Chapter 6
New to the team

Having successfully cleared up the problem at the Theatre Royal with the threat to Jack Cartwright, and established Mick in the theatre rep company, we were looking forward to a relaxing weekend away from work.

As it was a fine weekend, Trudy and I decided to go and watch a civil war re-enactment battle performed by a local historical society, similar to the Sealed Knot events.

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During the English civil war of the mid 1640s and 1650s between the Royalists, forces loyal to King Charles 1, and the Parliamentarians, led by Oliver Cromwell, who were against the autocratic rule of the monarch and demanded that power should be in the hands of the members of Parliament drawn from the aristocrats, landowners and important local representatives from around the country, there were continual skirmishes , battles and changes of control. Many of the conflicts were traditional battles in open countryside, or sieges of towns holding out against the opposition who were controlling the nearby countryside. Both sides were convinced of the justice of their case, many justified their allegiance on religious lines, differentiating between Catholic and Anglican on the Royalist side, and ‘Free Church’ hard-line protestants who generally supported the Parliamentarians.

York , as the seat of The Council of the North, effectively the King’s Northern capital, was not immune, and as the major administrative centre and seat of royal authority for the North was a Royalist stronghold for most of the conflict. Although York itself remained under the authority of the Royalists, control of the surrounding towns and country ebbed and flowed and on the 2 July 1644 at Marston Moor, 5 miles West of York, the Royalist army was heavily defeated by an army led by Lord Ferdinando Fairfax and his son Thomas Fairfax, and broke up and dispersed. Many maintain that this was the turning point of the civil war, leading to control by Parliament , the abolition of the monarchy, and the establishment of the Commonwealth. Some of the royalists retreated to York, which was put under siege and on the 16 July, York surrendered to the Parliamentarians, and remained under their control for the remainder of the conflict.

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The enactment was to be held at the site of the battle of Marston Moor and drew a large crowd of spectators to watch the event, which itself had a large cast of participants, all dressed in costumes of the period. Some were the major leaders, riding on horseback, many were archers or pikemen, but the use of firearms was now common and many were dressed as musketeers with they long flintlock rifles and there were the usual camp flowers of wives, daughters, merchants and servants.

The Royalists, particular the commanders and senior figures, were dressed in finery, lace collars and cuffs, large feathered hats, , their women in long flowing gowns, many dressed as if they were out for an afternoon stroll rather that at the site of a battle.

The parliamentarian forces were in much plainer outfits, the men generally in black tunics and breeches, bareheaded or wearing leather skullcaps, the women in drab utilitarian peasant-style clothing and plain white bonnets.

All in all it was a colourful and exciting scene. As well as the main re-enactment, the centrepiece of the day, there were produce and memorabilia stalls, demonstrations of trades and skills of the time, displays of the weapons to be used, falconry displays and all the usual catering and marketing stalls of any outdoor event.

While wandering around viewing the various stalls we came across Joe Riley and Charles Madeley, our friends from the Rose-acre care home, who were out enjoying the blue skies and the light breeze of the fine autumn weather, and they were delighted to join us for the afternoon.

With a fanfare of trumpets and the beating of drums the battle participants entered the arena, led by Lord Ferdinando Fairfax for the Parliamentarians and Prince Rupert of the Rhine for the Royalists along with their colourfully dressed retinues, and they lined up for battle. The various camp followers toured the perimeter of the crowd encouraging the spectators to cheer for their side before going to the rear of the battle formations, and the two armies marched towards each other to start the conflict.

There was a general melee of bodies, lots of shouting and screaming, the clashing of the sword blades, the roar and discharge smoke of the muskets and the pounding of the horses hooves. Eventually the battle was over, the royalist forces were fleeing back towards York, and the Parliamentarians were celebrating, dancing around all the ‘dead’ bodies littering the ground.

It was all very spectacular and realistic and the spectators were clapping and cheering the actors, as those that’d been ‘killed in battle’ rose up and went to celebrate with their comrades. it was soon noticed that ‘Lord Fairfax’ was not leading the celebrations of his victorious troops, but was still prone on the ground in the centre of the arena, and a cry went up for the medics to come to attend to him as he had genuine been badly hurt during the battle.

The medics quickly called over the few police and their associated community support officers, and although we were off-duty Trudy and I went over to see what was the problem.

“He is badly injured, in the midst of the re-enactment someone has shot him with live ammunition instead of the duds that were supposed to be used.” one of the medics told us.

