It was another quiet morning at Oscar O’Neill’s practice when Oscar got a call from Detective Inspector Luke Stott. ‘Oscar,’ he said, ‘I’ve got a job for you. A young woman’s been attacked and a pair of glasses has been found at the scene. I’d like you to see if they belong to our prime suspect.’ ‘You’re in luck,’ Oscar replied, ‘I think I might be able to get away this afternoon.’
When Oscar got to the station, Stott filled him in with the rest of the story. A 25-year-old woman walking home from the pub had been grabbed from behind by a man. There was a brief scuffle before the assailant ran off, leaving behind a pair of spectacles. A man matching his description was picked up by a street camera getting into a car, the number plate was traced and 35-year-old Richard Jackson was arrested at his home. ‘Jackson, however, insists that the glasses aren’t his,’ Stott explained.
Oscar took the spectacles out of an evidence bag and placed them in his focimeter to get the following prescription: R +1.00/
-0.50 x 20; L +1.25/-0.75 x 45, single vision. He then went into another room where he found Jackson sitting at a table. After Oscar explained who he was, Jackson told him: ‘Those glasses they found definitely aren’t mine. I bet you’ll find the prescription in them is completely different.’
Oscar asked him to wash his hands and remove his contact lenses, which he did. With his domiciliary testing equipment, Oscar found the following prescription: R -5.25/-0.25 x 75, 6/5; L -5.25DS, 6/5.
‘It’s different isn’t it?’ said Jackson. Oscar admitted that it was. ‘And another thing,’ Jackson continued. ‘Because I wear lenses most of the time, I just have some basic back-up glasses. Why would I have something as expensive as that?’
Oscar looked at the frame. He had not paid much attention to them before, but now he saw that they were quite unusual. They looked as if they were made out of wood, and on the side was engraved ‘Zulu Optics Barolo 52x16 RB’. ‘Do you know about these?’ Oscar asked. Jackson hesitated a bit before answering. ‘My mate had a pair that looked a lot like them,’ he replied. ‘He kept on telling me how expensive and special they were.’
Oscar reported his findings to DI Stott. He told him that the frames looked quite unusual: ‘In fact, I’ve never heard of this make before, although Jackson reckons his mate had a similar pair’. ‘Really?’ replied the DI. ‘I’ll make some enquiries,’ Oscar continued, ‘and get back to you.’
The only local supplier of Zulu Optics frames, Oscar discovered, was a practice called Eye Believe Opticians in a town famous for having some of the highest house prices outside London. Oscar thought it would be a good opportunity to see another practice, so went to see them the next day.
He found an incredibly smart practice that looked as if it had recently been refitted. Designer brands were very prominently displayed under bright lighting that put Oscar’s rather tired displays to shame.
When he went in, Oscar was greeted by two members of staff sitting at the reception desk. Both were young, beautiful and smartly dressed and could not have been friendlier, introducing themselves as Sarah, the receptionist, and Chloe the dispensing optician. They were very excited when Oscar explained that he was a police optometrist. ‘That’s so interesting,’ said Sarah.
Oscar was not used to beautiful women smiling at him and calling him interesting, so it took him a while to get round to why he was visiting the practice. Eventually he took the spectacles out of the evidence bag and asked if they might belong to a patient of theirs.
Chloe took them and looked at the engravings. ‘Richard Beeston,’ she said. ‘That’s impressive’ said Oscar. ‘I wish I had a memory for patient names like you.’ This was heartfelt, as Oscar had a terrible memory for names, and his memory of faces was not the best either, so relied entirely on Mrs Warren to save him from embarrassment.
‘It’s easy,’ said Chloe. ‘You see the RB on the side. That’s the patient’s initials. It’s one of the things that makes these frames so special. I remember he lost a pair at about the time his wife died, and he bought another as a replacement.’ ‘Yes, it was very tragic,’ Sarah said. ‘His wife had motor neurone disease and he found it really difficult to cope with looking after her. He’s remarried now and I’m so pleased for him. He’s such a lovely man.’
Oscar asked for his address but Chloe was not sure she should pass it over. ‘But I can tell you he still lives in the town,’ she said. ‘That should be enough for the police,’ Oscar replied.
Oscar left the practice thinking he really should get his practice refurbished, since it had to have been more than 20 years since his one and only refit.
The police did indeed track down Richard Beeston without much difficulty, and he admitted that the spectacles belonged to him. He had lost them some months earlier and had bought another the same to replace them. He showed the DI these other frames that looked identical. His alibi for the night of the attack was that he had been at home with his wife, which she confirmed. Although a wife’s testimony could not always be taken at face value, Stott had been a detective long enough to have a pretty good idea if someone was lying or not, and he was sure she was telling the truth.
So the evidence that showed that Jackson was in the area showed he did not carry out the attack. And the evidence that suggested that Beeston carried out the attack indicated that he was not in the area. And since neither of them had any history of carrying out attacks, at least none that was known to the police, what on earth was going on?
Stott was looking for something that linked the two men, and the only thing he had was Oscar’s assertion that Jackson seemed to know something about the frames that Beeston had. That, and the fact that the two men actually looked quite similar. Was Beeston being set up?
Looking around Beeston’s living room, his eyes fell on what he assumed was his wedding photo. Standing next to the bride and groom was a woman who’s photograph he had seen before. It was in Jackson’s flat that he had seen a large photo of Jackson and a woman arm-in-arm in front of the Eiffel Tower.
‘Who’s that?’ Stott asked, pointing to the woman in question. ‘That’s Joanna, Hannah my first wife’s sister,’ Beeston replied. ‘Do you two get on?’ Stott probed. ‘I’m afraid we’ve fallen out. She thinks I got married too soon after Hannah’s death. In fact, she’s accused me of having an affair with Lindsey, my wife’s best friend, and deserting her sister. But it’s not true. Lindsey and I were good friends, but nothing more until Hannah died.’
In the end it was Jackson who cracked. He admitted that Joanna had got him to try to frame Beeston by attacking a woman while wearing glasses that she had stolen from her brother-in-law some months earlier. He had to make sure that the glasses fell off in the attack, which he did, but he did not reckon on CCTV picking him up later. Joanna eventually admitted that she had set it up in revenge for what she perceived Beeston had done to her sister.
Mrs Warren was delighted when Oscar told her about having a practice refit. ‘All we need now are some patients to pay for it,’ he added.
