Her Final Hour: An absolutely unputdownable mystery thriller

by Carla Kovach

  ‘Looks like someone’s missed you.’ Briggs took the box from her bandaged hand and completed the task. ‘You should really use the other hand for a while. You don’t want to hinder your recovery. Go upstairs, take a shower and get changed. I insist. I’ll make you a bite to eat while you’re up there.’

  ‘But, Chris—’

  ‘I’m not taking no for an answer. You could use a hand and I’m here. I’m hoping you have some cheese in the fridge. I make the best cheese sandwich in the world, as you know. I’ll leave it on the side for you and pop back in a bit.’ She wanted to argue with him, tell him it was no use clinging onto what they had but she needed his help. Besides, a shower and a sandwich sounded like her idea of heaven.

  Grabbing a plastic bag, she taped it around her wrist. ‘Best not dampen my bandage.’ She smiled at him, then felt his gaze on hers for a few seconds longer than normal. She remained at arm’s length, fully aware that her emotions were all over the place following the attack. She didn’t need complications. She needed to catch Melissa’s killer. ‘Right, I’ll see you in a bit.’

  * * *

  A shower had been most welcome. The black trousers and purple roll neck jumper were more ‘her’. The home phone rang. She grabbed it as she swallowed the last bit of cheese sandwich. Briggs would be back in half an hour to take her to the station.

  ‘I can’t believe you left the hospital, Mum. I just called them to ask how you were and the nurse said that you’d walked out.’

  ‘I’m fine. They were talking about discharging me later anyway. I’m not sitting there while they fill out paperwork and make me wait there for hours.’ Ebony jumped on her lap, making her flinch as she rubbed against her wrist.

  ‘Unbelievable. You just couldn’t stay away from work, could you? I bet you’ve already been in. I’ll pop over later with Gracie, Mum, and I want you to be in. This is ridiculous.’

  Gina nudged the cat off her lap. ‘I know what you’re thinking and, yes, I am going back to work. I don’t expect you to understand but that’s the way it is. I have a killer to catch and someone attacked me. You think I’m going to sit here all day, watching crap on the telly because you think I should?’

  Her daughter sighed. ‘I don’t believe it. Three hours ago you were in hospital, looking like you didn’t know what day it was, and now your back home and going to work. Why can’t you just have a couple of days off?’

  She couldn’t explain to her daughter what a couple of days meant when it came to an investigation. ‘Because a woman was brutally murdered. I’m not going to sit at home, drinking tea while a dangerous killer is out there. If she was a friend of yours, would you want to know that people like me were doing all we could? Course you would! Look, I know you’re only thinking of me and I love you for that but I know what I need to do, so can you please spare me the telling off?’

  She pictured Hannah’s face reddening and braced herself for her reply. ‘Whatever.’ Hannah went silent. ‘Can you just try to stay safe?’

  Gina could feel the tension between them as she waited for more. A trail of tears slipped down her cheeks. ‘I will do, love. Thank you. Give Gracie a cuddle from her nana. Speak later.’ She placed the phone down, more sure than ever she was doing the right thing.

  There was a knock at the door and her mobile rang at the same time. She took the call as she opened the door. Briggs was there to drive her back to the station as promised. ‘Jacob.’

  ‘We’ve just had a woman call, reporting a missing person. Given what happened to Melissa Sanderson, I think we need to follow up on this without hesitation.’

  ‘Great, Jacob. You’re driving. I’m on my way to the station. Meet you in the car park.’

  Thirty-Eight

  Jacob opened the passenger door and smiled. ‘How’s your head, guv?’

  ‘It’s been better. But I’m okay. Look.’ She responded with her goofiest smile. ‘I’m fine and I don’t need help getting out of the car. I can still walk, well to a certain degree.’ She stretched, feeling every muscle twinge in her body. ‘What’s the woman’s name?’

  ‘Rebecca Greene.’

  Jacob waited as she caught up. The block of modern flats looked pleasant enough and was within walking distance to the town centre. A couple of young children threw a ball back and forth on the patch of grass out the front. The main door opened, as if Rebecca had been waiting for them to arrive.

