by Anita Waller
‘What do you want, Mouse?’ Kat asked.
‘I want to re-build it, want to see it looking good again. I’ll be selling it, I won’t hang on to memories, and I don’t want to live here any more, but we’ll have to see what they say today.’
A large four-by-four pulled up behind their car, and a man got out clutching a clipboard.
They joined him and he introduced himself as Henry Overend, handing out cards to them all.
Mouse turned to Doris. ‘Nan, please don’t come in here. It’s not safe for you. Wait in the car for us. Go feed your sheep.’
Doris gave a nod of assent. If the truth were to be known, she didn’t want to go in. She didn’t want to see where those two beautiful young women had died, and she hoped it had been quick. She hoped they had silently slipped away through smoke inhalation, and not had to be burned while they were alive. And she cursed whoever had done this.
Returning to the car, Doris watched as the three people went around the back of the property.
She took out her phone and scrolled through her long list of contacts, stopping at W. She pressed the call button and waited.
‘Wendy? You busy for a moment?’
‘No, I was going to ring you later. I’ve missed you. I won last night, but I’ve saved you your half. Called on number thirteen as well!’
Doris laughed. ‘How much? Can I retire to Florida?’
‘Sixty pounds each. Wouldn’t even get you to the airport. But it’s a start. You coming home soon?’
‘Not yet. I don’t want to leave Mouse. Wendy, I know we said we’d always share even if the other one couldn’t make it, but I could be a few weeks yet, so until I get back you keep all the winnings, okay?’
‘Nope. It’s not as though either of us needs the money, so we’ll stick with our arrangement. You would, wouldn’t you?’
‘I would, so thank you. We’ll go out for a meal when I get back, my treat.’
‘So how are things? How’s Mouse?’
‘She’s still sore, but getting better every day. She’s at her house at the moment, with the insurance chap. I’m waiting in the car. She says I’m too old and doddery to go in.’
Wendy laughed uproariously. ‘She’s joking, isn’t she?’
‘I agreed with her. I didn’t want to go in. It was a beautiful little house, and now it’s just a shell. I’m not sure if they’ll recommend demolition or rebuild. It’s an end terrace, so it could be knocked down. We’ll see when they come out, I suppose. But that’s not why I rang. Can you put your taxi head on?’
‘I can. You want one?’
‘No, I want some info, if you’ve got it.’
‘Go ahead.’
‘Does your company have spare black cabs that don’t normally get used for jobs, or are a bit dodgy in some respect, perhaps with false plates or something? Or that just sit round the back not working, except if they’re needed for specials?’
‘Whoosh! You don’t want much then. I can state quite categorically that we don’t, not to my knowledge, anyway. But ours is the biggest company in Sheffield, so we are very much above board with everything. There are one or two small businesses, though, that are definitely only just legal. Why?’
‘Mouse was in a taxi with false plates the night she was attacked, and her feller was killed. You’re the only person I know who actually works for a cab firm, so I thought it was worth a try. Thanks anyway. I’ll let you know when I’m back home. It should only be a couple of weeks, I hope.’
‘Take care, Doris. And I’ll text you a list of dodgy companies. See what I can find out.’
‘You’re a star, Wendy.’
‘I know,’ she said with a laugh. ‘Keep out of trouble, Doris, and if you need anything, just ring. Bye, love.’
Doris held her phone in her hand for a minute, staring out of the car window. She didn’t know why she had done that, she presumed the police had everything in hand for the investigation – they just weren’t passing anything on.
Three figures came around the corner of the building, spoke for a minute, then Kat and Mouse shook the man’s hand. She hoped it meant that they had agreed a way forward that didn’t involve demolition.
Doris got out of the car and waited. She needed Mouse’s car keys, and they could head off home to discuss the happenings of the morning. She could try to take the horrors of the derelict house, and the ghosts, out of her two girls’ minds.
They walked over to her, and Mouse pulled the keys out of her bag.
‘It’s over there,’ she said, and pointed to the side street at right angles to the road on which they were congregated. ‘Can you see it?’
