[Kitt Hartley 04] - Death Awaits in Durham
Page 21
‘But the note on Berkeley’s table implicated Selina anyway,’ said Kitt. ‘Why would she order Berkeley killed and then implicate herself in the note?’
‘The note implicates her as someone who “pressured” Berkeley to expel a student. This is underhand behaviour but a private academy’s dealings are their own. It’s not a legal matter. The note makes it clear that Berkeley took matters into her own hands, independently of any pressure Selina may have applied. Thus, Selina’s lawyers might argue that Selina was framed by Berkeley before her crisis of conscience and suicide, and that’s how evidence showed up at her home and locker.’
‘Do you know exactly what kind of evidence they found to incriminate Selina?’ Kitt asked.
‘Apparently, bottles of chloroform and GHB.’
‘Does that outright prove she had something to do with Jodie’s disappearance?’ said Grace.
‘Given the discovery of those rags at the outhouse it goes a long way, but there’s more,’ said Halloran. He looked at Patrick before speaking again. ‘The cardigan you said Jodie was wearing the day she disappeared. They found it in Selina’s wardrobe. And it was speckled with blood.’
‘Is it Jodie’s blood?’ said Patrick.
‘We haven’t confirmed it yet,’ Halloran said. ‘But I’m afraid, given that it’s her garment and she’s been missing for some time, we suspect so.’
‘Wait, whereabouts did they find the cardigan in Selina’s wardrobe?’ said Grace.
‘I’m not sure. Is it important?’ said Halloran.
‘It might be,’ said Grace. ‘I’ve been in that wardrobe, remember? At Selina’s party I spent a fair amount of time rooting around. I didn’t see the cardigan and I was actively looking for incriminating stuff. I knew what colours the fibres were but I didn’t notice a cardigan of that colour. That seems unlikely, doesn’t it?’
‘Maybe you were too flustered to notice it,’ said Kitt. ‘Doing that kind of snooping does tend to get the adrenalin going and you didn’t know exactly what you were looking for.’
‘Maybe,’ said Grace, biting her lip.
‘What? What is it?’ said Kitt.
‘It’s just that the notes we received had conflicting information in them but both implicated Selina. And now this cardigan turns up that I saw no sign of when I searched her property. Halloran said Selina’s lawyers might argue she’s a scapegoat for somebody, maybe they’d be right. Or, given the conflicting information, maybe more than one somebody?’
‘How would that even work?’ said Halloran. ‘Why would more than one person be trying to frame Selina?’
‘I don’t know,’ Grace admitted. ‘But I do know one thing: with Selina currently in custody there’s still at least one killer still out there.’
Thirty
There was a moment’s silence while everyone in the room digested Grace’s comment. It was the buzzing of Halloran’s mobile that at last broke the quiet.
‘Banks,’ Halloran said, as he answered the call from his partner back in York. ‘What do you know?’ There was a pause. ‘Oh really? When? Well, that’s a break. Yes, all right. Thanks.’
Halloran hung up the phone and stood thoughtfully for a moment.
‘Well, don’t keep us in suspense, Mal. Howay, out with it.’
‘I apologize for taking a moment to think,’ Halloran said.
‘I suppose you’re forgiven,’ Kitt said with a small smile.
‘Very magnanimous. I asked Banks to do a bit more digging into Berkeley’s finances for us and it looks increasingly as though she did have something to do with Jodie’s disappearance.’
‘But I thought the police already looked into her finances and didn’t find anything,’ said Grace.
‘When they looked it wouldn’t have seemed like anything out of the ordinary and Berkeley could probably have easily explained it away. She was receiving cash payments into her account but they weren’t large. They were between £500 and £1000. The first one was made two months before Jodie disappeared. There was a pause after that, presumably while she was under investigation by the police. They resumed three months after Jodie’s disappearance and stopped about six months later. The payments totalled £10,000.’
‘Well, that pretty much confirms that that suicide note isn’t worth the paper it was printed on,’ said Grace.
