Stone Killer by Sally Spencer Page B

and returns to Burroughs’ office?’
    â€˜Essentially.’
    â€˜An’ once she’s done the deed – once he’s lying there dead – she strips off the overall an’ disposes of it?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Then I still don’t see what made you exclude the overall from the evidence you presented.’
    â€˜It’s difficult to explain to someone who wasn’t there,’ Baxter said awkwardly. ‘I interrogated Judith for several hours, and at the end of that process I emerged with the view that what had happened had
undoubtedly
been a crime of passion.’
    â€˜But …?’
    â€˜But I could well imagine the court’s reaction to hearing about the overall. They would have decided, then and there, that what they were dealing with was a stone killer.’
    â€˜A what?’ Woodend asked.
    â€˜A stone killer,’ Baxter repeated. ‘I was in America a couple of years ago, working with the FBI. It’s a term they use a lot over there.’
    â€˜An’ what does it mean,
exactly
?’
    Baxter frowned. ‘It’s hard to find an exact English equivalent,’ he admitted, struggling to find the right words. ‘A “total” killer, I suppose. Someone who almost seems
born
to kill. Someone who’d think no more about killing than you or I would about ordering a pint of bitter just before closing time.’
    â€˜In other words, a
cold-blooded
killer?’ Woodend suggested.
    â€˜More or less,’ Baxter agreed, gratefully.
    â€˜But what’s all this got to do with the way you put together your case?’ Woodend wondered. ‘Your job is just to find out who committed the murder. It’s the judge and jury who decide what
kind
of killin’ it was. That’s what they’re there for.’
    â€˜But they didn’t
know
her. They hadn’t
talked
to her, as I had.’ Baxter paused, as if garnering his strength for what he knew he had to say next. ‘So I used my discretion,’ he continued. ‘With the agreement of the prosecution, I excluded evidence which I felt might lead the court to reach the wrong conclusion. Judith had to pay for her crime – there was no doubt in my mind about that – but I didn’t want her to serve any more time than she had to.’
    â€˜She still got life, with a recommendation that she serves a minimum of twenty-five years,’ Woodend pointed out.
    â€˜Yes, she did,’ Baxter agreed, sadly. ‘She was unlucky enough to come up against a judge with pure ice in his veins and, despite my best efforts, he imposed a heavy sentence anyway. But I still think I did the right thing.’
    â€˜So, cuttin’ through all the niceties an’ the clever talk, what you’re actually sayin’ is that you deliberately doctored the evidence?’ Woodend asked.
    Baxter smiled. ‘I’d prefer to stick to the niceties and say that I merely
re-aligned
it,’ he told Woodend. ‘And just between you, me and the bedpost, Chief Inspector, haven’t you done something similar yourself, once or twice?’
    Woodend returned his smile. ‘I’d never have been able to hold my head up again if I hadn’t,’ he confessed.

Seven
    â€˜V ery nice,’ Woodend said. ‘Very nice indeed, if you can afford it – which, bein’ a humble bobby, I couldn’t.’
    The object of his admiration was a large detached house with a double frontage and an integrated double garage. It was located in one of the best areas of Dunethorpe, and it had once been the home of a murder victim called Clive Burroughs.
    Woodend took his cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one up. ‘Well, now we’re here, I suppose we might as well go an’ have a word with the grievin’ widow,’ he said.
    â€˜You sound as if you think it’ll just be a waste of time,’ Monika Paniatowski commented.
    â€˜An’ it