The Kate Fletcher Series

by Heleyne Hammersley

  He looked up at Kate, eyes suddenly full of hope as if a new thought had just struck him. ‘What was she doing on Town Fields? She went to work. Do you think it might be somebody else? Somebody who looks like Melissa?’

  Tears magnified his blue eyes, contrasting starkly with his tear-darkened lashes.

  ‘I’m sorry, Ryan. There’s no real doubt. You gave us a really good description.’

  His face went blank as though he hadn’t heard or couldn’t process her response.

  ‘How?’ he asked. ‘How did she die?’

  ‘At the moment we think she was murdered.’

  He winced at the word, his head flinching back. ‘That can’t be right,’ he said. ‘Who’d want to kill Mel? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s probably not her.’

  Kate took a deep breath. ‘Ryan. We need somebody to identify the body; to confirm that it is Melissa. Do you think you can do that? Do you want me to contact somebody who can come with you?’

  Buckley shook his head. ‘No. It needs to be me. No point in upsetting her mam or her sister if it’s probably not her. Where do I have to go?’ He stood up and looked at the door as if he was expecting them to take him straight away.

  ‘She’s at the DRI, the Doncaster Royal Infirmary,’ Kate said. ‘But it probably won’t be until tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know that we think we’ve found her because I knew that you were worried sick about your wife.’

  He stared at her wide-eyed like a child eager to please a parent. ‘I was worried sick. I rang round everybody I could think of. I tried to find her.’

  Kate wasn’t sure whether he was trying to convince himself or her so she let him continue.

  ‘They all said no, they hadn’t seen her. I know we’d had a row but she’d never stayed away that long before. I tried to find her. I really did.’

  The tears were back, spilling down his cheeks, but he seemed oblivious to them, lost in a scenario where he was the hero desperately searching for his missing wife. He settled back into his chair and looked from Kate to Hollis.

  ‘You married?’ he asked. Hollis shook his head.

  ‘Best thing I ever did, marrying Mel. Some of her mates told her that she was too good for me – probably true – but she never made me feel like that. She’s always really interested in people, likes a natter with anybody. She was a Goth when I first knew her. Came in to pick up her mam’s car and got chatting with Charley on reception about music. I came in with the keys and they were in their own little world. She had to pack all that in when she started on the trains though – they have a strict uniform policy. She…’ He looked round as though he’d suddenly remembered where he was, and why. One hand drifted to the arm of the chair and his fingers began to peck aimlessly at the filthy velour.

  ‘Ryan?’ Kate squatted down in front of him and leaned in close. ‘I know this is really difficult but we want to find whoever did this to Melissa. Is there anything that you can tell us, or anything that you think you should have already told us that might help?’

  Silence. The man stared onto space, completely lost.

  Kate’s phone rang cutting through the stillness of the room like a siren. She fumbled it out of her pocket. Barratt. ‘Ryan, I really need to take this call. If you think of anything please, please tell DC Hollis.’

  She pushed open the door, and gratefully sucked in a lungful of fresh air. ‘Barratt? Got anything?’

  She trotted down the rickety wooden steps of the Portakabin and huddled against a high brick wall that protected one side of the property, listening as Barratt filled her in on what he’d learnt.

  ‘Two things. First – Melissa Buckley wasn’t rostered to work on Saturday, it was a day off and she’d booked it a week ago. Oh, and there’s a staff locker room where the work clothes are kept so leaving home in her street clothes wasn’t unusual.’

  ‘What’s the other thing?’

  ‘Melissa’s car. It’s parked on one of the streets near Town Fields. Uniforms are knocking doors in the area as we speak to see if anybody saw her on Saturday but it’s a busy spot – a large nursery for under-fives, a dentist, a couple of shops. They might get lucky, though. It might have been fairly quiet at the weekend – the nursery and the dentist are only open for a couple of hours in the morning.’

  ‘Forensics checking out the car?’

  ‘Yep. I rang it in to Raymond and he okayed it straight away. I knew you were at the PM and I didn’t think it should wait until I could clear it with you.’

