Three Little Maids(67)

‘No!’ He shook his head, his hair flopping over his forehead into his eyes. He pushed it back and spoke out. ‘Look, Mr. Meadows, you’ve got it all wrong. It’s all lies. I really liked Jodie. She was all right she was. I guess she got scared after I left her. I don’t know who took her away.’

Martin Meadows studied his young client’s disillusioned face. He looked desperately wretched and tired. He was not used to being confined in a cell. And it was going to be for some time longer. Kent would ask for extra time from the courts. They weren’t about to let him go. He was the only suspect that filled the bill as far as they were concerned. They hadn’t got that much solid evidence as yet. But they obviously hoped that Perkins might confess to the crimes given enough pressure. And he was there to see that it didn’t happen.

‘Tell them the truth, Mr. Perkins. Answer their questions to the best of your ability. And you’ll be fine. Don’t get flustered. Or lose that temper of yours. Or you’re lost.’





50




‘Interviewing Raymond Perkins. Interviewing officer in charge, Inspector Kent. Those also present are Detective Sergeant Turner. And Mr. Meadows, Perkins solicitor. Time 2pm August the 8th. How old are you, Raymond Perkins?’

‘Nineteen on the fourteenth of February.’

‘Raymond Perkins you have been brought here to answer to the charge of murder on three counts.’

‘I haven’t done anything. I didn’t kill anyone.’ He slammed his clenched fist down on the table and viewed the interrogating officers with angry eyes. ‘I didn’t do it!’

‘Raymond Perkins you were seen speaking to all three girls on the days that they were killed.’

He pushed back the hair from his forehead. ‘I didn’t hurt them.’

‘Your fingerprints were on the door handle in the meeting room at the chapel.’

‘So what! I had cups of tea in there with my gran. And I used the toilet.’

‘You took Maureen there before you killed her.’

‘No, I didn’t. But she made me take her there once before. Weeks before she died. She had a bet with me that I wouldn’t.’

‘You chatted up Yvette Marceau, the French girl. Tried to date her. And lost your temper because she told you where to go, didn’t she Raymond? Told you were just a silly kid.’

‘No-o!’ He buried his head in his arms on the table.

‘There were witnesses to this in the Nag’s Head.’

‘Perkins does not answer.’ Turner spoke into the tape machine.

‘And the third girl - Jodie Charters. You accompanied her on the seafront where you were seen together and later at the Firework Show. Is that correct? Please answer when questioned, Raymond.’

He lifted his head to answer, ‘Yes.’

‘You borrowed the Carey’s van at odd times. You used it sometimes for a bit of hanky-panky with Maureen. The more dangerous it was the better for our young madam. You used it to take her body to the place on the cliffs.’

‘No, I didn’t.’ He shook his head. ‘I swear I didn’t harm her, Mr. Turner. I walked to the chapel to see if Maureen was meeting that other bloke there on the Saturday night. It was late. She’d been there all right-I smelt her perfume. She used some expensive stuff called Opium that Mrs Flitch had. I felt sick. I knew she’d been there with someone else.’

‘You’re lying. You lied when you said you went on the pier.’

‘I’m telling the truth now. It’s my gran. She doesn’t like me drinking.’

‘After you met up with Maureen, you persuaded her to get into the van, where you strangled her and used the girl’s panties to choke her.’

‘I know nothing about it.’

‘I think you do. It happened. Then you decided to make her look good. You thought she looked bad after what you did.’ Turner smothered a gasp as he tried not to remember Maureen’s terrible face. ‘It was your way of getting back at her, wasn’t it, lad? So you tidied her up, made her look clean and neat.

‘You work in the funeral parlour so you do that often for the clients. Afterwards, you drank in the pub so everyone could see you and later you dumped her body and clothes in a neat pile on the cliff top. And then took the van back to Carey’s and, from there, you walked back home.’

‘It’s not true any of it. And you can’t prove it.’ Raymond drummed his fists hard on the table and burst into angry tears.

The solicitor intervened. ‘My client needs a break.’

‘Forensics will be able to tell us more when they have gone over the van. Interview terminated 3.00 pm.’