by Roz Watkins
Daniel had been sacrificed as if his life was worth nothing. A good life had been ended. And he’d died before he’d had the chance to make peace with himself.
‘Did you know the usual company who took the waste had been changed?’
‘No. The bag – actually it was a bin liner, as you know – was supposed to have been found more quickly. We expected it to be found. You can’t put plastic in the rendering machine.’
He’d said ‘we’. ‘Go on,’ I said.
‘It goes in with other farm waste in a huge lorry. You’d have no chance of finding the stomachs from these particular pigs.’
And that would have been the case had Gary not changed the company who took it away.
‘You and Kirsty thought it all through.’
‘Just me. Not Kirsty.’
‘You said “we”, Tony. We know she was involved. So you did all this and then what, walked home afterwards?’
‘Yes. I smashed the CCTV and took the hard drive home with me. That’s in the slurry pit at my farm.’
‘And what about Gary?’ I said.
‘Yes, I killed him too. He was always a silly boy. He caught sight of me leaving the abattoir that night, as he arrived. Tried to blackmail me.’
‘How did you kill him?’
‘I … I’m quite tired. Can we take a break?’
‘Not yet. We know Kirsty killed him, Tony. She wore Daniel’s overalls.’
Tony shook his head but there was no conviction in it.
‘She killed Daniel too,’ I said. ‘She supplied him with drugs, didn’t she?’
‘If she did, it was only for his pain. The doctors wouldn’t give him enough.’
‘We know she’s a psychopath, Tony.’
He slammed his hand on the table, a shock move that made both me and the solicitor jump. ‘Don’t say that word! She’s not one of those!’
I slowed my breathing again. ‘But you sent Bex to her aunt to keep her away from Kirsty?’
‘I never believed Kirsty hurt Tim. That all came from Nina.’
‘So Nina thought Kirsty let Tim onto the lane deliberately, but you didn’t?’
‘Of course not. There was paint on the key from Bex’s hands. But nobody blamed her – she was far too young. She should have been watched, but Nina was struggling. Not getting enough sleep. She was imagining things. Kirsty isn’t bad, just different. My father and my grandmother were like her.’
‘But you sent Bex to your sister Janet, and you locked your wife up.’
‘I didn’t mean it to be permanent. I did it to stop her leaving with Bex. But then I realised she was pregnant. She would have taken all my babies to the Ukraine. I couldn’t let that happen. I’d already lost my darling Tim. I couldn’t bear to lose any more children. I’m not a bad person. Once I knew Nina was staying there, I made it nice. It’s much better equipped than my own house. And I never …’ He looked down and fiddled with a scratch on the table. ‘I never forced myself on her. She didn’t want … There were no more children.’
I couldn’t respond to that. ‘And we know Kirsty found out what you’d done, the first time Ivan escaped.’
Tony hesitated. ‘I trusted Nina. But she orchestrated it, I’m sure. I felt very betrayed by that. Luckily, Kirsty found him. Kirsty could see the benefit in our … situation.’
‘But Daniel’s brother, Charlie, saw Ivan in the woods,’ I said. ‘So Kirsty put Charlie down the spillway in the reservoir.’
Tony looked at his hands again, fingers squirming in his lap. ‘I’m sure she didn’t do that.’
‘And then a few years later Ivan escaped again. The night of the barbecue. And things got very nasty.’
‘I feel bad about that. After that I introduced much better security. I couldn’t risk anything like that happening again.’
‘Ivan raped Bex? And then Lucas killed him?’
‘I didn’t know Bex had the child. I told her not to, again and again. Beseeched her not to. But she didn’t listen. Kirsty and I did everything to stop her having that baby.’
‘So she had the child of an incestuous rape.’
‘But Violet’s fine, isn’t she? Very beautiful, in fact. When in-breeding works well, it can work very well. Ask anyone who deals with animal stock.’
‘Right.’ I sat back, repulsed by him. ‘You’re admitting to imprisoning your wife and children for thirty years, kidnapping and imprisoning Violet Armstrong, and conspiring to murder Gary Finchley and Daniel Twigg?’