  ‘No. You did the right thing. Where are you off to next?’

  ‘I thought I’d have a look at where the car was found, see if anything jumps out at me.’

  A sudden thought struck Kate. ‘Matt, was the car found anywhere near where the body was discovered?’

  ‘Nope. Opposite side of the fields.’

  She’d been trying to imagine Buckley using Melissa’s own car to dump the body and then simply abandoning the vehicle in a nearby street. It would have been sloppy, but very convenient. Or had Melissa been visiting whoever had killed her and they’d dumped her body as far away from their home as possible? Too many unknowns.

  ‘Ryan, did Melissa know anybody who lived near Town Fields? A friend, a family member?’ Kate asked as soon as she stepped back into the fug of the Portakabin.

  He looked at her and frowned. ‘Not that I know of. Why?’

  ‘Was her dentist there?’

  He shook his head. ‘She goes to the one in Rossington, same as me.’

  ‘And you don’t have children?’ she asked, thinking about Barratt’s list of businesses in the area where the car was found.

  Buckley froze. His facial expression hardened and his eyes narrowed. ‘No. No, we don’t have kids.’

  There was something there. Kate wasn’t sure what, but she’d managed to push a button without realising it. Something about the subject of kids had got Ryan Buckley very wary. ‘Did you want kids, Ryan? Did Melissa?’

  ‘Of course. Everybody wants kids, don’t they?’ He looked at Hollis for confirmation but the DC kept his face neutral.

  ‘So you were trying?’ Kate asked, thinking of the fake caesarean scar.

  The tears were back. ‘We were doing more than that. We were having IVF. That’s what we argued about before she left. It wasn’t working and she’d started talking about using a sperm donor. It was my fault, see? We wanted to keep trying with the IVF but it would have cost us a fortune. I said something about it being a waste of money and she took it all wrong. I didn’t mean that having kids was a waste of money… I just didn’t think it was going to work for us. She was furious. She stormed off and… and…’ His words were muffled by hiccupping sobs.

  Kate kept hearing Kailisa describe the wound in Melissa’s abdomen as ‘ritualistic’. Was this the answer? Buckley didn’t want his wife using another man’s sperm to get pregnant so he strangled her and then made the cut to rid himself of the idea that somebody else’s baby was inside her?

  ‘Ryan,’ she said gently, ‘I think we need to have another chat back at the police station.’

  Chapter 6

  ‘Coffee?’ Kate asked, plonking the cardboard cup on Cooper’s desk. The younger woman smiled gratefully. Short and blonde with freckles, it would have been easy to mistake Sam Cooper for a teenager. She looked much younger than twenty-seven, but her intellect was way beyond her years and that was why Kate valued her input.

  ‘Found anything?’

  Cooper took a long swig of coffee before replying.

  ‘Not a thing. I’ve managed to track her car on CCTV from where she joined the A638 to where she turned off Thorne Road. Time stamps show that she left home at around 10am and turned off Thorne Road about half an hour later. We know where her car ended up so the CCTV really doesn’t add anything.’

  Kate sipped her own coffee trying to make sense of Melissa Buckley’s behaviour. There were a few commercial properties in the area but Ryan had already ruled out the nursery and the dentist. She mus
t have been meeting somebody, or visiting one of the buildings in the streets around Town Fields but who and where?

  ‘Okay. How about the car park for the sports facilities? Anything on that from the night that the body was left or the morning it was found?’

  Cooper sighed and tapped her keyboard.

  ‘Have a look,’ she said, pushing her chair away from her desk so that Kate could see her monitor more clearly. ‘Can’t see much during the night as it’s not lit apart from an outside light on the main changing block and that only lights up about ten square feet of car park.’

  She tapped another key and the blurry darkness flickered and started to dissipate as dawn broke.

  ‘There’s Duncan Cawthorne,’ she said, pointing at a figure climbing out of a large 4x4.

  Kate watched as he removed cones, balls and bibs and left the car park, out of view of the camera. Sam sped up the footage until two police cars arrived.

