Family Ties (The Mark Pemberton Cases Book 1)

by Nicholas Rhea

  ‘That’s fairly conclusive, I’d say!’ said Lorraine.

  ‘Yep, sure is. So you can imagine what the Vice-President felt when the present Hartleys of Pike Hill Farm said they knew nothing of his grandfather! It made him even more determined to find out exactly what lay at his family roots — so he’s coming all this way to find out.’

  ‘It's kind of you to take the time to talk to me,’ smiled Lorraine. ‘You really have been most helpful.’

  ‘Glad to be of assistance, Lorraine. I’ll get a photocopy of the Vice-President’s family background for you — with details of the ship’s manifest and so on. Contact me again if you need more. Perhaps we could have a drink together sometime?’

  ‘I’d like that,’ said Lorraine, lying through her teeth.

  But she walked out of his office with everything she needed, including a copy of the letter sent from Hull all those years ago. And she’d done it without making a long drive across the Pennines to Liverpool. She made a mental note to buy Mr Dunnock a drink — but that was all!

  Back in the Potting Shed, Lorraine began to check her newest information against details she’d abstracted from the murder file. Certainly, Luke’s twin brother and sister had gone to Hull and certainly they had established a thriving retail business. But during her previous reading of the file, the name of Patrick had never cropped up and so she turned to that part of the murder file which referred to Luke’s brothers and sisters. Dawson’s old system was easy to follow, and she quickly found details of Thomas and Sophie.

  Thomas Joseph Hartley, born in 1884, had married Catherine Taylor, aged eighteen, in 1902. At the time of James’s murder, they had four children, Caleb aged thirteen, Sarah aged eleven, George aged nine and Robert aged seven.

  Thomas and his family had left Wolversdale in 1910 to establish their business in Hull and, at the time of the murder, were still living there. Thomas’s twin sister, Sophie, had left home at the same time as her brother; in 1912, after arriving in Hull, she had married Aiden Harland, a local man. At the time of James’s death, both Aiden and Sophie were working hard alongside Thomas to establish Hartleys as a major store in the city. There had been no children to the couple at that point and so Patrick must have been born after the file had been compiled in 1916.

  Lorraine spent an hour or so plodding through the heavy file in an attempt to glean any snippet of information but was unable to discover anything else of relevance. She wrote up her discoveries, therefore, in the form of a statement and passed it to DC Duncan Young to be entered into the HOLMES data bank.

  ‘I’ll do it after lunch,’ he said. ‘Come along, let’s share a table.’

  As they ate their meal, Duncan was grumbling. ‘I can’t see why the boss is bothering with this old crime, Lorraine. I mean, it’s not as if the killer will be alive, is it?’

  ‘He could be!’ she retorted.

  ‘Or she!’ laughed Duncan. Duncan Young had served for eight years, three of them as a member of the CID. With a civilian background of computers and data processing, he was the ideal man to supervise the operation of HOLMES. A pleasant young fellow with dark wavy hair and brown eyes, he had a young wife at home and a baby girl aged two. Firmly set on a police career, he often said he wished to spend more time on the beat or making crime enquiries, but his skills with the computer had been considered important enough for him to be seconded to HOLMES.

  ‘It would be grossly boring here unless we had something to do,’ said Lorraine. ‘I’m enjoying it. I know that Mark Pemberton wants to close the file — he’d love to find the killer just for the hell of it. You know how he hates to leave any murder undetected.’

  ‘We’d be better off concentrating on the Muriel Brown murder — that’s only eight years old! At least her killer should still be around, and he could still serve his sentence if we find him.’

  ‘But there’s no immediate pressure to clear up that one, is there?’ Lorraine reminded him. ‘Just think of the prestige if we solve this crime before the Vice-President arrives!’

  ‘If I was him, I’d be far from pleased to learn that snoopers had discovered my murky family secrets before I knew about them,’ laughed Duncan. ‘Besides, we’re not sure that the two Hartleys are linked, are we?’

  ‘It’s almost certain. The details are in those papers I’ve just given you.’ She produced one of her devastating smiles.

