Spanish Inquisition (5 page)

‘And a valid point from Connie,' said Tom still somewhat coolly. ‘Male admirers were mostly hampered by the presence of wives or girlfriends at the party, and the other women in the cast had no time for her. Seems Norton's lacking female friends.'

‘Mmm, she has NCO status, so her work must be satisfactory, but is there a problem with how she uses her rank with her colleagues?'

‘Could be. She has a high opinion of herself. Your suggestion of a possible voyeur on rehearsal nights is worth following. She was highly voluptuous as Carmen. Enough to get any guy worked up.'

‘Like Piercey. The most significant factor is why she was deliberately lingering in the theatre after the end of the party. If she wasn't chasing Phil she must have arranged to meet someone outside the Recreation Centre after the place was locked up.' He took up his car keys and prepared to leave. ‘I'll call on Phil. Talk to him man to man. I'll let you have any useful info that might emerge from that.' Heading for the door, he added, ‘I'm having dinner with Clare tonight, doubtless to be given a bollocking for returning early without consulting her. I'll be keen to hear your progress in the morning.' He hesitated before stepping outside. ‘It's good to be back where I belong.'

Tom nodded. ‘Until you've been passed fit to resume command by the Medical Board, any thoughts on the case will be very welcome.'

Max found Piercey doing press-ups in a spare room in the Sergeants' Mess. After initial surprise at seeing his Section Commander, who was thought to be in Spain for another fortnight, the accused sergeant looked relieved.

‘It's good to see you've fully recovered, sir. Please come in. I'll slip on some clothes, then make coffee.'

‘This isn't a social call, Phil,' Max told him. ‘Forget the coffee. I'm here to get to the bottom of this deplorable business you're involved in.'

The smile vanished as Piercey registered Max's official tone, and he snatched from the bed blue jog pants and a sweatshirt to pull on over his colourful boxer shorts. Sweeping a pile of magazines from a chair he invited his boss to sit on it.

‘I read your statement at Headquarters a short while ago. It varies considerably from the version of events Corporal Norton gave Mr Black, so I'm here to get from you the truth. If we are to defend you, we have to have the facts. You know that, man. It's your profession. But you're in danger of losing all that unless we can prove you're innocent of this serious charge.'

‘I am. That
is
the truth.'

‘I don't doubt it, but let's have the revised version of your encounter in Norton's dressing room, leaving nothing out this time.'

Max then heard how Maria Norton had led him to believe she fancied him, then did the same to someone else in his presence at every rehearsal.

‘She really got to me like no girl has before,' he confessed quietly. ‘I kidded myself she behaved that way to keep everything chilled while we were engaged with the opera. She's good,' he said fervently. ‘Should be singing professionally. The Army's wrong for her.'

‘She wears two stripes. It can't be too wrong for her. How did the other men react to her capriciousness?'

Piercey shrugged. ‘Same as me, I imagine. Looked forward to the last-night party and hoped she'd give us what we'd wanted for the past two months.'

‘You expected to have sex with her that night?'

‘She'd been promising it for eight weeks.'

Max frowned. ‘She actually said she'd go to bed with you after the party?'

‘Well, as good as. Each time I suggested it she said I should “tie a knot in it” until the show ended and she could relax. I took that as a promise.'

‘Good God, man, surely you're too experienced to fall for that.'

‘Yes, I am, but she made it really obvious she wanted it as much as I did.'

‘When? Where were you both when she made it so obvious?'

‘Just beyond the stage door. It was hot in the theatre so she used to go outside during a short period she wasn't on stage, to cool down before her dying scene.' He hesitated before continuing with an account he would prefer to keep to himself. ‘I used to slip away from that choral session to join her. I suppose she was still acting when she teased me. You know, running her hands over my tight satin breeches, saying I must be patient until the final performance.'

Max well understood the provocation, but he was still surprised that this dedicated womaniser had succumbed so fully. He was even more surprised to see the healthy flush colour Piercey's cheeks in a rush of embarrassment.

‘So did you have an arrangement with her to take her somewhere when the party ended?'

