by Celina Grace
Her desk phone’s ringing drove the thought out of her head. She recognised the number of the pathology labs on the caller display screen and picked up the receiver, feeling a quick jump of anticipation.
Kirsten Telling’s quiet voice on the other end of the line nevertheless held an undercurrent of something else. “Good morning, Kate. I thought I’d better ring you straight away. We’ve had the toxicology tests back from the labs.”
“And?” asked Kate, trying not to sound too eager.
“Joshua Widcombe had quite significant quantities of a barbiturate in his blood. So much so, in fact, that the indications are that he actually died of an overdose, rather than from blood-loss from the cuts on his wrists.”
“Seriously?” asked Kate. She stared blindly at the dial pad of the phone, as if the answers could be read there. “That would explain the discrepancy in the amount of blood found by his body, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, that’s right. If he was dead, or at least dying, by the time his wrists were cut, that would explain why there wasn’t much blood.”
Kate was thinking hard. “So, that brings us back to the fact that Kaya Trent must have cut his wrists. If he was unconscious by that time...”
She trailed off. It wasn’t Kirsten Telling’s job to discuss the motives and methods of the crime scene with her. “I don’t suppose there’s any way of telling whether he was given the drugs or whether he took them himself?”
“Well, no, I don’t think you could go that far. But from analysis of his stomach contents, it looks likely that they were dissolved in a glass of vodka and coke.”
“But there’s no way of knowing whether he drank that knowing what was in it – or not,” Kate said rather flatly, knowing the answer.
“That’s your department, I’m afraid, Kate, not mine.”
“Yes, understood. Thanks, Kirsten. I’ll look out for your report.”
Once she’d put down the receiver, Kate went back to staring into space. It was looking more and more likely that, far from a straightforward suicide pact, that Kaya Trent had in fact drugged and killed her boyfriend and then killed herself. Was there any way of proving that? Kate looked up and across the room. Theo had just come in and was shrugging his jacket off by his desk.
“Morning,” Kate said, pitching her voice loudly enough to carry across the room. “I don’t suppose you know if we know whose fingerprints were on the knife found at the scene, by any chance?”
“Jesus, woman, can’t I even get myself a coffee, first? Why are you so eager to know?”
Kate got up and went across to Theo. She told him what Doctor Telling had just told her.
“Oh,” Theo said, the grin dropping from his face. “Well, that’s put a new light on it, hasn’t it?” Thoughts of coffee clearly forgotten, he dug around in the piles of paperwork on his desk before pouncing on a slim report with a cry of triumph. “Knew I’d seen it here somewhere.”
Kate opened it and read it through. “Kaya’s prints only,” she murmured to herself. “We should have flagged that up before, shouldn’t we?”
Theo took the report back from her. “Well, it’s like it always is, isn’t it? Once we know more, we – well – we know more. You going to tell the boss?”
Kate nodded. “Come with me, why don’t you?”
Anderton, also an early riser, was in his office, and the door stood open in the way they’d come to know meant he was okay with being interrupted. Kate knocked and pushed the door open.
“Right,” Anderton said, once they were all seated and Kate had gone through everything she knew. “Looking more and more like a murder-suicide, isn’t it?” He pushed his chair back from his desk, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “Bloody rare for a woman to do it, though. It’s normally the other way around.”
“We also don’t have a shadow of a motive, yet,” said Kate.
“Oh, that’ll come out, I’m sure,” Anderton said. “You need to start interviewing their friends. They’ll probably have more of an idea than their parents.”
Kate hesitated. “We’re... We’re not looking for anyone else in connection with this, are we?”
Anderton glanced at her. “No. Not unless something else comes up.”
Theo gave a sudden exclamation that made both Kate and Anderton look at him in surprise. “Shit! Sorry, boss. I’ve got a meeting I’d totally forgotten about.”
“Off you go, then.” Anderton waved his hand at the door. Muttering apologies, Theo hurried from the room.
With her colleague gone, Kate again became aware of something in the atmosphere between herself and Anderton. They seemed to go, in a split second, from the usual comfortable feeling of working partners to - what was it? Something less comfortable. It’s probably all in my head, thought Kate, but even as she was thinking this, she could see Anderton looking at her, with something thoughtful in his gaze that made her shift a little in her seat. She was just about to say something about getting on with her work when he asked her a question with a suddenness that took her by surprise. “How are you getting on?”
“Fine,” said Kate, automatically. “There’s obviously still a lot of information to get—”
“No, I don’t mean about the case. I mean, how are you getting on? You know, with what’s happened recently...”
He meant the death of her mother. Kate, knowing this, and knowing also that he was trying to be kind, still felt herself freezing over, just as she always did when the topic came up. She had to try very hard not to let the ice into her tone.
“I’m fine,” she muttered.
“There’s a good counselling service here if you ever need to talk—”
“Yes, I know that. Thank you.” Kate knew she sounded abrupt but at that moment it was beyond her to elaborate.
