Page 1 of Making a Killing (DI Fawley #7)
A couple of books ago I started including character summaries for Adam and the police team at the beginning of each book, to help people coming to the series for the first time. I got so much positive feedback for it that I decided to do it every time. And now, of course, there’s been a bigger gap than usual: Hope to Die finished in 2018, and as we start this book it’s the summer of 2024, so there’s a lot for us all to catch up with …
Name
DCI ADAM FAWLEY
Age
52
Married?
Yes, to Alex, 51. She’s a lawyer working in Oxford.
Children?
The Fawleys had a ten-year-old son, Jake, who took his own life in 2016. They were devastated, and thought they’d never be able to have another child. But against the odds, they had a daughter, Lily Rose, who is now six.
Personality
Introspective, observant and intelligent. He doesn’t care that Alex earns more than he does, or that she’s taller than him in high heels. He’s good at lateral thinking and bad at office politics. He’s compassionate and fair-minded, but it’s not all positives: he can be impatient, and he has a short temper. He was brought up in a dreary north London suburb, and he’s adopted, though he only discovered that by accident – to this day his parents have never discussed it.
Personality cntd.
He doesn’t watch crime on TV (he has enough of it during the day); he listens to Oasis and Bach and Roxy Music (Alex once told him he looks like Bryan Ferry, to which he replied ‘I wish’); if he had a pet it would be a cat (but he’s never owned one); his favourite wine is Merlot, and his favourite food is Spanish (though he eats far too much pizza); and surprise, surprise, his favourite colour is blue.
Name
ACTING DI GARETH QUINN
Age
42
Married?
A long-standing Lothario, Quinn has got married since we last saw him. His wife, Maisie, comes from a wealthy family who have a big house on Boar’s Hill.
Personality
Cocky, ambitious, good-looking. Fawley describes him as ‘ sharp suit and blunt razor ’ .
‘ Quinn took to DS like a dog to water – zero hesitation, maximum splash. ’
Name
DS CHRIS GISLINGHAM
Age
49
Married?
Yes, to Janet
Children?
Billy, 8
Personality
Chirpy, good-humoured, hard-working, decent. And a serious Chelsea fan.
‘ Always described as “sturdy” and “solid”, and not just because he’s getting a bit chunky round the middle. Every CID team needs a Gislingham, and if you were drowning, he’s the one you’d want on the other end of the rope. ’
Name
DS VERITY EVERETT
Age
40
Married?
No. But has a cat (Hector).
Personality
Promoted to DS since we last saw her. Easy-going personally, ruthless professionally. Lacks the confidence she should have in her own abilities (as Fawley has always known).
‘ She may look like Miss Marple must have done at thirty-five, but she’s every bit as relentless. Or as Gis always puts it, Ev was definitely a bloodhound in a previous life. ’
Name
DS ANTHONY ASANTE
Age
38
Married?
No.
Personality
A fast-track graduate entrant to the police, who started his career in the Met. His parents are very wealthy, and his father is a former Ghanaian diplomat. He and Gislingham had a falling-out during the events described in The Whole Truth, when Gis thought Asante was compiling evidence against Adam, but they have since resolved their differences.
Adam once described him as ‘ Diligent, intelligent, technically excellent. He does what he’s asked and he takes the initiative when he should. And yet every time I think I have him worked out, he manages to wrong-foot me.’
Name
DC ANDREW BAXTER
Age
45
Married?
Yes, but no children.
Personality
Stolid but dependable. Good with computers so often gets lumbered with that sort of stuff.
‘ A solid man in a suit that’s a bit too small for him. The buttons on his shirt gape slightly. Balding, a little out of breath. Halfway to high blood pressure. ’
Name
ERICA SOMER
Age
35
Married?
About to be – to her long-term boyfriend Giles Saumarez, a DI in Hampshire Police. Erica was diagnosed with cancer in 2018, and took a long time out of the job. She’s now working as a Ministry of Justice intermediary, helping vulnerable witnesses deal with the criminal justice process – children, people with learning difficulties, victims of abuse.
Personality
Her surname is an anagram of ‘Morse’ – my nod to Oxford’s greatest detective. Bright, independent, but perhaps more fragile emotionally than she used to be.
Name
DC CHLOE SARGENT
Age
30
Personality
Tough but kind, hard-working and insightful.