Taking charge I immediately arranged a PA announcement that all the actors and spectators were to remain. for quick interviews with the attending police officers, which was mainly taking contact details and asking if anyone had noticed anything suspicious. All firearms were collected for forensic checks and most people were allowed to leave, with only a few of the actors being asked to stay, mainly ‘Lord Fairfax’s” retinue that were near him during the conflict, his support knights, his ‘son, Thomas Fairfax’ and some attendants. However in the heat of the battle with all the noise and the general confusion, nobody had any useful information for us.

‘Lord Fairfax’ was rushed off to hospital for urgent attention as he had lost a lot of blood and was in a critical condition and It was obviously not possible to interview him to find out if he had seen who did this to him.

With all the people in and around the arena it would be a waste of time asking for a forensic search, and we were at a bit of a loss as to how to go forward with our investigation. As I now had the resources of the main detective team as well as Trudy and Susan, they were all sent out to further question the battle participants to find out any background information that would help us. The general response was that nobody had seen or heard anything unusual. We caught up with Joe and Charles, told them what all the fuss was about, and said that they should give us a call if anything unusual came to mind.

As murder case investigations were normally required to be led by a Detective Chief Inspector, a rank above me, I cleared it with CS Scargill for me to continue.

“Just keep going at it Julie, at the moment it is only assault and at worst attempted murder, I have confidence in you. To keep the books straight, keep me informed, but otherwise do what you think is best. Any trouble from your new team yet or is all sweetness and light with them?”

“ A few grumbles but nothing I can’t handle. Although Wainwright’s team were loyal to him and although they generally thought that he was doing a good job, he was not particularly well liked personally, but there are a few who resent me jumping into his shoes so quickly.”

Back at the station, reports were telling me that it appeared that ‘Lord Fairfax’, in real-life Joseph Howard a local landowner and businessman, who was the leader of the group, was not the most popular person around. As a wealthy and powerful businessman he treated many of the people in the group as the peasants they were in their roles in the battles and many felt he was arrogant and patronising.

There was also a common feeling, whilst nobody wished him to die from his wounds, that he deserved to be punished for the way he treated people. In particular there were rumours of a lot of ill-will between him and “Prince Rupert’, Colin Ayres, over who should lead the group as well as personal and business conflicts between them.

As we could still not speak to Mr Howard, who was still sedated in hospital, I decided to visit Mr Ayres with one of my sergeants, Barry Kidd.

“ Thanks for your time Mr Ayres, I realise that when you were interviewed at the battlefield you told the officers that you saw and heard nothing unusual. Has anything further come to mind?”

“ In truth, the way we play the scenes, we only come together at the end of the battle when Prince Rupert is escaping, we both have separate roles to play. With all the noise and turmoil I didn’t notice that he wasn’t prancing around looking important until he didn’t lead his troops in the victory celebrations at the end of the battle.”

“ ‘Prancing around looking important’, it sounds like you are not too keen on him.”

“ Let’s just say that he isn’t on my dinner party lists, we have had several run-ins over business deals and I think he is an arrogant so-and-so who upsets a lot of our society members with his bullying ways. To be honest I’m surprised that nobody has had a go at him in the battles before now, with all the hustle and bustle a lot could go on unnoticed.”

“ What about you, has the thought ever crossed your mind?”

“ Crossed my mind, yes, taken it any further, of course not ! Anyway, he will be out of action now for a while and it will give me an opportunity to reorganise things and get people a bit happier again.”

“ Thanks for your time and your frank comments, we may need to talk to you again, we’ll be in touch.”

Barry and I reviewed the interview when we got back in our car.

“What did you think of him Barry?”

“ He definitely doesn’t like Howard, and does not hide it, he either did the deed or he has a good poker face, I do not think it was him though.”

“ My thoughts too, let’s go and visit the Howard family.”

We arrived at Manor Farm and instead of finding a working farmyard, found ourselves in the grounds of a large country house with manicured lawns and carefully tended shrubbery and flower beds, obviously the working areas of the estate were well away from the main house.

A knock on the door was answered by a slight young person, it was hard to tell at first whether it was a girl or boy, as their clothing was very loose and unisex style and their hair was pulled back in a low ponytail.

“Good afternoon, DI Rowntree and DS Kidd from York police, we would like to speak to Toni Howard, if she is in, please.”

“ Come in, by the way it is Tony, Anthony, not Toni, and that is me, how can I help?”

“ My apologies, we were told that Toni was one of the camp follower women at the battlefield, our constable must have made a mistake.”