“I suppose you’ve got your brother and sisters, as well, for support,” Anderton went on relentlessly. Kate muttered something again, looking down at her lap. She didn’t tell him that her brother, Jay, had called her last night and she’d let the call go through to voicemail. She told herself it was because Tin had been there, and it would have been rude to have a long telephone conversation with Jay without including Tin in it, but really, she knew why she hadn’t answered the call. Jay would want to talk about their mother – of course he would – and Kate didn’t want to talk about her. Not at all. Never.
She came back to reality with a start to realise that Anderton was still speaking. Thankfully, he seemed to have moved off the subject of her bereavement. “How’s Fliss settling in?”
Kate blinked. “Fine, I think.”
Anderton smiled. “I’m sure she’ll be fine if she’s got you to keep an eye on her.”
Kate smiled back rather uncertainly. There was that something again, a shared flash of feeling in their suddenly locked gaze. She quickly looked away and said firmly that she’d better make a start on the day’s work and excused herself.
Kate walked slowly back to her desk, her head full of contradictory thoughts. The sudden tension with Anderton that she seemed to be feeling was uppermost, but there was also the slight resentment that she was obviously expected to babysit their newest recruit. Why me, thought Kate. It’s not as if I don’t have enough to do. Fliss was an adult, anyway – she might look young, she was young, but she was still a qualified police officer and junior detective. I’ve got enough people to worry about, thought Kate, her brother and sisters’ faces in her mind. She hadn’t even started sorting out her mother’s house yet and quailed at the thought. When was she going to get the time? The house was going to have to be sold... There was all of that to organise too. Kate flumped down in her chair, feeling suddenly as if she’d rather like a good cry. It was this case, too; it was painful – more painful perhaps than the last couple of ones had been. Kate took a deep breath, sat upright and mentally squared her shoulders. She tried to remember some of the relaxation exercise that her counsellor, Magda, had once showed her. Perhaps she should start seeing Magda again. But no; then she’d h
ave to talk about her mother, and she didn’t want to do that. Kate, realising she was biting her lip, forced herself to relax. Concentrate on work, she told herself sternly. Make a list of everything else you have to do and then forget about it, for now. She glanced up at Olbeck’s empty office longingly. She could really do with her friend being here right now, even if he was behind a glass partition. “Selfish bastard, taking his honeymoon, how very dare he,” she muttered to herself and was forced to grin at the absurdity of her self-pity.
“What was that?” asked Fliss, who was just seating herself at her own desk.
“Oh, nothing,” said Kate. “We’re interviewing the friends today. Are you ready for that?”
“No problem,” Fliss said stoutly, and Kate, who was feeling a bit better, hid a smile.
The promising spring weather had seemingly passed. The clouds were piled in a thick grey mass across the sky and there was a chill wind that had both women hunching into their coats as they got into Kate’s car. Even the bright colours of the spring flowers seemed muted as they drove onto the grounds of the college. For most of the journey they had sat in silence, but just as they were drawing into the car park, Fliss spoke up in a voice so timid that Kate almost didn’t hear it. “I was really sorry to hear about your mum, Kate.”
Kate said nothing for a moment. Much as she knew she was being unreasonable, she still could not help her immediate impulse, which was to totally ignore what her colleague had said to her. But, as always, after a moment, she did what she normally did, which was to mutter ‘thanks’ in a very grudging tone. It was almost remarkable, the way she stiffened whenever someone gave their condolences. She could almost hear Olbeck’s voice in her head. It’s not healthy, Kate. You need to do something about it.
And I will, she replied silently. When I’m ready.
“It’s just – I kind of know what you’re going through—” Fliss continued nervously, but Kate, unable to take any more, cut her off abruptly.
“We’re here,” she said curtly, swinging the car into a spare parking space.
Doctor Hindmarsh had allocated them a small room near her own office in which to conduct their interviews. Kate and Fliss sat awaiting Kaya Trent’s best friend, Susie Andrews. Kate, not really wanting to think about what Fliss had said to her in the car, tried to distract herself by wondering what Susie Andrews would be like. Dark and vibrant, like Kaya herself? Or the total opposite?
The total opposite was how it turned out. Susie was a small, pretty strawberry-blonde, with a smattering of freckles over the milky skin of her nose. She came into the room quietly and shut the door behind her. At first glance she appeared remarkably self-possessed, but as she sat down, Kate noted her reddened eyelids and slightly trembling hands.
Susie started off with an apology. “I’m really sorry, and I’ll try and answer your questions, but I’m afraid I’m really upset. I’m still really upset.” Her voice wobbled. “I feel... I feel—” She broke off.
“How do you feel, Susie?” Kate asked in a gentle tone.
Susie looked down. “I feel guilty. I feel as if I should have known – I should have known Kaya was in a bad place. I did know. I mean, she tried to talk to me, but I didn’t listen. I mean, I didn’t listen enough. Not enough to make any difference.”
“What did Kaya say to you?”
Susie gulped. “We had a bit of an argument over it. She kept saying that Josh was cheating on her, and I told her she was being ridiculous, she didn’t have any proof and that he wasn’t like that, but she insisted—”
“When was this, Susie?” Kate pressed.
“About a month ago. She was round my house, and we were having coffee, and she just came out with it. ‘Josh has got someone else, I’m sure of it,’ she said, just out of the blue. Well, I kind of laughed, to be honest. I thought she was joking.”
