Part 8 The Witness

I was surprised to get a call first thing on Monday morning from Chief Superintendent Scargill to meet him at headquarters in Northallerton as soon as possible. It was unusual for him to be in the office so early, and when he was it was normally for a meeting with the Chief Constable, so I left the teams to continue with their routine cases they had on the books and was in with him in just over an hour.

“Good morning Julie, glad to got here so quick, we have a bit of a flap on. I’ve just been in with the Chief, who was quite worked up about a meeting he was summoned to at 6 o’clock this morning with Lord Acklington. Apparently when his Lordship arrived home last night after a dinner meeting with the Lord Lieutenant of the county, he found that the pride and joy of his collection of cars had been stolen and we have been ‘requested’ , to put it mildly, to make every effort to get it back for him. Acklington Hall is on your patch and so it falls to you and your team to sort it out.”

“ I know that we are dealing with the county elite here Sir, but isn’t this reaction a bit over the top for a routine car theft?”

“ I would normally agree, but a £1.5 million pound Bugatti Veyron is not a normal car. According to Lord Acklington this is not the only recent theft of high-value cars, some of his business associates and friends in the neighbouring counties have lost Lamborghinis and Ferraris in the last few weeks. There is obviously a well organised professional gang operating here, this is not a case of petty casual thieves striking it lucky.”

“ Just so I know how to deal with this, are we doing this as a favour to the powers-that-be to keep them off the Chief’s back, or are we doing it because it is a serious crime wave that deserves our full attention.”

“ Don’t play the liberal upstart with me Julie, it doesn’t suit you. This is serious crime, and if Lord Acklington is to be believed we are talking over £15M worth of cars that he knows about. He is a good place to start, the sooner the better, and please treat him gently and with respect, none of your usual cynical sarcasm.”

“ Ok Sir, If I knew what a forelock was I would practice tugging it before we meet, or maybe learn how to curtsy.” I said with a big grin.

“ That’s enough, just get back to York and arrange to see him, as soon as he is available, and keep me informed of progress, because the Chief is on the case and that means he will be pestering me for a quick result.”

Back at the office, I made a call to arrange to see Lord Acklington , but was told by his PA that due to business commitments he would not be available until early evening and that I would be welcome to talk about it with him over dinner if that was ok with me. It actually gave me a bit of breathing space to get the team together to brief them with what I knew and to start getting some background information together.

“Barry, you and your team start checking reports of recent thefts of really high-end cars, particularly high-performance models, not just on our patch, cover all Yorkshire, Durham and Lincolnshire as well. Susan, look up the records for the Bugatti and check any CCTV or ANPR cameras (Automatic Numberplate Recognition Cameras} in the vicinity of Acklington Hall yesterday late afternoon and evening for the car or anything large enough to transport it. Trudy, you and I are going for dinner tonight with his lordship. I’ve been told that it is just totally informal but to treat him with respect and politeness, so give me a kick under the table if my normal dry Yorkshire humour starts to show.”

We arrived at Acklington Hall at just after 7 o’clock as agreed, called in on the intercom to get the gates opened, and drove up a half-mile drive to come to a very impressive Georgian mansion. Just as we pulled up we were approached by a casually dressed young man who we assumed to be one of the staff.

“ Good evening, I’m Henry, Lord Acklington, but my friends all call me Hal, pleased to meet you. Let’s go through to the library for a chat before dinner, talking business at the dinner table always gives me indigestion.”

He wasn’t in the least what we had expected, instead of a formal, crusty, paunchy, balding old ex-army officer type, he was quite a pleasant, good-looking, easy-going young man, and a bit of a charmer with his boyish grin. He led us through a grand entrance hall with a magnificent marble tread split staircase through into the Library, which had full light oak bookcases on all four walls, a writing desk at the far end, and three chesterfield sofas arced around a huge open fireplace, with a roaring log fire.

“ Just to complete the introductions I am Detective Inspector Rowntree, and this is DS Terry, Julie and Trudy if you prefer.”

“ Good, don’t be overawed by all this stately pile around you, we are quite informal here. They told me that they were sending over one of their best teams, but they didn’t say that it would be their most attractive team too.” He was definitely a charmer !

“ Thank you very much Lord Acklington, Hal, if you are sure that is ok. Tell us about the theft of your car please.”

