For Reasons Unknown

by Michael Wood

‘Shagging.’ DC Fleming called out to the merriment of the rest of the room.

  ‘Thank you DC Fleming.’ Masterson said above the murmur of giggles. ‘Your grasp on the English language is a joy to behold. Carry on DS Mills.’

  ‘I’ve tracked down the couple that Matthew went to live with after his parents were killed and Jonathan moved up to Newcastle.’

  This piqued the interest of both Matilda and Ben, who were sitting at opposite sides of the room.

  ‘Matthew moved in with Robert and Judith Clayton and their son Philip. The family moved away from Sheffield when both Philip and Matthew grew up and left home. They now live in Skegness. Philip died in a car crash on the M1 three years ago. They had contact with Matthew but sometimes it was many months between phone calls. They were both shocked to hear of his death.

  ‘They described him, as a child, as being quiet and timid and he took a long time to come out of his shell once he’d moved in with them. They gave him a stable and supportive atmosphere to live in and he reacted positively to their warmth. Judith said that he was often left out at home. He was an only child until Jonathan came along and then he was left on the sidelines, so to speak. Judith believes Matthew resented Jonathan and agreed with their Aunt Clara that splitting them up was the best for both boys.

  ‘The Clayton’s gave him the stable upbringing and home life he desired and he thrived. All he wanted was a set of parents to take care of him, love him, and help him with his future, and they provided that. They helped him through exams, college, and even paid for his first year at Manchester University.’

  ‘I don’t think it takes Freud to tell us his lack of a stable parental authority figure in his formative years led to his lifestyle of casual sexual relationships and his rather narcissistic personality. Stefan and Miranda Harkness have a lot to answer for,’ Masterson said. ‘What about this Jonathan character; is it possible he killed his brother?’

  ‘Possible?’ Hales almost jumped out of his chair. ‘I think it’s a bloody certainty. Why aren’t we interrogating him?’

  Masterson gave him an icy glare. ‘I think we can all agree that Jonathan is a rather fragile individual, which is why all contact was to go through DCI Darke. You, however, Acting DCI Hales, took it upon yourself to conduct an unlawful interview. I will admit that if you hadn’t done so we may not have found out about his sexual assault, but that does not mean I will condone your behaviour.

  ‘This is a team. I thought this team worked well together and got results by including all its members; obviously I was wrong. Now Jonathan Harkness will be interviewed again when I give permission. Where is he right now anyway?’ she asked Sian rather than anyone else in the room.

  ‘He’s in the family room. He witnessed his boss getting killed by a hit-and-run. Then he was dragged in here late last night. I’ve had Sergeant Taylor de-arrest him. Not that he should have been arrested in the first place.’ She said as an aside. ‘He hasn’t been to sleep yet so he’s getting some rest until we can take him back to his flat. We’re going to need a forensics team to go over it.’

  ‘Does Jonathan have anywhere to stay?’

  ‘I’m not sure. I’ll ask.’

  Hales rolled his eyes at the soft treatment Jonathan seemed to be receiving. Under his breath he mumbled, ‘Fucking kid gloves.’

  ‘Is this hit-and-run linked, do we know?’

  ‘I don’t think so. Traffic are appealing for witnesses and there’s a team of uniforms going door to door in the area. They’re going to keep me informed.’

  ‘Good job Sian. Right we need to interview Jonathan’s neighbours; I want to know whether they heard or saw anything on the night he was attacked. Let’s give Jonathan a bit of time to calm down and get some rest, but we will need to interview him again in the next day or so. Sian, you’re in charge until I say otherwise and I’ll leave you to deal with duties. Ben, Matilda, I want you both in my office in five minutes.’

  With that she marched out of the room. Everyone was silent until the door had fully closed. Matilda sat staring into space, her mind elsewhere. In five minutes her future within the police force would be decided.

  Chapter 35

  Jonathan was curled up in the corner of a light green three-seat sofa. He was wearing a white paper forensic suit, as his clothes were taken from him during the examination. They weren’t the clothes he was wearing on the night of the attack but they did have blood on them from Stephen’s hit-and-run.

