by Jo Allen
The first wail of sirens split the distance. Natalie raised her hand to the bell again. If Faye didn’t answer the door what choice was there but to intervene?
The figure moving behind the glass pane in the door — thank God, slowly, as if again she was afraid it might be Ashleigh — forced her hand. She broke into a run and arrived at the gatepost as the door opened and Faye appeared on the doorstep.
‘Faye! Look out!’ She lunged up the short path as Natalie’s elbow drew back prior to a strike, grabbed at the arm, gripped it, lost it, hurled herself at Natalie and brought both to the ground to one woman’s screams of fury and the other’s of pain and shock. But the scarlet-bladed knife spilled from Natalie’s hand and onto the path and Ashleigh pinned the killer down as the first police car screeched to a halt beside them.
Chapter 26
‘All right,’ Jude said, trying not to scowl at Natalie, knowing that if he gave her solicitor any cause for argument there would be trouble, because this time he wasn’t dealing with Colleen Murphy but with some bumptious young man who was barely out of law school and felt he had something to prove. ‘Can we go through this again? I want to be clear. You are confessing to four murders and one attempted murder.’
Natalie was sitting opposite him at the table in the interview room, bolt upright, and with her hands folded on the table. She didn’t look at him.
He sat watching her, always conscious of the clock which had somehow ticked on past seven. Mikey’s party would be getting under way. He’d had no chance to call and cancel and his phone, when he switched it back on, would bombard him with messages of reproach — from Mikey, from his mother, even from his father who’d once again ended up watching the football with an empty seat beside him and no explanation for his elder son’s no-show that afternoon.
‘Natalie.’ Ashleigh was in coaxing mode now, and he sensed that even in the aftermath of four lost lives, she’d been able to mine some vein of sympathy for a killer. Such sympathy might not be entirely professional, but a sideways look at the solicitor showed he was sufficiently taken aback to accept it at face value. Fine. If Ashleigh wanted to play the good cop, let her. Maybe it would get them out of the place earlier than otherwise. ‘It’s better for everybody if you tell us why you did it.’
The stubborn silence with which Natalie had begun the interview was giving way. In front of their eyes she resolved to tell the truth. ‘I need help.’ Her eyes filled with tears, but she stayed upright and made no attempt to wipe them away. ‘I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I did it. Oh God. I can’t believe I killed Claud. But I was so angry. I don’t know. I can’t remember. But he hurt me so much.’
‘He hurt you? You mean—?’
‘He didn’t hit me. No. Not that. But there are so many ways of hurting people.’
‘Is that really what made you do it?’ Ashleigh sat forward as if she were coaxing a child to admit to mischief. ‘Because he upset you? But what about the others?’
‘Shall we start at the beginning?’ Jude repeated, mindful of obtaining some kind of a narrative, but he made sure he learned from Ashleigh and moderated his tone. In any case, his anger wasn’t directed at Natalie but life in general and at himself in particular. ‘Tell us about Len Pierce. What had he done to you that you wanted to kill him?’
‘It’s so complicated. It’s so difficult. I don’t know—’
‘Chief Inspector. My client is clearly distressed and needs medical help.’
She turned on her supporter, like a chameleon snapping up a fly. ‘I told you. I won’t see a doctor. Now I want to explain. I want somebody to listen to me. Let’s get it over with and then we can all go home.’ And then, as if she realised that she was the one of the four of them who wouldn’t go home that night, she finally dabbed at the tears that rolled down her cheeks.
From the depths of her pocket, Ashleigh produced a packet of tissues and handed them over. With blood-red fingernails, Natalie unpicked the packet and drew one of the tissues out. Now it was obvious why she’d polished her nails so vivid a scarlet — to hide any traces of blood that would have lingered there, a lesson she must have learned after the death of Len Pierce. ‘Tell us about Len.’
‘Shall I tell you about Claud, first?’ She dabbed at her cheeks with the first of the tissues, but the tears were already drying. ‘You won’t believe me, but I loved him. I adored everything he did. I met him when he was working with the repertory company I was with. It was before he set up his training workshops, and he was working for another company. They did the same sort of role-play, for different sorts of training. Customer-facing, mainly.’