  ‘Thank you for getting here so soon.’ The woman led them to the living room of her first-floor apartment. The room was small but cosy with a Juliet balcony at the far end. Gina picked a photo up. Rebecca and Ellie were both smiling in the image. ‘Can I get you both a drink?’

  Gina shook her head and thanked her. She’d already lost valuable time after her attack, she wasn’t wasting any more. ‘Can I just confirm your name? Rebecca Greene?’ Jacob made a note.

  ‘Call me Becky, no one calls me Rebecca.’

  ‘Is this Ellie?’ Gina placed the photo back on the shelf.

  Becky ran her hand through her short brown hair, took her square glasses off and rubbed her eyes. ‘Yes. That’s Ellie. I don’t know where she’s gone.’

  ‘When did she go missing?’ Gina flinched as she tried to find a comfortable position to sit in. Her injuries were making comfortable near impossible.

  ‘I haven’t seen her since Saturday night. She said she was popping out, had to do something. She wouldn’t tell me what, but I could sense she wasn’t right.’ The voile blew as a light breeze passed through the slightly open door.

  ‘Could she just be with friends?’

  Becky wiped a tear away. ‘Ellie didn’t have friends. She was introverted, preferred her own company. If she had time, she’d normally be painting. We have two bedrooms, she uses one as her studio.’

  ‘What’s Ellie’s surname?’

  ‘Redfern.’

  ‘Tell me a little about her.’

  Becky began playing with the heart-shaped pendant dangling on a chain around her neck. ‘We both have one of these. We’re getting married in the summer, finally. Ellie manages a coffee shop. Just a small independent in town. Her big passion is art. She was meant to study fine art at Edinburgh University after school but she didn’t have it easy. She couldn’t cope with life.’ The woman rubbed her eyes.

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘She paints portraits, professionally. The word’s been spreading and she gets a lot of work. She did that one of me.’

  The small painting that hung on the wall looked very professional with a modern twist. The face and features were painted almost traditionally, but the paint had been left to drip in places and the colourful background had not quite reached the edges of the canvas.

  ‘It’s a lovely portrait.’

  ‘I’m so proud of what she’s achieved.’ She wiped away an escaping tear. ‘Ellie was going through a bit of a thing. She wanted to face her past so she could move on as we were getting married. I’d managed to get her to open up to me a little.’ Rebecca paused and looked down. ‘I’ve never tried to push her too much through fear of driving her away.’

  Gina could relate to that comment. She too had a past that people were hell bent on trying to delve into. Her daughter, Briggs – they wanted to know things, things she didn’t want to share.

  ‘She’s had a few days off work. I called her when I got home on Friday, wondering where she was. I’d been shopping and when I arrived home, she’d gone out. No note, nothing. When she got home, later that day, she looked ruffled. I was worried she’d started drinking again as she used to have a drink problem. That’s another thing. She’s fallen off the wagon more than once but she’s always allowed me to help her, never shut me out. On the Friday, when she arrived home, I couldn’t smell drink on her but when I asked her where she’d been, she said she’d been doing secret wedding stuff. But she’d been having nightmares and there was something that didn’t seem right. You know when you can’t put your finger on it, but you just know?’

  Gin
a nodded. ‘Did you find out where she’d been?’

  ‘Yes. As soon as she walked through the door she got in the shower, which was odd. I searched through her coat pocket and found a bus ticket to Cleevesford. Ellie won’t open up to me, but what I do know is that twenty-five years ago, when she was eighteen, she was attacked in the Angel Arms car park. She won’t tell me about the attack or any of the details. It hurts that she can’t confide in me, but I accept her wholeheartedly – I love her. I just want her to come home.’

  ‘You’re doing really well, Becky. We need to know what happened after.’