  The room was stifling; the windows were sealed shut, and the single radiator beneath a large smeared mirror was giving out heat of nuclear proportions. Jonathan had barely been on the sofa a minute before his eyelids grew too heavy and he was enveloped by sleep.

  Quietly, Sian entered the room and carefully roused him by shaking his shoulder. When he opened his eyes he thought he was in his own bed until his mind woke and he looked at his surroundings. The pale yellow wallpaper, the cream carpet, the fake pine coffee table; these did not belong to him. This was not his décor. Where the hell was he?

  ‘Jonathan, how are you feeling?’ Sian asked in the relaxed motherly tone she usually used when her children were ill.

  ‘What time is it?’

  ‘It’s coming up to nine o’clock.’

  ‘A.m. or p.m.?’

  ‘A.m.’ She smiled. She sat on the sofa next to him, taking care not to get too close. ‘Jonathan, we need to have a forensic team look around your flat, see if there is any trace evidence from the night you were attacked. We’ll also need the clothes that you were wearing on the night too. Is that all right?’

  ‘Yes. Fine,’ he said, almost incoherent. He was feeling groggy from the short amount of sleep he’d had. ‘Am I allowed to go home?’

  ‘Not at the moment. Do you have a place you can go?’

  ‘I’m not sure. I could ask Maun I suppose. I just want to have a shower and go to sleep.’

  ‘OK. Well, I’m going to drive you home to collect a few things and for you to give me your clothes, then I’ll take you to Maun’s. I’ll let you know when you’re able to go back into your flat. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes I think so.’

  ‘Do you have any questions?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’ He seemed confused.

  ‘That’s fine, don’t worry about it. Any time you think of anything just give me a call. I’ll give you my number before I leave you.’

  ‘Do I have to go home in this?’ he asked, pulling at the extra-large paper suit.

  ‘No.’ She smiled. ‘I’ll find you something to wear.’

  Jonathan took time standing up. He was shattered and he ached all over, even his hair hurt when he ran his fingers through it.

  Sian led him out of the room by the elbow.

  ‘Who do you reckon is for the chop; Hales or Darke?’ Rory asked sitting back and spinning on his office chair.

  ‘Hales, definitely,’ Aaron chipped in straight away. ‘The ACC has never liked him and she’s always had Darke earmarked for her job when she retires. There’s no way she’ll send Matilda packing.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Rory teased. ‘She seemed pretty pissed at the briefing.’

  ‘Of course she was pissed; Sian called her up at 7 a.m. Wouldn’t you be pissed?’

  ‘I think Matilda’ll be for the chop,’ DC Scott Andrews chimed in from the drinks station where he was making everyone a cup of tea. ‘Hales will call his father-in-law who’ll call Masterson and he’ll come out of this with Matilda’s job and a wage increase. Mark my words.’

  ‘The oracle has spoken,’ Aaron joked, which received a two-fingered reply from Scott.

  Sitting quietly at her desk, Faith Easter was familiarizing herself, once again, with the Harkness case. She was fascinated by it. It took her back to her police training when she was given an imaginary cold case to go through and work on a series of questions to ask a new witness who had come forward.

  ‘When you’ve finished with your bets, can I ask a question?’ Faith asked, looking
up from her notepad.

  ‘Shoot,’ Rory replied.

  ‘The murder weapon, the one used to stab Miranda and Stefan to death; where is it?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘According to this report, a large kitchen knife was used to kill them and there was one missing from a block in the kitchen, but there’s no mention of the knife anywhere else. What happened to it?’

  Aaron frowned. ‘I’ve no idea. Rory, you were working on this with Matilda, did you come up with anything?’

  ‘No. According to a report by the DI, can’t remember his name, the weapon was never recovered.’

  ‘So let’s run through it then,’ Faith began. ‘There are two entrances to the Harkness house; the front and back door. Both of these are locked from the inside. Whoever killed them was obviously let in, which means they were known to the family…’

  ‘So how did they get out?’ Aaron interrupted. ‘If the doors are locked from the inside how does the killer escape?’

  ‘Logic dictates that he was still in the house or he escaped through a window.’

