by Anita Waller
‘Okay. Was Mr Bell going straight back to Sheffield?’
‘He said he was. I’ve been trying to remember what he said he was doing, and it somehow was connected to his wife, although she had left him. He’d no idea where she was, but she did something every Saturday afternoon and he was hoping to see her there. He’d been trying constantly to contact her, but she wasn’t replying.’
‘And you can’t remember what Mrs Bell does every Saturday afternoon?’
‘She probably meets up with other witches in the coven.’
And the vague notion forming in Liam’s head suddenly crystallised. Wife in the background or not, these two men were in a relationship and it was a serious one. This man was hurting. Liam suspected James Bell’s wife knew nothing of any clandestine trysts between the two men; she would have said something when they were asking him to keep their address secret.
‘I’m sure she doesn’t, Councillor, but I’ll ask her when I call to see her.’ Liam could detect the sarcasm in his tone and remembered Philippa Ray’s comment. ‘Can you think of anything else that might help?’
‘I went to Sheffield.’
‘A bit above and beyond, sir?’
‘He’s my friend. I went on Monday, the 25th of April. He hadn’t responded to any calls or texts the whole weekend and I’ll be honest, I thought he must be ill. His car was on the drive, but I got no reaction to knocking, or even throwing stones at the bedroom window. It might not have been his bedroom, of course, I’ve never been there. I came away and didn’t know what to do.’
‘You’ve left it nearly two weeks, sir.’
‘I know.’ Another hesitation, another tick. ‘Look, it’s really difficult. I’m a Councillor and I need votes to remain in that position. James is a senior official in the Labour party. You must have guessed we were in a relationship, surely.’
‘Yes, sir, I had. And how long have you been with Mr Bell?’
‘Six years or so. You must have realised that we needed to keep it quiet, but it’s been too long without contact. I need you to find him. Please keep in touch, DS Norwood.’
Liam replaced the receiver and leaned back in his chair, his thinking position. That had been a bit of a surprise, was his initial thought. And now he had to potentially go and break the news to the man’s wife. Claudia! A light bulb moment finally revealed the name to him. Claudia Bell.
He typed up the report on the telephone conversation while it was still fresh in his mind and slipped the printed copy into the file. He decided to leave interviewing Claudia Bell until Monday; he had no intentions of being late for his children, just on the off chance that this missing person case was a crime. But he could drive by the house, just check it out, make sure Bell wasn’t there. He could, after all, simply be keeping a low profile, trying to escape the clutches of Councillor Monroe. Maybe he’d had a change of heart about giving up his marriage for a man who hadn’t yet come out to the world.
‘I’m off, boss.’
Philippa looked at him over the top of her glasses. ‘Okay. You spoken to that Councillor?’
‘I have. Enlightening, shall we say.’
‘Never mind enlightening, did you employ sarcasm at any point in that conversation?’
‘Definitely not.’
‘You sure? I won’t be having to deal with an irate Council Leader on Monday morning?’
‘Not with what I know about Councillor Monroe, no. He’ll not dare complain about anything.’
‘Really? Tell me more.’
‘He was in a relationship, a very secret one, with the missing James Bell. And I’m certain Mrs Bell knew nothing about it. She walked away from the marriage because of increasing violence, not because he was gay. Neither of the men wanted it to be made public, but if anything has happened to James Bell, it’ll be more than public, I would say.’
Philippa stared at him, a thoughtful expression on her face. ‘You jump-starting it on Monday?’
‘I am. It’s not a high priority case, not at the moment anyway, and I’m not clocking up overtime for anybody. Monday is soon enough.’
‘Then use Rosie for as long as you need her. I’ve a tingle in these old bones about this one, Liam. And I can see you have.’
He nodded. ‘Monday it is then.’
Liam parked outside James Bell’s house and sat for a moment, just looking. He took in everything visible; the car in the driveway, the high privet hedge, curtains that were open, and the absence of any humans.
