Three Little Maids (29 page)

‘So this gives you a real lead?’

‘Yes, if we can check all the prints. I can tell you that Raymond Perkin’s dabs aren’t on the letter either. It looks like he’s been cleared. An earring was taken from Yvette as with Maureen. The old girl didn’t come across with that as well, did she?’

‘No.’

‘So the anklet was an accidental extra. Her mother will be glad it has been found.’

Viviane smothered her immediate thought that the poor mother would wish that her daughter was returned to her alive and well rather than the anklet.

‘Now I’ve got something that you should know, Viviane. Your old friend Esmeralda Corrie phoned me first thing this morning. And told me that she got a spirit message from Yvette the French girl, through finding the girl’s crucifix.’ Viviane smothered a gasp. ‘Yes it sounds weird. Don’t ask me how she did it. I thought she was crackers at first. But she was so convincing I couldn’t entirely dismiss what she said. And she’s been proved right so far.’

Viviane smiled as she listened. ‘Esmeralda said that a letter, the girl had got, would be important and she also mentioned the anklet. I listened and agreed to look out for them. Since the phone call, the letter was found this morning amongst Yvette’s school work and you know the rest, Viviane. But so far the anklet has not come in. When it does we’ll test that also for prints.’

61

Simon found her with a book in a deck chair out on the patio. ‘Mum, Michael Berkley wants to speak to Jon. He says he must speak to him. But he’s afraid he won’t listen. Not after last time when he tried to confess to the murders. Could you ask Jon to see him tomorrow? It is important.’

‘Can you tell me what it is about? Is it to do with the murders?’

‘Yes I think so. I can’t say anything. He didn’t tell me.’

‘Okay will do. I’ll try and persuade Jon to give him a few minutes. If he can spare the time. God help you if it’s a time waster, son.’

When Kent came in she gave him his birthday card. He looked fed up. ‘If you don’t mind, Viviane. I don’t feel like celebrating much. Not now.’

‘Could you see Michael Berkley sometime tomorrow? Don’t look like that. It is important according to Simon. It has to be to you too.’

He grimaced. ‘Maybe the kid does know something. I felt he was hiding something when he made that false confession. Okay. Tell Simon to ring his friend and get him to call in early at the station. And I’ll spare him half an hour, that’s all. And it had better make good sense this time.’

Michael Berkley had only just left on Monday morning when Aiden Ludlam called in to the station. ‘I would like to see Inspector Kent please, officer. It is on a matter of importance.’

‘And who shall I say is calling on him, sir.’

‘Mr. Aiden Ludlam.’

‘Just one moment if you please Mr. Ludlam. I’ll see if he’s free just now.’

‘Thank you, officer.’

‘If you’d like to walk down the corridor to his office, Inspector Kent will see you now, sir.’

Kent stood up to greet Ludlam when he came in. ‘Good morning, Mr. Ludlam.’

‘Good morning, Inspector.’

‘And what can I do for you, sir?’

‘I have something for you, Inspector.’ He placed a tissue wrapped package onto the police officer’s desk top. ‘This was discovered in the chapel by the Wilberforce sisters. I didn’t realiseit was found till yesterday. It is really most distressing. It obviously came off when the poor girl struggled with her killer.’

‘And what would this be, sir?’ Kent said opening the package carefully.

‘It’s the French student’s anklet, Inspector. A valuable piece of jewellery. It should be returned to her family. I’m only sorry that it has taken all this time to be found.’

Kent looked impressed. ‘Thank you for bringing it in, sir. It serves to verify that all three girls were killed in the room over the chapel. You must feel, Mr. Ludlam
, like a Father confessor with your chapel congregation asking for your help so often. I gather that you helped Raymond Perkins to get employment with Mr. Carey?’

‘Yes I did, and he took to it very well. Mrs Perkins, poor woman has had a struggle over the years, trying to do what was right for her grandson. He’s given her so much heartache. Got mixed up with the wrong crowd. Stole some things. Used to squirrel them away in the garden shed. He liked
jewellery. But he’s not been in trouble since. I hope by the way you can release the lad soon and make Mrs Perkins a happy woman again. She has suffered enough, Inspector.’

