Her Final Hour: An absolutely unputdownable mystery thriller

by Carla Kovach

  Should she look? She couldn’t lose him but she couldn’t risk being caught by him either. She couldn’t let him get away. Exhaling gently, she leaned forward and glanced in his direction. He’d stopped and was checking his phone.

  He held his phone to his ear. ‘Natalie, have you found my keys yet?’ He paused as the other person on the call replied. ‘That’s good. You just keep looking.’ He grinned as he dangled a set of keys in front of his eyes. He turned, facing the tree she was tucked behind. Her heart raced and she couldn’t move. She wanted to run, escape in the direction they’d come, but part of her hoped he’d turn around and keep walking. She remained still, unable to look away. A squirrel darted from the other side of the tree and disappeared into the distance. He grinned and continued through the foliage. ‘Bloody squirrels,’ he muttered.

  Tears fell down her face. He hadn’t seen her, he’d spotted the squirrel. She stood, continuing to follow him, but keeping further back. What would Becky say if she knew what she was doing? She knew exactly what Becky would say. She’d be angry. There’s no way she’d want her to be playing vigilante. Then again, she hadn’t told Becky much about what had happened to her. She hadn’t shared the contents of her nightmares with Becky. All that would change soon. She was going to tell Becky everything. Maybe then, Becky would understand her better, understand what had pushed her to drink all those years ago. In her opinion, there was nothing like blanked out memories to make a person feel as though they were losing their mind. This new start, her upcoming wedding and today, was all about confronting what had happened. No more denial. She was going to confront him.

  They’d been walking in the woodland for the best part of ten minutes when she saw a house in the distance. The large country house stood alone amongst the trees. When growing up in Cleevesford, her mother had never allowed her to come this far to play as a young child. She could hear a road close by. The country road that led all the way to a little village called Wixford, fronted the house. Becky had driven her along it when they’d gone for a day out and they’d spent a balmy summer’s day sitting on a riverbank with a picnic.

  She held back as she watched him stop outside a back gate. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and held it to his ear once again. ‘I’m nearly home. Maybe we should have some us time. I love you, my darling.’ He put his phone away and began peeping through a tiny gap in the fence.

  Opening the gate, he walked down the path. She listened as the back door opened and closed. She ran along the side of the house, wedged her body through the dense hedge and looked through the large bay window. He wasn’t stalking anyone, he was home. She flinched as he placed his arm round his wife who was sitting in a chair. He grabbed both of her breasts from behind and began kissing her neck. She watched how the woman’s expression didn’t change. It wasn’t an expression of pleasure or disgust. The woman looked vacant. Ellie knew that look. That’s the look she’d given when her relationships had become sexual. She’d managed to force her nightmares to the back of her mind and function for the sake of her relationship with Becky. Becky was different though. Becky cared.

  A tear ran down her face. Now wasn’t a good time to be here. She had all these dreams of confronting him but it never happened. What did she think she was going to do? Knock on the front door and blurt everything out to his wife. She’d keep him in her sights while she thought about it.

  She started the long walk back to Cleevesford, where she would get on the bus and go home. She didn’t have a plan, or know how to avenge her younger self, but she’d be back soon, she knew that for sure.

  Fifteen

  ‘You look how I feel,’ Jacob said as he entered Gina’s office. Darkness had begun to fall as the day progressed and a rain shower was brewing in the air. The weather had been so changeable lately.

  ‘Believe me, I can see exactly how you feel,’ she said with a smile. His tie was pulled into a loose knot, his shirt was crumpled and he had bags under his eyes. His tall figure looked like it needed feeding up as it always did. ‘I’m heading home soon. I’m dead on my feet. You should go too. We need to be back here tomorrow with our brains in gear. Any news on Jimmy yet?’

  ‘No. We checked with his school. He left work at five following a play rehearsal and hasn’t been seen since.’

  ‘I want someone watching his flat for when he arrives home. Then I want him picked up immediately before he gets a chance to go in and tamper with anything.’

  ‘Do we have enough to bring him in?’

