Restless Dead (Harry Grimm Book 5)

by David J Gatward

  ‘You must have been grounded for months!’ Matt said.

  ‘I threw the end of the line out onto the landing,’ Beverly said. ‘Dad was following it but pulling it in so by the time he was outside the bedroom he had the end of it in his hand, so he had no idea who had done it, me or my sister.’

  ‘Didn’t he check?’

  ‘I think he was just too tired,’ Beverly said. ‘And they never said anything in the morning either. I’ve never asked why. Sometimes I wonder if they just forgot, or maybe they were just amazed that one of their own kids could do such a well thought out trick. It was amazing how it worked, it really was!’

  ‘And that’s what you did at the Fletcher’s, wasn’t it?’ Harry asked.

  ‘I’m not proud of it,’ Beverly said. ‘I asked to be left alone, fixed up the line and weights, then had everyone back into the room. I’ve done it before and it’s always worked.’

  ‘So, you fake séances, then,’ Matt said. ‘Why would you do that?’

  ‘No, I don’t,’ Beverly said. ‘I don’t fake them. I just add to the atmosphere a little. And it usually helps. It’s like if you’re watching a horror film and how it’s always better if you turn the lights out, right? So, if you have something unexplained happen while you’re doing a séance, then people are more open to it all and proper things happen, real experiences and phenomena. If they can accept a knocking at the window, then they can accept that perhaps the dead can and do want to communicate with us.’

  ‘Sounds a bit dodgy, if you ask me,’ Matt said.

  ‘And what about the voices?’ Harry asked. ‘We’ve spoken to the family and they’ve all said about how you did something to sound different when you spoke.’

  ‘That wasn’t me,’ Beverly said, her expression now firm and serious. ‘I promise you that. Absolutely bloody terrified me.’

  ‘But you’ve just told us that you faked the tapping at the window,’ Matt said.

  ‘I did,’ Beverly said, ‘but not the voice. That was new. It’s never happened before. Like I said, it was bloody terrifying!’

  ‘I think,’ Harry said, ‘I need to remind you that you are under caution.’

  ‘I’m not lying!’ Beverly snapped back. ‘I know I’m under caution and I told you I faked the tapping! I’ve admitted that, haven’t I? That fishing line, the weights, they’re mine! Ask my parents how I did it as a kid if you don’t believe me! I thought I’d picked it all up, but obviously not, because there it is. But it doesn’t mean I faked the whole thing. I wouldn’t know how! I had nothing to do with the fire!’

  ‘I need to ask if you’ve ever been to the house before,’ Harry said.

  ‘Before when?’ Beverly asked.

  ‘Before your first visit,’ Harry said. ‘The family reported the sighting of an intruder on the property in the time between Helen’s accident and last night.’

  ‘What, and you think I was out there, do you, scouting around the place? Why would I do that?’

  ‘Why would you fake a séance?’ Matt asked.

  Harry asked the question again, detailing the sightings that he and Matt, and Jen and Liz had responded to.

  ‘It wasn’t me,’ Beverly said.

  ‘And you can prove that?’ Matt asked. ‘Are you able to prove where you were at those times?’

  ‘Do I have to?’

  ‘If you can show you were somewhere else at the time, then it will be fairly obvious that you weren’t on the property,’ Harry said.

  ‘Well, the second date I was at work,’ Beverly said. ‘I work at the private school in Sedbergh. The first, I’ll have to double-check.’

  Harry checked his watch. ‘Then I’ll leave you to do that with DS Dinsdale,’ he said, bringing the interview to its official end he turned off the recorder and rose to his feet.

  ‘So, I’m not under arrest?’ Beverly said.

  ‘No,’ Harry said. ‘However, we may have other questions to ask you, in light of the information you’ve provided, and if anything else comes to our attention.’

  Harry left the room only to find Matt chasing after him.

  ‘Everything alright, Boss?’

  ‘No, it bloody well isn’t!’ Harry said, trying to rub the tiredness away from his eyes, and failing. ‘What is any of this other than a complete mess that makes no sense to anyone? We’re investigating a suspicious death by interviewing someone who reckons she can talk to the dead but at the same time admits to basically faking it! And we can’t really arrest her on that, because she’s not defrauding people out of money, and I doubt there’s any link between her and the family other than James contacting her to do what she did! So, where are we? No, don’t answer, because I’ll tell you. Nowhere at all, that’s where!’

