Daisy in Chains(89)
This is not good news. ‘Her fingerprints on the rose establish a link between her and Hamish. They both touched it.’
‘She may have stolen it from Sandra Wolfe, but that seems less likely. I’m going to contact Parkhurst in the morning, see if there’s any record of Sirocco visiting Wolfe.’
‘You think she killed Odi and Broon, don’t you?’
‘It’s not impossible. How would she know you’d spoken to them unless she was in Wells that night?’
‘Could a woman have done that? She isn’t particularly big or strong.’
‘She took them by surprise, in the middle of the night. They’d have been dopey, sluggish, even without the rum they’d drunk. Sneak up behind, grab Broon by his hair. Odi would have been easier. Yeah, I’d say it was possible.’
‘Why, though? If she’s on Hamish’s side, why get rid of the one person who could testify in his favour?’
‘There was no way Odi could testify for Wolfe. She was a completely unreliable witness, a good distance away, on a dark night. Wolfe, being guilty, would know her testimony counted for nothing, but thought he could use it to his advantage. By having her killed, he suddenly makes her much more important. Now, we’re all asking what she knew.’
‘Sounds a bit far-fetched to me.’
He wouldn’t be the first dangerous prisoner to use someone on the outside to construct an elaborate defence though, would he?’
‘Who are you thinking of?’
‘Keith Bellucci and Vanessa Carlton.’
Before his execution, Bellucci was one of the Woodland Stranglers, two brothers who abducted, raped and murdered young women in woods above St Louis in the 1970s.
‘Remind me,’ she says.
‘Carlton met Bellucci while he was on death row. He persuaded her to kill another woman, in the same way he’d killed several, and sprinkle her dead body with his sperm. This was before DNA, so only his blood type could be identified.’
‘The plan being that the police would find a fresh body, killed in exactly the same way, apparently by the same perpetrator and conclude they’d got the wrong man locked up. Did it work?’
‘Fortunately not. Carlton made a mess of it, the victim got away and she got caught. The romance didn’t survive her imprisonment.’
Maggie is still reeling from the news that Sirocco might have been telling the truth when she claimed she was in contact with Hamish. And yet he has denied knowing her. Which of them is lying?
Pete says, ‘If Wolfe’s defence team – which I guess is you – can establish a connection between the Wolfe murders and what happened to Odi and Broon, then doubt has to be cast on his conviction. You don’t need me to tell you that, and Wolfe certainly doesn’t.’
‘So are you going to charge Sirocco with murder?’
‘No evidence as yet. We’re searching her flat as we speak. I’m going round there after I drop you off.’
‘Can I come?’
‘No, you bloody well can’t. Oh, while I think of it: Daisy Baron is not on the medical register, so she’s not currently practising as a doctor in the UK. Tracking her further isn’t going to be that easy after all.’
‘I’m honestly not sure why people are fixating on Daisy. It was twenty years ago. She’s irrelevant.’
They drive in silence for some seconds.
‘Hold on,’ Maggie says, ‘if Sirocco killed Odi and Broon at Hamish’s instigation, what was all that about tonight? I’m on his side. Why would she attack me?’
‘That engine is not firing on all cylinders. She doesn’t necessarily see you as someone essential to Hamish. In her twisted brain, she’s all he needs. No, you’re the opposition, with your wacky blue hair and your cute-as-a-china-doll face, and your unlimited access to him in prison. You’re the love rival.’
‘He loves me, scrawled in fake blood under my kitchen table?’
‘Exactly.’
‘I can’t believe Hamish had Odi and Broon killed. I just can’t.’
He shakes his head. ‘Oh, Maggie. I really hoped you were smarter than that.’
Chapter 88
NEXT MORNING, THE phone wakes her. Maggie knows it is Pete before she looks at the screen.
‘Don’t say I never give you good news.’
‘What?’
‘I got through to Parkhurst first thing. Deputy Governor did me a favour. There is no record of a Sirocco Silverwood or Sarah Smith ever visiting Wolfe in prison. He checked phone logs as well, and email traffic. He mainly contacts you and his mum, never Ms Smith. The relationship is a fantasy on Sirocco’s part. That doesn’t make her any less dangerous, by the way.’
A weight has fallen away. ‘So she didn’t get the rose from him?’
‘Can’t see how. The other partial prints on it could be his, but not conclusively. She could have nicked it from his mum. Hell, she could be into origami herself.’
‘Thank you, Pete. Did you find anything at her flat?’
‘Yep. We found her mobile phone. She was the one texting you that night – you know, the old he loves me, he loves me not malarkey. And she has use of a mate’s car from time to time, so she could, in theory, have followed us all to Wells. Nothing to tie her to the Odi and Broon murders yet, but we’ll keep looking. We can keep her inside for today, at least.’