As soon as Abi got to the station she got a call from the ME. She'd been right, the dog had been poisoned with hemlock. Not a conventional poison these days but as it can be found growing in hedgerows and a simple internet search can teach you how to administer it, she was surprised it wasn't used more often as it left no retail trail to follow.
Dave Wallace walked in shortly after, so she filled him in on the details and he in turn relayed his interview with the fence.
They had gotten the names of the 2 men who were offering the antiques for sale and were trying to trace them now. They both had form for aggravated burglary and were known to have used violence in the past. There had been no finger prints recovered but any idiot that watches TV these days would know to wear gloves and no link could be made between the thieves and either Chrissie or Alice
They had also contacted the alarm company at Alice's house who on inspection had easily confirmed that that it wasn't just faulty -- it had been deliberately tampered with.
When Chrissie's medical records arrived they showed that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer 3 months earlier. The prognosis wasn't good but Chrissie had decided to forgo treatment -- preferring to live her remaining time without the crippling effects of chemo.
Something was niggling at Abi and she had long ago learnt to trust her instincts in these matters. She requested a full breakdown of Chrissie's finances, then she called Alice.
'Alice, you and I both know that Chrissie wasn't short of money, but I'm guessing that finding £500,000 wouldn't have been quick because when I knew her most of her money was tied up in investments and assets. How come she had it available to just write you a cheque?'
'I don't know. I haven't actually paid it in yet, I guess it could bounce.'
'Chrissie didn't tell you about her illness although she'd known about it for a while, could she have been liquidating her assets?'
'I guess so. I do know that she'd had several meetings with a solicitor recently but she just said he was handling some business for her. I drove her there once, I can give you the address.'
Abi's hair was staring to stand on end by now, intuition kicking into overdrive.
'Alice, do you know who stands to gain financially from Chrissie's death? I know she didn't have kids but is there anyone else you can think of?'
'I don't think so; both her parents are dead and she never mentioned brothers or sisters. Knowing Chrissie she probably left everything to charity.'
Abi thanked Alice, took the name of the solicitor and sent a team to retrieve the will. She had an inkling that this case was as good as solved.
The financial records came back quickly and the various banks and broking firms she used confirmed that yes, she had indeed been liquidating assets. The total was a whopping £7.3 million so far and she still had the sale of 2 businesses and her house to complete, making the expected total closer to 16 million.
She was sitting at her desk typing up her report so far when there was a knock at her office door.
'Hi Grizzly, what've you got for me?'
'It's Grisling Gov.' he stated in an exasperated tone, having not worked out yet that when DCI Abi Spencer gave you a nickname you should take it as a sign that she considered you a valued member of her team. 'We've managed to contact the solicitor -- pompous arse that his is was suggesting that we'd have to wait for the information until after the inquest but we managed to persuade him otherwise; his secretary should be faxing it over within the hour.
She changed her will about a week ago, they're sending both for comparison.'
When the will arrived it was much as Abi had expected. Most of the money and assets had been left in trust for a variety of charities and good causes, with one notable exception.
1.5 million pounds had been left to someone called Frank Williams in the original will but on inspection of the new version his name had been changed to Alice Roberts.
'Does this make the Roberts woman a suspect again Gov?'
'Not sure Grizzly, but I doubt it. If the money was coming to her anyway and Chrissie had already written her a cheque for a sizable amount, why kill her? I'd say that we need to find Mr. Williams a bit sharpish and see what his alibi is like. Do we know what their connection is?'
'Not yet Gov, I'm on it now.'
Within 2 hours they had the address for Frank Williams but he was not at home and they still didn't know how he was connected to either woman, they did however get a result when one of the men who's name had been given for the antiques burglaries was arrested for an unrelated driving offence and Abi hurried to watch the interview that Dave Wallace was conducting.
The man had 'thug' written all over him, from his EDL tattoos to the scar's on his face and arms and Abi was glad she wasn't in the interview room. She didn't scare easily but there was no point in putting yourself in harms way unless necessary and this guy didn't look like he would take kindly by being grilled by a woman -- no, this one was best left to Dave who equally matched the thug's 6ft plus frame even if he didn't compete with his muscled bulk.
The interview wasn't going particularly well when Abi first started to watch, with the suspect refusing to say anything except 'no comment' or 'where's my brief' so Dave left the interview room while they waited for the duty solicitor.
He was chatting to Abi about the case when DS Grisling came running down the corridor looking like the cat who had got the cream.
'We've found a link!' he almost squealed as he reached them.
'Between Williams and one of the women?'
'No, between Williams and the scumbag you've got in there!' he replied, gesturing excitedly toward the interview room door. 'We ran a check on known associates and found a Francis Williams. Different address but the info's a few years old and the date of birth matches -- we're pretty sure it's the same bloke. Francis Williams has a record for fraud.'
'No shit!' responded Dave 'I think I better get back in there and see if he wants to talk now, where's that bloody duty brief?'
Dave Wallace entered the interview room and calmly took a seat in front of the increasingly agitated man sat at the other side.
He didn't speak for a while other than to turn the recording equipment back on, he just sat there and smiled.
'What you fucking grinning about?'
'Oh nothing. I'm just thinking about how early I'm getting home tonight once I've had a little chat with Frank.'
The twitch in the suspects eye was enough to let Wallace know he'd struck home but he sat & allowed him to stew without saying anything further for the time being.
As agreed, after about 10 minutes Abi stuck her head into the interview room and simply said 'They've brought him in -- he's in interview room 4 waiting for you.'
At this the suspect looked very nervous indeed; Dave just smiled at him again and walked out of the interview room door.
The duty solicitor was not pleased at all about being sidelined into interview room 4 rather than taken to his client, and was visibly angry when Dave and Abi entered.
'We're so sorry to have kept you waiting, but we need to talk to you. This is both for our benefit and that of your client, so please bear with us.'
Abi explained that as things stood, his client and accomplice were the lead suspects in an antique robbery, for which they had eye witness evidence from the fence and were expecting DNA results from the house to confirm their involvement.
The solicitor didn't seem to be overly worried, but when Abi continued on to explain how the robbery was linked to a murder and assault he started to take them seriously and agreed to attempt to get his client to be open with them in return for a possibly lighter sentence -- on the condition that he hadn't killed Chrissie, in which case all deals were off.
They were very clear that this was a one time only deal, and if they caught the accomplice and he accepted the deal instead, he would have lost his chance.
They then took him to his client and left them alone to talk things over.
By the time the solicitor was shown into the suspect he was pacing the floor nervously, having been duped into thinking that Frank was already in custody, and eager to distance himself from the murder.
The interview that followed was long and tiring but by the time they'd finished Abi and Dave were confident that they had the full story.
Francis (Frank) Williams was the uncle of the suspect and his brother (the other suspect who was very soon arrested and in custody) and was a con artist who had duped Chrissie into investing in a bogus charity.
Chrissie had originally fallen for the lie and had not only invested £100,000 but had left money in her will to be used after her death -- a fact she had imparted to Frank.
Chrissie was however shrewd and Frank wasn't as good a conman as he'd thought, so Chrissie had him investigated.
She couldn't prove that he had conned her outright but the investigation threw up enough inconsistencies for her to change her mind about the money; a fact she also imparted to Frank who wasn't pleased that his nest egg had been so close and then taken away.
In the expectation that Chrissie hadn't changed the will yet, Frank poisoned the dog and broke in to kill Chrissie, thus ensuring his inheritance. He then ransacked the house looking for a copy of the will, which he found, thus finding out that the change had already been made.
