The Story of Carillion Craine or the Death Upon the Ash Path

Dear Sirs,

I write to you concerning a chap of whom I know little and I imagine little is known and yet of whom I would like to know more and - one imagines - more is known. I write to you, hoping, as a newspaper, you may somehow be able to offer some guidance upon where one might look or perhaps direct me in some other way.

I write to you concerning a gentleman who I came to know as Mr Craine who I happen to know passed away only a couple of weeks ago. I do apologize for the length of my letter, but it is important, I think, that I tell you everything for it may help in some way. The gentleman, Mr Crain, was a man I met only a few months ago volunteering with the police force (I was volunteering and he was one of those I worked with, to be clear). I met him during a case of which you published some numerous details; the case of the attempted murder on the old Ash Path that connects Spinners Lane and Blackforth Avenue. Mr Craine was a key witness and remained one until his death which has caused considerable trouble for the prosecution of Mr Drennal who is due to be in court in just a fortnight.

Mr Craine witnessed the stabbing of Mr Clement. I know little of any of them, but take solace in the fact that Mr Clement survived, despite being stabbed ear to ear, and is now engaging in a long recovery, aided by his girlfriend. I warn you as I have warned everyone in this; Mr Drennal will try again. What saddens me beyond words is that Mr Craine died, under circumstances no one seems to grasp nor care to grasp and there is no family that I know of to pursue any kind of investigation. I hope that you might be able to at least publish his name in case any family can come forward. Or perhaps this might encourage the police to think more carefully before denying my applications for witness protection in such circumstances.

Mr Craine lived in a small flat on Bucks Roe, an illegal flat, I think, for the windows were smashed when I saw and the garden lacked any kind of care. The old house it was in did not have any kind of number, it is known to most as Carillion Craine, for it is next to the old church and, apparently (long before my time), a Carillion fell through the window and I suppose it is Craine after Mr Craine who lived there in those conditions for over twenty years, the last tennant of the condemned block who never got rehoused.

It concerns me greatly that no help was offered to him after he left prison. He arrived in there at 17 and left a few years later - he told me when I asked that he had lost count of his age - but he had no skills that were discernible (other than telling a bad story well) and, though I know no newspaper seems willing to print it, ended up selling narcotics in a small scale operation. Well, it was an operation that he thought was small scale but turned out to be much larger scale, as so often they do. It was all he knew, I think. He couldn’t read or write, that was why I met him, they brought me in as a volunteer to read for him when he was arrested the night Mr Clement was stabbed.

Mr Clement had received a message to come to the Ash Path one night and had gone, but Mr Craine had agreed to join him because he was concerned for him, coupled with the fact that he himself had also had a message from Mr Dremmel to join him there. It seemed that all three parties knew the other would be there at that odd crossroads. Mr Dremmel had a backpack, that’s what Mr Craine had told me and the police in the interview, and as the three of them walked down the path, he took it off and removed a large blade. Mr Clement had tried to run, but Mr Dremmel had grabbed him being much larger in size. Mr Craine hadn’t run and Mr Dremmel handed the knife to him, ordering him to stab Mr Clement. Mr Craine refused, but, he had now touched the knife which meant that his fingerprints were upon it. Mr Dremmel took it back and stabbed Mr Clement in the manner I earlier described.

Mr Clement remembers very little, but he informed police that it all revolved around a massive debt he had to one of the men, he declined to elaborate or specify.

I have only met Mr Craine once in my life and it was that night at Police HQ. He told me all about him to pass the time while we were waiting for the interview room to be freed up. I thought it my duty to try to find out more, now I know that he was found dead on that same path. I believe Mr Dremmel is responsible, of course, though I have no evidence other than my own logic. Perhaps you could appeal to the public for information.

I visited Carrillion Craine, but he left no clues other than some scales, a mattress and some old clothes which I believe to be his only possessions. The sergeant told me that they found a stash of money to the tune of £100,000 under a loose floorboard, but I doubt that to be true.

With all that in mind, perhaps you could make an appeal of some kind? I would be most grateful for anything you could do. He seemed such a charming man when I met him.

Yours faithfully,

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