Name
DC SARAH STILLWELL
Age
31
Personality
Seconded temporarily from Missing Persons in Reading. Confident, professional, thoughtful.
Name
DR brYAN GOW, PROFILER
Age
56
Personality
‘ Train-spotter, mainstay of his local pub quiz team and amateur mathematician (don’t ask me how that works – it’s always struck me as the ultimate contradiction in terms). ’
***
Importance: High
Date: Tue 21/05/2024, 14.05
From: Tarek Osman
To: Nick Vincent
Subject: Infamous – possible lead
Hi Nick,
Just a quick one before you head back to LA.
I’ve been contacted by a woman called Kelsie Smith who saw Who Killed Luke Ryder and claims to have a story idea for another series. Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s what they all say, but there may be something in it. Basically it’s a child murder from back in 2016. The kid was eight at the time. The mother was convicted and is serving life, but is apparently still telling anyone who’ll listen that she didn’t do it.
I don’t know what new angle this Smith woman thinks she has but she’s claiming it’s ‘explosive’. So what do you think? Worth a closer look?
T
Date: Wed 22/05/2024, 10.13
From: Nick Vincent
To: Tarek Osman
Subject: Re: Infamous – possible lead
Yeah, like you said, ‘That’s what they all bloody say’. What’s she after, do we know?
Importance: High
Date: Wed 22/05/2024, 10.45
From: Tarek Osman
To: Nick Vincent
Subject: Re: Re: Infamous – possible lead
Standard terms as far as I can gather – an upfront fee and a cut of post-production profits. Which suggests she’s done her research. We could offer her something to keep her sweet while we dig into it?
Date: Wed 22/05/2024, 12.22
From: Nick Vincent
To: Tarek Osman
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Infamous – possible lead
I’m not giving her any poxy money. You do your bloody research first, and if it looks like it has potential we’ll get someone on it. About to get on a plane so send me something tomorrow – as much as you can find.
Importance: High
Date: Thu 23/05/2024, 16.33
From: Tarek Osman
To: Nick Vincent
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Infamous – possible lead
OK, this is what I’ve dug up so far. The kid’s name was Daisy Mason, and it was all over the UK press for weeks. As far as anyone could tell at the outset the whole thing seemed to come out of a blue sky – nice family, fancy neighbourhood in North Oxford. The kid – Daisy – was a dead ringer for JonBenét Ramsey. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the works. Looked like a ‘straightforward’ abduction, only turns out it wasn’t quite that simple. Pretty bloody dark, actually, but I’ll let the press coverage do the talking on that.
The parents are still getting trolled online, even now, but you can see why. The 2021 ep of Killer Moms doesn’t pull any punches either.
I’m guessing this Smith woman’s line is going to be that the mother really is as innocent as she keeps claiming. Though Jesus she comes over as a nasty piece of work, full-on Cruella de Vil (which would of course make her fabulous interview fodder, if it gets that far). There was also a seriously dodgy back-story from 1991 involving her and her kid sister in a boating accident that left the little kid dead (also attached). The prosecution made much of that at the trial, suggesting she was jealous of the sister and later jealous of the daughter in exactly the same way (the daughter and sister apparently looked incredibly alike – more good visuals).
The key exculpatory factor where she’s concerned is that they never found the body, so there’s no direct forensic link to the murder. The police had a working theory about where it was (which is pretty gruesome in itself) but they never found it, and still haven’t.
Anyway, I reckon it’s worth a few hours of a researcher’s time. And if this woman really does have something new …
***
Daily Telegraph , 12th January 2017
Sunday Times , 15th January 2017
IMDb database
***
Croydon Evening Echo , 3rd August 1991
***
Importance: High
Date: Fri 24/05/2024, 11.07
From: Nick Vincent
To: Tarek Osman
Subject: Daisy Mason
OK, I’ll bite. Get someone on it. A Brit for preference, so we don’t get stiffed for the air fare.
Importance: High
Date: Fri 24/05/2024, 11.45
From: Tarek Osman
To: Nick Vincent
Subject: Re: Daisy Mason
Great. Leave it with me. I think someone told me Rob was planning a vacation in the UK around now. I’ll check. Kill two birds and all that.
***
Adam Fawley 23 July 2024 08.15