The Jigsaw Man by Paul Britton

Author:Paul Britton [Britton, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Lizzie James had revealed her most intimate secrets to Colin Stagg, admitting her part in the ritual murder of a woman and young child. Now she waited to see how he’d respond.

If the police suspicions were correct, I didn’t expect him to openly confess to killing Rachel at this stage. I told Pedder that he’d probably invent a story about a murder if he thought it would get Lizzie into bed. Equally, it would act as a test. It wouldn’t put him at real risk and if she went to the police, he’d know that he couldn’t trust her.

Within days of their first meeting, Stagg revealed in a phone call how as a teenager he and a cousin had murdered a young girl and concealed her body in the New Forest in Hampshire on the south coast.

Pedder rang me and quipped that Stagg and I must be in league and ‘taking the piss’ out of the police.

We arranged a meeting at Arnold Lodge to talk about this development and to brief Lizzie on her next ‘date’ with Stagg planned for 4 June at Hyde Park.

‘You have to minimize any apparent interest in the Nickell murder,’ I told her, ‘and to emphasize how vulnerable you feel at having revealed your own past. You’ve given him a secret that is very precious and fragile.’

‘What about his story of killing the woman in the New Forest?’

I looked at Pedder who shook his head.

‘We’ve checked it out. It’s an invention.’

‘All right, well, Lizzie, you have to treat it with scepticism. Don’t accuse him of lying. Even if it were true, the incident he describes doesn’t equate in scale with what happened to you. It doesn’t mean he’s automatically the man you want to give yourself to, or who could fulfil you.

‘At the same time, you should ask him questions about the supposed murder. Ask him how he felt when it happened, make him see how you need to know if his experience really does parallel yours. Get him used to talking about the details.’

‘Why?’ asked Pedder, looking puzzled.

‘Because that way he gets used to Lizzie’s questions. If he eventually reveals himself to be Rachel’s killer, he’s not going to be surprised when Lizzie asks him lots of detailed questions, looking for the proof.’

As planned, Lizzie drew out details of the earlier ‘murder’ and stressed that she wanted complete honesty. She didn’t want Colin to say things just to please her. She reiterated this in her letters and phone calls over the next three weeks.

From very early in their correspondence, Stagg had asked Lizzie to write her own fantasies back to him. So far, she had avoided this, letting him make the running, but now his demands grew stronger. She wasn’t contributing to the relationship, according to Stagg, and there were suggestions that he doubted her bona fides.

At a meeting on 23 June, I advised Pedder that it would be appropriate for Lizzie to provide a fantasy but it had to be based entirely on elements that had already been introduced into the relationship by Stagg.

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