He got out of the car and walked towards the Sportage. Trying to open the boot was a futile exercise. He peered into every window, but nothing looked amiss.
He knocked twice on the front door, then lifted the letterbox and called James Bell’s name. Liam listened carefully but there was no response. Walking around to the back of the property, he peered inside the kitchen window. Everything looked normal, nothing out of place. After trying the back door, he moved along the wall to the dining room window, with just as little success.
The gate that led through to the Gower property was open, and he guessed it had been left open unwittingly by the CSI team; he didn’t close it. He wanted nothing disturbed. He passed through the gate and onto the next-door garden. After peering into the windows, he could see nothing that looked disturbed.
The tingle that Philippa Ray had spoken of was increasing. Monday morning would see some action. He would visit Claudia Bell and Mrs Gower – Heather, he thought her name was – and have a general chat with them, find out if they’d seen anything at all of James Bell, then he would come back to this house, and call in a forensic team. He would get keys for both properties from the ladies. Maybe telling them he was going into the houses would elicit some sort of response from them. Or maybe there was no response to be elicited.
James Bell hadn’t impressed Liam, the man had been bombastic, and quite rude; maybe he’d picked up a couple of enemies along the way who might wish him harm. He’d liked the ladies, had some admiration for the way they’d walked out on relationships that weren’t good for them; Liam honestly couldn’t imagine either of them being involved in Bell’s disappearance.
Liam sat in his car, lost in thought. Deep down, he felt that James Bell hadn’t just walked out of a life that wasn’t suiting him anymore; certainly Councillor Monroe had allowed a grief of sorts to be present in his voice. Liam had believed his relationship with James was strong.
Surely Bell would have talked it through with Monroe if he had been having second thoughts about their relationship. Although Liam hadn’t liked the man, he had taken away an impression of bluntness and forthrightness; no, James hadn’t voluntarily left his lover.
Liam glanced at the clock on his dashboard and saw he had fifteen minutes to get to his children. He would put all thoughts of James Bell and his convoluted life on a back burner until Sunday evening, after he had returned his children to their mother and new stepfather.
For now, he would become Daddy.
Chapter 17
Claudia was standing at the window, watching the footfall in the street below. It was always busy on Saturdays, and today was no exception. That’s when she noticed a man leaning against a fence on the opposite side of the road, staring at the bakery beneath the flat.
‘Heather, come and look out here.’ Heather walked across to join her. ‘Could that be Michelle’s stalker?’
Heather watched him for a moment. ‘If I had to guess, I’d say it was. Should I ring her?’
Claudia handed her phone to Heather. ‘I’ve taken a photo of him. Send that and ask her. And check she’s picked up a bell. We can do that when we get back from the cemetery this afternoon. Tell her we’ll be home for two, so if she wants to come up when the shop closes, that’s fine.’
She heard Heather tapping out the message, continuing to watch the man.
A couple of minutes later, he straightened himself and began to walk away. He glanced back towards the shop once, and then disappeared around the corner at the end of the road.
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Claudia’s phone pinged. Heather read the message and looked at her friend. ‘It was him. He hasn’t approached the shop, but he’s been standing there for half an hour. She got the bell last night when she went to the wholesalers for some supplies, so we’ll sort that this afternoon. She’s telling Steve that she’s bringing us some cake and we’re having a girlie afternoon, so he doesn’t suspect there’s a problem. Shall we go to the cemetery now? Then our day is free.’
‘But it’s not one o’clock yet.’
‘Claudia, my love, you’ve left him. He can’t dictate to you what time you visit your baby any longer. We can go when we want.’
Claudia shook her head. ‘I’m so stupid, aren’t I? Yes, let’s go now.’ She picked up her bag, and the women burst out laughing.
‘It’s taking some getting used to, this single life, isn’t it?’ Heather grinned at Claudia. ‘Come on, let’s go say hello to Ella.’
They bought flowers outside the cemetery gates as usual and drove through to the small car park. They walked up the incline to Ella’s grave, and Claudia immediately knelt.
