[Kitt Hartley 04] - Death Awaits in Durham

by Helen Cox

  ‘If that’s true, Jodie might have tried the late night student radio show as a last ditch effort to expose him. She wouldn’t tell Bertrand who the secret was about. Maybe because she thought he wouldn’t run the segment if he knew.’

  ‘With someone like Humphrey Grant, unless we talk to him in person or find a way to snoop around his house we’re probably not going to get to the truth,’ said Kitt.

  ‘There’s always a chance that our good friend Randy will spill his guts,’ said Grace. ‘He’s agreed to meet us in a bit, by the way. Around two thirty, if you’re free?’

  ‘Mal’s working until three thirty. He’s planning to come up to Durham but it’ll be at least half four before he gets here so I’m sure we can get Randy’s interview out the way before teatime.’

  ‘And if he knows something about this witness, maybe we can work out why they waited a year before implicating Patrick,’ said Grace.

  ‘That is an odd detail,’ said Kitt. ‘And it’s the only hard evidence they have against Patrick. The rest is circumstantial – lack of evidence; lack of alibi.’

  ‘Is it too crazy to imagine that Selina’s family might have paid someone to act as a witness?’

  ‘You know, I don’t think it is,’ said Kitt. ‘This witness, whoever they are, has only come forward because of the recent police appeal. What if the police reopening this case rattled the Grants? They escaped interrogation the first time round but perhaps they were concerned they wouldn’t be so lucky again.’

  ‘So, to take the police off on a different track, they hire a witness who conveniently points the finger at the person the police always suspect first: the boyfriend.’

  ‘Thompson wants me to go down to the station this evening once he’s questioned Patrick, to make a statement. I’ll be sure to include this theory in the report. Though I wish I had more than a theory. Here’s hoping Bertrand is feeling talkative.’

  ‘Well, he is a radio host, I hear talking is kind of their thing.’

  ‘Very droll.’

  ‘I’m sure we could come up with a plan to make him a bit more open,’ said Grace, looking at her watch. ‘We’ll need to set off soon if we want to make it back to the radio station on campus in time. Shall we leave in a minute and see what we can come up with on the way?’

  ‘Sounds like a plan,’ said Kitt, before drinking what was left of her cup of tea.

  Grace picked up her bag, which had been hung on the back of her chair. She was about to sling it over her shoulder when she noticed something strange. The zip was open and something she didn’t recognize was poking out. A brown envelope.

  ‘What’s this?’ she said, carefully pulling the envelope out of her bag.

  ‘Where’s that come from?’ said Kitt.

  ‘I have no idea. I just found it.’

  ‘Is it from Selina, perhaps? Maybe she stuck it in there? Maybe she wanted to tell you something that she couldn’t say out loud?’

  ‘No, it can’t be that, I opened my bag on the way to meet you to get my phone out. The envelope wasn’t there then so it’s definitely not from Selina.’

  ‘Oh lordy,’ said Kitt. ‘Has someone just stuck it in your bag while we’ve been sitting here? That’s a bit of a creepy thought.’

  ‘Maybe, but I’m always careful about zipping up my bag. How would they manage it without us noticing? They’d have to be very sly about it.’

  ‘You’re right. With the position we were sitting in, if someone had done something like that I’m sure I would’ve seen them,’ said Kitt. ‘Unless they did it while I was ordering the drinks . . .’

  ‘I suppose they could have done that. I was busy looking at my phone . . . I was looking Randy up online to see if I could drag up any useful information before we interviewed him, so was engrossed in that.’

  ‘Maybe we’ll know more when we open it, eh? You’ll have to be careful, mind. Whatever’s in there might be evidence. Here, use these just in case,’ said Kitt, pulling a couple of pairs of plastic gloves from her pocket. She put one pair on herself and offered the other to Grace.

  Once Grace had the gloves on, she gently opened the envelope and unfolded a piece of cream notepaper. She was silent for a moment as she scanned down the page reading words she couldn’t quite believe, and then her eyes widened as she looked at the signature at the bottom.