  Harry took in a heavy breath through his nose, exhaling with the sound of an angry bull.

  ‘Maybe it was suicide,’ Matt suggested. ‘I mean, it could’ve been, couldn’t it?’

  ‘No, I’m not buying that,’ Harry said. ‘Someone wants us to believe that, I’m sure, and all this stuff with James seeing things and the séance, well I think that’s just given whoever it was a nice smokescreen to hide behind. But it’s not enough. Something here just doesn’t smell right, not right at all. In fact, it absolutely bloody stinks.’

  ‘What, though?’ Matt asked.

  ‘Every last bit of it,’ Harry said, and turned away, leaving DS Dinsdale alone in the corridor as PCSO Jim Metcalf entered the building.

  ‘You got a minute, Boss?’ Jim asked.

  ‘No,’ Harry said.

  ‘Didn’t think so,’ Jim said. ‘But I’ve just got back from chatting with Anthony.’

  ‘Ruth’s son?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Jim said.

  ‘And?’

  ‘And I think I’ve found our intruder.’

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Harry leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.

  ‘And you’re sure about this?’

  ‘He told me himself,’ Jim said.

  ‘So why didn’t he or his mum admit it earlier, then?’ Harry asked.

  ‘A mix of things I think,’ Jim said. ‘Ruth was definitely very embarrassed, and to be honest, I don’t think she connected the dots. You know, her dad thinking he’d seen her mum, and her son, Anthony, disappearing into the woods.’

  Harry was getting a headache. And he didn’t do headaches. ‘Run me through it again,’ he said, leaning forward to scratch Fly’s head, the dog sitting between himself and Jim. ‘Just so I’m clear.’

  ‘Anthony’s been having trouble at school,’ Jim said. ‘I think he’s just found the whole teenage thing a bit much to cope with, like some do, you know? And he’s drifted a bit from friends, bit of a loner I’m guessing.’

  ‘So, he’s been having time off school,’ Harry said.

  ‘Yes,’ Jim said. ‘Ruth’s been covering for him, giving excuses. Sometimes he’s up in his bedroom, other times he’s out in the woods.’

  ‘And you said he’s got a little den out there or something?’

  ‘It’s some of his granddad’s old military kit,’ Jim explained. ‘It’s pretty cool actually. He’s got a shelter, with a fire nearby, a little woodpile, some mess tins. I think he just goes out there to clear his head. It’s not like he creeps around the house to get there. He just heads out if he needs to. Only Ruth knows about it. And I spoke with her and she said that her dad and her mum had no idea about it either, mainly because she didn’t want them worrying about Anthony.’

  ‘Still seems a stretch to me,’ Harry said.

  ‘She thinks she’s the black sheep of the family,’ Jim said. ‘You know, the one with the divorce, the one still living with her parents, while her sister and husband are out there being all successful. Proud, I think. Wants to deal with things herself.’

  ‘So, there’s no intruder then,’ Harry said. ‘It was Anthony all along.’

  ‘Well, yes and no,’ Jim said. ‘It was definitely him the second time, that’s for sure
, you know, when Liz and Jen went out to the house? But the first time, Anthony swears it wasn’t him and that he was in his room the whole time.’

  ‘And was he?’

  ‘Can’t prove it either way,’ Jim said, ‘but I can’t see why he’d lie about it when it’s already clear that the other time was definitely him. And he’s nothing to gain from lying either, has he?’

  ‘No,’ Harry said, a grumbling rumble in his voice, ‘I suppose not. What did he have to say about the séance?’

  ‘Well, he’s confirmed everything we know so far about it, the knocking at the window and whatnot. He actually saw her out of the house once it was all done.’

  ‘And he went to bed right after, like everyone else,’ Harry said.

  Jim looked down at his notebook to check his notes. ‘He saw his uncle and his granddad having a whisky together and then he went home with his mum.’

  ‘And now, here we are,’ Harry said.

  ‘Oh, and he repeated what everyone else had said about the medium talking about the bright light, and he said that bit was the weirdest part of the whole evening.’