“ To give you a bit of background, the family have lived here for 400 years, although the place was re-modelled in the late 1700s. I inherited it all when my father died two years ago, and have spent a fortune bringing it back to its former glory, he had money problems and the place was badly neglected. Luckily ten years ago I was involved in setting up a hedge fund in the city of London which provides the funds to let me live here again in a very comfortable lifestyle. It also lets me indulge my passion for high-performance cars, rich-boys’-toys if you like. You know about the Bugatti obviously, but there are also a couple of Lamborghini Aventadors and a Ferrari SF90 Stradale. Unfortunately the thieves had taste and picked the best and most expensive of the bunch.”

“Anyway, I had been out at a charity dinner at Goldsworth Hall near Knaresborough, you know the type of event, people with too much drink inside them and too much money, showing off by paying over the odds for something they don’t really need. I don’t really enjoy that type of thing too much, but it is expected that I turn up to give a bit of an air of respectability and supposed class to the evening.

I left about 11:00 and drove back. About a half-mile down the road my Lamborghini was almost forced off the road by a large truck racing in the opposite direction. When I arrived home, I found that the garage door had been forced and the Veyron was missing. I phoned your Chief Constable immediately but he couldn’t come out overnight as he had been drinking. Anyway you are here now, what more can I tell you.”

“ I don’t suppose you remember any details of the truck do you?”

‘“ Not really, I was blinded by its headlights, and was trying to keep the Lambo on the road. all I can say is that it was a flatbed with a container on the back"

“ It’s a pity that you didn’t call the police out right away , rather than waiting for the Chief, it wouldn’t surprise me if it is already in a container on a ship out of Hull or Liverpool bound for the Middle East or Far East.”

“ Mea Culpa, but you know what it is like, one prefers to deal with people one knows, but if I had known you two would be involved I might have called it in sooner.”

“ Let’s be serious Hal, keep your charming chat up lines for another time, or even for over dinner later, let’s stick to business for the moment.”

“ Yes Ma’am, that is me told off. Do you want the details of the car?”

“ We’ve already got them from central records, unless there are any special features that you have added, or any distinguishing marks.”

“ No, it is as it came from the showroom, and other than the occasional spin to show off to friends, and going in for its routine service, it rarely leaves the garage.”

“ You told the Chief Constable that you are aware of other thefts of high-value cars, can you give us some details of who else you know that has suffered the loss of their ‘rich boys’ toys’.”

After we had got all his contact details from him, his housekeeper soon called us in for dinner. Although it was a very grand dining room with quality porcelain crockery and silver utensils, the meal itself was not lavish, just an excellent shepherd’s pie with roasted vegetables and home-made crusty bread buns, followed by a steamed fruit pudding and custard, all very much to the taste of someone brought up on boarding school dining hall meals. The only sop to the high life was an extremely tasty bottle of vintage Nuits St Georges. Hal was an excellent host, no airs-and-graces and we were relaxed in his company.

“ i’ve enjoyed your company tonight, it has been a refreshing change from my normal guests, you must come again, but on a personal level rather than on police business.”

“ We’d love to !” Trudy jumped in right away, before I had a chance to keep business and pleasure separate.

“ I’m having a bit of a small garden party the weekend after next, why don’t you come. It will be mainly friends and business associates, but some of the villagers will be here too, so you won’t be surrounded by just ‘Hooray Henrys’.”

“Thanks Hal, if you don’t mind we’ll get a forensic team to have a go in the garage tomorrow to see if the thieves left any traces behind.”

In the car on the way home we discussed whether we had learned anything useful.

“ i enjoyed the evening with him Trudy, but other than keeping our bosses happy, it was a bit of a waste of time, he didn’t really give us anything to go on.”

“ Not totally wasted. He wasn’t what I expected at all, charming, good-looking and easy to talk too, I am looking forward to his garden party.”

“ Get real Trudy, he is out of your league, you have to be called Charlotte or Caroline or something equally up-market, and daddy has to have a huge country estate, to get anywhere with the likes of him, Trudy or Julie sharing a city centre flat doesn’t quite have the same appeal.”

The following morning I had a call from CS Scargill. “ You two made quite an impression with his Lordship last night, he phoned the Chief this morning to say he was very pleased with the way you handled the discussions and asked that the pair of you keep in touch directly with him.