‘I’m not fighting. I know I’m going to prison for a long time. I suppose I deserve it.’
57
I sat on the hospital chair and focused on my breath. The unique smell still made my heart beat faster and my muscles tense. Sent me spiralling back to the day they’d diagnosed Carrie. I closed my eyes and let myself remember. The undercurrent of my parents’ hushed conversations that felt like it could throw me across the room. The numbness in my head that spun into disbelief and then horror, getting stronger and stronger until I knew in my bones that nothing would ever be the same again. I let the feeling sweep through me and then fade.
‘Well, if it isn’t Dr Dolittle.’
I flipped open my eyes. Kirsty was attached to drips and monitors – stable, but I’d been instructed by a stern-faced nurse not to upset her. The white sheet was flat where her legs should have been. Sepsis had taken hold and they’d had no option but to amputate. We probably didn’t need the cops who were guarding her room.
‘I’ve been catching up on the news,’ she said. ‘You’re quite the hero. But my father did an impressive job on your face.’
I tried to gauge from her eyes whether the mask had finally slipped because she was too drugged or in pain or generally beaten down to maintain it. There was a coldness that made my chest tighten. ‘Word of advice,’ she said. ‘Don’t stand under a collapsing pig barn.’
She’d spoken first. Maybe she’d continue. This wasn’t a formal interview. I couldn’t make her talk, and she could get me evicted at any time.
‘Frankie will be better off without me,’ she added. ‘Bex is looking after her. I do care about her, contrary to what you think, but she’s not one of us. Not one of the esteemed “callous and unemotional” branch of our great family. We’re dying out. It’s a shame because we’re what made the Nightingales great.’
I nodded, hoping she’d carry on talking. We had the room to ourselves and it was quiet. I could just hear the faint clattering of a trolley in the corridor and muffled shouting from a nearby ward.
Kirsty pulled herself up on her pillows and fixed me with that icy gaze. ‘Oh, you love to think we’re this terrible blight on humanity, don’t you?’ she said. ‘You Normals. When in reality you need people like us. Who do you think runs the factory farms, heads up the profitable corporations, takes the risks to start businesses while you Normals sit around pretending to be so nice and compassionate and letting us do your dirty work for you?’
I felt like saying, But some of us don’t want people like you to do the dirty work while the rest of us pretend it’s not happening. We don’t want to be able to eat factory-farmed meat while letting you be the only one to look in the pigs’ eyes, or buy cheap products while people like you manage the slave labour. But there was no point. And maybe she was right. Most people still bought the cheap meat and the bargain electronic goods. We were all complicit in some way.
‘You think the rest of Gritton didn’t suspect?’ Kirsty said. ‘You really think that? At least I’m honest about what I am, not like the rest of you.’
In my mind I said, You killed innocent people. You took Daniel from me. But I wanted her to keep talking. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ I said.
‘You know I’m right. It’s another reason I despise Normals. You turn a blind eye to things you pretend to condemn, because you’re all so scared of being ostracised from your little social groups. Luckily, it allows us to manipulate you.’
Clattering from the corridor. I wanted information
from her before we were interrupted. ‘I assume you removed some bones from the troughs that time you fed lamb to the pigs,’ I said, hoping her urge to show off would be stronger than her instinct for self-preservation.
‘Yes. I wasn’t expecting you to come along. I only expected to show Anna. That was quite fortuitous.’ Her lips curled into a slow, predatory smile. ‘You’ve hit the jackpot here, DI Dalton. I’m only telling you these things because I have no intention of living like this. Being a cripple really isn’t my style.’
I winced inwardly, but I wanted her to carry on. ‘Do you have evidence that anyone in particular in Gritton knew what your father was doing?’
