Their Fatal Secrets

by JANICE FROST

  Pam gave a reluctant nod. “Do you mind if Bunty comes along?”

  “Give me your keys and I’ll go and fetch her. I’ll be right back.” Jess ran off, and they were soon fussing over Bunty.

  “I’m so glad I’ve got her. I couldn’t bear to be alone in my flat tonight.”

  “I could stay over if you like?” Jess offered immediately.

  “Oh no. There’s no need. Bunty will look after me, won’t you, darling dog?”

  The desk officer at the station eyed Pam’s wounds with a look of concern.

  “We’ve come to report a crime,” Jess explained. “My friend’s been mugged.”

  The officer asked Pam if she required victim support, which she declined. He sounded apologetic, but couldn’t offer much else. “It’s unlikely that the perpetrator will be caught. There were no witnesses, we don’t have much of a description and he only took a little bit of cash and your phone.”

  “Only.” Pam sighed.

  “I expect you’re really busy now with the murder investigation?” Jess said. Pam stared at her, while the officer merely nodded.

  “I was on the bridge over the river the morning after, when the frogmen were searching the river. There were a lot of police there too. Do you know if they have any leads?”

  The officer’s look became suspicious. “You from the Courier?”

  “No. It’s just . . . oh, never mind. I’m just interested, that’s all. It’s not every day you see something like that. There aren’t many murders in Stromford.”

  “You’d be surprised,” the officer muttered. He asked a few more questions, and asked Pam if her husband could have put someone up to mugging her. Jess had already considered this, but Pam seemed appalled.

  Soon they were back outside. “Well, that was a waste of time,” declared Pam. “Michael’s a shit but he wouldn’t go that far.”

  “Well, at least the police have it on their books in case anything else happens,” Jess said. She fingered the letter in her jacket pocket. Was this what Mitch called an ‘escalation?’ She should go back inside and show it to the desk officer. But Pam was still looking shaken from her experience and there seemed no point in upsetting her further. Jess stuffed the note deeper into her pocket and said nothing.

  When Mitch came round that evening, Jess told him about the mugging. It was all she could do to talk him out of stomping upstairs to ask Pam for Michael’s address.

  “We don’t even know he had anything to do with it.”

  “Come off it, Jess. Who else could it be? He’s got someone to rough her up a bit, give her a fright. He was a controlling bastard, wasn’t he? Didn’t want her to leave him. I know the type — well, not personally, but you know what I mean.” Mitch liked reading books about true crimes. Jess suspected he read them for the gruesome parts.

  Mitch was moody for the rest of the evening and Jess wished she hadn’t said anything. Knowing how protective he was, she had expected him to be angry with whoever did it, then supportive. Instead he sat in stony silence all through their meal. When they sat down to watch TV and she sidled up to him on the sofa, he pushed her away. Finally, he revealed the true reason for his mood.

  “Luke saw you in Costa this afternoon.” Luke was one of Mitch’s firemen buddies. “You were with someone.”

  “Jonty Cole. He’s the brother of one of my students, Barney. He wanted to talk to me about him.”

  “So why couldn’t he do that at college? “

  “I don’t know. Maybe he happened to see me in town and it came into his mind.”

  “Right.”

  “What is this, Mitch? We only had coffee and a quick chat.”

  “Oh, yeah. About Barney, right?”

  Jess felt her hackles rise. “Yes, about Barney.” Mitch stared at the television for the next ten minutes without saying a word. Jess stared too, angry. She was angry at Mitch for acting like a jealous schoolboy, angry at herself, but mostly she was just seething with an incoherent rage that would not be stilled, however hard she stared at the screen. Finally, she erupted.

  She stood up and nodded at the door. “I’d like you to leave.” She couldn’t make out Mitch’s expression. Was it astonishment? Bewilderment? Jess didn’t care. “Get out.”

  “Jess?”

  “I don’t want any discussion. Just go.”

  Mitch gathered his things together and left without another word. He didn’t slam the door and this for some reason made Jess feel all the angrier.