“ Hal was no problem, once we got to know him he was easy to talk to.”

“ Hal ? Hal !. Keep his name to Lord Acklington in your reports please and keep me informed of any progress.”

“Let’s catch up team. Barry, what have you found about the car thefts?”

“ He’s right, there has been a bit of a run on thefts of expensive cars, all round the county and nearby areas, the ones in our area have been top-end Lamborghinis, this is the first Bugatti, but then there are not many of them around. I have been in touch with the port authorities at Hull to report any expensive cars being loaded onto the ferries or cargo ships.”

“ Susan, anything on the CCTV records?”

“ Not a lot really, local car traffic, no sign of the Bugatti, no heavy vehicles other than farm traffic.”

“ Lord Acklington was at Goldsworth Hall last night for a charity bash, check with their CCTV for what time he left, then look for heavy traffic near the Hall between an hour and a half-hour later.

I’m back off up to the Hall to see what the forensic team have found, Trudy, try to get more details of the car thefts and arrange to go and see the owners, we need to find if there is a common link between them”

I was just pulling up next to the stables at the Hall and caught a movement in the first floor hay loft loading door. Thinking it was probably one of the grooms, I went to ask them if they had noticed anything suspicious lately, sometimes at these places the staff know more about what is going on than the owners do. When I went in and called out, identifying myself as a police officer, there was no response so I went up the stairs to have a look and was almost knocked back down again by someone trying to rush past me. Luckily, they were a lot lighter than me and I was gripping the handrail tightly and they just bounced back off me onto the landing floor. It was a short slight person, with shoulder length hair, in the dim light I couldn’t make out whether it was male or female.

“Just hold on a minute, If you are not supposed to be here it is nothing to do with me, it is not why I am here. I would like to ask you a couple of questions though. I take it that you are sleeping rough and not supposed to be in the stables, but I don’t care about that. Who are you?”

“ Tim Walker. I came here a week ago looking for work with the gardener, but he said I was too small and scrawny to be much help with the heavy work and he sent me away. i had nowhere round here to go and not much money and the stables seemed a warm dry place to stay while I decided what to do.”

“ Where are you from Tim, and why are you sleeping rough.”

“I’m from just outside of Thirsk, but had to leave home after a big family row, my step-father and i have never really got on. I’ve been trying to find work and someplace to stay, but I have been hiding here lately.”

“ I take it that you were here Sunday night, did you see anything unusual?”

“What do you mean, what are you asking about?”

“ Any noises or unusual activity, were there any people about late in the evening?”

“ I was woken just after midnight, by a noisy car engine and a lot of shouting and swearing. There were a couple of men standing there looking at a big silver sports car and they weren’t very happy. One of them went round to the back of the house and the other drove the car away back down the drive.”

“ Can you give me a description of the two men?”

“ Not really, it was dark, but I think I would recognise them if I saw them again. One was tall and thin, and the other was much shorter and walked with a bit of a limp.”

“ You said that you met the gardener about getting a job, have you met anyone else that lives or works here that would recognise you.”

“ Just Chloe, the nice girl that works in the office that showed me to the room where I met the gardener, and the cook who brought me in some coffee and cake. They know I am still here and have been bringing me stuff, I also think that the groom who looks after the horses knows that there is someone up in the loft and is turning a blind eye.”

“ Tim, you might be useful to us as a witness so I would prefer it if you did not stay here, There was a very expensive car stolen that night and we think that an organised gang was involved. I think I can find you somewhere to stay where you will be a lot safer, is that ok.”

“As long as it is warm and dry, that sounds fine to me.”

‘Wait here Tim, I have some things to do, I will collect you when I am finished, just keep out of sight.”

I went off to talk to the forensic team who were supposed to be examining the garages for any clues, but instead found them chatting to someone who was introduced as Charles Maybury, the Estate Manager, giving the cars inside a lot more attention than the garage itself. It was understandable, the cars were magnificent: two gleaming Lamborghini Aventadors, one in midnight black and the other in Pearl White; and my favourite, a bright red Ferrari SF90. all were in pristine showroom condition and I was hoping that when all this was sorted that I could talk Hal into taking me for a spin in one or all of them. When I managed to drag them away from the cars, they told me that they hadn’t found anything unusual, the garage doors had not been forced, the other cars did not seem to have been touched, and there was very little to go on.