‘Told you I’d bring your mummy this week, didn’t I, Ella?’ Heather said with a smile, and briefly touched the headstone.
‘I’ve missed you, baby,’ Claudia said, ‘but it won’t be too long before we’re together again, for always.’
Heather moved away. She couldn’t stand this. She looked around for traces of blood, either hers or James’s, but couldn’t see any. It seemed that the heavy rainfall over the previous couple of days had washed any last traces away. The headstone was clear of her own blood, but that didn’t matter so much as the trail she had left by dragging James to the car.
She turned to watch Claudia, who was replacing the dead flowers with the new ones. Claudia was crying.
‘You want a hug, Claud, or shall I wait in the car?’
‘Would you mind leaving me on my own?’
‘Of course not. Take as long as you need.’
‘Just watch for James arriving, will you?’
Heather nodded. ‘I will.’ She walked to the car park, feeling as down as she’d ever felt in her life.
Michelle arrived bearing gifts. Cakes. In the plural. They had a slice along with a coffee and then went down to the shop. Working with the shutters in place and by electric light rather than daylight, they placed the bell push button under the counter, screwing it in place so that Michelle simply had to lean forward and her finger would find it.
The cable was fed under the edge of the counter and round the back of the bread cabinet, concealed until it reached the window. They then fed it through the tiny ventilation window above the main plate glass shop-front window. Heather went up to the flat and leaned out of the window to grasp the end of the proffered cable, before pulling it up into the lounge. She told them to wait, in a loud stage whisper, then connected it to the bell’s speaker.
Two minutes later, they had a fully functioning alarm system. Claudia and Michelle locked the bakery and climbed the stairs into the flat. This time they had a glass of wine with the cake and saluted their ingenuity.
‘That will make such a difference,’ Michelle said, a wide smile on her face. ‘I won’t be half as worried now. My two dragons will barrel down the stairs to rescue me if he comes into the shop. However, that bit you do have to understand. If that bell rings, he’s in the shop with me and I will be alone. I won’t ever ring it if someone else is in there.’
They raised thumbs to indicate they understood.
‘Right, I’m going to head off home now, leave you two in peace.’
‘Are you ringing Steve to come get you?’ Claudia was concerned.
‘No, I’ll be fine. It’s the middle of the afternoon. And let’s face it, it’s only a two-minute walk.’
‘Then we’ll walk back with you. Seeing George this morning has made me a bit uneasy.’ Claudia was firm. ‘No arguing.’
Michelle laughed. ‘You’re right. We’ve just done this to protect me and I say I’m okay to walk home. Of course I’m not. Thank you, ladies, if you’re absolutely sure.’
She picked up her bag, and they all went downstairs.
They strolled along the front of the shops, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine, then passed through the gennel leading to the doctors, and onwards to the road of new houses where Michelle and Steve lived.
They heard the rev of the car but didn’t think anything about it. Stopping at the kerbside before crossing over, they waited patiently for the car to pass them. It mounted the pavement just before it reached them, but Heather had sensed something was happening, and was already pushing the other two backwards. All three landed in a tangled heap and the car screamed off, leaving them to pick themselves up.
Heather was first on her feet. ‘Claud…’
‘Don’t panic. I’m fine. I landed on Michelle.’
‘Michelle?’
She looked up at Heather, nursing her arm. ‘I landed a bit awkwardly. Think I’ve done something to my wrist.’
Heather moved quickly towards her and helped her to stand. ‘Can you walk?’
‘Think so. My ankle hurts, but not as much as my wrist. Was it him?’
‘I don’t know. I couldn’t tell. But this puts a whole new slant on it. If you’d been on your own, he could have killed you.’
Claudia carefully felt all the operation sites and thought nothing had been damaged; her leg was still a problem anyway, and it didn’t look as though the fall had made it any worse. She simply felt sick and knew that was shock. She leaned over the wall that they had all hit as they fell to the floor and she vomited. It seemed to go on forever; Heather patted her back, making soothing noises, and eventually she was able to stand up.
