events of the first night they tried for a baby. All he said was that Lotte seemed quite amenable. But she obviously wasn’t, as Howard admitted she tried to escape the same night, and he and Fern were so scared she might succeed next time and try to make trouble for them that they kept her locked in after that.

While Fern was overjoyed when Lotte became pregnant, Howard said he was already regretting the whole idea. He didn’t actually admit to the tape that he was disappointed he wasn’t going to get a pretty young woman in his bed on a regular basis after all, or that he didn’t fancy having a squalling baby around either. But that was probably the size of it because he said that when Fern saw he was drawing back on the whole thing, she became angry and moody.

He did admit that as Lotte’s pregnancy progressed both he and Fern became aware they’d got themselves into an impossible situation. He mentioned taking her out for walks in remote places but they were always nervous that she would appeal to someone for help. They also knew that however much money they offered the girl, they still couldn’t trust her not to go to the police. They couldn’t arrange a private adoption in England, and they didn’t have any contacts here for getting a false passport for the baby. He blamed Fern, she blamed him, and all the while they knew Lotte was constantly vigilant for a chance to escape which put them under even greater strain.

Finally the little girl was born. Howard said absolutely nothing about the birth. Perhaps, like so many men, he believed that childbirth was as natural as breathing and involved no pain or risks.

But he said plenty about Fern being like a child with a new dolly. He said she refused even to discuss their future because she was ‘bonding’ with their baby.

So while Lotte was crying down in the basement, Howard was left to try to plan some way out of the mess. He had made inquiries about registering the baby’s birth, and that appeared quite simple, with no proof needed that he and Fern were the parents. But to get a passport for the baby would be much more difficult, for they would have to submit their own passports, and it would soon be discovered that they were forged ones.

Their original plan, made some time before the baby was born, had been to get Lotte to register the birth and apply for the passport. She was to travel with them to America, and then she would go along with the adoption there. But it became clear that whatever inducements they offered her, she was never going to agree to their plans.

By the time the baby was born they knew she would snatch any opportunity to seek help and get them arrested. No bribe, however large, was going to ensure she got quietly on a flight back to the States with them and the baby. That was when Howard decided both she and the baby had to be killed.

It was the story from this point on that Bryan wanted repeated, so he could be sure it was absolutely clear on the tape.

‘You want me to tell you again about when I smothered the baby?’ Howard asked. He actually smirked as he spoke, as if he was proud of the way he’d got out of the no-win situation.

‘That’s right,’ Bryan agreed, trying very hard to hide how much he despised him. ‘You said it was the first of May, is that correct?’

‘Yes, we went up to London that day to see someone about a passport for the baby. We didn’t have any luck because they couldn’t do one for a child born to American parents. We were both really tired and blue when we got back, and the baby wasn’t crying. Fern was afraid to go and look in case she had died, so I went up. She wasn’t dead, just lying there quietly. I just thought, this is the way out! Pillow over the face, over and out. Problem solved.’

Bryan’s stomach churned at such callousness.

‘Go on,’ he prompted.

‘I took one of the pillows off our bed and did it, pressed it hard against her face. I felt bad, she was after all my daughter. But we couldn’t take her to the States and we couldn’t stay here for ever. It took about five minutes, she struggled a bit, then I put the pillow back on our bed and went down to tell Fern I thought it was a crib death.’

Mike Manning, the solicitor, looked shell-shocked and blinked furiously.

‘So were you and Fern OK together after this?’ Bryan went on.

‘Hell, no!’ he exclaimed. ‘She was like a bear with a sore arse, I’ve never known nothing like it, shouting, crying, going on and on about how I screwed up. Me! It was never my idea to keep the girl against her will, or to force her to have a baby for us. That was hers, the crazy broad. Then she came up with the idea of putting the girl in the sea with the baby; she said they’d get washed up and everyone would think Lotte threw herself in because her baby died.’

‘And what was your view of that plan?’

Howard was silent for a little while. He looked exhausted and Bryan thought the solicitor would say the interview had to be halted till the morning, but he didn’t.

‘I thought it was a good one. It wasn’t messy, it would be easy, and we could get a flight back to America the next day if we wanted.’

‘Can you confirm what day this was?’

‘May fifth,’ Ramsden replied. ‘About seven in the evening I got Lotte up from the basement. She seemed real calm, asked for a sandwich and a glass of milk. Then, just as Fern was about to pass her the glass, she produces a knife out of nowhere and sticks it in Fern’s chest.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Well, I tried to catch the little bitch, but she kept dodging round the table. She even threw a coffee pot at me. Fern was staggering about with blood coming out of her chest.’

