Bremer took a moment before replying. ‘Is that why you wrote the letter?’
Joanne frowned. ‘I didn’t write a letter.’
‘Do you know a man called Connor O’Brian?’ Bremer asked.
Joanne shook her head.
‘The letter we received suggested Ms Graham was going to falsify evidence against another woman, in the same manner you allege she did to you after your …’ He paused, and Carla sensed he knew to tread carefully, avoid too much police speak. ‘After your baby died,’ he finished.
‘Yes, but that doesn’t mean I wrote a letter. I don’t want revenge. I just want her to acknowledge what she did.’
‘Well that’s what the author of the letter wants too. And we are concerned whoever wrote it wishes harm to Ms Graham.’
Ian grabbed Joanne’s thigh. ‘Well I hope that person succeeds.’
Bremer’s phone rang. Checking the screen, he stood. ‘I’m sorry, I have to get this.’
And seconds later Carla was alone with the couple.
They sat in silence. Carla felt panic rising. Should she speak? She caught Joanne’s eye and the pain in the woman’s face stunned her. But it also seemed to be begging for her to ask a question, so Carla asked the only one she had.
‘Joanne, why are you so convinced that Eve acted deliberately?’
Joanne’s shoulders fell as if with relief. But as she opened her mouth to speak, Ian put his hand on her arm.
‘Don’t. It’s not worth it. Please, don’t risk it.’
Carla watched Joanne wrestle with her husband’s words before calmly looking back to Carla and giving a small smile. It lit up her face and Carla thought, This is what she looked like before her baby died.
‘I know because she told me.’
Carla hadn’t been expecting that. ‘Eve told you she knew you didn’t kill your baby?’
Joanne nodded.
‘When?’
‘When Beatrice died, I wanted to see her one more time. I made them let me into the room. Her room.’ She paused, fighting grief. ‘Eve was there, standing over the crib. I asked her to leave, told her I wanted time alone with my baby, but she just stared at me. When I asked again, she said, “Sometimes people have to take the blame for actions they didn’t commit. I’m sorry, but that’s just how things are.” At the time I didn’t really understand what she was saying because all I wanted to do was get to my baby. But after, when I saw she’d blamed me, I remembered what she’d said.’
Carla opened her mouth to respond, but Ian stopped her.
‘Enough. This is all too much. We’ve done nothing wrong. Not then and not now. I’m not going to stand by and watch my wife go to jail for a second time. You need to ask your pathologist these questions, not my wife.’
Carla watched tears start to roll down Joanne’s face. ‘I’m so sorry, Joanne.’ She knew she shouldn’t say it, but in the face of the woman’s pain she didn’t care.
Joanne nodded, taking the tissue her husband offered and wiping her nose. ‘Thank you.’
Bremer was at the door. ‘Carla, we have to go.’
‘But—’ Carla half turned towards the couple, but Bremer cut her off.
‘We have to go. I’m sorry, Mr and Mrs Fowler, but we’ll have to speak another time. And can I ask that neither of you contact Ms Graham before we do?’
The pair stared at him, speechless, but as he gestured at Carla to join him she rose.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said again. ‘I really am sorry.’
Eight
In daylight, the block of flats looked much the same as it had the previous evening, except now bored teenagers had been replaced by equally bored pre-schoolers, looked after by a handful of kids Nell was pretty sure should be at school.
One child, no more than six, spotted their car pull up and screamed, ‘Police!’
Nell and Paul watched the group disperse, screaming and shouting excitedly at this addition to their day, tiny legs furiously pedalling after longer ones whose scooter power far exceeded that of their younger counterparts.
When they rounded the corner, Paul pointed to the second floor. ‘What’s the family liaison doing?’
Nell followed his finger and saw a uniformed police officer on her phone, looking harassed. Catching sight of them, the uniform lowered her phone and waved, beckoning them up.
‘Jesus. Bets?’ Nell turned to Paul, who was studying the balcony.
‘Connor’s done a runner and Kelly-Anne has admitted he killed their baby?’
‘Seriously?’ Why the hell was Paul letting one letter throw such doubt on Kelly-Anne’s guilt?