“ It was easy mistake to make, I was dressed in costume as the daughter of Lord Fairfax and with my hair hanging loose, one of my father’s little jokes. He has always picked on me for my slight build and decided a few years ago that I would never be big enough to play one of the troops, and the only role he would let me have would be as his daughter. Over time I have just got into character and join in with the other women at the re-enactments, and normally spend most of my time with them, and most of the men treat me and look on me as a woman on the day .”

“ Ok, we have no problems with that. Did you notice anything unusual happening during the fight and do you know of any reason why anyone would want to shoot your father?”

“ I was well away from all the action, with the other women encouraging the crowd, we keep off the main battlefield and we’re normally facing the spectators, so we see very little of what goes on, so I can’t really help you with that. My father is a successful businessman, and has upset a lot of people on the way, but I can’t think of anyone annoyed enough to shoot him.”

‘What about the people in the historical society, we understand that he was not very popular with a lot of them?”

“ He runs the society like he runs his business, there is only one boss, and that is him. I know that the other main characters, Prince Rupert and Thomas Fairfax, both think that he is arrogant and bullying, but again he sees it as strong leadership, but attempting to kill him is over-the-top for minor squabbles.”

“ Who is normally near him during the battles?”

“ His ‘Page’ played byJack Ashton and his ‘Escort knight’ Michael Carter are normally by his side, they might have seen something.”

“ Thanks for your help Tony, we’ll be in touch if we need to speak to you again.”

We called on Ashton and Carter and other than confirming that they had noticed nothing unusual, and that Joseph Howard was generally disliked as a pompous and arrogant bully, gave us nothing we did not already know.

Mike Atkins, aka ‘Thomas Fairfax’, was next on our list, as we had been told that he had had several recent public rows with Joseph Howard over the way the society was run.

“ I’m glad he was not killed but nobody deserves to be taken down a peg or two more than Howard. He treats everyone like his underlings and carries his role as Lord Fairfax into his real life. I have been trying to get him to pay a large business debt to my company for several weeks now but the guy is just dismissive and quite frankly if I had the chance to attack him during the battle scenes I would, but i never get anywhere near him except when we ride into the arena together.”

“ We get the general impression that he is not popular, but can you think of anyone who might have a serious grudge against him?”

“ Make a list of anyone who does business with him or works for him and there is a fair chance that they will be glad that he has ended up in hospital. ”

Barry and I returned to base to review the interviews and I asked Trudy to join us.

“From what you and Barry have told me anyone on the battlefield is likely to have had a motive and opportunity to have a shot at him, do you have any strong suspicions yet.?”

“Whilst everyone seems to dislike him, Ayres and Atkins seem to have stronger feelings than most,” said Barry.” But I wasn’t too comfortable with the son, Tony, he must resent being made to dress up and spend all the time with the women, what young man would want that?” Seeing the glances between myself and Trudy, he quickly added “No disrespect intended boss, and you too Trudy, but you must know what I mean.”

I grinned back at him to ease his tension “You’ve just spent all day with me and now you are in here with me and Trudy, do you feel resentful about being with women. Count yourself lucky that we wear trousers at work rather than skirts or we may have to ask you to wear a skirt too. You might have been clumsy in the way you said it, but I too thought that Tony was just a little dismissive and nonchalant about it. We will keep him on the list for the moment. See what you can find out about all three of them Barry. Leave it until tomorrow, and unless you are worried about being in the company of women, do you fancy a pint with Trudy and me on the way home?”

The next day we were no further forward, other than finding out that the debt that Howard owed was almost bankrupting Atkins’ company, and that Howard and Ayres had been at loggerheads over several controversial property deals where Ayres had lost a lot of money after losing development contracts to Howard’s companies.

Barry and I were just about to leave when Trudy and Susan came into our office. “We’ve just had a call from Joe Riley one of the Rose-acre people, he says he has some photographs of the battle scenes that might be useful and would like you to pop round to look at them. you might have a bigger team now, but the Odd Squad can still come in useful.”

We hurried round to Jane Stuart’s house in Copmanthorpe where the friends and fellow escapees from Rose-acre were still living.

‘What have you got for us Joe, Trudy said that you are quite excited that you may have snapped something useful to us, let’s have a look.”

“I was just taking lots of snaps of the event and was quite taken by an attractive young woman who was waving around in front of us encouraging us to shout and cheer. She was so lively that I followed her with the camera and noticed, that unlike the other woman, that she went out onto the battlefield, right into the middle of the action. When she came back she had a worried look on her face and was starting to cry. iIthink she may have seen when Lord Fairfax was shot.”

