by Emily Selby
'Nope. I've got to go back to the beginning and rethink everything.'
'And on that optimistic note...' Katie said, trying to ignore a knot tightening around her throat.
'And on that optimistic note, I shall bid you good morning. Let me know if you come across anything interesting.'
'Are hunches okay? I've run out of evidence and logic.'
He laughed, lightly, genuinely. 'You've done quite well with hunches, Katie. I admit it. Much better than me following my intuitions.'
'You need to practise more.'
'I don't think I get much in terms of opportunity.'
'I'll bring you some to practise on, then.'
'In that case, your hunches are very welcome.'
And on that optimistic note, with the clock showing 5.32 am, Katie slipped out of bed and threw on her bathrobe. There was no chance she could get back to sleep with this level of excitement and the information rattling around in her head. She needed to put the energy into something useful.
25
Katie tiptoed towards the kitchen, carefully avoiding the squeaky floorboards. She stopped at Julia's bedroom door and listened for a while through the tiny gap Julia had left. Her daughter's breathing was regular - she must have managed to get back to sleep. Thank goodness!
In the kitchen, Katie put on the light over the hob and filled the kettle. Maybe a cup of coffee would help clear her thoughts.
Another person poisoned.
Or worse: it could have been Julia or her.
The warm tingling from earlier had gone. What was the value of Jack's praise for her ability to ask questions and explore hypotheses, if she couldn't solve the case?
It was useless. She had to up her game. The murderer was a smart cookie, and she would have to outsmart him, or her, if she was ever to help bring them to justice.
She sat listening to the bubbling kettle for a while, counting her breaths to calm herself, but it was hard to keep her mind focused and loosen the cold grip on her throat. With tears gathering in the corner of her eyes, Katie fished her notebook out of her handbag and grabbed a pen from the counter.
She had to go over it again.
Murder scene drawn by Katie
She drew a map of the Sunny Meadows crime scene, marking the distances, the position of all the people involved and their movements. She added the timings for Edward, Linda and Mavis.
7.25 - Edward moves the newspaper rack behind the bin and hides on the building site.
7.32 - Edward leaves his hiding place and runs towards the big tree.
7.33 - Edward stands behind the big tree.
7.31 - 7.32 - Linda and Mavis arrive at the bench. Feeling unwell, Mavis sits down. Linda runs off to get some water.
7.34 - 7.35 - Linda returns with a bottle of water, and both ladies set off to complete their walk.
7.35 Edward leaves the big tree and walks towards Jane's house.
If the poison was added to Keith's coffee between 7.34 and 7.38, the only people who could possibly have done it were Edward, Mavis and Linda.
According to Edward Sparrow’s mobile phone, he was walking towards or standing by Jane's house at the relevant time. Alternatively, Mavis and Linda conspired to poison Keith and did it before setting off to finish their morning promenade.
Katie looked at the drawing and the timeline, tapping the pen on the table. The second hypothesis, however crazy it sounded, had not yet been considered.
She scribbled it down under the updated timeline.
Crazy! Why would the Mavis and Linda want to kill Keith? Katie couldn't imagine Linda killing anyone.
The kettle switched itself off and Katie climbed to her feet to make herself a coffee. When she walked back to the table with a steaming mug in her hand, a thought struck her.
She put the mug on the table and walked slowly across the kitchen, counting the seconds. She repeated the exercise with the timer on her phone activated.
Jack was right, the pace at which Linda and Mavis had been walking must have been about two, maybe even three, seconds per yard. Linda was healthier and could run to the shop and back, although Katie still couldn’t imagine Linda running for anything.
Mavis said she hadn't seen anyone, including the vicar, because she was sitting with her eyes closed. But if Linda was back at 7.34 - 7.35 she should have noticed Edward walking away from the tree. Linda was an observant woman, except when she was focused on something more important, such as her grandson, or her friend's health...
But it didn't hurt checking.