  ‘Were any of the windows open?’

  They both looked to Rory who had been designated unofficial authority on the Harkness cold case having read the files several times.

  ‘Look, the files are very basic; there’s no mention of anything to do with the house, windows, doors, locks, nothing. There are no sketches and layouts, no photographs, apart from in the main bedroom where they were found. It’s like a huge chunk has been stolen or it was a half-arsed investigation in the first place.’

  ‘Probably why it was never solved,’ Scott muttered.

  ‘What kind of windows were there on the ground floor?’ Faith asked.

  ‘Now that I do know.’ Rory dug around in a folder and pulled out a copy of the local newspaper from a few days ago. ‘There’s a picture in the paper of the house in its glory days and sash windows are clearly shown throughout the house.’

  ‘Bugger. Sash windows are piss easy to open from the inside and outside.’

  ‘Unless they had locks on them,’ Faith said.

  ‘This was the 90s. I doubt they had locks on them. We didn’t start being scared until after 9/11,’ Scott said, handing out the teas. ‘So we know how they were killed but still not why and how the killer entered and left the scene.’

  ‘Another thing,’ Rory said, rummaging through Sian’s snack drawer and helping himself to a KitKat, ‘say the killer broke in, he didn’t obviously intend to kill them because he came unprepared. He used one of their knives. How did he know they’d have a block of knives in the first place?’

  ‘Everybody has knives in their kitchen. What we’re looking for is someone who knew how to gain entry to the house and how to leave without it being known,’ Faith said, thinking aloud.

  ‘My money is on Matthew Harkness.’

  ‘Mine too,’ Aaron agreed.

  ‘I’ll go with that as well,’ Scott added.

  ‘What is it with you three and betting on everything?’

  ‘Got to do something to pass the time. At the end of the day we’re still no further on than when the crimes were committed all those years ago. Stefan and Miranda Harkness were stabbed to death in their bedrooms; killer or killers unknown.’

  ‘The killer was obviously known to the Harkness family though,’ said Scott.

  ‘Why obviously?’

  ‘Because the second the news is released that the case is being reviewed, and the house demolition hits the papers, Matthew is bumped off too. The killer is still out there and wants to remain free, so he’s taking out those who can identify him.’

  Scott was well known within the team for not saying much, but when he did, he often came up with something thought-provoking. The others looked at him with perplexed frowns.

  Chapter 36

  ‘What the hell are you two playing at?’ ACC Masterson was fuming. For a tiny woman with a slight build she certainly knew how to command fear in those beneath her. Her eyes were wide and starry; her face was puce, and the veins in her neck were throbbing. In front of her desk, Hales and Matilda stood side-by-side, grim-faced. ‘Look, Ben, I know you have a hard time with Matilda being back at work and I know you think you should be in charge of the MIT. I also know you think you should have been promoted to DCI years ago, but the fact of the matter is none of those things happened. You’re a DI in CID. Presently, you’re Acting DCI of the MIT, so deal with it. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes ma’am,’ he said. He had his hands behind his back which were clenched tightly into fists. His face may have looked calm, but inside he was screaming. ‘I just do not understand why I’m being vilified for doing my job. Jonathan Harkness knows far more than he’s letting on and we’re treating him like he’s made of glass.’

  ‘I have made my feelings very clear on this Ben. God only knows what is going through Jonathan’s head. I don’t even think he knows. What we need to do is make sure we have all the facts before we question him further. Dragging him in off the streets in the early hours of the morning and accusing him of murder is not the right way to go about it.’

  ‘But I thought…’

  ‘No. No, you didn’t think. That’s your problem. You’re so keen to get one over on Matilda that you didn’t think about Jonathan at all. You knew the score; any questions for Jonathan go through Matilda and you ignored that. That order came directly from me and you disobeyed it. Take the rest of the day off. Go home, get some sleep, and tomorrow morning I want you in my office at 9 a.m. Do you understand?’