‘Why not?’
‘Because Connor didn’t do it?’ Irritated, she strode towards the stairwell.
‘Why are you so sure she’s right?’ Paul called after her.
Nell stopped, turned to face him. ‘Because she’s a bloody pathologist. It’s her job to know who did what and when.’
Paul jogged over to join her, then led the way up the concrete steps.
‘You’re really sure this Kelly-Anne did it, aren’t you?’
Was she? Maybe. There was a control issue with Connor, that much was obvious, and Kelly-Anne could have silenced the baby at his request. Once Nell thought it, the more possible it sounded. In which case she’d get them both banged up for murder.
Nell noted the urgency of the uniformed officer’s wave as they approached.
‘Anyway, it doesn’t matter what I think, what matters are the facts, so let’s just see what’s wrong, shall we?’
The officer’s cheeks were flushed with heat and she had a panicked look in her eyes. Shit. One of them had done a runner, she knew it.
‘Problem?’ Nell asked.
‘It’s the father. He went out for cigarettes and hasn’t returned.’
Paul threw Nell a look and it wasn’t hard to know what it said – they should have nicked the pair last night.
‘How long ago?’ she asked.
‘About forty-five minutes.’
Nell checked her watch – you could get a long way in forty-five minutes. ‘Does Kelly-Anne know where he could be? How far is the shop?’
‘About four minutes away. I’ve been down there and they don’t recall seeing him. It’s pretty small and I bet he’s a regular, so I’m guessing he hasn’t been in.’
‘And Kelly-Anne? What’s she said?’ The heat was making Nell’s jacket stick to her, emphasising that this was a ball-ache she could well do without.
‘She’s distraught, says he’s left her. She’s spotted he’s taken the overnight bag he uses when he walks out after the baby’s crying gets too much.’
‘So he’s got form for going AWOL?’ Paul asked.
‘Seems so.’
‘Does she know where he goes?’
‘She didn’t say.’
‘Well, let’s go ask her again, shall we?’ Nell said.
Kelly-Anne’s mascara was halfway down her face. As Nell took a seat opposite, the girl wiped half of it away with her hand. Leaning forward, Nell thought she looked smaller than she had last night; her young age more apparent. She felt herself soften slightly, tried to remind herself Kelly-Anne had lost a baby last night and even if she had killed Georgie, it didn’t mean she hadn’t loved her.
‘Kelly-Anne, do you know where Connor is?’ She made her tone soft, or as soft as she could get it.
‘I don’t think so.’ The young woman looked away, only briefly, but enough to tell Nell she was lying.
‘You said there’s a missing overnight bag? The one Connor used for when Georgie got a bit much?’
‘It’s not about Georgie,’ Kelly-Anne said, her hands shredding the tissue on her lap. ‘It’s about me. He takes off when I’ve done something to piss him off.’
‘Like what sort of stuff?’
Kelly-Anne gave an exasperated sigh. ‘I dunno, depends on his mood. Could be I’ve not cleaned the kitchen enough, or I’m wearing a dress he don’t like.’
‘Does he
often leave?’
‘About twice a week, I suppose.’
‘And you were left alone with Georgie? That must have been hard.’
Kelly-Anne looked up and Nell could see she sensed a trap.
‘It was hard, but it didn’t make me hurt her, if that’s what you’re getting at.’
‘That’s not what I meant at all,’ although of course it was.
Nell changed tack. ‘How about Connor? Didn’t he ever struggle with Georgie?’
Kelly-Anne looked hesitant. ‘He …’
Nell watched her struggle for the right words.
‘He could get angry if Georgie didn’t shut up. But babies don’t, do they?’ Her tone was pleading for Nell to understand. ‘So it wasn’t my fault. Not really.’
‘Of course not. Babies cry, it’s what they do.’
Kelly-Anne looked relieved. ‘Yes. And I tried my best. I always tried my best for them both.’ Her eyes filled with tears. ‘But now they’ve both left me.’
‘Kelly-Anne,’ Nell said, shifting to unstick the fake leather sofa from her jeans, ‘why didn’t you tell us Connor was in jail for assaulting his girlfriend?’