  ‘You’re as bad as Pemberton — you never stop!’ he grumbled.

  ‘It’s fascinating. The Luke who’s in our frame for killing his brother is almost certainly grandfather of the Vice-President of the United States. Think of that, Duncan, think what the press would make of that story, both here and overseas!’

  ‘Bloody hell!’ smiled Duncan. ‘I’d better keep that under wraps.’

  ‘The boss doesn’t know that yet,’ Lorraine warned him. ‘So keep it very much to yourself. He does suspect, but he asked me to get confirmation and I got it from Mr Dunnock.’

  ‘So where is Pemberton now?’

  ‘He went over to Wolversdale to interview the senior member of the Hartley clan. I can’t see they’d welcome the news that a great uncle or something similar was a killer!’

  ‘We’ll never prove that, surely, not after all this time?’

  ‘All we need is a motive.’

  ‘I’ve not found one, not even after wading through masses of statements and papers. That James seemed to be a really nice guy, never a trouble-maker of any kind. His mother doted on him. If Luke did kill him as our boss and you seem to think, then I haven’t found any motive, not even anything remotely like one.’

  ‘You think it could be someone else?’

  ‘HOLMES has thrown up one gap.’

  Duncan’s expression showed signs of a minor triumph.

  ‘Really? What?’ Lorraine was excited by this news.

  ‘Thomas, Luke’s brother in Hull. The initial enquiries showed he lived in Hull, but a detective was asked to check that. His report said Thomas was away from home when he called, away on business, but nobody found out where he went. Nobody checked that story, nobody bothered. The police of the time relied on the statement from his sister, Sophie, who simply said he was away on business but confirmed he lived and worked in Hull.’

  ‘Surely somebody checked it out?’ she cried.

  ‘Why should they? If he wasn’t anywhere near the murder scene, why bother to find out where he was? Dawson would have relied on the local force to make those enquiries and if they were satisfied, then there was little Dawson could do.’

  ‘So what are you doing about Thomas’s whereabouts?’ Lorraine asked.

  ‘I’ll see if HOLMES produces anything that might help us decide where he was. Now, on to another subject. This verse they’ve discovered. Is it important? I mean, do I have to log it in HOLMES?’

  ‘I think you should,’ said Lorraine. ‘It uses a funny word — tainted. I’ve never come across that in such a verse before, so why was James tainted? Tainted with what? Or how? How was he tainted? What’s it mean? The word might crop up in some of the statements and reports, mightn’t it? Can HOLMES find other references if they’re there?’

  ‘Sure, if I ask it to search for tainted, it’ll do so, provided the word’s been entered. It’s just like looking for references to red cars or ginger-haired men. I’ll stick it in, then. But I’ll bet this is the first time that HOLMES has been used to store the words of a nursery rhyme!’

  ‘It’s not a nursery rhyme, Duncan — people often used to sing verses like this after a murder. I’ve come across quite a few of them, especially relating to Victorian killings. Murders had considerable impact in those days, particularly upon a small and isolated community. And remember, this is a historic crime; we’ve got to think like the people of Britain would have thought in the 1914-18 war.’

  ‘It’s not easy,’ admitted Duncan Young. ‘But it’s fun,’ smiled Lorraine.

  ‘Hello, the boss is back!’ said Duncan, looking towards the door. ‘I’
d better return to my chores!’

  ‘He looks quite pleased with himself,’ said Lorraine. ‘I wonder what he’s discovered.’

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘You’re looking rather pleased with yourself, sir!’ was Lorraine’s comment as Pemberton approached her table. DC Young was making his exit, but Mark halted him.

  ‘How’s it going, Duncan? Anything useful turned up yet?’

  ‘One small thing has cropped up, sir,’ replied the detective. ‘It’s probably nothing, but the whereabouts of Thomas Hartley, the Hull brother, were never checked. His sister, in business with him at Hull, did confirm he wasn’t in Hull on the day of the murder. She said he was away on business, but no one knows where he was. The statements don’t say.’

  ‘Didn’t the Hartley murder detectives check?’