  ‘Oh my God. It can’t be.’

  ‘What? What is it?’ Kitt said, stepping around the table to try and get a look.

  Grace handed her the note and sat back down. Her whole body felt like lead. She could barely believe what she was about to say: ‘It’s a letter . . . from Jodie.’

  Twenty-Five

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ said Kitt. ‘This . . . is unreal.’

  ‘Here, let me read it again, I only skimmed it the first time,’ said Grace. ‘I need to take another look if I’m going to believe it.’

  ‘Just be careful, hold it by the sides. One way or another we’re going to need to turn this over to the police and the first thing they’ll do is check it for fingerprints. We don’t want to destroy evidence.’

  Kitt handed the letter back and Grace took care to follow her instructions. If this letter was evidence that Jodie was still alive she didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize verifying that fact. If Jodie was alive then Patrick couldn’t have killed her and the police would have to release him. She started to read again and this time Grace took pains to slowly digest every word.

  Dear Grace,

  I’m sorry I couldn’t come to see you in person but if you want to disappear, you have to make it stick. The only reason I’m writing to you now is because I heard on the news that Patrick has been arrested in connection with my disappearance. I always knew when I disappeared that there’d be questions for him and the worst thing about this whole mess is how it must have impacted the lives of the people I love. But I knew the police wouldn’t have any evidence on Patrick so I didn’t think there would be any consequences. I thought he’d get over me and that would be the end of it.

  I don’t know what they think they’ve got on him now, but I’m writing this letter, in my own handwriting, to clear his name. To let the world know once and for all that I disappeared because I had to, not because Patrick did something unforgivable to me. He would never hurt me. Anyone who knows him would know that.

  The only person in all this who has done something unforgivable, besides me, is Selina Grant. I knew about that stupid secret society she was running and it was obvious they were doing more than just doing silly stunts behind their parents’ backs. Selina had a bit too much to drink and let slip a couple of times that there was some kind of drugs ring going on within the society and I told her if she didn’t stop I would go public with what I knew.

  The next thing I knew some drugs had been planted in my locker and Berkeley wouldn’t hear a word against Selina, even after she’d admitted to starting a fight with me a couple of weeks before I disappeared. I couldn’t go to Patrick about what I knew because it was obviously dangerous information and I didn’t want to drag him into something that at the time I was scared might cost him his life. It was a small miracle it didn’t cost me mine.

  It was Selina who abducted me mid-radio appearance. She drugged me and when I came to she’d tied me up somewhere – I still have no idea where – and told me that if I didn’t disappear for good, she was going to kill me. It didn’t feel like I had any other choice at the time, so I disappeared.

  I thought the police would figure out Selina’s involvement but she must have covered her tracks too well; either that or they’re too scared to take on the daughter of a millionaire. I’ve stayed quiet all this time because I was scared Selina would catch up with me, she’s got the resources. She told me if I ever tried to come back people I loved would get hurt and then she’d come after me. But when I heard Patrick had been arrested, I knew I had to do something.

  I can only hope Selina’s people won’t trace this letter and that it’s e
nough to get Patrick released. He really was the best boyfriend, a bit too good for the likes of me if truth be told. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to risk returning to the north-east again but at least this note will bring him some comfort. At least now he’ll know that I’m still alive and making my way as best I can. I hope he can forgive my silence and know that, the way I left things, it was to protect him.

  I know when he reads this letter he’ll want to try and find me but even if the police did eventually apprehend Selina for what she did to me, I can’t trust that she won’t have someone waiting to finish what she started. So please, encourage him to let me go. It’s for the best.

  When you see him, please tell him I’ll always love him.

  Jodie

  Tears threatened in Grace’s eyes and she swallowed hard, trying to hold them back. She looked over at Kitt and could see she, too, was working hard not to break down. At least it was now clear that this letter wasn’t from Selina. She’d have no reason to pass on a letter that directly incriminated her.