Doris nodded. ‘I presume it will start?’
‘Hope so, but we won’t leave you until you bring it to us, and then we’ll follow you home. Take care of it, and no speeding,’ Mouse said, trying to inject threat into her tone.
‘As if,’ Doris said with a grin, and crossed the road to walk towards the little car. It was only as she reached the far pavement that she could see the two boys sitting on the Mini’s bonnet, enjoying the rays of the sun.
Chapter 16
‘Oy!’ Doris yelled, ‘Get off that bloody car, you little scrotes!’
Both boys looked around and saw the elderly lady waving her arms at them. They turned to each other and grinned. Joey Cooper and his cousin Will Towers clambered onto the bonnet, waved back at her, and jumped up and down.
Once.
Chapter 17
The explosion rocked the area, and DI Marsden was on the scene within an hour, once Mouse had explained to the attending police from Sheffield who she was.
The blast had knocked Doris to the ground, and she had shrapnel embedded in her right arm as she had lifted it to protect her face, an automatic reaction that had possibly saved her life. She was still sitting in the ambulance, shocked but with no life-threatening injuries, when Marsden arrived.
Mouse was in the vehicle with her, holding her hand, eyes full of tears.
Doris attempted to console her, to little avail.
‘It’s my fault, Nan. Somebody wants me dead. You’re injured and two more people have died because of me. Two little lads, Nan.’
‘Hush, Mouse, sweetheart, none of this is your fault. You’re the victim, not the blasted murderer.’
‘Beth, Mrs Lester. I’m so sorry, but I just need to find out what you remember.’ Marsden climbed up into the back of the ambulance. ‘Then they can take you to hospital. I’ve spoken briefly to Reverend Lowe, but I understand you two were outside your home,’ she said to Mouse.
‘We were. Nan was going to drive my Mini over to Eyam because my shoulder is still uncomfortable, and we thought it was the safest way of getting it there. Nan had left us to walk to the car, and I heard her shout. We could see her and we could see the Mini. We saw the boys stand on the front of the car and wave at Nan, then they jumped. It was meant for me, wasn’t it? Who wants me dead so badly they’re prepared to take such a stupid risk as this? I was supposed to sit in that car and it would blow up as soon as I moved.’
‘It seems like it,’ Marsden conceded. ‘It will be some time before we can move what’s left of the car, and there are body parts…’
‘Oh God.’ Mouse sobbed, leaning against her nan’s undamaged arm. It was too much. All this death because… because the driver of the taxi thought she had recognised him, but couldn’t remember who he was.
She knew she was right. Find the driver, find the man who had killed these little boys as well as her two friends. And Anthony.
She watched as the paramedic pulled the oxygen mask up on to her nan’s face, and heard him say, ‘Stop talking, Doris. You need to keep this on.’
Mouse smiled weakly. Stop talking. They were asking the impossible.
‘Are you going with us, Beth?’
‘No, she’s not.’ Doris once more removed the oxygen mask. ‘I want you home with Kat. You’re safe there. And don’t you move anywhere, not even to Marks and Spence
r’s, I’m warning you. I don’t want to see you, Mouse, until I’m back home with you. Wendy will organise a taxi for me to get me back to Eyam as soon as they discharge me. Are you listening, Mouse?’
‘I am.’
‘Not good enough. I am and I promise not to leave the house.’
Mouse sighed. ‘I am and I promise not to leave the house.’
She kissed Doris, and jumped down from the ambulance. The paramedics closed the back doors, and headed off to the other side of the city; another family member for them to treat.
Mouse walked across to where Kat was talking to DI Marsden. Henry Overend had given his brief statement and been allowed to go, and Tessa Marsden was organising with Kat to go into Chesterfield with Mouse to give their statements.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Sorry, but I’ve just promised Nan I won’t leave the house until she’s back there. And even without that promise, this is clearly targeting me so I’m going nowhere outside of our fortress at Eyam. I feel safe there. If you want a statement, you’ll have to come to us.’