  ‘They didn’t go to Hull, sir, like we would have done nowadays. They passed the enquiry to Hull City Police, probably by telegram; I think there was a lack of information in the communication. They asked Hull to find out if Thomas was at the shop at the material time, and the answer came back that he was not. And his sister confirmed he wasn’t, saying he was away on business. But no one bothered to ask where he was. But in all fairness, I must say there’s no suggestion he was anywhere near the scene of the crime. His name never cropped up among the local witnesses.’

  ‘Oh, bloody hell! Thomas isn’t in the frame now, is he?’

  ‘He could be the brother who’s mentioned in that funny verse, sir,’ put in Lorraine. ‘After all, that brother, whoever he was, wasn’t named in the verse, was he? It just said he’d gone as well, without saying where. And we assumed it was referring to Luke.’

  ‘OK, Duncan, pass the word around the team; we must examine the file minutely to see if we can find out where Thomas was that day. I’ll be very surprised if Dawson let that one through the net. Now, anything else of interest?’

  ‘No, sir, we’re just plodding along and abstracting data from those old statements. Apart from Luke, there’s no other real suspect — I’m not sure that I would put Thomas in the frame at this stage.’

  ‘I agree, I can’t see him as a genuine suspect, but think of it in modern terms — in a modern enquiry Thomas would be the subject of a TIE, so we’ll put him through that procedure, as much as we can, that is. But congratulations, you’ve done well.’

  ‘Thanks, sir,’ smiled Duncan.

  ‘Well, sir, what’s making you look so pleased with yourself?’ ventured Lorraine.

  ‘I’ve just come from an interview with George Hartley,’ Mark said. ‘I wasn’t looking forward to meeting him at all.’

  ‘You’ve discovered something?’

  ‘I’ve discovered he’s easy to get on with and I’m pleased because I’m so relieved about that! Old George was a real gentleman, most helpful and co-operative.’

  ‘That makes a change these days!’

  ‘Well, these old Yorkshire farmers are full of common sense and they do respect their police officers. I must admit I thought he wouldn’t want to talk to me, especially as I was busily stirring up the family mud. Although I didn’t learn a great deal, I did get his co-operation and that’s important. He said there was a trunk of James’s things his mother had kept and he’s trying to find that for me. In all, it was a very refreshing interview. I’ll dictate my statement to Barbara after lunch, Duncan, then you can have it for processing.’

  ‘Thanks, sir. Well, I must be getting back to my machine, it frets when I’m away,’ laughed Duncan, leaving Mark alone with Lorraine.

  ‘Let me get something for my lunch, Lorraine, and then you keep me company and tell me your news. Can I get you anything? A drink?’

  ‘I’ve eaten, but coffee would be lovely.’

  Minutes later, sitting with his soup, sandwich and coffee, he asked how her day had been so far. And she was able to provide him with her positive news about Caleb and Sarah being named as Luke’s next of kin in the ship’s manifest. Pemberton listened carefully, proud and pleased at her success.

  ‘That’s great news, Lorraine. I was thinking on the way here, we’ve got a signed statement made by Luke, the one in the police file, and if there’s a signature among the stuff the Americans have got, we could make a comparison. If they matched, it would add strength to the matching of the two Luke Hartleys.’

  As Lorraine continued to outline her discoveries, Mark listened intently and then asked, ‘These links with the Hull Hartleys — have any enquiries been made there? It’s odd that Hull should crop up twice in such a way — first with Duncan Young’s discovery about Thomas and secondly with that curious letter about Patrick. Have we been plodding the wrong trail, Lorraine?’

  ‘I don’t think so. But Hull will have to be looked at, eliminated from our enquiries.’

  ‘Trace, Interrogate, eliminate!’ he laughed. ‘Yes, we must TIE Hull!’

  ‘When Vice-President Hartley discovered the letter from Sophie, the one referring to Patrick’s first communion, his staff contacted the Hartley store in Hull,’ Lorraine told him. ‘They got a publicity leaflet back, saying that the Hartley dynasty began at Pike Hill Farm in Wolversdale. No one at the store knew anything about the Pike Hill Hartleys, other than what they’d published in the store’s official history.’