Kelly-Anne looked surprised, then quickly angry. ‘Because she’s a lying cow. She just wanted to get him in trouble because he preferred me to her. She’s been a nightmare ever since we got together and she’s been worse since I had the baby.’
‘The report says he harmed her child. Is that true?’
‘No! She made that up so she wouldn’t lose custody of the kid.’
‘But the father knew Connor was hurting his child?’ Nell could tell from Kelly-Anne’s expression she was pushing it, so when Kelly-Anne didn’t reply, she said, ‘Kelly-Anne, did Connor hurt Georgie?’
The young woman seemed to shrink in on herself. Wrapping her arms tightly across her chest, she began to cry again, tears falling silently onto her lap. Nell pushed away the first feelings of guilt. This was her job. However bad Kelly-Anne felt, it was Nell’s job to get to the truth. Even if it did make her feel like a shit.
‘He didn’t mean to.’ Kelly-Anne spoke quietly and the air in the room seemed to still. ‘He was back from the pub and Georgie was crying. I’d tried to stop her before Connor got in, ’cos I know it does his head in, but I couldn’t, so I put her in her cot and shut the door and went to make Connor’s dinner.’ She stopped speaking then, and as if realising for the first time she was crying, wiped at her face with the palms of both hands.
‘And then what happened?’
‘He didn’t like the dinner I was making, so he started to walk around the front room, shouting about this and that. What a bad mum I was, a crap girlfriend, said he’d rather be with her.’
‘With the girlfriend he was with before you? The one who lied about him hitting her?’ She chose her words carefully, keen not to trigger a defensive reaction now Kelly-Anne had started to speak.
Kelly-Anne nodded and Nell looked to Paul, who quietly left the room.
Turning back to Kelly-Anne, Nell asked, ‘And what then?’
‘Georgie was really yelling by then, and I mean really yelling. He told me to shut “it” up, so I went into her room and—’ She stopped, and the expression on her face told Nell she was back there, seeing her baby in the cot.
‘She was all hot and red and damp from crying,’ she continued, ‘so I picked her up to give her a cuddle. I walked round the room with her, whispering for her to stop before Connor came in, but she didn’t.’ Kelly-Anne looked to Nell, her eyes wide. ‘I did my best to stop her crying, but Connor couldn’t take it any more – it wasn’t his fault, it was mine.’ Her tone pleaded with Nell to understand.
‘So Connor entered the room?’
Kelly-Anne nodded again. ‘He took her off me.’
‘The baby?’
‘He said he’d stop her crying and I tried to get Georgie back, but he told me to go back to the kitchen and make him something he could eat.’
‘So, you left him alone with Georgie?’
‘Yeah. I went into the kitchen and started to make some dinner again and then Georgie just stopped crying.’ She gave a small shrug. ‘Just stopped, she did.’
‘Did you go back into the room or remain in the kitchen, after she stopped crying?’
‘I went back to thank Connor for helping me, you know, helping me with the baby.’
Nell nodded.
‘And Georgie was back in her cot, asleep.’
‘You saw she was asleep?’
‘Yeah, she was lying there, all quiet, so of course she was asleep.’
‘But you didn’t touch her?’
Kelly-Anne shook her head. ‘No. Connor came over to me and pushed me out the room – but only to make sure I didn’t wake her again,’ she added.
‘And where was Connor when you walked in?’
‘By the cot. He had his hands on Georgie, patting her.’
‘Patting her?’
‘Yeah, you know, to make her sleep.’
Nell wondered how hard you had to pat a baby in order to crush its ribs. ‘Was he patting her with the palm of his hand?’
Kelly-Anne shifted in her chair, pulled at a strand of hair that had come loose from her tight bun. ‘What? I don’t know, I can’t remember.’
‘Was his hand like this?’ Nell raised a palm. ‘Or was it like this?’ She made it into a fist.
Kelly-Anne opened her mouth to speak, then stopped.
‘His fist was patting the baby, wasn’t it? And he wasn’t doing it to make sure she went to sleep, he was making sure Georgie never got to bother him again, wasn’t he?’
Kelly-Anne didn’t speak, so Nell went in for the kill.
