Crimesight

by Joy Ellis

  ‘Helped?’ Kate’s eyes widened.

  Hewitt looked tired. ‘You know what our instincts are like, DCI Reynard. You get a feel for something, and there was something not right when we walked into Alderfield that day.’ He heaved a sigh. ‘Not that I could ever substantiate anything, but everything was wrong. The bodies, the children, the gun. It was all there, just as you’d expect, but..,’ He gave a shrug. ‘I wasn’t the only one to think this; I was the only one stupid enough to say it.’

  ‘Say what?’ asked Gary slowly.

  ‘There was a belief amongst some of us; that the children, having witnessed their mother’s death, might have been instrumental in Simeon’s demise.’

  ‘The children?’ Kate felt mildly sick.

  ‘Who else? And could you blame them? That monster begat six off -spring, and he abused every single one of them.’ Duncan suddenly stood up. ‘I’ve got something if you’d like it? I call it my memory box.’

  The man left the sunny conservatory and Kate felt a chill seep through her whole body. She had imagined nothing like this. And worse still, she had no idea what any of it meant in relation to Fleur, or to the deaths at Windrush.

  Lost in thought, she hardly heard Hewitt return. ‘Here you are.’ He handed her a large cardboard box. ‘It’s all yours, DCI Reynard. My diaries, my notes, a few illicit mementos; all those interesting little things that I just had to keep.’ He drew in a long breath. ‘I hope they help you, but be warned, they do not make good bedtime reading. Oh, and I don’t want them back. I was going to burn them And if you don’t take them, I still will.’ He looked at her solemnly ‘And when you leave, I’d rather you didn’t come back, because with that box gone, I intend to put the Mulberrys behind me, forever.’

  Clutching the box, Kate stood up. ‘The senior police officer involved with Mulberry, who was he?’

  Hewitt’s face hardened as he swung the door open. ‘I value the meagre existence that I still have. And as his seed still flourishes within this fertile land, I won’t be sharing that information. Good bye, Chief Inspector.’

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Kate called the team together and told them what Hewitt had said. None of them spoke immediately, then Jon asked, ‘James Cade comes from a family of police officers, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Maybe that’s not an avenue we should be pursuing. Let’s work on what we need to, that can wait until the time is right.’ Kate sounded serious. ‘Now, forensics stated that Fleur had been terribly abused, and Fleur led us to Alderfield, so one would think, that she was the Mulberry girl.’

  Gary flipped through DI Hewitt’s notebook, ‘That’s not possible because the only girl was taken into care, and her age is wrong.’

  ‘What were their names?’ asked Rosie.

  Gary shook his head. ‘We only knew of them as Child 1, Child 2 etc. Unless Duncan knew differently?’ He picked another note pad from the box, and opened it.

  ‘I can find out.’ said Scott eagerly. ‘Can I use your computer, ma’am?’

  Kate stood up. ‘It’s logged in, help yourself.’

  Scott dropped into her chair, and they all watched as the young man’s fingers flew across the key board.

  ‘Weird.’ He glared at the screen, and typed in more commands. After a few moments he grunted. ‘This isn’t right, Guv.’ His face folded into an unaccustomed frown. ‘Access Denied, on a simple birth registration? Why?’

  ‘Because I fear we have wandered into dangerous territory.’ Kate felt a frisson of concern. ‘Scott, close the computer down. I think where the Mulberry case is concerned; we need to be canny from now on.’

  ‘No problem, ma’am. There are other ways, now I know to tread carefully.’

  Gary looked at the young detective with interest. ‘That sounds promising.’

  Scott grinned. ‘I love a challenge.’

  ‘His hacking skills are legendary.’ added Rosie, ‘But don’t tell a soul, or he’s brown bread as far as his job is concerned.’

  ‘I always knew this team was different,’ said Gary. ‘In fact..,’

  A loud knock on the door interrupted him

  ‘DCI Reynard!’ Clive leaned around the door. His words tumbled out. ‘Guv, the duty sergeant says could you go downstairs immediately. Someone has just come in and says he’s responsible for the findings beneath Windrush.’

  Kate went immediately to the custody sergeant, who told her that the man had been cautioned and arrested, and she could see him as soon as she wanted.

