part one
of
EPILOGUE
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A MESSY FLAT IN HACKNEY, A MONDAY, CHRISTMAS, 2017
DETECTIVE SARGENT Dyer SPRAWLED ON HIS SOFA, DOCTOR Reid SAT ON ANOTHER.
"I finished it." He said.
"Well, what do you think?" The Doctor asked, leaning forward for her coffee.
"I think, it makes a mint if it gets published." He said the Doctor looked at him oddly. Normally he would have said something like that about the late inmate with a snigger.
"What about opening an investigation?" She asked.
"Into what?"
"Into his death, they're trying to write it off a suicide, but I can vouch for his recovery as he made great progress. You read that last letter." She said, taking another sip of her coffee and he scratched his rough face.
"Dr Reid, you're no saint either. It says here," he started waving the letters, "that you kissed him."
"Oh sod off, Dyer. If you won't open an investigation could you at least verify Harry's hemlock theory about Jaime De La Rosa?" She responded.
"It's a solved case, Dr Reid."
"But your department never followed any other possible leads. How could you live with yourself Dyer if you locked up an innocent man and he died in prison?"
Silence followed. Doctor Reid knew he'd been hooked like a fish on a net.
"Err, you know how to guilt trip me, Dr Reid. I'll look into it."
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PRESS CONFERENCE AT SCOTLAND YARD, LONDON, MARCH 2018
DETECTIVE SARGENT Dyer AND INTERNATIONAL LIAISONS OFFICER Lawson SPEAKING TO CROWD OF REPORTERS AND THE PUBLIC.
"Why did you re-open the Styles case?" A reporter asked.
"Is it true you dug up the victims' bodies?" Another asked.
"Firstly, new evidence was brought to light and I did a follow-up. I can now confirm the late Mr Harry Styles was wrongly convicted. The true culprit was, in fact, the deceased Mr Jamie De La Rosa," said Dyer and lots of camera clicks followed.
Lawson cleared her throat before speaking into the microphone, "Mr Jamie De La Rosa had long planned to kill himself and Miss Christine Kang and frame Mr Harry Styles for the crime. He had given a lethal dosage of hemlock poison obtained from the US to himself and Miss Christine Kang beforehand."
"The conviction of Mr Harry Styles was intended by Mr Jamie De La Rosa as the flesh wounds on himself and Miss Christine Kang matched the knife found on the scene with Mr Harry Styles' prints. After further analysis, we concluded Mr Jamie De La Rosa inflicted the flesh wound on Miss Kang and himself, and it was Mr Harry Styles who attempted to pull the knife from the other male." Dyer added.
People were gasping in the crowd, more questions were being thrown.
"Mr Harry Styles has been wrongly convicted, and we on behalf of the London Metropolitan Police apologise for the distress the conviction and clearing of his name may have caused," Dyer said. "We have now formally opened an investigation into the death of Mr Harry Styles."
"This new evidence, when will it be released?" A reporter asked.
Dyer looks at Lawson and she nods before answering, "We believe the material will be published commercially via a thrid party. More details will be revealed in due course."