  ‘They didn’t provide any clues about Patrick?’

  ‘Apparently not. But you know what some PR people are like — they answer a letter by shoving a leaflet in the post and they never read the precise request.’

  ‘So who is this Patrick? We must find out who he was. We need to TIE him too! Why write overseas from Hull to tell Luke’s family about him? I find that rather odd. And why keep the letter?’

  ‘It might have been kept accidentally, sir; it might have got lost or inadvertently tangled up among some other correspondence. It could be one of many letters received over the years.’

  ‘Or it might have been kept for a specific reason!’ He shook a finger at her. ‘That’s something we can’t ignore.’

  ‘So that’s two new puzzles for us,’ she mused.

  ‘If I remember correctly from reading the file, Sophie was unable to produce children, so he can’t be one of hers. Unless she produced one later? That sometimes happens, doesn’t it? Women go for years without having children and then, in later life, become mums.’

  ‘I’ll have to read the statements again, sir, to be sure of that.’

  ‘Right, do that. Go through them in fine detail — the answer might be there somewhere. Then I’ll come and see you in, say, half an hour?’

  ‘You’re a hard task master, Mark Pemberton!’ She laughed, draining her cup. ‘But yes, come and see me then.’ But when Mark returned to the office where she was working, she said, ‘Sir, Duncan was right about Thomas Hartley. None of the other statements show where he was. The enquiring officer, who was a detective sergeant, either didn’t ask or he was satisfied with the answers he received. So the whereabouts of Thomas were never checked.’

  ‘That’s bad.’

  ‘I’ve found a little more. It seems Sophie said she could confirm he was meeting business acquaintances, some of them regarding matters which were confidential. The detective was satisfied with that and Dawson didn’t send the enquiry back for further investigation.’

  ‘He slipped up there, didn’t he?’ cried Mark. ‘I’d have had that sergeant’s guts for garters! He didn’t do a proper job — damn it all, it was a murder enquiry.’

  ‘Dawson might have been satisfied with the outcome. Perhaps the sergeant did a local check and perhaps Dawson was content to let him make the decision as to whether Thomas was in the clear. Maybe Dawson knew more than we know.’

  ‘Then it should be written down and entered in this file. That slip might have been a very bad error! He could have let Thomas get away with murder.’

  ‘Bloody hell! You’re not seriously putting Thomas in the frame now, are you?’

  ‘But he is in the frame now, Lorraine! He’s a suspect simply be
cause no one knows where he was on the day his brother died. So, let’s think it through. Hull’s not all that far from Wolversdale — he could have got there that day, couldn’t he? By train?’

  ‘No one reported seeing him, sir.’

  ‘Millicent saw somebody in the bushes beside the road, right on the murder scene. She didn’t know who it was. She was a local kid — you’d expect her to have known Luke, but not Thomas if he was living away from the area.’

  ‘Do we really think Millicent saw Thomas in the bushes? It’s a long way by road, and there were no cars in those days.’

  ‘But there were trains. He could easily have got to Rainesbury and that’s not far away.’

  ‘There’s no way we can check that now, is there, sir, unless there are further clues among the statements.’

  ‘If this was a modern enquiry, we’d have to find out his movements, and we’d have to find out who Patrick was. As you know, every person named in a murder enquiry has to be traced, interrogated and eliminated. I’m very interested in this Patrick. Who was he? Why has he suddenly materialised?’

  ‘He was mentioned in the Vice-President’s own file, sir.’

  ‘But he wasn’t mentioned in our police file, was he? He’s not a relation, is he?’

  ‘I did wonder if he’d come over from the James Hartley Foundation in America, for a long holiday or something. But I can’t answer that without referring to the file.’

  ‘It was a nice touch that, Sarah naming a foundation after her Uncle James. Obviously, she thought a lot about him, like everyone else did.’

  ‘His death must have meant something to her,’ Lorraine said wistfully.

  ‘So Patrick is our mystery man now, and we must find out about him, Lorraine. Another nice job for me! I want words with the Registrar of Births and Deaths in Hull to see if Sophie produced a child and I want to have a chat with whoever is now running Hartleys of Hull.’