  She and Jon waited for a second before entering the interview room. ‘Watch him.’ Kate whispered. ‘See what you can pick up.’ She tapped her temple with two fingers.

  Jon nodded, then opened the door and they went inside the gloomy room.

  Philip Graves was dressed in casual country clothes, and looked carefully groomed. ‘I would have come sooner,’ he said after the introductions for the tape had been concluded. ‘Only I had to make provisions for my animals. I know I won’t be going home again.’ His voice was soft and cultured.

  ‘Mr Graves, you have stated that you are responsible for…?’ Kate paused. ‘..for what exactly?’

  ‘The Children’s Ward is mine.’ He stated carefully.

  Kate swallowed hard. Other than the police and forensics, no one knew what they had found beneath Windrush. She asked him to tell them what he knew about it.

  ‘It lies beneath the ground and is approached from an old Victorian tunnel from the marsh.’ He looked at her sadly. ‘There was no one else out on the fen at night as I previously stated,’ He looked across to Jon. ‘I’m sorry I lied to you, sergeant, I was the one out on the marsh.’

  Kate looked at the man, and tried to find one thing that would convince her that she was sitting opposite a ruthless killer, but there was nothing.

  ‘I took the girls along the passage on a trolley, then into the ward, and so to bed.’

  She saw Jon’s face become a mask of confusion. ‘And did you sing as you went?’

  ‘Sometimes.’ Graves gave him the strangest look, but didn’t ask why. He went straight on with his story. ‘I prepared the place years ago. Windrush was empty for some time before it was won in that wager.’ He gave a little smile. ‘I used to wander around there a lot. That was when I found the tunnel from the house. And I found all those old beds and lockers too. They were ready to be dumped, so I took them down the tunnel and set up the Ward. Sadly I had to seal it up when it was finished, because I couldn’t afford the new owner to stumble across it.’

  Kate glanced at Jon, and felt her heart sinking. Graves knew far too much. So why did she not feel elated about this? She should be delirious at the thought of a murderer walking through the front doors and practically prostrating himself before her.

  ‘We need to take your fingerprints, Mr Graves, and ask for a sample of DNA, if you agree?’

  ‘I have no objection.’

  ‘And you do have the right to a solicitor. You can either request your own, or we can get the duty solicitor?’

  Graves stared down at the table. ‘I don’t need one, Detective Chief Inspector.’

  ‘It’s your choice, sir, but I really would advise one.’ Kate looked at Graves, and although she still could not see the murderer, she could see the man who had placed those vases of flowers beside the beds. ‘What was on the bedside lockers, Mr Graves?’ she asked casually.

  The man gave a little sigh. ‘I know what you are talking about.’ He looked at her with the saddest of grey eyes. ‘I took them fresh flowers. Check my garden, detective. The varieties will match the ones in the little vases.’

  Jon glanced towards Kate, and gave her a look that registered disbelief.

  ‘One last question,’ Kate steeled herself. ‘The first victim? Her name was Fleur. What can you tell us about her?’

  Philip Graves sat a little straighter in his chair. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t wish to say any more.’

  ‘No, no, no, no! This isn’t right!’ Kate paced her office.


  Professor Daniel O’Byrne watched her from where he sat. ‘But what about his statement? It’s utterly damning.’

  Kate knew that. But still alarm bells jangled in her head. ‘He knew all about the underground chamber, yes. He’d obviously been in it, yes. I can’t argue with that because his prints match the ones that Prickles found, but..,’ Kate shook her head violently. ‘But Philip Graves never drugged, assaulted and brutally murdered those girls. He’s protecting someone.’

  ‘Maybe, or maybe your theory of a multiple personality is right, and he’s protecting his other self.’ The professor scratched his head. ‘At least he’s agreed to let me sit in on the next interview. Maybe I can shine a little light on this.’

  Jon leaned against the wall, and seemed lost in thought. Then he said, ‘Jan Wallace, the forensic archaeologist, said that whoever placed Fleur’s skeleton on that hospital bed had an advanced knowledge of anatomy.’

  ‘Like a veterinary surgeon.’ Daniel O’Byrne murmured.

