Cradle to Grave

by Rachel Amphlett

‘I wish I’d known her. I wish we’d had the chance.’ Exhaling, she pulled away from her mother and smiled at her father. ‘Thanks for coming here with us.’

  He nodded, unable to speak.

  Adam tapped him on the arm. ‘Tell you what, Phil – let’s wander back to the car and let these two have a moment, shall we?’

  Kay watched as the two men wandered back to the main path, their voices a low murmur.

  ‘Will she be all right? The little girl you found?’

  She turned to her mother. ‘I hope so. The specialist is interviewing her tomorrow, and we’ve given her mother the note of a psychologist who can help if needs be.’

  ‘Did he hurt her?’

  ‘We don’t know for sure. Not yet. I hope not.’

  They began to stroll towards the car park, the breeze wafting across Kay’s shoulders and rustling the leaves in the maple and silver birch trees. The colours were beginning to change, with a subtle tone of yellow and orange in the boughs that bordered the cemetery, and a scattering of early fallen leaves covered the grass.

  Her mother stopped walking, and reached out for her arm. ‘Wait.’

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Her mother took a deep breath. ‘I just wanted to tell you. Now I understand why you do this, Kay. I’m so proud of you.’

  Kay blinked back tears, and put her arm around her mother’s shoulders.

  ‘Thank you.’

  Forty

  The following morning, Kay drained the dregs of her third coffee and shoved the mug across the desk.

  The team had spent the time since the morning briefing helping Bethany to set up interview room two in such a way that it wouldn’t intimidate Alice.

  Barnes and Piper had wrestled a small coffee table and two comfortable armchairs that had been rented for the day across the car park and into the building, and these had been set out next to a colourful rug and a box of toys. The older detective had disappeared at nine o’clock, much to Kay’s consternation, until he reappeared half an hour later with a small collection of toy cars.

  ‘Annette told you that Alice wanted to be a racing driver, remember?’ he said. ‘I thought these might help.’

  Kay had smiled, knowing that Alice’s abduction had brought back painful memories for her colleague, and was touched that he had put so much thought into Alice’s wellbeing for the forthcoming interview.

  She pulled her chair closer to her desk as her phone rang, the station’s reception number showing on the caller ID.

  ‘Hunter.’

  ‘It’s Hughes on the front desk, guv. Mrs Victor is here with Alice.’

  ‘Thanks, I’ll be right there. Can you show them through to the room that we’ve set up so that she can get Alice settled in?’

  She replaced the receiver in the cradle, and signalled to her two detective constables.

  ‘Carys, Piper – get yourselves over to Ken Archerton’s offices and speak with Melissa Lampton. See if she can shed any light on Greg Victor’s statement that Robert was in danger. Ask her if he received any threats while he was at work. After you’ve done that, head over to Ken’s house and find out whether he’s had any threats against the business or his employees. Hopefully with Annette out of the way, he’ll feel more inclined to talk.’

  ‘Will do, guv,’ said Gavin. ‘Good luck with Alice.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Kay. ‘This isn’t going to be easy for any of us. Barnes – are you ready?’

  ‘Yes, guv.’

  Kay gathered up her notebook, mobile phone and a couple of pens and began to walk towards the door behind him, when Gavin called out.

  ‘Hey, Ian.’

  Barnes stopped and looked over his shoulder. ‘What?’

  Carys held up the toy that now took pride of place on his desk.

  ‘Don’t forget to take your rabbit,’ she said.

  ‘Very funny.’

  Barnes rolled his eyes as the incident room filled with laughter, and Kay grinned.

  ‘You knew you were asking for it, leaving it on your desk,’ she said, giving him a gentle shove towards the door. ‘Why didn’t you take it home?’

  ‘Because I’ve got nowhere to put it there – anyway what would Pia say?’ He reached the top of the stairs and paused. ‘To be honest, I like it there on my desk. It reminds me why I do this.’

  Kay smiled, and then followed him down the stairs towards the interview suites.

  The door to interview room two was open, and as she walked in Bethany and Annette fell silent and turned to her.

