Murder Unexpected

by Anita Waller

  Murder Unexpected

  Kat and Mouse Series Book 2

  Anita Waller

  Contents

  Also By Anita Waller

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Epilogue

  A Note From Bloodhound Books

  Acknowledgments

  Murder Undeniable

  Copyright © 2018 Anita Waller

  The right of Anita Waller to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  First published in 2019 by Bloodhound Books

  Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publisher or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  www.bloodhoundbooks.com

  Print ISBN 978-1-912986-09-5

  Also By Anita Waller

  Psychological thrillers

  Beautiful

  Angel

  34 Days

  Strategy

  Captor

  Game Players

  Malignant

  Supernatural

  Winterscroft

  Kat and Mouse Series

  Murder Undeniable ( Book 1)

  Praise for Anita Waller

  "a masterclass in suspense. This is Waller at her best" Betsy Reavley - bestselling author of Murder at the Book Club and The Optician's Wife

  "a whirlwind of a read and a poignant one" - Nicki's Book Blog

  "if you are after a book that deals with family, relationships and friendship that takes dark turns and twists that will hook you from the very beginning then you really do need to read this" - Yvonne Me and My Books

  "Thanks for a great read Anita Waller! When is the next one out??" Rebecca Burton - If Only I Could Read Faster

  "This book has lots of gasp out loud moments and plenty that will make you a little weepy too (it did for me anyway)." Lorna Cassidy - On The Shelf Reviews

  "This is an engrossing read that I pretty much inhaled." Philomena Callan - Cheekypee Reads And Reviews

  "Waller has an amazing skill to grab you and keep you interested until the very last page." Eclectic Ramblings of Author Heather Osborne

  "WOW! ANITA HAS DONE IT AGAIN. What a bloody brilliant, outstanding, captivating story." Gemma Myers - Between The Pages Book Club

  "This is a very gritty read...Add into the mix, the ruthlessness of the gangsters and you’ve got a cracking crime thriller." Claire Knight - A Knight's Reads

  "It has twists and turns, shocks and honestly at times I had no idea what the end would be!" Donna Maguire - Donnas Book Blog

  "A plot to keep you turning from beginning to end. I really enjoyed this . A captivating read ." Nicki Murphy - Nicki's Book Blog

  "... a really well written, gripping book with plenty of twists for me!" Donna Maguire - Donnas Book Blog

  "...building up to a tense, drama packed read. I was literally biting my nails by the end." Lorna Cassidy - On The Shelf Reviews

  "The author really keeps you on the edge of your seat – the twists made me gasp and she sets the atmosphere absolutely perfectly." Melisa Broadbent - Broadbean's Books

  "If you are looking for a crime thriller that is somewhat unnerving as it is every mothers worst nightmare, a fast paced page turner that keeps you guessing. Then I definitely recommend Captor!" Dash Fan Book Reviews

  "Captor will have you gripped from the beginning and won’t let you go until you have finished. It is a suspense filled crime thriller that will keep you guessing throughout." Gemma Myers - Between The Pages Book Club

  For Cerys, for being my constant.

  My helpful assistant.

  My love.

  My granddaughter par excellence!

  Many men would take the death-sentence

  without a whimper, to escape the life-sentence

  which fate carries in her other hand.

  T E Lawrence (1888-1935)

  The Mint, pt 1 ch 4

  If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village;

  if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Lacon (1820) vol 1, no.334

  Chapter 1

  Doris wasn’t convinced. ‘Did the doctor actually say those words “your blood pressure is a little high”? And he didn’t say you had to stop working, put your feet up and rest?’

  ‘He did not,’ Kat confirmed, ‘because he didn’t mean your blood pressure is a little high, you need to do something about it. He just meant my blood pressure was a little high.’

  ‘Really?’ Doris peered over her glasses, staring at Kat as if she was a little girl at school. ‘Well, Katerina Rowe, I’m pretty sure he meant you have to take care of yourself, and that involves you staying at home with your feet up.’

  ‘I’ve still got two weeks to go. I’m not doing any of the physical work, but I can still produce reports, and work on that contract we’ve taken on for background checks.’ Kat felt, and knew, that she was grasping at anything to save going home to that empty house.

  Doris sighed. ‘Okay. Here’s what’s going to happen. We’re changing roles. You can be on reception, and I’m moving into your office. It’s temporary, and it’s only till you come back after the baby’s born.’

  ‘On reception?’ Kat looked aghast at the small grey-haired woman laying down the law. In her sixties, Doris tended to do that a lot, saying she was the senior boss. ‘I can’t do that! You told me off for messing up the diary.’