‘You weren’t an actress for very long, then?’ Ashleigh leaned in towards her.
Jude exchanged glances with the unnamed solicitor. It was going to be easier for everyone to let the two women carry on with a private conversation.
‘Only a couple of years. I loved acting, but I didn’t like the lifestyle, all the things that came with it. I hated the late nights. I hated not knowing what I was going to be doing six months ahead. I didn’t like the people. They were self-centred and unpredictable. I’m like that too, I know that, but they thrived on it and I don’t. I need stability and security. Then I met Claud and I fell in love with him.’
‘He seemed very charismatic.’
‘I know what you really think of him. He was bumptious and determined and he had a prickly side. He liked a fight. But he was never like that with me. He was always so protective, so tender, so loving. We moved here because I didn’t like living in the city. He set up the business so that we could work together and he’d always be there for me. He understood what anxiety was like, and he helped me through it. Always. I adored him. He was my man.’ She reached for a glass of water.
‘And then?’
‘It was the business.’ Her voice quivered. ‘He was obsessed with it. He’d always been championing someone’s rights for something but for some reason this seemed to touch something inside him. He talked about work all the time. Everything he did was about equality, about rights. We went to marches. I had to wear some silly costume and pretend I was enjoying myself. That was bad enough. But I did it because it was the only time I got to see him. He was so lost in his work. He loved people. He thought they were so interesting. Far more interesting than me.’
There was a period of silence.
‘Anxiety’s an awful thing.’ She replaced the glass on the table, in exactly the same place that she’d picked it up from. ‘You always see the worst coming. You always believe the worst and you keep believing the worst is going to happen. It’s only when the time’s passed and it hasn’t happened that you really believe you’re safe, and by then there's something else for you to worry about. Life is such a strain. If I didn’t have Claud with me, I knew I wouldn’t be able to cope, and everywhere I looked I saw reason why he’d leave me.’
The solicitor, Jude noticed, was looking perplexed. Ashleigh helped herself to a tissue and began picking at it. ‘I see how that would happen. But what did Len have to do with all this?’
‘There were always couples in that lane. It didn’t really bother us, because we didn’t have to look at them, but I knew some of them were gay. I came home one day from my run and Claud was chatting to one of the guys in the lane.’
‘Are you sure about that?’ Claud had said he hadn’t met Len, but they couldn't ask him now. Maybe there had been something he was afraid of.
‘I’m quite sure. I asked him about it afterwards. He said he was just chatting to him. And it could have been true. That was so like Claud. He was interested in everybody. But it wasn’t the first time.’
‘You were jealous. Is that it?’
For a moment, Natalie considered. ‘I didn’t think of it like that. He was at work so much, and there were hours at a time when I didn’t see him because I was running. I began to wonder if he was seeing someone, and eventually I became obsessed by the idea that Claud was seeing this man. The man — Len — was there ofte
n, with another man, but the other man never stayed. Len did, though, and he and Claud would have a chat and a laugh. And then I realised that if I killed him, everyone would think it was his lover. You’d never think it was me.’
There was a long pause. Claud had never mentioned meeting Len. Maybe he’d guessed it was Natalie and he’d tried to protect her. Maybe he was afraid he’d incriminate himself. They’d never know.
Jude pulled out a chair and sat down, leaning over to join in the conversation. ‘The tracker. That was clever.’
‘Did you work it out? I am obsessive about it. That’s true. I’m obsessive about everything.’ She looked down at her bare wrist. ‘Especially running. But I don’t suppose I’ll be able to run in prison, will I?’
‘I wasn’t smart enough to get it straight away,’ said Jude, reviewing all the evidence with the benefit of hindsight, ‘but I might have seen it sooner. It was those stops you made. That was strange. You were convincing about the obsession, but there was no logical reason why you’d stop where you did, about half a mile from the end of a thirteen mile run.’ It was Ashleigh who’d put the idea in his head, with her observation about the view. That was only that morning, but it seemed like days before. ‘What did you do — take the tracker off and leave it somewhere?’