  Alice stood next to her mother, her face downturned.

  Kay took one look at the child’s red-rimmed eyes and turned to Annette. ‘I realise this is going to be upsetting for both of you, but it’s an essential part of our ongoing investigation as to why all this happened. We’ll try our best to make it as easy as possible for Alice, and she’ll be made comfortable here.’

  Annette dabbed a crumpled tissue to her eyes, then sniffed and forced a smile as she looked at her daughter. ‘Are you going to help Detective Hunter and her team this morning?’

  The five-year-old lowered her gaze to her feet, bounced the toe of her shoe on the tiled floor, and shrugged.

  ‘Yes,’ she said.

  ‘I brought you some new cars,’ said Barnes. ‘Do you want to see what they are?’

  Alice’s face brightened as she took the toys from him and wandered across to the coffee table.

  Kay turned back to Annette. ‘Before we start Alice’s interview, I wanted to ask you about some entries on Robert’s bank statements. One of my colleagues noticed there have been some large deposits of money made each month since April.’

  ‘Oh, he told me they were some sort of performance bonuses he’d received, that’s all,’ said Annette. ‘He made a couple of good deals for the business earlier in the year.’

  As the sound of Alice’s attempts at engine noises and sudden braking filled the room, Kay gestured to Bethany. ‘We should let them talk, Annette. Do you want to come with me? I’ll find someone to get you a cup of tea or something, and you can wait in our canteen area.’

  The girl’s mother took a deep breath, and then nodded. ‘All right. I suppose the sooner you start, the sooner it’s over and done with, isn’t it? I’ll be back in a bit, Alice.’

  ‘Okay, Mummy.’

  Bethany adjusted the ear piece she wore. ‘Guv, give me a couple of seconds to make sure I can hear you properly when you get in the observation suite, please.’

  ‘Will do.’

  Kay sent Annette off to the canteen with a police constable and then settled in one of the chairs opposite the monitors in the observation suite next door.

  Bethany had been playing with Alice and now each of them sat in an armchair, the toy cars zooming back and forth across the table between them.

  Kay spoke into the microphone next to the monitor, and Bethany took a moment to ensure Alice was preoccupied before glancing up at one of the cameras and nodding.

  She sat back in her seat and forced herself to relax. The communications link was the only way she and Barnes would be able to interact with Alice now, and she bit her lip as she listened to the ABE officer guide Alice through the carefully prepared script.

  Each question had been formed in such a way as to coax information out of the little girl without causing her undue distress.

  ‘Here we go,’ Barnes muttered under his breath. ‘Come on, Alice. You can do this.’

  Forty-One

  Gavin fell into step beside Carys, shielding his eyes from the sun as he crossed the busy road beside her.

  He emitted a low whistle as he gazed up at the stonework of the wine merchants’ office building, and then chuckled at the blue plaque on the wall above one of the front windows.

  ‘Some office.’

  ‘I know – wait until you see the inside. Bloody luxury compared to ours.’ Carys grinned, and pushed open the front door.

  As he took in his surroundings, Gavin let his
colleague take the lead and watched as she approached the woman sitting behind the reception desk.

  The two women spoke in low voices, but after seeing confusion sweep across Carys’s features he wandered over.

  ‘Is something the matter?’

  ‘This is Sharon Eastman,’ said Carys. ‘Ms Eastman was just telling me that Melissa Lampton no longer works here.’

  ‘What?’ Gavin frowned. ‘Why not?’

  The receptionist’s lips narrowed. ‘I’m sorry, I’m not allowed to talk about personnel matters.’

  ‘When did she leave?’ he said.

  ‘Yesterday morning.’

  ‘Were you here at the time?’

  She sat down and ran her gaze over her computer screen and keyboard, her face miserable. ‘Yes.’

  ‘What happened, Sharon?’ said Carys, her voice softening.

  Gavin raised his gaze to the staircase off to his left and the landing above the reception area, but the space was quiet. Beyond a closed door, he could hear a woman’s laughter, and then voices. His gaze fell back to the receptionist.