  Hales was silent. Was this the beginning of the end of his career within the police force? He thought of what his wife would say, what his father-in-law would say. He’d be a disgrace if he lost his job. All his married life his wife has been comparing him to the great Superintendent and now he would end his career in the gutter, or worse, back in uniform. He swallowed hard and quietly he said, ‘Yes. I understand.’

  He closed the door carefully behind him and headed for his car. He shook his head when he thought of his car; even that belonged to his bloody father-in-law.

  Masterson waited until Hales was out of earshot. ‘You promised me you were well enough to return to work,’ she began, her voice low but rising with each word. ‘I had a phone call last night from Dr Warminster. She told me you were rude, insolent, and unstable.’

  Although Matilda was hearing what her superior was saying she wasn’t registering any of the words. She didn’t care any more what happened to her. Surprisingly, she was thinking about Jonathan Harkness and how she missed the signs of his attack. Why hadn’t she seen that his narcissistic brother could inflict such horror on his younger, more fragile sibling?

  ‘I like you Matilda, I really do. You’ve been through so much this past year, but you’ve managed to come through it and I respect you for that. I don’t think I’d have been able to remain so strong. But over the last couple of days you’ve really not been fair, not to me, your team, the force, or to Jonathan Harkness.’

  Matilda was on the verge of tears. The emotion in her voice was obvious. ‘I know I haven’t performed at my best lately, but Hales has not been playing fair either. I’ll admit I’m questioning everything at the moment and I’m scared of screwing up again, but I’m getting there, slowly. It doesn’t help that Hales is using every opportunity possible to have a dig at me.’

  ‘Hales isn’t the easiest person to work with I know that. He’s got his own demons too, one of them being his father-in-law…’

  ‘That is not my problem,’ Matilda interrupted.

  Masterson raised a hand to silence her. ‘However, you need to find a way to work together or the investigation will suffer and I will not allow that to happen again in my station. Now, I’ve sent Hales home for the day and I’m sending you home too.’

  The look of horror on Matilda’s face was palpable. She needed to keep busy in order to survive. If she went home and sat and wallowed in her own self-pity she would not be alive by the end of th
e day. She needed to keep working. She tried to protest, but Masterson put her hand up again.

  ‘There is no room for compromise here. I want you to go home, get some sleep, have a hot meal, and come back tomorrow. No arguments. Just go.’

  Masterson stared her out. Matilda turned on her heels and headed for the door. She had one foot out of the office when Masterson stopped her.

  ‘And Matilda, I do not want to smell alcohol on you ever again.’

  Matilda couldn’t remember the journey home. It all seemed to have happened in a blur. She was sitting in the driveway for almost ten minutes before she realized she was home.

  She looked at herself in the rear-view mirror and didn’t recognize her reflection. Masterson was right; she was a mess. She was worse than a mess; she was about to self-destruct.

  She opened the door and kicked it closed behind her and headed for the kitchen. There was a bottle of vodka in the freezer. She didn’t care what Masterson said, she was going to let the alcohol put her to sleep and by the next morning she’d be fine. She hoped.

  When she got into the kitchen she saw a note leaning against the kettle. She didn’t recognize the handwriting:

  ‘Tesco order arrived on time. I’ve put most of it away but not sure where you keep some items so I’ve left them on the kitchen table. Hope that’s OK. Mum says to remind you to come to ours on Sunday for lunch. See you later, Chris.’

  It was from Adele’s son. As promised she had ordered a supply of groceries and had her son wait in for it. She opened the fridge door and saw it stocked with cheese, milk, salad, yogurt, butter, meat, bottled water, fish, and eggs. The generosity and kind spirit was overwhelming. The tears flowed in a torrent and she collapsed on the floor in a glass-shattering wail of emotion.

  Ben arrived home to a house of calm. His two daughters were upstairs in their rooms. He could hear the dull thudding of music. His hackles rose immediately. What happened to respect? What happened to the £100 headphones he’d bought them both? He wondered if he was to blame for the way they were turning out; had he spent too much time at work when they were growing up? No, that wasn’t it. Besides, their mother didn’t work so they always had some parental figure at home. He scoffed. Parental figure? That was a joke. She didn’t care what anybody did as long as she didn’t have to get up off the sofa.