  ‘It gets a bit busier after this as people start to suss out that something’s going on.’

  A few people arrived and started to mill around the cars. Small groups, twos and threes, gradually forming larger groups whose members split off as others arrived. Nobody stood out. Nobody looked like they shouldn’t be there. There were joggers, dog walkers and a couple with two small children and a football.

  Was he watching? Kate wondered. Standing in the crowd enjoying the chaos that he’d caused? ‘Thanks, Sam,’ Kate said. ‘Can you start digging into her phone records? I’ll text you the details. And her bank account.’

  In the corridor, Kate bumped into O’Connor who was slouching along with his hands in his jeans pockets and his head bowed, looking despondent. His shirt was wrinkled and his mop of red hair looked like he’d been outside in a high wind. Kate was often surprised by her DS’s lack of interest in his own appearance, especially when compared to the two other men on her team.

  ‘No luck, Steve?’

  He glanced up at her, clearly startled to see her. ‘Not a thing. Nobody can remember seeing anything suspicious. It sounds like there weren’t too many girls out that night. Might still be a bit chilly.’

  ‘So why the long face? Can’t be the first time you’ve drawn a blank on a line of enquiry.’

  He shook his head. ‘It’s not just that. There’s been a bit of a shift of allegiances out there. Some of the regulars have moved on. There’s somebody new sniffing around and I don’t think it’s good news.’

  Kate understood O’Connor’s concern. He spent a lot of time cultivating his contacts and even the slightest shift in loyalties and agreements could mean that he had to start again with new faces, new problems and new villains.

  ‘I’m sure you’ll suss it out,’ Kate said. ‘And while you’re here, could you have a word with Sam. She’s digging into the Buckleys’ financial situation and you’re good at spotting the dodgy stuff.’

  He gave her a grin and pointed to the ceiling. ‘Upstairs first,’ he said. ‘I’m starving. You can’t deny a man his lunch.’

  ‘Course not. Get Sam a burger as well – I bet she’s not had anything since she came in this morning.’

  Hollis was waiting for her in the observation room. He still looked rough but he gave her a smile and gestured towards the glass. ‘He’s been there for half an hour. I’ve checked with his boss and Buckley was definitely at work on Saturday when Melissa was last seen. Got in at around eight and stayed until just after one. I’ve sent somebody round to Melissa’s sister to ask her if she or her mum can ID the body. Kailisa’s finished so they can do it this evening. I thought it best to get it done just in case we need to keep him.’

  Kate nodded her approval. Buckley’s revelations about the IVF treatment had chimed with the fake caesarean wound and Kate wasn’t fully convinced that Buckley wasn’t the killer. Did he suspect that Melissa was having an affair or even possibly carrying another man’s child? She studied the man sitting at the table in the next room. He seemed stronger than he did in the earlier interview, more determined. His head was raised and he was staring straight in front of him, the muscles in his jaw clenching and unclenching as he waited. He was certainly powerful enough to be their attacker but what was his motive?

  ‘Right, let’s go,’ she grabbed an empty folder from the desk and marched down the corridor.

  Buckley scowled up at Kate and Hollis as they entered the interview room. He’d agreed to accompany them to Doncaster Central but Kate wasn’t sure how he’d react when she cautioned him. She was surprised when he listened to the formulaic phrases dispassionately. He made no objection to the interview being recorded and didn’t ask for legal representation.

  ‘So, Ryan,’ Kate said. ‘Do you understand why you’re here?’

  ‘Because you’re not doing your job properly?’

  The belligerence was shocking after the pathos of his initial reaction to his wife’s death. It was almost like he’d turned into a different person. She ignored his insult.

  ‘Ryan, we need to ask you some more questions because of some things that were discovered at the post-mortem.’

  He shook his head. ‘How do you know it’s even her? I’m supposed to be identifying her body.’

  Hollis opened his mouth, presumably to let Buckley know that his sister-in-law and her mother had now been asked to perform that unpleasant task, but Kate silenced him with a shake of her head.