  ‘You can tell us, Sharon. It might help.’

  The woman pulled a crumpled paper tissue from the sleeve of her blouse, and blew her nose. She blinked.

  ‘I can only tell you what I heard. I didn’t see anything.’

  ‘All right, go on,’ said Carys.

  ‘It happened just after I got here, so about twenty past eight. I like to get here ten to fifteen minutes before I’m supposed to start at half eight – it gives me time to sort myself out and get a coffee before I take the phones off the night-time answering service.’

  Gavin remained silent, his jaw clenched.

  ‘I’d just sat down here and was about to put my headset on when I heard someone shouting upstairs. At first, I thought someone was larking around, but then he sounded angry.’

  ‘Who sounded angry?’ said Carys.

  ‘John Lavender – he’s in a similar role to what Robert was doing.’

  ‘How long has he worked here?’

  ‘Six months. Ken brought him on when his health took a turn for the worse after the winter, so he could take on some of his workload.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘I heard a woman speaking then, as if she was trying to calm him down, and recognised Melissa’s voice.’

  ‘Could you hear what was being said?’

  Sharon shook her head.

  ‘What happened next?’ said Gavin.

  ‘I heard a door opening.’ The receptionist lowered her voice and leaned closer. ‘John’s office is the one at the far end of the corridor – left at the top of the stairs. I heard it slam, and then footsteps across the landing above my desk here. It must’ve been Melissa, because I heard her speaking to one of the girls in the admin office, and then she came down here. She handed me her key card to the front door, and the mobile phone she uses for work.’

  ‘Did she say anything to you?’ said Carys.

  ‘Yes. She said that John had asked her to leave. She said he’d told her that with Robert dead, they couldn’t afford to keep her on because there was no need for a spare personal assistant. She was shaking by the time she walked out the front door.’

  Gavin exhaled, and raised an eyebrow at his colleague before turning back to Sharon. ‘I don’t suppose you have an address for her, do you?’

  Sharon bit her lip. ‘I can’t – I’ll get into so much trouble. You’ll have to ask Mr Archerton or John when he comes back into the office later.’

  ‘He’s out at the moment?’

  ‘Yes, he had a ten o’clock meeting in Hythe.’

  ‘All right,’ said Carys. She pulled a business card from her bag and handed it over. ‘Thanks for your time. Can you give that to Mr Lavender when he comes back and ask him to call us?’

  The phone beside Sharon began to ring as she turned the card between her fingers, and she nodded. ‘I will.’

  Gavin walked across the plush carpet to the front door and held it open for Carys. He paused on the pavement and stared up at the building.

  ‘That was a bit sudden.’

  ‘Wasn’t it just?’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind hearing Melissa’s side of the story.’

  ‘Me too. Come on – I’ll drive while you see if you can trace an address for her.’

  Moments later, Carys was steering through traffic as Gavin held his phone to his ear.

  ‘Who’s this John Lavender bloke she was talking about?’ she said. ‘I’m trying to remember him from the statements.’

  ‘He’s a sales rep like Robert was,’ he said. ‘A couple of years younger, though. I think he’s from Staplehurst way.’

  ‘We ought to speak to him this afternoon if he doesn’t phone us back.’

  ‘Hang on,’ said Gavin. He pressed the speakerphone option as his call was answered. ‘Debbie? Can you find out an address for Melissa Lampton for us? She’s not at work – apparently she left yesterday and won’t be back.’

  ‘No problem.’

  He heard the shuffle of paperwork, and then the deft strike of keys as Debbie ran an online search.

  ‘Here you go – she must be one of the last people around here with a landline phone number that isn’t ex-directory. It’s an address in Borough Green. I’ll text it through.’

  ‘Thanks, Debs.’

  ‘Are you going to call her first?’ said Carys.

  ‘No.’ The phone emitted a ping, and he read out the address. ‘I don’t want to give her an excuse to go anywhere before we get there.’

  He gave Carys the address and then settled back for the short ride. ‘What do you think is going on?’