  ‘Kat, I didn’t tell you off. I merely pointed out that if someone wanted an appointment for the seventh of the month, it was a bit daft putting them in for the fourteenth.’

  ‘It’s a new diary,’ Kat said sullenly, tucking her long blonde hair back behind her ears. ‘I can’t help it if the page turned over while I was picking my pen up off the floor.’

  Doris grinned. ‘Kat, go home. Please. You have no appointments from now on, so go home and take it easy. Go and knit some bootees.’

  ‘I can’t. I’ve tried, and then went out and bought some. Me and knitting needles don’t seem to belong in the same world.’ Kat looked crestfallen, and Doris tried desperately not to laugh at her.

  The door at the back of the room opened. ‘Kat, get your coat. I’m taking you home. You’re sacked.’ Mouse looked at Kat, her face set as sternly as she could make it, considering the laughter trying to bubble out of her nan. She had screwed her long dark curls up into a ponytail on top of her head, and it added height to h
er already impressive almost six feet. She stood at the side of Kat, towering over her.

  ‘You can’t sack me,’ Kat explained. ‘I own half the business. And I’m pregnant. You’re not allowed to sack pregnant people, ladies.’

  ‘You’re temporarily sacked.’

  ‘But it’s lonely in that big house. I’ve nobody to talk to.’

  ‘Then it’s time for us to move in.’

  Kat’s face brightened. ‘Thank goodness for that. I’ve missed you since you moved in here.’

  Doris had temporarily moved in with Mouse in her new flat, while she was looking for a property in the area, but it had been said from the very start that when Kat was getting near her due date they would move back in with her; if she went into labour during the night, they would be on hand.

  Doris realised how lonely Kat must be feeling; an absentee husband who had spent most of his life murdering people, dealing drugs and money laundering, and then an absentee Mouse and Nan moving out of Kat’s home must have left a huge void.

  ‘Kat,’ Doris said gently, ‘why didn’t you say? I could have stayed with you instead of Mouse. I thought you would welcome the peace and quiet of being in your home on your own.’

  ‘No, it’s rubbish. Tibby’s vocabulary is limited to miaow, I can’t master casting on the stitches, and I can’t seem to settle to reading or watching tv, so I mooch around like a lost soul.’

  ‘Make the most of it,’ was Doris’s dry response. ‘In a couple of weeks you’ll be pleading for time out. Luckily your baby comes with ready-made babysitters. Now, if you don’t want to sit on reception and twiddle your thumbs, go home. We’ll move back in with you tonight, so you won’t be lonely anymore.’

  ‘Okay, I give in. I’ll go and clear out the airing cupboard. Maybe make a couple of apple pies.’

  Doris and Mouse looked at each and spoke simultaneously. ‘Nesting.’

  Mouse watched Kat head towards her car and lever herself into the driving seat. It was clearly a struggle to fasten the belt around the bump. Thank goodness a pregnancy only lasted nine months, she mused, because if it lasted a minute longer Kat wouldn’t get into the car, let alone the seat.

  Mouse thought back to the slim stunning Kat of her first acquaintance. They had met when Kat visited her in hospital, complete with the white collar around her neck showing her faith. The bullet and the gun used to try to kill her hadn’t worked, and Kat and Leon, the bastard of a husband, had found her, almost dead, in an alley. But Kat hadn’t given up on her, not for a minute, and had welcomed Nan into her family as warmly as she had welcomed her. Now it was their time to support their friend. They would move back in with her immediately.

  Kat walked through into the hall, and Tibby wrapped himself around her legs.

  ‘Hey, baby, I’ve only been gone a couple of hours. You missed me?’

  The cat miaowed.

  ‘You did then?’

  Tibby purred then abandoned Kat for his food dish in the kitchen.

  She smiled, and began the mountainous climb upstairs, her stomach reaching the top well before she did. Being eight and a half months pregnant meant never being too far from a bathroom.

  She washed her hands, then frowned at the towel on the floor. ‘Come on, Kat Rowe PI, work out how come that’s on the floor. It’s not Tibby, the bathroom door was closed.’

  She held on to her stomach and picked up the offending article; it was damp. She thought back to the morning, to gathering up laundry to take downstairs. A clean towel had been hung on the towel rail, and she had dragged the laundry basket downstairs, one step bumped at a time. The damp towel on the bathroom floor was the clean one she had hung that morning. And it should be neither damp nor on the floor.

  A shiver ran through her body, and she went into the bedroom. The curtains were closed, despite having been opened before she went to work. She backed out carefully, and walked slowly downstairs. She wanted no accidents at this delicate stage of her pregnancy.

  She dialled the shop and Doris answered. ‘Can you come now?’ Kat whispered.

