Beggars Banquet [The Rolling Stones]

10. Salt of the Earth

New Scotland Yard, Westminster, London
Thursday, the 4th July
6:30 p.m.

*    

"And that's all I can remember until I woke up and heard Frank yelling 'Brian- he's dead! It's my fault' and well the police was already there as well. I have no idea... I-I was out. Anita didn't deserve that... Do you know what happened to her?"

Detective Lloyd Scott  had to shake his head at the question of the guitarist of Rolling Stones, whose face spoke of emotion. He was truly sadden by the death of his former lover and Lloyd had no doubt that Keith Richards was innocent. His testimony fitted with to the ones of Mr. Watts and Mr. Jagger,  of course he knew it could have been arranged between them, but Lloyd doubted it. No one could come up with such a tale and not stumble at least at some point. No, the three members of the Rolling Stones had told him the truth, he was sure.

As had the nurse, Janet Lawson, only Mr. Thorogod's version of the evening had been slightly different. He had denied of course to admitting that he had killed Brian Jones, though the first thing he had cried out when he had seen the police was "I did it! I killed Brian." His lawyer could naturally always claim it had been linked to stress, but the guy wouldn't get so easy out this time. Brian Jones would finally get some justice and that would mean Lloyd would get some recognition.  

Solving the murder case of somebody famous surely had to be a career boost, if he couldn't solve this case of 6 deaths however Lloyd's joy would probably be short lived.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Richards, but at this point I can't tell you anything or else I could endanger any further investigations. There are still a few things we need to be sure of, before we can confirm anything."

Mr. Richards sighed loudly. "I get it. Was that it? I told you everything I know, so can I finally leave?"

As soon as Lloyd had nodded, the other man got up from his chair and put his coat on. "We might contact you if we find out something new," the detective yelled after the guitarist as he just left without a further word, obviously relieved to get away.

The detective sighed and took a cigarette out of Mr. Richards package which he had left on the table. It was the last one and the Rolling Stone guitarist apparently hadn't bothered with it.

Lloyd didn't smoke much, but this situation deserved one. He might have a lead in Brian Jones murder, that happened 20 years ago, but the events of two days ago still left some unanswered questions, which he hoped Miss Amanda Jones could shed some light on.

Though Lloyd doubted that she could answer him every single one, if she had told the others the truth, she didn't know anything about the whole incident and had just been unlucky to get involved... The detective still didn't want to give his hopes up that she could at least tell him more about the host, because until now they didn't have much... The few papers they had found of him in the house were fake, nor did Cotchford Farm belong to him. The true owner had been away and Mr. Lewis simply had misused this circumstance in his favour. If Lloyd hadn't seen the dead body with his own eyes he would have believed Mr. Lewis to be a ghost, which would have been a far better explanation for the story.