‘Okay, tomorrow morning, I’ll be there for ten. I do understand your concerns and we’re going to have to look at ways of protecting you, a safe house maybe.’
‘I’m in a safe house.’ Mouse could hear the challenge in her own voice.
‘I meant…’
‘I know what you mean, DI Marsden, but I’m going nowhere unless Kat and Leon throw me out. I don’t think they’ll do that.’
‘Of course we won’t,’ Kat said. ‘Can we go now? I don’t think we’re helping by being here, and it’s distressing.’
Marsden nodded. ‘Yes and drive carefully. You’ve both had a shock. I’ll see you in the morning. Just an idea, Beth, but have you thought about hypnosis to see if that can revive memories?’
‘I haven’t, but I’m prepared to try anything. Especially now. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Find the taxi driver, we find the murderer? And he thinks I know him but haven’t remembered his identity yet. You are, aren’t you?’
‘I am. And we can’t force that memory to surface. I’m just concerned he’ll finish the job before you remember. Did you know him?’
‘I’ve no idea. There’s something in there…’ Mouse tapped her head. ‘That’s like a fleeting feeling, as though I should know who he is, but I really don’t. The only thing is, if he is thinking I know him, it means he knows me. But the men I escorted rarely came with their real names, so I wouldn’t know him anyway.’
‘Get off home, you two. I’ll see you in the morning. Think about the hypnosis, Beth, but I’m not going to force it on you. I think your memory will return and we’ll know more then.’
‘Those two boys,’ Kat said. ‘Did they live around here?’
‘The car was parked outside one of their homes. The other one was visiting. They were cousins.’
The distress was evident on both Kat and Mouse’s faces. Innocent lives. All they did was sit on a car; they did nothing to merit such a horrific end to their young lives, lives that had hardly started.
‘God bless them both, and their families,’ Kat whispered, then pulled a distraught Mouse back to her car. ‘Let’s get you home. This wasn’t your fault, Mouse. It’s the fault of the maniac who can’t let you go. We have to talk to Leon, see if there’s anything else we can do to step up our security until this man is caught.’
Leon was furious. ‘You’re putting both your lives in danger. And where’s Nan? In the bloody hospital because you don’t care about anyone’s safety.’
‘Leon,’ Kat said softly, trying to calm him down. ‘We do care. It’s why we’ve come to you. We need to know if there’s anything else we can do.’
Her words didn’t help. He had heard the news of the explosion as he had driven home and although no names had been mentioned, he knew. He didn’t ring Kat from the car. He waited.
And then his anger poured out of every pore. He didn’t know what he would do without her, and she seemed to have taken the other two women to her heart, putting herself in the firing line alongside Mouse.
‘There will be no further disappearances from this house until this murderer is caught. Do I make myself clear?’
‘No,’ Kat responded. ‘Actually, wrong answer, you’ve made yourself very clear. What I meant was that you can’t really issue orders like that. Not to me, and I’m pretty sure not to Doris and Mouse.’
Mouse hoped she wouldn’t giggle. The poor man didn’t stand a chance against his wife.
He visibly weakened. ‘Kat…’
‘No, Leon. I watched two young boys blown to pieces this morning, God bless their souls, and if you think I can sit back and take that then you’re living on a different planet. You do your job, and I’ll do mine.’
‘Job?’
Kat looked startled. ‘Did I say job? Well… whatever. Now stop trying to lord it over us because it won’t work. We’re three against one when they’ve dug the bits of metal out of Doris’s arm, and we’re not going to sit in this house, scared to death to move because of one man. Now, is there anything else we can do security-wise to make sure we’re all as safe as we can be?’
He growled. ‘We’ll get two bloody big dogs.’
‘Tibby won’t let them live here. That’s not an option. I was thinking in terms of alarms, rather than animals.’ She smiled at her husband, he didn’t like losing.
Mouse simply sat quietly at the kitchen table and waited for the storm to blow over.