‘Did Connor O’Brian kill your baby?’
Kelly-Anne stared mutely at her.
‘And you saw him do it, but covered up for him – that’s right, isn’t it? You saw Connor hit Georgie with his fist and you couldn’t stop him, so rather than lose them both you chose to stick with him and lie for him, didn’t you?’ Nell felt her heart race and took a couple of deep breaths to steady it. She didn’t want the red mist coming down now, not when she was near the finishing post.
She stood. ‘Kelly-Anne, I’d like you to come to the station with me. Give a formal statement. Will you do that?’ She didn’t want to have to arrest the woman if she didn’t have to, but if Kelly-Anne wouldn’t come quietly she damn well would.
When Kelly-Anne didn’t move, Nell leaned down and gently took her arm.
‘I didn’t let him kill her,’ she finally said. ‘Honest I didn’t.’
Nell didn’t believe her and the defeat in Kelly-Anne’s tone told Nell she didn’t either. As Nell walked her to the door, she saw Paul, phone in hand, on the balcony that spanned the length of the block.
He was going to be insufferable when he found out Kelly-Anne’s account didn’t match Eve’s. But then that was the least of her worries. She needed to find Connor, see if his account matched Kelly-Anne’s, because someone was lying and despite Kelly-Anne’s convincing performance, Nell still wasn’t ready to believe it was Eve.
Nine
Bremer slammed the car door shut and looked at Carla.
‘I don’t have time to worry what it is you’re sorry for, but never say sorry. Not even if a judge from the last Court of Appeal tells you to, got it?’ He started the engine and moved the car towards the junction of the cul-de-sac.
‘Got it,’ she said. But she didn’t regret it and she’d do it again if the same situation arose.
‘Connor’s gone AWOL.’
Carla turned to Bremer, who kept his eyes on the traffic as he pulled across the main road, away from Oxford, towards HQ.
‘The call I got was from Nell. They’ve taken Kelly-Anne in but we need you to find possible addresses for him.’
It was suddenly obvious why Bremer was so tense. And Nell must be kicking herself for not bringing them in the night before.
‘I’ll get on it as soon as we are back. How long’s he
been missing?’
‘About an hour and a half.’
‘Shit.’
‘Precisely.’ Bremer joined the dual carriageway and pressed on the accelerator. ‘He could have got anywhere in that time.’
Connor didn’t strike Carla as the adventurous sort, more a creature of habit, but when someone’s back was against the wall you never could tell where they’d go.
‘Did she say why?’
‘Why he did a bunk? Seems Eve was wrong. Kelly-Anne saw him kill the baby.’
Carla stared out of the window. She itched to be back at her desk. If Bremer hadn’t dragged her out of the office she probably would have found Connor by now. Instead she had to wait another ten minutes for HQ to come into view and before Bremer had even switched off the engine Carla had unbuckled her seat belt and had her hand on the door.
Paul and Nell were seated at opposite ends of the office, as if the heat made sitting too close unbearable.
‘What’s happened to the air con?’ Bremer pulled off his jacket and laid it carefully over the back of a chair.
‘Broken.’ Nell fanned herself with her notebook as if to emphasise the point. She looked irritated, but then so would Carla if she’d just lost the main suspect in a murder inquiry.
Bremer approached the wipe board, pen poised. ‘Right – Connor. How long’s he been gone for?’
‘Almost two hours,’ Nell replied.
Carla started up her computer, half listening to the rest of the team behind her.
‘Kelly-Anne’s not saying much,’ Nell said, ‘but I get the impression he stays local when he does a bunk.’
‘Yeah, but this is the first time he’s done it off the back of a kid being killed,’ Paul pointed out.
Carla wanted to point out this was getting them nowhere, wanted to tell them to leave her alone to find addresses they could go and knock up, but she didn’t need to.
‘That’s Carla’s job. She’ll find him,’ Bremer said. ‘In the meantime, why don’t you go and—’
Carla interrupted him. Two hits on the intelligence database and she’d already got a lead.
‘Try the betting shop in Rose Hill. He goes there frequently and they may know more.’
When I Lost You Page 5