‘You’re right,’ said Kitt. ‘Selina and Jodie hadn’t even met a month before she disappeared so if that payment does relate to Jodie’s disappearance, it doesn’t corroborate the idea that Selina put pressure on Berkeley or bribed her in some way to expel Jodie. In fact, it pretty much dashes most of the details in Berkeley’s alleged suicide note.’
‘Ten thousand pounds though,’ said Grace. ‘That might be enough to bribe a person to expel a student, but to make them disappear or kill them? I imagine the asking price would be much higher.’
‘You might be right on that score but that’s not the end of the story,’ said Halloran. ‘The money paid to Berkeley was deposited in cash through the same ATM machine and we’ve got a snap of the guy who deposited it from the security camera.’
‘Even from three months ago?’ said Kitt.
‘Financial institutions tend to keep their security footage for longer because of issues like money laundering. Most operations like that are going on a lot longer before they’re stopped. Banks has sent me a copy of the picture. This could be a picture of the person who made Jodie disappear.’
Halloran swiped his phone screen and tapped the message. ‘Yep. Looks to me like your mysterious man in black isn’t a figment of your imagination after all.’
Halloran turned his phone screen to Patrick.
‘Oh my God,’ he said, frowning. ‘That’s him, and without the sunglasses I recognize him now. He worked for my mum. Years ago. He was her head of security at her furniture factory.’
‘It also fits the description of the man Selina caught at her party. She’s probably got video footage of him accessing the property, hopefully she’s handed it to DI Thompson by now.’
‘Did this man lose his job when your mum became a lady of leisure?’ Kitt asked. ‘Maybe he’s never got over losing his job and is trying to find ways of tormenting you and your family.’
‘Although that doesn’t really account for the death of Berkeley,’ said Grace.
Patrick shook his head. ‘She let him go long before she retired. But there may be something in your theory. She didn’t say anything outright but she hinted once or twice that he was intense, you know. I think he might have overstepped with her a couple of times.’
‘Overstepped in what way?’ asked Halloran.
‘I don’t know, I just got the impression that something went down between them. I was only young at the time so I knew if I asked I wouldn’t get any straight answers.’
‘Do you know his name or any other details about him?’ said Halloran.
‘It was so long ago. But I think his last name was Marks. Mr Marks. Though I could be misremembering. I’m sorry, I don’t remember anything else.’
‘That’s all right. We’ll question your mum as soon as possible and I’ll send that name to Banks and see if it brings up any leads.’
‘Wait . . . if this guy’s involved with this and he’s got some kind of grudge against Mum, she could be in danger – or worse,’ said Patrick. ‘He killed Berkeley, and she could be next.’
‘Do you know where your mother is now?’ Halloran said, a note of urgency in his voice.
‘Last I heard she was on her way here but even with traffic it doesn’t take that long to get here from Chester-le-Street. She should already be here.’
Frantically, Patrick whipped out his phone and dialled.
‘Put her on speaker, will you?’ said Halloran. ‘If there’s anything important going on at the other end of that line we need to hear it too. She’s probably not in danger but if she is we might get some clues from listening in.’
Patrick obliged. The phone rang out in the otherwise
silent living room. Then there was a scratching sound as the call connected.
‘Mum, where are you?’
‘I’m still on my way to Berkeley’s, love. Terrible traffic,’ Cynthia’s voice rang out.
Patrick’s posture visibly relaxed. ‘Thank God you’re all right.’
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘It’s Dean Berkeley, Mum. She’s . . . she’s dead.’
‘Dead? Oh my God, wh-what happened?’ said Cynthia. ‘I thought Selina Grant had been arrested. Did her people get to Berkeley somehow?’
‘You probably don’t want all the gory details, to be honest, but we came to her house to question her over Jodie’s disappearance and found her dead.’
‘My poor lad. That must have been so horrible for you. Wrongfully arrested for murder and now this. I’ll be with you very soon. I’m just another twenty minutes away.’
