26
As I said, I hadn’t slept after I tried to ring Lucy and she cut me off. After that I lay awake for what seemed a long time, thinking the worst things about her and really surprised at how much I minded. I thought about leaving her perhaps, but then decided that life wouldn’t be much good without her. Only I was going to be quite firm with her and insist that she didn’t go on with some ridiculous story about an all-girls party. I wanted to know the truth, and at about 3.30 in the morning the telephone rang by the bed and I found it out.
‘Hello.’ It was Lucy’s voice. ‘Sorry to wake you up.’
‘I wasn’t asleep. Where the hell are you?’
‘Hell’s rather a good word for it. I’m in Aldershot Police Station.’
‘What are you doing there?’
‘Just about to be taken down to my cell. This is the one telephone call I’m allowed.’
‘What is it? Were you drunk driving?’ It was my first thought because she had had quite a bit to drink when she drove back from Robin Thirkell’s place that time previously. I didn’t approve, and I told her so.
‘Not exactly.’
‘Then what?’
‘Something I thought you’d understand.’
‘What would I understand?’
‘Burglary. Isn’t it your special subject?’ She stopped talking then and I heard some male voices in the background. Then she said, ‘I shouldn’t say any more about it now. They’re going to interview me later. After my sleep in the cell.’
‘I can’t believe it!’
‘Why not? You know what it’s like, don’t you?’
‘But what do they say you took?’
‘I can’t explain it all now. I did it all for you, Terry. Oh, by the way, the Polo’s still in the Charing Cross underground car park. I’ll give the key to these policemen here. I’ve got to go now.’
‘All right, but . . .’
‘I’m going to miss you, Terry. That’s all I know. I’m going to miss you.’
And then the line went dead. I got up, made tea and smoked until it was morning and I could do something about getting a brief for Lucy. I didn’t want to ask Chippy, as all the briefs he’d recommended to me during our long association had seemed to work hard to get me guilty verdicts. In the end, I rang my probation officer, Mr Markby. I told him that my friend who I’d tried to stop thieving was now in serious trouble, in fact she’d been arrested for burglary.
‘Then you’d better tell me who she is.’
‘Lucy Purefoy.’ I couldn’t hide her any longer. Anyway, she’d soon be in all the papers. ‘I met her through SCRAP.’
‘Lucy Purefoy, yes! That’s the trouble with these girls from SCRAP. They start off falling in love with the criminal and end up falling in love with crime.’
In the end, he recommended a guy called Peter Bethell, who was on some committee with SCRAP. He managed to persuade Mr Bethell to get himself down to Aldershot by the time Lucy got interviewed. I’ve kept the official note of that interview, like I kept everything to do with Lucy, to have something to remember her by. I don’t suppose her answers did her a whole lot of good at the time.
INTERVIEW CONDUCTED WITH LUCY AGNES
PUREFOY AT 10.30 A.M. ON 22 JULY 2005 BY
DS ISHMAEL MACDONALD IN THE PRESENCE OF
DC GUTTERIDGE. PUREFOY HAVING CHOSEN TO
BE LEGALLY REPRESENTED, THERE WAS ALSO
PRESENT MR PETER BETHELL OF THE FIRM
BETHELL, SHERMAN AND PENSOTTI.
DS MACDONALD: I am Detective Sergeant Ishmael Macdonald and this is Detective Constable Gutteridge, who is taking a full note of this interview. You are Lucinda Agnes Purefoy?
PUREFOY: You know perfectly well who I am.
DS MACDONALD: This is for the record.
PUREFOY: All right. And for the record you’re Ishmael, described as a rap artist, friend of my friend Deirdre, who you met through SCRAP.
DS MACDONALD: You shouldn’t be asking me questions.
PUREFOY: If you want me to answer your questions, you must answer mine.
DS MACDONALD: Very well. I met Deirdre through SCRAP when I came to speak there as a sergeant, representing the police.
PUREFOY: They made you a detective sergeant?
DS MACDONALD: Certainly.
PUREFOY: How many detective sergeants from the Caribbean are there?
DS MACDONALD: The Metropolitan Police is no longer a racist institution. I am one of the many detective sergeants of different ethnic origins.