He spoke with less stress in his voice. ‘I don’t think we need any more alarms but I will check every window and door lock before we go to bed tonight. And if necessary, I can station somebody in our car area, although it is a little full these days, to sit in the car all night and watch the house.’
‘What? Is that necessary?’
‘Will you behave and stop going out?’
‘No.’
‘Then it’s necessary. Compromise, Kat, compromise.’
Doris arrived home the next day in a taxi to find Mouse with her nose buried in the laptop, notebook by her side filled with scribbles, and Kat laboriously typing up her sermon for the coming Sunday, on her laptop.
She came through the front door and both women looked up, fear temporarily etched on to their faces.
‘It’s me,’ she called out, and both exhaled.
Doris came through into the kitchen waving a heavily bandaged arm. ‘Walking wounded coming through.’
Mouse stood and took her nan’s handbag from her. ‘Come and sit down. Are you supposed to be home? We thought tomorrow at the earliest.’
‘I persuaded them. Told them you’re a nurse.’
‘Nan!’
‘Look, they’ve done their job properly, there’s nothing left in it, so it’s just a matter of it getting better. Why did I need to take a bed up for an extra night? I didn’t. So I rang Wendy, she organised a taxi, and here I am. They did say I needed lots of cups of tea and stuff though…’
‘No they didn’t,’ Mouse grinned, ‘but I’ll make one.’
Kat stood and kissed Doris. ‘We’ll both look after you. You want to go into the lounge?’
‘Not till I’ve found out what you two are up to. Mouse, you ordering knickers?’
Mouse laughed. ‘No, I’m not. I’m building up a picture of Anthony Jackson, right from him being born. Looking at schools he attended, his reports, his friends, general stuff like that. Somewhere in there is the killer.’
Kat typed a full stop with a flourish. ‘I can tell you what I’m doing. I’ve finished my short and sweet sermon for Sunday. Now I can forget about it and concentrate on important stuff. How can you see school reports and stuff, Mouse?’
The sudden change of subject threw Mouse for a moment. She looked at Kat, keeping her face solemn.
‘There are ways.’
‘You need help?’ Doris threw her offer into the melting pot.
‘No, I’m fine on this, Nan, I’m on grammar school reports now. He was very bright, that’s for sur
e. Can you move on to Jackson Pharmaceuticals?’
‘I can. Kat, you can do the drinks now you’ve finished your work, okay? And would you mind bringing my laptop down please, sweetheart? Your legs are younger than mine.’
Kat grinned. God, she loved this feisty old lady. ‘I will.’ She stood and moved to leave the kitchen. ‘Nan, your leg’s bandaged.’
‘There was a bit in that as well, and apparently it’ll stiffen up, so I don’t want anybody going on at me about having a limp, it’s only until it stops hurting.’ She sat down with a thud. ‘Now come on, let’s get to work.’
Mouse had made a list of people that Jackson had known at school, and who had crossed over as acquaintances into his adult life. It wasn’t a long list, and she made sandwiches before beginning her Internet search for details of the six people on the list.
She was surprised to discover that Anthony had been just short of his thirty-first birthday when he was killed; she had presumed him to be older despite his youthful looks because of his seemingly opulent lifestyle.
Michael Damms had been with Anthony Jackson all through his secondary school life. They had clearly been friends, always standing together on school photographs, and even being mentioned together in head teacher notes on Jackson’s end of year reports. Anthony and Michael Damms will go far in their adult lives, probably together.
Mouse needed to find out if that note had been prophetic, or if university life had set them on different paths. She suspected they had kept in close touch, and delved deeper.
She had already discovered that Jackson had completed his education at Southampton University, and was surprised to see that Michael had headed north, to Durham, effectively splitting the partnership apart.
Jackson had gone on to work in a laboratory, and then to opening up pharmacies in South Yorkshire following an inheritance windfall that had helped him on his way. It seemed he’d had an aunt who had loved him enough to leave him everything she had, except for a £20,000 donation to a donkey sanctuary.