“But she wasn’t?”
“Well, she can’t have been, can she? I said, ‘What do you mean?’ and she said ‘I think Josh is cheating on me’. And obviously I asked her why she thought that, and she said, ‘I just know.’” Susie shook her head, as if in frustration. “But how could she just have known? Josh just wasn’t like that. He was really into her. To be honest—” Susie broke off, biting her lip.
“What is it? You can tell us, Susie,” Kate said.
Susie went on, hesitatingly. “To be honest, once or twice, I thought... I thought Kaya might have been seeing someone else. I don’t know why – she was just... I just thought that might be the case.”
“Why was that?”
“It was nothing major, just...a couple of times, I caught her talking to someone on the phone and she – she just finished talking to them really quickly, like she didn’t want me to overhear what she was saying. She put the phone away really quickly. I didn’t ask her about it but – it was funny...” Susie trailed off, biting her lip again.
“You have no idea who this person was?”
Susie shook her head. “No. I didn’t hear what they were actually saying. It was more – just the way she acted, sort of furtive and as if she was hiding something. That was why...when she said what she said about Josh, I thought maybe she was trying to tell me something, maybe lead up to telling me about something she’d done. But she didn’t.”
There was a moment’s silence. Kate looked across at Fliss but her colleague was busy writing in her notebook. Kate cleared her throat. “Did Kaya ever indicate to you that she was having suicidal thoughts?”
“Never,” Susie said, with emphasis. “She never said anything that made me think—” She broke off again, her blue eyes brimming with tears. “She never made me think she would do anything as awful as that.”
“Did she ever do anything like self-harm, that you know of?” Susie shook her head. Kate nodded and switched tack. “How about Joshua? Did you know him well?”
“Sort of. I mean, he was Kaya’s boyfriend for ages. Everyone fancied him but he wasn’t that kind of guy – I mean, he wasn’t a big lad, you know? He was nice, quiet.”
“Was he the kind of person that you could have imagined doing something like this?”
Susie winced, her face screwed up. “No. I can’t – he wasn’t that sort of person. That’s why I can’t believe... I can’t believe he did it.”
Kate was of the opinion that Joshua hadn’t done what Susie thought he had, but it wasn’t her place to enlighten this grief-stricken teenager. No doubt the truth would hit the media within the next couple of days, but until then, at least that particular horror was unknown as yet.
She thanked Susie, reminded her that the school had a counsellor who would always be happy to hear from any student that might need some support, and handed her her card, dismissing her. After the door closed behind Susie, Kate looked over at her colleague.
“Should we try for Joshua’s best friend now? Do you think it’s worth it, given what we know?”
Fliss was flexing her writing hand. She shrugged. “Worth a try while we’re here, surely?”
“I agree.” Kate jumped up and went through to the school office next door, requesting that Peter Knight be brought through to see them.
The school secretary obligingly put out a paging message to that effect. A few minutes later, another teacher popped their head around the door.
“I’m so sorry but Peter’s off today. His mother rang up this morning, he’s not well.”
“Never mind,” said Kate, to both secretary and teacher. She went back next door to tell Fliss.
“We’ll catch up with him at home, later, if it’s necessary,” Kate said, gathering up her things.
Fliss nodded. “Where do we go from here?”
“Back to the office,” Kate said. “We need to start checking Kaya’s phone records, for a start.”
“What about Joshua Widcombe’s family?”
Kate paused. “Good point. We’ll drop in on the way back, see if anyone’s at home.”
Chapter Six
Kate thought better of just �
��dropping in’ to the Widcombes’ house and phoned ahead once she’d got their telephone number from the station. Mrs Widcombe answered the phone with a colourless voice and sounded rather tearfully apprehensive at the thought of talking to the police, although she agreed to meet Kate and Fliss at her house in half an hour.
The Widcombe house was a semi-detached Victorian villa of golden Bath stone, with a small front garden edged with black iron railings. Curtains were partially closed across the bay window at the front. Kate managed to find a parking space fairly near the house, and as she and Fliss walked up to the black-painted front door, she wondered about those curtains. Was it some archaic reference to mourning? Or had someone just forgotten to pull them back?
Jenny Widcombe opened the front door and Kate realised that the curtains had probably just been forgotten about. Poor Jenny looked bludgeoned, her movements hesitant, walking as if she’d just awoken from an unpleasant dream. She showed them into the dim front room and sat opposite them in an armchair, clasping and re-clasping her hands. Kate was wrenched with pity for her, as strongly as she had been for Kaya’s mother, although at least Mrs Widcombe had the comfort of a husband and another child.
“I still can’t take it in,” Jenny Widcombe said with a sob. “Joshua was the last – he just wouldn’t have done this. He just wouldn’t. He loved life, he was full to the brim with loving life.” Her sobs increased until the words coming out of her mouth blurred. She dropped her head into her hands and cried for several minutes, while Kate and Fliss waited uncomfortably. Eventually, Jenny raised her head and wiped her eyes with a disintegrating tissue. “I’m sorry,” she said, with a gasp in her voice. “I just don’t seem to be able to stop crying.”