  ‘He’s a witness. Ask him to come in voluntarily. If he refuses, we may need to interview him under caution. Melissa’s husband has an alibi and we can’t risk James Phipps going home and destroying any evidence. We need the phone Melissa was sending the texts to. We need to know why she went back to Suzanne Barker’s house looking upset, and if Melissa had given her friend the full story.’

  ‘Smith is going to be pleased. I’ve already pre-warned him of the likelihood of him being on stakeout duty. We’ve also put a call out. Officers on patrol will be looking out for Phipps’s car. We’ll put an ANPR out too.’

  ‘Great. Anyway, Smith enjoys working with us. Get him down there. In the meantime, I’m going home to sleep. If we get Phipps, call me immediately and I’ll be back. I want to be the one to interview him.’

  Jacob nodded. ‘See you tomorrow then, guv.’ He smiled and closed her office door as he left.

  As she went to yawn, her office phone went. ‘Bernard. Tell me you have something good for me.’

  ‘We’re conducting the post-mortem first thing. I’ve emailed you the details. See you there.’

  Sixteen

  Saturday, 14 April 2018

  Gina glanced at her watch, it was nine forty in the morning and she’d been in the station three hours already. She’d come straight in the moment she’d got the call to tell her that they’d picked Phipps up at six o’clock outside his flat. Jacob caught her up as she was about to enter the interview room.

  ‘I’ve just had a call from Smith’s team. Not one of Phipps’s neighbours can give him an alibi for the night of Melissa’s murder. No one can verify whether his car was there, his light was on or that he was in his flat.’

  ‘Thanks for that. Let’s go.’ Gina led the way in, passing Phipps as she took a seat opposite and Jacob sat beside her.

  ‘James Anthony Phipps.’ Gina continued for the tape. Jacob sat beside her in the sparse interview room, taking notes. ‘You’ve been brought here today for questioning about your whereabouts during the murder of Mrs Melissa Sanderson on Thursday the twelfth of April 2018. The interview will be conducted under caution and will be recorded. You have attended voluntarily.’

  ‘I haven’t done anything. I loved her,’ he yelled as he placed his head in his hands and wiped his eyes. Gina pushed a box of tissues towards the man.

  ‘We’re just here to establish what happened, Mr Phipps. Please tell me where you were on the evening of the twelfth of April.’

  ‘I was at home in my flat.’ His thick dark hair flopped over his eyes.

  ‘Can anyone corroborate your whereabouts?’

  ‘No,’ he replied as he sucked in air and began to hyperventilate. ‘I didn’t do this.’

  ‘Mr Phipps, we are just trying to establish your whereabouts and your relationship with the late, Mrs Sanderson. You are not under arrest.’

  ‘Does that mean I can go, just walk out,’ he said as he stood. Stubble covered his chin and his eyes looked heavy.

  ‘It does, but as you can’t corroborate your whereabouts on the evening of Mrs Sanderson’s murder, I can arrange a warrant for your arrest and then you’d be straight back. We’d really appreciate your help and cooperation.’

  The man sat back down. ‘Do I need a solicitor?’

  ‘Do you want one? You are not under arrest but I can call a duty solicitor or your solicitor if you’d prefer to have one present,’ Jacob said as he looked at the man, then looked back at Gina.

  ‘I don’t k
now. No. I just want to get out of here.’

  Gina kept her gaze on him. ‘Tell me everything in your own words.’

  Jimmy leaned back in the chair and ran his shaking fingers through his mop of dark wavy hair. ‘She told me she wouldn’t leave him, her husband that is. She came over on Wednesday morning.’ Gina made a note. His information tied in with what Suzanna Barker had said. ‘We argued and not for the first time. I wanted her to leave him and be with me. But I couldn’t give her half the things he could. He’s a successful businessman, me, I’m a teaching assistant.’ The man paused.

  ‘Tell me about the argument,’ Gina continued.

  ‘She said she needed to try and make it work with her husband and that she couldn’t end up with nothing. I kept trying to tell her she wouldn’t end up with nothing but if she did, it wouldn’t matter; we could make it work because I loved her. She wasn’t happy at home. That husband of hers didn’t treat her like a husband should. It’s him you should be looking at.’

  ‘Can you elaborate on that point?’