‘Yes, sir. We really needed some concrete evidence to establish the suspect’s guilt. We are unable to take him back into custody without that. He will be home soon from hospital.’

‘Then the quicker you find the guilty person, the quicker we can begin to forget these terrible crimes. Although the victims will always be remembered by their families. I wish you luck, Inspector.’

‘Good day, sir.’

62

‘Go with PC. Sherwood to the Perkins house, Turner. Take a look in the back shed and see what you can find.’

Turner looked at Kent. He was grinning broadly. ‘Yes, guv. But it was searched when we brought him in for questioning.’

‘I know. But we’ve got to follow up on any information given. And Aiden Ludlam is not unaware of that.’

‘If you say so, guv.’

‘Chop-chop then, Turner. The sooner you do that. The sooner we get this case sorted.’

‘Will do. Mrs P. won`t like it though.’

He was right. ‘What do you want this time, Mr. Turner? You aren’t going to find anything here to make things worse for my Raymond.’ June Perkins looked as if she was about to do battle with the yard broom she was holding in her hand. ‘Haven’t you done enough?’

‘We just want to look in the garden shed. We shan’t take two shakes of a lamb’s tail. And we shall be out of here. It could be of great importance to the lad.’

Still protesting June Perkins led the way.

‘You said you never lock it up, Mrs Perkins.’

She shook her frizzy curls. ‘It’s a waste of time. There’s nothing valuable kept in there. Only a few tools and the flower pots. They’re not worth stealing.’

‘Tell me if you can if there’s anything Raymond could have tucked away for safe keeping, before we took him in.’

She shook her head. ‘Nothing. Your lot had a good look in here last time. Three, no four days ago. And he’s in hospital. You should know that, Mr. Turner.’

‘Just a minute, Sherwood. See that cigar box over there. That looks like a likely place.’

‘We examined that before, Serge.’

‘Never mind. Hand it over to me, please. Carefully. With a handkerchief please.’

Mrs Perkins looking over Turner’s broad shoulder gasped. ‘Raymond never put those things in there,’ she said as they studied the two odd earrings, a silver tongue stud and a nose ring that lay in the box. ‘I thought I could trust you, Mr. Turner. You`re trying to frame my boy for those murders.’

‘Quite the opposite Mrs Perkins. Just be patient a while longer.’

Mrs Perkins burst into tears. ‘You’re not just saying that.’ She dabbed her wet eyes with the hem of her flowered pinny.

‘No, Inspector Kent knows what he is doing. This could prove Raymond’s innocence without a doubt.’

63

In the star dressing room behind the stage, Aiden Ludlam was carefully adjusting his black wig and the last touches to the elaborate face make-up needed for his role in the Mikado. It was the final dress rehearsal. A loud knock came on the dressing room door.

‘Enter...’

Aiden Ludlam turned round quickly with a stick of greasepaint in his hand and a look of surprise on his face. ‘Back so soon, Inspector? I hope by now you have all the evidence that you need to incriminate the murderer.’

Kent studied the broad smile creasing the Oriental makeup on the face of the man who stood up to greet him. ‘Yes I have, Mr. Ludlam. Therefore I am taking you into the station for questioning. Aiden Ludlam you are charged with the murders of Maureen Carey, Yvette Marceau and Jodie Charters on the 25th, the 28th of July and the 4th of August. Anything you may say now can be written down and used as evidence against you in court...’

In the Interview room, still dressed in the stage costume for his part of Ko Ko in the Mikado, Aiden Ludlam sat with his solicitor Mr. Arnold Barker beside him.

‘Interviewing Aiden Ludlam, Inspector Kent and Sergeant Turner present, also present is Mr. Barker, Mr. Ludlam’s solicitor August 16th at 7pm.