  ‘I don’t know whether to cry out of happiness that she’s still alive or out of sadness for all she must have gone through in the last year,’ Grace said at last, shaking her head.

  ‘I’m facing the same dilemma,’ said Kitt.

  ‘Can you even start to imagine what that must have been like for her? Knowing she would never see her friends and family again, that they would all think she was dead.’

  ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about. I’m doing all I can to distract myself by seeing if the pieces of this story really fit.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘We need to verify this really is Jodie’s handwriting, for a start. There are one or two phrases in there, I’m not sure I’d expect them from a nineteen-year-old girl. “Apprehend Selina” for example, would someone around your age more likely just say “catch”?’

  ‘I guess.’ Grace nodded, again struggling with the threat of tears. She hadn’t even thought about the fact that the letter could be a forgery. To have the relief that Jodie was still alive dangled and then snatched away sickened her. Who would do that? An enemy of Selina, perhaps? Someone who wanted to see her framed? Less than an hour ago, Selina had sworn blind to Grace that she didn’t have anything to do with Jodie’s disappearance. Maybe this was a message from someone who was more in the know. A message to say they shouldn’t let Selina off the hook so easily.

  ‘Patrick would be best placed to verify it,’ said Kitt.

  ‘Yes, but I don’t think the police are allowing him visitors just now. They wouldn’t even let his mum go with him. Oh . . . but maybe Cynthia could tell us if it’s Jodie’s handwriting?’

  ‘Maybe, but I’m not quite ready to show her this letter. If it is a forgery then I don’t want to raise their hopes about finding Jodie alive and then dash them. Remember, for her it’s not just about Jodie being alive, it’s about her son not going down for her murder. We’ve got to be really sure before we give her any hope that we can clear his name.’

  ‘So what should we do?’

  ‘Still contact Cynthia, but maybe go in with a different tack. Ask her if she’s got anything with Jodie’s handwriting on it and get her to send you a picture on your phone. Say we need a sample on file. You don’t need to go into any more detail than that. She wants us to do all we can to free Patrick so she’s probably not going to question our methods.’

  ‘All right,’ Grace said, pulling her phone out of her coat pocket. She sent the request to Cynthia and then looked back at Kitt. ‘It might just be wishful thinking but it seems to me that the story does fit though, you know. Patrick was drugged on the night of Jodie’s murder and then we were drugged at Selina’s party. She was probably trying to get information out of us and who knows, maybe she did. We could have said anything to her, we wouldn’t remember.’

  ‘Drugs has been a common theme running through this whole investigation. It’s probably what Selina and Jodie really fought about in the cafeteria.’

  ‘If that’s true then why did Jodie go along with Selina’s story about her liking Patrick?’

  ‘We don’t know that she did.’

  ‘You’re right . . . we never saw her written statement,’ said Grace. ‘And who is Regina Berkeley more likely to believe: her favourite millionaire or a scholarship student?’

  ‘Exactly. Mal often says that when an investigation takes you back to the same spot it’s not usually by coincidence. If she was running some kind of drugs ring at Venerable Bede’s it would have been lucrative, and remember Selina said she wanted to find a way to become financially independent.’

  ‘Oh my God, you’re right,’ said Grace. ‘I hadn’t made that connection. Selina wants to become financially independent to get out from her father’s control and she decides selling drugs on campus is the quickest way to do it.’

  ‘If this secret society is as shady as it sounds then the drugs ring might already have been established. All the hard work was done and Selina just took the reins.’

  ‘And if that’s true,’ said Grace, ‘and Jodie threatened to expose the drugs ring, Selina would have been well placed to plant drugs in Jodie’s locker.’

  ‘In that case, maybe the man in black does exist, but he’s not working for Humphrey Grant, he’s working for Selina and she’s just feigning innocence. Certainly it would be too risky for her to do her own dirty work and anyway, she wouldn’t have been able to take Jodie down and get her to that outhouse on her own.’

  ‘So she hires some anonymous crony, the way rich people do. He plants the drugs on Jodie and when she doesn’t just leave quietly they realize they have to take things a step further. He drugs Patrick so he can’t help her and follows Jodie down to the river after she tries to go to him.’