The photos clearly showed that the young woman was Tony, or more fittinglyToni, Howard, who had told us that they never went into the main area of action.

“ Thanks Joe, we know who that is, I think we better have another talk with them.”

We called the house and were told that Tony was at work and went round to Howard Developments to see if they could come to the station for an interview. The young receptionist looked familiar and it dawned on me that, despite being completely dressed as a woman, in a formal blouse and skirt, with hair curled and styled, and in full makeup, that it was Tony..

“ Tony, we need you to come with us to answer a few more questions, can you get someone to cover for you for the rest of the day?”

Sitting in the interview room, dressed as he was it was hard to look upon him as Tony, and in my mind I was talking to Toni and was treating her as such.

“ Toni, you told us that you were nowhere near your father when he was shot, but we have photos that show otherwise, can you please tell us the truth.”

I wanted to scare him to make him feel as afraid as I often am of him. I took a pistol that he keeps in his library desk with me, intending to fire it into the air close to his horse and spook it, hopefully throwing him off. Just as I was about to pull the trigger I was brushed by another horse and my aim was off and I shot him. It was an accident, I meant for him to get hurt and humiliated, but not to kill him.

“ We need the gun for forensic tests. Soon we will take you home to get it but before we do, why do you want to humiliate him.”

“ Isn’t it obvious, just look at me. It all started with me just wearing a dress at the battles, but then he insisted that I look the part more, and made me grow my hair longer so that some of the other women could style it, and with the help of a bit of makeup, I would look more feminine. It also meant wearing breast forms, stuck on so as not to get displaced during all the moving around and arm waving to the crowds. It soon ended up that I would get ready at home and spend the whole day, and for some events the whole weekend, either in the costume or in girls’ clothes and I just became another one of the woman and joined them in their social activities. It was so humiliating, it was not something that i wanted to do, but there was no point in arguing with him.

It all has come to a head recently. He wanted me to work with him at the company, but insisted that i should start at the bottom rather than jump straight into a position of responsibility, which meant doing all the more menial tasks as any other office junior would do. In his eyes those roles were for girls and he considered it would be more appropriate if I dressed as one. At first I was disgusted with it all, but I soon got used to skirts and makeup and styling my hair, the jokes and nasty comments from the others became yesterday’s news, and I now just go unnoticed as another of the girls in the office, and spend virtually all my time now as a girl.

A few weeks ago was the final straw, he wanted me to start taking hormones and to see a specialist about transitioning. He said that I would never live up to his expectations as his son and heir to the business, and that I would be better of as his daughter. I later found out that when I refused he started putting ground up hormone pills into my food and drinks . It is just too much, he is ruining my life and I felt that a big shock for him might change things back to where they were. I actually am quite comfortable living and working as a girl, but it should be my choice, not his.”

“ The way he has treated you is absolutely awful, but if you are comfortable and happy living as a girl, it is not unusual nowadays. We’ll deal with all that later, you can still have a useful and fulfilling life and career as a woman, but when the case comes to court, if you tell that story, I am sure that they will treat you leniently. Let’s go and get this gun.”

“ Are you’re this is the gun you used Toni?”

“ It must be , as far as I know it is the only one in the house and it is always kept in the same place, in his library desk drawer.”

“We’ll get the forensic team to check it out, but I am sure that it is not the right calibre to match the bullet that shot your father. I am certain that it was not you that put him in hospital, and for the moment you are released and can go back to work, but please do not leave the area without telling us. If you prefer we can continue to treat you and talk to you as a girl, Toni”

“ Thank you for not judging me because of the way I am dressed, everyone treats me as Toni and you should expect to see me like this if you come to talk to me again

Overnight forensic checks picked up Toni’s prints on the gun and also showed that it was not the attempted murder weapon, so the next morning we called her to let her know and to arrange another interview. We met her at her office, again working behind reception looking every inch the smart pretty happy young girl that she was turning into.

“ I’m so happy that it was not me that shot him, I only wanted to frighten him, despite the way he has always treated me, and the way he has bullied my mother to go along with all he has done to me, he is still my father. I understand that he is now conscious but still very weak, but the hospital have said no visitors today, and I suppose that includes you as well, they say he is not in a fit state to be interviewed.”

“ You said that when you were about to shoot the gun near him, that you’re brushed by a horse, do you know who it was?”

“ There are only four people on horses on the battlefield, him, his attendant Knight, Prince Rupert, and Thomas Fairfax. The knight’s horse is a very distinctive Grey, and I am sure that it wasn’t that, the other two are very similar and it could have been either.”