‘I’m okay,’ she said. ‘Let’s get Michelle home before he comes back. But this can’t carry on. The police have to take some action.’
‘Unfortunately,’ Michelle said drily, ’it’s not the police taking action that bothers me, it’s more Steve taking action. I know he seems like a lovely man, and he is, but if anybody upsets me, he’s lethal. I can’t tell him about this. I’m just going to tell him I fell over as we were walking back. Please, don’t tell him the truth.’
‘If that’s what you want. But we need to talk about this. You can’t live your life waiting for him to come for you again. And now it’s going to affect your business, because that wrist looks broken to me. I think you’re going to A and E tonight.’
Michelle nodded. ‘I can’t move it without feeling sick with the pain. I’ll get Steve to take me. Can you just help me home? I can’t really put weight on my ankle as well. You’re right, we have to do something. But it can’t be anything Steve knows about. Promise me.’
She was clearly agitated and the two women both nodded. They delivered her to Steve who immediately went to get the car out of the garage.
‘I’ll ring you later,’ Michelle said, ‘and let you know how I’ve gone on, and how many limbs I have left.’
‘As long as you realise I can’t bake,’ Heather said with a grin. ‘Not even under instruction.’
Steve pulled the car towards them, and Michelle climbed in. She put down the window and leaned out. ‘You’ll be okay walking home?’
‘We’ll be fine,’ Claudia said. ‘Go and get that looked at, don’t worry about us.’
They waved as the car disappeared down the road and Heather turned to Claudia. ‘What’s hurting?’
‘My leg,’ she said. ‘Let’s go home, Heather. I need to have a look at it.’
The walk back to the flat was much slower than the one they had taken with Michelle. Claudia was limping and holding on to Heather. Both breathed a sigh of relief as they climbed the stairs into the flat.
‘Right, trousers off and let’s have a look at the wound.’
Claudia dropped her trousers to the floor, stepped out of them, and kicked them to one side. ‘I haven’t even the strength to pick them up,’ she said with a smile.
‘L
et me get a towel for you to sit on, because the wound’s bleeding,’ Heather said. ‘I think I can deal with it though.’
She covered the armchair seat with a towel and lowered Claudia onto it, then raised the recliner so that her leg was comfortable.
She went for the first aid kit, cleaned the bloody part of the wound, and steri-stripped it closed. Neither spoke.
Claudia closed her eyes, then opened them when she felt Heather putting on her pyjama trousers.
‘Thank you,’ she said with a grateful smile. ‘You must have read my mind.’
Heather laughed. ‘I’m putting mine on too. Don’t think we’ll be going clubbing tonight. Quiet night in, good film on telly, or even an early night, whichever you want.’
‘We’ll go clubbing next week,’ Claudia said with a yawn. ‘In Paris. At least we won’t get run over in the street.’
Heather laughed. ‘There speaks someone who’s never crossed the Place de la Concorde before. Believe me, you’ll need running shoes. You want me to book everything?’
‘Yes. Let’s go Wednesday to Sunday. Is that long enough?’
‘It’s long enough to see the main sights, but it’s also long enough for you, you’re still not well. You speak French, Claud?’
‘Non.’
‘That should be fun then. None at all?’
‘Non. I can count to ten, and I think I know the days of the week…’
‘Then you need to get on that computer and learn some. You’ve four days. Let’s hope it’s a quiet four days.’
‘Let’s hope.’
‘I’ll do us something to eat, and then I’ll get on the Internet and book us a swish Parisian trip. As I said, first class all the way for you from now on, Claudia Bell.’
Claudia laughed. ‘I’m not arguing with that. But don’t do me anything to eat. I don’t feel as if I want anything. I’ll build up my appetite for the frog’s legs.’
She stood slowly and walked to the window. The street was deserted, no stalkers in view.