The Pharmacist
: Part 3 – Chapter 49

Jack went into work late the following day. He figured he’d earned a lie-in and had surprisingly slept better than he had in weeks. Over the second cup of coffee with Sarah, they talked about Alice and marvelled at her strength.

‘She’d accepted that Tom was dead before you found the body, but I suppose there’s always that grain of hope, that irrepressible belief that things might work out well in the end.’ Sarah said.

‘That’s what makes us human. But now I must get off. The boss will be waiting for all the details and he’s not a patient man. I’m only glad we had the right location. I’d never have heard the last of it if the helicopter sighting hadn’t paid off.’

* * *

Half an hour later, Jack entered the incident room to a round of applause. He raised his hand to quieten the noise and nodded his thanks to his team.

‘It was a joint effort, you’ve all played your part well and I’m grateful. Now, Sarah’s sent this cake to celebrate.’ He placed a large chocolate cake on the nearest desk, a little reward, although he knew he owed a round of drinks at some point.

There were a few questions from his team and Jack noted the various responses with interest. Elaine Thompson couldn’t get over the fact that Rachel had killed the dog, which was unforgivable in her eyes.

‘I still don’t understand why she didn’t just kill both her parents outright.’ Owen struggled to piece together the ‘whys’ of the case. ‘She seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to do it this way. All that effort to try to convince everyone that her mother had dementia.’

‘Actually, I think that was her master stroke,’ Jack said. ‘If she’d killed both of her parents outright, there would be awkward questions to answer, funerals to arrange and inquests into their deaths. Friends might become suspicious, like Brenda Chapman, for instance, and two sudden deaths would be difficult to explain. Her parents’ move to a new location allowed Rachel to get rid of both of them. By killing her father and claiming he died years ago, no one in Penrith would look into his death, and with her mother locked away in an institution, Rachel could take over her affairs, sell the house, or whatever she intended to do, with no questions asked.’ Jack spoke sadly. They might guess at why Rachel Roberts had done things in this way, but they would probably never know why she wanted to kill her parents in the first place.

Jack left a rather pensive team in the incident room and went upstairs to see his boss.

‘Well done, Jack.’ Detective Superintendent George Kerr beamed at his DI. ‘We were never going to replace the poor sod alive, but you’ve wrapped the case up well. It’s the best possible outcome.’

‘Thank you, sir. Now we’ve got a body, I’m going to formally charge Rachel Roberts with murder so we can continue to hold her.’

‘Good, you’re an asset to us here at Penrith, Jack, a good result all round.’

Jack left the room and asked Claire to have Rachel Roberts sent up to the interview room.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Jack and Owen Hardy entered the room and switched on the tape.

‘Did you enjoy your day trip yesterday?’ Rachel appeared almost cheery.

‘It was productive, if not enjoyable.’

Rachel nodded, the playfulness leaving her eyes as she waited for Jack to continue.

‘Ms Roberts, today we’re going to formally charge you with the murder of Tom Roberts. I would strongly advise you to have a solicitor present, as is your right. If you don’t have one, we can arrange for a duty solicitor to be present during this interview.’ Jack didn’t want any technicalities to ruin the case. There was little doubt that the CPS would have sufficient evidence to build a strong case against this woman, but he was playing it safe.

‘I don’t want a solicitor. I killed my father. He deserved it.’

Taken by surprise, Jack looked to his DS and Owen immediately cautioned Rachel Roberts and then asked her if she understood her rights.

‘Yes, I do.’ She seemed impatient to move things along.

‘Could you repeat what you said before the sergeant cautioned you?’ Jack asked.

‘I said that I killed him – my father – I killed him. Do you want to know how or not?’

* * *

For the next ninety minutes, Rachel Roberts described, in detail, precisely what she had done on the night of the seventh of June. Much of it was as the team suspected. She admitted to drugging both parents with Suxamethonium in the wine she’d brought that evening and to ‘topping her mother up’ with the drug throughout the next day. Tom took longer to succumb to the effects than Alice. While he was still semi-conscious, Rachel took him out to her car and drove in the cover of darkness to the place where her sister had died. It took very little effort to push her father out of the car and over the edge of the steep incline to his certain death. She seemed to think that poisoning the dog and disposing of his body with her father was fitting, a somewhat warped version of poetic justice.

Jack and Owen did not interrupt Rachel’s monologue. Everything was recorded. They would ask any questions which arose after she finished her confession. She covered virtually everything. Having disposed of her father, Rachel drove straight home where she’d left Millie alone, woke the child and calmly took her to school. Rachel had spent the rest of the day at her mother’s house, making sure that Alice didn’t come round while she set the scene. Rachel related the facts accurately, with a sense of pride in her words. The woman wanted them to know how resourceful she’d been – that she had almost pulled off the perfect crime – and almost got away with it.

By the end of the interview, the detectives were disgusted rather than impressed.

When Rachel finished her confession, neither man asked questions. They had heard enough. They formally ended the interview and their prisoner was taken back to the cells. Rachel Roberts would not see much of the outside world for several years to come, a thought Jack found comforting.