Part 78: Good Cop, Bad Cop - Part 9

Hilda's untruth:



But examination of the body revealed a wound to the left side only.

Aye, so you keep saying. But what does that tell us?

There really aren't that many possibilities. Can't you figure out which is likely to be closest to the truth?





Maybe Makepeace weren't shot at all. Int' left or right side.

Be serious, woman! Didn't you hear what we said?

Makepeace was clasping his midriff in agony. Of course he'd been shot.

You're exactly right, Lucy.



Have you both lost your faculties?

Makepeace was clasping his midriff in apparent agony.



But, that doesn't make sense.

I know how the criminal mind works. It's like I'm inside their heads.

Makepeace hadn't been shot. He hadn't been shot at all.



An act? What possible reason...

I don't think so, Al. That doesn't add up.

We heard a total of three shots that day.



That's true.

If the first was fired into thin air as part of the act, we should've heard four shots in all.




Come again?

The answer is staring you in the face. That first shot that was part of the act is the key.

It wasn't fired into think air as you so foolishly surmised, Justin. No, it found it's intended target.

And that target was...




Of course! The first bullet that were fired hit...

...you, Prof!

Lucy looks very pleased by this.



Precisely, Lucy.

Eh?

All this time I've been questioning it.



You've really lost me now, Al. You're up in cloud cuckoo land.

But at last, I've found the answer.

I'd taken a bullet myself and was lying there unconscious before Makepeace had even been shot.

Hold on a minute.

If that's really true, then...

That's right.

We have to add another to the growing list of false statements we've seen today.

The statement in question being...




If the Prof had been taken down with the first gunshot, then...

...he couldn't have been seen pointing his gun at Makepeace.

Which means...



Me?



Hold on a minute.

I really don't follow your logic here. Let's just run through this again.

As you wish.

If what you're saying is true...

...that first gunshot was someone shooting you, Al. So you would have been out cold on the rooftop.

Across from you, Makepeace puts on a show as if it's actually him who's been shot.

Exactly. Makepeace was clasping his right side in a performance to make it appear as if he'd been hit.

That's it. That's the bit I don't get.

What possible reason could Makepeace have had to put on a show like that?



Why would I shout out to you to tell you not to shoot if you weren't wielding your gun?

I don't have any reason to lie.

If you're going to drag me over the coals, at least have an argument that makes sense first.

I have to agree with Justin. None of this makes the slightest bit of sense.

It's beyond simple.



Eh? We were in cahoots?

And there's evidence to prove it. Lucy?




I think you're referring to this report I got given when I solved the case of the battered pork.

That's a blast from the past, that is.

But what does it possibly have to do with all this?

You explain, Lucy.

Well, according to Diane...

...the Prof may have destroyed vital evidence in the original case.

Al! Even you wouldn't sink so low, surely?




I wouldn't think twice about destroying evidence if it pleased me. Sorry to disappoint you, Hilda.

Alfiendi's almost dangerously honest.

But don't overlook the obvious. I wasn't the only one with opportunity to do so in that case.

Surely you're not saying...

You were both there. You know who was involved.

Everyone on the team investigating the Jigsaw Puzzle Killings had the chance.



Give over!

.....

Diane offered another fascinating insight into her father's crimes.




Are you suggesting that someone in the Met knowingly allowed a serial killer to remain at large?

More accurately, that person was controlling the flow of information to prevent Makepeace being caught.

But why would anyone do that?

Presumably he wanted a lot of people dead.



I get it now.

And that corrupt policeman would be me, would it?

I'm so glad you managed to keep up.

Four years ago, you decided it was time to wrap things up.



No. Justin wouldn't do summat like that. Come on, Prof.

Ah ha ha hah! That is an impressive work of crime fiction, Al.

Fiction?

Obviously.

As proof, you have Hilda's far from convincing witness statements.



It's not the most convincing case ever, Al.

Aye, you've got a point there.

And you've forgotten one very important thing.

What's that?

Where everyone was.

When I found Makepeace, I was on the roof of the East Tower, not the West Tower, where he was.




Well, isn't that--

The same mystery we come back to time and again? Oh yes, the secret way to the West Tower rooftop.

But as that remains a mystery, nothing's actually changed, has it?

You're still the prime suspect, Al. Not me.