‘I booked a room at the Black Bear, intending to drive her there as a surprise.'

‘It wasn't a mutual plan?'

‘No.' The outcome of that night appeared to hit Piercey once more, and he looked defeated. ‘I bought a bottle of perfume to give her to show how much I admired her performance, then I waited for everyone to leave and went to her dressing room to give it to her and reveal where we'd be spending the night.'

It was almost unnecessary for him to describe what happened. Max could guess how it went, but he had to hear it in Piercey's own words.

‘Go on.'

After a deep sigh the sorry tale spilled out. ‘She was taking a call on her mobile. I went up behind her, put my arms around her, and kissed her on the neck. She shrugged me away; told whoever she was talking to she'd call back in ten. I said she'd have to make it the next morning because she was going to be too occupied to make phone calls. That's when I sprung the surprise about the Black Bear.' Piercey gazed down at his linked hands, clearly unhappy over what he must tell this man who was an officer and his boss, as well as someone he liked and trusted.

‘She laughed. Said, “In your dreams, Phil,” and turned away. I . . . well, I suppose I lost it for a moment or two. The zip on her dress was undone, so I pulled it from her shoulders and decided to have a taste of what I'd been promised.' Another deep sigh. ‘I was pretty insistent.'

‘You tried to strip her?'

Piercey shook his downbent head. ‘The costume had a built-in bra, so her breasts were bared.'

‘You handled them?'

‘Briefly, but the dress tore as she tried to pull it back in place. That's when I stopped and stepped away from her. Next minute she's running out front shouting that I was trying to get her naked.' He glanced up then. ‘I decided to cut my losses and left by the stage door.'

‘Mmm, I won't comment on the wisdom of that. Where did you go?'

‘Came back here. Should've gone to the Black Bear. The staff could've given me an alibi.' He frowned. ‘She'd touched me sexually often enough. I only responded in kind. No way would I beat her up.'

‘Well, Norton is claiming you came out of the darkness and began slapping and punching her. You must see that it would be easy to believe a man who had been publicly humiliated after being promised sexual intercourse would be angry enough to lay in wait to punish the woman in some way.' Max paused before continuing. ‘Philip Piercey, did you wait outside the Recreation Centre and violently assault Maria Norton?'

The other man gazed unwaveringly back at Max. ‘No, sir, I did not.'

After a moment or two, Max nodded. ‘You'll have to submit a more accurate statement based on what you've just told me. We'll get you out of the frame as soon as possible. Meanwhile, you'll remain suspended from duty and confined to barracks.' He smiled. ‘I'll now have that coffee you offered me, Phil.'

A
fter Max left, Tom had a rethink and called Connie Bush to tell her to meet him outside the Medical Centre. Norton might, indeed, respond more willingly with a woman present. Ostensibly, Connie would be there to take down the victim's statement, but if Norton tried the same trick to halt the questioning, Connie was capable of calming the situation and taking over from Tom.

They were met with the news that Corporal Norton was no longer there. The duty orderly told Tom the MO had agreed to allow the patient to rest in her own quarters, but to attend Sick Parade on Thursday to check progress. ‘She's excused duty for seven days, sir.'

‘When did she go?'

‘She left right after breakfast, sir.'

‘So why didn't you inform me? You're aware that SIB is investigating the serious assault which put her in your care.'

The orderly's face remained expressionless. ‘There was no instructions left on that, sir.'

Highly irritated, Tom snapped, ‘Are you incapable of making decisions? If a patient had a sudden relapse in the MO's absence would you let him die because she hadn't left instructions to resuscitate him? God help all ye who enter herein!'

Back beside their vehicles Tom told Connie to follow him to the accommodation block housing Maria Norton. ‘We'll have better luck there, anyway. She can't call for medication if the questions grow awkward.'

When they reached the room at the far end of the first floor corridor they found it unoccupied. The wardrobe door stood open revealing empty hangers; there were no shoes on the rack.

‘She's done a runner,' declared Connie, indicating two empty drawers in the bedside locker.