I collected Tim and made my way back to the station, trying to decide what to do with him, and after parking him in one of our interview rooms with coffee and sandwiches, I called the team together for an update.

“Trudy, anything come up on your interviews with the owners of the other recent thefts?”

They all seem to take place late at night from the owners’ property, no alarms set off, no private CCTV at their houses. One of them heard the car start, went to investigate and was violently attacked, having to spend several days in hospital with his injuries. There does not seem to any links between the people, they did not really know each other very well, just casual business acquaintances. The only possible connection is that they all got their cars serviced by the same garage, associated with the showroom where they were bought.”

“ Follow up on that, talk to the garage, rattle a few cages and see if anyone reacts. Anything more on the CCTV Susan.”

“ The Hall is out in the country, so coverage is not very extensive. There is no sign of heavy traffic at all that Sunday night. We did pick up a couple of cars on the main road about a half-mile away between midnight and one, one driving towards the Hall and the other driving away a few minutes later. The images are not very good, for both of them the cameras were blinded by the car headlights. we are trying to get the photos enhanced, but at the moment all we know is that they were travelling fast and looked like low-slung sports cars.”

“ Barry, Anything?”

“ Actually, yes, a bit of good news, there was a Lambo being loaded lat night onto a cargo ship bound for Dubai from Hull. There was not the normal full documentation with it and the harbour police were suspicious. It has been held back and I have arranged for the forensic team to have a go at it.”

“ Good work keep at it. I have a possible witness to the theft at the Hall, and I want to keep him under wraps for the moment, particularly since Trudy mentioned about the violent attack on one of the car owners,Tim is a very slight teenager and I am worried that if the carjack gang found out about him, he could easily suffer a lot of harm.”

“ I know that it sounds weird, but why not see if we can hide him in Rose-acre. Duncan Rose still owes us a big favour, and Jane Stuart is now on the supervisory board of the care home, so it should not be a problem.”

“ Good idea Trudy, come downstairs with me to meet him and see what you think.”

Tim went through his story again with Trudy and she agreed that it would be best to get him into hiding.

“Tim, we are dealing with a violent gang and are worried that you could be in danger. We have somewhere that could take you, but you would not really fit in, how would you feel if we disguised you and gave you something to do while you are in hiding.”

“ Like I said to you before, as long as it is warm and dry and there is something to eat, I’ll go along with it.”

We called in Josie to give us a hand and soon Tim now re-appeared as ‘Tammy’. After a long shower to get rid of days of sleeping rough, some work on his shoulder-length hair, removal of what little body and facial hair Tim had, and the loan of some clothes and makeup from Josie’s collection, Tammy now appeared as a very presentable and even attractive teenage girl wearing a mid-thigh denim skirt and a scoop-neck short sleeved stretch top.

Very embarrassed and sheepish,Tammy came into the room and we were amazed at what Josie had done. Luckily, living rough, Tim had lost a lot of weight and his hair had grown long and with his still boyish looks he really looked the part.When we first met Josie, she was just as embarrassed and awkward as Tammy, but had now developed into the confident young woman she hoped to become eventually.

“I feel and look stupid dressed like this, why do I have to wear a skirt and makeup and pretend to be a girl?”

’Tim, don’t be silly, looking like that and dressing as Tammy is the best disguise you could have, you really look the part. It is no good just locking you away somewhere, you will get bored, you must know that from hiding in the hayloft. As for wearing skirts and makeup, half the population do that and don’t feel or look stupid, they are only clothes and all the trimmings, just get used to them for a while until we get this sorted out. We think that the people who stole the car will be looking for you, and we need to keep you safe and being out in public living and working as Tammy, no one will suspect you. Hiding in plain sight is often the best way not to be noticed”

Josie had worked undercover for us part-time at Rose-acre when we were investigating dubious management practices there, and went in with Tammy to help her become more feminine in her actions and mannerisms and to settle into her temporary role as a live-in care assistant. That at least kept Tim out of sight and safe.

Over the next few days the team kept plugging away at the few leads we had, trying to fit the Bugatti into the same picture as the other stolen cars, but apart from the owners being known by Lord Acklington, there was nothing to make a link.