  ‘That night, last Friday, she only wanted toast for tea, said she wasn’t feeling too well. She went to bed and slept all night. I had to go to work on Saturday so I was up early. I work as a retail manager and do lots of weekends and evenings. When I left about ten she was asleep. I kissed her on the head and told her I’d see her later, and I haven’t seen her since. I tried to call her when I returned home on Saturday evening but she wasn’t answering. She never goes out at night. I called her but she kept cutting me off. On Sunday morning, I received a text from her phone.’ She read the text aloud. “‘Met an old friend at the pub and had a few. Slept on their sofa. Love you.” I know this isn’t her. She was out all night and she sends me this? She’s an ex-alcoholic and she’s a very serious person. She wouldn’t say something like that. She goes out chasing her past, being all secretive, and then this text comes through. This isn’t Ellie. Something has happened to her, I know it has.’ The woman broke down.

  ‘Do you have a recent photo of Ellie that we could take with us?’

  The woman opened a drawer under the coffee table and pulled out a postcard. ‘She got these made when she had her last exhibition. She gives them out. They have her contact details on the back.’

  A round-faced woman, with a black fringe and sharply cut bob, looked back at her from the postcard. She could tell that Ellie had been uncomfortable when she’d had the photo taken as she’d barely managed a half smile. ‘Thank you. Is this up to date?’

  ‘That is how she still looks.’

  Gina passed Jacob the photo to go with the notes he was taking. ‘Can you tell us what she was wearing? Maybe you know which items of clothing are missing.’

  ‘Yes. She always wears a cropped faux leather black jacket. Jeans, she always wears jeans and her flat black boots are missing. Her wardrobe is pretty predictable. She wears black nail varnish and quite bold make-up. Don’t mistake her bold image for confidence though. I’m always reassuring her that she’s beautiful. She never believes me.’

  Gina walked towards the Juliet balcony. In the distance she could hear clunking noises coming from one of the factories located in the nearby industrial estate. The children laughed and yelled as they ran past, bouncing their ball. As she watched people pass, and cars come and go, she wondered if Melissa Sanderson’s murder could be linked to Ellie Redfern’s disappearance. Maybe Ellie was just with a friend. Maybe there was more to her relationship with Becky than Becky was telling. But maybe something far more sinister could be behind her disappearance. Her mind kept going back to the Angel Arms – the link. Given the fact that a woman, in a town close by had been murdered last week, she would be taking this seriously. If they weren’t related, good. If they were, she wasn’t going to be accused of ignoring the link early on, especially as the press were becoming so involved.

  She thought about Melissa Sanderson. The two women were worlds apart. Melissa had a home that resembled something out of a lifestyle magazine, she had a young daughter and she was married. Ellie lived in an apartment in Redditch, lived with Becky, no children, but she had a past she didn’t want to speak about that had possibly contributed to her drinking habit. She was even more certain that the common factor was Cleevesford and the Angel Arms. Darrel Sanderson had been in the Angel Arms while his wife was being killed. Ellie had also mentioned the Angel Arms and she had a bus ticket to Cleevesford in her pocket.

  As they left the apartment, Gina pulled out her phone and called Wyre. ‘I’m going to message you a photo of Ellie Redfern in a minute. Look into her past, anything. We’re taking a diversion.’

  ‘Are we?’ Jacob pulled his car keys from his pockets and Gina smiled.

  ‘Too right.’

  Thirty-Nine

  ‘Oh, you know how much you love this place, guv.’

  She laughed as Jacob pulled up in the Angel Arms car park. ‘You know me well. Smarmy Samuel Avery, it’s been too long. He hears things, he see’s things, he causes an awful lot of trouble around here. The idiot was cautioned for being in a fight last week, another disgruntled husband. I just don’t know what women see in him. There must be something strange in the beer.’

  As they approached, Gina glanced through the leaded window. Her mind was briefly taken back to the last major case she worked on. This pub had been the centre of the most notorious kidnapping to ever come from Cleevesford. This place was well and truly on the map. Real life crime fans treated it like some sort of Mecca equivalent, boosting Samuel’s footfall and profits.

  She led the way. ‘Samuel Avery, I see you’re still profiting from this poor woman’s misfortune,’ Gina said as she pulled the poster from the wall, advertising a crime walk that began at the pub and ended at the woman’s old house. ‘I don’t know how people like you sleep at night.’ He’d driven the kidnap victim and her family out of their home and town with his sick tours, all for a few quid.