‘Aiden Ludlam, you are charged with killing three girls Maureen Carey, Yvette Marceau, and Jodie Charters. And leaving their bodies respectively on the cliff top, in the Victoria Park woods and in the Victoria Park.’

‘This is utter rubbish.’ Aiden Ludlam listened to the charges read out to him with a look of incredulity on his handsome features. ‘I’m innocent, Inspector. Raymond Perkins is your man. Did you not find what you were looking for in the garden shed?’

‘I am asking the questions, Mr. Ludlam. Besides Mrs Flitch and his grandmother, you were the only other person who knew what Raymond got up to as a lad. Mrs Perkins confided everything the boy did to you, didn’t she? You were careful not to mention the stolen panties. Only the killer would have known about their obscene use in the girls deaths beside the police officers on the case.’

‘You’re mistaken. I have no motive for killing those girls.’

Kent studied the perspiration now beading the grease paint, the frowning brows and the deep lines of anger biting into Ludlam`s handsome face, accentuated harshly by the heavy stage makeup. ‘It might seem like that. But Michael Berkley knows different. He came in earlier today to tell us that there has been a sexual relationship going on between you for some years.’

Ludlam gasped. ‘He was telling lies!’

‘Inspector, this has no bearing whatsoever on my client’s case,’ protested Mr. Barker.

‘It has, Mr. Barker. According to Michael Berkley, who was in your company in the chapel on your birthday, Ludlam, Maureen discovered you fondling him which left her in little doubt as to your sexual preference. You eventually managed to persuade her that you weren’t entirely oblivious to her charms.

‘And she came to meet you in the chapel where you killed her. And then you carefully picked out the other two girls to make it look like the work of a serial killer. All three known previously by Raymond Perkins. You knew about Tom Berkley and Yvette. You typed and sent a letter to her which she believed was from Berkley. Asking to meet her in the chapel. Yvette went to her death there and lost her anklet. That’s correct, isn’t it, Mr. Ludlam?’

‘I have nothing to say.’

‘I have here a written statement from Michael, who is prepared to be a witness, to seeing you offer Jodie Charters, a lift to the hostel in the car with your children. He questioned you about it. And you left him in little doubt, that if he told us, you would expose his father’s affair with Yvette to the tabloids before his sister’s wedding.’

‘This is all pure fabrication, Inspector.’ The solicitor intervened. ‘You have no proof of any of this.’

‘You knew about Raymond’s problems in the past, Ludlam. You saw the nude drawings he did of Maureen. And decided he would fit the role of the killer for you nicely. You were careful not to leave any prints or DNA on any of your victims. You left none on the jewellery which should have had Raymond’s on them. But didn’t.’ Aiden’s face remained stony.

‘That was your first mistake, Ludlam. And your second were the prints on the letter you sent to Yvette and they match your prints on the anklet which you handled and brought into the station earlier today. Now, have you anything to say, Mr. Ludlam?’ Kent said.

‘I would like to discuss these new developments with my client, Inspector.’

64

‘Congratulations,’ Viviane said as he relaxed over a glass of beer on the patio much later thatevening. ‘I suppose everyone has been celebrating.’

‘Yes the rest of the team are drinking the Nag’s Head dry. The good news has been sent to Raymond via Turner. If I’m not mistaken he will have nothing less than a miraculous recovery.’

‘So Ludlam confessed to it then.’

‘Eventually. When he rea
lised he’d not checked on those prints. He was so certain he’d covered everything.’

‘But what about his alibi’s?’

‘Frances Leach so idolised him she believed everything he said. And gave him his clearance on those three evenings. He admitted he put his wife’s sleeping pills into Frances’s wine which soon put her to sleep. And like Gwynith both women were unaware of how he filled his time on those fatal nights. After he offered Jodie a lift to the hostel, put the children to bed with Jodie waiting outside in the car, and took her to the chapel where he killed her.

‘He then joined Frances and left her sleeping, to cause the noise and mayhem in his car for the Major to complain about. Jodie’s body was already in the car boot. Afterwards he put her in the park and dumped the car over Rocky Point. He had a busy night.’