A Genuine Mistake by Ted Tayler (miss read books txt) 📗

Constable handed her a medal, she threw it in the nearest waste bin and walked away.”

“Send me her details, Geoff,” said Gus. “I’ll tread with care if I decide to ask for her opinions on the case. Thanks for the heads up.”

Gus looked around the room. He hoped that none of the Crime Review Team ever suffered like Vicky Bennison. Whatever happened to respect for authority? If only they could rewind the clock to the days when he joined as a uniformed constable. Things were far from perfect in the mid-Seventies, but his old Sergeant would have kittens if he saw what the world was like today. Ah well, time to move on. The walls and whiteboards carried everything they needed for the next few days, at least.

“Right,” he said. “A quick summary, and then I want your first impressions. Gerry Hogan lived in Bradford-on-Avon as a child. After university, he joined a well-known financial services firm in Bristol. Hogan married an Australian girl, Evelyn, in 1982 and set up his own business in 1992. They had two sons, Sean and Byron, who were born in 1994 and 1996. In 2002, Evelyn died in a traffic accident in Australia. She was a wildlife photographer who had worked here in the UK throughout their marriage. Before leaving New South Wales, her last commission to live in the UK had been at the same location. The trip back home was to take photographs she could use to compare the wildlife volumes in the Macquarie Pass National Park after a twenty-year gap. The climate change fraternity was eager to see the results. Gerry Hogan didn’t cut back on his business involvement, but he spent every spare minute of free time looking after his sons. His older sister, Belinda, did her best to support her brother in that regard. In 2007, Gerry Hogan met Rachel Cummins, a personal trainer. There was a significant age gap, but the couple stayed together, and the boys liked her. Everything seemed fine in the relationship. There were no problems with the business. Rachel Cummins continued to operate her business, holding fitness and exercise classes in and around Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon.”

“I think I’ve seen her adverts in the local press,” said Neil.

“You never thought of signing up?” asked Lydia.

“Can you picture me in lycra?” asked Neil.

“That’s an image I’ll never get out of my head now. Thanks a bunch,” said Luke.

“Any sensible comments before I move on?” asked Gus.

“Sorry, guv,” said Neil.

“On Sunday the sixth of May, six years ago, Gerry and the boys were in the games room at the right-hand rear of the house. Rachel was exercising in the gym on the left-hand side, also on the ground floor and at the back. The doorbell rang at six-thirty in the evening, and Gerry and the boys stayed put, meaning Rachel had to stop what she was doing to answer the door. A man stood in the driveway, not facing her head on, but half turned away. Rachel was in a rush. She opened the door, and the man asked for her partner by name, nothing more. Rachel pushed the door to and made for the games room. She shouted for Gerry and told him someone wanted to speak to him. Rachel returned to the gym. Gerry went to the doorstep to talk to the visitor. At a quarter to seven, Sean left the games room to look for his father. He called out, thinking he was outside in the driveway as the front door was still ajar. Rachel heard Sean call out and stopped exercising. She walked into the hallway, peered around the front door, and found Gerry dead on the gravel. Someone had shot him in the head.”

“No known enemies,” said Neil.

“A happy relationship,” said Blessing.

“Hogan wasn’t known to the police,” said Luke.

“Déjà vu,” said Alex, “all over again.”

“It sounds like we’ve been here before, doesn’t it?” said Gus. “We start our review with a good deal more information available than with some cases we’ve handled. The detective who was Senior Investigating Officer on the case now works at Portishead. DS Mercer has told me that DCI John Kirkpatrick will be available when we need to clarify any of the methodologies they followed. His second-in-command, DS Bennison, has left the service. If we need her input, I’ll track her down and have a quiet chat.”

“Vicky Bennison, guv?” said Neil Davis. “We joined around the same time. I remember when she got injured in London. Her head was never right after that. The physical wounds healed within a month, but the mental scars never left her.”

“If you knew Vicky when you were both raw recruits, Neil, it makes sense for you to come along. A friendly face might persuade her to give us a helping hand.”

“What lines of enquiry did the investigation follow, guv?” asked Alex Hardy.

“After interviews with family and neighbours on Monday and Tuesday following the murder, they were struggling,” said Gus. “Nobody saw the man who rang the doorbell arrive or leave the house. Rachel couldn’t give the police anything other than a vague description.”

“That should have made the SIO suspicious, guv,” said Lydia. “Once the sister started spreading the rumour that Rachel had hired a hitman.”

“Belinda didn’t raise her concerns with her friends until she learned of the provisions in her brother’s will,” said Gus. “After his wife’s death, Gerry had written a new will. If something happened to him, then Belinda would become the boys' guardian until they reached eighteen.”

“There must have been another will,” said Neil. “If the will with Belinda in it was still valid, Rachel had nothing to gain by bumping-off her partner.”

“A year before his death, Gerry told Rachel he wanted to amend his will, so that she inherited the majority of his estate. Gerry left money in trust for the boys to receive when