  ‘He failed to make her happy any more, which is where I came in. I made her happy.’ Gina made a note. It looked like Mr and Mrs Sanderson were leading very separate lives. She was getting a good glimpse into Mrs Sanderson, now she needed to know more about Jimmy Phipps and Mr Sanderson. ‘He went out a lot leaving her alone. I wanted to give her so much more!’

  ‘Do you know where he went?’

  ‘She went on about him spending time with his friends. She talked about Dan, Rob… err, Lee, I think, and I’m sure she mentioned the name Ben. She spoke about them a lot, actually. She didn’t like them. I was glad though, it meant I had her. Anyway, had he been a brilliant husband, she wouldn’t have been seeing me. She said his friends were all basically a bunch of slimeballs but she didn’t go into detail.’

  Gina noted the names down. Was the Rob he referred to Darrel’s alibi at the Angel Arms, Robert Dixon? ‘Can you tell us any more, their surnames, anything about them?’

  ‘That really is all I have. I didn’t press her, I just let her speak freely and she enjoyed talking. If I asked her too much though, she’d clam up.’

  Gina cleared her throat. She knew that feeling all too well. Her mind whirred. What didn’t Melissa Sanderson want to talk about?

  ‘Going back to Thursday. Tell me what you did all evening?’

  ‘I got home from work about five. I had dinner, a microwave meal for one, lasagne. The box will still be in my bin if you want to check.’ He paused. ‘I ate my food then took a bath. I was in the bath until about seven then I got out. I sat in my living room, read and did some work.’

  ‘Did you have the TV on?’

  ‘No. I was working on the school play, The Importance of Being Earnest. I had to prepare a rehearsal schedule for the pupils, note down the technical requirements, lighting, sound effects and break down the scenes. That took me most of the evening. After that, I afforded myself a few glasses of wine. I won’t lie to you, I tried to call Melissa but her phone was turned off. I bought her a phone so we could just use it for each other. I always made sure mine was turned on but I also understood that she didn’t always have hers on.’

  ‘And you were happy with this arrangement?’

  ‘No. I was distraught. I’ve been around, believe me. Working in London, directing theatre, I had no shortage of interest but Melissa was different. We had history. When you fall for someone that hard for a second time, you don’t think about others. I wasn’t going to let her go again.’ The man sat on the edge of the plastic chair, leaned his elbow on the table and placed his head in his hands.

  ‘Let her go?’

  ‘You know. Do my best to keep her, not physically restrain her. You’re not going to pin this one on me!’

  The man began to fidget in his chair.

  ‘Tell me about your history with Melissa?’ Gina asked him.

  ‘We met in high school. We were both in a school pantomime. She was just in the chorus, I played the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk. Fifteen we were. That’s how it began. We hung out for the best part of a year and then I braved asking her out. It was a tough one as I didn’t want to ruin our friendship but it turned out she was thinking the same. We soon became an item. When we finished our A levels, she went on to get a job in admin and I went down to London to study theatre and drama. Soon after, I heard she’d met another boy and we were over. I won’t lie, I was gutted. I begged her to come to London, live with me and get a job in the city but she turned me down. She never replied. Then I friended her through Facebook about three months ago. I didn’t care that she was married, I just knew she was the one, and I wanted her.’

  ‘So you pursued her?’

  He moved from the table and leaned back a little. ‘I loved her, I still love her. I’m devastated. I would’ve done anything to be with her.’

  ‘Anything?’

  He slammed his fist on the table. ‘How dare you! I don’t know any more. I’ve told you where I was and all I know. If you need to arrest me for being a loner and staying in with a ready meal, then go ahead, but I don’t know anything else.’

  ‘Over to last night. Why didn’t you come home?’

  ‘I’d heard about the murder on the radio. When I drove past Melissa’s house, I saw the police tape outside. I struggled through work and went to the pub to get hammered. I’m the other man. No one cares about my feelings.’ He paused and wiped his wet eyes. ‘I drove into Redditch, went to a small pub in Crabbs Cross called The Eagle. I stayed there until close, you can check.’

  ‘The Eagle, you say?’