‘Were you aware that Fern’s wound wasn’t a fatal one?’

‘Well, it wasn’t very deep but she was losing a lot of blood and I knew she needed a doctor. But I couldn’t get a doctor, could I? Not with a dead baby in the house and Lotte creating a rumpus.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘Well, I guess I kinda freaked out because Lotte had run into the lounge and was throwing stuff at the windows to try and break them. I was scared someone would hear her, and Fern was begging me for help. All at once I had the knife out of a drawer and I was sticking it in her.’

‘What kind of knife was it?’ Bryan asked.

‘One of those big ones you chop stuff with. It had a triangular blade.’

‘So you are admitting you stabbed your wife?’

‘You know I did, you’ve seen the other wound on her!’

‘I want you to say what you did.’

‘I stabbed her, right here in the heart.’ He touched his chest with his left hand.

‘And tell me again where Lotte was while you were doing this?’

‘She was in the lounge screaming and throwing stuff at the windows to try and get out that way. Soon as I finished Fern off I went after her to tie her up.’

‘Did she know Fern was dead?’

‘Yes, I told her, but she thought she’d killed her. She started on saying I should ring the police and she’d tell them it was her fault. But I wasn’t going to do that.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘I wrapped Fern up in a picnic blanket and tied those elastic tie things with hooks on either end round her. I’d already put the baby in the van. I took Lotte out next, then Fern, and drove down to my boat.’

The rest was just like Lotte had already told Bryan, except Howard admitted that after casting Lotte over the side and throwing the baby in too, he found it really hard to get Fern up over the side of the boat on his own because she was heavy with the big stones he’d put inside the blanket. He said as he finally got her half-way over, some of the stones fell out of the blanket into the water.

‘I thought she’d sink anyway, and she did, disappeared right under the water. I said a few prayers and then I turned the boat around and went home.’

‘You said a few prayers?’ Bryan was so incredulous he couldn’t resist commenting.

‘Sure, I said I was sorry, but she got me into all this and it was the only way out for me.’

‘I think we should stop the tape now and let my client have some rest,’ Mike Branning said.

The interview was formally ended and the tape recorder turned off. Bryan walked away from Ramsden’s bed without even saying goodbye for he was sickened by the man’s final remark. He had claimed to have loved Fern; according to Lotte they had been together for almost thirty years and before things got out of hand they were very happy together. Yet he had killed her and his own baby to save his own neck.

A nurse came into the room after the police had gone. She offered Howard a bedpan, gave him some further medication, plumped up his pillows to make him more comfortable, then left, leaving just a dim night light on above his bed.

But although Howard shut his eyes he could not drop off to sleep. He felt as if Fern was in the room with him, vengeful and angry because he’d betrayed her.

He wished it was possible to go back and do things differently. He had loved Fern for his whole life, and he knew how awful it was going to be without her. Since the night he put her in the sea, he hadn’t had one moment’s peace of mind.

If he closed his eyes he could see her so clearly, her beautiful red hair waving on her bare shoulders. He’d always loved the way a sprinkling of freckles came out on her shoulders and arms in the sun, just as he’d loved her shape – full breasts, small waist and a backside that wiggled in such a sexy way when she walked.

Fern Swann was sixteen years old when he met her in 1974. He, Howard Barnes, was seventeen. Her folks came to live in the same trailer park he lived in, just a few miles outside Kansas City. It was called Merrywood, but the only merriment there ever was, was the first couple of hours’ drinking on a Friday night; later it would be the same old cursing and fighting that went on all week.

There was no wood either. The trailer park was situated between two highways, with only a chain-link fence to stop the many dogs and small children getting killed on the roads. In summer the dust was so thick you could clean a window at nine in the morning, and by noon you wouldn’t see through it.

It was the last-chance trailer park. If you got thrown off there, there was nowhere else would have you. By the time a child was nine or ten they knew their place was right at the bottom of the heap.

Fern was the eldest of four, he was the eldest of five. All either of them had ever known was being dirt poor. They both had weak, messed-up mothers, and dads who hardly ever worked and liked to drink all day. They both knew more than was good for them about the adult world. They’d seen their mothers with black eyes, tried to soothe their younger siblings when they were hungry or when they were ridiculed at school for being dirty or smelly. Fern had helped her mother when she had a primitive abortion and Howard was weary of putting up ‘welcome home’ banners when his father got out of prison.