Nothing Ventured(96)
“But you were the junior officer who signed the statement Mr. Rainsford made later that evening.”
“Yes, sir, I was.”
“Did that statement, written by DI Stern and witnessed by you, consist of three pages or two?”
“Originally I thought it was three, but DI Stern assured me the following morning that it was only two, and I accepted his word.”
That wasn’t the answer Sir Julian had been anticipating. He paused for a moment, aware that his next five questions were redundant, before asking for confirmation of what he’d just heard.
“So you originally believed the statement was three pages and not two, as Mr. Stern claimed?”
“Yes, sir, and having studied yesterday’s court report I accept Professor Abrahams’s findings without question.”
“But that would mean you also accept that Mr. Stern must have removed a page from the original statement?” said Sir Julian.
“Yes, I do, sir. And I regret not challenging him at the time.”
“Did you challenge him about the possibility of there being a mystery man, the man who Mr. Rainsford stated ran past him as he entered the office block, and who he has always claimed could have been the murderer?”
“Yes, I did, but DI Stern said he was just a figment of Rainsford’s imagination, and we should dismiss it for what it was worth.”
“What about the anonymous telephone call informing the police of Mr. Kirkland’s murder? Was that also a figment of Mr. Rainsford’s imagination?”
“No, sir. We did receive a call from a man with a foreign accent, who told us he’d been passing the block at the time, when he heard the sound of two men shouting, followed by silence, and moments later, a man came running out of the building onto the street, which was the reason he’d phoned the police immediately.”
“Did he give you his name?”
“No, sir, but that’s not uncommon in such cases.”
“As recorded on the missing page of Mr. Rainsford’s statement, the police arrived at RGK’s offices only a few moments after he did.”
“That’s what a guilty man would say if he wanted to put the blame on someone else,” said Clarkson. “So I didn’t bother to follow it up, not least because chasing anonymous calls is a thankless task, and usually ends up being a complete waste of time.”
“So you never discovered who the mystery man was?”
“Yes, I did, sir,” said Clarkson.
Sir Julian was once again taken by surprise. He took a step into the unknown.
“Please tell the court in your own words, detective sergeant, how you found out who this mystery man was.”
“A couple of days after Rainsford had been charged, a black cab driver turned up at the station and told us he’d seen the story on the evening news. He said he’d picked up Rainsford from Euston on the afternoon of the murder, and dropped him outside an office block on Marylebone High Street. He’d only just turned on his FOR HIRE sign when a man came rushing out of the building and asked to be taken to the Admiral Nelson pub in West Ham, but after he’d traveled about a hundred yards the man told the driver to stop. He got out, and ran into a nearby phone box. He returned a few minutes later when the cabbie continued on his journey to West Ham.”
“Did he give you a description of the man?”
“May I refer to the notes I made at the time?” asked Clarkson, turning to the judges.
Lord Justice Arnott nodded and Clarkson opened a small black pocketbook and turned several pages before he continued. “The cabbie said he was around five eight, dark hair, and could have done with losing a couple of stone. He also said that he’d put money on him being Greek or Turkish.”
“What made him think that?” asked Sir Julian.
“The cabbie did his national service in Cyprus at the time of the uprising, and was fairly confident he recognized the accent.”
“Did you report this conversation to DI Stern?”
“I did, and he wasn’t best pleased. But he said he’d visit the Admiral Nelson and check the story out.”
“And did he discover who the mystery man was?”
“Yes, he did. But he told me that the man had a cast-iron alibi. He’d been in the Admiral Nelson at the time of the murder, which the landlord confirmed, as did several other customers who’d also been in the pub at that time. In any case, Stern reminded me, we had a signed confession, so what more did I want?”
“So you didn’t follow up that line of inquiry?”
“No, I didn’t. After all, DI Stern was the senior officer on the case, and I was just a rookie constable not long out of probation, so there wasn’t a lot I could do.”
“And there’s no paperwork to prove that DI stern visited the Admiral Nelson pub, or interviewed the so-called mystery man.”
“DI Stern didn’t care much for paperwork. Said he believed in nailing criminals not filing them.”
“I understand you weren’t called to give evidence at Mr. Rainsford’s trial?”
“No, sir, I was not. And when Rainsford was convicted, I assumed DI Stern must have been right all along. That was until I read about Rainsford’s appeal in the Daily Mail, and began to wish I’d interviewed Mr. Fortounis at the time, and not left—”