  ‘When it becomes clear that Jodie is going to expose Selina’s darkest secret to the entire academy and confirm the existence of the Scarlet Stocking Society, the man in black realizes he has to act then.’

  ‘Though, Jodie did seem to recognize whoever attacked her so maybe Selina was there?’

  ‘Possibly, or maybe somebody else associated with Selina that Jodie also knew.’

  ‘And like you said, they had to get her out of sight fast.’

  ‘As the abduction happened live on air, they’d know the police would be on their way. They had to find somewhere to hide out until the coast was clear.’

  ‘So they drugged her.’

  ‘And that place they took her to – the place where she didn’t know where she was – that was probably the outhouse.’

  ‘That’s where they threatened her.’

  ‘But when they let her go, wouldn’t she see where she was?’

  ‘They probably drugged her again or blindfolded her and dropped her off somewhere random. Made sure she left town.’

  ‘So she couldn’t even say goodbye to Patrick.’

  ‘This all links up logically,’ said Kitt. ‘Selina has been telling us half-truths all along. Denying she knew anything about the drugs when really she was the one who put them there.’

  ‘It would certainly take her a lot longer to find ways of monetizing that YouTube channel than it would to sell drugs to rich kids,’ said Grace. ‘The problem is, she’s been careful, and we don’t have any hard evidence against Selina. The police won’t go after her unless they’re sure.’

  ‘We’ve still got our interview with Randy, that might reveal something. If we get enough circumstantial evidence we might be able to trick her into confessing and record it. I—’

  Grace’s phone beeped. ‘Sorry. It’s Cynthia, she’s been digging through some drawers and found an old birthday card Jodie gave her a couple of years back. Look at this.’ Grace picked up the letter and held her phone next to it so Kitt could make the same side-by-side comparison she just had. ‘It’s the same – the handwriting’s the same.’

  ‘My God,’ said Kitt. ‘Jodie’s really alive.’

  Twenty-Six

  ‘You ladies comfort
able?’ Bertrand Hobbs said as he settled them on the sofa in the waiting room next to the radio booth at Castle Rock FM. Through the glass, they could see another host wearing headphones and talking a mile a minute into the microphone about a climate change protest that was due to happen on campus the following week.

  ‘Very comfortable, thank you,’ Kitt said, though her expression indicated otherwise. She was staring down her nose at the sofa, which was upholstered in brown corduroy. It looked to be from the 1970s by its design and Grace couldn’t help but wonder what awful stains and general grubby behaviour that particular shade of brown was hiding. Don’t ask, don’t tell. If she wasn’t careful that was going to become her new life motto.

  ‘Thanks so much for agreeing to talk to us,’ said Grace. She was keen to move this conversation on as quickly as possible and not just because she wanted to minimize the time she had to sit on this scummy sofa. After the discovery of Jodie’s letter, Kitt had put a phone call in to Durham police station. They were supposed to take the letter there directly but as it was almost time to meet Bertrand they’d agreed to make a quick stop off on the way and see if they could uncover anything else to add to Kitt’s statement. If Bertrand did have some grand insight about the events that took place a year ago, such as some evidence of a drugs ring operating out of Venerable Bede’s, it was worth twenty minutes to collect the information and pass it all on to the police in one go.

  ‘Hey, I’m always happy to meet fans of the show. Especially those interested in following in the footsteps of the Hobbster.’ As he said this, Randy pointed a thumb at his chest lest there was any confusion about who the ‘Hobbster’ was. Randy’s manner was far from the only distracting thing about him. For some strange reason he’d opted to wear a pair of gold loafers to this meeting. Despite the weather outside being rather crisp he’d unbuttoned his white shirt quite some way, revealing rather more of his hairy chest than Grace was happy to see. On top of that he had ten or so gold bangles on each arm that jangled every time he gesticulated. Staying focused on the words coming out of his mouth was thus going to prove quite the challenge.