‘Yes. I’d been trying to break the habit. That was why I stopped when I did my stretches. I used to take it off and put it on the wall and walk away from it, sometimes run a hundred yards or so and back, without it.’ Natalie paused and looked down at her bare wrist. ‘Then I realised. It meant I could be somewhere and seem like I was somewhere else and that meant I could kill that man. I’d been planning it for a couple of weeks. I’d bought a knife in Carlisle and I hid it by the lane, for when I needed it. The first time I ran past the two of them were there and I didn’t dare stop, but the next week it was different. Just as I was in sight one of them drove off and the other one stopped for a cigarette. I got the knife and I ran to where the man was, next to his car.’ Her wide eyes turned uncertainly from Ashleigh to Jude and back again. ‘Please don’t ask me to… but I did it. I did do it.’
‘And the knife?’
‘I hid it in the garden shed. Then I went and told Claud what I’d found.’
Silence surrounded them as they contemplated the crime, and then Natalie reached for another tissue and folded it in half.
‘And when that was done,’ Ashleigh said, with her voice very carefully controlled, ‘what did you do next?’
‘I got scared. I was scared about everything. I was scared about being caught, and although Len was dead, I was still scared that Claud would leave me for someone else. There was always someone else he was talking about, always someone who wanted a piece of his time. That bell-ringer. He was so keen to see Claud.’ She folded the tissue again, and again, and again. In reality, Jude thought, there was every chance that Claud had talked about these things for only a fraction of the time, but they were all she ever registered. ‘And Claud kept saying how normal it was to be gay. I thought it was a coded message to me, that he was preparing me for him leaving. I was sure he was having an affair. I started looking at his laptop, and I could see he’d been on some sites, but I couldn’t get access to them.’
‘Did you take his laptop?’
‘No. He faked the burglary and threw it away. He must have suspected I was onto him, and of course that just made me more suspicious. I didn’t know what to do. But there was that woman, Gracie.’
‘You must have met her at one of the workshops, then,’ Jude said. ‘But they were before you killed Len, weren’t they? Why her?’
‘Claud was always talking about her. He wanted to invite her round for supper and when I didn’t want to he said he’d take her out somewhere without me. I’d seen her walk across the churchyard and back every evening after work. I’m sure if I wasn’t there they must have met.’
‘Same plan, eh? With the tracker.’
‘Yes. I found a coat in a charity shop bag, and I wrapped the knife in it. I didn’t know poor Claud would find her. He was so upset. He said he thought she was me. He’d been worried about me.’ The tissue would fold no smaller. Unfolding it, she began to tear it in half, in half again. ‘On the way back from the police station we met that bell ringer. He came up to help us and he was lovely. And I remember him saying to Claud that he’d have to come round, and he gave him his number and address. And that’s where I went completely mad. I thought he was inviting Claud round because he wanted to have an affair with him.’
‘Was the invitation only for Claud?’
‘He said you must come round.’ She paused, ripped each half of the tissue yet again. ‘I hear it differently now. I see he must have meant both of us.’
‘But you knew where he lived,’ Ashleigh said, sounding to Jude’s sensitive ear as if exhaustion was beginning to kick in, as if her capacity for understanding was becoming strained. ‘And it was just handy that it was on your route.’
‘Yes. I ran past his house and there was a light on, so I rang the doorbell,’ Natalie said, breathlessly, ‘and when I…he fell backward into the house I pulled the door to. Then I ran off and left him.’
‘And was it Claud’s jacket you wrapped the knife in, this time?’
‘It was so handy. I’d known I’d have to kill him, too, because he had his eye on Claud, and when I came back to the office after the burglary I took the coat and put it in my bag and pretended it had been stolen, too. That time I had to run a bit further. You’ll see I stopped a bit longer there, if you’ve had time to check the tracker, but fortunately I never met anyone.’