“ Have you ever heard either Colin Ayres or Mike Atkins make threats against your father?”

Both of them have had quite aggressive and noisy public rows with him, but I can’t say that either made any serious threats to his life.”

“ Thanks for your help Toni, I don’t think there will be any serious charges against you, the best we can do is unlawful possession of a weapon and that that be treated as a minor offence with a slap on the wrist, but we will avoid that if we can.”

We interviewed both men again and they both insisted that they were nowhere near Howard when he was shot, and with no evidence or witnesses there was not much we could do.

Barry went through Joe Riley’s photos again to see if anything could be spotted, one showed another rider near to Howard , but even when enhanced it was still not clear enough to identify who it was.

“ Toni, it’s Barry Kidd from the police, when you do the reconstructions do you have anyone taking official pictures for your publicity material.”

“ Yes we do in fact, one of the parliamentarian soldiers wanders all over the scenes and takes some wonderful action shots, I will dig out the name and get back to you.”

Barry contacted the photographer, got digital copies of the photos taken at the event and it did not take him long to discover that we had been lied to and who had carried out the shooting. Before we approached our main suspect we had been told that Joseph Howard was now awake and fit for a short interview, and after telling me what he had found we went down to the hospital to talk with him.

“ Mr Howard, we are glad that you are now recovering, can you remember what happened?”

It was towards the end of the show, I was rallying my troops for a final push, when I heard a gunshot nearby, closely followed by another and looked round to see that idiot Atkins riding away. That man has never liked me but I didn’t think that he would go to the extreme of shooting me.”

Are you sure that it was Atkins who shot you?”

“ Of course! Do you think that I would forget something like that, the man was desperate to get money from me and obviously felt that he would stand a better chance if I was out of the picture.”

“ Are you sure that you do not want to think again in case it was not him?”

“ Are you an idiot or are you not listening to me, it was Atkins who shot me, If you do not stop these stupid questions, I will have a chat with my friend and fellow Mason , your Assistant Chief Constable, to get you off the case and off my back.”

“ No need to get offensive and threatening Mr Howard, it is just that we have evidence that he was elsewhere throughout the battle, and that the rider you saw was in fact Colin Ayres. I ask again, are you sure that you saw Mike Atkins shoot you?”

At that point his heart rate monitor started going into alarm, doctors and nurses rushed in and we were quickly ushered out.

Colin Ayres was brought in for questioning and after seeing the photos of him riding up to Howard, one of which clearly showed him holding a pistol, he eventually broke down and confessed. It appeared that poor business deals, mainly due to interference and trickery by Howard, had left him bankrupt, having to sell his large country house and causing his fickle much-younger wife to leave him. It had all added up to drive him to the point of killing himself, but as a last action he decided to kill Howard too, to stop him destroying the lives of other people. He thought that in the heat of the battle that he could get to Howard, shoot him, and get back to his role without being noticed. We had enough to charge him with attempted murder and he was kept in custody until his trial.

Joseph Howard had suffered a stroke when we were interviewing him and would be out of action for some time, probably not being capable of returning to run his companies. Any actions against him for shady business practices and for his treatment and abuse of Toni would have to wait until he was recovered. This meant that his companies were now in the control of Toni and her Mother, but when we went in to see her, Toni was still at the reception desk, still appearing as a girl.

“ Most of the senior people are capable of running things for the moment. I will eventually move up the ladder to be in charge, but I am nowhere near ready and will leave them to it until I know a lot more. I have decided that although I was pushed into it by my father, I think I prefer to live as I am, and I am continuing with the hormones and eventually will fully transition. I want to prove to my father that a daughter can run his business as successfully as his disappointment of a son. I have also decided to pay most of the money owed to Mike Atkins, some of it is still in dispute, but most of it was justified and his business is now more secure.”

After work that evening I took Barry, Trudy and Susan for a celebratory drink, CS Scargill at headquarters was most impressed with the way we had performed on the case, and said that until he was otherwise instructed, he was happy for me to continue in the role of SIO ( Senior Investigating Officer ) on serious crimes that would normally require a Chief Inspector to be in charge.

“ Well Barry. you have now seen how we have been solving the various crimes with a lot of assistance from our team of helpers in the public, it was Joe’s photos that set us on the path to solving the case. What do you now think about spending most of your time with a load of women?”

“I like the way you work and I’m more than happy to be part of your team, so long as you let me keep wearing my trousers and not make me change into a skirt !” he replied causing us all to burst into a fit of giggles.

To be continued