  ‘How so?’ Harry asked.

  Again, Jim checked his notes and read from them. ‘What Anthony actually said was, “She said she saw a bright light on an empty road and it blinded her.”’

  ‘An empty road?’ Harry said, remembering what Beverly had told him and Matt. ‘He said that?’

  ‘Yes,’ Jim said, shaking his head. ‘That’s what she said to him apparently, just before she left.’

  Harry had had enough and pushed himself up onto his feet. ‘Well, thanks for going out to chat with him,’ he said. ‘And at least the whole intruder thing is cleared up.’

  ‘What about the first time, though?’ Jim asked.

  ‘Could’ve been anything,’ Harry said. ‘I think James was under massive strain. You doing anything this evening, then?’

  ‘Meeting up with Neil,’ Jim said. ‘He’s coming over. You know, he’s been over to visit my dad at least three times since it all happened.’

  ‘That’s good of him,’ Harry said and made his way over to the door. ‘You have a good evening then and send my regards to your dad. Tell him we’re doing everything we can.’

  ‘I will,’ Jim said.

  Outside, and walking back to his flat, Harry wished, not for the first time in his life, that doing everything he could came with results, because he was beginning to feel with the sheep rustling, and with what had happened out at Black Moss House, that they were getting nowhere at all.

  The following morning welcomed Harry with all the warmth and love of a ravenous wolf on the scent of an easy kill, and he sorely wished he could just stay in bed and find some of the sleep which had evaded him for most of the night. Ben was already off to work by the time he rose, and a breakfast of cereal and toast tasted like dust as he washed it down with strong coffee. The walk down through the marketplace was a thing of grey cold, as the wind seemed to howl at him out of every alleyway to snap at his heels and scratch at his bones. If this was a sign of the day to come, Harry thought, then it really didn’t bode well at all.

  Walking into the office, Harry was greeted with his huge mug, the one Matt had presented him with a few months ago, filled almost to the brim with steaming tea.

  ‘Looks like you need it,’ Matt said, as Harry took the mug from him.

  ‘I need sleep more,’ Harry said, sipping the liquid and burning his lip.

  ‘Bad night?’

  ‘The worst.’

  ‘There’s a lot going on,’ Matt said. ‘Oh, and just to add to your joy, Swift’s been in touch and is on his way over.’

  It really wasn’t the news Harry wanted to hear. ‘And when’s he going to be here, exactly?’

  ‘No idea,’ Matt shrugged. ‘He was delightfully vague about that bit. But he said it was important to speak to you, in person, I mean, rather than on the phone.’

  Harry knew what it was about and was pretty sure it had nothing at all to do with the investigations the team were currently involved in. With the interview done, this had to be Swift driving over to tell him the news. And if he was looking to do it person, then Harry couldn’t help thinking that the news was bad.

  ‘So, what have we got?’ Harry asked, deciding it was best to just not think about Swift’s impending visit. Instead, he looked around the office at the rest of the team, who were all more than a little busy, but who, at the sound of his voice, all stopped what they were doing and swivelled round to face him.

  ‘This a morning briefing?’ Jadyn asked. ‘Because, if it is, I need to be over by the board.’

  ‘No, it’s okay,’ Harry began, but he was already too late, Jadyn moving from his chair to the board in a single bound.

  ‘Let’s start with the thing over at Jim’s farm,’ Harry said.

  ‘We’re still waiting on the results from the cigarette butts I sent through,’ Jadyn said. ‘I’m pretty hopeful that’ll turn something up.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad one of us is,’ Harry said.

  ‘And that’s about it,’ Jim said. ‘We’re no further on with it. Dad’s okay now, though, so that’s something, and we’ve got the insurance company sorting through things. But it’s not really about the money, not for dad.’

  ‘Well, you never know,’ Harry said. ‘Hopefully, something will come from what Jadyn sent through.’

  With nothing else to say on the matter, Harry moved things on to the death of James Fletcher.

  ‘We now know that the intruder seen by James was actually Anthony, his grandson,’ he explained. ‘So, that clears that up. And we’ve interviewed under caution Beverly Sanford, the woman who led the séance. Not that we gathered much from that, other than to confirm what everyone else has said happened that evening.’

  ‘So, is she still a suspect, then?’ Liz asked.