‘What the hell game is that woman playing?' breathed Tom, now certain there were greater depths to this case than was first thought. Max would relish the fact.

Heather struck gold at her second attempt to trace one of the men Norton claimed had offered her a lift. Lance Corporal Roy Broderick had been in the chorus of
Carmen
, he was twenty-two and single, which made him a likely candidate. He had been off base yesterday and had therefore not yet been interviewed. He was in the gymnasium directing a workout routine for an infantry platoon when Heather located him, and he reluctantly left his class to continue without his supervision while they went to his office.

Blond and beefy, he earned Heather's well-hidden appreciation of his muscles while she marvelled that he could also sing well enough for opera. Much the same as Piercey, of course.

‘I suppose it's about Maria Norton,' he began in a voice overlaid with similar Cornish inflections as there were in Piercey's. ‘I heard she was beaten up by your colleague.'

‘Then you heard wrong,' she countered.

‘Oh?' He stood feet apart, hands on hips in a semi-confrontational pose. ‘How's that, then?'

Ignoring this challenge, she got straight to the point. ‘What time did you leave the theatre after the party on Saturday night, Corporal?'

‘When I was chucked out by Bill Jensen, Sarge,' he replied with a patronizing grin.

Facing him with an unflinching stare, she said, ‘Let's get this straight before we go any further. In the early hours of Sunday morning a woman you had acted in company with for two months was viciously assaulted. She has given us a statement which suggests you can offer evidence which could help us to apprehend whoever was responsible for her injuries, so let's be grown up and take this investigation into a major crime seriously. What time did you leave the theatre, Corporal?'

His blue eyes lost their amused sparkle. ‘Must've been around one fifteen. I wasn't watching the clock.'

‘Was anyone with you when you left?'

‘Yes.'

‘Give me their names,' she said, knowing he was going to be as awkward as possible in retaliation.

‘Chancer Blakey and two girls he brought to the party.'

‘Rank and real name of Blakey?'

‘Lance Corporal, Morgan.'

‘And the girls?'

‘Manda and Jess. That's all I know apart from they're daughters of guys in Afghanistan right now. Sixth form schoolgirls.'

So Norton was wrong about their being in the chorus. A glance at her list of the cast of
Carmen
showed Blakey as having a very minor solo role as a gypsy. Turning away from Broderick, Heather called Beeny's mobile and told him to seek out Blakey as the second of the pair Norton mentioned. She deliberately ended by arranging to meet up with him later to see how the evidence offered by the two compared.

Broderick was aggressive and had resumed his confrontational pose when she turned back to him.

‘Look, what's going down here? Chancer and me aren't bloody suspects for this.
He
tried it on backstage with her. Stands to reason he had another go at her when she left.'

Against a background of thumps, bumps and laughter from the soldiers continuing their gymnastics, Heather asked, ‘We're talking about Maria Norton, are we? Tell me about this backstage business you witnessed.'

‘No, you're putting words in my mouth. I didn't
witness
anything, but it happened. She ran out to us crying rape.' He caught himself up. ‘No, not exactly. She said he was trying to pull her clothes off, and we could see her dress was ripped.'

‘Was she frightened, angry, or just disgusted?'

‘How the hell do I know what she felt? I was busy trying to make it with these schoolgirls. The way that silly cow had been putting herself about with all the men, she was asking for it.'

Heather had to bite back her withering comment on that favourite male statement. Instead, she asked him what happened when Maria joined him, Blakey and the girls.

‘Chancer had put a fair bit away during the party, so had the girls, come to that, and he started bragging that he'd sort the bugger out. Trying to impress them, see. They egged him on, but I talked sense to him. He's up for promotion to full corporal. Having a go at one of you lot would put an end to that.'

‘I see. So there was no attempt by any of you to go backstage to confront Sergeant Piercey?'

He shook his head. ‘Chancer carried on growling about it, but your mate chickened out by leaving through the stage door, the girls were going on about how late it was, and Bill Jensen was rattling his bunch of keys, so we left.'