Katie reached for her phone, scrolled through recent missed calls and found three from Linda among the several from Jack.
It was nearly 5.45 am. Normally too early for a call, but not when Edward's life was at stake.
Katie pressed the 'call back' button and waited.
'Katie, you're okay?' Linda's voice was heavy with worry.
'I am, so is Julia. I've already talked to...' Katie hesitated, 'the police. Are you okay? How’s Edward?'
'Oh, I'm fine. I didn't touch that cake, but Edward is still unconscious! My god what an awful thing.'
'Who could have done it?'
'No idea. I gave the police the names of all the people who were at my place last evening.'
'I heard that Alistair McBride was there, but who else?'
'Ally Baker from the club has agreed to help with book-keeping. You know, Julian had to take some time off for health reasons.'
'Uhm,' Katie mumbled. Julian really needed the rest. No matter how much he insisted there was nothing wrong with his memory.
'Michael Bower's wife, Lisa also offered help. She has a business background, and we hope she can help us regain some financial stability by managing our finances more strategically.'
'Mrs Bower has been quite active lately in the local community.'
'Yeah, and rightly so. They have some work to do to rebuild their reputation in town, I'm afraid. After all that happened...'
'No argument there,' Katie said, putting aside her thoughts about all the recent bad events linked with the Bowers’ family. 'But back to the poisoning. Are they all alive and well?'
'Yes, the police have checked, and I’ve called each one, too. The police have confiscated the box and all the cake and other food leftovers. Apparently, beside the slice on the counter, nothing else was tampered with. The police say they still need to do some proper analysis, but I’m hoping they won't find anything.'
'Who could have wanted your nephew dead?' Katie asked, quietly congratulating herself on sneaking another question in.
'He's not my nephew, Katie. Although he calls me aunty, it's an old family thing. I used to be close friends with his parents, and this was how we all operated: aunty/uncle. His parents bought a house in the south of France twelve years ago and moved. I've been planning to visit again; maybe next year with baby Adam...'
'Sounds lovely, but back to my question. Who could have wanted to kill Edward?'
'No idea, Katie, sorry. I've been asking myself the same question ever since I called the ambulance at about 10 pm.'
'How did you discover him?'
'I was getting ready for bed. The light in his room was still on, so I knocked on the door to check if he needed anything. He didn't respond, so I walked in. I saw him sitting on the sofa, asleep, breathing heavily, and very slowly, his lips were blue. I couldn’t wake him. Then I called the ambulance. Kieran, Emily's husband was on duty in the Emergency Department and he suspected poisoning. So, they called the police. We found the plate with the unfinished cake in the room and all that. Once your fancy inspector told me it could have been the cake, I started ringing everyone.'
'Thank you for caring about us,' Katie murmured, sipping her coffee. What was it she meant to ask Linda about?
Ah, yes!
'Linda, I have a question for you. When you and Mavis strolled down Sunflower Lane, when Mavis started feeling unwell.'
'She started feeling dizzy,' Linda cut in, her voice suddenly bec
oming sharp and clipped. 'She sent me to get some water for her.'
'You don't take water with you on your walks?'
'Not that day. We must have left our bottles in the car. The corner shop was closer.'
'Yes, the corner shop. It's quite close, isn't it? It took you only a couple of minutes to get there and back, didn't it?'
'Yes, that's right,' Linda replied promptly and eagerly. Katie wondered if there was a note of anxiety in there, too.
'So according to my notes,' Katie said, glancing at her notebook, just to make sure, 'it must have been around 7.34 - 7.35 am when you got back to the bench. Edward was just walking away from the big tree opposite the junction. You should have seen him.'
'Well, I didn't,' Linda snapped. 'But I was too busy looking after Mavis. She’d recovered a little before I arrived anyway, but still she took her medicine. After a minute or so, we continued along Sunflower Lane, turned left into Poppy Crescent and returned to my car a few minutes past eight.'
Another thought crossed Katie's mind.