  She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Maybe Robert was working behind Ken’s back to try to do a deal with another supplier or something. I mean, at the moment, we don’t even know if Greg’s telling the truth about what happened. It could have been him. He could’ve shot his brother and he’s lying through his teeth. I guess we won’t know unless Alice can shed some light.’

  ‘She comes across as a good kid, doesn’t she? Bright, I mean.’

  ‘Let’s hope so,’ said Carys. ‘Because we’re clutching at straws at the moment, aren’t we?’

  He could hear the frustration in his colleague’s voice, but there were no platitudes he could offer.

  Forty-Two

  Melissa Lampton lived in a semi-detached property in a cul-de-sac off the main road through Borough Green.

  Carys pushed through a wooden gate into a neat garden with concrete pavers that led to a brightly painted front door, and noted that the 1930s-built house had been undergoing a revamp. Pots of varying sizes had been placed on the doorstep, the steady hum of bees accompanying a waft of fragrances from strongly scented lavender and abelias.

  After pressing the doorbell, she gave the letterbox a rap for good measure, and then stifled a yawn.

  Making the switch from night shifts to day always left her wretched and discombobulated for at least forty-eight hours, and she didn’t miss her time as a police constable. She always struggled to sleep, and had no idea how people managed eight hours or more – or why that was considered normal.

  ‘Do you want to get a coffee after this?’ said Gavin, his eyes concerned.

  She managed a smile. ‘Good idea. Your round, isn’t it?’

  ‘Very funny.’

  They turned back to the door as it opened and Melissa Lampton appeared, her grey eyes wide as her gaze moved from them to the street beyond and then back.

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘We wondered if we could have a quick word, Ms Lampton. Can we come in?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  Carys stepped into a hallway that was in the process of being decorated. A stepladder had been folded up and leaned against the wall behind the front door, while a bundle of dust sheets covered the carpet beside the staircase. Various tins of paint were lined up alongside the ladder, with two brushes balanced across the lids.

  ‘I can’t
decide which colour to go for,’ said Melissa. She crossed her arms over her chest. ‘What do you want, anyway? I’ve already given my statement and spoke to you on Monday.’

  ‘We understand that you no longer work for Wilkinson’s Wine Merchants,’ said Carys. ‘Could you tell us why?’

  ‘You’ll have to ask John Lavender. Or Ken.’ The woman spat the words out, her distaste clear.

  ‘Ms Lampton, could we perhaps sit down somewhere?’ said Gavin. ‘We’d like to hear your side of things.’

  ‘Oh, all right. Come through to the kitchen. The living room’s a mess – I was going to get someone in to sand the floorboards at the weekend but I don’t know if I should now. I don’t know if I can afford it.’

  As she followed the woman into a kitchen at the back of the house, Carys ventured a further question. ‘Do you live here alone?’

  The woman’s mouth twisted. ‘Yes, thank goodness. Got divorced five years ago. Won’t be making that mistake again.’

  ‘Right.’ Carys nodded, and guessed that a cup of tea wasn’t going to be offered.

  ‘Before you ask, yes, I was made redundant yesterday. By John Lavender, of all people. You know he’s only been with Ken for six months? Bloody cheek. Sharon probably told you – I knew she was eavesdropping the moment I saw her face when I came down the stairs, but it wouldn’t have been difficult. I think the whole office heard us.’

  ‘I take it that his decision was a shock,’ said Gavin.

  ‘Came right of the blue.’ Melissa took a shuddering breath, and blinked back tears. ‘Five years I’d been there. Worked all sorts of hours after my divorce went through. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.’

  ‘You received no warning that they were going to let you go?’

  ‘None at all. I mean, I know Ken is ill and everything but you’d have thought after all this time he’d have had the decency to tell me himself.’

  ‘Going back to your work with Robert Victor,’ said Carys. ‘Did he ever give you any indication that he thought his life was in danger? Or that he was being threatened in any way?’

  ‘No. Otherwise I would’ve said something on Monday when we spoke. It was business as usual until––’ Melissa broke off, wiping at her eyes. ‘What a bloody mess. Thank God you found his daughter.’