Chapter 15

The Retribution

Chapter 15

Back at their main department, Both men were sitting opposite Wilson in the interview room. He had protested all of the way there and shouted abuse when he was placed in a cell temporarily, whilst waiting for the interview to be arranged and the list of charges to be documented.

"What were ya doing somewhere between 10 pm, Tuesday the 12th of August and 4 am,  Wednesday the 13th of August?" asked Robert.

"I don't know! I told you b******s, in bed!" Wilson snapped.

"You should remember," Robert said, surprised.

"Me and the old lady were in bed, where we should have been."

Robert looked down at the files for a moment, then looked up again. "Mr Wilson, we have our first man being held in jail...not a county one, but a real serious sort. When we visited him, we managed to get at least one name out of him, and it was yours!"

"Hacking," he replied bitterly.

"Listen to me, ya cocky, lying s**t!" Robert hissed. "We got one guy. One guy! We've gotta get around 9 or 10 more yet, so please..."

Just as Robert said that, Wilson snickered out loud.

"What are you snickerin' at?!"

"Nothin'!"

"What are your working hours? It's a pretty late tavern."

"There ain't no exact time. We sometimes open until 11 when it's busy."

"Ya say you were in bed since 10?" asked Carl.

"Yeah, that's right," he replied with a grin.

"So you were in bed before 11 pm on the 12th, huh?"

Wilson just looked blankly.

"It was a fine night on the 12th. It had been a hot day...a hot week, thinking about it. Does Ravens Fair get a lot of tourists during summer?" asked Robert

"Yeah."

"So it would have been rather a busy night? So why were ya in bed when the tavern was busy? Why didn't the owners - your bosses keep ya that night?"

"I don't know."

"I'll ask your wife, ya know. And if you're lying..."

"Ok!" Wilson pleaded. "I lied. I wasn't in bed. I was working late!"

"Why did ya lie?" Carl asked curiously.

"I don't know," he laughed.

Robert looked at him and said, "We'll be going to the tavern and asking for a specific record of your hours that night, so whatever you've said, ya can't lie."

Wilson quickly jumped up out of his seat and shouted, "Wait! I was there!"

Both Robert and Carl stared at him, looking very interested.

"I didn't kill her, though. I swear, I didn't touch her! It was a couple of others. I just stood there."

"Who were the killers?" asked Robert, gesturing at Wilson to sit back down, so he did.

"Hacking..."

"Who else?" asked Carl.

"Leave that," Robert ordered, before gesturing for him to butt out. "At the moment, we just need to know who your ring leader was. Then we'll look at the others."

Wilson snickered, only harder this time. He looked at an annoyed Robert and laughed, "There weren't like 10 of us. I don't know what that dumb prick told ya."

"What are ya gettin' at?" Robert asked, sounding desperate.

"There were more than any 10. I didn't count, but there were way more than anything like 10 of us."

Both men were gob-smacked. They knew there was no chance of ever catching every single person involved.

Robert decided to break the moment up by asking, "Were they all men, or were women there?"

"No. All men. Our ladies were in bed."

"How many were with ya? If ya can't say, just give us a rough guess."

Wilson huffed, trying to think. "Er...About 20, more, less," he shrugged. "Definitely no more than 23. I think not even that, maybe 18 or 19."

"OK. Thank you," Robert smiled, before asking, "Can you tell us the name of your ring leader?"

"No!" he hissed.

"why not? You've co-operated so far."

"Hacking was the same!" Carl yelled, his voice sounding shocked.

"Every last one of us swore that we never give away the name of the leader. We promised to protect him!"

"Who is he?" asked Robert, before adding, "She was in trouble because they all thought she'd kidnapped and most likely killed a 10 year old boy. Surely you had a determined ring leader?"

"People ranted about that b***h everyday. She got spat at! She even got a right hook just after he went missing. She wound up gettin' police protection for the first 2 weeks!" Wilson snapped aggressively.

"Listen," Robert said calmly, leaning forward in an attempt to connect with Wilson. "D'ya really think it's fair? That 19 year old boy's life is over. He's gonna be hanged...or rot in jail for the rest of his life. I know he killed Mary...but do ya really believe that it's OK, the idea of a kid taking the wrath?...You taking the wrath, and the few more that we manage to get taking the wrath, while most of the gang never get caught anyway? At least if we catch the ring leader, the whole lynch mob is taken down and there's a sense of justice, for you and young Marvin. We just need the ring leader. I don't believe that Mary Shaw hurt Michael Ashen. I don't think she ever could have."

"I'll take ya to him," Wilson surrendered. "I don't wanna tell ya his name. I wanna take ya to Ash, personally...It'll be easier on me."