But even as she said this there was a strange, high-pitched buzzing sound in the background.
‘Mum, what’s that noise?’ said Patrick.
‘A siren passing by.’
But then a familiar but robotic voice said: ‘This station is Tynemouth. This train is for all stations to Northumberland airport.’
Patrick’s frown deepened. His voice shook as he spoke. ‘Mum, why are you on the airport train?’
There was no sound at the other end of the call. Kitt, Halloran and Grace all exchanged a frown.
‘Mum? Answer me. Why are you on that train?’
‘I . . .’
‘Mum?’
‘I’m . . . so sorry, Patrick. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.’
With that the line went dead.
Thirty-One
‘I know what you’re all thinking,’ Patrick said as the sirens on Halloran’s police car wailed out all around them.
Roxy, who was still sitting on Patrick’s lap, had let out the occasional discontented groan, but otherwise nobody else had said much at all since it became clear that a man who used to work for Cynthia Howard had been the one to pay off Berkeley. Not to mention the fact that Patrick’s subsequent phone call to his mother had revealed her to be on her way to Northumberland airport, seemingly in a bid to make some kind of getaway.
‘We don’t know the full story yet,’ Grace said, trying to convince herself that was the case even though it seemed pretty obvious to anyone that Cynthia had known what happened to Jodie all along, and likely had some hand in it. That said, there were still definitely some pieces of the jigsaw that didn’t fit, as far as Grace could figure them, so maybe there was some strange and unexpected explanation. But then, why hadn’t Cynthia just explained what was going on down the phone? When her son was desperately holding on for answers? The only conclusion Grace could come to was that Cynthia had done some things she was ashamed of and couldn’t bring herself to confess them to her son.
‘No, but one way or another you think Mum’s been up to no good,’ Patrick said.
‘If you can’t think of any motive she’d have for wanting to get Jodie out of the picture, then there’s probably a reasonable explanation,’ said Kitt, eyeing Patrick in the rear-view mirror.
Patrick shrugged. ‘Nothing that would be worth all this.’
‘So . . . there was something?’ Grace said, as gently as she could. Patrick had been through an incredible amount in the last twenty-four hours, never mind the last year, and the last thing he needed right now was accusations. More than anything, Grace didn’t want him to feel alone in this. No matter what his mother had done.
‘I suppose, looking back, she . . . never really warmed to Jodie. Once or twice Jodie mentioned that she had been off-hand with her. I always challenged her about it when she did, and after a few times she seemed to back off. She would’ve preferred me to marry another rich kid. But it was just typical protective mother stuff – nobody ever being good enough for their son. Nothing more than that. It’s not the kind of thing that makes you go out and abduct someone and make them disappear. Surely everyone here can agree that is not proportional behaviour?’
‘Certainly, your mother’s never given any indication that she would make an overreaction like that,’ Kitt conceded. ‘But can you remember how she reacted to your engagement to Jodie?’ Grace noticed that Kitt was doing all she could to keep her voice soft, just as she had a moment ago. Talking to Patrick just then felt like trying to talk someone down off a ledge. She got the feeling he was on the brink of a major meltdown, and given the circumstances, who could blame him? The best thing they could do was try and keep him calm.
‘She, well, she wasn’t happy at first. But then, I don’t know, she seemed to accept it,’ said Patrick. ‘She was talking about taking Jodie out shopping for a dress and started sending her links to venues and caterers. She really got into the spirit of it. I thought she’d just got over her initial concern.’
‘Roughly how long were you and Jodie engaged before she disappeared?’ asked Halloran, as he indicated for the airport turn-off.
‘Let’s see. We went to Berlin in late July. Proposed by the Spree. I remember the sky was such a deep blue, it made the river look bluer than usual. We couldn’t find anywhere selling champagne so we bought ice creams to celebrate.’
‘Sounds very romantic,’ said Grace.
‘It does that, and late July . . . that would mean you proposed just over two months before Jodie disappeared,’ said Kitt.
