Costa Crew: One More Shot

Chapter 19 - Testimony

Michael Arnott was next to be called. Richard carefully went through the details of the crime and played back the recording of his interview.

"This wasn't you," Drake's snide voice said on the recording. "You stole the documents, but it wasn't you that they could harm. So tell me, why did you do this?"

"It's my job," murmured Arnott. "I'm a skilled house breaker and my boss pays good money for it. Someone asks them to take those documents. They contact me and I do the job. It pays well, but they told me I wouldn't get caught. I'm here because of them."

"For the tape, DI Drake is shaking his head," Tyler's voice said.

"You brought this on yourself," Drake's voice said. "What can you tell me about your boss?"

"I haven't been able to talk to any of my superiors recently," Arnott replied. "Normally some guy phones me, but the usual messengers have been giving me my jobs recently. They've been working on some big assassination."

Paul could hear the tension in the room. "What can you tell us about this assassination?" Drake asked.

There was a pause. "Someone called Rebecca Hidgens," Arnott said. "The boss has a grudge against her. Word is they're not getting paid. They say that her death is imperative."

"Interview terminated," said Drake. "DC Tyler, stop the tape."

Richard stood up again. "Mr Arnott, is there any part of your statement that you wish to amend?"

Arnott shook his head. "No, sir."

"Your witness, Miss Kleinman."

As expected, Lisa chose to focus on the lack of an identity for Arnott's boss. She emphasised the fact that even if Amelia had been trying to kill Becky, she may not have been the only one so this did not link her to Arnott's arrest.

"You said 'some guy' phoned you," she continued. "Do you think you could recognise his voice?"

Arnott shook his head. "It was all distorted."

Lisa bit her lip. "Very well. No further questions."

Once Arnott had stepped down Richard called Frank Coulson, who was questioned in a similar way. Richard played the recordings of Coulson's interviews where he outlined the hierarchy system in Murphy's organisation.

"Mr Coulson, on this recording you mentioned a woman named Joanne who found a job for you. Is this the woman you spoke to?"

As Richard pulled up a picture of Joanne, Coulson nodded. "That's her."

Richard flicked to Joanne's phone records. "As you can see, on the 25th September Joanne made a call to this number," he pressed a button and Anthony's records appeared beside them. "At the same time Mr Andrews received a phone call. I will now play a recording of the call that took place on Joanne's phone."

Richard did so, and the court was silent as a recording of Joanne and Anthony talking about finding Courtney Beckett a job played. "As you can hear, Mr Andrews is the one on the other end of this phone call. Mr Andrews also talks about the asssination of somebody his boss went to high-school with. A month later Rebecca Hidgens is kidnapped by Amelia Murphy who attempts to kill her. Your witness, Miss Kleinman."

Lisa once again pointed out the fact that Frank Coulson had no idea who his superiors really were.  However she had nothing to say about the phone call between Joanne and Anthony, except that this did not link to Arnott's arrest. Once she had cross-examined Coulson, Judge McAfferty called a recess until the next day.

Michael Arnott, Frank Coulson, Amelia Murphy and Anthony Andrews were escorted back to prison. Lisa went with them to discuss next steps in the trial.

"Anthony, things aren't looking good for you," she said grimly. "I think I can get you off on the Corbett case but I don't know about Hidgens. Lestrade still has four witnesses left to call before you two testify. I doubt he'll get much out of Corbett, because from his point of view Arnott stole the files for his enemies. I can try and use this to discredit Houston though, who testifies after him. What we need here is for Lestrade to slip up. Let me handle that, but after him it's Hidgens. Amelia, you know how to get her rattled. Any advice?"

Amelia grinned broadly. "Pressure her," she said. "Keep firing questions at her, don't give her a break or time to think. Draw attention to the number of people watching and the importance of the trial. She'll start panicking then."

"That's it," said Lisa, clapping her hands. "We break Hidgens and you walk."

***

"How was it?" asked Becky as Paul came out to meet her.

Paul sighed. "It could go either way. I haven't testified yet, that'll probably happen tomorrow. Lisa's trying to suggest that I faked some of the evidence, but Richard wants to give her the impression that she's winning before pulling out all the evidence. He reckons Hannah's his secret weapon."

"So anything could happen," commented Becky.

Paul nodded. "Yep."

They took a taxi to the police station and two uniformed officers escorted Becky to an interview room. A few minutes later Paul entered, joined by Ted. Becky smiled at them, but couldn't say anything friendly as this was a formal interview.

Ted switched the tape on. "Interview with witness on Operation Godfather commencing. Present is Rebecca Hidgens, being interviewed by Detective Chief Inspector Houston and Detective Sergeant Green."

"Rebecca, you've already given a statement regarding the events of October 29th 2034. All we want to do is go over a few details. Is that okay?" asked Paul.

"That's absolutely fine," replied Becky.

"You told your kidnappers that Detective Inspector Drake was your boyfriend. Why did you tell them that?"

"Drake was stationed in my flat for my protection, because we knew that Amelia Murphy was going to come for me. When my kidnappers asked why I had a police officer in my flat I didn't want to let them know that the police were onto them so told them the only other believable thing."

"And can you describe the room you were taken to?" asked Paul.

Becky nodded. "They were ready for me. Everything was covered in tarpaulin so that there wouldn't be any blood stains and they had a chair in the middle of the room. Amelia was standing against the wall, like she'd been waiting, and when she saw me she acted like she'd been expecting me as well. She didn't seem surprised at all."

The detectives nodded. "You knew Amelia Murphy in school?" asked Ted.

"That's right," replied Becky.

"Thank you, Rebecca," said Paul. "Interview terminated."

Once Ted had stopped the tape, Becky grinned. "Did you say Sergeant?" she asked, looking at Ted.

Ted smiled proudly. "That's right. Passed the exam just last week. Charlotte's an Inspector too, but she's been transferred to another part of the city."

Becky turned to Paul. "Don't tell me they didn't offer you a promotion."

"They did," Paul admitted. "But I'm not quite ready to be a Superintendent. I'm going to start studying now though so that I've got a good chance in 3 years when I take the exam."

"And Drake?"

Paul shook his head. "He got this far on working for himself, but I've told him that he needs to step up and learn to be a team leader before I even think of putting him forward for the Chief Inspector's exam. What about you?"

Becky didn't say anything, just handed Paul an ID card. Rebecca Hidgens, Computer Forensics, Metropolitan Police.

"I do miss MI5 work," Becky confessed. "But this is good, and there's still the trial. One last chance to be Agent Hidgens."