PUREFOY: Many?
DS MACDONALD: Some. DC Gutteridge, will you leave this part of the interview out of the record?
DC GUTTERIDGE: Not possible. It’s my duty to record the whole interview verbatim.
DS MACDONALD: Oh, very well. (To Purefoy) Would you like a cup of tea?
PUREFOY: No thanks. Your tea’s disgusting. You could stand a spoon up in it. If you had an Earl Grey tea bag you could just wave it over the water.
DS MACDONALD: Well, we haven’t. Now, you were found leaving God’s Acre Manor at 3.00 a.m. in possession of a valuable painting.
PUREFOY: What I want to know is how you got there.
DS MACDONALD: I have to suggest it was because of what you told me.
PUREFOY: What I told you when?
DS MACDONALD: I have warned you. It’s not for you to ask the questions.
MR BETHELL (SOLICITOR): I think my client is entitled to know what you suggest she said and on what occasion.
DS MACDONALD: Oh, very well then. It was in the Close-Up Club and you said you had a great idea that would bring you closer to Terry Keegan, a man with a lengthy criminal record. It seemed possible that you were planning to participate in some crime to please your lover. So you were kept under observation.
PUREFOY: Is that why you kept bobbing up wherever I went? And were my telephone calls getting interfered with?
DS MACDONALD: Once again, I must warn you not to ask me questions.
PUREFOY: I thought you were a rap artist. I’ve heard you rap.
DS MACDONALD: Rap is my spare-time hobby. Serving with the Metropolitan Police is my full-time calling. Will you please answer my question now? How did you get to God’s Acre Manor last night?
PUREFOY: I’ll leave you to find that out.
DS MACDONALD: As we approached the house, a car drove rapidly away from the back entrance. Did you come in that car?
PUREFOY: If you heard that why didn’t you drive after it and find out?
DS MACDONALD: At that stage we couldn’t drive through the main gates.
PUREFOY: You mean because you hadn’t got the secret number?
AT 10.45 A.M. MR BETHELL ASKED TO BE ALLOWED TO GIVE SOME ADVICE TO HIS CLIENT. THERE WAS A SHORT DISCUSSION BETWEEN THEM AT THE OTHER END OF THE ROOM. INTERVIEW RESUMED AT 11.00 A.M.
PUREFOY: I’m sorry. I’m told I shouldn’t have said that. I mean about you being a good rap artist.
DS MACDONALD: As I have clearly said, it would be better if you confined yourself to answering my questions. Did you enter the house through the kitchen window?
PUREFOY: That’s for you to find out.
DS MACDONALD: We found no fingerprints. Did you and your companions wear gloves?
PUREFOY: I didn’t say I had any companions.
DS MACDONALD: We found foot marks. There must have been at least three of you.
PUREFOY: Must there?
DS MACDONALD: You were seen lately in the company of a man called Parkinson, sometimes known as Screwtop.
PUREFOY: You mean you saw him in the Brummell Club.
DS MACDONALD: How did you know that man?
PUREFOY: I think he once knew Terry.
DS MACDONALD: What were you talking about when you were with him in the Brummell Club?
PUREFOY: I think we discussed the weather. Oh, and American foreign policy.
DS MACDONALD: Was he with you when you stole the picture?
PUREFOY: I’ve told you, I was alone. There was no one else with me. No one.
DS MACDONALD: Then who was driving away in the car? Was it perhaps your lover, Terry Keegan?
PUREFOY: No, it certainly wasn’t.
DS MACDONALD: You see? You are capable of answering a question. Who was it then?
PUREFOY: I don’t know. I have no idea. Please don’t go on asking me to do your detective work for you.
DS MACDONALD: Would you like a cup of tea?
PUREFOY: I’ve told you. I’d hate a cup of your tea and I don’t want to answer any more questions. I want to go to sleep.
DS MACDONALD: We’ll see how you feel about it later.
PUREFOY: I still won’t want to answer any questions. Oh, by the way, give my love to Deirdre. But tell her she might have warned me you were a sneaky member of the Metropolitan Police.
THE INTERVIEW ENDED AT 11.25 A.M.