Grace pressed her lips together. Two months. So that’s why Halloran had asked Patrick about the time frame. Could that really be a coincidence? Patrick gets engaged and then the dean, who heads up the academy Jodie is due to start studying with, receives a cash payment as a fee for expelling her on false grounds. Surely, even though it was the last thing he wanted to believe, Patrick could see that the sequence of events didn’t reflect well on his mother?
Patrick swallowed hard. ‘You think Mum changed her attitude about the engagement because she was paying off Berkeley to expel Jodie? To what, try and break us up?’
‘It’s a possibility that you shouldn’t dismiss,’ said Kitt. ‘I’m not saying that your mother meant any real harm. She likely would have done it from the perspective of a caring parent looking out for her son. You were very young to be engaged, in most people’s eyes, you said it yourself. Your mother might have just thought she was protecting you from a mistake you’d later come to regret. But if that is what she did, I think we can agree that something has gone terribly wrong.’
Patrick nodded. ‘At the absolute extreme, I suppose I can imagine a moment of motherly insanity where she could’ve tried to pay off Berkeley but all the other stuff – Jodie’s disappearance, Berkeley’s death – Mum just wouldn’t get involved in something like that. She’s not . . . like that.’
‘We all want to believe the best and we’ll know soon enough what’s been going on,’ said Halloran as he pulled the car up in the closest space to the airport entrance and switched off the sirens. Up ahead the terminal building loomed in the darkness. The green illuminated signage somehow had an eerie look about it. Grace had always found airports strange non-spaces. A sort of place between places where everything was in flux and nothing was steady or certain. Now she had one more reason not to be fond of them. Whatever happened in the next half hour, the news was unlikely to be good.
‘If she was at Tynemouth when she rang, she won’t quite have arrived here yet,’ said Halloran, snapping Grace out of her thoughts. ‘We should be able to head her off before she goes through security. We’ve got the airport police looking out for her on the other side just in case. To be clear, you are here for lookout purposes only. If you see the subject, do not approach her. Kitt, did you hear that?’
‘I’m sure I don’t know why you’re singling me out,’ said Kitt.
Halloran stared hard at her.
‘Yes, all right, message received.’
‘Patrick, I know she’s your mother but the no-contact rule includes you. We can’t take any risks until we know what�
�s really going on here. It’s going to be tempting to approach if you see her so are you sure you wouldn’t rather wait in the car for this?’
Patrick shook his head. ‘I can’t just sit here while you all go in. I said I’d see this investigation through, no matter where it went, and that’s what I’m going to do. She’s my mum. If something serious goes down I need to be there.’
Halloran nodded, unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door. Patrick opened the door at his side and unravelled Roxy’s lead. Apparently Patrick and Roxy were not going to be easily separated. Grace wondered if perhaps she’d make a good guard dog if they stumbled into jeopardy, or even help them sniff out the criminals? As Grace watched the pudgy pooch waddle its way around just outside the car door, however, all such hopes evaporated. Well, at least she’d be soothing company for Patrick in what was likely to be a difficult time.
Grace slid out of the car herself and noticed her hands were shaking. She shoved them into her pockets before anyone else could notice, did her best to steady them and tried to make a possible list of all the explanations in her head for everything that had happened, besides the most obvious: that Patrick’s mother was a conspirator in a double murder.
Thirty-Two
Grace and Kitt were first to the airport entrance. Yanking open the door, they dashed in, followed closely by Halloran and Patrick, with Roxy in tow.
On entering, Grace wasn’t sure how they had any hope of finding Cynthia given the sheer number of people zooming about. After a quick scan of the crowds, however, Halloran strode towards a uniformed airport security officer and flashed his badge. ‘DI Halloran from York police station. We’ve phoned through already about Cynthia Howard who is under suspicion of several serious crimes. Her passport has been flagged and her photograph circulated. Can you radio through and find out if she’s being detained anywhere? It’d make my job a lot easier if you’ve already picked her up.’