  Chapter Ten

  Jonty’s rage still simmered. He kept thinking about his encounter with Jess, going over and over it in his mind. What had she said? ‘You’re a really nice guy, Jonty, but I’m seeing someone.’ Inferring that if she hadn’t been seeing anyone, she still wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole. At least the boyfriend part wasn’t a lie to put him off. He’d seen them together. A guy called Mitch. A fireman.

  I held it together well, didn’t I? he thought. Smiled and even managed to mouth some bullshit about Mitch being a lucky guy. Well, he’d given the bitch a chance and she’d blown it. Whatever feelings he’d had for her were gone now, blasted away by her rejection. In a way, he was relieved. It felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Love, or whatever it was he’d felt for Jess, was gone. Killing her would be easy now.

  But he’d take his time.

  It was too soon after the others. Victims were like buses it seemed, they always came in threes. Jonty felt like laughing. The memory of the Jackson bitch rising like Lazarus from the dead came back to him. And then she’d thrown herself into the river, right in the middle of town. He’d been up on deck steering the boat, and the din of music booming from the bars on the waterfront was the only sound he’d heard.

  She’d chosen her spot alright. Lucky for him, no one had seen the bitch go over the side. And she’d taken the iron he’d used to finish her. Shit. He’d been so sure she was dead. Anyway, it had taught him never to be so careless again.

  It had been a risky but necessary undertaking kidnapping her and the Kennedy girl at the same time. Keeping them both on the boat together had also been taking a chance. The plan had been to cruise the waterways until he found the right place to dispose of them. And to enjoy beating them until he got there. He hadn’t expected Leanne to fight back so hard. She’d been like a fucking Ninja. He still bore the bruises from her kicks. But she’d been no match for him in the end.

  The Kennedy girl had been different. He’d made sure she was bound up tight before he laid into her. Less of a challenge, but he needed to finish her off quickly. If the police ever linked her with Leanne, he didn’t want them finding her on his boat.

  He’d chosen a stretch of river that was secluded and weighted her pockets with bricks, knowing she’d float eventually. And now she had. It was on the news this morning. The police were bound to make the connection with Leanne.

  Jonty broke his own rule and got in touch with Seth Conway. They met in a quiet park, but even so, Conway had been a fucking wreck. He was as nervous as Jonty about being seen together. The irony of it. A murderer and a paedophile, and neither wanted anything to do with the other.

  “You didn’t have to kill them.” Seth, head in hands, crying like a baby.

  Jonty stared at him. “What? You were happy to go to prison?”

  “I was going to leave the country.”

  Jonty couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A combination of luck and charm had saved Seth’s skin in the past, but this time things were different. Leanne had been like a terrier with a rat between her teeth. She’d got the Kennedy girl on her side, and who knows how many of the other girls she’d have persuaded to testify if he hadn’t stopped her.

  “You came to me with this problem, remember? What did you think I was going to do? Talk to them about it? Counsel them?” Jonty brought his face close to Seth’s. “You threatened me, Seth. You said, ‘If I go down, I take you with me.’ Tell me that wasn’t your cowardly way of asking me to take care of Leanne
Jackson and the Kennedy girl.” Silence. “Thought so.”

  “What about the others?” Seth muttered. “The others in that group, back then?”

  “Even if Leanne managed to contact them, they won’t talk now that she’s dead. All you have to do is keep your head down for a bit. No more parties until I say so. The last thing you need is to be picked up on some underage sex charge and have your DNA and fingerprints setting off fireworks in the police databases.”

  Neither of them mentioned that other girl, but her death hung in the air between them. The one Seth hadn’t been able to help after Jonty finished with her. Sasha: fifteen years old, and on the game. No one missed her dead any more than they’d noticed her when she was alive. Jonty smiled at the memory. She’d been no beauty, but the way she screamed when Jonty punched her again and again was truly ravishing. Who needed beauty? None of them looked pretty when he’d finished with them. They were just meat — red, raw and ugly.