  ‘Some of us have got to eat, Detective. Unless you are here for a drink, I suggest you go. You’ve seen better days, haven’t you? I thought you were a bit of a looker last time we met but now you’ve let yourself go. Someone get fed up with your probing and give you a smack?’ His liver-spotted hands trembled as they gripped a brandy glass.

  Refusing to rise to his petty insults she took a seat at the bar. She would never give him the satisfaction of seeing how much she hated him. ‘We’re investigating the case of a missing woman who was seen in here last Friday. We can either chat here or at the station. Being the last person to have seen her, we just wanted to have a chat, that’s all.’

  ‘Not again. Mind you, the last one has been profitable. As I say, always willing to help the pigs. We can’t have helpless women going missing, can we?’

  He really was despicable. She clenched her fist in her pocket. She’d love nothing more than to grab the glass from his bony fingers, pour his drink over his revoltingly loud shirt and fling the glass at his head, but she wouldn’t.

  ‘Do you recognise this woman?’ Gina held the postcard close to Samuel’s eyes.

  He squinted and grinned. ‘Ahh, the cheeky bint. That one gave me a bit of lip. She was hanging around outside, last Friday. She came in and I must admit, she caught me staring at an arse and gave me a mouthful.’ Gina liked her already. ‘I basically told her to mind her own business. She took her drink and sat over there by the window. That’s all I know. Haven’t seen her before, haven’t seen her since. Sorry I can’t be of more help but I’m sure she’ll turn up. I’d wonder if she’d pulled some bloke or something, maybe gone off with him but there aren’t many who’d put up with her. She seemed like a handful.’

  ‘Did she leave alone?’

  ‘I don’t remember. Jill might know more, she was serving. She’s on her break, in the garden. Is that me done?’

  Gina wondered for a moment if Ellie had seemed like a challenge to him, after all, he was used to getting his way with women. A woman verbally attacking him might have turned him on. She watched as he rolled a cigarette.

  ‘Do you know a Lee, Ben and Dan? They maybe come in with Robert Dixon and Darrel Sanderson?’

  ‘I see lots of people, Detective. If I think of anything, I’ll give you a call.’

  ‘You do that. One woman has been killed and another is missing.’ She stared at him, waiting for him to crack or look away, but he didn’t. ‘We’ll need access to your CCTV, starting with Friday morning, up until now.’

 
‘Always happy to help.’ He winked as he left the bar to get what she needed. She was thankful he was cooperating. She shivered as he left and she led the way to the garden.

  ‘What do you think, guv?’ Jacob asked as he tuned to a fresh page in his notebook.

  ‘I think he’s a disgusting human being. He makes my skin crawl. I want to know what he said or did that made Ellie so angry. Maybe Jill can fill us in. Something’s not right here, but then again, it never has been.’

  Jill was throwing bits of sandwich to the blackbirds at the end of the unkempt beer garden. A wonky wooden bench took pride of place. The Angel Arms certainly wasn’t ready for spring. Cigarette butts littered the grass and the patio area.

  ‘Jill, I’m DI Gina Harte, this is DS Jacob Driscoll. Do you mind if we have a word?’

  The woman flicked her long red auburn hair aside and smiled. ‘Of course not. How can I help you both?’

  ‘We’re investigating a missing person. Do you remember seeing this woman last Friday?’

  Jill scrutinised the photo and smiled. ‘Yeah, I do. She didn’t half give that slimeball I work for a telling off.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I was getting her a drink. Samuel must have said something about me or given the others at the bar a look. The woman asked him what he was staring at, or something like that. I can’t really remember now. I just remember thinking, nice one.’

  Gina felt her vision swimming a little, and hoped that Jacob and Jill wouldn’t notice. She leaned against the wall. ‘Did you see her before that, or after?’

  ‘She looked really upset outside, before we opened. I asked if she was all right and she didn’t say much. She just walked around the car park, which was a bit odd. She came in, bought an orange juice and that was it. I remember she went to sit by the window, next to the entrance. I don’t remember her leaving. That really is all I know.’ The woman ate the last piece of her sandwich and the blackbirds flew away.