  ‘Exactly like a vet.’

  Kate threw up her hands, ‘And it may have been him! But it doesn’t mean he killed her.’ She resumed her pacing. Could he have killed them? The question rolled around in her mind like one of those brightly coloured screensavers that floats and twists and re-invents itself constantly. Then she saw the professor looking at her shrewdly and she raised an enquiring eye at him.

  ‘You’re thinking that a man who mends broken kittens and sick puppies couldn’t kill, aren’t you?’ he asked.

  Her eyes narrowed a little. ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Just remember that he also sticks needles full of lethal drugs into them and watches them die.’ The professor’s eyes never left hers. ‘And slides cold steel through their soft furry skin and sees their warm blood flow. Don’t underestimate Philip Graves, DCI Reynard. It could be a big mistake.’

  Kate heaved a loud sigh. ‘I know, I know. I just wish I could get my head around all this. And I still believe that Fleur is the key, if only we could identify her.’

  ‘I totally agree.’ said Jon, leaning over her desk and taking a sheet of blank paper from her printer tray. He pulled a pen from his pocket and wrote Fleur’s name in the centre of the paper.

  ‘Oh good! Brain-storming.’ said the professor. ‘A hugely useful technique.’

  Kate threw a warning look at Jon. It maybe a great technique, but as the professor didn’t know about Jon’s gift, he needed to careful what he wrote down.

  ‘I was only thinking about direct connections.’ Jon smiled quickly at her, then drew an arrow from Fleur to the name, Elizabeth Sewell. ‘She said Rosie reminded her of Fleur.’ He wrote the name Philip Graves, and connected him to both Fleur and Elizabeth. The name Benedict Broome followed, then Micah Lee. After him came Toby Tanner and Asher Leyton. Soon the paper was full of names and interconnecting lines.

  ‘And this is helping?’ asked Kate acidly.

  ‘Probably not.’ said Jon, pushing the paper away from him. ‘I’m going to find Scott and Rosie. See if they’ve had any luck.’

  As Jon left, the Professor pulled the scribbled sheet towards him, and slowly ran his finger over the maze of arrows and lines. ‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.’ He tilted his head to one side. ‘And I wonder what Sir Walter Scott would have made of this little tangle. None of them connected, and yet all of them connected. Mm, interesting.’

  Scott was using his own laptop for his unauthorised excursion into restricted territory. He began work straightaway and didn’t take his eyes from the screen. Numbers, codes and letters flashed up, and disappeared only to be replaced by more strings of hieroglyphics.

  Jon watched him, and he also watched Rosie, as she talked animatedly to someone on the telephone. He wished this horrible case were over, because the more he saw of Rosie McElderry, the more he understood where his feelings were heading.

  ‘That was forensics, Sarge.’ Rosie looked at him intently. ‘The hanged man is Toby Tanner. The fingerprints are an exact match. They’ve done DNA testing too, but there’s is no doubt. And that’s not all.’ Rosie moved closer to him, ‘As soon as they ran the prints, they hit another match, from the evidence lifted from the party in Fendyke Chapel.’ Her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Toby Tanner, respected gentleman farmer, has been slumming it with Cade and his pervie friends.’

  Jon reached out, squeezed Rosie’s arm, and felt a tingle of excitement. ‘So we were right! He was connected to the parties.’

  Rosie grinned at him. ‘And that’s probably why he topped himself.’

  He reluctantly let go of her arm. ‘Did Asher Leyton’s prints show up too?’

  ‘No. Just Tanner’s. Maybe Asher didn’t go to the chapel that night.’

  Jon was just about to reply, when Scott suddenly called out to him.

  ‘Sarge! I’ve done it! Look!’ Scott was waving a print-out at him. ‘You are so not going to believe this!’

  Jon took the sheet, tried to ignore the document’s restricted warning header, and read down the list of names and dates. ‘What!’ he yelped, ‘Jesus! The boss needs to see this! Come on, you two.’

  ‘The Mulberry children, ma’am,’ Jon’s voice almost crackled with excitement. ‘…were called Benedict, Tobias, Micah, Philip, Elizabeth and Asher.’ Jon passed her the copy of the official report. ‘They may have been given new family names and new lives, but for some reason, they came back here.’