‘But what about Claud? Why kill Claud?’ Ashleigh was shaking her head in perplexity.
Natalie turned to her, lifted her hand to her breast, an actress in a moment. ‘I don’t know.’ A tear, unquestionably a real one, rose to her eyes. ‘I asked him if he was having an affair and he told me he wasn’t, but I didn’t believe him. I could see it in his eyes that he thought I was mad. I told him I still loved him and when he came to hug me, I was brave. I killed him because if I hadn’t, he’d leave.’
Silence, while they digested this tale of tainted love and self-delusion, and Jude risked another look at the clock. Half seven. ‘And after that?’
‘After that I don’t remember.’ She hung her head, and the red fingernails closed once more on the tissue paper. ‘I don't remember anything else. Anything at all. It’s all a blank. I wish I didn’t remember killing Claud.’
There was a tap on the door. ‘Shall we take a break?’ Jude asked. He glanced at his watch again. ‘I think we all need one.’
‘My client needs a rest.’
‘I told you, I want to tell everything—‘
Jude got up and answered the door. Faye stood outside it, her left arm in a sling, her fingers bandaged. He joined her in the corridor, with Ashleigh behind him. ‘Well, Jude?’
‘She’s confessed. To all four killings. Not in her right mind, if you ask me, but the experts will be the judges of that.’ He indicated the hand. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I’ve been worse. Maybe this will offset the newspaper article that Ms Letham will no doubt produce as a follow-up. Maybe I’ll get points for bravery. Do stitches compensate for a bad reputation?’ Her eyes glittered like obsidian. ‘I hope so. I have seven of them in play, and some very strong painkillers to see me through.’
Faye, Jude thought, was exhibiting her own signs of delusion. Nobody really cared what stories ran in the local paper. The woman was mad even to be in the office, but he might as well take advantage of her folly. ‘Brilliant. Could you take over here? Ashleigh and I were supposed to be somewhere else.’
Her eyes widened. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘My brother turns twenty-one today. I’m supposed to be at his party.’
‘Am I hearing you right? You’re proposing to walk out of an interview to go to a party?’
‘Yes. I’m not supposed to be working today. I worked my last day off. I
missed spending the afternoon with my dad. I’m done here.’ It was probably too late to salvage anything from the evening, but at least he could try. And if the worst came to the worst, he could offer Mikey the sacrifice of his career, in a way he hadn’t been able to offer Becca.
‘You can’t leave—’
‘I must have worked seventy hours this week.’
‘We’re all expected to put in long hours.’
‘I know that. I do it regularly enough. It’s cost me in the past, and I’m not having it cost me again. Take it up with my union, if you have a problem with it.’ He took three steps down the corridor to signal his intent. If only Mikey was there to see him make a stand.
‘Chief Inspector.’ Faye’s voice cracked like a whip. ‘That’s dangerously close to insubordination.’
He turned back.
‘I appreciate your difficulty,’ Faye observed, maintaining her steely calm, ‘but let me remind you of your priorities.’
Ever since he’d lost Becca he’d vowed to change his priorities. ‘No-one’s ever accused me of neglecting my duties before.’
‘Then don’t make me do it now.’
Silence. Ashleigh broke it, stepping forward, laying a hand on his arm. ‘It isn’t worth it. It really isn’t.’
If the circumstances had been different, if Mikey was in trouble, he might have carried it through, but what was the point when all that was required was his presence, when the party would carry on fine without him? It would be another grievance for Mikey to chalk up against him. That was all. ‘All right. Let’s get on with it.’ And the sooner they finished, the better the chance he had of salvaging something from the evening.
Chapter 27
The party was well past its peak when Jude finally arrived in Wasby. A knot of revellers crammed the pavement outside the village hall with plastic pint glasses and lit cigarettes, and a few of the guests were beginning to drift towards their cars. Behind him, a taxi pulled up and a few of Mikey’s more boisterous friends piled into it, no doubt away to carry on carousing in their own places, or in a club in Penrith or even Carlisle.