‘Not the kind of evidence you want. But they had a good idea. And they chose to let it happen. They chose to carry on accepting his money, letting him create the perfect village for them. Lovely parks and playgrounds – a library, for goodness’ sake – in a tiny village like that. Even the abattoir was the best in the country. All down to his money. They chose it. What a clever myth my father created. If you see her, turn away! Don’t let her see your face! People in the village already talked about the Pale Child. I’d had some fun telling Bex and Tim stories about her when they were young. Poor Tim was a little scared, I’m afraid. But my father changed the story to suit his needs. Clever. A few lives were sacrificed for the good of the many. Isn’t that what happens in society?’
‘Did you sacrifice Gary Finchley’s life for the good of the many? And how about Daniel Twigg’s?’
‘Are you allowed to do this, Detective?’
‘You don’t have to tell me anything. You can ask me to leave at any time.’ If she was as bored as I suspected, she’d not want me to go.
She paused as if weighing me up. ‘What I can tell you is that Gary Finchley was not a nice man. I didn’t mean to kill him initially, but the stupid man tried to blackmail my father after he saw him at the abattoir. It’s not a good idea to blackmail people like us. No, he was asking for it. And he trusted Daniel, so when he got a text from Daniel saying to meet him in the woods, he wasn’t concerned. And it’s surprisingly easy to kill someone with a heavy rock. I thought the pig’s head mask was a nice touch though, didn’t you?’
I didn’t respond to that.
‘As for Daniel Twigg – he got what he deserved for killing Lucas,’ Kirsty said. ‘I know he didn’t mean to and it was a long time ago, but he’d been living on borrowed time ever since. So yes, I was fine about sacrificing him too.’
I started to speak and then realised there was no point. I’d felt more for Daniel in the few days I’d known him than she’d felt for anyone in her whole life.
Kirsty put on a fake sad face, lips turned down. ‘Sorry about Daniel,’ she said. ‘But you really shouldn’t have feelings for suspects.’
I froze. Kirsty laughed. ‘We’re perceptive too,’ she said. ‘Poor little DI Dalton. Did you like Daniel a lot? He wasn’t worth it. He was a rather pathetic creature.’
I looked into her cold eyes and shivered.
‘But you Normals aren’t as nice as you like to make out,’ Kirsty said. ‘Even sweet little Anna. She puts on a good show, but when we were young, she encouraged me to take Gary to the betting shop. She wanted him to go off the rails so she could get her hands on the business. That’s not terribly nice, is it?’
My mind drifted to Anna with her cupcakes and flapjacks, and I wondered if that was true. It didn’t matter now.
‘And they made it so easy for me,’ Kirsty said. ‘Daniel was always leaving his phone lying around in a crappily secured caravan. It was easy to break in and take it while he was at work.’
I’d thought it was weird the way that phone was turned on and off. And I could tell from the state of the door that someone had broken into Daniel’s caravan.
‘I turned the phone on to text Gary from the abattoir and then off again when it went home with me, and on again in the woods that night,’ Kirsty said. ‘I wasn’t sure how accurately you could track the thing, but no point being silly about it.’
Kirsty was right. I had hit the jackpot. She was happy to talk. But I believed her about not wanting to live like this. Most people wouldn’t follow through on that, but she would. There’d be no day in court on this one.
‘So you wore Daniel’s overalls and made sure you left fibres and one of Daniel’s hairs on Gary’s body?’ I said.
‘It’s so easy to research now isn’t it?’ she said. ‘On the internet. I bet you detectives hate that. I knew you’d check for fibres. And I gambled that if I put the overalls in the bin near Daniel’s caravan, and the phone back in his caravan, you’d find them. I couldn’t make Daniel look too stupid, but I thought I’d get away with that.’
I pictured Daniel’s face. His rock-balancing art. The man who’d spent his whole life making amends. Working in an abattoir, trying to make the last hours of the animals’ lives as bearable as possible. A very special man. I blinked. I didn’t want this monster to see that I was upset.
‘But you could have ended up going to prison.’ I said. ‘Why would you risk that to cover up for your father?’
‘I’m not averse to risk. It keeps life interesting. And I thought I’d get away with it. If it had ever looked like I was going to end up in prison, we’d have sent proof that Violet was still alive, and that would have been the end of your case. I must admit I didn’t anticipate Gary seeing my father at the abattoir. It was silly of me to kill him.’ She laughed. ‘But never mind.’