  ‘You’ve started?’ Doris asked.

  ‘No, it’s nothing to do with the baby. I’ll be outside in the car.’

  There was a pause, then Doris responded. ‘Lock the car doors.’ Her tone was firm, and brooked no argument.

  Kat disconnected, picked up her bag and jacket and went out of the door. She moved as fast as she could across to the car, and climbed in, immediately clicking on the lock.

  Five minutes later, Mouse’s new Range Rover pulled onto the drive with a screech of tyres, and she jumped out. She ran across to Kat’s car, and Kat unlocked her door.

  ‘Somebody’s been in the house,’ she said. ‘There’s only five people have keys; Mum, you, Nan, me. And Leon…’

  ‘Could it be your mum? What am I talking about? They’re in Spain until tomorrow, aren’t they? You think it’s Leon?’

  Kat nodded. ‘I was always picking up towels after he’d dropped them on the floor. There’s a damp towel on the bathroom floor, one that was hung fresh this morning. The curtains are closed in the bedroom. He’s been here, Mouse, I know he has.’

  Doris had remained in the car, awaiting instructions, so Mouse called her over. ‘Sit in here with Kat, will you, Nan? She’ll explain what’s happened.’

  Mouse crossed towards the front door and inserted her key. It opened easily and she stepped inside, wedging it ajar with an owl doorstop. If she needed an escape, she wanted the door open.

  She walked swiftly through the downstairs rooms; empty of anything human. Moving back to the bottom of the stairs, she stood and listened. There were no discernible sounds.

  Slowly climbing, she headed towards the many doors along the landing. Only one was open. The rest were closed.

  Mouse worked methodically through the rooms and finally reached Kat’s bedroom. The closed curtains created a dim light, and Mouse moved across to open them and let in the sunshine. Whoever had been in this house definitely wasn’t still there. She tried to recall what Kat had said, following Leon’s departure. Both Mouse and Doris had suggested having a big bonfire of everything Leon had left behind, and they could burn an effigy of him made by using one of his designer suits, but Kat had laughed and said everything was already packed into a suitcase and stored in his wardrobe.

  Mouse walked across to Leon’s wardrobe and opened it. It was empty.

  The three women sat at the kitchen table, all of them feeling shocked. Nothing had been heard of the murderous Leon Rowe since the night Nan had blown his hand apart.

  ‘I’m scared,’ Kat said. ‘I didn’t want him knowing about this baby, but what if he’s been watching for me leaving the house? This bump is huge. It’s obvious I’ve not just put on weight.’

  ‘It makes no difference whether he’s seen you or not, Kat,’ Mouse said gently. ‘When I went upstairs the nursery door was open. He knows a baby is coming into the house, and he knows how long it is since he left. He’s not daft. To Leon, two and two will make four. I know you resisted it but you have to change the locks, and they need doing today. Then you have to ring DI Marsden. If you don’t, it makes all of us complicit, and we need to be squeaky clean.’

  ‘Am I ever going to be free of this man?’ Kat looked very pale. ‘I’ll ring George Mears from church, locks are his line of business. He’ll sort everything out for me.’ She picked up her phone and very quickly arranged that George would call around within the next hour.

  Mouse spoke at length with Marsden, who promised to send a forensics team out to check for fingerprints and ascertain that it was Leon Rowe who had been Kat’s visitor.

  By ten that evening, all their immediate concerns had been addressed, with DI Marsden promising identification by early next morning.

  ‘Kat, before you go to bed, change your alarm code. I really can’t believe he’s been so brazen as to come back here, but he’s a dangerous man. We need to make it as difficult as possible, he can’t have free access to this hous
e.’ Mouse had already taken the decision to sleep downstairs, and that thought had brought the alarm code to the forefront of her mind.

  ‘I will. What shall we have? Yours and Doris’s birthdays? Leon doesn’t know them, so if we don’t put anything linked to me he can’t even begin to guess.’

  ‘Okay, use 0628. We have to remember it, no writing it down,’ Mouse warned. ‘But don’t set it tonight, I’ll be sleeping down here. I’ll be your alarm for the next few hours. It must always be set when we sleep upstairs, we mustn’t take any chances with him entering at ground floor level.’

  By midnight all was quiet. Mouse was on the sofa, reading in darkness, thankful her eReader had a backlight. She heard the gravel crunch, and threw back the duvet. She moved silently towards the window and peered around the edge of the curtains.

  She breathed a sigh of relief. DI Marsden had ordered the local police to make random checks throughout the night, and she recognised the uniform, if not the man. She also realised if the police visits carried on through the dark hours, she would have to get up and check every time she heard the crunch of the gravel, just in case…