Barry and his team followed up on the Lamborghini found at Hull docks, the number-plates were false, its paperwork was mostly missing. as was any reference to it on the cargo manifest for the ship, but the engine Identification plate listed it as one of the stolen cars. We would have at least one owner happy to get his pride and joy car back undamaged. There was no sign of any of the others or of the Bugatti but we were making progress.

We eventually received the CCTV records from Goldsworth Hall, and Susan was able to pick out Lord Acklington leaving and walking, or rather winding his way, across the car park, obviously having had too much to drink.

“What colour was the Lamborghini he said he was in that night , boss?”

“ I don’t think he actually mentioned which one he was in, but he has two, one black and one white, why do you ask?”

“ The car he got into was silver and it didn’t look like an Aventador to me but I am no expert.”

“ That’s strange the only silver car he told me about is the Bugatti. I think I need to speak to him again, but he has friends in high places and I don’t want to make waves without being more certain. I have an idea though Susan, when you were at University did you have any part-time jobs to help pay your way.”

“ I did a bit of bar work, but I preferred silver service waitressing, at weddings and events, why do you ask?”

“ Lord Acklington is having a garden party next Saturday, see if you can find out who is doing the catering and get yourself and Tammy onto the waiting staff, just tell them it is police business and that we want to keep an eye on who is there. If they agree, spend some time this weekend with Tammy giving her a quick course in how to behave and act and polish off the rough edges of any boyish traits, she needs to be convincing as a girl.

Tim said that he thought he would recognise the people he saw that night if he saw them again, I want to know if one of them was Lord Acklington. If Tim is at the garden party as Tammy, nobody will recognise him, and nobody ever really remembers the waiting staff anyway at those events. Trudy and I will be there as guests, and will act as backup if anything goes wrong, but I just want to know if anyone is recognised, no follow up conversations with anyone picked out.”

On the Saturday afternoon Trudy and I got ourselves ready for the garden party. Trudy was not a girly-girl, mostly wearing jeans, tops and jackets, and I had not built up a decent wardrobe yet , so we dressed in the same outfits we had worn for the Ebor race meeting, me in my white cocktail dress, bolero, pill box hat, and a totally impractical pair of 4” stilettos, and Trudy looking stunning in her silk cornflower dress, pashmina and fascinator. We were unsure whether we would be over-dressed, Hal had not told us how formal it would all be, but we definitely knew we would not stand out as police officers.

When we arrived at the Hall, the ‘bit of a small garden party’, turned out to be a gathering of the County moneyed set, with Marquees on the lawn and over 200 guests. Hal was in his element, playing the expansive host, but when he saw us arrive he came rushing over.

“ My oh my, don’t you two scrub up well, you are both looking gorgeous, let me introduce you to a few of my friends. You will find that they are just as friendly and easy-going as I am, so don’t be too bothered about their expensive designer dresses and Saville Row suits, they are friendly people underneath all that.

While we were chatting to some of the other guests, Tammy came over with a tray of drinks for us to choose from. She really looked the part, her hair and make-up were immaculate and she moved through the crowd smiling and chatting as if she had been doing it all her life, she was a natural at it. Susan and Josie had done a good job turning Tim into a quite acceptable Tammy

Later, Susan gave a discreet wave as a signal that she wanted to talk.

“Tammy has spotted the people he is sure she saw outside the Hall on the night of the car theft. They are together over there at the moment.” she said pointing out Lord Acklington and his estate manager.

“ Exactly as I thought, don’t approach them, other than as waitresses, just get on with your duties and we’ll talk about this later. When you are finished go back with Tammy to Rose-acre and we will meet you there.”

Trudy and I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and evening until the party broke up and we drove over to meet Susan and Tammy.

“ Well done, the pair of you. Tammy, you were brilliant today, you really suited your role as a waitress, you just blended in and nobody could have realised who you really are.”

“ I really enjoyed it, I am getting used to dressing as a girl now and strangely I am quite settled working in the care home, the residents are a really nice bunch of people, I might stay on when all this is over.”

“ You picked out Lord Acklington and his estate manager as the people you saw on that Saturday night, are you definite about that.”

“ Certain! Although it was dark I could still make out the overall size and build of the tall one, and his voice is unmistakeable, he was the one that was shouting and raving at the other, before going into the Hall. The other man was the one that drove off with the car afterwards.”