'Mavis was sitting on the bench all the time while waiting for you?'
'I didn't stop to look. I was worried about her, so I ran as fast as I could. I don't have eyes in the back of my head.'
Interestingly, Linda seemed to be really annoyed by the questions.
'Just double checking.'
'Do you suspect Mavis suddenly regained all the energy she hasn't had for years and ran across the street to poison a guy she barely knew?'
Katie winced and jerked her head away. There was so much - what was it? reproach? – in Linda's tone, Katie hunched and suppressed the urge to apologise. This was a murder investigation and the killer had struck for the second time. If she acted like a polite, little girl, she would never get any answers.
'Linda, I'm trying to help find a murderer. Someone so cruel they have attempted to kill an apparently innocent, good person, who is the son of your good friends. There was no one else in the area beside you, Mavis and Edward, who has become a victim. If it takes challenging certain assumptions about anybody involved to catch the killer, I will do just that!'
Linda didn't reply. Katie could hear heavy breathing on the other end of the line. Katie tensed her shoulders.
'Katherine Redford,' Linda drawled, 'I don't like what you're doing but it's hard to argue with your good intentions. However, this is a second time you've made me frustrated and angry at you, and I really hope it's the last,' and she hung up.
Katie slowly licked her lips, but it didn't help much, her tongue was paper-dry. She poured herself a cup of water and drained it in one long glug.
When she returned to the table, her body was a little more relaxed.
She stared at the timeline and the sketch again. She’d reached an impasse. Either someone was lying, or there was another person involved.
Maybe she and the police shouldn't have discounted Jane? Maybe in some crazy burst of energy, Jane ran out of the house, poisoned her husband's coffee, hid somewhere and ran back home again.
Katie looked at the timeline and the plan once again. Reluctantly, she wrote, 'Jane?" underneath and shut the notebook. The idea was crazy, but it was the only thing that made sense.
She had to talk it through with Jack. She might catch him if she arrived earlier than normal.
26
Katie rang Julia's best friend's mother, Mrs O'Brien, and was very grateful she didn't mind driving both girls to school that morning. That was a good piece of news not only for Katie, keen to catch Jack before he headed off for wherever he needed to go, but also for a grumpy, sleep deprived Julia. It just took the edge off her foul mood and allowed them to get through the morning routine faster.
Once Julia disappeared into her friend's house, Katie drove to the station, mulling over her earlier thoughts. Her notebook with the carefully scribbled details was in her handbag.
When she walked into the office, she found Jack was not there.
Bad luck!
She ignored the heavy feeling settling around her stomach.
'Katie, glad to see you alive,' Chris Fox greeted her with a broad smile. 'I bet you'll be off cake for a while now.'
Katie forced herself to smile at Chris' lame attempt at a joke. Sometimes, it was hard to appreciate his dark sense of humour, even though she had lived with a policeman for thirteen years.
'Any news on Edward Sparrow?' Katie asked, taking her jacket off.
'Still in a coma. DI Heaton is talking to the doctors to find out if the vicar might be well enough to be interviewed.'
'From the way you phrased it I gather Edward will recover?' Katie asked, hopefully.
'That'd be nice. On a loosely related note, what do you think of the fling between Edward and Jane?'
Katie shrugged and a wave of tiredness flushed over her.
'Any chance of a coffee?'
'Yeah, let's make some,' Chris pushed himself from the chair and crossed to the sink. 'I'll wash up for a change, you get the coffee going.'
Katie nodded and added a tired smile. It wasn't that often a police officer volunteered to wash cups.
'Will you tell me what you think about Jane and Edward?" Chris said probably not as casually as he wanted to sound.
She chuckled.
'So, offering to wash up was a bribe?'
'Of sorts. Fire away, I'm a bloke, so I can't understand that much unless someone whacks me with evidence between the eyes.'