  Afterwards, Seth had punched her some more, in a pathetic attempt to restart her heart. When it refused to beat, he had gone to pieces. So, invigorated by the kill, Jonty assumed control. He cleaned up, disposed of the body, and even calmed Seth down, eventually. Not before Seth had muttered that he was through with Jonty, finished with putting girls his way to feed his ‘monstrous, sick appetite.’ Jonty couldn’t stop laughing at the absurdity of this — Seth assuming he occupied the higher moral ground.

  “You think you’re better than me?”

  “I’ve never killed anyone. I treat those girls well. Better than their families ever did. I love them.”

  “Love?” Now this really was a joke. Jonty knew something about the way paedos think. Seth genuinely believed he wasn’t harming his victims. He told Jonty once that he’d chosen to be a nurse because he loved children. Not a hint of irony. Seth really believed the evil monster inside him was nothing but a fluffy bunny rabbit.

  Jonty, on the other hand, had no illusions about himself. He knew very well that he was a twisted and evil being that fed on the pain of others. There was a word for it but Jonty didn’t care for labels. He regarded himself as unique. He wasn’t just another psychopath whose traits could be listed as typical in some student’s textbook.

  This whole business with Jackson and Kennedy had made Jonty wonder if Seth’s usefulness to him was worth the risk. He panicked and disposed of their bodies carelessly. Not Jonty. He doubted anyone would ever go looking for Sasha, but if they did, they’d find it hard. Only Seth could reveal her whereabouts. That was why Jonty listened when Seth threatened to take him down. Why he’d had to help him. Jonty knew that one of these days, he would have to deal with Seth once and for all.

  Chapter Eleven

  A couple of days after their visit to the Yeardsley Trust, Ava received a message from Beth Upton asking if they could meet. She suggested a café in a garden centre well away from town, the sort of place you might choose if you didn’t want to be seen by your work colleagues.

  The traffic was horrendous, and Ava was late getting there. Beth was sitting at a table inside, looking out towards the lake. She had evidently chosen this table because from where she was sitting, she had a clear view of both entrances. She looked up when Ava walked in.

  Ava slid into the seat across from her. “Nice to see you again, Beth.”

  “Thanks for meeting me. I didn’t feel I could talk freely at the office with everyone listening.” Beth’s eyes darted around the room. They were the only customers sitting inside. It was busy enough outside, where a number of silver-haired customers were enjoying the sunshine and the antics of the ducks waddling around on the decking.

  Ava waited, watching an array of expressions flit over Beth’s face. Whatever she had to say, it was causing her some internal conflict.

  “What do you know about Leanne’s background?” she asked at last.

  “Are you referring to the fact that she’d been in prison?”

  “Actually, no. I knew about that, of course. Bryony never mentioned it, but Stromford’s a small town. That kind of thing gets around. My husband grew up on the same estate as Leanne. Her family had a bad rep and it was common knowledge that Leanne ended up in prison. That, and the fact that her case was in the court reports in the Courier at the time. Paul, my husband, remembers reading about it. It was the first thing he said when I mentioned the name of my new colleague at work.”

  “Why did you ask what I knew about Leanne’s early life?”

  “I just wanted to know that you aren’t making the wrong assumptions.”

  “In what way?”

  “You know, assuming that she was into something illegal that might have got her killed. Because I’m pretty sure she wasn’t. In fact, I think Leanne was killed because she was investigating something illegal.”

  Ava nodded, impressed. Beth was cleverer than she seemed. Ava had learned to be patient, to wait. People who wanted to talk would get around to it in their own time. Still, she couldn’t resist a little prompt. “Did Leanne confide something in you, Beth?”

  Beth’s bottom lip trembled and her words poured out in a rush. “Yes. She was afraid. She believed that she was going to die. She thought Seth Conway was going to kill her.”

  Ava hadn’t expected this. “Leanne told you that?”

  “Not in those exact words.”

  “What did she say?” Ava leaned forward.