“ Thanks, you have been a big help, keep doing what you have been doing, it shouldn’t be for much longer.”

Later, at the team meeting, we agreed that it looked likely that Lord Acklington’s story was totally false and that he was leading us up the garden path.

“ This could be sensitive, I don’t want to go accusing him of lying, he has too much influence. I need to talk to CS Scargill before we take any further actions. Has anybody got any further with the stolen Lamborghinis or the service garage?”

Barry had been over to the docks at Hull and found out that there were several reports of expensive sports cars being loaded onto ships, and had managed to get a CCTV image of the driver that had delivered them on several occasions.

“Trudy, you have been up to the garage, does the guy in the photo look familiar.”

“ It’s not too clear, but I think that it may be the service manager.”

“ Bring him in, we need to have a formal interview. Trudy and Barry, you can deal with him, put him under pressure and see if he cracks, I’m off to headquarters to see what we can do about our friend ‘Hal’.”

“ Let me get this straight Julie, you think that Lord Acklington is trying it all on and arranged for the disposal of the Bugatti, why would he want to do that?” CS Scargill looked stunned when I told him what we had found.

“ He seemed the worse for drink when he left the Hotel and when he got home he was in a foul temper, and he lied to us about which car he was driving. I think he may have damaged the car and is working an insurance scam, and has the car hidden away somewhere. I would like to get a warrant to search all the barns and outbuildings in the grounds of his estate.”

“ I’ll go along with it, but you better be right, if you find nothing, we will not be very popular. Be subtle, think up an excuse to have the search without directly accusing him of anything.”

Armed with a search warrant, supposedly to look for signs that the thieves had been waiting in one of the barns for the right opportunity, we had Charles Maybury take our team around all the major barns and outbuildings, but we found nothing at all. Trudy then spotted a boathouse down by the lake which Maybury had managed to steer us away from.

“ You’ve no need to go down there, it is just a shed, no heat or electricity, it’s a bit of a ruin really, and with the water in the small inside dock it would not be a pleasant place to stay.”

“ Ok, we’ll just leave that then. It looks like the thieves must have just come in, taken the car and left straight away. Thank you for your time, Mr Maybury, I hope we haven’t wasted too much of your day.”

We sent the search team back to the station, but Trudy and I drove off the estate, parked about a half-mile down the road and made our way back to the boathouse. Maybury had been determined that we did not need to look there, which made us all the more determined to see for ourselves. As we had suspected the Bugatti was in there in a pretty poor condition, the front, bonnet and nearside wing were all deformed and badly scraped, it had obviously been in an accident. We were having a close look when we heard voices of people approaching, and just had time to hide under a tarpaulin before Maybury and Lord Acklington came in.

“ I told you to get rid of it, hiding it on the estate was never going to work. I thought I had those two nosy bitches in the palm of my hand, but they are not the stupid bimbos that they look. you should have called me when they turned up with the search warrant. I might have been able to keep them under control with a bit of smooth talking.”

”Don’t have a go at me, it was you who was stupid enough to drive home when you had far too much to drink and lose control and drive your car off the road into a tree. It was you who came up with the idea of a false insurance claim for it being stolen, rather than paying out the massive excess you would have had to pay for repairs. It’s not my fault that your investments have bombed and that you have even worse debts than you inherited from your father. I’ll get rid of the car for you tomorrow off the estate onto one of the tenant farms before those two stupid bimbos come back again. it’s just as well I managed to keep them away from here.”

When they left we made our way back to the car and phoned to make arrangements for the search team to come back first thing in the morning to officially search the boathouse and find the car. we drove slowly away from the hall looking for signs of tyre tracks on the verges and damage to trees, and found the likely spot of the crash, and added that location to the morning’s search.

Because we were wary of the influence that Lord Acklington had, I arranged for CS Scargill to be with me when I turned up at the Hall, immediately after the search ‘discovered’ the Bugatti still in the boathouse.

“ Good news Lord Acklington, we found the Bugatti in the boathouse down by the lake, but it is badly damaged, obviously it has been in an accident.”

“Not only did they steal my car but they have messed it up too this is disgraceful behaviour.”