‘What happened the day Tim died?’ I asked.
The mask snapped back into place. I’d messed up. Probed too deep. ‘It was a terrible accident. My father loved that boy so much. So much more than he ever loved Bex or me.’ Kirsty smiled.
She’d deserved to lose her legs.
58
Jai flipped on the wipers as he pulled onto the Via Gellia. Finally it was raining. A motorbike roared past us, narrowly missing a quarry truck thundering the other way.
‘Do you think they actually want to die?’ I said. ‘Rain after a drought – they must know it’s prime biker-death conditions.’
‘Especially on this road,’ Jai said. ‘I suppose it’s natural selection.’
‘You can drop me at Mum’s, if that’s okay,’ I said.
‘No problem.’ Jai took the right turn to head up to Eldercliffe.
‘Does your mum know about your spectacular pig-based escape?’
‘She does. She’s very proud.’ I spoke as if that was a joke, but it was the truth. I even felt proud of myself for once. Myself and that incredible pig.
‘It’s so like you to be rescued by a sodding pig.’
‘Yeah, no knights in shining armour for me. But I don’t plan to make a regular thing of it. There were a few dicey moments.’
‘You’re not planning to recruit a pig as part of your team then?’
‘She was faster on the uptake than some I could mention, but let’s not go there.’
Jai flicked me a quick sideways look. ‘I’m going to stick to free-range and organic. I can’t give it up completely – bacon and that.’
‘It just tastes too good?’
‘Yeah, but …’
‘No, that’s amazing, Jai. I’m really pleased. If everyone did that, there’d be no pigs in cages. Good on you.’
‘Fiona’s doing the same.’
I felt it wash over me. Affection for them. My team. ‘I’m welling up, Jai.’
‘It’s only right. Pigs being practically our colleagues now, rather than just what we get called.’
‘Well, it’s made me very happy. You’re good guys – you and Fiona.’
‘Enough already. You’re starting to embarrass me.’
‘Did you ever find out what’s up with Craig?’ I said.
‘No. Just that he’s seeing a counsellor and doesn’t want his wife to know.’
‘There’s clearly deep-rooted stuff going on in his psyche,’ I said. ‘I suppose I should try to feel sorry for him, but he acts li
ke such a dick.’
‘I know.’ Jai fell silent but the air was full of him preparing his words. ‘I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I’ve been worrying about it. I wondered if he’s been violent towards his wife and that’s what he’s getting counselling about?’
‘Oh shit, really? Do you think that’s why Tamsyn keeps approaching us? Does she need help? Shit.’
‘I’m not sure. I thought it might be.’
‘Is that what you said to him when he hit you?’
‘Yeah. He hit me for accusing him of being violent. He doesn’t have a finely developed sense of irony.’
‘God, I hope Tamsyn’s okay. She must know how hard it can be to get action taken against violent cops. We have to help her.’
‘What can we do? We’ve got no evidence. I might be totally wrong.’
‘Just keep a close eye, I suppose. And if she contacts us again about anything, I’ll try and get it out of her.’
We carried on along the tree-lined lane towards Eldercliffe. The rain was making the stony, muddy ground on each side encroach upon the tarmac, narrowing the road to the point where meeting one of the vast quarry trucks would be genuinely hair-raising. Luckily the road was empty apart from us.
‘Also, I’d been meaning to tell you …’ Jai said.
‘What?’
‘Er, me and Suki split up.’
‘Oh no! I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s for the best. You see, Meg, I was going to say to you. I wonder if we—’
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘Cops are better not having relationships. It’s too complicated.’ But what I meant was that I was just too tired to think about this. Even if it could be really good. Because I was exhausted after Gran, and this case. And I wasn’t over Daniel, but I couldn’t say that because I couldn’t admit to my feelings for him. And anything that involved effort, that involved one or both of us changing jobs, no matter how good it could be, was too much. ‘Detectives are better off single,’ I said.