  ‘We’ll get to that later,’ she said. ‘I really need you to answer some questions about your IVF treatment.’

  He screwed up his face in disbelief. ‘What the hell has that got to do with what happened to my wife?’

  ‘That’s what we want to find out,’ Kate said.

  Buckley looked around the room, his eyes lingering on the mirrored glass on one wall. ‘Am I under arrest? Because, if not, I don’t have to be here, do I? You can’t keep me here if I don’t want to stay.’

  ‘True,’ Kate said. ‘But, if you decide to leave, it might make me wonder why. We need your help and, if you had nothing to do with what happened to Melissa, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t co-operate. I understand that you’re upset and I know that this is really difficult but I need to try to work out what happened to your wife.’

  He tapped his teeth together nervously, an insect-like clicking, looking from Kate to Hollis, visibly trying to decide whether or not to run. Kate watched as his face relaxed; he’d clearly realised that staying was the more sensible course of action.

  ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘But if I don’t like what you’re asking, I’ll leave. Or you can arrest me and throw me in a cell. To be honest I’m not much bothered either way.’

  He pushed his chair back slightly from the desk as though he wanted to create as much distance as possible between himself and their questions, then waited for Kate to continue.

  ‘I want to know more about the IVF treatment, Ryan. Specifically how long you’ve been having it and where.’

  ‘Why? What’s that got to do with anything?’

  ‘There are some injuries on the body we found which initially led us to believe that the woman might be pregnant,’ Kate said, trying to make her tone as apologetic as possible. Buckley just stared at her.

  ‘She wasn’t,’ Kate continued.

  Buckley exhaled loudly.

  ‘Would you have expected her to be?’ she asked, gently. ‘Did the last round of IVF work?’

  He shook his head and lowered his eyes. ‘None of it worked,’ he admitted. ‘Too many problems.’

  ‘With you or her?’ Hollis interjected. Kate was glad that he’d been the one to ask the question. Buckley might feel more comfortable admitting his fertility problems to another man and she hadn’t been sure how to broach the subject without putting his back up again.

  ‘I tell people it’s me but really it’s both of us,’ Buckley muttered. ‘She’s only ever had irregular periods and my er… sperm… has low motility. Slow swimmers. I think it was more to do with me than her though.’

  That poured col
d water on Kate’s theory that Melissa had been trying to get pregnant with another man. If she had problems too there was little likelihood of that happening so not much point in her trying.

  ‘So you tried IVF? Was that your first course of action?’

  He snorted derisively. ‘Do you know how hard it is to get IVF on the NHS? We had to go through loads of rounds of AI, artificial insemination, before they’d even consider us. And then you get three goes and that’s it. We’d had our three goes. Mel suggested that we go private. She’d found a clinic in Sheffield but it was five grand a time. We don’t have that sort of money.’

  ‘So that’s what you argued about, on the day she left?’ Kate prompted.

  Buckley nodded miserably. ‘I told her that I thought it was too much. That if it wasn’t going to happen naturally then we could look at adoption but she wouldn’t have it. She was determined to carry our child.’

  Kate believed him. She’d never been in the same situation but she’d had a few friends who had been determined to have a child and who had been willing to do just about anything to get pregnant. Much as she loved her son, Ben, she’d never felt that all-consuming need to have a baby. She’d been happy when she’d found out that she was pregnant and would still do anything for her son but she genuinely couldn’t claim a biological need to be a mother.

  ‘I need you to go through events of last Friday again, Ryan,’ Kate said. ‘You argued and she slept in the spare room. Can you remember any details of the argument?’

  Buckley shook his head. ‘It was horrible. She said that she was going to withdraw money from our savings for more IVF and I tried to get her to stop and think about it. She took that as me trying to tell her that I wanted to give up. Called me a few choice names and blamed me for her not getting pregnant. She even said that she’d have been better off marrying somebody else. Somebody who was more of a man.’

  ‘Did she mention anybody by name?’