'I wish I had something useful to say,' Katie said slowly. 'No local gossip I'm afraid. Edward left town a long time ago. Strangely, Linda McKay, who is probably the person who knows him best, even though she says she doesn't, didn't have much to say about him. She did mention that Edward had changed. Is Jane still denying any connection with him?'
'Except for the fact that he was a vicar in her previous parish and she’d had some minor interactions with him while living here,' Chris replied and suddenly flashed her a big grin. 'And on a completely unrelated note, do you know about Heaton's birthday on Sunday? We're preparing a surprise for him.'
A wave of hot lava spilled over Katie's face and neck and flushed down her body. Oh, the cheek! She cleared her throat.
'Yes, Celia has mentioned. Bummer! I forgot to bring any money. I may need to sneak out to get some from the cash machine. What's the surprise?'
She was going to ignore Chris' comments. That was a good strategy!
Chris chortled. 'We've been arguing, actually. I mean, Celia and I have been arguing. She wants something posh, like a new briefcase, but I thought of-' he paused and glanced at her with a mischievous smile.
'What?'
'A jumper. A navy blue jumper to go nicely with his neat trousers.'
'What? That’s crazy!'
'I know. But I thought, maybe he's wearing all those suits because he can't afford another jumper, because he's spending all him money on driving back and forth between his parents' house and our happy little town.'
Katie chuckled.
'Chris, you sneaky bug...'
'I know.' He wiggled his bushy eyebrows. 'What do ya think, lass?'
'I think it's a... lovely idea. As long as the jumper is plain dark blue.'
'I swear,' Chris said raising his little fingers. 'Pinky swear.'
'That's not how you do a pinky swear,' Katie corrected him and punched his hand lightly, grabbing his little finger with the hook of her pinky. They both laughed. 'You obviously haven't done one for a while.'
'Not since I was five or six.'
'Hey, what are you doing?' Celia's voice vibrated with curiosity. She must have walked in when they were laughing.
'Just a little chat about a birthday present for the DI. Katie thinks a jumper is a great idea.'
Celia tossed her a needle-loaded glare. 'Oh, really. What if he doesn't like it? He's a man with a great sense of style.'
'No,' Chris interrupted her, 'he's a little too stiff. He needs to loosen up a little, but he’s a great lad with a decent sense of humour.'
Inspector Andrew Lumley, the boss of their little police team.
'Huh?' Inspector Lumley asked? 'Not me, huh?'
Katie glanced at Chris, whose face was tense and paler than usual. Celia was working her jaw from left to right, as if getting ready to say something.
Oops! The friendly session could easily turn into an unpleasant departmental situation.
'We were thinking of the best surprise gift for DI Heaton, his birthday is on Sunday. We're having a bit of a hard time deciding between something stylish and something silly,' Katie said and added the most innocent smile she could muster.
Inspector Lumley rubbed his balding head.
'Ha. Hard choice. Any specifics?'
'Celia was thinking about a nice briefcase,' Katie carried on, since the boss was looking at her anyway. 'Since his has seen better days.'
'Good point, good point,' Lumley mumbled.
'But then, I think he's quite emotionally attached to it. It used to belong to his dad. So, I'm not sure how he would feel about dumping it for a younger model.'
'Hm. Good point,' Lumley nodded. 'What's the silly option?'
'A navy-blue jumper. Plain.'
'Plain? Where's the silliness in it?'
'Ah, sir,' Chris said and paused. 'This is where I thought...'
'Ah, yeah.' Lumley paused and clicked his tongue a couple of times. 'I think plain would be a nice hint at inviting him to be a little more relaxed but without being too silly. Who's collecting?'
'Me, sir,' Celia croaked. Katie couldn't read her face. Was she disappointed by the boss' decision?
'I'll fetch some cash,' Inspector Lumley said and walked out.
'Smart move, Katie,' Celia said, crossing her arms on her chest.
Katie glanced at Chris, who made a 'zip' move across his lips.
'I'd better go and get some money, too. And I need to get that card done as well. Any ideas what you think may be a good design, Celia? Chris?'