  ‘They all are,’ Harry said. ‘But not only have we no real idea of what happened, we’re also lacking in motive.’

  ‘I can’t see why any of them would want to kill James,’ Jen said. ‘He’s Ruth and Pat’s dad, and Dan’s father-in-law.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Harry said. ‘And as far as we can ascertain, the first time Beverly and he made contact was when he called her to come over about doing the séance. So, let’s just chat through everything from yesterday, and see if anything stands out.’

  ‘Well, I don’t see how it can be Anthony,’ Jadyn said. ‘He’s only a kid, right?’

  ‘Kids can kill,’ said Matt.

  ‘I know,’ Jadyn replied, ‘but I’m just not feeling it.’

  ‘Feelings don’t make good evidence,’ Harry said. ‘And remember, we’ve now identified that it was him that James saw. What if he was doing it on purpose?’

  ‘And why would he do that?’ Liz asked.

  ‘Maybe he blamed his grandad for what happened to Helen,’ Gordy said.

  ‘Maybe they all did,’ Jen said then looked at Liz. ‘What was that thing with her eyes?’

  ‘What, that she couldn’t see well in the dark?’

  ‘Yes, that,’ Jen said.

  ‘A whole family getting together to kill the father seems more like the stuff of Hollywood than Wensleydale, though, don’t you think?’ Harry said.

  ‘It was Ruth that mentioned it though,’ Liz said. ‘The eyes thing. I’m not saying she said she blamed her dad for what happened, like, but . . .’

  Harry picked up on Liz’s pause. ‘But what, Liz?’

  Liz pulled out her notebook and flicked back through the pages. ‘It was when I was talking to her, after we’d chatted to her dad,’ she said. ‘We were in the kitchen and she said about how her mum would generally only drive at night if it was a special occasion.’

  ‘Which it was,’ Harry said. ‘It was James’ birthday.’

  ‘And she said,’ Liz continued, ‘that her mum would be alive if her dad had been driving.’

  The room fell quiet for a moment as Liz’s words floated in front of them all, demanding
attention.

  ‘She actually said that?’ Jim asked.

  ‘She did,’ Liz said, ‘but it’s hardly an admission of guilt, is it? She felt awful for saying it, said that, too, actually.’

  ‘Best jot it down,’ Harry said to Jadyn, only to see that he already had. ‘So, that leaves us with Pat, Dan, and the medium, Beverly.’

  ‘What motive is there for Beverly?’ Gordy asked. ‘Like you said, the first contact she had with the family was when James contacted her. And her background hasn’t thrown up anything weird, well, nothing other than the fact that she does what she does, but each to their own, right?’

  ‘Maybe he figured out that she’d faked the whole thing,’ Jim suggested. ‘What if he confronted her so she came back and—’

  ‘Drugged him and burned him to death,’ Matt said, finishing Jim’s sentence. ‘Bit of a stretch I think, but we can’t ignore it as a very, very remote possibility.’

  ‘That leaves us with Pat and Dan,’ Harry said. ‘So, what have we got on them?’

  ‘They’re backgrounds check out,’ Matt said. ‘Their businesses are on Companies House. I don’t think they’re worth as much as they would like everyone else to think they are, but most folk are like that, aren’t they?’

  ‘I’m not,’ Harry said, looking over to Matt as his phone buzzed in his pocket.

  ‘And there was me thinking you drove that old Rav4 of yours to show off.’ Matt smiled.

  Harry pulled out his phone and said, ‘So, no motives there, either, then?’

  ‘What if James actually did do it himself?’ Jim asked.

  Harry wasn’t listening.

  ‘Boss?’ Matt said.

  Harry was staring at his phone screen.

  ‘Jim,’ Harry said, ‘didn’t you say Anthony saw James and Dan having a whisky together?’

  ‘Yes,’ Jim said. ‘That’s what he said. Why?’

  ‘Text from the pathologist,’ Harry said. ‘Those tablets of Dan’s? They contain the same drug that was found in James’ body.’

  ‘But I thought she said they found no evidence that he’d taken any tablets,’ Jadyn said.

  ‘They didn’t,’ Harry said. ‘But she also said that if the sleeping agent that knocked him out was from tablets—’