  He nodded. ‘I left about twelve, realised I was pissed and didn’t have enough cash for a taxi home. I slept in the back of my car on the main road running through Crabbs Cross. I drove home about half five this morning and you lot brought me here.’

  ‘Interview terminated at nine fifty-one,’ Gina said into the recorder.

  ‘Can I go now?’

  Gina watched as he began to do his jacket up. She wasn’t going to allow him to leave and potentially destroy any evidence. He had a motive, they’d argued. He had no alibi for the evening of Melissa’s murder and, in his own words, he wasn’t going to let her go again.

  ‘No. Mr Phipps, I’m arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Mrs Melissa Sanderson on Thursday the twelfth of April 2018. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence,’ Gina said as Jacob closed his notebook. Gina leaned back in her chair.

  ‘What does that mean?’ he cried as she stood.

  ‘Please sit, Mr Phipps. It means that we have the power to detain you for twenty-four hours while we conduct our investigations. We will also be taking a DNA sample from you.’

  ‘I want a solicitor. You’re not getting any more from me.’

  Jacob led him out of the interview room. Gina checked her watch. The post-mortem had started without her.

  Wyre entered. ‘Can you get O’Connor to check when Phipps left school and when he arrived at The Eagle pub in Redditch? See if he can pick up any CCTV that shows our suspect sleeping in his car. I just want to verify what he’s been up to. While he’s doing that, can you look into the names Dan, Ben, Lee and Rob? Phipps mentioned them during interview. See if you can find out who they are. I suspect the Rob he’s referring to may be Robert Dixon. I need an urgent sample of Phipps’s DNA too, and fast track it – I don’t care about the cost. Right, I have a post-mortem to attend.’

  Seventeen

  The pathologist had already started when Gina and Jacob arrived. They were shown into a small room with a glass divide, where they could hear and watch the pathologist and crime scene investigators working. One of them placed the camera on the stainless steel side and began adding Gina and Jacob’s names to the log. He picked up the camera and began taking photos, from all angles, of Melissa Sanderson’s body.

  Melissa looked s
o small without her clothes on. She had quite a tiny frame, almost bony. Gina’s gaze focused on Melissa’s nipples. They looked almost scarred, deformed. Her chest seemed to look a little different on both sides, a little uneven where her ribs were. Gina knew from looking that the woman had broken a couple of ribs in the past. She knew exactly what broken ribs felt like.

  Gina watched as they went about their business. Only a couple of days ago, Melissa was a healthy young mother with her whole life ahead of her. She had a little girl who would’ve depended on her.

  Whenever she saw bodies laid out in the clinical environment of an autopsy room, she always tried to remain connected to who they were. Melissa’s nightdress and dressing gown had been bagged. She watched as they measured her, checked everything they needed to check and made recordings of the results. They took the many samples required – hair, and swabs from every orifice. She listened as the pathologist called out measurements from behind his mask. The other CSI made notes and took samples from him, cataloguing each item of evidence as it was passed over.

  The camera focused on the blow to the head. ‘The right side of the corona capitis appears to have been hit with a spherical object of approximately five inches in diameter, causing a slight crack on the skull,’ the pathologist called out. The clean CSI came in close with the camera, refocusing on the wound. ‘Spherical object, like a ball.’ As far as she could remember from the files, there had been no spherical objects of that size logged into evidence that could’ve caused that kind of injury. ‘And the blue cord recovered at the crime scene matches the dimensions of ligature mark on the neck.’ The same cord found at the scene was the same used for the strangulation.

  The pathologist continued until he reached the woman’s breasts. ‘Looks like a clamping device used on many occasions has caused a build-up of scarring.’ Gina’s mind flashed back to the pliers in Mr Sanderson’s bottom drawer. Had he been abusing her over and over again? She stared at the scarring. The skin looked thick, almost like it had healed on several occasions. The pathologist continued. ‘Vaginal scarring, including more recent trauma, possibly caused by aggressive insertion of a large instrument.’ Gina flinched and looked away. Anger built up inside her. No one should have to suffer the indignity and pain that Mrs Sanderson had suffered in the past. ‘Four previously broken ribs,’ the pathologist said. Gina struggled to swallow as she thought of all Melissa had been enduring. Her body was a mess.