“ We have another theory as to what happened. You were seen leaving the hotel drunk, your Bugatti was seen on CCTV at Goldsworth Hall hotel, you were seen by a witness returning to Acklington Hall in a hot temper, and Charles Maybury was seen driving it away immediately afterwards. We think that, driving while drunk, you lost control, crashed and badly damaged the car, and had the idea of an insurance claim for theft to cover it all up,.”

“ What a preposterous and fanciful idea, and very insulting too, let’s see what my lawyers have to say about this.”

Before you do that, please have a listen to this.” When I played him a recording Trudy had made on her phone of his conversation with Charles Maybury in the boathouse, the colour drained from his face and his head dropped.

“ Do you want to start again,? I suggest that you tell us the truth this time, and that we do that in a formal interview back at the station. Will you come voluntarily or do I have to arrest you on suspicion of fraud and wasting police time? In case you think that the Chief Constable will interfere with the investigation, CS Scargill here has already spoken to him and he has told us to show you no special favours.”

The chief Superintendent left us, and back at the station I formally interviewed him with Susan under caution. He confirmed everything we had suggested to him was correct, and that he had been worried that the insurance would not cover the repair or replacement of the Bugatti as he has been driving after heavy drinking which could easily be confirmed.

We reviewed the case with the Crown Prosecution Service, but they felt that the case was weak and that it would not be worthwhile to take it to court, he hadn’t put in an insurance claim yet, so legally had not committed fraud. Although he had admitted driving after a few drinks there were no blood tests or breathalyser readings to medically confirm that he was incapable of driving. Nobody was injured so there could not be a charge of ‘Leaving the scene of an accident’. The only charge we could really make stick would be ‘Wasting police time by making a false report’ which would only be likely to result in a fine. So, like often with the upper classes, he didn’t suffer from his crimes. The only penalty he faced was extremely expensive repairs to the Bugatti, as the insurance would not cover the costs, as well as the loss of his reputation and public image.

“ You can go Lord Acklington, count yourself lucky that you are not facing a court appearance. If I could charge you for calling me a ‘nosy bitch’ and a ‘Stupid bimbo’ I would, but unfortunately the law does not cover that. You need to get your life sorted out, running a fleet of prestige cars and maintaining a Stately Home when you are in financial difficulties is not the best way to manage your affairs.”

I went upstairs to break the news to the rest of the team and was expecting to face a sea of disappointment, but was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of happy faces.

“ You may have let him slip through the net Boss,” explained Barry, “ but Acklington told us about the other thefts which led us to the service manager at the garage, and he broke down completely under questioning and has confessed to a dozen similaroffences. When the cars were in for a service, he had the security key fobs cloned and then had no problems later stealing the cars and shipping them off to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Hong Kong. Just to make it even better, the cars were traded for heroin and other hard drugs which he supplied to most of the major dealers in Yorkshire. Luckily he is not the type to take the rap for everyone else and has given us a long list of names to follow up We’ve should be able to break up a major crime ring, so maybe you should even be thanking your friend ‘Hal’ for his assistance.”

This was a major success for our team, and I left Trudy and Barry to make arrangements for a celebration party down at the pub after the end of our shift, whilst I went to Rose-acre to see Tammy/Tim.

“ That’s it all over now, thank you very much for your help, there is no need for you to stay as Tammy any longer. Actually you were not in real danger as Lord Acklington was not part of the violent gang of car thieves, but better safe than sorry.”

“ I didn’t tell you the whole truth about why I left home. As I said to you, my stepfather and I never really got on, but the final straw was when I was caught wearing my stepsister’s clothes. It was something I did when I was in the house alone, but I was caught one time when they all came back early. He went mad, calling me all sorts of horrible names, and he threw me out and told me never to go back.

i pretended to you that I felt stupid and embarrassed when you dressed me as a girl ,but I was actually delighted, it has given me a chance to see whether it is who I want to be. I have decided that Tammy is here to stay, I have felt comfortable and happy working and living as a girl and that I have fitted in working here in Rose-acre, if they will let me stay on it is what I want to do. I have been talking to Josie and she has a spare room in her house so i will be moving in there. So, there is no need to thank me, it should be the other way round, you have given me the chance to change my life completely, and for the better. I owe you, so if you need help again you know where Josie and I are.”

Having been brightened up by Tammy’s decision, I left to join the team in the pub, wondering what tomorrow would bring onto our desks.

To be continued