  ‘Because they had to.’ The professor said softly, rubbing the lenses of his glasses with his tie. ‘Those poor little fledglings had to return, to find somewhere where they can nest together again.’ He replaced his glasses. ‘They had no choice. No matter how far the well-meaning social workers and the courts, all full of good intentions, sent them; they would find each other again. Like moths drawn to a flame.’

  Kate exhaled. ‘We need to talk to Benedict. No wonder he was worried about Elizabeth! She’s his sister.’

  ‘And Asher!’ Rosie looked aghast. ‘If he was the one to find Tanner hanging in that old mill, then it was his brother that he found!’ She let out a despairing sigh. ‘That explains why he is in such a state.’

  ‘And of course he had a key to the farmhouse,’ added Jon, banging his head in frustration. ‘…because his two brothers lived there. I’m betting he went there to see if there was anything in Toby’s home that could link them to the Mulberry family.’

  ‘They are siblings,’ whispered Kate, almost to herself, then she looked at the professor and said, ‘Just how damaged could this family be? I mean, looking at Benedict and Philip, they seem to have integrated perfectly into society? One is in finance, and the other a well respected veterinary surgeon.’

  ‘Irrelevant.’ The professor shrugged. ‘They will all be scarred by what happened to them. Some more than others, but I guarantee that not one of them is normal, and I would be willing to stake a large amount of money on the fact that every single one of Simeon Mulberry’s children has a defect, a serious defect of one kind or another.’ He leant back in his chair. ‘You know that the abused can become an abuser. You’ve seen it a thousand times over in your job.’

  Kate had. ‘One of them, Asher, has a strong sexual addiction, is that the sort of thing you mean?’

  ‘Absolutely. And depending on the mindset, the opportunities open to him, and the depth of the original damage, as he gets older, things like that can escalate.’

  ‘To rape?’

  ‘Usually to sexual harassment, then rape, and then even to murder. We’ve all heard about cases where the bullied child of a dysfunctional family takes that family flaw to new levels of depravity.’

  Kate rubbed her eyes. ‘Hearing that makes me wonder if the Children’s Ward is some kind of twisted family business.’ She looked around. ‘Where is Scott?’

  Jon looked out the door. ‘He’s still on his computer.’ He called across the room. ‘There’s more?’

  ‘Give me one minute, Sarge.’

  Jon closed th
e door again.

  Everyone was silent, then the Professor picked up Jon’s graffiti covered sheet of paper and waved it at them. ‘Tangled webs and deception, it was all here.’

  ‘Except for Fleur.’ Jon’s voice was sombre.

  ‘Maybe not.’ Scott slipped into the crowded office and handed Kate another smaller slip of paper.

  ‘A birth certificate?’

  ‘Wasn’t easy to find, because there was an error on her birth date, but I’ve located the only girl in this area registered with the name of Fleur, and guess who Mummy and Daddy are?’

  Kate read the names out loud. ‘Simeon and Charlotte Mulberry of Alderfield House, Hurn Point.’ Kate’s mind fogged over, and then, as if that east wind had ripped through it, it cleared again. ‘My God! She’s their sister? There were seven Mulberry children!’ She looked at Scotty, ‘Would you check for a death certificate for Fleur Mulberry?’

  ‘I’m ahead of you there, ma’am, there’s nothing. And I’ve accessed sites that are about as accurate as is possible. There is no official record of her death.’

  She took a long shaky breath. ‘Okay, Scotty. You’ve done some totally brilliant, if somewhat illegal, work today. Well done.’ She beckoned to Jon. ‘Time to visit Mr Benedict Mulberry.’

  CHAPTER FORTY ONE

  ‘Sir, we know about you and your family’s tragic past. Your real family, that is. I have no problem with the fact that you chose not to tell us. You all have new lives with new identities, but now, I’m afraid the circumstances have changed, and your true family history is an integral part of this murder enquiry.’ She paused briefly then added, ‘Are you Benedict Mulberry, eldest son of the late Simeon and Charlotte Mulberry of Alderfield House, Hurn Point, Harlan Marsh?’