  “She said that if anything happened to her, I should contact the police and tell them about what she’d been investigating.” Ava held her breath. “I didn’t want to mention anything in front of Bryony because Leanne told me this one day when I saw her in town. She was on a day off but, er, I was on a . . . a sick day.” Ava nodded, understanding that she’d lied about the sickness. She didn’t speak up at work because she feared she’d get into trouble.

  “Did Leanne tell you what she’d been investigating, Beth? Did she give you any details?”

  “I—”

  “Bacon butty, lettuce, no mustard?” The waitress placed Ava’s order in front of her. “Enjoy.” Talk about bad timing.

  “Beth?”

  “No. She was going to tell me but she got too upset to speak. I was supposed to be going round to her place after the weekend, but . . .”

  But in the meantime, Leanne’s fears had been realised. Ava tore at her butty. Always the same. One step forward, two steps back.

  “I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner. I was hoping you’d investigate Seth Conway after what Bryony said about him mistreating that girl, but then I kept thinking, what if you didn’t? Supposing Seth did kill Leanne and he got away with it because I didn’t speak up?”

  Ava swallowed. “Please don’t apologise. Natalie told us Leanne might have been seeing Seth, so we are looking into him.”

  Beth frowned. “Between you and me, I wouldn’t believe everything Natalie says. We’ve caught her out on a few whoppers. When she started working at the Trust, she was always going on about her amazing boyfriend. It was all Sam this and Sam that. Honest to God you’d have thought the sun shone out of Sam’s . . . well, you know what I mean. To cut a long story short, it turned out Sam was a figment of her imagination. And there was other stuff about where she’d been and what she’d done — all made up.”

  Ava nodded. Tracking down Seth Conway was proving to be tricky. The Trust had given them an address he’d never lived at.

  They sat without speaking for a minute. Ava reached up to open a window and the sounds of the outside world drifted in, reminding her that there was more to life than just this case. She watched a pair of Egyptian ducks terrorising the other ducks at the lake’s edge. It reminded her of a story Neal told her about Archie feeding the ducks in the park one day. He’d been upset at their aggressive behaviour and had chased them away from the breadcrumbs he’d been scattering. ‘So unready for the world that is waiting for him,’ Neal had said.

  Beth was looking at her. “I hope I haven’t wasted your time, Sergeant Merry.”

 
Ava returned to the present. “Not at all. You’ve been very helpful.”

  “Is it alright if I go now?” Beth asked.

  “Sure. Are you doing anything nice with the rest of your free afternoon?”

  “I think I might just go home. I haven’t been sleeping well since I heard about Leanne. Maybe I’ll be able to relax, now that I’ve got this off my chest.”

  Ava watched Beth make her way to the side door. Suddenly her butty tasted of nothing at all.

  * * *

  “Success.” Looking smug, PJ put the phone down.

  “Michaela Howard?” Tom asked.

  PJ nodded. “Just had confirmation from Notts police about her drowning.”

  Tom handed her another glass of iced tea and perched on the edge of her desk.

  “Okay,” PJ continued, “So Michaela Howard drowned trying to rescue a dog from the river, as Bryony Whatsit told Ava and the chief. The dog drowned too. A young lad witnessed the tragedy.”

  “Any other witnesses?”

  “Nope.”

  “Was it Michaela’s dog?”

  “No, but it was chipped and the owners were traced. They claimed it had been missing for two days. Imagine how they must have felt when they learned it was the cause of a young woman’s death.”

  “Was there an inquest?”

  “Yes, the verdict was accidental death. But there were one or two anomalies. Michaela’s parents claimed she was afraid of water and never learned to swim. Then again, she was a real animal lover. Her mother said she couldn’t have passed a dog in distress without trying to rescue it.”

  Tom shook his head. “What sort of dumbass risks their life for a bloody dog?”

  “Michaela had ADHD. Impulsive behaviour is a common symptom. She would probably have reacted without thinking.”

  “Shit. You should have told me that before.”

  Soon, Tom had tracked down another of the women. “Alyssa Ballard emigrated to Australia. I’ll find her contact details and see if she can tell me anything about the other women on the list.”